Our government has taken ownership stakes in many of our private financial institutions in an effort to shore up the consumer’s confidences in their existence. Our government has purchased failing home mortgages in an effort to shore up our decaying housing markets. Our government has rewritten what several of the free markets can and cannot do in an effort to stabilize the citizen’s faith in our economy. These are simple business deals in which the government has entered into in an effort to stop the declining economic situation. What about our Constitutional rights? Our modern government has changed from a government for the people and protector of our rights, to a government bent on disseminating rights to the people as it sees fit. Is that what our forefathers had in mind? Have you ever read our Constitution and Bill of Rights?

As our economy teeters on the brink of entering into a modern depression, our government has become antsy about what to do. They have used the current situation to extend their reach into the private markets and their next step is into our private lives. If we allow our Constitution to be shredded in the name of economic prosperity, what kind of patriots are we? When did a dollar in our pocket mean more to us than our freedom?

I know many people who would gladly trade a percentage of their freedoms for the government blessing of financial security. A dollar today and food on the table is worth more than living in a free society our forefathers gave their lives to secure. Personally, I would rather be poor and free than “rich” and live as a slave to the government. Our country is approaching a crossroads where our nation’s true patriots need to show up and be accounted for.

We have all heard of the massive amounts of bailout money needed to prop up our current corporations in trouble. We have heard about the trillion dollar deficits coming in the next few years our President Elect has stated is necessary to push our country out of this deepening recession. Where is the money going to come from? Doesn’t it need to be paid back at some point in time? Who exactly is going to be footing this bill?

Let me give you one guess, and I’m sure you’re a pretty smart person. The American citizen is going to foot the bill. The payments can come in a variety of forms. Primarily, taxes are the form of repayment. On the other hand, if taxes aren’t enough to pay for the “fixes,” then the treasury must print money or write off the debt. When was the last time an American taxpayer had his taxes written off? Exactly… never. Printing money is a hidden tax upon our society. It will drive the value of our currency down and then we all pay the price of a weakened dollar.

Has our country reached a place in our history where we will gladly trade our rights as citizens to our government in a plea for financial help? Will we overcome the desires to have financial wealth over the desires of true freedom? The cracks in our Constitutional rights and freedoms are already there and are growing. It is up to us to stop them from widening and destroying the basic foundation of our country. We need our patriots now more than ever. If we fail, our country could be destroyed by our own hands and not by some invading enemy. Are you a patriot or a freedom trader (or traitor)?

Oil has been trading below $50 for a while now and gas prices have plunged across the United States to levels we haven’t seen in five years. Even as OPEC continues to cut production in an effort to prop up falling oil prices, the bottom line still has not been found. OPEC nations built their fiscal year revenue models on $70+ per barrel prices. With the market price set much lower than that, their governments are having to dig deep into their coffers of cash to sustain their economy… it’s not like they are left wanting with the billions they have made in the last few years.

So, what we have right now is a massive global decline in demand for oil. Consumer demand for goods and services have eroded and many of the global economies have been in a state of freefall. Not only are the average people not spending money, but the wealthy are holding back on their investments and spending only on proven or guaranteed opportunities… the purse strings are tight everywhere. A continuing erosion of demand will lead to even softer prices for oil, no matter what OPEC does until they near the rock bottom oil production which is necessary to sustain the world’s most basic economic functions.

Are we close to that level? I don’t know, we may never find out. But, we could be finding out in our near future that we are entering into a much more horrific future regarding gas and oil prices than what we saw this summer. What will we see happen when the global recession begins to end and the demand for oil returns? What will we see happen when the cuts OPEC has made impacts the volatile and fledging economic upswings? Will the diminished production coupled with a reappearing demand for oil throw the market into upheaval?

How fast do you think OPEC will turn their spigots back on when the economies begin demanding more oil? Do you think they will be satisfied with a measly $70 per barrel or do you think they are like an animal after that once tasted sweet blood of $150 per barrel? If $150 was seen without OPEC reducing their supply, what do you think we’ll see with their levels cut and demand returning? Will we see $200, $250, or even $300? I’ve read reports from some lifelong oil traders who are throwing around the term super spike. I’m not all about doom and gloom, but the reality is that our global recession will end at some point and OPEC has cut millions of barrels of production already. They will likely cut more in the next year if things do not turn around sooner than later.

