On top of that particular idea, or even as a replacement, I believe we should throw in a requirement that takes precedence over age alone. This requirement to vote involves citizens earning the right to vote. Many people may have an issue with that because they believe all American citizens are entitled to certain privileges… voting in my mind is a privilege to be earned. You have to earn your driver’s license… You have to earn your way into college with good grades… You have to earn your way for most anything that means anything in our world. However, the right to vote is given as a simple return for becoming age 18.

Voting to me is one of the most important tools of a democracy and therefore it should not just be handed out to those who do not earn their right to vote. You may say that isn’t exactly a democracy… Well, according to various definitions of democracy, it is. Our citizens are still free, have a right to the power to become an elected official to govern at any level, and they have certain unalienable rights and freedoms from being an American citizen. Earning the right to vote does not deprive any citizen, but it creates a specific delineation amongst the citizens. The delineation revolves around a citizen filing taxes.

You read that right. You get the right to vote if you file taxes. I don’t care how old you are, if you file taxes, you get the right to vote. Why? Too long have our political races been determined by the non-working leeches of our society who only vote those people who promise to provide them government welfare, wealth sharing, and other tax subsidies. Citizens who have paid into the tax booty should have the ultimate say in how their money is distributed. Non-filers are nothing more than people with their hands out asking those who work for a living to provide for their way.

This is of course the straight and narrow point of view. There would be several distinctions which would allow those who cannot work be given exemptions. Disabled people, married homemakers, etc would all be given their right to vote. My problem is with those who have the ability to work and do not. My problem is with those who should pay taxes, but do not. My problem is with those people who drain the wealth from our society and provide nothing in return. Everyone can do something valuable, not doing so and asking for something in return is as greedy as the Wall Street financial wizards who raped our economy of trillions in wealth over the last few years.

Simple and easy, earn your right to vote by working for a living. Working for a living provides a much different perspective on life and responsibility than living a life of entitlement. People who have a third, or more, of their check whacked off with a rusty IRS tax blade have a much better idea of how this country should be run than those who have their life funded by the government. Paying taxes earns the right to vote.

The natural side effect of this policy is that voter fraud would be drastically reduced. Before you would be allowed to vote, you would have to file taxes, which would mean you have a valid Social Security Number and that you are also an American citizen by place of residency, etc. There would be a centralized database of all tax payers with the right to vote and as they enter their vote, they are tracked and marked. Protect the computerized environment from tampering and you have the ultimate no-recount necessary voting application.

We need to understand that our lives and freedoms are not simply bestowed upon us because we can perform such necessary tasks as breathing oxygen or blinking our eyes. We need to have a system where those who provide for the country are rewarded and not reprimanded. I believe we should be required to earn the rights we have, not simply given them because we turn a certain age. Think how much of an impact this simple ideology would change our world… Rather than a society of lazy people with a self serving sense of entitlement, we would have a group of people working for the betterment of our nation… as our forefathers did.

Day after slumping day, we continue to receive horrid reports of just how bad the jobs sector, housing market, and world financial system really is. Any thread of optimism is crushed by the daunting weight of reality. Not only has the American economy slipped into a wild tailspin, the entire world’s economy has. That is to be expected given the globalized economy and America being the world’s number one economic engine. It’s simple trickle down… or waterfall down at this point.

Everyone wants things to turn around, and turn around quickly. But, that is equal to asking to win the lottery of all lotteries. It just isn’t going to happen. There is one major reason why we will not experience a quick turnaround at the level of you and me, let alone at the corporate level. That reason is the fact that the credit market has seized with little to no hope of it releasing in the near term. A harsh reality may be that it will never return to what it once was.

Since the credit card market boomed and basically gave credit to anyone who could show any sort of income (and many who didn’t have any income), consumers began using this “free” money to fund their lifestyles. This so-called “credit wealth” allowed us to live beyond our weekly, monthly, or even yearly means. Many of us have extended ourselves past the year timeframe into many years. We never really think about it when the going is good, but now that the economy has hit the skids, the bills are coming due as our take home pay is raked across the coals by increased costs of living without adequate raises to make up the difference.

