Everyone has heard about the $700 BILLION bailout plan made by congress. And everyone also knows that the American people did not actually want this plan because of how much debt the nation was already in. We're talking on the heavy side of nine TRILLION dollars! Thanks to Bill Clinton and his borrowing money from China, we now have a trade deficit with them. Umm...wasn't part of the point of the Cold War to STOP communism? Then how hypocritical does it look for US, the city on a hill to be BY the people and FOR the people in a democratic-republic, to actually OWE money to the biggest communist nation on the planet? Not good, my friends, not good.
Now, we are more than TEN TRILLION DOLLARS in the hole. Congress makes people think that we actually have the money to do the bailout plan with. Not really. How are we to fund this plan, several items of which don't even support the economy! It's putting money into the Puerto Rican and American Samoan economies. And what about the wooden arrows tax break? What is that about? We need real solutions to these very real global problems. Socialism is not the answer, sorry.
I feel very frustrated that Congress has put this on out shoulders, leaving a mess for the next generation. Did you know that our parents spend about $.17 per dollar more than they actually have? And our generation is projected to spend $1.17 on a dollar more than we have. That means that when you buy something for a dollar, you are actually spending a dollar-seventeen more than you have and just going into deeper debt.
I think part of the solution to this problem doesn't need to start when the problem gets bad. It's about prevention. I think that it should be nationally mandatory that in order to graduate from high school, you must have one personal finance class along with your government class and econ class. This will teach people why you do not spend more than what you have. Also, I think that it should be a requirement for every student and politician to watch "Mr.Smith Goes to Washington" during their government class or when they get voted into office. People need to remember what the nation really stands for, and this movie shows an average Joe from small town America trying to compete with the political machine of his state. It's the American government as it should be at the end of the movie. Not all, but most politicians are so detached from what the people they represent need the government to do; they just think of what may be best for what they think the circumstances really are and what their special interests and donors want.
This bailout plan really depresses me because it's another example of government not doing what the people want it to do.
Looking for brighter days
-Alyssa
