I do not pretend to understand politics in Washington however I did decide to listen to the first presidential news conference this evening. In the next few days there will be plenty of qualified and unqualified political analysts who will be sure to analyze what was said tonight and what the Treasury Secretary will say tomorrow.
Whether or not we voted for the current president or not one thing is certain. Our current president has inherited a huge mess. We may or may not like the man for whatever reasons however he is the man for the job in this next 4 years and we should support him.
One thing is for certain folks, things are certainly a huge mess. Lots of folks just like you and me are losing jobs left and right. The President stated that it was as if everyone in the state of Maine has lost their jobs. Lets assume for a moment that all of the people who have lost their jobs subscribe to Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman and they have 3 to 6 months of emergency funds saved up. Will that be enough time for things to turn around or not? The only problem with that assumption is that it is not reality. I am thinking that the percentage of folks who are not living from pay check to pay check is extremely low.
The president spoke of a three pronged plan which over the next year will begin to stop the current recession from spiraling completely out of control. He promised that there are no pork barrel spending or wasteful earmarks for this 800 billion dollar bail out package that he is trying to get passed in congress. The president stated that there needs to be new thinking in Washington and private sector accountability. The president also spoke about entitlements but he never came out and said anything about all of the wasteful spending in Washingon.
I agree with the president in that he has inherited a mess and that he is not solely responsible for the administration of the last 8 years and the mistakes that were made to get us where we are today. Never the less our president and former senator was part of the problem. Our government wants Corporate America to become accountable for how they spend government bail out money and not use it for frivolous private jets or ski trips etc.
The same government that promotes a new administration and a new way of thinking is not addressing the problems within the white house itself. Does our government and its leaders really identify with how every day Americans are living and being affected by this economy?
I believe that our leaders who are supposed to be elected by the people and have the interests of the people at heart are far removed.
Yes, our government has lots of problems and I would say that it has strayed far far away from what our founding fathers meant for it to be.
I also believe that after 200 + years of being a young nation that we all must take responsibility for where we are at. We are one of the richest nations in the world however we are desperately dependent on the middle east nations for more than half of our crude oil. Capitalism is wonderful compared to communism or socialism however if there are not enough checks and balances in place then greed sets in.
It is the age old story of the rich get richer while the poor get poorer and the middle class working stiffs like us get stuck with the bill. Are we all Americans and are we all in this together? If so does that mean that the rich Americans are obligated to do what they can do to help or does that mean that they are shielded from the immediate results of the recession? How many of us Americans are willing to admit that we too are part of the big picture with regards to being greedy?
Most Americans, including those whom we label as poor are richer than most folks in a third world country. It is a crying shame that the richest nation in the world has a growing population of homeless people which some of them are actually veterans of foreign wars. How long will we pursue our capitalistic entitlements at the expense of others around us? It is one thing to support our families however when we do this at the expense of our family values and it starts to affect our children and how they are being raised then we have to start looking at our motivations for having to have a bigger house or newer car.
All I am saying is that our capitalistic system has birthed a materialistic self centered and self absorbed generation that is bent upon feeling good and grabbing up whatever worldly goodies that we can. I am also agreeing with our president in that our Federal Government nor the private sector are going to be able to be solely responsible for fixing our economy. It is going to take each and every one of us to do our part.
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
chiefpropellerhead@comcast.net
Monday, February 09, 2009
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