The only rational future is that of horrific oil and gas prices once again. We are living in what I equate to an oil remission. The future is not the present… the future is more of our past summer. Is that a horror show? I believe so.

You may say that the economies will succumb to the extreme costs and immediately withdraw into a minor recession and thus avert a super spike of oil and gas prices. That may well be true. The impending oil costs of our future could in fact destroy any gains we make as nations in an effort to dig ourselves out of our growing recession. If that day comes, the recession will be even worse than what we are experiencing now because it will be like a sledgehammer (oil prices) hitting a watermelon (weak economies on brittle standing). As nations reverse recessions, the economies must gain momentum and sustain consumer demand. If oil and gas immediately spike, any gains will be immediately killed and the economies could back away much further than necessary in a violent reactionary adjustment.

We want and are in dire need of an economic turnaround, but we must be prepared for the impending costs of oil and gas. If we fail to recognize a potential super spike on the way, we are destined to repeat our errors of the last few years and end up in a worse boat than now. Millions of jobs lost now? Tens of millions of jobs lost later. Be wary and watchful.

Our economy has shed over 2 million jobs this year… with more to come. Unemployment has increased by nearly 2% this year alone and there are over 10 million people registered as unemployed. The national unemployment figure is currently at 6.7%. Since December 2007, the beginning of our current recession, over 2.7 million people have been added to the unemployment line.

As always the unemployment statistic does not include people who are working part time who need full time work and it also ignores people who have just totally given up on looking for work. This could potentially add millions to the 10 million who are counted as unemployed. As jobs are being cut and the unemployed workforce grows, competition increases for the jobs that do become available. Workers will fight amongst themselves giving up perks, hourly wage requirements, health insurance, retirement plans, and many other costly employer funded benefits… to just have a job.

This means that the worker is dropping his required price due to the competition for the available job. Of course the employers know this and will drop their pay scales for the jobs opening up. It only makes fiscal sense doesn’t it? It’s a function of the business world and supply and demand.

Even if all of this makes perfect economical sense, is it right and what ramifications do you get when you pay experienced workers less than they believe they are worth? Sure, the workers who “win” the new job will be happy that they are earning money again, but are they happy and will they be efficient? Yes, they have to be at least efficient enough to keep their job and thus they must do a certain amount of work which ensures their continued employment. But, can you expect someone to give full effort for less money? Can you expect someone to put in extra hours and give their job everything they have when they have sacrificed all of their perks they were being given before?

The situation exists today. Let’s look at a hypothetical example. Person A is an experienced worker and has a credible resume. He has performed his job with excellence year to year but his job has been cut due to the horrid economic times. Let’s say he was making $20 an hour with full benefits (vacation, health insurance, retirement, etc). Now, he’s out of work and fighting against similar people and resumes. However, the prices have dropped to reflect the oversupply of workers.

Now, he has agreed to work for say $12.50 an hour with limited benefits (very few vacation days, horrible insurance coverage if any at all, no retirement, etc). Will this worker show up at work and give the same effort he gave while at his last job? Some will, most won’t… how would you react in this situation? As prices/salary drops for workers, effort and efficiency will decline. As effort and efficiency decline, so will the profit and product quality of the places they work for. People need a job, but they also believe they should get paid what they are worth. If they are being undercut, you will not receive full effort.

Same thing goes for companies who pull the plug on bonuses and hourly raises for current employees. If an employee has excelled in their position even during bad economic times, they will expect a subsequent acknowledgement of their work and dedication. For the people who do not excel, removals of monetary rewards are justified even without economic downturns. However, even during an economic crisis, if the company is making money and staying in the black, rewarding deserving employees is still a must. It cannot be completely removed or the workforce will feel unappreciated and effort and quality will decrease.

