I had almost forgotten something that I heard on the local all-news station on my way to the airport last week. They were breathlessly beginning each half hour with an ominous banner headline: "Guess who's going to end up footing the bill to upgrade the nation's outdated power grid? You are!"

Well, if I could use some vernacular from my junior high days, duh. The all-news station was stating it as though it were some sort of outrage. But really, who else is supposed to pay for it? Are the power companies supposed to have some other source of income from which to draw funds for the upgrades aside from customers?

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but I have a sneaky suspicion that there was an implication underlying that headline: you are going to end up footing the bill instead of the government, which really ought to be paying for it.

I never fail to be astounded at how many people do not understand one simple fact: the government doesn't have any of its own money. When it spends money, it spends your money. And usually much less effectively than a private company spends the money you give them.

Yes, when the power company needs to upgrade its equipment, it draws from the money you pay them with your monthly bill. And when the phone company needs to install some fiber optic lines, the money they use is the money you've been paying them. And when Baskin-Robbins puts a new neon "31 Flavors" sign up outside the door, they do it with the money you've spent there on ice cream. Where else would they get the money, if not from their customers?