The credit lines have shrunk, but the bills are increasing… it’s a no win situation. I believe several things have all hit the “sweet” spot and the catalyst was the price of gas. Consumer credit boomed and raged out of control as banks tried everything to gain customer count and increase their “assets.” The housing market was an inferno out of control and everyone knew the bubble would pop, but nobody expected it to simply implode in a few short months. And then there was the price of gas… the summer of $4 per gallon gas. We borrowed, and borrowed some more, until our wallet was stretched as far as it could go. Our theoretical budgets could not withstand the doubling and tripling costs of gas to drive back and forth to work, let alone the increased costs of goods and services passing along the costs of higher oil and manufacturing costs.

Gas prices were the catalyst that pushed our economic boat over the edge. We were maintaining our credit wealth as best we could until the real monthly bills became so overly exaggerated, we couldn’t push the costs of living out into the future. Initially, the savings (what little of it there was) we had, were used to augment our income to take care of the “temporary” costs increases. As these increases were seen as less than temporary, our savings were burned through and then the credit lines were strained even worse. The bad situation was turning into a horror show.

Now, after more than 15 months into this recession, there still appears to be no end to the downturn. Billions, and even trillions, of dollars have been injected into the system in an effort to save what little confidence we have left. These people are hoping for a return to how things used to be. I don’t think we’ll ever see things return to that stage. If we do, this recession will have solved nothing and will have only served the purpose of extorting houses from many families and dashing the retirement for untold thousands of hardworking American citizens. We all need a return to normalcy. We cannot fund wealth with credit. Credit is necessary, but to an extent to augment our daily lives, not finance them. Until we realize that as a nation, we will continue this road to nowhere. The consumer must change and most of all, we must realize that the government is not going to save us. We must save ourselves by spending more appropriately.

Now, we have passed the initial 50 days of Obama’s term and the DJIA stands at 6,595.16 as we prepare to enter an even more tumultuous economic period. As of right now, the DJIA has had nearly 32% of its value sheared off. Since November, over 2.5 million workers have lost their job… since the beginning of the recession (officially started December 2007) 4.4 million jobs have been lost. It’s fairly obvious that electing our “saving grace” did nothing to cure the confidence in our markets.

These declines have occurred even with Obama pushing massive spending bills through Congress in an effort to stimulate our economy. Bush injected over $750 billion into the economy before he left office along with untold billions of dollars in ancillary stimulus money. Obama has trumped that bill by handing out nearly $800 billion and writing into the federal budget, another $750 billion for 2009. On top of that, Obama has agreed to spend over $400 billion in “health care reform.” Obama’s stimulus plan was pushed upon society as the great job saving machine that would generate 3.5 million jobs… over the next 2 years.

Looking at the analyst’s forecast for the next 2 years, they predict that unemployment will reach 9% this year… it’s at 8.1% as of this article. Next year, they are predicting well over 10% unemployment. These are estimates that were made AFTER Obama’s stimulus plans… wrap your mind around that, or better yet, your wallet… People are unrealistically focused on the unemployment rate when they should be watching the under-employment rate. The under-employment rate takes into account people who have completely given up looking for work and also includes people who are working part time jobs who need full time jobs but cannot find one. This number represents the true state of our job market.

So where does that number stand at today? Try 14.8% on for size. 8.1% unemployment supposedly equals 12.5 million people according to the government stats. 14.8% equals nearly 23 million people either out of work, given up on finding work, or involuntarily working part time jobs. These numbers are based on the idea that 155 million or so Americans work for a living.

Right now, let’s just round off the spending that we know of to $3 trillion. That means that our government has spent almost $20,000 per working American in an effort to stop the bleeding. Have you seen this 20k in your bank account? Have you seen your taxes reduced by 20k this year? Have you seen your house value go up 20k or lose multiple times that in value? Has your stock portfolio increased by 20k or dropped even more? Where is this money going? If the money was going to those who “create” jobs, then why is the economy shedding our jobs at a much faster pace since the money was injected than before?

