Dear Mr. President,
My name is Naomi
Benenson and I am a 6th grade student at
Old Turnpike School in Tewksbury, New Jersey. I have little confidence that you
will read my letter, but I will write it believing that you will. I have been
researching and thinking about American budget deficit and debt. I often hear that
my generation will inherit fiscal problems created by the current generation
and that is the most important problem for America to deal with. The deeper I
study the issue and more I hear adults answer my questions, the more convinced
I become that a clear and unambiguous understanding of that subject does not
exist. I hope you will find time to address my letter and my idea on how this
complicated problem could be improved.
This is how I
understand the problem with budget deficit and debt. Government provides many
valuable services to its citizens, but does not collect enough money in taxes
to cover for all incurred expenses, so that creates budget deficit. To
cover the deficit, government borrows the money thus creating a national debt.
To state the issue simply, government does not have enough money to provide for
the needs of the country. Everywhere I look I see the same problem - not enough
money; my township, my school, my neighbors, my friends’ families,
and my family too. I think there is not a person in the world who would
say “I have enough money”. Not even Bill Gates! My aunt receives grants from
Gates Foundation for medical research; she says the foundation does not have
enough money to pay for all the research it wants to do. My school could use
money to buy new computers, renovate classrooms, and hire more teachers to make
classes smaller. All that would be great for the students, teachers, and
community, but there is no money for that. At the same time, there is no
shortage of people who want to work and businesses that wish to be fully busy.
If not for the general lack of money, all these people and businesses could be
doing useful productive work.
This situation reminds
me of my favorite board game, Monopoly. I have been playing it since I was
seven years old. My sister and I noticed that often the game turns quickly
uneven and boring when just one player, by the luck of the dice, acquires most
of the properties and the rest don’t have enough money to stay interested in
the game. To make the game more exiting, we changed
the rules a bit. First, each player starts the game with $2000, not $1500;
second, when passing “GO” we give $300 salary rather than $200. With new rules,
all the players get to enjoy more buying and trading properties. There is much
more excitement and the game is more fun to play. I don’t know how the amount
of money that players get was decided upon originally, but I do wonder what
that amount would be if it was calculated by modern computing methods. I think
a smart computer program would concur with our discovery and recommend more
money for the players.
Since I have to
make a counter argument, I’ll go back to my example with a school. If every school
has enough money to renovate, buy supplies and hire more teachers, then the prices for services and supplies will go up, making them unaffordable and
returning things back to where we started. I disagree with that argument.
First, I’m not proposing unlimited money for everybody. I am proposing to find
out what the optimal amount of money in the economy should be. Second, I
believe that the optimal amount of money will work to lower the prices. My
uncle, who runs a small construction company, told me that
as his business slowed down a lot, he had to
raise prices for the remaining customers so he could still cover his expenses.
Therefore, the lack of construction projects contributes to higher prices for
those who can afford them.
I understand that
in real life people do not pass “GO” to collect money, they have to work for
it. However, too many people do not make money because there is no work. If the
amount of money in the economy could be increased then people would earn more
and more taxes would be collected to deal with the deficit and debt. I believe
that the people of America will be so much happier if they had more money. That
is why I am proposing to increase the amount of money people have. To
distribute money to people fairly is not an easy task, however I know how it could be done. I would like to
explain my solution to you, but I’m afraid this letter already took too much of
your valuable time. If you write me back or send your adviser to meet with me,
I will be happy to share my idea for the benefit of all American people.
Thank you, President Obama, for taking
your time to read my letter.
Best Wishes,
Naomi Benenson
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