So, We're in trouble. What do we do?

For the past couple years, I’ve been listening to the media clamor about unemployment, the national deficit, and health care. Until recently, I really didn’t care too much. Now, as I try to find a means to support myself when I eventually leave high school, it’s gotten a tad bit more interesting. The honest truth is, my town hasn’t been hit too hard by the recession but it’s been hit hard enough to annoy me senseless in trying to find a part time job. Being a high school senior, I’m required to take a course in government and because of that, I’m getting a better understanding of how the national debt has come about and what can probably fix it. I’ve never claimed to be an expert in anything, but I know history well enough and I’m just as well off in government and economics that I can try to formulate a plan I think makes sense that I can explain simply. Really, when I take what I’ve learned in just a few years and compare it to what the government is trying to do, it almost astonishes me that people over think situations so much. I plan to lay down a fairly straight-forward look at the nation’s condition and state what I think can really turn it around. My plan is to look at former leaders, what they’ve done, what has actually happened as a result of those actions, and what is probably holding us back today.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt…was not as great as everyone thinks. “Oh, he saved America from the Great Depression,” people say. He actually almost made everything worse until he lucked out and got pulled out by a World War. Roosevelt’s plan was to simply put people back to work by making new government sponsored jobs. Yeah, great plan, too bad he couldn’t really fund it that long. Today, we’ve tried to pull the same strategy since most people didn’t get much further into what happened in that “New Deal”. FDR made the people happy, I’ll give him that, there’s nothing wrong with that, but he simply could not sustain his plan. The government runs on taxes, taxes citizen pay, right? Okay, so how can the government pay out more money without actually pulling in more money? At this point in time, the Second World War hasn’t started and Germany was still supposed to be paying back the money our team decided they owed. It’s fairly common knowledge that Germany was in a sorry state, but how did they get out? Hitler decided not to pay up, and pretty much let him for a while. Of course, a basic history course lines out the basic series of events that happens until World War II starts.

So, how did America pull itself out at this point? Well, I think most people would say we went to war, but I’d say everyone else going to war helped us, I’d say other would agree. It’s also true that our immediate industrial overhaul when we entered the war helped too. Okay, next step, war’s over, how are we still on top? Oh hey, we have a ton of soldiers coming home and plenty of good factories, let the consumerism begin. Now, this free capitalistic spirit does not ensure a healthy economy, but it is a good stimulator since money in hand is money for businesses, usually, and businesses make jobs. So, why didn’t the stimulus bill work out? People have debts and the average pay out was around $600. World War II GIs were marching home with several years of salary, federal aid to college (which means more money down the line), and, again, the factories are still booming. You can see where a train of thought would think we could fix the economy this way, but an economy is not about just buying things, it’s about paying people to do jobs. FDR got lucky and the history books think he was a saint.

So, my plan? I say follow Kennedy. All anyone thinks is that he stopped a world war, but he also stopped a recession by cutting taxes on the wealthy business owners. Carter later did the opposite and got the opposite effect. Reagan, again cut taxes and got a major economic recovery.

There’s no one to simply save us from 12 trillion dollars of debt, as nice as we are, and no one to get into a world war so we can sell them weapons. We need to admit this is a problem we can solve on our own, and we have to be ready to take some time to let it happen. I stand by proposal to have the government stop choking the private sector before it kills its goose that lays the golden eggs.

Hopefully, I’ve made my point. The government is not our babysitter; they are our regulators and defenders, that’s what we pay them to do. I’ve argued my point to support businesses to create more tax revenue so the government can get paid. Historical facts have been used to strengthen my case and point out the failures of our current economic strategy. I have made suggestions for methods America can use to gain a profit off other nations. Now I leave to consider my points and ponder what we should do. Personally, I’m going to keep looking for a part time job, further my education and seek out the demanding field of Physics. My last point to make is this; the best solution isn’t always the obvious one or the easiest one. I have more to say, but that's 1000 words so I'm done.