January 28, 2014, State of the Union Address: President Obama authorizes the Treasury Department to come up with a starter savings account, dubbed "myRA".
February 2, 2014, huffingtonpost.com: Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts proposes the U.S Postal Service offer basic banking services.

Let me see if I have this right. President Obama wants Americans to trust their savings to an institution, the United States Government, that is projected to be 19 trillion dollars in debt by 2015. And, Senator Warren wants Americans to bank with an institution, the U.S. Postal Service, that is facing an $18.2 billion annual deficit as early as 2015.

UFB! Me thinks these people have gone insane. Might as well just endorse our pay checks "Pay To The Order Of Incompetence And Waste" and after deductions have the Federal Government tell us what we have left to spend.

Ya know, getting old sucks in many ways. But at my age it has one upside. I should be able to maintain, at least the illusion of, free will for the remainder of my life. I accept my failures as my fault. I take pride in knowing my successes were of my doing. On balance, I have a positive self worth.

With Government's increasing control over every aspect of our lives I fear my grandchildren will have no such gratification. That when they're my age, with both success and failure, they'll look back and think, "Somebody else made that happen". That they will have had a cradle to grave existence courtesy of the Government but never have really lived.

P.S.: I have no idea how I got from financial to philosophical. Probably one of the downsides of getting old.

January, 2014