The key to our economic system is the buyer. Who are they and what is the chance they can dig us out of this recession/depression? The buyers are: U.S. workers and their families; federal and state governments; foreign markets; and businesses.
Given our domestic political mess (for example, see Charles Krauthammer’s Dec 13 op-ed rant, “Obama’s campaign for class resentment”), you can’t look to our federal or state governments to buy us out of this hole, either short or long term. Given Europe’s Euro mess, you can’t look to those foreign markets to be of much or any help. U.S. businesses won’t invest their profits/surpluses until consumer demand is more robust. While the U.S. consumer is buying (by the latest statistics) that won’t fix our economy, with unemployment at 8-9 percent, the middle-class shrinking, and poverty spreading.
Can the 1% buy us out of this situation by spending its income/wealth on enough goods and services produced in the U.S. to significantly expand the U.S. economy? Regardless of the conservative trickle down economic theory, the common sense answer is no. What is the solution—clearly more jobs at fair wages. Why then have the Republicans, in D.C., refused to agree to President Obama’s jobs bills? The answer is their selfish desire, on behalf of special interests, to control the House and Senate and win the Presidency in 2012, irrespective of the public’s best interest.
Paul G. Bursiek, retired
Boulder
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