Everyone’s An Economist Now
So finally people are paying attention, trying to speed learn what all these terms mean, and how it will affect their lives. While the politicians are going for the populist message – Get all those executives! Stop the golden parachutes! Greed on Wall Street! Those predatory lenders! The evil corporations! Get all those speculators! Tax the rich, yeah! Make them pay more! – The rest of us are getting shafted.
It did not take long for those quarterly September statements to get to the average folks, who now realize that in just two weeks we have lost more than 50% of the money we have saving for years for retirement.
While paying for my wine and ice cream at the grocery store (hey, we all have different ways of self-soothing) – I told the cashier that we lost another 650 in the market today. She chuckled and said, “Well, I’m poor, so I do not have any money in the market.”
That still is the general feeling, so the politicians are succeeding with their dumbed-down messages. Most people do not understand how losing points in the Dow affects them.
Eventually the common man will realize what losing $2 trillion in value in two weeks means. When those “greedy corporations and businesses” close their doors. Not only are jobs lost, but there is less supply and competition for the goods and services that we all depend on. So, not only does quality go down but prices go up – as less entities are providing the goodies.
With so much capital leaving the system, money also becomes more expensive and harder to come by. Which means slower economic growth, which pulls us all down. By the way, the tiny percentage of filthy rich people will still be filthy rich. That really will not affect anything, except for giving the politicians more ammunition for their silly messages.
So now comes the Messiah, and raises taxes on the filthy rich, on corporations, on capital, on any class of income, while at the same time clamping down on free trade agreements, closing down potential markets for the things we produce. This means that while it cost more money to produce the goods and services we all need, and more international markets shut down for said goods and services, prices will go up, as employment opportunities dwindle, and companies try to find more efficiencies through technology and going abroad.
Then the government has to step in. Mandates are passed which force entities to provide basic goods and services at fixed prices. Barack has also proposed penalties for companies that ship jobs overseas. This is what the people now demand as more and more of them depend on entitlements, because so much government intervention has made it impossible for the free market to succeed. Now we demand that politicians make good on their promises, and if they don’t, we kick them out and elect the ones that can make things happen.
And then we become like all those other nations with huge governments.
Already we have seen how the federal government has given us a stimulus package in the summer — $2000 for every grown up and $600 per child; billions of rescue dollars for AIG, Freddie and Fannie, the airline industries, state and local governments, Wamu and other huge banks, etc. etc. etc.
Now we have huge bureaucracies lining up for handouts to avoid “impending catastrophes” – California, Massachussets.
Promises to nationalize healthcare are as popular as nationalizing our education system were long ago. Now they have us believing that healthcare is a right, just as education is a right. Which would be great, if the government did it well. But with so many public schools failing – why would we trust the government to take over other parts of our lives?
Nationalizing all these entities is very scary. All we have to do is look at other countries to see clear examples of the disaster that this has caused. The greed and corruption created when government controls huge amounts of money, equity and power over mammoth entities and bureaucracies is hard to phantom.
I fear that we are headed towards the type of country in which government fails to provide the necessary infrastructure for individuals to succeed through creativity, innovation and hard work. That is what has always characterized this nation. That is the American Dream. That is why people want to come here.
When people see the government as the provider; when the only way to succeed is to join the government – in any capacity – and move through the ranks to participate in the briberies and corruption, then you have Argentina, for instance.
Argentina, once a great nation, has become so corrupt, that people do not trust anyone, not even their own families. Money dictates every kind of behavior – because money is so hard to come by and to keep if you happen to get your hands on something good.
Laws are viewed as suggestions, and they only matter if you get caught. Even so, you can always bribe an official, as most of them consider the extra income as one of the main reasons they got the government job to being with. Sounds cynical? My family lives it every day.