Average American Bailout

Are you an average American like me? Then you too can all forget about getting anything from the bailouts that our elected officials are handing out to wealthy business executives.

While the fortunate ones are treating themselves to spa visits and bonus checks (just because they change the name doesn’t change what it is), I’ve been digging down under the cushions in the couch looking for fallen change. The $29.50 that I managed to dig up has to cover all my expenses for a while. Good thing ramen noodles are 10 packages for $1!

No, I’m not trying to sound like “woe is me”, I’m lucky in that I still have my house. There are many, many more people in worse shape than me. I may only be working part-time but I know lots of people who don’t even have a job. I see people standing on street corners who don’t even have a home.

It would be nice if the government would hand out some of those $700 billion dollars to us average Americans. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is going to happen. After all, the only way to get anything is to already have lots of money to begin with. If you can’t “donate” lots of money to a politician you’re not going to get anything from that politician other than a form e-mail/letter that basically says nothing.

The only one who is going to save the average American is the average American. We’ve got to take care of each other because we’re all we’ve got. Looking for an example: check out this story I saw on CNN about a local, retired, businessman who has bought back his old store rather than see his former employees turned out into the street. Because of his actions there are 17 people who get to keep their jobs.

From lots of single snowflakes an avalanche is formed. Even if you can only do a little to help someone (and helping yourself counts too), it is one more snowflake to add to the pile.

Avarice and Envy

Watching the current political campaign ads has reminded me of how little things change. The cycle goes like this:

• Current politicians do something bad (lie, steal, cause harm to the citizens or nation, etc.).
• Election year comes around and new candidates run promising to “clean up”, “address wrongs”, “solve problems”, and make other encouraging noises to get elected.
• We elect the ones that promise to “clean house” and give us everything we want.
• The new politicians get into office and do the same things as the last ones.
• Next election time we do it all over again.

Don’t be too depressed by this though, you can go all the way back to the time of the Greeks and Romans and find the same basic pattern. Too bad we seem incapable of learning from the past.

There have been one or two high points in human history. One of those is the 17^th century Dutch Republic. They fought a long war, around 30 years, to free themselves from Spanish rule. They then created a free and open society that became a haven for intellectuals and other refugees. Many scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers came there. Some of the founders of the United States were inspired by these refugees.

In the Amsterdam Town Hall they put many reminders of who they were and what was important to them. One of them stands out to me: it is a relief carving of Justice, holding a golden sword in one hand and scales in the other. Justice stands between Death and Punishment and is stepping on Avarice and Envy, the gods of the merchants. The Dutch put that there because they realized that “the unrestrained pursuit of profit posed a threat to the nation’s soul.”

For many years now our country has been under the impression that what is good for business is good for the country (or at least that is what our elected officials keep telling us). The wealthy businesses owners give money to their chosen candidate and then the successful candidate obediently passes laws in favor of business (which is why wealthy people give money to candidates in the first place: to get what they want). And what benefit does the average citizen see? Here’s a small list:

• Jobs outsourced because labor is cheaper somewhere else
• Benefits cut for most workers
• Top executives “golden parachutes” turning into “platinum parachutes”
• “Made in the USA” replaced by “Made in China”

Wish I had a solution for this mess. Unfortunately all I can do is climb up on my electronic platform here and offer my opinions and hope for the best. Please think about this. I’d love to know what you think.

Oh, one last thing: while working on this post I came across an article entitled "Why Economists Should Not Be Ashamed of Being the Philosophers of Prudence". Interesting reading.