Now You Owe Me
You’ve no doubt heard that phrase. Usually, it follows asking someone for a favor. Often they say it as a joke. But even if it’s unsaid, you still feel like you owe them.
It’s one thing when it’s between friends or family members. It’s another when it’s a less collegial relationship.
And it’s never a good idea to “owe” someone…because you never know when they’re going to expect you to pay up.
I thought of this when I heard the news that the President intends to visit Saudi Arabia soon to ask for an increase in oil production…the same Saudi Arabia he said during the campaign–less than two years ago–that he’d treat as a pariah nation. This comes after asking all sorts of oil producing nations to sell us products…including Iraq, Venezuela, Iran.
So look at who we’re doing business with, and bargaining from a position of weakness instead of strength. We’re already sacrificing principles by engaging in some of these deals…and paying top dollar, to boot…but what longer-term ramifications might come from it, when those nations come back to us and say, “Now you owe me”—perhaps to look the other way at one of their unrelated misdeeds, perhaps to capitulate to some expanded demand.
The world works best when America is in a self-sufficient mode…dominant, yet cordial to nations friendly to us. For the U.S. to be reliant on other nations for everything from oil to baby formula is a sad state of affairs and needs to be changed quickly, regardless of the causes or who’s in charge in Washington.
