My wife announced that there wasn’t enough money in the checking account again.  The obvious solution to her was that I simply needed to add more money to it each month and that the problem would then go away.  Any attempts on my part to question where the money is being spent is considered completely offensive simply on face value.  There are so many details that I would just not understand.  After all, I simply need to know that we are talking about meeting the needs of our family.  How could I even consider not addressing those needs?  Do I want a child to go without an education?  Without shoes or food?  It could happen she warns, if the funds are not provided.  Oh, and I can’t reduce the family size either by letting any of the kids (or even my wife) go.  Alright, maybe I took that analogy to an extreme there at the end, but replace my wife with the fire chief or union leaders, my kids with union firefighters, and make me a politician or simply the public and the story is replayed all over the country and even across the world.  ”If we don’t have more money, someone could die!”

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