Irresponsible Reporting
I ran across a ridiculous CNNMoney article: Why saving is killing the economy. Are you kidding me?! Now that the economy sucks, people are finally starting to do the right thing and save for purchases (and pay down debt) instead of leaning on an endless supply of credit. I’m pretty sure saving is not how we got into the current mess! In fact, it was spending and greed that led us here. The article contains a few quotes along the lines of “people need to spend right now, not save!” That’s just stupid. Yeah, let’s spend more money to fix the economy that we broke by overspending in the first place! (Hmm.. sounds like the stimulus plan, doesn’t it?)
The situation we’re in demands action - but not the kind of action the government wants to take. Individuals saving money, paying down debt, and solidifying their own financial situation is the only true fix, IMO. And yeah, that means the entire economy will slow down for awhile. Bummer. When it comes back it’ll come back solid. The stimulus plan and all the cries to keep spending are like trying to fix a leaning, wobbly tower by building more floors on top that lean left or right a little bit to offset the mess below. Maybe we’ll manage it this time, although I’m not so sure. What about next time? Next time we’ll have to balance the new against the original mess as well as the mess we’re making now. What we really need to do is knock the damn tower over and build a proper foundation again.