Warning Politics ahead

The Economy

Double blog post today, lucky you! However its going to be about politics, sorry.

The economy. It sucks. Why does it suck? Well there were many factors, but here it is in a nutshell, Subprime mortgage lending fiasco + greedy execs + greedy politicians + MASSIVE government spending plans + public paranoia = bad economy.

Let me ask you this, are you happy with your elected officials? Do you trust them to make the hard decisions facing our state, our nation, even if it means they might not get elected the next time around? If not, why not? The answer I hear all the time is, well nobody good ever runs for office. Why is this? I think its because we have let our political system get out of control. Why should we let these guys, who have never run a business outside of a law firm, who don’t have a clue how an economy works other than what they may have learned in a classroom, run our country. They are running it into the ground if you ask me. And now the president is considering another ‘stimulus’ package.

I call shenanigans. Given Obama’s current projected budget deficit for 2009, it breaks down into the government spending something like $53,609 a second. That’s right, per second. By the time it takes you to read this blog, the government will have spent more than any of us will make in several years of gross pay! Common sense tells us that when we get into debt, the only way to get out of it is to stop spending, cut the fat and start paying it down. But the government seems to think that spending more is somehow a solution to all of its problems. And the sad fact is the American public is buying it, they’re drinking the Obama flavored cool-aid. Now I’m not saying the American public is all stupid, but its just the mass marketing of it all. People in general just want to stay in their own comfort bubbles, worry about themselves and their families and just accept what the government does is good because they don’t know any other way.

Another problem. Its called tyranny of the majority. I don’t want to Godwin the blog, but this is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany. Remember Hitler was loved by the public, he was in the majority and the Germans believed in him and followed him. Some Germans knew what he was doing was wrong but they were in the minority, so they were ridiculed; beat up or worse so they kept quiet for the most part. I’m not saying we are exactly the same, I don’t belive Obama is going to be invadeing Poland anytime soon, but what I am seeing is him promising the world and the people buying into it. Destroying the very things our country was founded upon, namely limited government. Take this healthcare program he is proposing. In his ideal bill, it will include a ‘public option’ namely something like Medicare, for the masses. I think we can all agree that our current healthcare system is broken, but is this really the way to ‘fix’ it? Who’s going to pay for this program? What is it going to mean for the thousands of people currently employed by insurance companies? This issue hits very close to home, since Des Moines has such a huge stake in the insurance business. I don’t have a solution for the current system though, but I do know the federal government was never meant to provide that service. If any government was involved it should be a state issue, not a federal issue.

People these days are used to getting a handout. We are now a generation or several generations that now have the belief that the government should provide everything, we shouldn’t have to do anything ourselves because its too hard and inconvenient. I admit I slipped into this trap for awhile. But no more, my eyes are open. In my opinion, and our founding father’s collective opinions, government should have a very, very limited role. I can’t stress this enough. But again, getting this form of government means we as a people need to make some hard choices, we need to step out of our comfort bubbles. We need to stop putting 100” plasma TV’s on a credit card, we need to stop buying McMansions, we need to take control of our own lives, and most importantly take back control of our government.

What can we do? Well it’s true, a single person can’t do a whole lot, but if this movement gets going, one person can become two, two can become four and so on until we win. I’ve talked about a revolution before in a previous blog, and I think its coming sooner rather than later. What we need to do is vote, not for the congressperson who can bring us the most pork, but maybe for the underdog. We need to find our own leaders, and get them to run for office. I wish I could be one of those, but I’m sadly under edumacated for that and would be no better than who we have currently, heh. But I am willing to follow and promote for one who could fill those shoes. Another thing you can do is pay attention to the issues of the day, of what’s important to you and important to the nation. I’m not saying become an expert or read the papers religiously everyday but at least know what’s going on so you can make informed decisions, and most importantly get out and vote in every election. It’s the only way we can make our voices heard. Lastly, I would recommend reading at least a little of what our founding fathers wrote about the nation. I know that’s quite boring, but ya never know, you might actually find it interesting and take a sense of pride in knowing things for yourself rather than relying on the news or someone else telling you.