Making the United States a Better Place It
is no secret that the United States is in an economic decline; the
economy has not been this bad since the The Great Depression of 1940. "The
Nation - The American economy entered 2007 like a lion, with the
momentum of two strong job-growth years behind it. But then job growth
began to falter as 2007 matured and it now looks like the economy will
exit 2007 like a lamb." (Hughes, 2007) Some problems
that are contributing to this decline are social security, energy,
housing,and the decrease in the value of the dollar. Out of these many
problems I believe that the two that need to be addressed the most are
Unemployment and its affect on the economy These two problems could
easily be fixed if we make a fair plan and follow through. Americans
need a plan that we can count on. As Franklin D Roosevelt would say,
"the same spirit that has led previous generations to face down war,
depression — and fear itself." We must act quickly so we can get this
problem out of the way. "For every day we wait or point fingers or drag
our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs. More families will lose
their savings. More dreams will be deferred and denied,"said Barack
Obama The economic decline is threatening everyone in America!
There are less jobs and the value of the dollar is decreasing while merchandise is increasing. To many businesses are moving out of the country so they can pay their employees less; so more and more Americans are being laid of and left with no source of income. If American company's move their industry out of the united states they are giving the American's peoples jobs away and to many of them are loosing everything from it. People have house and car insurance, etc to pay and being laid off takes the money the would noramally loose away so that the bills can not be paid. With people loosing their jobs comes loss of houses, too many people are left unable to pay their house payment so they must leave. Seeing how the American people make up the economy we should not be struggling financially or live in fear of being fired/ laid off."The broader economic and financial outlook for 2008 is not without risks, as anyone who has lived through the last few months knows. Housing remains a significant drag on the economy and a threat to financial markets."(Hughes, 2007) People need their jobs so they can stay in their homes and live the American dream. With people loosing their jobs come the ever so high unemployment rate Too many people just give up and stay unemployed. "Unfortunately, no, because the unemployment rate under today's circumstances is misleading as a gauge of tightness in the labor market. The unprecedented 26-month decline in jobs (from March 2001 to May 2003) followed by sluggish job growth ever since has caused many people simply to withdraw from the labor force." (Price, 2006) Our economy's recession is the affect of many things especially the loss of jobs in the United States."Bennett is right about some things, like unemployed people getting fat on cheap junk food instead of starving like the people in photos from the Dust Bowl." (Pritchard, 2008) No jobs equal no money which means no purchases and even the big industry's are hurting. We can not afford to let this happen to one of the "super powers" of the world. We have gotten out of this bind once and i have faith that we can do it again, but we must start employing the unemployed and helping out the middle class as much as possible."Fifth, the awakening as well as resistance of the poor and strengthened consciousness on human justice will help the problem of polarization between the rich and the poor ease greatley." (Dae-Jung, 2008) This country is built on the success of our middle class, at the end of this the rich will still be rich and the poor will still be poor but if we can keep our middle class out of being poor then i believe we will be able to get out of this reccession before it becomes a full blown depression; like the last. Every time a student asks a teacher why we learn history the teacher says to learn from it. So we must look at the last depression to see in to the new one for help. “Innovation is the key driver of the global economy and peace and security. Innovation goes hand in hand with democracy.” (Canton, 2008, 194) In the last depression; which started will a wall street crash very similar to the one we just had, Rosevelt had a long term plan to get us out of it just as Obama does. Its funny how history repeats it self."History repeats itself in many ways, but oftentimes the parallels we seek to draw from past events are not so neatly drawn." (Fox, 2008) In the last depression World War I helped a lot. But this time we have not kept to our buget and our dept is way to high."Before the war, White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsay estimated the cost at $100 to $200 billion. So the White House got rid of him and "re-estimated" the cost at $50 to $60 billion. It's now over $500 billion." (Zfacts) Most people have not known that are dept was this great until only reccently, the media never reported on it and the public never cared to find out on their own. Yet with the new administrations comming in it is a big deal and everyone knows. "The children running the Federal Reserve "reason" that if they can hold off all public acknowledgment that there is a crisis, and that allowing the "free" market to run wild was the cause, then the problem doesn't exist. And if the problem doesn't exist because no one admits there is one, then the "reasoning" goes that when the next administration comes in and has to tell the public the truth, blame can then be shifted to that bunch." (Kwaitkowski, 2008) The economy is deffinatley headed for the worst and companys are going to do anything they can to meet ends meet and survive this. "Indeed, the worst of the economic news may be just arriving, economists say. Consumer spending for the holidays will be the worst in years, even with all the store promotions. Stores will continue to offer bargains into 2009 in a desperate attempt to unload inventory. Weak consumer spending will be one of the major reasons the economy as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) will shrink by as much as 4 to 6 percent on an annualized basis in the fourth quarter."(Scherer, 2008)"There’s very little doubt that the economic outlook for 4Q through the first part of 2009 remains dismal, and the incoming economic data flow will almost certainly continue to be dreadful for the foreseeable future, but the significant early signs that Fed policy is working provide increasing reasons for hope that a bottom in the economy can be hit around mid-year." (Fels) The
help we need is in the history books."The Great Depression began in the
United States but quickly turned into a worldwide economic slump owing
to the special and intimate relationships that had been forged between
the United States and European economies after World War I. The United
States had emerged from the war as the major creditor and financier of
postwar Europe, whose national economies had been greatly weakened by
the war itself, by war debts, and, in the case of Germany and other
defeated nations, by the need to pay war reparations." (Nelson) We
can only hope that this will happen again; but things can not get
better until we make them. We can not sit by and let this happen!
"Before the skies brighten, however, unemployment will rise, business
bankruptcies will accelerate, housing prices will continue to fall, and
consumer confidence will remain low, according to most forecasts." (Fox,
2008) Obama seems to have a plan to get us out of this recession; which
is exactly what we need but it takes more than one man. Everyone needs
to go along with what he is saying and help any way possible.
Refrence List
Canton, James. The Way We Will Be Fifty Years From Today: 60 of the World’s Greatest Minds Share Their Vision of the Next Half Century by Mike Wallace. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008.
Dae-Jung, Kim The Way We Will Be Fifty Years From Today: 60 of the World’s Greatest Minds Share Their Vision of the Next Half Century by Mike Wallace. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008.
Fels, Joachim, "A Global Liquidity Cycle," Global Economic Forum, http://www.morganstanley.com/views/gef/index.html
Fox, Michael.The smirking Chimp. http//www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/17709 Hughes James W,Seneca, Joseph J,Socolow, David J,Ezrati, Milton,Et al. "2008 Economic Forecasts: Predictions, Profits and Problems." Journal of ALLBussiness (15 January 2009). http://www.allbusiness.com/economy-economic-indicators/economic-indicators/8889896-1.html Kwaitkowski, Michael. The Smirking Chimp. http:/smirkingchimp.com/thread/13821 Nelson, Carry. "The Great Depression." Modern American Poetry. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression.about.htm Open Salon, http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=45489. Price, Lee "Why People are so Disatisfied with Today's Economy," Economic Policy Institute (2006). http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/ib219 Scherer, Ron. "U.S. Economy's Gloom Expected to Begin Lifting by Later '09." The Christian Science Monitor. (December 29, 2008), http://csmonitor.com/2008/1229/p01s01-usec.html Zfacts employeses, Cost of Iraq war and National Building." Zfacts. http://zfacts.com/p/447.html |