What is your Solution to our Problems?

Let me ask you something Donna,

Is the purpopse of you articles to convince people of your point of view or to simply debate you opinions with other people regrdless if they agree or not?

When I blog, I blog about what I know (I learned this the hard wya BTW) with the intentions to talk about what I am interested in. My hope is to both find people who share in my interest and opinions and to find people who disagree to understand why. In the process I may get lucky to end up with 1 of 3 outcomes:

1) I get them to see and agree with my point of view

2) They get me to see and agree with their point of view

3) We agree to disagree

In the end I learn something new and gain a new understanding about the things I believe in and why there are some who disagree with me. At times some arguments get heated and in a way that's good for this is when people show their true feelings and the truth tends to be more interesting. Then there are times when arguments get out of control, this usually happens when a person refuses to admit there may be a different way of seeing things, that their opinions are absolute and that nothing you say or do can convince them otherwise (proof be damned and all). These arguments tend to be pointless. Most arguments may sem this way but one can tell the difference if one looks jard enough. This article here is proof that you are willing to accept other points of view at times.

When i first came here, i was too afraid to state my opinions. I usually ended up modifying them a bit to match the majority and the more popular people on the site in the hopes to avoid having my opinions picked apart and not being able to come up with and educated response to the dissecting of my opinions. Ironically I often agreed with them more than I thought and thru out the years I learned a lot of information from history to politics and electronics. But I also learned to stand by my beliefs and to not be afraid to express them. I am a persistant, heard-headed person, but I also know when to admit I am wrong.

Why is it so important to you to make me (or anyone else for that matter) see things your way?

I hope for our country that President Obama along with our government can get things turned around.  That hope is guarded though, especially when I see things on the news involving requesting a $825B stimulus package.  You can't just throw money at a problem to solve it!  Reign in the spending already!

Time will tell.  I'm just afraid that things are going to get a whole lot worse before they start getting better.  In the meantime, anything that goes badly will still be Bush's fault.

As for solutions, I don't think any one person can solve what the entire government can't.  I do suggest strongly that taxing the crap out of financially responsible businesses and individuals to through at failing ones is not that way to go.

There's step one.

Donna, you start from a false premise.  That Obama can do anything.  He can, but not any good.  The problem was caused by the meddling of government and Obama (through Emmanuel) has only promised to make it worse.

We have had global recessions before.  Sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing!  There are plenty of things at work to correct the problem, and if allowed to work, will work.  But the government doing anything is not the solution, it is part of the problem.

Honest Chuck....laughing is always a good thing!

Believe it or not, I do agree too! 

You generalized in a sort of way, your response says nothing that I understand.  So you're saying that nothing should be done, that everyone shoudl sit and do nothing? Why?  What is that "pleny of things at work" you're talking about?

I said he was going to try to do whatever he can. some I might agree with, some I don't.  (not verbatim, but the gist of what I said)

Again though Doc, you didn't answer my question. You just pointed out how wrong my thinking is. 

Thank you Jill.  I appreciate your forthrightness in answering my questions. You have given me some thoughts and I do see from your point of view.

There you go...your answer is right there!

Charles, from my entire article, you get that I'm only trying to get you and others to see things my way? You kidding me!  I'm trying to understand what you see and I don't.  To analyse your thinking so that I may better understand your point of views, to see it through your eyes.  I am not trying to convince you to see things my way.

What is the source of all this hope I hear about?  Do people really think that changing the president is going to fix our collective woes?  Only if that president is going to force us to change who we collectively are - which is to say ignorant, fat, lazy, and unmotivated for the large part.

People aren't filled with hope because Obama's ideas are sound...they're filled with hope because someone promised them that he'll fix it (i.e. they don't have to change anything about themselves - HE will do all the changing), and they're happy about it because if he doesn't, they can blame him and not accept any of the responsibility.  Obama is the perfect situation for a loser, and our country has a ton of them.  Obama's message of change is great to these losers...so long as they aren't the ones that have to change anything.

I do get what you're saying and I can see that  as being true for a majority of people who always look to others to solve their problems.  It did not answer my question though.

