Nevertheless, this brings up a good topic to discuss — the housing market and the overall economy we’re facing right now. Just this week we’ve had banks close, inflation hit a 26-year high (along with the highest monthly increase in the CPI since the Gulf war, ironic — no?), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are screwed (unless the government can somehow magically fix it), and people are losing their homes everywhere due to sub-prime mortgages.
So where did we go wrong? Well first, our fearless leader still “think[s] the system is basically sound.” What do you suppose he means by basically? He seems to think government intervention will be the answer, but isn’t that the opposite train of thought from a Republican standpoint? Should they not just let the market force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to shut down? He also lifted the executive ban (that his father put into place, I might add) on offshore oil drilling in Alaska, which should effect our gas prices in seven to ten years. Oh, and we’re still getting those economic stimulus checks.
I’m not exactly sure what the answer to all this is, but Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve Chairman who has yet to call our economic downturn a full-on recession even agrees that families are “facing hardship.”
I can tell you one thing I know for sure — oil drives everything in our country. It drives our cars, it powers our houses, it delivers our goods, it provides our services, it effects the auto industry, the music industry — it powers our entire economy. It’s the one thing that if we lost we’d almost instantly revert back to the Great Depression. And just like heroin addicts who need to face their demons to escape their problems with using, our country needs an intervention to get away from our absolute dependence on foreign oil. Heck, even T. Boone Pickens, one of the countries biggest ‘oil men’ and the largest financial contributor to my parents alma mater, thinks we need to reduce our dependence on oil and embrace the non-polluting, constantly there power of wind. And like my grandfather, he’s one of the most staunch conservative Republicans I know — surprising no?
Don’t worry, there’s money to be made in wind, I’m sure of that. Oh, and Al Gore is still around too doing what he does best with his Mac Book Pro PowerPoint presentations.
I know that we need to wean ourselves slowly from oil, because this is not something we can simply do overnight. But we do need to do something before it’s too late or the terrorists figure out how to attack our oil reserves.
But I digress on oil, back to the economy. The Democrats think that another round economic stimulus checks will solve the problem. I disagree there. It’ll help people for what — a month or two? That’s what happened to me, I used my check to pay off some credit card debt.
You see, I’ve been looking to buy a house for the past year since interest rates have been so low, but I stopped looking because of the price of gas. It effects my budget tremendously to pay 2 to 4 times what I used to (as it does everyone). The ironic thing is — I have an M.B.A. too, but growing up I saw how much the economy and layoffs affected my family and it scared me. So instead of getting a corporate job that would pay me $50,000 – $100,000 starting out (but living in constant fear of being laid off), I opted to work for the state and get paid less than $35,000 a year because I thought at least it’s something stable, something I could count on for years to come.
But it’s not stable anymore and it’s a sad thing to see because I work in the education sector. Cutting educational budgets and programs will do nothing but hurt everyone in our society. The government needs to embrace our educational systems because as we move more and more toward a global economy and we rely on other countries to provide goods and services because of economies of scale we’ll need something to export.
Education is key. Need proof? Look at India.
In closing, I’ll leave you with some more Talking Heads lyrics (for the last time, I swear — actually, probably not).
Don’t Worry About the Government
I see the states, across this big nation
I see the laws made in Washington, D.C.
I think of the ones I consider my favorites
I think of the people that are working for me
Some civil servants are just like my loved ones
They work so hard and they try to be strong
I’m a lucky guy to live in my building
They own the buildings to help them along
It’s over there, it’s over there
My building has every convenience
It’s gonna make life easy for me
It’s gonna be easy to get things done
I will relax along with my loved ones
Loved ones, loved ones visit the building
Take the highway, park and come up and see me
I’ll be working, working but if you come visit
I’ll put down what I’m doing, my friends are important
I wouldn’t worry ’bout
I wouldn’t worry about me
Don’t you worry ’bout me
Don’t you worry ’bout ME……….
But the question is — shouldn’t we ALL be worried? What should we do about it — both in the short and long term? Leave a comment and voice your opnion…
3 Responses
Drive less? Live closer to where you work? Don’t run your air conditioner when you’re not in the house? Read a book rather than watching TV or reading pointless Phish gossip on your computer (love this blog, really)? Wear a sweater in the winter? Grow weed outdoors? Don’t throw out food? I’m being flip (you probably take umbrage at the suggestion that you drive excessively) but seriously, cheap energy is a myth, a subsidized illusion that we have come to consider our right in this country.
I agree with you on education. But I think you rely too much on the smart “liberal” idea that some change to the “system” will make everything better, or that more money is an answer in itself. We need better pre-natal nutrition, we need labels on formula that state the truth: “Breast milk is best for your baby.” We need parents who read to their kids, not teach them the false comfort of the flickering box. We need better nutrition, fresh fruits and vegetables. Less expensive meat. We need kids who like to run around, build stuff, take it apart. By the time they get to school most of the success is built in and most of the failure is pre-programmed. We feed their heads nonsense and then when they’ve never learn to concentrate we feed them Aderall from the corporate pushers. I’m ranting, but there is a fundamental problem with the way we raise our children (warning: political third rail) that the government can’t do anything about.
But Americans are cheap. You get what you pay for in this life and we don’t like paying for shit unless someone makes a profit on it. Then we wonder why our infrastructure sucks and look to the government to lower our gas prices. People whine about how much politicians suck. I think we have representation that represents the country. Don’t like it? There’s a solution for that. But if we keep voting for people who perpetuate their power by pushing easy living and lower taxes somebody is eventually going to pay the piper-maybe it’s us.
Great tune btw especially live.
yes, do look at india, but make sure you see what type of education has been so successful there
from wiki-
Pre-primary education in India is not a fundamental right, with a very low percentage of children receiving preschool educational facilities. The largest source of provision is the so called Integrated Child Development Services (or ICDS) and anganwadis. However, the preschool component in the same remains weak.
In the absence of significant government provisions, the private sector (reaching to the relatively richer section of society) has opened schools.
lets not just wean ourselves off oil, but also govt, specifically fed reserve, which has created this bull mess as early culyer would say, both parties are responsible. the current a hole in white house is just the current logical conclusion of years of policy. there is no fix that any of them can do, get out of the way and let the market adjust to the damage uncle sugar has caused or else you are propping up govt sponsored failure and if you dont have to pay the piper now, you will eventually.
clear the mind, start at lewrockwell.com!
Yes Murray,
Unfortunately most people see it all wrong.
The Onion explains from their viewpoint-
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/recession_plagued_nation_demands