I Can Fix The Economy Part II

On Dec 17th a 26yr old man named Mohamed Bouazizi stood in front of the local government office in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia poured gas all over his body then lit himself on fire. Why would an educated man go to such extremes to make a point? He was unemployed and the only source of income he had was from a small fruit stand he ran. He did not have the appropriate license to sell fruit so he lost his stand and his only income, he could no longer provide for his wife and daughter. This one desperate act led to the uprising in Tunisia and sparked "freedom fever" in surrounding countries like Egypt and Libya. What can one man do you ask? Just start a revolution.

 I am certainly not supporting people burning themselves to get the desired results from their government but what I am suggesting is simply funneling our passions and energy in the right direction. You never know maybe we can start a revolution that will begin to get the country back on track fiscally. I mentioned in my previous post that I could fix the economy. The point I was trying to make is that it is the responsibility of regular citizens to fix this economic mess. We can do it together. Relying on the government is what got us into this mess in the first place.

For the past three weeks I have been working in the office of Congressman Bill Owens. One of the projects I have been working on is a way to get money to eradicate water chestnuts from the local waterways. Water Chestnuts are a very invasive plant that can take over a small inland lake in the matter of a couple of years. The problem is there is no money available to purchase the expensive herbicide to fight the spread of the plant. Some communities were not willing to let the fact that there were no funds destroy their lakes. Average citizens got together and started manually pulling the water chestnuts. Whatever funds they could get from donations and such was spent on renting a harvesting machine. Although the process will have to take place every couple of years the effort was successful enough that the lakes could be enjoyed and were no longer in danger of being overrun with this plant. The moral of the story is that we shouldn't just wait for the government to bail us out we should be proactive in our communities. It is said that all government is local. I believe this to be true but if that is the case then I would have to say a majority of the problems our country faces start at the local level as well. Unemployment, poverty, corruption, low wages, drugs, crime, teenage pregnancy and dealing with the homeless are all problems that can be handled on a local level. Imagine if the federal government didn't have to appropriate funds for all of these issues. Local citizens must take responsibility for the needs of their communities. Its time for dramatic actions. The same old status quo is going to destroy our country and at that point we will all have to come together to just survive. Why not do it know before things get that bad?

 A piece of legislation that I believe would help was introduced by Congressman Bill Owens. It was the "War on Debt Act". The proposal was for citizens to buy US Savings Bonds to pay down the debt. The money that was spent on the bonds would go to pay down the debt with China and other countries around the globe that hold $3.7 trillion dollars of US debt. I have to admit I thought the plan was genius for two reasons, first it gets the American public involved and second reduces the debt with China would have a tremendous effect on the value of the US dollar. I was surprised when the proposed legislation never went anywhere. Some called it a political ploy and others said it was a naive move by a rookie congressman serving his first term in elected office. One of the arguments I heard against it was, "Bonds are just another form of debt. Its like paying off your debt with a credit card." Really? Let me ask you this, would you want the countries debt to be held by its citizens that racked it up in the first place or by a country like China or Russia, both of which are in the top five of countries owed? It is a major national security issue to owe these nations that money. How can any reasonable person really think that owing these nations is in our best interest?Oh wait that must be another entitled US citizen making that comment.

 Let me close with one more thought. I started this post with a story of the move for freedom in the Middle East. "Freedom Fever" not to be confused with "Bieber Fever" (had to put that in there for my daughter) is spreading not just in the Middle East but around the globe. Here is a scary thought for you. What if the people of China rise up (they have already started demonstrations) and become a free nation? How long do you think it will take for them to become frustrated with the fact they are subsidizing the American lifestyle? When the regular citizen that lives with much less then even our lowest income earners finds out what we owe them the game is over. What then? All I can say is at that point I would rather the citizens of this country were holding our own debt. After all isn't it our responsibility or have we become so entitled that we are not responsible for our own debt anymore.

Thanks For Reading
Steve