What Is The Economy
Feb 4th, 2012 by Frank Knotts
It seems that every time we hear a report of how bad the economy is, we hear about the ups and downs of the stock market. We hear about the level of unemployment. We hear about the cost of oil, the cost of this or that.
But these things are not the economy, they are merely forces upon the economy.
So what is the economy exactly?
We are the economy. I am the economy when I buy a car, or a soda. You are the economy when you go out for dinner or when you add a room to your home. When a man hires another to cut his grass.
So when we hear that the economy is failing, what we are really hearing is that we are failing. What causes us to fail? Lack of confidence? Fear? Uncertainty?
When we hear the news telling us that the economy is failing, human nature is to save, to contract our assets. By doing this we perpetuate the failure. If we save and do not buy the new car, then the salesman doesn’t earn his commission. If we don’t buy even the soda, then possibly a delivery driver will be laid off. If we stay at home and do not go out to dinner, then a waitress will earn fewer tips and the owner of the restaurant will see fewer profits. If the man chooses to cut his own grass, then another will have less to spend on something else. Call it supply side economics or trickle down, it doesn’t matter, but these are the facts.
A capitalist economy rises and falls on confidence. If the people who make up the economy are confident that they will be able to earn more, then they will spend that which they already have. If however they feel in anyway that their abiltiy to earn will be negatively affected, then they will contract their personal economy. This is true of the average middle class family, right up to the largest corporation. This contracting will continue until complete failure or until something changes to restore confidence.
The Unites States is currently in a time of extreme uncertainty. Due to the policies and agendas of the current administration people and corporations have no confidence in the future. From the energy policies that seem bent on raising the cost of traditional and reliable energy sources to the point of making them un-affordable, to the intrusion into the most personal decisions of our private lives by the institution of socialized health care, have left the citizens frightened of their government. We no longer trust that our leaders have our best interest in mind when they legislate.
It is monumentally important that we bring this uncertainty to an end. How can we achieve this? By electing people who understand that to grow the economy, meaning the ability of you and I to purchase items and services, that the government need not put into place more regulations and higher taxes on one segment of our society, but that government must actually remove the road blocks that have been placed in the way of a free market and that if the tough choices of raising taxes must be made, then they must be raised in a manner that is fair and equitable to all levels of our financial society.
The days of playing class warfare must end. It is not the fault of the so called rich that the economy is failing, and it is certainly not the fault of the lower income families and people. I feel that it is a direct result of the political elite who seek to remain in power through fear. They, through their counterparts in the media, continuously create the latest crisis. Be it the stock market. The housing market. The banking crisis, or the energy crisis.
It is this constant fear mongering that leads the average citizen to contract and to sandbag against the coming flood that they are told is inevitable. It is no surprise that we saw such a huge amount of economic growth under President Reagan, because his was a positive message. Of course he also told us the hard truths, that we were in desperate time thanks to Pres. Carter, but he also gave us the message that we were still the United States of America, and that when we pulled together there was nothing that this nation couldn’t overcome.
That is the type of leadership that we are lacking today. Oh we have the leader that will tell us about all of the doom and gloom, and we have them on both sides, but we need the leader who will tell us that we can overcome these hard times, not by punishing those among us who have succeeded, but by holding them up as examples.
The citizens who make up this nation and its economy must realize that it is in their best interest to choose leaders who tell them the truth, even when the truth hurts. And we need leaders who work to unite us as American citizens, not to divide us as the haves and have nots.
So when you hear the media and the elected leaders telling you that the economy is failing, realize they are saying that you are failing, I know that the vast majority of American citizens will never sit still for being called failures.
Pres. George W. Bush took a lot of heat after 9/11 for saying that to defeat the terrorist that the American people should get out and get on with their lives, by going out to dinner and shopping to ensure that the attack did not have a negative effect on our economy. He was right then, and that advice is exactly the advice that we should follow now. I know that we are all suffering the effect of the current financial state of affairs, but we all must do what we can for the good of the nation. I know my wife tries!
Thank you Frank for your “malaise speech.” But the problems were caused by bad policies and will be fixed by good policies, not by clapping louder.
alpha you obviously missed this paragraph, “It is monumentally important that we bring this uncertainty to an end. How can we achieve this? By electing people who understand that to grow the economy, meaning the ability of you and I to purchase items and services, that the government need not put into place more regulations and higher taxes on one segment of our society, but that government must actually remove the road blocks that have been placed in the way of a free market and that if the tough choices of raising taxes must be made, then they must be raised in a manner that is fair and equitable to all levels of our financial society.”
This in my opinion would be good policy.
Frank,
Gladd that you chose to stay awhile.
In second to last paragraph, third word: “here” should be “hear” … please delete this comment after it gets fixed….
Nice piece… I think both sides need to realize the true major problem is the big money that is buying our politicians, and not the group of people representing the other side per se….
Thanks for the proof reading kavips, I won’t remove your comment correcting me, it helps to show that even though I might think I am perfect, I am far from it. Miss spelling the word hear is like driving past your own driveway, you know exactly where it is, and still. Unfortunately spell check doesn’t help it that type of mistake.
As for the big money in politics, let us not forget that there is also big money buying up the media, look at G E and NBC and the policies that money has bought through Pres. Obama’s administration.
So when we hear that the economy is failing, what we are really hearing is that we are failing. What causes us to fail? Lack of confidence? Fear? Uncertainty?
When entire sectors of the economy (i.e. our values and property) are manipulated by corrupt politicians then the natural day to day corrections in the values that people place on things are distorted. Instead of correction opening the possibility for success there is an increasing “bubble” of failure. When the value of your house decreases due to “too big to fail” manipulations of that sort then that has nothing to do with your failures, fears or lack of confidence. Someone looted the value of your property while being aided and abetted by the demagoguery typical to politicians who constantly distort the market to amass power for themselves (i.e. the choices of the people)… and that’s about it.
It’s similar to the debt that Boomers have amassed by generally squandering the wealth won by the “greatest generation.” It’s not going to matter how cheerful the next generation is or is not about it, it will become their debt. Not to mention that Boomers will want to be cared for in their old age. Ironically their greatest legacies are divorce and safeguarding a right to abort posterity while enslaving those that are left with debt.
Now they apparently generally fear the idea of relying on the tender “care” of the government and yet it’s unlikely that anyone else will be left to provide care for them. The government, the last abstraction left to care…