Does anyone else have a sense of national hopelessness? It seems we have lost our will to, as Barack Obama put it, "do big things." For that matter, it seems that we have lost the will to do anything.
The list of things we can't seem to do grows almost daily, although to be honest, the list is not universally agreed upon. Can we explore space? No shuttles, renting space from the Russians, abandoning planned missions, postponing others indefinitely, and some wonder if there is even a place for NASA in our future. Want a satellite? Build and launch it yourself.
Welfare, Medicaid, food stamps, heating assistance, homeless shelters and unemployment insurance are being slowly defunded or dismantled even as more and more Americans are in need of this kind of assistance.
Even the major safety nets for our elderly are under attack in ways that would leave millions of the elderly destitute.
For all the talk about "crumbling infrastructure", there is little effort to actually engage in major public works programs that would be required to even maintain the infrastructure we have in place now, much less build new systems of transportation.
Public education, which has enabled us to compete in the world's economy, create medical breakthroughs, and create innovations that can transform the future is withering on the vine. Decreased funding federally and by states leaves major institutions unable to fulfill their educational responsibilities, and the dearth of financing trickles down to local school districts that are not only laying off educators, but allowing the literal disintegration of the schools.
There are even indices of hopelessness that show this. "Consumer confidence" and "manufacturing confidence" mirror "economic uncertainty." Measures of inventory, purchases, capitalization and other similar measures of economic activity all seem to be lagging, and our trade deficit continues to climb. The big number that everyone knows is the "unemployment index" which everyone seems to acknowledge is improving so slowly that some think that if we are not in a recession, we might be close to one.
Perhaps the picture is even bleaker than this. One blogger wrote, "The bottom line is that it's not "uncertainty" that's causing these problems at all. Precisely the opposite: banks aren't lending because, while they don't dare admit it, they are quite certain that they are fucked."
And it appears that the jobs are not coming back; at least the ones that have been shipped overseas or replaced with automation.
On top of that, our credit has been downgraded. This is perhaps a meaningless gesture, and it certainly hasn't hurt bond purchases, but psychologically it is devastating.
Of course, there is good reason to think that we cannot afford to fix things, or do things, or buy things. We are borrowing 44 cents on every dollar that our government spends. Not only does that not inspire confidence, it suggests that we are living beyond our means, and we can't afford all of the "extras" of civilization, like clean water, breathable air, a functioning electrical grid, streets that don't have potholes, sewage, police, firemen or teachers.
If we don't fix the aqueducts, they will stop functioning. If we don't repair the buildings, they will crumble. If we don't clean up after fires, tornadoes or earthquakes, we lose everything damaged.
How do we dig ourselves out of this economic and psychological rut? Keynesian economists think government spending is the answer to stimulate the economy. Conservatives think that tax breaks for the rich are the answer.
Personally, I think that government spending is like beating a dying horse. The effects are short-lasting, and everyone knows that it can’t go on forever, so we don’t take any measures for the long term based on the temporary uplift offered by a government stimulus or work program. This is especially true as we attempt to deal with a growing debt and deficits that are alarming in themselves. Tax breaks for the rich are already proven to be ineffective because the rich simply put the money away for a rainy day that they can tell is coming.
No, it will take something drastic. I am neither a government employee nor an economist, but I do read. It seems we need jobs. We need them here in the United States.
It can be done but it will take a literal “act of Congress” to move the country in the direction of employing US citizens. Tariffs are not the answer, but incentives and disincentives are.
For the time being, it looks like we have curled up against the cold winter. This provides a temporary respite, but we can’t avoid freezing to death by simply curling up. The cold is paralyzing, and we don’t have long before we will be unable to act, but we will have to take risks again, as a nation and as individuals.
We either get moving, or we die.
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