A Glance at our Economy

The recent economy has become a very dark and dismal scene. This comes after a time of great economic growth and prosperity, further intensifying the severity of the situation. To some, this economic downturn appeared to come out of nowhere, this could not be further from the truth. The most convenient scapegoat for these times is the president, which coincidentally happens to be George W. Bush. Though he played a very minimal part in the events that lead us here, he is receiving all of the blame. Barack Obama is being hailed as the savior to all of our economic and financial woes. “It’s time for a change,” people say. I agree, however, I am sorry to say that Barack Obama will not be able to fix our problems.

Before you stop reading and call this an Anti-Obama article, I must tell you that that is not in the least what this is. I simply wish to explain what got us into this situation we are in and how no one person will get us out. It is common knowledge that in bad times, the President gets much more blame than they deserve. Furthermore, in good times the President receives much more credit than is due. Believe it or not, Bush is not responsible for this fiasco, nor could he do much to deter it. This was set into motion years and years ago when we became a society based almost entirely on credit.

Credit, when used in moderation and with discretion, can be a very powerful purchasing tool, as well as a good economic tool. The problem is, we are a materialistic society. Simply put, we love to have stuff and we love the idea of getting it now and paying for it later. “Who cares how much it costs, I’m sure well find some way to pay for it later.” The interesting thing about the credit equation is that it is exponential in nature. This problem was hardly noticeable at first, a few late bills here, maybe some missed payments there, nothing major. Then, the problem began to snowball. Before we knew it there were more and more families who could barely make the minimum payments on their bills simply because the racked up to much debt buying nothing more than “stuff.” Now, this on its own would have brought down the economy in time but this next event came at the complete wrong time and expedited this entire process.

The economy, like everything, follows a cycle. There are good times and bad times, peaks and troughs. The nineties was an incredible peak. Everything seemed great, there were jobs everywhere and plenty of credit to go around. Unfortunately, it had to trough sometime and this came right when the credit problem was beginning to rear it’s ugly head. All of the sudden, jobs were being lost, hours were being cut, those minimum payments there were barely being made before were not being made at all now. People began to default on their mortgages and lose their homes. This also began the cycle of people having less money to spend, therefore buying less, therefore resulting in less income for businesses, which employ individuals. This is the vicious cycle of the down economy. As I said before, this is a normal occurrence in an economy but it was severely intensified by our reliance on credit.
This all began to happen within the first two years of George W. Bush’s presidency, which made him a very convenient target for all of the blame. Since the credit monster was small and hidden in the Clinton era, and we were at a peak in economic times, Bill Clinton was hailed as a great economical leader and George W. Bush as a failure. Bush was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Had Al Gore been elected in the 2000 election, he would be the “Man Who Brought Down the Economy,” instead of Bush.

Now the people look to Barack Obama for help. It is said that he is for the middle class, and will bring new hope to the economy. This looks good on paper but the simple problem to this is it just is not that easy. The middle class citizens who are so quick to blame Bush for all of their problems forget that they put themselves in this situation on their own. We became too greedy and spend money that we did not have. Really, we are getting what we deserve right now and should take this all as a very valuable lesson. The reason Barack Obama will not be able to fix this problem is not because he has a bad economic plan, it is simply because he does not posses the power to. The only people that can fix our economic problem is the people themselves. Until we realize that restraint must be used in a credit society, we will have unimaginable economic problems. Obama’s tax plan looks good to the middle class but it will solve absolutely nothing, just as John McCain’s plan would have done.

Those individuals who are so quick to blame Bush for our economy and praise Obama, saying he will save us, need to take a step and look at the whole picture. The concept that one man could make such a difference is completely ludicrous. The best-laid economic plans will not solve our dire problem now. We are too deep into this. The only way out is for people to realize how we got here instead of spending all of their time deciding whom to point the finger at. Only then will we be able to enjoy the economic 1times we had in the nineties.