Economic Meltdown Like Preparing for for an Oncoming Asteroid?

We know asteroids have hit the earth before, and that some scientists say that one will hit us again.  We know very little about where asteroids come from and we've never tried to stop one before. 

Suddenly, like a group of experts trying to figure out if NASA can stop an asteroid from hitting in our living rooms, we have experts arguing about how to take cover from the economic meltdown.

We have the neo-Keynesians saying we are not stimulating enough--only WW II spending levels will help improve the economy.  The neo-Hooverians say the best thing to do is hope it misses.  Some politicians say the stimulus package is all wrong and that states shouldn't take money at all--except that they will after grandstanding that they wouldn't.

The thing we have to remember is that the people who are trying to get us out of the situation are the same people who told us to stay the course and hold onto our 401Ks.  Can they help us now?

I don't know if what we are seeing is a new Great Depression, but I do know the Depression of my parents' generation lasted about 12 years.

Most of the people reading this will be around in 12 years.  The real question is, "Where will you be then?" 

The answer should not be, "Waiting for the next government bailout."  We have to be values- driven and doing the next right thing.  We have to learn the fundamentals which are: live conservatively within your means, keep retraining yourself and re-inventing yourself--and most importantly--don't let an asteroid hit you!.  Jack Speer

By Jack Speer
Publisher
BizWatchOnline.com

787 billion dollars and 778 pages of legislation.  I hope, yes I pray, that the stimulus package works.

Our crisis economy is like you are on a spacecraft hurtling through dark, cold space having lost its trajectory home.    We are all on this ride, and instead of thinking about oxygen, heat, and sudden, sure crashing, as would be your dangers as astronauts, think bleeding 401k values, vanishing job security, terminally sick healthcare, and predator school loan organizations that own your children before they graduate.

Let us add that your children are on the spacecraft with you, expecting you to right the situation.  

The stimulus package is the largest of its kind in the history of the Republic.  Nonetheless, it pales in comparison to the debt incurred in World War II followed by the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe. There is much more transparency than in recent military efforts, where trillions of dollars were spent with no accountability.

I hear in amazement some people tell me that they hope the stimulus package won't work.  They go one step farther than saying they don't think it will work.  That's a rational position.  But to say they hope it won't work is a call for the demise of the futures of their own children.

I have gone to the websites of legislators who voted against the stimulus package to see what they are saying to their constituents.  Their reasoning is: if we increase the deficit we will wreck our economic train.  Tax cuts, they say, will work rather than putting a shovel in someone's hand and telling them to repair a bridge that's been ready to fall for the last several decades.  And they say we should work on the mortgage crisis first.   Nearly everyone agrees that the foreclosures are obscene and unnecessary; they will hurt the people and the banks.  But will fixing the banks and the mortgage crisis move us forward, if the people living in the houses still don't have jobs to pay that mortgage?

The sad, sorry, truth is that the people who have opposed the stimulus package will rip off the lion's share of it.  And the auto industry,  will rake in billions in government bailouts, even as they continue down the same path of firing their people who will ultimately pay the taxes that propped up their companies while still producing boring cars that don't work.   GM lost 38.7 billion dollars in 2007.  Toyota made 16 billion.

I can't imagine handing out billions to the people who have such disrespect for their employees that they treat them as expendable commodities to be put up on eBay like "excess inventory." 

Until we get our values right, shoveling money is a risky temporary fix.  We ask the question, "Why do districts that consistently elect people who oppose programs to fix the economy get the money they so strongly disapprove of?"   If we elected these people, we deserve to be ruled by their opinions no matter how painful that is.

Here are some of the values that set a nation on a firm foundation:

1.  Innovation that brings about prosperity for the organization and its employees.  I'd like to work for a company like Google that values their employees so much that they coddle them outrageously, and expect (and get) extraordinary performance from them.

2.  Companies that are building an organization where their employees can be their customers--fair pay and reasonable job security.

3.  People who are committed to their own welfare and to the community of people who surround them.

3.  Leadership that is competent and not sold out to the rip-off special interests.

4.  Optimistic people who believe in the USA and tomorrow.