My solution to our problems is for the government to take this new stimulus package and give it to businesses so that they can continue to keep their workwers and employ more people.  The money that was given to these banks has not helped any of us.  They were not mandated or regulated to ensure that they (the banks) would put that money (they receive) to use so that they would in turn help their customers.  You know what they did?  They either held on to the money "so that they can wait and see where the economy goes", use it as fall back money, or they went and bought other businesses then realise they can't afford them, then they lay off more people!  Where is the sense in all this?  The problem is not the government, the problem are those CEO's who don't know what thw frick they are doing! 

Remember back in the days of the campaign, Obama's platform was to tax the rich and give it to the "over burdened" middle class? His supporters loved it and chanted "yes we can". McCain's platform was to extend or make permanent the tax cuts to stimulate the economy. Fast forward to the present. Obama decides raising taxes (for now at least) is a bad idea. All his supporters think its the best thing since sliced bread. What is fundamentally wrong with this picture? To me it's borderline cult-ish, or at least proves that people voted for the man not the cure to begin with. Where is the hope in that?

If it was just this issue alone, for me there would now be no problem at all with Obama. But unfortunately there is more. His appointments of Attorney General and Treasury Sec, are frightening. The rest of the cabinet is the remnants of the Clinton White house and "thank you for your support" postings (Where is the change?).

On his first day he, in my opinion, made the country less safe than on 19 January by meddling in how intelligence is gathered and closing Gitmo (I love it when people with no military experience try to play General). Also one of his first acts was to restore funding for international groups that perform abortions. Now I'm not going to get into the pro-life debate here. I bring it up because this is spending money abroad at a time when we need to conserve money. What happened to Obama going in and cutting the pork? Sound like he had plenty of oink oink in his plans.

To answer your question, I'm not an economics professor, but a person that has been modestly successful in managing his own money, here are some suggestions. I don't gamble, the US shouldn't either. Stop wasting good money after bad on these damn banks and businesses. Let them fail because up to now setting the money in a pile and lighting it on fire would have the same effect. Failure drives improvement and innovation. Unemployment is an unfortunate by product and has been for centuries, but new businesses usually sprout up quickly to fill the vacuum of those that go under, provided the product  or service is not obsolete.

If I have extra money at the end of the month, I usually pump it back into the economy, by going to a movie, or buying a want (vis need). This is what the government should realize, if they take less, people will usually spend more in the economy. It's the quickest way to get cash moving. Don't believe me? look at your pay stub where it sez Federal tax withheld, what would you do each payday if you had a large portion of this amount? Even if you save it, the bank doesn't just sit on it. They loan it out to other consumers and it drives the economy.

I don't have a gym membership, a book club membership, etc. these things cost money, and they can usually be done for free or much cheaper at home. So it's a matter of the social value it have for the individual. Social programs cost money. The government also funds social programs and memberships they need to start trimming them down. When your broke you don't go to the spa, why should the government?

Do you buy everything that someone tries to hawk to you on your doorstep? No, me neither. Why does the government? Did you hear about the millions of dollars of grass re-seeding money for the Washington DC lawn our fiscally responsible democratic congress just tried putting in this last huge pile of waste money they want to give away? If you don't want the grass ruined why have millions of people walking on it during the inauguration? My grass turns brown in the summer, because I can't afford to water it. This is only one of the things they tried to slide in that will do nothing for the economic crisis.

So Donna, I guess all I can suggest is a little common sense. Of course that's difficult when your trying to tell a group of politicians that are anything but common. They all had a silver spoon in there mouth, Obama included. Anyone that might have had humble roots, have lost their way long ago.

Government bailouts and handouts (no difference really) don't help, they never have and it's been proven over and over again.

Tax cuts, that is what we need.

Nah, it'd just be looted by the Big Shots. I agree with just cutting taxes and let the people keep their own money in the first place.

yep, give the money back to the people.  Start cutting taxes and the spending has got to stop! 

If we have more money in our pockets we will be able to help the neighbors around us.  Right now we can't do that because we have barely enough to put food on our own tables. 

Actually I am not kidding you. This is your 3rd article in a row basically questioning why some of us here can't seem to understand and accept your opinions or that Obama can be good for the country.