Common sense would make you think that the injection of these massive amounts of money should have at least given us a plateau in job losses. I understand that the Democrats in the house say that the current economic hardships are the results of the Bush administration’s legacy. Let’s put some rationale to that ideology. The Democrats were in charge of both the House and Senate and also controlled almost 75% of state governorships since 2006. The recession started in December 2007. The Bush administration’s legacy from 2000-2006 was far from a recession. In those years, the Republican Party controlled the majority of political power seats. Sure, the effects of everything takes time to truly pan out, but the turning point was the date the Democrats took control of our country and their inability to curtail their partisanship and hatred of Bush. They allowed their political feelings affect how they governed our country and now we are all paying the price for their failings.

Where did our Presidential placebo go? The bounce we were so focused upon receiving did not happen. Rather than an uptick in our financial markets, a curtailing of our job losses, and a wealthier nation, we are now at a point where we are just entering the deepest valleys of this recession. I am convinced that we are going to see even worse times as we search for the rock bottom of our economic downturn. Millions more Americans will lose their jobs, billions more American taxpayer dollars will be spent without our agreement, and our stocks will continue to fall while we watch the foreclosure signs weather in our yards and our bank accounts shrink into penny savings. The placebo didn’t work and neither is spending money we don’t have. Placebo… we need the real deal.

My simple idea was to divide the $750 billion up evenly between the 150 million people. Give them the stimulus money since it was tax payer funded and the results would be an effective tax rebate to those who paid in. I only support giving money back to people who legitimately file their taxes year in and year out… if you don’t file, you don’t qualify for federal assistance in my opinion. Anyway, that’s an article for another day…

Dividing $750 billion (10 zeroes) by 150 million (7 zeroes) comes out to a nice round $5000 per HOH. How nice would that be for your family? Well, let’s do this a different way. I just went and checked the government’s census website and in 2007, the labor force itself consisted of 151 million people age 16 and over (my HOH number appears to be fairly overestimated as I assumed). Based on that, I’m going to remove my HOH evaluation and focus upon workers. Now, everyone who works AND files a tax return gets $5,000. For my household that means my family would get $20,000 because both of our sons work and my wife and I both work. We all file and we all pay our taxes.

Sounds great doesn’t it… putting the stimulus money into the hands of individuals who will spend the money at the local restaurant or grocery store or have enough to pay a credit card off or two and be able to buy a new gas saving vehicle for the future. But, that’s not where the money went, it went to wealthy corporations who were allowed to survive rather than face their punishment for taking insane risks with everyone’s money. As we have seen, the initial $750 billion did nothing to quell the recession’s decline. Throwing money at a problem is not the solution.

Now, Obama has just signed into law another $800 billion stimulus package… along with putting an additional $750 billion in the budget for failing banks and other institutions to help end the recession. Throw in a few other hundred billion spent on the side by our government and we are looking at a minimum total of at least $2.5 trillion (that’s 11 zeroes). Keeping with the worker division… that equates to roughly $16,500 per worker in the United States.

Rather than $20,000 for my household, we would be looking at $66,000 hitting our bank accounts. According to the census information, the average household is 2.6 people and the average family is 3.2 people. So, at minimum, you would likely see $33,000 in each working family’s account. Do you think that would spark the economy? I think it would create a raging inferno. The economy would likely begin growing at such a pace that inflation would be a serious issue as a potential side effect (inflation can be dealt with… millions of people without jobs is even worse).

Maybe we can be a little safe here and just split the $2.5 trillion up in half… half to the workers and half to the corporations. Even then, we are looking at $8,300 per worker. My simple point is that these stimulus billed are misnamed. They are not stimulating anything but corporate wealth. Worker wealth has continued to decrease and jobs are still being lost as if they were water pouring through a funnel. Stimulate the local economies where the local business owners are… stimulating the workers by giving them resources to pull our families through this mess. Instead of trickle down stimulus effects, maybe we should focus on trickle up. Who better to stimulate the economy than those who actually put forth the effort to make it work?

Anyway, now that I’m done venting about how my news time is wasted by the incessant coverage of the second coming of MLK or Abraham Lincoln, I’ll get on with my topic… Who is going to pay for the “stimulus” bill and the associated tag along spending programs designated to end our recession? During the end of the Bush term, the first stimulus bill came to pass and we allocated over $700 billion tax payer dollars to solve the financial crisis. There were several other “smaller” bills throughout the last few months that brought the actual number to well over a trillion. Now, we have another $800 billion set to be spent to further solve the crisis. Oh but wait, there’s more. In the current Obama government budget, there’s another $750 billion being set aside for more failing banks and institutions. Add that up… Yes, it does come up to nearly $3 trillion American tax payer dollars.

