I feel that one cannot avoid a genuine conversation about the state of our economy right now when communicating in any manner-- face-to-face, blogging, or otherwise. To do anything else seems, on some levels, an effort to escape the reality that is facing us as a nation.
I think the most difficult part about this, however, is that many are uncertain about what we are actually facing.
The common American doesn't have the time to become a well-versed economist overnight. The common American, then, can't really determine what is best for the country at this point--whether the bail-out bill is a good move or a not so good move. We can, by all means, go for the gut-instinct. But in the end, our instincts are not educated opinions. This means that the common American must rely on the opinions of the experts that Congress provides; experts that the common American does not know personally. We don't know why these specific experts were chosen to testify out of the whole lot, or what these experts' political affiliations are, or whether these experts are telling us what we want to hear, what we need to hear, or what others want us to hear.
I'm not trying to sound paranoid or delusional. I'm only trying to be honest to myself. Throughout history, political leaders have chosen to withhold or reveal information based on what was either better for them at the time, or better for the country at the time. (Yes--that means that I personally believe there are times when information should be withheld from the general public. I believe that a human is an intelligent individual, but that large groups create mass mentality, which in turn can create chaos.)
Essentially, I'm stating that there is a possibility the situation isn't as bad as it seems. Mostly this stems from my hobby of reading British news sources rather than American ones. The other day, I read an article regarding how the American media is comparing the issues we are having now with the stock market crash of the Great Depression. While it is true we've lost a similar amount of points (and indeed continue to lose--but we'll get to this later), percentage wise, it's not even comparable. The point is, our stock market is wayyyy larger than the stock market was at that time. So losing that amount of points, while disconcerting, is not actually as bad of a situation as the Great Depression overall. We may get there in the upcoming months. But right now? Not there.
Furthermore, while: "[m]ore than 600,000 jobs have already been lost this year, according to the government..and there are currently over 9.4 million people looking for work in the U.S" according to cnn.com, according to bbc, the percentage of unemployed Americans is not nearly as high as it was during the Great Depression.
What it seems like to me, then, is that this is a situation that could become as bad as the Great Depression, but the urgency with which Wall Street is reacting is creating an anxiety that is only making things worse. Of course stock prices are going to continue to plummet--those covering this situation have been in a hysteria over it. And when people have doubts about the economy, they are naturally not going to want to invest in the stock market. And without investors, but a huge supply of stocks to be sold, the price of everything drops. Basic supply and demand, my friend. And these doubts also affect common Americans, as they will naturally stop putting money into the economy because they are afraid of the impending doom and would like to have as much as they can if said doom happens. This, in turn, creates a disturbance in the economy as well.
My point?
Yeah. It's a really really really messy situation. But I honestly think that the media is making it worse by instilling, even ingraining, the fear that has everyone praying for a miracle right now. I'm just glad that people aren't running to banks yet to get all their money back. THAT is when we'll be in the same situation as the 1930's. May we somehow recover before that happens.
I also wonder if maybe this is a blessing in disguise. This only occurred to me after reading this article. Maybe it's time for America to lose its ultimate "superpower" status--maybe it's time for us to share the spotlight with other countries in a friendly manner. (I think this is where the fear sets in though--will other countries be willing to be friendly?) Either way, if we were to make this occur successfully, there would be a shared feeling of responsibility for countries who need help. There would be a shared sense of responsibility for bringing down leaders who are hurting their people. It would no longer be America the country that polices the globe, it would be America and.... which would help us concentrate more on our domestic policies and in turn make us strong once again.
Maybe this entire conundrum will teach us all a lesson about how banks and businesses are structured and funded. Many countries in Europe are already reconsidering the way they run their banking system because they are seeing how our structure has weakened us. So maybe this is just a bump in the road to restructuring our economy in a way where we (from CEO's to Jane Smiths) don't have to live our lives based off of money borrowed from other people. Which in my mind, would help us all out in the end.
Who knows. I'm just hoping we can recover enough from this thing that we have time to implement the lessons we've learned.
Please note that these are my opinions, and my opinions only. They are in no way endorsed by Green Mountain College, the members of my current political philosophy course, or the professors I've discussed this matter with. In fact, there are many issues that I may be missing all together--so I encourage you to comment about ideas that you believe in, don't believe in, etc. I'm sharing what I think because I want to know what others are thinking. And I believe open, honest discourse is what our country is about. It's how we decide in what direction we need to grow.