Mellonomics and America's Youth

As a senior in high school looking forward to entering college next year, I look at the stock market and tuition prices with woe. With today's economy going down the bucket, I ask myself "Why?" Well, I believe there are several factors that contribute to this. The Presidency and Congress has been back and forth between the left and right for the past 20 years and because of that our economic policies have seen more regulation and deregulation than before. And although we do have more of a free market than that of a socialist or completely government controlled, but we have too much regulation.

And while we have too much regulation, we still get the negative effects of a free market. And because of that we experience busts and booms. Over the past 7 or so years we have been experiencing a boom, but with a boom always comes a bust, which we have unfortunately entered into now. In these bust times we must tighten our spending and do what we can to ride it out. It should not be the governments job to intervene and try to fix the market, rather they should do what they can to adapt until better times.

In the 1920's America witnessed one of the greatest Secretaries of the Treasury in US history. His name was Andrew Mellon. He was the architect of the roaring 20's and a champion of early trickle down economics, known then as Mellonomics. Under Andrew Mellon we saw a boom in productivity, a drop in government spending, a decrease in the Federal debt, and lower taxes. And it wasn't lower taxes for certain people, it was taxes for everyone. In fact, the majority of citizens in the United States didn't even pay Federal Income tax.

Imagine, a time when you didn't have to pay income tax! You actually got a whole paycheck to spend or save or do whatever with. That's unthinkable today, and that's a shame. Think about it, as a student in college or a senior in high school you would be able to make more money while doing the same amount of work. Life would be much easier and more enjoyable.

With that in mind I bid you adieu.