What’s Depressing You Today?

Let me clarify, I am NOT a specialist on the economy. I studied it briefly in college, and received three credits. However, I have been a consumer since about age 12, so I am somewhat experienced in watching prices, working for a living, and seeing over 30% of my earned income go to others. You could say, I’ve been “spreading the wealth” for over 50 years.
My father was a confirmed Democrat—a died-in-the-wool union man, even a union officer. The company he worked for all the time I was growing up frequently called for strikes to improve the wages and benefits. Frequently they called the strikes near holidays, which left the workers and families in dire straits for the holidays.

When I started working for a taxable wage at age 18, and saw that over 30% of my pay went for various taxes, I became a Republican. No, I don’t think THEY have all the answers either.

Today we are going through an economic down-turn. In plain language, my opinion is, a recession is when there is a downturn in a good economy in which your neighbor loses his job, and possibly his home. A depression is when there is a prolonged down turn in the economy, and many more people lose their jobs, and more people lose, or come close to losing their homes. Repression is to hold back, to subdue, to control, to stifle free natural behavior, to prevent ideas from becoming reality. I believe this is where we are today.

We are in a very prolonged downturn in the economy, but it is politically incorrect to call it a depression. It might put fear into people’s hearts. Recessions are natural cycles in the world of economics. It is impossible to maintain a smooth operating economy. However, the government can do things to make it better, or then, worse.

Some people think the stimulus programs were right, and others think they were wrong. It’s possible that they were a good idea poorly implemented. However, some new programs initiated by our current administration are greatly WRONG and repressive in nature. The new Obamacare is repressive because it stifles business from hiring new workers. Letting the Bush taxes expire is repressive because it takes money out of the economy. All those new taxes passed with Obamacare are repressive because they impede hiring, and take money out of the economy.

While a country can come out of recessions by the government reducing taxes and encouraging free enterprise, national work projects that actually build something (like the CCC or WPA in the ‘30’s) might be of use in a depression. Some economists today said they only prolonged the pain. And it was the high military build up of WWII that brought America out the Great Depression.

However, repressing initiatives, blocking individual entrepreneurs, putting too many restrictions on business, trying to control everything and everyone, (media, public opinion) will only prolong the pain. One economist diagrammed the economy as a V, a U, a W, or an L. A “V” is a recession that has a sharp dip, but quick recovery. These are normal. A “U” is a recession that is prolonged and slower to recover. An “L” is actually a depression—a sharp dip followed by a straight line, slow or no recovery. Beware of the “W”. That is a quick drop in the economy, followed by some recovery, followed by another dip. Hopefully this will rise again.

With our current administration, I don’t think they know where we are. They are saying we are in a slow recovery, and the recession has ended. If they are telling the truth then this is a jobless recovery, and for many, a homeless recovery.

This country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, independent thinking and self-discipline. Self-government won’t work without self-discipline. People were willing to work and sacrifice for what they wanted. Those unwilling to work were put “outside the camp.” We’ve lost our self-sufficiency in lieu of government handouts. We must go back to making things, growing things—to use for ourselves or to sell.

Morality and self-discipline are the keys to successful capitalism.