Is there a happy medium? In the end yes, but during volatile times, we see things get worse and the workforce mental status declines. This all feeds upon itself until enough good news turns the tide and the workforce begins to believe things are heading back in the right direction. Until that time happens, jobs will continue to be lost, salaries will continue to be cut, raises and bonuses will be nonexistent, and worker efficiency will decrease. Employers must find ways to motivate their workers in the dire times we are in to help deter the effects of workforce resentment. Is there a way to motivate you without money? I think the answer is yes and it’s up to employer’s to find the answer.

Sounds great doesn’t it? It sure does to me and whether I was buying shoes, shirts, pants, or whatever it was that the deal was currently focused upon, I felt like I was actually being treated to a special deal. I also thought that the market was pretty limited… limited in a way that the BOGO offers were specifically tied to certain lower tier products and fashions that may be closeouts and out of season gear. While that was predictably true, this year we have seen an entirely new market open up to this type of shopper incentive… car sales.

Car dealers, in an effort to keep their store fronts open, have succumbed to the pressure of going all out on their sales to move inventory. There are certain car dealerships that are selling a vehicle and throwing in another with your only cost being taxes, licensing, and insurance. These aren’t shoes that normally sell for $20 or pants that retail for $40 or some sweater sale in the middle of June, these are fully featured and full sized vehicles. From cars and trucks, to SUVs, dealerships are doing all they can to clear their lot of stagnant inventory.

No, the car dealers are not increasing their asking price on the initial vehicle sale, they are only requiring that you pay sticker price on the first vehicle and the second is free. For the most part, the second vehicle is predetermined for you, but some aren’t following that model. How can that be? How can a vehicle on the car lot sticker priced at say $27,000 be given away? Even though the customer pays sticker for their first purchase, they are not covering the investment of the given away vehicle.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. The car dealers have only a few options. Sell what they can and try and ride the economic storm out, sell what they can with special deals such as the BOGO offer, or simply go out of business. The first option works for dealerships that are large enough to sustain a certain amount of loss, but the middle and lower tier guys don’t have the ability to cut costs by laying people off or shaving off fixed costs. The second option works for businesses that are looking to push their “drop dead date” into the future in hopes that the economy picks up between now and then. They are hoping car sales return to normal and they can offset their current giveaway costs by future revenue. The last option has already taken about 700 car dealerships this year… an additional 200 are expected to close their doors by the end of the year.

If I had the money, I would be heading to a dealership running a BOGO and buy a pair of new vehicles. These deals feel like a “once in a life time event.” You can’t go wrong in this situation. Throw on top of the situation that the automakers are sacrificing almost everything to rid themselves of their sunk costs and inventory, they are actually BEGGING you to take their vehicles and in turn, cost them money, just not as much if they didn’t sell anything. Their choice is lose a little bit of money every day that will amount to a lot over the long haul, or lose everything now and hit bankruptcy. One choice offers a slim chance for recovery and the other none.

Sounds like some of the situations our American households are facing. What set of bills do we have to pay to survive and what can we default on and still have a roof over our head, heat to keep us from freezing, and food to nourish us. Maybe the car makers should offer a BOGOx2, Buy One, Get Two Free. If you’re going out of business, some money in the bank is better than none…

I’m pretty sure most of us already knew this, but now the cat is “out of the bag.” The announcement, coupled with other dire news, sent our stock market plummeting nearly 8% in a single day. Shouldn’t the stock market have already accounted for the fact that we were in a recession? Shouldn’t the “pros” of the financial world have seen the writing on the wall and knew for a fact, like many of us average Joe Citizens, that we were in a recession? Were their bank accounts brimming with untold thousands or millions of dollars that they simply could not foresee the situation outside of their multi-million dollar households?

The voters knew things were bad economically long ago. All of the voter poll data showed that the number one issue was the failing economy… before the bailouts became the hot topic. But here we are, with the stock market diving and becoming even more volatile. I think there are some underlying issues in the market that are driving selloffs and price run-ups. I believe there are some people and institutions that are purposefully driving the volatility in the market to make money in the wide ranging marketplace we are in at the moment.

One day, you will see a huge price increase across the board, the very next, we see a huge selloff. The people with money are raking in billions of dollars at the expense of people with less investment ability. Retirement accounts are being destroyed while people are exploiting the market and stripping cash like a forest fire driven by 100mph winds.

