money

There's a lot of turmoil in the US and the world right now about money. Especially among those who have been use to having sufficient if not more than sufficient funds to enjoy life as they are accustom to.

Truth be told, money has been an issue for at least 2/3's of the world for most of the 20th Century. We accepted in the US a level of around 5% unemployment as ok. We thought we could never get everyone employed. But we never developed the infrastructure of an economic system or governmental system that would truly help those who were part of the permanently unemployed. In fact, we played as more of a moral issue "they are lazy...they could find work if they tried." Yet, many of those of us who made those comments weren't in ongoing relationships with any if a majority of those folks who made up that "5%."

Well now, we are way up over 5%. And the welfare system works! Hallelujah! Folks who were leaders of companies who have tanked or been folded in to other companies in many cases received their millions in bonuses. Even when those bonuses came from federal bail out money.

Now, I don't think any of those are lazy. In fact, I suspect most of them worked hard. But I also don't think that any of the permanently unemployed folks are any more lazy than these newly unemployed or underemployed.

I think the best form of a bailout is to feed the funds to local yokel folks who have credit card debt and are behind on mortgages. Allow them to pay down their debt, which increases their opportunity to be more avid consumers again, and that then feeds the money to the banks and financial service businesses who hold those cards and mortgages. "Trickle down" has had its day since the Reagan era. Let's try "trickle up" for a while. It can't be any worse.

David Loar
United Church of Christ
money
Akron Ohio