Austerity

Hi Humans,
We dogs know that we must pay for what we get. Perform a trick and you get a treat. Misbehave and you pay a punishment. But many humans don't seem to think that way. They want a treat for other's performance, and they want others to pay for their misbehavior. For example, look at those humans who preach austerity but really mean austerity for other humans. They want to cut taxes and pay for the tax cuts with less government services. That is because taxes affect them more than services. They want to shift the cost to those who would be more affected by services. But it is not always clear as to who would be affected by what. Recently, the sequester hit the airline industry because of lay offs of air traffic controllers. Now all of a sudden austerity became inconvenient, so Congress fixed it by shifting money from elsewhere. Eventually, the bite will reach the elsewhere, and if their constituents are vocal enough, Congress will have to play the shell game again. Maybe, eventually, they will find a fair balance between taxes and services. Maybe they will raise taxes and give it another name to save face. That's another trick that humans like to do. Fortunately, we dogs live a more simple life and understand a more simple vocabulary.
Chloe