"we should be guided by what works"
These are dark times--scary times--as we teeter on the brink of a Depression, something I did not believe I would see in my lifetime. My mother and father were children of The Great Depression and I'm sure they never thought their own children would face the hardships they faced. I'm guessing they prayed that the opposite would be true--that we would only know economic certainty.
And we did for a time. Remember back in the 90s when gas was a buck a gallon and everyone I knew had jobs? Good times, good times.
Now, as my infant son naps in the other room, I plot how we might cut back on our expenses just in case we need the cash at hand. And what of the cash at hand? Should it really be at hand? Should we pull all of our money out of investments and bank accounts and store it in the mattress?
Of course this is not what we will do, but I don't think you can be raised by Depression-era parents and not have some of that fear-based thinking ingrained.
What about the election? What does economic collapse mean to us in looking at our candidates? Well, for me it means I'm even more determined to see a Democrat in office. In my reading from Obama's The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
last night, I came across this bit:
And we did for a time. Remember back in the 90s when gas was a buck a gallon and everyone I knew had jobs? Good times, good times.
Now, as my infant son naps in the other room, I plot how we might cut back on our expenses just in case we need the cash at hand. And what of the cash at hand? Should it really be at hand? Should we pull all of our money out of investments and bank accounts and store it in the mattress?
Of course this is not what we will do, but I don't think you can be raised by Depression-era parents and not have some of that fear-based thinking ingrained.
What about the election? What does economic collapse mean to us in looking at our candidates? Well, for me it means I'm even more determined to see a Democrat in office. In my reading from Obama's The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
last night, I came across this bit:For the most part, though, the Republican economic agenda under President Bush has been devoted to tax cuts, reduced regulation, the privatization of government services--and more tax cuts. Administration officials call this the Ownership Society, but most of its central tenets have been staples of laissez-faire economics since at least the 1930s: a belief that a sharp reduction--or in some cases, elimination--of taxes on incomes, large estates, capital gains, and dividends will encourage capital formation, higher savings rates, more business investment, and great economic growth; a belief that government regulation inhibits and distorts the efficient working of the market; and a belief that government entitlement programs are inherently inefficient, breed dependency, and reduce individual responsibility, initiative, and choice.And:
But our history should give us confidence that we don't have to choose between an oppressive, government-run economy and a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism. It tells us that we can emerge from great economic upheavals strong, not weaker. Like those who came before us, we should be asking ourselves what mix of policies will lead to a dynamic free market and widespread economic security, entrepreneurial innovation and upward mobility. And we can be guided throughout by Lincoln's simple maxim: that we will do collectively, through our government, only those things that we cannot do as well or at all individually and privately.What is frighteningly obvious is that what's been going on for the past eight years does not work.
In other words, we should be guided by what works.
