Whenever I attend a PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) meeting, the economy always becomes a point of discussion. This is conservative country here in Gwinnett County, Georgia. If you’re a liberal here, you’re going to get a healthy and hard spanking (rhetorically) with a dollop of Southern hospitality. Being more center-left, I just get more of a gentle slap on the wrist. But I digress.
These PTA conservatives unanimously say the same things about the constantly-debated stimulus bill. Here is what they actually said (thank the technology lords for the cell phone keyboard):
“We’re not being “stimulated”, we’re being stalled.”
“Why do the banks get all the cash? Why don’t they give us the cash directly to fix the economy?”
“Not all of us overspent. Many of us lost our incomes due to losing our jobs.”
“Congress ‘folk’ are wealthy. They don’t give a damn about us anyway.”
“I only spend when I can. I won’t spend a dime if I don’t have it. Sorry if I’m hurting the economy but what can I do?”
“Can you imagine if the government gave us $30,000? I would pay off all bills and then I could do my part to help our economy.”
“I’m tired of being told ‘economics is complicated’. Sounds like a ploy to keep all the ‘stimulus’ to themselves.”
“Why do I have to care about another country’s economy? I’ve lost everything since my job is in your country now!”
“We’re the United States of Anguish right now.”
“Here’s a tax cut I can get behind, no taxes for a year. Anything less is unacceptable these days.”
“We need to rebuild everything! Is it so hard to create jobs which appear to do that?!”
“How the heck can I re-train when I have no excess cash? And asking for cash help makes you feel like you’re on welfare. Just give me a job. Any honest job.”
“We’re just a number to corporations. A damn number that can be added and subtracted at a whim.”
“I’m living so low on the hog these days, I can’t even see all those government prima donnas! All I see is a dirty hoof.”
That is just a small sampling of America. This is what is being talked about. This is the way it’s being talked about. This is real. Calling those thoughts too simplistic or over-dramatic means nothing. It is what it is.
What’s the point of this article? There is no overarching point. It’s just the thoughts of the regular “folk” who are the majority. Who will be made or broken (even more) based on this stimulus bill. It’s reality. So I hope our government leaders realize that, because they seem a little weak on “real” these days. Scoring political points won’t matter if the majority continue to be stripped of their way of life.
UPDATE
Ed Morrissey pours a tad bit of sunshine onto the news about 600,000 jobs lost in January being a 16-year high:
FDR said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Barack Obama and the Democrats say, “THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!” This is the time to act wisely, not in a panic. Speaking of which, Wall Street indicators at the time I write this show all green. The Dow is up 125 points, S&P up 11, and the NASDAQ up 22. It looks like the only people panicking are Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and President Obama.
My good man, that “green” you see is the color of many Americans sick from unemployment and underemployment. While I’m not about to praise Reid, Pelosi, and Obama as the CURE ALL BRINGERS, looking at a “green” market today (which gets “green” when Americans lose jobs many times) means little to the future economic health in America. A commenter to Ed Morrissey’s article named “technopeasant” says the following:
Would you as an American rather have a job and be a slave to the government or a free person who is temporarily out of work?
In most of the world the majority would be the former, but I still believe that the majority of Americans treasure their freedoms, their Constitution, and their belief in their own initiative to earn a living and to pursue their own happiness.
There’s a problem to the “temporarily out of work” angle; you go more ito debt. Temporarily out of work for only three months can get utilities cut off, foreclosure proceedings started, credit card bills behind, etc. And with our current lackluster job market, 6 months out of work is the new 3 months out of work. The majority of Americans do “treasure their freedoms, their Constitution, and their belief in their own initiative to earn a living and to pursue their own happiness.” But when they keep rolling snake eyes with their livelihoods, they start looking for an another game to play.
I’m not complex. Don’t have time for all that. And all that complex stuff bad for the stomach. Just color me simple and plain with a twist.