Politics

I know it is always dangerous to discuss politics in an open or public forum; but, I must speak my mind. This presidential election must be about economic growth and recovery. The economy hasn't recovered from the recession. It has stablized, but it hasn't recovered. Unemployment is still at 8% and the government is so far into debt it's scary. The answer to the problem? Well, first we must ask, what in fact is the problem? The problem isn't the 1% as Occupy Wall Street supporters have said, the problem isn't big businesses. The problem isn't people against homosexual marriages, it isn't people that own guns. The problem is economic, and the government's complete ignorance in the matters of the market. Now, first the American people do not realize that the stock market is not the market. The market is the entire US economy: to include stocks, bonds, precious metals, manufacturing, services, retail, corporations, and pretty much anything that deals with making money. This includes people, the labor force that drives the machine. Now that I have clarified what exactly is the market, lets begin with how to fix the problem. First, how nation is founded on the oldest, most dependable, and only form of market style to survive the test of time, capitalism. Capitalism is founded on the principle that the economy is allowed to run itself; this occurs because people are trying to improve their own financial situation through ambitious desires. Many people strongly believe that the socialist economic style, called command economy (F.Y.I. communism is a form of government not an economic system), where no one owns anything, the government controls the market. In the command system everyone is equal, though certain people have more responsibility based on their abilities. In capitalism, if you have more responsibility or show greater production you receive more compensation for your work; however, in the command system, it doesn't matter how much work you do or how much you out perform your colleagues, you receive the same amount of compensation as the worker that does very little work and has no responsibility. This seems fair to many people, and in theory it does look good, but if there is no incentive to achieve then why would you try to become more than what you currently are. Without ambition, there is no innovation, without innovation there is no long term growth or adaptation to market changes. When you have no one developing new ideas, your market becomes stagnant; a stagnant market leads to the fall of your financial resources and eventual fall of your market system. Do not think I am saying capitalism is flawless; capitalism does lead to greed if people do not fear the consequences of their actions. Ethical behavior also comes from a culture built on moral values. The United States no longer see morality as a necessary part of life; we can do whatever we want and take a pill in the morning to eliminate the consequences. This has led to the rampant belief that big business men are evil. You can see it in so many films, some big corporation tries to destroy the lives of innocent people just to make a profit. Hollywood portrays Wall St as nothing but greedy, power hungry business leaders that only what to make money at the expense of the world and its resources. This is fundamentally wrong; capitalism requires a company to focus on more than just profits. If a company destroys the people that could buy their products, who will buy their products: with no one to purchase the products, there are no profits. This fundamental dependency on each other makes capitalism work. The more money a business has, the more they can pay their workers and owners; the more money the workers and owners has the more they can spend; the more they spend, the more businesses need to make and subsequently the more money they have. Can you see the pattern? This cycle allows the economy to grow in ways command markets cannot. Our economy however is no longer able to perform this fundamental aspect of capitalism and growth. The government, since the economic fall in 2008, has made it harder and harder for businesses to recover from the recession. When an economy enters a recession (economies have to endure recessions, they clean out the economic underbrush like a forest fire and are part of the natural cycles of all economies) the money supply becomes more important to control. This is because in a recession, each dollar is more valuable, because each dollar can purchase less than it did before (deflation). How can a government aid the economy in recovering? Well, the United States has a method they prefer to use during economic crisis; using the government to pickup where businesses slack off. This means when businesses spend less money because they have less, the government spends more to keep the economy where it was when the recession started. Seems to work in theory, correct? But look at it this way; if the government is going to spend more money, they have to raise more money. Who has the most money? The business men and the companies they own. So the government raises their taxes. However, now the business, which is already struggling due to the economic down turn and higher supply prices, has even less money to pay employees and purchase supplies. The businesses are forced to lay off more workers. The government is now caring for everyone that has lost a job during the recession, with more people losing their job, the government needs more money to care for them. So the government raises taxes again. Now the businesses and their owners have even less money, so more layoffs are needed. Can you see this pattern? So, what must the government do to fix the problem? Well, the government in the past few years has tried flooding the economy with more money. This doesn't seem to have an effect because it devalues the dollar even more and causes even more deflation. My belief is that the government should, like they did in the recession of the 1910s, reduce spending, cut taxes, and deregulate the economy. This keeps the amount of money in the economy the same (thus avoiding a devaluing of the dollar), it allows businesses and their owners to retain more money (thus giving them more to spend on employees, supplies, and more products that help other businesses), and it reduces the control of the government over the market. Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, our government has slowly tightened its grip on the nations economy. Now, the United States is the fastest growing command market in the world. We have lost sight of what our nation was founded on. Rather than complaining about the people richer than you not sharing the wealth, you should be out there making your own fortune. America wasn't built on a handout or welfare system, it was built on the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears of people who wanted to be better than what they were when they started. Remember, if the rich make more money, they spend more money, making more people rich. This nation was founded by people that worked hard for what they had, but it is being torn down by people that refuse to work at all. These people want what the CEOs and Chairmen of the Boards have without the time and effort those people had to put in to get there. You are not born the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you work your entire life to get there, so why can't you spend a million dollars on a toilet. That million dollars gives someone a job. That is the real issue of this election. That is why I must vote against Obama. He simply doesn't have the economic competency to lead this nation. He isn't qualified to be our nations leader.