This is not to mention the emergency funds released by the Federal Reserve and International Monetary Fund to help ease the lending markets in our country and worldwide. Billions here, near trillions there, and yet we are still falling deeper into recession. Last I checked the yearly GDP of the United States stood at nearly $14 trillion for 2007. I would imagine 2008 will be similar if not less given the state of our economy during the second half of last year. In the last 3 or so months, we have mortgaged nearly a quarter of an entire year’s worth of American GDP. It doesn’t sound so bad, but it’s not like we were working on a budget in the first place.

One of the major campaign points during the last election cycle focused on how the Democrats were going to balance the budget and reign in our growing deficit. Yes, even though America created nearly $14 trillion in GDP, we spent more! Now that things are getting even worse, you would think we would tighten the belt across the board… especially at the governmental level. It’s only common sense right? Nope… according to the Obama budget, we will be running a deficit of $1.75 trillion in 2009… and if you’re like me, you know that’s used car salesman speak for over $2 trillion.

Bush never even came close to such numbers, and yet the Democrats are going to shatter the numbers they complained about for 8 years. Oh sure, I’ve heard it all… Obama inherited the problems and now he has to spend the money to bring us out of the terrible economy Bush saddled him with. Last I checked, Bush didn’t force the banks to run their risks to the ceiling and he didn’t force home owners to take loans with no down payment on houses that were priced 3 or 4 times what they could afford. Oh, and don’t forget to throw in that $4 per gallon gasoline we experienced.

So, where exactly does all this money come from? It has to come from somewhere… that somewhere is our pockets. Democrats plan to make the “wealthy” pay the majority of the difference since everyone who makes under $250k are supposedly going to see tax breaks and more federal assistance in the form of health care and other subsidized worker laziness. Do you really think the wealthy individuals are going to simply turn over their bank accounts to pay for all of this? I highly doubt it. In the end, EVERYONE is going to be paying for these horrendous spending decisions. Maybe not on your paycheck under the federal tax line, but you’ll be paying higher state taxes, higher local taxes, and you’ll be paying to support a myriad of programs you have no willingness to do. Your money will be confiscated in many ways, but not by the word tax… yeah right.

Obama runs his mouth like he’s the savior of our world and his photogenic face and vocal skills can actually make you feel like he means what he continually says to you (while reading the teleprompter). But, when the pen hits the paper, his policy support relays a much different reality. Obama speaks the right way, but acts as all hard line Liberal Democrats do. Pelosi and Obama have much in common, but I would guarantee you, even if you’re a hardcore Democrat, you wouldn’t vote for her to be our President… check the voting records, Pelosi and Obama are hand in hand.

In the future, when your check and earning power has decreased because of these insane amounts of money being spent, remember where the initial money went. The initial money did not go to you and I, it went to corporate executives and failing businesses that played the risk game and lost. We will be paying for this, our children will be paying for this, and their grandchildren will be paying… assuming the United States is even a viable country at that point in time.

Even with an overwhelming majority in both the House and Senate, Obama has faced some difficult experiences in his first month when trying to push through his ideology and policy decisions. Yes, the majority of what he wants has come to pass, but not without spending a considerable amount of his theoretical and generally worthless, political capital. There have been disastrous cabinet appointee failures and there have been unfavorable responses to some of his proposed stimulus bill policies among many other minor disturbances.

I distinctly remember the night Obama invoked his awe inspiring acceptance speech on the night of our general election. I also distinctly remember him telling the millions of Americans who did not vote for him how he was going to be their President too. He told us that he was going to walk down the aisle of bi-partisanship. He told us he was going to bring change to Washington. He told us he was going to work for the people to make our nation what it once was. Little more than 30 days into his Presidency, is he keeping his promises he made that night? Is he keeping the promises he made on the campaign trail?

