America’s Empty Reservoirs
The devastating wildfires experienced by the people of southern California have left behind many indelible pictures of destruction in recent weeks. But perhaps one picture above all tells the truest tale of the catastrophe: the empty reservoir at Santa Ynez. Here is The Free Press‘ Austyn Jeffs’ video report of what he found there:
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Reservoirs become useless when they’re empty. It takes time and effort to fill them and have them ready for when they might be needed. If they become depleted, the consequences of not taking the time and effort to replenish and sustain them become very costly.
America’s Reservoirs
Americans have built many kinds of reservoirs to provide for emergencies most hope will never come, but which history teaches inevitably do. Some are filled with water to fight fires. Some are filled with food and housing supplies to provide relief after natural disasters. Some are filled with ammunition to have ready to fight against those who would do Americans harm. Some are even filled with what might be called good faith because that becomes critical when the government needs to borrow to address a true national crisis.
Over the past four years, many of America’s emergency reservoirs have been depleted. It started with 2020’s coronavirus pandemic, which prompted a flood of borrowing to compensate for the damages of that national emergency. But the politicians and bureaucrats who came to power in its aftermath never intended to replenish that reservoir.
Failing to Replenish Reservoirs Has Consequences
Instead of replenishing the reservoir of the nation’s good faith and credit by reducing spending that was no longer needed as much as possible, they diverted it to fund the political initiatives they believed would permanently cement their hold on power.
When they found they could deplete other kinds of reservoirs, they did that too. Today, America’s military finds itself desperately short of critical warfighting supplies as geopolitical crises are on the rise. Thousands displaced by 2024’s hurricanes who have no homes to go back are at risk of being thrown out into the snow because of the depletion of FEMA resources.
Through these actions, they unleashed inflation, increasing the cost of everything, including borrowing. By failing to replenish the nation’s good faith and credit to fund their political abuses, they made everyone who wasn’t a preferred beneficiary of their political largesse much poorer.
Four years ago, the majority of American households could afford to buy a home and all the necessities of life. Four years later, that’s no longer true. Worse, the reservoirs that Americans could previously count on for relief have been purposefully depleted.
The Moral of the Story
Once upon a time, over ten years ago, I wrote a short essay about the U.S. national debt using the metaphor of an emergency reservoir. Current events have made it timely again:
Think about the national debt this way. Imagine if it were an emergency reservoir of water up on a mountain whose main purpose is to help put out big fires that threaten the American community, but has also come to be used to provide some water service to the community.
We’ve just had a big fire, draining a very large portion of the reservoir’s fire fighting potential as it was tapped to deal with the crisis. So much so that there are now real questions about whether the reservoir would be capable of extinguishing another big fire.
Not being able to adequately deal with another big fire would mean incredibly big losses for the community, should one ever break out again.
Community leaders are split when it comes to dealing with the situation, and have come up with two plans to address it. One group plans to keep draining the reservoir to provide more and more water service for their preferred supporters in the future, which will be partially paid for by increasing people’s water bills—some much more than others.
Meanwhile, the other group’s plan is to stop draining the reservoir over a 10-year period, with the goal of helping it recover enough to be able to deal with another big fire in the future as quickly as possible by keeping future water service as close as possible to today’s levels. Nobody’s water service would be actually reduced—they just wouldn’t get as much in the future as they might have been hoping to get, but in return, their water bill rates would be locked in at today’s levels too—nobody would see them increased over time.
Which group has the better plan to deal with the real risks involved?
The best time to begin replenishing America’s reservoirs was four years ago. Today is the second best time to get serious about getting that job done.
