The American Consumer Has the Reins in Their Hands

The current financial situation that is raising havoc with Wall Street is a disaster of their own making. Gov't bailout money is been spent daily on bonuses and entertainment for Wall Street's good ol' boy system. With our government leaders promising accountability that appears to be sketchy and incomplete money is being spent like water with little or no oversight. It is rapidly becoming apparent that the 700 billion dollars that has been allocated to correct the subprime mortgage fiasco may very well be money sent down the toilet. Because the American public is not a bunch of morons they have little or no faith in our government's ability to straighten out this mess. Surprisingly there is one thing that we the consumer can do that will do more than anything else to correct this sad situation.

Because we are not complete fools and wish to protect our way of life when it became apparent that we could no longer trust our government to handle the rapidly escalating financial disaster we did the best possible thing. We stopped spending money needlessly. With many people being forced into foreclosure and being hard pressed to accommodate the ever rising cost of fuel, family's everywhere have cut back drastically and gone into self preservation mode. The affect of this action has been felt worldwide. As stated on ABC's good morning America Chinese factories are closing down by the hundreds. Because the American public is no longer purchasing their toys, and other low priced goods they are being forced to lay off workers by the thousands. Obviously this puts China as well as other countries in their own financial pinch. The effect of their recession compounds the fact that Americans are driving their cars fewer miles. With the demand for gas greatly reduced on the foreign market we are seeing the price of gas drop like a rock.

There is one catch to this whole situation. If the American public with their consumeristic ways rapidly return to old habits, the worldwide recession will weaken and as rapidly as prices have come down they will once again go back up. As soon as cheap products from China are again being purchased the demand for gasoline will return to higher levels meaning prices will again go up. The government would have you believe that this is necessary to return growth to our economy. Sadly this is'nt true. This is only their way of perpetuating the longstanding credit bubble that has been the backbone of our service based economy. The loss of our manufacturing based economy combined with a very outdated infrastructure throughout the country should be cause for great concern. The extensive abuse of credit card debt has left this country in a very unstable economic position. The time to bite the bullet is now.

Yes many Americans will lose their homes, lose jobs and lose financial status. Many wealthy Americans will lose large quantities of money due to devaluation of the stock market. Many will suffer because their retirement savings have been dramatically reduced. There is a silver lining to this very dark cloud.

By eliminating out of control credit card debt, over extended home loans, and the buying of every conceivable toy on credit, even if by bankruptcy, people will once again be operating within their financial capabilities. Something this country has forgotten how to do.

There is rumor in Washington of plans to create another financial stimulus program. One big difference over the last one is the including of public works projects and infrastructure construction projects. These are the types of jobs that build our middle class structure. Many college students are deeply in debt to student loans for relatively worthless college diplomas. A generic education in today's job market, even with a college diploma does not guarantee you a good high paying middle class job. All it does guarantee you is many years of financial hardship due to repaying student loans that were too easy to obtain. The notion that everyone needs the opportunity to obtain a college degree is a foolish approach. Good quality hands on manufacturing jobs as well as road and highway construction and the building trades do not require many years of generic college education. Unless you are one of the fortunate few with specific drive to achieve high scholastic goals you may very well be better suited to a career such as those just mentioned that will provide you with a good middle class livelihood.

The quality of our future is up to the American People. Taking control away from those in Washington who want a return to a business as usual economy, and worse yet the many countries around the world that are looking to make huge profits from our outlandish consumeristic ways, is as simple as not buying those cheap imported goods. By refusing to return to excessive consumption of oil based products.

With no demand for their products the economy of China and the Arab Empire will no longer be based on our greed for "STUFF", and the American workforce can return to a manufacturing based economy on a solid foundation.