Most “experts” in this country scratched their heads as stock markets around the world went into a free fall on Monday, and continued to fall Tuesday and Wednesday. The cause–worries about the weakening American economy.
The week before, a spokesman for Intel wondered aloud why the company’s stock fell 15 percent as investors responded to the company missing it’s sales target for the last quarter. An economic slowdown in the U.S. is no big deal, the spokesman said, because the U.S. represents only 25 percent of the computer market worldwide.
What the experts failed to realize is that the global economy is indeed global. Capitalists from other countries have invested heavily in our economy in recent years. Many of the goods that both American and foreign companies produce and sell here are not necessities. If Americans stop buying, a sustained slowdown in sales will decrease the value of those investments and lead to a loss of jobs around the world. How many of us could take a 25 percent reduction in income without having to make serious adjustments?
Middle-class Americans, which experts say include 45 percent to 49 percent of U.S. households, have been facing that same struggle for years. According to the Economic Policy Institute, despite the fact that the employment rate here remains low at present, it does not include the number of people who are earning much less since their jobs were sent overseas. Public Citizen reports that the average worker’s hourly wage went up only a nickel from 1973 to 2006. Without calculating the average inflation rate for the same period, I think you can see that a nickel won’t meet the rising costs of fuel, health care, and food. These workers have been living on credit and home equity to stay afloat. Now credit is tightening, and housing values are falling because of the subprime mortgage crisis.
Stimulus programs designed by the White House and Congress to meet the current crisis will have only a temporary impact. Our leaders also need to develop long-term plans. These plans must address the following issues:
- No company should receive tax breaks for moving U.S. jobs overseas. Years of callous indifference toward the needs of U. S. workers have resulted in a weaker overall economy.
- The health care industry must be encouraged to adopt lost-cost preventive and natural care policies. Some physicians are beginning to embrace these practices through their own personal research.
- Utilities should again be regulated. Escalating costs are affecting businesses and consumers alike.
- Congress should increase tax breaks for companies who invest in “green” technology and energy sources. Our dependence on foreign oil repeatedly leads us to war, and war is expensive.
- Americans who don’t have enough money to live on don’t have enough money to pay for retraining programs. Preparing displaced workers for higher paying technical jobs will have a long-term positive impact on the economy.
- The government can hire displaced workers to repair our aging infrastructure. A similar program worked for Franklin Roosevelt, and it can work in our time.
Now is the time for American voters to demand leadership that responds to the realities, not the fantasies, of life. Support the candidate who is best equipped to take us in the right direction.
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