Friday..now what? Stimulate much?

It’s Friday again.

How nice it is to have two free days to regroup from a gruelling week. This has been a tough week for everyone. Seeing job numbers go the way of the Dodo and unemployemnt rates rise like a subprime mortgage rate, it makes me wonder what would happen in the next few days if no action was done.

Now I have not live through the Great Depression so I have no first hand experience on how to act or think. With politicians bickering on whether to cut taxes and spending or spend more and tax more or something in between.

If you ask me, the basics still matter. If government and corporate would act like what every person should be acting, things ‘might’ get a little better.

First, cutting taxes on payroll and capital gains would not matter if taxpayers do not have jobs or businesses to generate taxable income. Cutting spending on aid programs would eliminate not only recipients but millions of government jobs who by the way, pay taxes. So the recipients would receive no aid (cash, health care and etc) can lead to decreased or no spending on their part since Cash aid and health are no longer available and the employees who work in cut programs would also cut or eliminate spending due to a loss of income. So how would cutting programs and spending aid the economy in this way? I am sorry but the Reganomics of yesteryear would not work.

Spending ourselves to the hilt would lead to more debt and more debt would eat through tax revenues in the future. Not really a wise course of action in the long term.

So what are we to do? In plain simple terms, we need to get back to basics. If an ordinary american can represt as governent and wallstreet, here’s what the American should do:

1. Spend on income generating items (such gas to take you to work, job fairs or in the case of government, infrastructure program that create jobs.
2. Have a spending cap or budget. If USA only makes $5 trillion in taxes then spend only $5 trillion or less.
3. Eliminate the spend it or lose it culture. Encourage States and local agencies to be efficient, effective and fiscally responsible by allowing these entities to “bank” surpluses (for a rainy day.. like a recession)
4. Transparency, Transparency, Transparency. We have to be honest with everyone and especially to ourselves. If we cannot afford it, we do not spend it or find a way to afford it.

That’s just my opinion. I do not have the fancy MBAs that the Wall Street rats have but at least it works in the realm of common sense.

Filed under: Opinion, 2009, Barack Obama, black Friday, budget, common sense, deficits, economy, Friday, government, Great Depression, local, MBA, programs, recession, spending, Stimulus, surplus, transparency

Friday Relief

Tis Friday at last

A week’s worth of working late

Ends with me in bed

 

TGIF.

 

The letters above stand for Thank God It’s Friday.  It is more than just a restaurant chain’s logo and caption. It’s a prayer of millions of office drones, blue collar ants and scholarly creatures the world over.  It is a sigh of relief for people who managed to survive another week of dodge office politics, the occasional backstabbing, the bruising of already weak egos and mindless routine tasks that would rival a nearby bee hive.

 

Although one couldn’t complain much because of the global economic crisis adding the official coming out of the economy from the recession closet.  So, with looming lay offs and bankruptcy filings, the regular Joe Six-Pack who still earns a living should be thankful.  However, are the still employed any better off than the depressed unemployed?

 

Unlike the depressing reality of the unemployed facing starvation, eviction and humiliation (wow, they rhyme..), the survivors face far bleaker future in their current position.  Some survivors experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the stress of waiting for the dreaded “pink” slip (are they still Pink?) and the pain of watching fellow co-workers pack up their personal belongings.  After PTSD, the drones switch to Paranoia.  They fear that one false step would be the death of their professional career.  Although some of their fears are exaggerated, the current trend the past couple of decades have given these worker bees enough basis and precedence for their fears. 

 

Given these possibilities, one could imagine the state of mind of the person who coined TGIF (who did?).  Did the person experience a jobless? Did he/she survive downsizing? Was he/she forced to closed down his/her business?  God only knows.

 

So the next time you stop by the local TGIF on Friday night (Which should be their Happy hour/night right?), be thankful that you a job/biz that stresses you out to say: TGIF.

Filed under: Haiku, Opinion, Bee, blue collar, closet, Disorder, Drone, economy, Friday, God, Joe Six-Pack, pink slip. recession, Post, PTSD, Stress, TGIF, Traumatic, unemployed