Let's Not Get Over-Confident

Of course the election is important. We all want to see Obama win. But no matter who is elected, we are still facing a teetering economy.

Top economists have predicted a global economic collapse next year. I know we all want to grasp at every thread of hope - a rise in jobs numbers, a rebounding Wall Street; but we are far from secure. Look at what we're facing:

While 96,000 may have gotten a job last month, how many others didn't get a raise or got one that was not worth the effort? As prices steadily climb, salaries still aren't keeping up. Worker productivity is up and many American companies have made record profits, but hiring and salaries still aren't matching it. And let me make it clear; this isn't Obama's fault, this is the fault of businesses to greedy to share.

Student loan defaults are at $8 billion. This has stimulated a huge boom in the collections industry (upside....jobs). However, all of these people are now deep in debt, unable to pay their loans, which will make buying cars, houses and other things on credit nearly impossible. There is a rising number of college-educated janitors in America. While the banks, government and collections agencies grow rich, our children grow poor.

These two things in and of themselves create enough problem to put a dent in any economic upturn we may like to see. Let's face it, people without money can't spend money. If money can't be spent, the economy doesn't grow. Here's an example: just this past weekend, my husband and I had talked about going to an event held in a city about 30 miles away. Then we changed our minds. A 60 mile round trip meant having to spend money on gas. So we stayed home. And so, vendors at the event lost our money. The event itself lost our money. Any other activity we might have partaken in on the way there or going home lost our money. Hence, the "trickle down" effect of economies hurt by the overpricing of necessity items (food, gasoline, etc.) When those things overtake discretionary spending, the overall economy suffers.

Gasoline prices causes the price of everything to rise, thereby doing even more damage to already fragile household finances.
We've now all become accustomed to gasoline hovering around $4.00 a gallon, but why should we become accustomed? Why should we simply accept this as our fate? This one product, more than anything else, affects every aspect of our lives. It makes some people incredibly wealthy while throwing the majority of the country into a struggling mess. It affects the middle class, the working class, business owners...you name it. If you're spending so much money on gasoline to get to a job that doesn't give you a raise, chances are you'll stop eating out. That means your local restaurant will lose money and will have to lay people off, maybe even close down. Hence, we have more unemployed people. And the trickle down affect goes on and on.

Until we can focus on A cause for our economic problems, we will continue to have them. And, IMO, the price of gasoline should be our number one priority. If we could bring the price of that one product under control, we would see an amazing difference in our overall economic recovery.