Fiscal Cliffs and Abstract Numbers

So while the nation's capital embroigles itself with the abstraction it has so fitfully created, real things are happening.  And someone says "I need this much!" and someone else says "We don't have that much!" and someone else yells "Gold standard!" and some other goof cries out "Let them eat cake!" And maybe we have a good chuckle at our own expense. But our expense ends up being their expense and expenses are an abstract valuation in themselves.  For the wages of sin is death.