CapitalistMarks

American’s use more than they provide! Still!!

Posted on 23. Aug, 2009 by scott in economic daydreaming, political munglings

In the good old days, before the white-man banned the natives of this land to desolate and barren places far from urban centers (helped their consciences I suppose), people lived off the land and thrived.  Even my two of my great-great-grandfathers were able to sustain large (yes, and polygamous) families (60 odd . . . and I do mean odd . . . kids each) with just the labor of their own hands.

They used what they grew or trapped or hunted or harvested and that was about it.  And they were happy and content.  Don’t forget the odd part because that may have been crucial to their contentedness.

Not now.

Why can’t we learn from our ancestors?

We need to give back and quit just taking.

The problem is that we just don’t want to and it starts at the top.  President Obama and Congress want to spend more than they make from taxing us (to the tune of trillions of $$).  And we want to let them (we elected the democratic majority didn’t we?  But the Repubs haven’t been any better for years!).

We have to moderate spending (publicly and personally) and use what we have and no more.  How hard can that be?

It isn’t going to get easier if we don’t act now.

Sure markets are up all over the world, including the U.S.  But the news isn’t all good.  The Conference Board let us know recently that leading economic indicators are up for the fourth consecutive month.  So what?  The bad stuff is hidden in the overconfident headlines that the media glombed onto.

Six of the ten leading indicators were up.  True.  But what about the ones that were down? Not so good.

The biggest negative was consumer expectations.  Followed by real money suupply (how can the consumer be confident if the money isn’t there to spend — yeah and on stuff they can’t or shouldn’t afford).  And the third?  Building permits!!

Yikes, what got us into this mess.  Money freezing up and the housing debacle and consumers running for the shed.

Why are we so stupid as to think the government can throw trillions of our $$ at these current problems and bail us all out long term.

Let me give you an example that will resonate.

The feds pumped $3 billion into the clunker program and around 600,000 cars were sold (or will be by tomorrow).  The feds also gave first time homebuyers and $8,000 credit (and that expires in November) and that’s a few billion $ more.

A shot across the bow of the recession that will end up being a shot in the foot~!

So what will happen in the next few months.  I’ll tell you and you can check back and chastise me in those few months if this doesn’t happen.  It is so dang predictable because Congress and the President are more interested in voting polls than in what is good for our country.

We are going to see a BIG drop in new car sales and a BIG drop in first time homebuyers because the feds stimulated them to all buy quickly without really considering the long term (or even mid-term) implications for them or the government’s debt.

And what will that do to the economy?  Fro crap’s sake it will help justify the NEXT wave of stimulus and bailouts (that some of our leaders are already talking about) as the recession refuses to go away.

More debt.  Like heck do we need it.

I’m not saying we all have to go live off the land, although it sounds good to some.  Shoot, that would be impossible with 307 million people.  But we can learn from our nation’s original inhabitants and just ‘use only what we have’ and wait for anything else until we can get it without going into debt or stealing from out children and grandchildren.

If you don’t need it and can’t afford it, save.  If you want it too bad, borrow it from a neighbor (assuming they will let you).  Don’t steal.  But you can dream . . . that is always authorized in my economic scheme of things.

Give back to the land and the people and stop this selfish consumer driven ‘better that the joneses’ drivel.

Enough is enough. You make up your mind to do this and force our leaders to follow.

Start by throwing out  ALL incumbents.  You can do like I have done for the last couple of elections.  Never, never, never vote for anybody this is an incumbent!

Had enough?  Dang, wait until I start charging you to find out what is REALLY going on in our country!!  Then you can REALLY get mad!

thanks to flickr’s tokomabibelot for the photo from the Jefferson Building in D.C. it is Lakota Chief Ito-na-gaju, “Rain in the face” and how appropriate is that??

Tags: congress, fiscal responsibility, government debt, moderate spending, personal responsibility, President Obama, savings, term limits, the fed, throw out incumbents, unemployment