People get rich during bad times… at the expense of the average citizen. Even in a recession, there is money to be made. Since WWII, the recession we are currently in has lasted longer than all except two (this is the 11^th). If the economy doesn’t pull out quickly, it will become the longest (16 months being the longest – happening twice).

Things are bad, but they appear to be getting worse. We are not pulling out of the recession, but falling deeper in. Jobs are being cut by the thousands and corporate earnings are continuing to fall short. As there is less money at the consumer level, there will be less purchasing power and with less purchasing followed by lowered consumer confidence levels, corporations will be left reeling from the trickle of revenue.

I mentioned yesterday that this year’s hot topic word and issue could very well be bankruptcy. Given that we are in fact in a long term recession, the likelihood of that coming true has just increased exponentially. Our previous recessions were not tied to such extreme and dire economic circumstances and could be dealt with by natural economic cycles and minimal government intervention. What we have now is a full blown economic downturn that trillions of governmental bailout dollars has so far failed to prevent.

Recession? Did anyone really think we weren’t in one? But since 2007? That’s scary to know that we are 12 months into the issue and it’s still getting worse…

The eyes of the American public have been pried open by what some may equate to how an experienced torturer may open the eyes of his victim. People are losing their retirement savings in an instant, many families are being forced from their homes, and individuals are losing their jobs that they once thought were safe in a hustling and bustling economy. Nothing is safe at this point. The news reports the demise of the big three automakers in Detroit and their pleas for Congress to help bail them out. We hear daily reports of financial institutions going under with their only hope to survive being federal takeover or submitting to a takeover from a rival company. Employees are finding out that their jobs are not safe each and every day as companies are cutting their costs by sacrificing jobs. Home values have declined to the point where more people have no equity in their home than ever before in our history.

All of these things have combined to generate a horrific downward spiral of events that cause the next major collapse or economic downshift. The net effect is that there is less money to be spent by both the individual and the business. Less money in the economy at all levels – national, state, and local – means that people are going to face even worse times in the future. Things may appear bleak at the moment, but we are only riding the first wave of issues that are pounding our economic beaches. However, right now is the time of giving, the time of holiday shopping, the ultimate time to spend money… the Christmas shopping season is upon us and Black Friday opened our eyes to the “necessary” products we must have for ourselves and to give to others.

Forecasts for the holiday shopping season are generally conservative and if people do not spend as they have in the past, the economic fallout will be felt in the coming year. But, given that jobs are becoming more scarce, corporate profits are down, and the stock market isn’t generating instant millionaires at the rate is has in our recent past, where is this holiday shopping money going to come from? Do people have hundreds or thousands of dollars in cash stuffed under their mattress? Do they have a savings account or trust fund to dip into to satisfy their Christmas “giving” needs? Where exactly is the money going to come from?

Initial reports from Black Friday estimated that Americans spent $41 billion during the Thanksgiving shopping period. That was up several percentage points when compared to last year. Forecasters have turned in their estimates and believe that even though they expect the lowest increase in spending in six years, they fully expect Americans to spend upwards of $470 billion during the Christmas shopping season. That is up from $460 billion last year…

In four days, Americans spent an estimated $41 billion shopping and are expected to spend over 10 times that in the next 25 days or so. How is that possible? Where is the money coming from? I can tell you where the money is coming from. It’s coming from the last remaining amounts left on consumers’ credit cards. People are willing to spend what they have when they have it because let’s face it, Christmas is important and everyone wants to have a good Christmas.

Also, the sense of spending it while you have it has entered many minds. Credit companies and financial institutions have been cutting the amounts they are allowing their customers to borrow. Rather than watch the credit line disappear, many people are using every last cent available to them to offset the current shortage of cash in their lives. Eventually, the credit lines will be tapped out and many consumers will be faced with very tough decisions. Without available credit and bills coming due, something has to give.