Well, number one, Obama brought no change to Washington as he did nothing more than appoint Washington insiders to every post he has been given a chance to fill. He has mined the standby Democratic powers that be to the fullest. Where is the new blood? Where is the “Yes we can” ideology? Why do we have to sit back and watch the same politicians who have been running our government for generations continue their abuse of power over the American citizen? Why… when the single most important aspect of Obama’s campaign was change?

If I had voted for Obama, I would be sitting pretty uncomfortable right now because the man I would have voted for is not the man sitting in the Oval Office at this point in time. Sure, he has another 47 months to change how we perceive him, but hey, there is something to first impressions… I’ve got some numbers from the latest polls that show all is not well with the savior of the free world’s first month.

In only 30 days, Obama’s approval rating has dropped by nearly 10 percentage points. Two out of three Americans currently approve of how Obama is doing. That is still an extremely high number, but a nine percent drop in one month should be extremely worrisome for Obama supporters. Where did the drop come from? There are three segments polled, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. Of course the Republican vote dropped the most from 50 percent to a drastically reduced 31 percent. Hey, even half of the Republican crowd gave Obama the benefit of the doubt… only to be shown his true colors in less than one month how the liberal Obama would govern our country.

The other two segments dropped as follows: Independents (the ones who actually voted Obama into office) dropped to 61 from 67 percent. Democrats basically held steadfast to their banker, err, I mean President with 92 percent, slightly down from 96 percent. If I were a Democrat, I would be pretty happy with what has transpired during the first month because by selling my vote, I now have more federal money coming my way that I haven’t worked for at the expense of those who do. I’ve also got more tax rebates coming my way that I don’t deserve because I didn’t pay anything in taxes during the year. It’s a great system at this juncture for a Democrat and the Democratic voting bloc.

First month jitters or the real Obama? Which one is it? My vote is that it’s the real Obama. The one with puppet strings tied to massive bank accounts of unknown campaign contributors. He is the one with ultra liberal policies who lied to the American public about his stance regarding bi-partisanship. As my bank account, 401k, home value, and confidence shrinks, there are others in the country receiving the benefits of selling their vote by sharing the shrinking wealth of those who work and earn their living. The first month jitters are costing millions of Americans jobs, money, and their future.

All kinds of arguments are around us regarding what is fair and what isn’t when we talk about taxes. We hear terms such as progressive, regressive, inclusive, exclusive, and even sometimes we hear about a thing called The Fair Tax. Assuming we need to pay for our government to run, we need to pay some form of taxation so that we can have a military to protect our borders. We also need a governing body in place to protect our Constitution and our rights as citizens. The rest of the governing can be done at the state level in my opinion.

I’m not going to talk about that though… Today I ran across a discussion on our local major newspaper’s website involving The Fair Tax… or flat tax or even national sales tax as some people like to call it whether that’s correct or not. I’ve written an article or two about that particular tax plan and I am a strong supporter of it. I’m not going to go into the details of the plan again, but you can read about it online and even read my past articles. What I want to talk about is a particular comment made by someone in the discussion I read today.

Person X states, “The only fair tax is a steeply progressive income tax. It puts the tax burden on those who can afford it.” This of course was in response to someone supporting The Fair Tax, but person X has never read or understands the components of the proposed plan/bill. What is mind numbing to me is the simple statement made above. A “steeply progressive” income tax is absolute communism… purely blatant Marxism to the dotted i and crossed t. As for the “burden” of taxes, who are you to decide? Is your vote worth more than another American citizen? Is your dollar worth more than your neighbor’s?

Sure, wealthy people can theoretically “afford” to pay more taxes, but should they be required to pay for everyone’s way just because they can withstand such a burden? Oh, it’s the greater good argument, I get that. That’s socialism and communism wrapped up in a nice ideology. Let me just say that I work for my wealth and I pay my taxes to support many things I am ardently opposed to. My tax dollars are now supporting abortions thanks to Mr. Savior President Barack Obama. My tax dollars are now supporting more welfare families that have no ambition to work than ever before. My tax dollars support millions of immigrants who have no inclination to become citizens but yet still utilize our healthcare, our police protection, and our public services… all paid for by tax dollars.

