Posted by
grad_1986 on Monday, April 27, 2009 5:54:37 PM
If we remember back a few years ago, the world was re-educated on the destructiveness of Tsunami's. They have always occured and many people who have lived on these islands for generations saw the coming destruction, while those vacationing from other countries were bewildered and inquistive as to what was going on. Imagine sitting on a beach, sunning yourself when for some odd reason the sea level goes out suddenly and its not even low tide. You can see fish and other sea creatures flipping around on the sand and you go to investigate, only minutes later the water level is rising rapidly and you find the entire hotel and city engulfed in raging waters. Later after this wave goes out, you think it was just a freak wave and everything is back to normal only too see another bigger wave come through and now because of the loose debree from the first wave is all about you its 10 times worse as cars, trees, parts of buildings are flung about you. But many of the natives of the land are spared because they recognized what was happenning and headed for the high ground before the first wave hit.
We too are much like those vacationers sitting on the beach thinking nothing can go wrong and enjoying the ocean scenery. We saw the "ocean go out" when housing prices began to fall drastically, but only thought it was a small correction in the market. Later the wave came through as the credit industry dried up and our economy seemed to be in a free-fall. Like the lose debris ripped up from their roots and off their foundations, companies like AIG and Citigroup bailed-out to save them from going under. But what we don't yet realize is that this is only the FIRST wave of many yet to come. The stimulus plan will stimulate the economy but only for a very short time. The roads, bridges, wind-farms and other programs will get partially built and will need more money to complete. But because we've spent all our money they won't get their additional funds and those workers will go un-employed again and our economy will sour again. Next, China and other countries will realize we can't pay back our stimulus loans and will start the painful process of "foreclosure" on the US economy by devaluing our dollar and causing rapid inflation.
We need to realize that each stimulus bill is only going to worsen and lengthen our recession and that there are no quick fixes. We need to realize that government was the cause of this economic-Tsunami by keeping interest rates artificially low and encouraging reckless mortgages to those who could not afford them. We need to get our country back on the sound footing of being producers and not just consumers.
Finally, we need to be like those island natives who saw this coming and got the heck out of there. How did they know? They learned from history taught to them by their fathers and great-great-great....grand-fathers. When they saw the tide go OUT during high-tide, they knew immediately that something bad was coming. We need to teach our children:
- To be savers and not just spenders.
- About government interference and the disastrous effects it can have.
- How to recognize these bubbles and to resist the temptation to invest in them.
Only then will we be able to survive these future Tsunami's