A Thought on Getting Stimulated

I think that the reason we haven’t started to see visible improvements in the economy can be traced back to two things: politics and patience.

Politics: I’m going to be drawing some relevant comparisons so bare with me. Many historians believe that the cause of the great depression was the cost of WWI and the promotion of buying on credit, along with an uncertainty of the future economic success of the country. This caused the runs on the banks and the crashing of the stock market. Jump to today, where we are fighting a ridiculously expensive war and a changing of the face of politics and what it means for the government to control aspects of our day to day lives (patriot act, gitmo, wiretapping, blackwater.)
When the new deal was enacted, congress did everything they could to help Roosevelt and passed whatever he put before them. The country had a “can do” attitude that was nothing but working towards the good of the whole for the betterment of the nation. Everyone pitched in to accomplish this goal and now, almost 70 years later, things they put into place are still functioning. Things like FDIC, social security, the fair labor act, the FHA and the SEC still help grease the gears of progress. If you compare that attitude to today, we look like jerks. Congress is bickering and drawing lines in the sand, based upon party lines not doing what is best for the people they represent. Companies were practicing some of the most unethical things imaginable and standing with their hands out wanting help when the house of cards they built comes crashing down around their ears.
And then there’s us. We wonder why the sky is falling and all then world is coming to an end, until American Idol comes on and then all of our troubles float away. We should have seen this coming. We can’t just be complacent and keep our heads in the sand until something goes wrong and the demand blood because we were to busy surfing youtube.

Patience: we live in the greatest time in the history of the world. We live in a time where I can hold a device in my hand and talk to someone ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE. This same device has access to any information you would ever need, instantly, or as long as we have bars. My point being that we need to be a little patient with the stimulus plan.
When the money is coming from the top down, and everyone is pulling there share on the way down, it’s going to take a while to see any results. Let us remember “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Now that being said, giving billions of dollars to companies that obviously don’t know how to run a successful business was one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard of but none the less, let’s give it a little time before we start getting out pitchforks and torches.