Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Dollars and Sense

I don't know about any of you, but I am no economist. As a matter of fact, I'm not really that great with money. So it makes it somewhat difficult to completely understand the current circumstances that our country's economy finds itself in. I listened to the press conference given by President Obama on Monday, and as much as I root for Obama to succeed as the President, I couldn't really get with his economic stimulus plan. I mean, the last number that I heard about the bill is that it would cost us around 750 billion dollars. Some of that is to jump start the economy, but there's no guarantee that it will work. According to Vice-President Joe Biden, if we do everything right, there's still a 30% chance that all of the money that we're committing to spending will have no positive effect. That's no good. I mean, if you spend 750 billion dollars, you expect that it will drastically improve your current circumstances.

I heard a little bit of math that will show just how much money 750 billion dollars is. If you were to spend one million dollars a day on every day that has existed since Jesus walked the Earth, you still wouldn't have spent 750 billion dollars. Here's the math. Its 2009, but Jesus died at the age of 33. So its been 1,976 years since then. A million dollars spent every day for a years is 365 million. Multiply that times 1,976, and you come up with $721,240,000,000. Tack on another 494 million dollars to compensate for those extra February 29ths, and you have a grand total of 721 billion, 734 million dollars. Almost 30 billion less than what the stimulus plan calls for. I don't know about you, but when you talk about that kind of math, I'm gonna say that it should have better than a 70% chance of success.

Now I know that some of you are gonna say that Bush asked for nearly the same amount for the TARP fund. (Troubled Assets Relief Program). And though I wasn't exactly in favor of handing out that money, it was on a slightly different scale. As I understand it, the TARP money that has been given out is money that at some point and time, when the banks become profitable again, the Government will be repaid that money. Now don't get me wrong, getting money from the Government is like "borrowing" $100 from your mother. Yes you technically owe her, but if you only give her back say $50, and it takes two months for her to get that, its not like she's gonna send Barry Bonds to take out your knees with one swing. (By the way mom, I know I still owe you, just give me a little more time. Lol). Same thing with the government. As all of this was presented to us on Monday, I also was struck by how unsure President Obama seemed about the whole ordeal. I mean, the brotha is usually cool, calm, and well spoken on matters. To me, it seemed like he was just as unsure, and at a loss about the whole mess. That's not a major problem per se, but the President of the United States is like the coach of a football team. Right now the US is down by 30 at halftime, and that speech was supposed to inspire us to come out and take it to the opponent in the second half. Well, what I gathered from his speech is that we're probably gonna lose. Hell, I almost would have appreciated it more if Barack would've just said "Look, things are bad. Bad to a degree that I can't really comprehend. Now I know that you guys elected me to fix the problem. In turn, I have chosen the best in the business. And I believe in these people. I can't tell you everything that they're gonna do, because much of it is beyond my understanding. But I guarantee you that we're gonna take care of this". Now I know that saying something like that is beyond the scope of most politicians, but it would have made me more confident that we could actually erase this 30 point halftime deficit.

So that's just my take on the current economic crisis. A part of me feels that though things are bad, they're no worse than anything we've faced in the past. The difference is that we as a country have made significant improvement in our quality of life since we last found ourselves in similar circumstances. And though we don't want to admit it, we really screwed up by buying $40,000 cars, and $500,000 homes on student loan inflated $35,000 salaries. Its gonna hurt people, but maybe this is exactly what we needed to get back to living the "right" kind of lives.

-DrizaDre-

18 comments:

Shelly- Mom Files said...

Great post! Congrats on only saying the "n" word 3 times this year. You can do it!!

Jenna Marie Christian said...

I have to co-sign to this post. The current state of the economy is definitely a "self-inflicted" wound :-)

Amber-Alert said...

to me this is not the answer....the only people who can stimulate the economy is us. with things so tight for us it shuts everything else down...people are unemployed, people cant pay their mortgages, people arent spending, etc they need to give us that money not the damn banks. i said this on someone elses blog but months ago on cnn it was reported that with the FIRST bailout every american over the age of 18 could have gotten 400K now i dont kno about u but i could have stimulated the hell outta the economy with THAT. one other thing...people always wanna point the finger at the people who got the loans and yea u should have known that u couldnt afford a 500k house BUT the banks are just as much to blame because they fooled people into thinkin that they could! and hell have u ever been to a closing? no one reads that big ass stack of paper u just sign where they tell u to sign and trust that the real estate agent, mortgage broker, and lawyer at the title company are on ur side. the banks misrepresented themselves they fooled people into thinkin they were gettin into a situation they could handle the banks intentionally lied so people could get bigger loans. the blame needs to be placed on both...and thank GOD im a renter lol.