An easy way to make ourselves feel good when things are bad is to buy something. We fill a depressing need with a new possession. We spend some “future” money today in an effort to satisfy our decaying lifestyle only to see that we’ve made things worse. I believe that next year, if our economy isn’t treated to some kind of miraculous turnaround or unforeseeable bubble akin to the internet boom, bankruptcies will be the next statistic we hear about on a daily basis. Today, it’s bailouts… next year, it could be bankruptcies. There is only so much bailout money to go around and eventually, people and corporations will be allowed to fail. The economic fallout will be horrific. It could be our generation’s Great Depression. No, we likely won’t face 25% unemployment, but our standard of living could in fact be comparable to how our forefathers lived… day to day, worrying about the necessities of life being fulfilled.

Illegal immigration harms us all in many ways. The end result is that illegal immigration is costing the American taxpayer billions of dollars per year supporting immigrants who have chosen to enter our country through illegal means. We are paying health care costs that will never be repaid, we are allowing food stamps and other life necessities to be obtained freely, and we are allowing cash only workers subvert the job market. Everything an illegal immigrant does harms each and every American citizen. They NEVER pay a single cent in government taxes but receive monetary benefits from our taxpayer funded programs.

You may say that the illegal immigrant fills a low paying job need and that without these workers, thousands of small business owners will be run out of business and the ramifications felt by this would be worse than “supporting” the existence of an illegal immigrant workforce. I say you are wrong. Why should certain business owners be “allowed” to circumvent the rules and regulations all LEGAL business owners must abide by? Why are they deemed so important that their accounting practices are overlooked and pushed to the side because their workforce is made up of illegal immigrants? In my opinion, illegal immigrants are in fact a government subsidy.

A company employing a workforce of illegal immigrants doesn’t have to pay any taxes on their wages which in turn, affects every citizen and business owner who does. The worker doesn’t pay any government taxes on their income which in turn, affects every citizen and business owner who does. The harm is being done because of their failure to pay taxes like every LEGAL immigrant and citizen must do.

You may say they are poor people who need the money to survive and they need it to send to their destitute family across the border. While that may be true, the net effect of that being true creates even more harm on the American tax payer. If they are in fact, sending their money back home, that money is leaving our economy and entering a foreign market. Is that helping our local economy or national economy in any way? I don’t think so.

America has long been the sought after Holy Grail for foreigners looking to upgrade their lives. American borders are open to anyone who wants to legally enter our country unless you are a terrorist or citizen of a militant adversary. Given that we ACCEPT people who want to legally enter our borders, illegal immigrants have no rational argument to stand upon. If our borders were summarily closed for an irrational arbitrary reason, I can see a potential argument for illegal immigration into a country where you can sustain your family and live without fear of starvation. But, that is not the case.

Some politicians want to immediately deport any illegal immigrant within our borders. We are building a massive wall along our border to help stifle the influx of illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican/American border. Other politicians want to immediately give legal citizenship to all illegal immigrants. I have an idea that can suit everyone.

Finish the wall and hire the necessary security force to patrol it. Immediately issue tax identification numbers to ALL illegal immigrants with a stipulation that they MUST complete proper immigration paperwork within 6-12 months or they are promptly deported with no return for a minimum of three years. ALL illegal immigrants are fingerprinted and checked against international and national criminal databases BEFORE being given their tax id. ALL business owners who continue to employ illegal immigrants after 12 months will be IRS audited and their taxes will be raised 25% on income before taxes for a minimum of three years to pay for their accrued past “savings.” After three years, the business will be audited again and if illegal immigrants are still employed or have been in the three year period, the business owner is sent to jail for 2-5 years for tax evasion.

It’s pretty simple. Shore up our borders to make sure the illegal immigrants aren’t allowed entry, allow legal immigrants to enjoy their entry into America, and punish the businesses who employ immigrants and immediately gain tax dollars from the current population of illegal immigrants. Can you think of anything that would be fairer? By fair, I mean not offering government handouts like immediate legal immigrant citizenship or by failing to collect taxes upon the revenue generated by the illegal workforce. The legal citizens of our country deserve fairness and until we correct the illegal immigration problem, we are subsidizing thousands of business and over 11 million illegal immigrants in our country.

Yes, we are/were in an age of excess, you cannot deny it. While your particular purchasing habits may not have been of epic proportions, society as a whole focused upon possession and more of everything. After so many years of living beyond our means (I’m at fault here myself), we are all paying the price of our past mistakes. We were all blindly led to believe that the future offered everything that would satisfy our monetary needs because our equity continued to build as we bought more and more stuff. We kept expanding and living upon the faith that a dollar spent today would turn into more than a dollar in the future. However, that future was expected to be the VERY NEAR future.

