The BBC news (www.bbcnews.com) has been spending a lot of time talking about the American economy. And no wonder -- it's not exactly a secret that we're facing some serious economy issues. Recent articles include the following: "US consumers cut spending plans," "House prices suffer 11% drop," "Big fall in retail sales," and even, "The end of the American dream?"
In an effort to boost the economy, President Bush has developed the Economic Stimulus plan, which will provide every person who files a tax return this year to receive an early rebate check between $300 and $1800. Personally, I'm pretty excited to be getting some free money from the government! But will it make a difference? Will consumers be willing to go out and spend that money, or will they put it in savings or use it for other purposes? What do you think?
According to an about.com poll, http://homebusiness.about.com/gi/pages/poll.htm?poll_id=1106042403&linkb...
homebusiness.about.com/b/2008/01/23/poll-what-would-you-do-with-a-tax-rebate.htm,
40% of people would pay off bills, 21% would save it, 15% would spend it on necessities and11% would spend it on luxuries.
Like I said, I'm excited about getting free money. But at the same time I wonder if this will really make an impact on our falling economy. Is Americans not having money really the issue here, or is the fact that we're in a money-sucking war? That the government is trillions of dollars in debt? That the 4000th American recently died at war? Or even, could we suggest that this is part of economics, the rise and fall of money? The United States economy has been in recession before and always managed to come back. What do you think about these figures? Will the economy get a boost? Is the government attempting to take care of the issue at hand while ignoring the more important, underlying problems? What do you have to say?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
