Big and Little

Question: What is the tiniest nation in the world?
Answer: I am.
Seriously. Think about it.
As a citizen of the United States I enjoy a sovreignty that is defined by the Constitution: I am a sovreign citizen. That means I have certain rights; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are protected under the Bill of Rights and as long as these are in force I have a measure of security. And freedom. I am free to think of myself as a little nation, one among the many others that I daily come into contact with. Maybe if all people thought of themselves as nations, we would all be better off.
Seriously. Think about it.
The United States has become the world's biggest debtor nation; our government borrows and spends more money than we can ever hope to recoup over the next three generations. I don't.
As the tiniest nation in the world I have an economy just like the big one. I engage in trade with various businesses, spend money, and receive goods and services. In this sense I am in the import/export business; I export labor of various kinds and import money with which to buy the commodities I need. In all this I manage to keep Production ahead of Consumption, and I'm the better off for it. I even have a budget surplus each month. I even save money! And I don't have any debt! Congress, are you listening?
It's sad to note that so many of my brother and sister nations are in such overwhelming debt; credit cards, sub-prime mortgages, exhorbitant medical costs, and the "essentials" that mark people as successful are, in fact, impoverishing them. Look at where gasoline prices are going: this time next year a gallon of gas will be $8.00, but not for me: I don't own a car. Don't need one as I live in a city with everything I need an easy walk from where I live. And if I truly need a car I can just rent one, do what I need to do with it, then return it.
I ride a bicycle everywhere. My transportation costs are zero most months, and when I have to have the bike repaired, get new tires, or just have it periodically overhauled, it's inexpensive. I ride a twenty-five year-old Gitane 10-speed that has over 23,000 miles on it; ten months out of each year I ride over three-hundred miles, and about half that time, over 400. I don't have to choose between food and fuel; food is my fuel. And I am in superb health. Big Pharma doesn't have its hooks into me, and if dctors had to depend on people like me for a living they'd starve to death.
That's what I do. And there are things I don't do that are equally important.
I don't invade my neighbors' homes and try to tell them how to live.
I don't hand my money over to perfect strangers to "manage" for me. They make money whether I win or lose.
If something is broken, I fix it instead of running right out to buy a new one.
I rarely purchase anything at retail, even new clothes. I'll share a couple of these strategies with you on another post.
But most importantly of all, I don't import the panic and frenzy of the outside world. I don't watch televion news or read newspapers: I don't want to cloud my conscious mind with a lot of trash that I can't do anything about. I keep up with world events on the Internet where I can get a variety of in-depth commentary. I am at peace because I believe that what's going on "over there" is not as important as what is going on in my own sphere of influence.
I could go on and on, but will close with another question.
If a tiny nation like I can manage to live within my means, why can't the Big One do the same?