In between the buildup and that seemingly promised future, we have experienced a major issue, our economy buckled under the constant pressure of excess living. No longer do we have that “guarantee” of future monetary reward for our past greed. I say greed because what other term can you logically apply to how we were living? We were ALL at fault for living greedily. Blame who you like, but we are all responsible for our own decisions in the end.

Now that we are experiencing the cyclical nature of the free markets and the dire consequences of our actions, we are left with a very important decision to make. Are we going to try and persevere through these “tough” times and continue our previous way of life or are we going to change how we live and change our purchasing habits? I for one am going to enter what I call an Age Of Minimalism. My purchasing habits will be directed by a set of strict guidelines that focus upon need and not greed.

Do I actually need what I currently own? Of course I need a house and a vehicle, but do I need a huge house and an SUV to satisfy those requirements? Outside of food, shelter, and other life necessities, what do we truly need? Do we need multiple televisions? Do we need a library of books and DVDs? Do we need new furniture and all the knick knacks that make our home cluttered? You get the idea. Sure, there are some things that we do need, but there is a very clear line between things we truly need and those which we don’t. There is also a clear line between satisfying your need and EXCESSIVELY satisfying your need.

We have been inundated with the big box stores promoting greater savings by buying larger packages of stuff. Do you need a gallon of ketchup? Do you need 36 cans of Spaghettios? Do you need 48 rolls of toilet paper? If we are buying these things, we have to have a place to put them right? So, we need more of everything… more stuff that we “need” and more space to store this “stuff.”

Our nation is facing a turning point and I believe that either by choice or by economic force, our citizens are going to each have to make the choice and choose to live in an Age Of Minimalism. Our President Elect Barack Obama rode the winds of change to the White House based upon his promises for a better economy. However, his latest speeches have been ENTIRELY focused upon the need to temper our expectations about what can be done. He says things will likely get worse before they get better. He says it will take time to fix what years (a generation) have broken. Really… and here I thought his election was a magic pill for our economy and people would somehow wake up with thousands of dollars in their bank account so they could go about their business and merrily spend their money…

The choice we face could determine the long term existence of our country. If we fail to change our lives of excess, our economy could disintegrate and we would no longer be a relevant nation in the global economy. We must change from being greedy to being focused upon our needs. If we satisfy our needs and save our money, we will return our nation to economic prosperity and our lives will in turn become more satisfying. We are worried about our economy because we chose to live excessively. We are now paying that price and that price may destroy our nation’s long term economic success if we fail to recognize our ignorance. Change from greed to need and happiness will return, along with economic stability.

Recently, John McCain settled upon the stance that he would be returning to the senate to hammer out the necessary federal involvement in the government sponsored bailout of the financial sector. McCain suspended his campaign for President with less than six weeks to go before Election Day. He chose to do this while embroiled in a neck and neck race separated by only a few percentage points that barely overcome the statistical margin of errors. The White House will be won by wooing the undecided voters.

Halting your campaign in such a critical timeframe comes across as one of two things. Number one, the Obama campaign and liberal media types will try and sway you to an opinion of “He’s blowing smoke. He’s only doing it for a media byte.” Secondly, he actually cares about his country and understands that face to face meetings and involvement solve more than any phone call ever can. McCain publicly gave Barack Obama a chance to join him in Washington (where Obama’s senate seat is waiting) so they could partner in an attempt to work out the best bailout bill possible. Obama rejected the idea and flatly said that “We should be able to multitask.”

Multitasking is of course one of the jobs of our leaders. No, they cannot ever sit down and worry about a singular thing, can you as a simple citizen? We are all multitasking every minute of our lives. McCain was, and is, trying to do what’s best for his country and that includes his presence in person at some of the most important debates and lawmaking discussions our generation has ever known. Obama, to simply respond with an inane rebuttal shows me something about his focus upon our country. Personally, I want a President who will confront issues in person, head on, and not give a percentage of attention to the dire issues we are facing.

