THE BATTLING BASTARDS Economics (3 of 4)

There are experts, pundits, and bloggers as thick as fleas who write at length about theories, and economic models that show deficit spending is the way to economic recovery. They say we should fall in among them like so many sheep, and praise Obama’s spending frenzy as if condemning future generations to the slavery of indebtedness were the miracle of turning water into wine.

Contrary to popular myth, the most remarkable economic recovery in the country’s history did not come about because of the spending spree conducted by FDR. No, Roosevelt was simply continuing the failed policies of his predecessor, Herbert Chicken in Every Pot Hoover, just as Obama is continuing many of the failed economic policies of George Bush.

The second myth is that the economy and the country were saved by WWII, but that really is not right either, at least as far as the economy goes. The war only provided Americans with the resolve to unite for the common good. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and invaded the Philippines, Americans stopped waiting for FDR to send the government to save them, and went to work saving themselves, while the government turned its attention to sending our boys “Over There” to save Europe and the Orient.

At that critical time, we did not try to increase consumer spending, but rather, we rationed everything that was not already only available in limited supply. We stopped buying cars, tires, gas, women’s hosiery, and almost anything classified as food or consumer goods. We rationed our resources and pulled in our economic horns in every way imaginable. Many Americans worked two jobs; often one of those jobs without pay as volunteers to help others in need, or to support the war effort.

We planted gardens, made our own clothes, canned, and stored up food supplies when they were available for times when they were not. We saved everything and wasted nothing. Cooking grease, newspapers, chewing gum wrappers, and every scrap of anything else that could be reused was collected by every American from nine to ninety, and donated to industry in support of our fight for liberty.

Instead of looking for a check from the government that future generations would have to pay back, we loaned money to the government in the form of war bonds. Everything that Obama is doing now is 180 degrees opposed to the principles that worked for us then. Our household budgets are microcosms of city, county, state, and national governments, and we all know that we cannot spend our way to prosperity.

We are in for some economic pain regardless what we do now, but conservation brings increase, while spending results in decrease. Long-term recovery is going to require that, as individuals and as a nation, we conserve more of what we have been wasting, while spending less than we have been on essentials. This is the exact opposite of what is being done, and the longer we wait to get it right, the longer real recovery will take.

What Obama and Congress are doing, is nothing but an attempt to make things appear better, and passing the inevitable pain of real recovery on to our children instead of taking our own medicine now like reasonable adults. And for what …so that Obama and Congress can grow wealthier and more powerful, as we grow weaker.

Now I want to tell you about a group of Americans heroes who are leaving us at an alarming rate. These men sometimes call themselves the Battling Bastards of Bataan and Corregidor. “What,” you may ask, “does this have to do with the economy?” I will tell you that it has everything to do with the economy as well as recovery, that is, if we want to replicate the economic model that made America into the world’s most efficient and powerful industrialized nation in the nineteen forties and fifties. Not to mention the restoration of our core values, and common decency as a nation.

I have a question for Congress and for Obama, and a suggestion for a better plan for the recovery of our nation, not just to heal our wallets, but also to sooth our national conscience and to heal our souls. My suggestion involves our Military Men and Women from WWII through present day, and the military personnel we soon will sorely need, but will not be there, if we do not act swiftly. It also involves our senior citizens, who are surviving on a Social Security system broken by Congress and Presidents who have raided the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for general budget programs.


[ PART 1 ]    [ PART 2 ]    [ PART 3 ]    [ PART 4 ]


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