Maybe rather than trying to understand, maybe you can simply accept that we disagree. You see, in order for anyone to understand someone elses point of view, you have to be willing to accept that you might be wrong. Honestly, I have yet to see that in your comments, especially after seeing 3 articles sorta tackling the same topic.

I am going to guess that what DrGuy meant was for the Govt to do nothing. They need to stay out of it when it comes to wanting to put money into it. Do you keep putting oil inside a motor with a leak or do you fix the leak first?

The companies who realized they were abusing the system and are not trying to make things right for example. Have you noticed how all of a sudden we have all these fuel efficient cars almost magical come out of the automakers factories in less than a year? I am curious, where were these cars in 2006 or 2007? I seriously doubt someone all of a sudden found a way to make cars more efficient is such a short amount of time, not unless the idea had been there all this time but the cars they were making at the time were more profitable.

Yes, there are a lot of people losing jobs, but maybe this is what these companies need in order to survive this economic downturn so that they may gain strength again and start hiring people again. You're idea is to give these companies money from a stimulus package so they don't lay off people. Ever wonder why they were laying off people? If their business is not making money, what would be the purpose of keeping the employees to continue to provide a service or make a product that is not selling?

It sucks, yes it does. But we all have to fall down once in a while for use to be able to get back on our feets again and learn how not to fall again. You keep saying you look for hope in Obama, hows about you look for hope in the people? If we have survived this kind of situation before, why do you think you need Obama to save us this time?

I'm sorry, I thought it was implicit.  The government isn't going to change anything  - I don't care if you put God in the white house with Jesus, Buddah, Allah, Isis, and every subdeity in the book on the cabinet because the people are fubar.

My proposed solution is, therefore, "buy a mirror, and look deeply into it" for everyone in the US (and it wouldn't hurt the world at large, either).

Using our common sense and giving the money back or stop taking more from the people.  I can agree with all that.  Good points!

My suggestions on the businesses, was especially for those small businesses who are in trouble, not because of their own, but because of the growth in their taxes and fees and also loss of consumers for some.  I have friends who are losing out because of the dwindling of their clienteles.

There are also townsd and cities losing their law enforcement people, that can't be a good thing.

Keeping track Charles....how nice.

"asking the man in the mirror to mend his ways"...to quote Michael Jackson's song....I get it!

I am going to answer this with an off beat answer. I hope it's ok with you Donna.

The answer is, "when will people remember that DEMOCRATS are the PARTY OF TAX AND SPEND"

Here would be my first piece of advice:

Rather than confiscating money from successful people and businesses to give to unsuccessful people and businesses, the government should stop doing that.

You want to see more jobs? Quit having the government take money away from the very people who want to create more jobs.

People keep poo-pooing the fact we have a $1.8M tax bill coming up on April 15th.  That's a lot of jobs that won't be created as a result.  Spread that across the entire country.

Obama's solution of aking the $1.8M I was going to use to hire more people and instead give it out to people who are mostly going to just end up buying various consumer goods that mostly go overseas anyway doesn't seem very productive.

The best thing Obama could do is to get the federal government out of our lives as much as humanly possible.

To reduce their tax burden would be a great start. But the small business owners have to take a good hard look themselves.  Are they in a niche market or provide a necessary service or commodity? Luxury items and services are the first to slow down in tough economic times. These businesses can survive (and have in the past) but the owners are going to have to take steps to keep pace with the financial situation. If they can pull it off, they will be stronger and better off when things do improve. Remember "pet rocks"? Someone made a fortune off that, but it never could have last long. That's an extreme example, but all business fall somewhere between the staples and the pet rocks.

Hope your friends can weather out the storm.

Not at all MM!  I think it goes a way around for all politicians, not just the Dems.lol!

Wow, that's a big chunk!  I understand why you're pissed off.  I would be too.  The couple of months that I had the business with my cousin, my God the amount of paperwork involved was mind boggling!  Tax here, taxed everywhere, not just federal but local and city too!  Insurance, fees, etc. I learned a lot let me tell you so I understand!

I guess it will be a wait and see if this can be done.

Luxury I guess becaue they are want base business not need. 

If I missed anyone, sorry, I'm off to the hospital, baby call!