My Economic Solution...

$700 billion is enough money to buy gas for a year for every adult living in America. It is also enough money to buy 438 pounds of rice for every person in Africa. It could also send 5.4 million students to college. But what will it be spent on? Well just what the name says I guess. To bail-out big businesses... which to me seems like a get out of jail free card.

Surfing the web, I haven't come across too many bloggers that are in favor of this proposal, but they're running the same course Washington is. They're just talking. They're picking out the flaws of a flawed proposal to flawed system, but not having the common decency to offer their own views on how to solve the situation. This leads to a massive following of individuals that are creating unnecessary panic and frenzy and often times over inaccurate information. (No disclaimer necessary on that note; flame me if you must.)

I hope to not fall into that same realm, but given that my knowledge of economics, statistics, and the overall stability of our nation is lacking, the solutions I can offer will be very simple at best. But that was alway's Einstein's approach, even though only the blissfully ignorant quote Einstein to justify their arguments, that's where I'll start.

Do you remember getting a stimulus check to boost the economy earlier this year? Yes, that was just a few months ago. Well that was part of Bush’s solution. People saying that he put this off until the last fleeting moments of his term, must be overlooking that $600 check they received to help stimulate the economy.

Assuming that 50% of the nation’s population over 18 received a stimulus check, which is a very crude and “worse-case scenario” estimate, it equals to just under 10% of the proposed bail-out plan now. I can’t tell you what I spent my stimulus check on, because I didn’t receive one. But it would be interesting to know what everyone else spent theirs on. I’m hoping they made wise, informed decisions with their stimulus check and spent it on purchases that kept the money in the U.S. However, there is a chance that the U.S. population missed the point of the stimulus checks.

So I guess we’ve found the root of this whole mess of affairs. The origin of where it all started and how we got ourselves into this mess rests solely on us. Well you knew that, but stay with me here.

I can tell you exactly what I learned in economics class in high school. I learned all I needed to know about the economies of every other country but our own. I learned of communism and socialism, Marxism and feudalism. I learned of the governing systems of nations that don’t exist anymore. I learned of trading routes in the “fareast” and the taxing system of our country when we were still considered English.

What I didn’t learn is about interest rates and credit scores. I didn’t learn how to manage my own money or what yields and percentages meant. I was clueless as to Freddie and Fannie as well as stocks, bonds and IRAs. I didn’t learn about investments or saving for retirement, how to buy a car, pay for school or file my taxes. I was sent into the real world without knowing any of this. Why? Not only was it not taught in school, but it wasn’t taught to my parents while they were in school.

We were set up to fail. Trial and Error were to be our teachers when making decisions about our financial future. And we couldn’t have been alone. The graduating class of suckers was born. Suckers that were talked into buying homes under Clinton, even though we couldn’t afford them. Suckers that were encouraged to get out and spend under Bush post-September 11^th, even though he now says that led to the problem.

So there’s the problem as I see it. Our education system is at fault, but go figure. The government is willing to spend nine times the amount spent on education in 2007 on the bail-out. While I’m not the pastor’s wife from the Simpson’s screaming, “Won’t somebody think of the children,” it does make me cringe that we’re raising our future generations to be the next graduating classes of suckers.
We’re not challenging the curriculum and forcing students to sit through classes that will ultimately leave them with a handful of more information than they had before. That’s something we need on our political agendas boys *ahem*obama*ahem*mccain*ahem. Even though this won’t change anything now, this isn’t a problem that instant gratification can fix.

As for the $700 billion bail-out, I say give it to the big business. Allow them to continue doing their jobs so the whole world can continue to do theirs. In the meantime take into consideration that this just put a bandaid over the whole affair. It’s not going to go away and this isn’t a quick fix. It’s going to buy us more time to change. And Change is coming because this is change we can believe in.