State of the Union

Just for you Lynnette :-P

I'm alive.

Almost done my final term of school!!

Life is good.

Soo...The other night I was watching the State of the Union address and I was struck by a few things. The environmental stuff is a bit scary because everyone is just getting on the bandwagon and forgetting to take their brains with them and think through this stuff and how it is going to affect the country.

Another thing that I found a bit worrisome was the "stimulation package" that is supposed to help reduce the effects of the coming recession. Why am I worried about it when it involves things like tax cuts (which I like :)? simply because tax cuts without corresponding budget cuts are not tax cuts at all but merely tax deferrals. Also, stimulation ultimately won't correct the economic problems that have led to a recession, and they may in fact make it worse in the long run. The government can't create jobs and productivity (i.e. as much as some people would like you to believe to the contrary, the government is not God, and so it cannot create wealth out of nothing...all it can do is artificially redistribute(and waste)wealth). The whole speech talked about how we need to trust the people, so lets trust them to do what is best. Let people make their own decisions without clouding reality over with an artificial 'stimulation package' that is only going to fool people into doing something that really doesn't make sense. This may prop up the economy for a period of time; however, eventually people will catch on to what is really going on at which point the recession will hit harder than ever.

Oh and a little advice here. Don't believe the talking heads on TV who try to tell you that you have a moral responsibility to spend money in order to spend our way out of a recession. Investing your money stimulates the economy just as much as buying a new computer with it does. Either way you are contributing to new jobs since that invested money is used by someone to start a business or build a house or something else that stimulates economic growth. You have no moral duty to spend your way out of a recession, and savings can help you get through it. Don't forget that savings are a good thing to have :)

One other note: Stop and think about what aid to Africa really means in terms of ending poverty.

It wasn't all negative though. I really liked Bush's stand again 'Pork barrel' or special interest funding.

There I posted. Happy? :)

Dave Westy