I do not want a “Jack of all trades, King of nothing” as our commander in chief. I want someone who has the guts to take a step back, focus upon the major issue our country is facing and do something about it in person. I don’t want a conference call President. I don’t want an email or text message leader. I don’t want a public statement President. I want someone willing to get their hands dirty by showing their face, entering into the debate with opposition, and sweating with their patriotic blood boiling on the debate floor, trying to make our country better. Multitask? Sure, not the issue.

Obama, with his gimmick statement of “multitasking,” makes me believe that he doesn’t view our economic issues as being important enough to warrant his supreme presence. Stop campaigning? Delay the debates? Why? “I’m trying to win the White House can’t you see? These problems can wait until January when I take office and then I’ll multitask my way into making America my portrait of America…”

Some problems can’t wait, campaign or no campaign. McCain is right to suspend his run and return to his JOB! McCain’s and Obama’s JOB is to serve as elected United States Senators. They have voluntarily CHOSEN to run for President. Their JOB requires them to be present in Washington right now as we are facing disaster. If Obama cannot see this, then is he truly ready to lead our entire country? He has once again shown his lack of leadership when faced with circumstances requiring action now. The wait and see period is over. It’s time for Obama to state an opinion and live or die with it and stop being the hindsight is 20/20 candidate!

The shambles of our current economy scares the majority of Americans. When our homes and property come under fire, our fear creates destructive undercurrents within our financial sector. Negative tones from the market feed our fear and society begins looking to save their livelihood. The issues have infected the everyday person, not just the investment banker, stock trader, mortgage firm, or Wall Street giant. Society hobbles along when the major firms take hits, but it comes to a screeching halt when your local town begins to see the effects of a national financial crisis.

Yank the money from the bank, pull the funds from the stock market, and start living as if money in the form of cash is the only way to protect your family’s investment. That is what some are doing in fears of losing everything. When we see our savings and retirement accounts plummeting because of the fickle and volatile stock market, we get antsy and start pulling money from the system. As more and more people feel the pressure, fear continues to feed the monster and before we know it, we are in a full scale crisis, or disaster.

Fear and negative speculation play a very large role in how our economy works. To replace these two nasty demons, we must have confidence in our markets. We must be confident that at some point, our money will be returned to us intact, with interest for our risk assumption. If we fail to have confidence in our financial markets, they will fail, immediately. This is the juncture we are at. Mom and pop, and even the next door neighbor, are worried about their future and they hear fear mongering and dire reports on each and every news report. They see people losing jobs and houses as well as families being destroyed by money “disappearing.”

We are at a point where our economy is teetering on the edge of absolute destruction for the near term. Let’s return to the initial question, “Should we allow government to bailout Wall Street?” According to our most gifted economic minds and financial leaders, the answer is yes. But as a taxpayer, the answer is a little hard to swallow because the $700 Billion we are talking about is OUR money. We are the ones at risk now, why should we assume MORE risk if things don’t work out? Not only are our lives on the line now, we are placing our necks firmly under the guillotine with the bailout.

In my opinion, it is a risk we must take or we are more likely to pay an even more extreme price later (the later may not be that much farther down the road). We must realize that the $700 Billion being offered as part of the bailout plan will not fix anything fundamentally. It is a short term fix to release the grasps the demon of fear has upon us. It is a “pill” to fix the confidence problem our economy has. We hear that banks will “loosen” their credit strings with the bailout in place. We hear that home owners will be protected. We hear that the housing market will not implode. We hear that our stock markets will stabilize. We hear… lots of things.

In the end, we must not HEAR, but EXPERIENCE these things, or our tax money, confidence, and livelihoods will disappear completely. There are only so many bailouts that can happen before total economic decay. The dollar can only be diluted so much. Eventually, there will be a price to pay for a short term fix, but the fix is a risk worth taking given the country’s current standing. However, we cannot just move forward happily as things hopefully stabilize. We must fix the underlying problems which created the fiasco we are in. Without that, we will see another issue such as this in our future, but much larger. Patching the wound now gives us time to live without fear and angst, but we must use that time to focus on fixing the root problems… or we will be in the same boat just on a different day.