Alright. We get it: the housing market is in a slump, foreclosures are high, credit is tight, stocks are down and oil is up. The soaring price of black gold is straining every aspect of American life from middle class Americans to multimillion dollar conglomerates. Many experts, analysts and investors are sure that as the sun is hot, the U.S. is in a recession. But Uncle Sam didn't just wake up one day in the midst of troubled times. When did we (the American people) decide that the economy was so bad? The answer: when the media said so. The media is merely the beast that feeds itself. By constantly reminding everyone that the economy is bad, 'the beast' feeds the public, manifesting fear; causing panic thus worsening the economic situation and, in turn, giving 'the beast' more bad news to report about the economy. But did anyone do more than accept the negative economic climate, such as question the validity of the claim? Did anybody ask how and when the economy took a turn for the worst? Well, some did. I wonder what those few discovered though. See, I'm not sure because nobody filled me in. Maybe nobody did ask after all.
And did anybody else note the ever-so impeccable timing of the bad news? As Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama fight til the death for the Democratic nomination, President Bush prepares for his White House goodbye. Certainly the prospect of a slumping economy occurring during the Bush tenure doesn't give Democrats any ammunition in their fight to win the White House. And certainly the bad news doesn't give Democrats someone, or something to blame. And certainly this someone, or something to blame is not conservative, right? Did the democrats make it up to exploit voters? I wouldn't put it past them, but no, they didn't come up with the bad economic forecast. But much like a guy with lemons, they are making lemonade. Ah, another evil that merely fuels the fire.
I believe there misconceptions in this situation that are creating both a divide between parties and uncertainty among Americans. At the end of the day, the GOP and the Dems aren't that different; we all want the same things, but it is how we go about getting it that divides us. Another fallacy: Republicans are rich and therefor their interest in a tumbling economy, is just that, theirs, not the American people. Did it ever occur to anyone that the economic situation may actually hurt the big, bad wealthy Republicans the most? And did anyone stop to wonder what it would be like if the economy never slumped? The strength of a free market is also the weakness. If the economy never fell, than it would never rise either. Maybe things are bad right now, but playing victim all the time is tiring.
And of course gas prices are pinching everyone, but haven't they always? When gas rose to $2 a gallon, we were outraged, at $3 we went ballistic, and now at nearly $4, well you get the picture. Our dependency on oil, thus our dependency on foreign oil, is the culprit but we have to lay in the bed we made.
As far as foreclosures, key interest rates, credit crisis, tightened loans, net profit losses and futures, buyouts, mergers and takeovers, and any other Washington jargon, I don't know the solution, or the problem for that matter. But I do know that as a society we have so blindly accepted the notion of a bad economy, and on what grounds? ... Because the media said so?
All I contend is that we take the economic situation with a grain of salt, recognizing that the sheer act of claiming its weaknesses and failures only worsens the blow.
