After reading Samoa News' March 30th 2021 article concerning Moody’s latest rating for American Samoa, I can’t help but want to crumble up their report and throw it in the trash. Because if this is the credit rating we got as a territory, surely the federal government got it worse. After all, with a US national debt fast approaching 31 trillion dollars, you’d figure that be the case.
Nope.
Instead, Moody gives Uncle Sam its highest rating – an “Aaa”. Now, I got it, comparing the U.S. to American Samoa is like comparing a house to a pebble. In terms of land, resources, capital… blah, blah, blah… we all know the ASG doesn’t belong in the same ring. But in terms of fiscal management and responsibility – either Moody’s is blind or they just choose to look the other way.
Volumes can be written on all the instances where there has and continues to be waste and abuse in the federal government – legal or otherwise. And I’m not even talking about politically sensitive programs. What boils my blood the most is crony capitalism, and the federal budget is rife with loophole after loophole and special favors that largely benefit the wealthy and well-connected.
In my humble opinion, whatever our problems may be, they are ten-times-to-the-power-of-ten-times worse when you look at Uncle Sam’s prolific spending ways.
There has been a lot of talk, as of late, about self-determination and our political status with the United States since the 2020 elections. Concerns have largely centered on protecting the fa’a-Samoa, our way of life.
More of a danger to our fa’a-Samoa, however, than a problematic political relationship (perceived or real), is a local government that fails. Especially one with a culture as interwoven with it as our own.
Probably best we un-crumble that Moody’s report and take to heart what it has to say.
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