Miss.Stefanie said...

I just pray the economy gets better :)

Great post BB!!

urbanknitrix said...

Well he could do nothing.

Nothing is not the answer. I agree that people put themselves in alot of situations. I don't understand how you buy a house without reading. I know I read my shit!

Like I said, I hear where you going with living beyond your means, but at the same time giving people loans without paper work was asking for trouble. I saw them being advertised everywhere. Come on, they were eating good off the backs of folks and loved every penny. It was all gravy when the middle class was having issues, but once it hit the big folks they want help. Bush got us in this mess too. The banks were deregulated under HIM.

Obama looking nervous. Well his ass better be. I didn't see it because I was in class, and by time I got home it was a done deal. He is damned if he do and damned if he don't.

Everyone has an opinion. Either they say its too much or they say its not even enough. Imagine it not even being enough. And folks this is just the beginning, the housing market is set to tank again in two years under Obama.

So again, we can do nothing. Or better yet, if people don't think this is the answer how about coming up with some solutions.

Ishea said...

I'm on the same page as "Amber-Alert" but I do own a home and am blessed to have gotten in before the market got inflated. I think it's all about being smart with your money, living below your means and stop "pretend ballin". All the bottles that were popped at the club, rims that were thrown on the overpriced cars, and $300 designer jeans aren't going to get people out of the mess we're in now. I am confident that things will get better but people shouldn't be looking for a quick fix or easy out. The Great Depression lasted over 10 years.

SheBloggs said...

laughin @ Amber..

It did kind of start with the lies, .. I'm just livin and savin, I tryin to keep my head above water...this was a good post though!

♥ CG ♥ said...

Yeah, I agree with you. Just look at the psychology behind the gas 'crisis'. Hurt folks in the pocket and take away access to (relatively) cheap gas and oil and that's a quick way to drive home the harsh reality.

This situation is wrong on so many levels, but I honestly don't think some people will ever fully recover and still believe the ones who should own the responsibility for creating the problem will continue to make money one way or another. The love of money is truly the root of all evil.

Amber Steez said...

wow not gonna lie all them numbers just made my head hurt. lol

thats alot of money..
its sad that the economy is the way it is. so many ppl are without a job but like amber said we cant blame anyone else.

great post

Katrina said...

Very good post! I have absolutely no idea what is going on with our economy and I dont quite understand it either. Its our own fault were like this. I know its my own damn fault Im broke right now...gotta get on my grind now!

I pray everything gets better!!!

Anonymous said...

O OK...NOW WHEN YOU GOT INTO ALL THOSE MATHEMATICAL NUMBERS...i got out of there...lol

Angel said...

Im with Miss.Stefanie I hope that everything gets better in the economy, both yours and mine!

Anonymous said...

I know right...

I owe the government too so I guess that's why I'm not super stoked about the stimulus!

Go.

StarzGazR said...

i'm with amber alert and stefanie- this is a big whole that we have dug ourselves into.. and we gotta figure out a way to crawl out..

but i agree with urbanknitrix what he is trying to do is better then sitting back and doing nothing!!

Countdown To Change... said...

I totally understand what you are saying, I think I would have liked to hear Obama say something to the effect of " hey, im not totally sure, but all will get fixed' but he would have been murdered in the media if he had said that and American would have had a whole other set of issues to worry about. I think he still is the best man for the job, the whole time I was watching, i was saying to myself, if this were John McCain speaking, he would probably go on and on about stuff that has nothing to do with our current status, leaving America in blank stares are cricket sounds in the background.
P.S im glad im not able to leave comments!! YESSS!

clnmike said...

How we spend the money is the reall issue, I agree.

Saved Girl said...

awesome post, great insight.

CC Solomon said...

I'm so confused by it all I can't even pay attention. I'm just like "fix it!" We need to become more self sufficient and stop throwing money at the problem. Make better products, stop relying on foriegn oil. But perhaps this is the only immediate fix he had. Maybe other options would take too long to avoid a disaster.