In the end, the wealthy and those who can withstand the “burden” of taxes will wise up and stop supporting the leeches of our society… fair for the goose right? Why would I choose to work and break my back to simply carry those “unfortunate” individuals who have less wealth? If you have the ability to work and aren’t disabled, you should be forced to work a 40 hour week just like everyone else BEFORE you receive a penny of taxpayer funded support. Helping the lazy in our society has put us in the position we are in.

If I am required to help more and more people and policies that I do not support, guess what, I’m going to stop working. I’m going to stop supporting the dregs of our society. Eventually, more and more people will do the same. The wealthy and even middle class will leave the country… maybe not physically, but their money will. Jobs will leave the country because taxes will be too high within our borders. Nobody will work because the entire system is built upon reverse incentives. Work hard, pay for more lazy people to stay home. Great, that’s fair…

The tax system is nothing more than a vote buyoff program. The so-called needy, poor, or non-wealthy are nothing more than pawns in the games of those in power. This group of society gladly trades their rights for dollars in their pocket. Promise me a check and you can have my right and my vote. Thank you Mr. Obama… where’s my food stamps and tax rebate check?

These days, Wal-Mart is the new mall of America… for even the so-called wealthy. Secondhand shops are selling more clothes than ever. Aldi’s, an off brand grocer, is packed on a daily basis… with a parking lot full of high end vehicles people cannot afford… or trade. People HAVE to spend money even during a deep recession or dare we say a modern day depression. We must survive. However, the choices we make as a country with limited financial resources affects the entire country and by simple economic mechanics, the entire world’s economy.

Wall Street is feeling the pains that mainstream America has been feeling for a very long time. Corporate earnings lagged behind as the families on your street were all succumbing to the pressure of financial hardship. Profits and yearend bonus money for the executives didn’t quite have that instant prick of pain that you and I felt each month as our gas bills ate away at our grocery budget. However, the last year has seemingly caught the markets unaware of just how bad things are. Where were they living? Were they living in gated communities oblivious to the real world? Are they so out of touch that they failed to recognize that the average citizen no longer has any discretionary cash to spend? They are paying the prices as we speak for their lack of attention and forethought… and it’s hurting us all.

With Wall Street collapsing under tremendous pressure, where is Main Street? Main Street in our town and surrounding area has been hit hard. We see going out of business signs more often, we see multi-generation owned businesses failing and shuttering stores, we see car lots having their inventory seized, and we see lots of friends and family forced out of jobs they believed to be their retirement job. Our bills haven’t gotten any smaller and we are all paying the price for our excessive spending through the last decade on top of all this. Wall Street loses millions, billions, and even trillions while the local economy loses thousands and sometimes millions. Which is worse?

Consider the fact that small business owners are one of the most critical economic segments shouldered with driving our country forward. These small business owners largely reside in small towns. With Main Street being hit hard before Wall Street ever had an inkling of how bad things were, we are farther down the path of this economic recession than the corporate profiteers realize. Money at the top will not clear this mess up. The mess must be won at the front lines and that front line is the local shop down the street from my house. It’s the local job reappearing that your friend used to work his 40 hours a week at. It’s the local 12 employee business in your town that needs to hire 3 more people. That’s where we must turn this financial breakdown around.

Pouring millions, or billions, of dollars into failed banking institutions preserves the large corporations from failing, but it does nothing to help mom and pop down the street. Trickle down economy you say? Sure, it happens, but not in the timeframe that allows Sally from next door keep her job at the town’s florist. Without money in the consumer’s pocket, the larger corporations will fail just as mom and pop, with our without bailout money.

Are people going to buy food to live or a new tv? Are people going to pay their credit card or their house payment? Are people going to buy a new pair of shoes or wear their old ones until the soles fall off? Are we going to start spending money after we have been scared straight this time? We cannot return to the excessive way of life before our current recession or the next one could be one of complete disaster. We must start spending money, but we must make wise choices and live within our means. But, when will the day come when we decide that we can afford something that is not deemed a necessity? It’s been over a year since we have officially entered this recession and there doesn’t appear to be a likely end in sight. All we can do is not spend money, which makes things worse in itself. But, when Main Street begins to add jobs, the end may be near and money may well begin to flow.

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.