How to Fix the American Economy

The U.S. economy is in dire straits. Politicians, educators, philanthropists all speak out about how to resolve this.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE TRICKLE-DOWN THEORY

Many advocate cutting taxes for businesses. This strategy, known as the trickle-down theory, is based on the belief that giving more money to the rich makes them more generous and benevolent and willing to invest more in the American economy.

The fallacy in this strategy, however, is that we are now in a global economy. When the rich get more money, they look for the most efficient ways of investing this, i.e., getting richer. Many times the most efficient way of investing is to invest overseas. For instance, an auto worker in Michigan now makes $14 an hour. A worker in Mexico doing the same job makes $7 an hour. Which plant do you think is going to see expansion?

HOW TO SOLVE A PROBLEM

The best way to solve a problem is to break it down into manageable parts. Compare this country to a family that is trying to balance a budget and survive.

Earn Extra Income

Family members find innovative ways to earn money through garage sales, Ebay, selling homemade products, or offering services. Services such as mowing/raking/landscaping, snow removal, sewing/alterations, bookkeeping, computer repair/tutoring are all jobs that can bring in extra money. Writing articles, selling photos through online stock photo websites, and crafts can also be sources of extra income.

If skilled in design and technology, website design is another avenue for income. Recently, an acquaintance informed me that he took Dreamweaver classes to learn how to set up his own website for his home photography and recording studio. Others liked his website so much that they hired him to create and maintain their websites. He is now maintaining 16 websites and earning $1,000 a month from each one.

Thinking outside the box will reveal many ways to earn extra income.

Lessons from the Great Depression

Cut out all unnecessary purchases, including food, gas and utilities. Buy clothing second-hand or on sale and alter older children's clothing as they outgrow it to fit younger children. Eliminate unnecessary driving.

Lessons can be learned from the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, families rented rooms in their homes to help make ends meet. People grew their own food. Women learned skills long forgotten--sewing, crocheting, knitting, canning, baking. People in communities helped one another by trading services. Many communities started "Victory Gardens" to help feed the hungry. Soup kitchens offered free meals--sometimes the only meal that people ate in a day. Those who survived were not in debt and learned to make do with less. They also learned new skills and educated themselves. In other words, they diversified.

Some blame the state of the economy on unions, environmental regulations, and high corporate taxes, which caused companies to outsource labor to countries where they didn't have to deal with these things. Although it may be true that unions have grown as corrupt as anything else (absolute power corrupts absolutely), they seem to be a necessary evil. Unions helped people earn the money and benefits to live the American Dream--a nice house, nice car, vacations, college education for their children, etc. Would we really want to see this country reduced to a society of haves and have-nots? Think of the impact on social services--homelessness, depression, and suicides. This would also cause a crime wave of battery, robberies, burglaries, murders, assaults, etc. This is exactly what happened during the Great Depression when gangsters such as Al Capone, Pretty Boy Floyd, and other notorious criminals flourished.

Lessons from the Industrial Revolution

During the Industrial Revolution, steel workers worked 7 days a week. Monday through Friday they worked 12 hour days; Sunday they were given a break and only had to work 8 hours. Adults and children worked in dangerous situations and there were no labor or OSHA laws protecting them from faulty equipment, dangerous chemicals or the amount of time they worked.

Most Americans would not want to return to those times, nor do most Americans want our oceans, lakes, and land polluted with toxic waste.

Many have been brainwashed into believing that it is a choice of polluting or jobs. However, if this country made a commitment to reducing pollution of our land, air, and water, many jobs in the environmental area would open up. Again, it is a matter of thinking outside the box.

As far as cutting corporate taxes, this would endanger community services, such as police and fire departments, schools, and many other necessities of a community. Few would be willing to give up these essential services.

Americans need to remember our history--he who forgets history is doomed to repeat it.

The Solution

Then, what is the solution? The solution is simple. Force the rich to share their wealth by investing in this country again. Do the rich really need the extra money they make by investing overseas? Do they really need another vacation home, another yacht, or another Lexus? Just as the courts order a divorced father to provide support for his children, the courts need to force the rich to provide support for the people they have used and now divorced--the American worker. Ideally, this support should be through jobs, but until that ideal is a reality, that support needs to be through unemployment, social security, public aid, disability, whatever. If and when jobs become available, people who are able to work need to be put to work, rather than being allowed to sponge off the system.

The American worker needs to relearn the work ethic upon which this country was founded. He needs to become better educated in technology, organization, production and efficiency.

These are not just my opinions, folks. The Great Depression clearly indicates the danger in just giving handouts--to the rich or the poor--and not creating jobs. For more information on the Great Depression, read American Depression.

The Greatest Lessons from History--The Bible

In the final analysis, a society that does not care for its poor, elderly, and young is a society that God condemns and will bring punishment on that nation.

EXODUS 22:

21 You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 22 You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. 23 If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; 24 my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.25 If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them. 26 If you take your neighbor's cloak in pawn, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; 27 for it may be your neighbor's only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate.

LUKE 18

21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

LEVITICUS 25

35 'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.

36 Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you.

37 You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit.

EZEKIEL 18

13 He lends at usury and takes excessive interest.
Will such a man live? He will not! Because he has done all these detestable things, he will surely be put to death and his blood will be on his own head.

Summary on Bible Quotations

The Bible is consistent and clear in its message about those who are least able to fend for themselves. In the Old Testament, God mentions widows and orphans among those who should be singled out for special care and protection (Exod. 22:22; Deut. 27:19). Jesus continues this pattern of divine care by heaping scorn on those who would go so far as to foreclose on widows' homes (Matt. 23:14). James even says that caring for widows and orphans are the premier fruits of true worship of God (James 1:27).

Similarly, God reserves special wrath for people who would take advantage of either the blind or deaf, making their well-being a matter of justice (Exod. 19:14-15: Deut. 27:18-19); that is, we owe justice to the widow, orphan, and those who may be disadvantaged in our society. Since it is clear from even the most cursory reading of the Scriptures that God desires justice for all people, His special mention of it in this context is evidently a warning to those who would take advantage of the weakest members in our society - those least likely to stand up for themselves.

Clearly, the elderly as a group would fit into this category. It is true that in recent years, various lobbying groups have served both to increase elderly visibility and to provide much-needed political clout. Nonetheless, decreasing physical vigor and steady or declining income mean that the elderly will likely continue to be a vulnerable population. Christians and morally reflective people ought to fight against such a trend.

Likewise, God has given man the duty of caring for the earth.

In the Old Testament book of Genesis chapter 2 verse 15 it says: The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it. Man is to work the garden and care for it. Man has to be careful not to worship the earth. In recent times man has begun to worship the creation and not the creator. But man still has the responsibility of good stewardship."

Genesis_1:28_(King_James_Version)" 28And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. The verses above are sometimes referred to as the dominion mandate and this also includes responsibility to care for the earth and all that is in it. Contained in this is the necessity of learning as much as possible about how to manage the earth sustainably, since, if there is no environment left to manage the mandate is void. Thus man is not given this mandate, which has never been revoked, in order to destroy or exploit the earth in a destructive way, but for the good of both himself and the earth as a whole.This is really an enlargement of the specific job given to Adam in relation to Eden as mentioned above. It applies the idea also of caring for the earth to the whole earth for all of time.

Anyone who claims to be moral and/or a Christian can surely see the necessity of providing for those who can not fend for themselves and being good stewards with what God has given us.

Sources:

King James Bible

McKenzie, Michael, Care for the Elderly, Christian Research Institute

School History, Industrial Revolution Working Conditions

Working Time, Wikipedia