The Proper Response to the Economic Recession

As President Obama is settling in as the new "leader" (for better or worse the president's office is not all that people make of it) of America, the man is also pushing for a policy of massive bailouts and stimulus bills. The general idea is to throw money at the problem in a few somewhat clever ways hoping that will make it go away, despite the fact that many of the people being provided with money are among the causes of the recession. Many of these techniques are well-precedented in other administrations and so are their criticisms. Bureaucracies and taxes are usually dragged into the intellectual arena in discussing government action but somehow morality seems to get left out. Why? Every empire in history fell because of moral decay within the government and the error of implementing revenge in foreign policy was proven by the Treaty of Versailles. If vice must be watched in these matters then why should virtue be ignored?

The essential cause behind the economic failure was immorality in the workplace. The loss of shame at failure and the idea that your decisions are yours alone and have no consequences on others resulted in some very bad financial activities as well as the inability of unions to see the big picture and therefore make some rather unreasonable demands. Given this, why do we try to keep those who made the shaky deals and bought the houses they couldn't afford? Additionally, if we are to respond to the moral problem how do we go about it?

The answer, I believe, is to focus our efforts not on ourselves but on other nations instead. In an economic downturn the first thing to drop is charitable giving but what if it went up? Instead of giving distributing money through inefficient bureaucracies to the people who least deserve to be rewarded, we should be giving out to those truly in need.

To make myself very clear, my plan is not to assign all funds to foreign aid since there must be some focus on directly repairing our own economy nor is it to simply push more money through other just as inefficient bureaucracies. Rather, this idea is to work in coordination with missions to help support small impoverished nations. This would include supporting democracy in those areas as well at the possible risk of military involvement against militia groups and sometimes even the governments in cases like that of Darfur.

Now the military issue is a new point of conflict that may be found with the Obama administration. At this point, Obama has made it quite clear that that his highest priority in the matter of foreign policy is to be diplomatic. Diplomacy is good; it is a good idea to sit down with your neighbour when you have a conflict with them. However, when this neighbour continually insists on beating his daughter and tells you to mind your own business, then it is time for bones to start breaking. The ancient Chinese had a concept that could be found quite a applicable here called the Mandate of Heaven. The idea was that the overthrowing of a dynasty was not only inevitable, but proper when it had lost the Mandate of Heaven, or the divine right to rulership.

It is this concept of legitimacy that is totally lost on modern diplomats as one can plainly see by looking at the United Nations. If one's main concern is world peace at all costs, then the structure of the UN makes sense, but if your primary concern is the advancement of human rights and freedoms, then it makes no sense at all. On the Security Council, one seat is taken by a communist government and another by a government that just as easily makes its citizens disappear and is becoming increasingly proud of it. This total disregard for the legitimacy of governments to wisely and benevolently rule over their people is clearly present where our leaders are expected to sit down and laugh with murderers and villains.

Returning to the subject of this essay, one may wonder why we would deal with these issues at a time of crisis for our own people instead of just dealing with our own large problems. The answer is that in helping others, we are also helping ourselves. As was recently stated, this economy was caused by a decline in economic morality and honor. Now, consider what must be done to attain this goal. There must be young Americans signing up for the Peace Corps and the military in ever greater numbers. This means going out to selflessly serve and defend others who truly need it and then to come back as honest and hardworking citizens, contributing to a brighter American future. Another result is a safer and more U.S.-friendly world, despite the feeling this may stir up in Russia and China.

This of course brings me to another subject. In the last few years, Russia has been acting more and more aggressive, trying to scare smaller nations into treating it like a world power again and it has been working. Nothing could be better in respect to foreign policy with Russia, than for the U.S. to also flex its muscles a bit, and to show those who would intimidate us that we are prepared to fight.

Ultimately, while there may be plenty of rational arguments, there is still one big leap of faith in this plan which consists quite simply of taking God at His word and expecting that righteous actions will not bankrupt our nation. After all, how can we ever expect to solve these worldwide problems with the same hubristic ideas that created them?