From this article about the financial emergency in California...
"It is now a revenue problem rather than a spending problem,"... the state's economic condition has deteriorated significantly since the budget was approved, with a cratering stock market and the continued decline of the housing industry... California's budget relies greatly on capital gains taxes, which have dropped precipitously in recent months as stock prices have plummeted... California's unemployment insurance fund, which helps those tossed out of work pay their bills, is expected to be insolvent by January... $4.5 billion in cuts will be necessary across all state programs, including education, social services, health care and prisons.
We might live on Main Street, but make no mistake, a large chunk of the groceries are delivered from Wall Street. It seems that most people still don't really want to hear that. Right now it's not a matter of whether or not that should be the case, it's simply a matter of fact. We're all connected. One fat cat gets flattened by an unregulated taxi on Wall Street, and one student in California is denied tuition assistance. A corporation in New York bites the dust, and unemployed workers are denied food stamps in a small town thousands of miles away. Yet most of our elected officials seemed to have no understanding about who would be hurt if the government was not allowed to intervene in the situation. Worse than that, most of them did not WANT any understanding even when it was made available. They preferred to pretend that their preconceived notions, however myopic, should stand. God forbid anyone should grow the balls to break with rhetoric and cross a party line to convey an unpopular truth to their constituents, right? I really think economics should be better taught in schools. Oh, wait... we can't do that. We have to cut education.
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Some days I feel like I'm living sometime between October 1929 and March 1930.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think many people feel that way. The good news is, that extreme has been avoided. With lucky timing, we have a Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, who is a scholar of The Great Depression. It does seem that things were allowed to come to the brink, but we have some who know through careful study what steps to take to avoid the worst of it. It is very true that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. We have some people working for us who HAVE learned from history. The actions that are happening now, are the same ones that brought recovery AFTER the depression. We can skip that part. It will still be hard, but we're going to be okay. We must be patient and not lose hope to the pessimists.
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