We’ve probably all heard the expression, “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”. Usually, we have heard it when someone parties hard into the wee hours of the morning, then has to get up to go to work early that same morning. It is certainly one swift way to deplete one’s energy and mental acuity. Lately we fear, there are those within our great Nation who are pressed into a position, not of their choosing but by necessity, to work at more than one job to make ends meet. Even many of those who have retired from a life of work, have found themselves having to go back into the marketplace in order to have enough money to buy the basics of life. For a majority of our Nation’s citizens, the rising costs of food, energy, and housing, along with everything else that pulls at our purse strings, makes it necessary for multiple members of the same family to work, or for a single individual to seek multiple sources of income, or for a retired person to reenter the marketplace. Inflation, out-pacing investment returns or wage increases, has eaten away at the core of our Nation’s citizens ability to make ends meet. This festering rot of financial pressure will eventually bankrupt many or our Nation’s most vulnerable.
The phrase, “BURING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, originated as an idiom translated from French in 1611. “It can be found in Randal Cotgrave’s Dictionary. Initially, the idiom meant that one was dissipating one’s wealth. This means that you were causing your money to disappear. This is because candles were expensive and burning them cost money. If you were burning the candle at both ends, you were being wasteful. You would also have to hold the candle horizontally, which leads to the wax dripping off and being wasted.” (theidioms.com; June 15, 2022.) It is along this line, of wasting one’s money, that we focus our blog today. More specifically, we will center our discussion around not what you as an individual may do by “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, but rather how that may be done to you by another entity.
Let us first recognize that even though 40% of our Nation’s citizens may not have to pay any taxes to the IRS by the middle of April, all of us, regardless of our income, pay taxes, we just simply often do not recognize when we do. When you buy gas for your car, you are paying a tax. When you by food, part of the cost of your item helps to cover the tax cost the business you frequent is required to pay. When you pay your rent or mortgage, part of what you fork over is used to pay the landlord’s or mortgagee’s taxes. There is no free ride for the average American. So, let us for a brief moment consider how our Nation’s government is using our tax dollars. Have you ever considered that our current government is “BURING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”? Let us explain how that happens.
Do you remember our Nation’s embarrassing retreat from Afghanistan in 2021? Do you remember all the war equipment we left behind? Refer back to our blog on September 5, 2021, titled, “Billions Bungled Badly”. We listed nearly everything that was left behind, and what it cost us, money are tax dollars were spent to make those weapons of war. What do you suppose happened to all those weapons and equipment of war? Would you believe some of it has been used against our Nation since then? If you think that is impossible, then you are delusional. We already know most if not all of it made its way into the hands of terrorists, because the Taliban took control of all of it, and in doing so, was able to sell some of it to other terrorist organizations to fund their ideology (foreignpolicy.com; July 5, 2023; Lynne O’Donnell). The writer of the article goes on to state, “U.S. assault weapons have reportedly been used in recent attacks by non-state groups in Kashmir, bitterly divided between India and Pakistan, and in Israel’s Gaza Strip.” We are sure most of you are very aware of Israel’s current war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Here is where our Nation is “BURNING THE CANDLE ON BOTH ENDS”. Our tax dollars help to fund Israel’s defense. Concurrently, our tax dollars are now being used against the Israelis because of our BUNGLED retreat from Afghanistan. Our weapons of war are fighting on both sides, against each other, over a border that does not belong to our Nation! How asinine is this? Our tax dollars at work, funding both sides of this war! Who makes out in such a convoluted scheme as this? Our Nation’s own military complex, those corporations and business who manufacture our weapons of war. While a majority of our Nation’s citizens are “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, just trying to make ends meet, those who profit off of making weapons of war are becoming richer and richer.
The truly sad part of this scenario is that while the CANDLE is BURNING AT BOTH ENDS, the “wax” in the middle is being depleted. In this analogy, do you know what the “wax” of the candle actually represents? It represents your tax dollars! We have in effect provided both sides of a war with our weapons. Likewise, at our southern border, our current government has encouraged, and funded, illegal aliens crossing into our Nation. Mark our words, soon our Nation will be spending our tax dollars to counter the terrorism our Nation invited in. “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, our tax dollars working against each other once again. Our Nation is over 33 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt! Soon, our Nation will be spending more money to simply pay the interest on this growing debt than upon what our Nation pays for its own defense! How stupid we are! When we say our FREEDOM and LIBERTY are at risk, we are not “whistling dixie”. If you relish watching the destruction of our Nation, morally and financially, then continue voting for those who currently have the levers of power within the halls of our Congress, and in our White House. If you want our Nation to stop “BURNING THE CANDLE AT BOTH ENDS”, then get out and vote for those who want to see morality and fiscal responsibility return to our Nation’s Capital. Volunteer to work at election departments, run for the school board, run for city or county offices, call your House Representatives and Senators, support those who share your values and a desire to bring common sense and rational thinking back into proper focus. Don’t be a couch potato, thinking that you are safe from the cataclysmic trajectory we are on . . . . because you are not!