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By Joe Carbonari
When we are seriously sick we seek treatment. If we are economically stretched, we figure out how to pay for it later. We regain our strength, and we return to work as soon as possible. Most of us need to work to earn – and most of us need to earn to be able to spend. When our national economy nose-dived in 2008, millions of jobs were lost and millions more of us suffered drastically reduced incomes. The demand for goods and services plummeted. The recession deepened. It was a downward spiral. The economy was sick and getting sicker. In normal economic times, time itself was our friend, the healer. We could hunker down, reduce spending and repair our budgets. Often world demand, exports, helped sustain and strengthen us. This recession, our Great Recession, was different. The banking crisis and the housing bubble stretched worldwide. Europe was hit especially hard. No help there. Businesses would not hire. Their customers could not afford additional goods or services. The Federal Reserve made money available at low interest rates, but businesses still held back. Not enough demand. We need roads and bridges, research, training and education. The government can borrow cheaply. The medicine we need is an economic stimulus. We’ve “saved” the economy, now we need to strengthen it. We still need to prime the pump. |
By Tim Baldwin
The people need to be able to prime their own economic pumps. Building roads, funding research, and spending more on education — while important for society — will not solve America’s economic problems, nor does it relate to what caused the 2008 recession. America needs economic growth in the private sector. People need better opportunities with fairer taxes and fewer unreasonable regulations. America needs to quit encouraging businesses to leave our country to set up shop in foreign nations. The states need to stop making it so difficult to start and maintain businesses. Our legislatures need to quit creating needless bureaucracies and should examine their impact on our economy. We need an economic environment where people can see the incentive of creating products and services; have confidence in investing in ingenuity and creativity; and can enjoy the fruits of their labor. Many young Americans have little faith in being able to create a comfortable future for them and their families. They are discouraged by what their parents’ generation created for them economically and politically. Undoubtedly, this is why politicians like Ron Paul have become popular — they stand against crony-capitalism and socialism and for free market principles. Government spending will not prime the economic pump. Liberty will. |