Balance sheets must show Net Increase or Net Decrease and not that which is Wished For or Imagined.

Sedona AZ (December 12, 2014) – The following is a letter to the SedonaEye.com editor:

Editor;

In High School one of my classes was called “Bookkeeping and Accounting” wherein I learned a little about the fundamentals of business and, by extension, about life itself. One of the most important tools I have ever seen is simply a piece of paper with the “Heading of Balance Sheet” and a “Sub-heading of Assets (and) Liabilities” and a line drawn down the center of the page to the “Totals.”

When the Assets are more than the Liabilities you can generally insert a “Happy Face” but when the Liabilities outweigh the Assets a “Deep Thinking Frown” is often the more appropriate emotional reaction; however, there are many variables that keep those responses from being “Carved in Stone” so to speak.

Distorting “Balance Sheets” is a favored deception of “Embezzlers and Scam Artists” that can make a failing entity appear “Profitable” or make a “Profitable Entity” appear as failing. Even highly educated and intelligent people have been taken in by clever manipulators; and don’t laugh at them – you too could possibly get deceived by some of them. The shysters epitomize the old saying “Figures don’t lie; but Liars can sure figure” and making a pile of trash or barnyard pen residue look inviting is one of their specialties.

Now to the base of the government balance sheet in each of several areas: One of my pet peeves has been Employment. In the early 1990’s the method of counting the “Unemployed” was changed. I did not follow exactly how, but I recall some Radio Talk Shows claiming, at the time, that it was to make the reports look good for the Clinton Administration.

At that time I was ‘On the Road’ continuously; I believe that is when they actually stopped reporting ‘All of the Unemployed’ and just reported the ‘Unemployment Benefits Applied For” as the “Total Unemployed” – which makes a tremendous difference in the “Net (Meaning: Remaining) Difference” of the “Employment Balance Sheet.”

I’m tired of hearing how many jobs were “Created??” without any mention of how many Companies went out of business and how many jobs were lost; also, the difference between “Private Sector and Government paid jobs.” Creative Accounting can deceive many.

Another is the “Military Deployment Costs” that do not subtract the cost that would automatically be incurred if there were no “Deployment”: A substantial part of the cost of subsistence and sustenance, i.e., food and housing are incurred no matter where the Military is located. The Balance Sheet on the “Cost of Battle” is generally skewed by omission and substitution.

Education has a multifaceted Balance Sheet that is rife with “Unfunded Federal Mandates”, “Top-Heavy Administrative Costs” and “Unsustainable Union Benefits” that have been placed on the backs of Taxpayers, who have unfortunately, whether by design or self-imposed complacency, not been included in the negotiation process. And if the voters reject any “Education Tax Increase” they are slammed in the “Media” because “They do not care about their Children’s Education”, absolute “Double-sided Drivel” – although the Parents really should be more involved in the School Board and the Administration process.

Farm and Business Subsidies, Bank and Corporation Bailouts and Foreign Aid all have their own “Balance Sheets” which almost universally benefit those they were supposedly designed to “Punish” at the expense of those they were supposedly designed to help.

The Obamacare Balance Sheet without the “Creative Accounting” and “Fraudulent Figures” is one I’d like to see (Fat Chance); but, on any of them, please show the “Net Increase” or “Net Decrease” not that which is wished for or imagined.

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