Common Sense and the Economy

It doesn't take a genius to tell you that something is wrong. Some say that America is in a deep economic recession, and to be sure, times are tough. Some argue against these claims, citing their numbers and facts while avoiding reality, somehow clinging to the hope that things aren't as bad as all that. The problem is that it really is as bad as all that. Something is undeniably amiss when a government is indebted to the tune of nearly $10 trillion. And as with any problem, it is necessary to approach this fiasco from multiple angles, to address not only the What, but also utilize some of the other W's, namely the Who, the Why and the When. It is most important of all, however, to understand the HOW (do we fix it).

The Who should be easy to determine, at least in a broad sense: in a word, the answer to this question is the WORLD. America is indebted to countries all over the planet. To name them specifically would be further enlightening, but not necessary for the purposes of my argument. The point is simple: if we're indebted to the rest of the world, that means the rest of the world (and more to a point, the very wealthiest of the world) owns America. That is not a very comfortable thought to my mind, but a fact that must be faced nevertheless.

The Why is much trickier and far less obvious. As such, I don't have much more than personal inferences to back up my own claims. But my opinion is simple. America was founded on certain ideals that are no longer popular in Washington. Our government has been hijacked by people with an opposing world view. There's no other explanation for how we could have deviated so far from our origins -- none that I will ever subscribe to, anyway.

Regardless of Who might ultimately be behind the fiscal mess in which America and, accordingly, the rest of the world, finds itself, it is necessary to understand this dangerous worldview we now find gaining popularity in the modern political arena, this idea that National Sovereignty is unimportant. Much of Renaissance and Enlightenment political philosophy addresses the importance of National Sovereignty, and our own Constitution is built around those revolutionary ideas, as well as the foundational underscore of Freedom for all citizens. The only thing that could possibly drive our leaders to sell their own country, which is exactly what has happened, is a parting of ways from this ideology.

This catastrophic worldview can be seen, readily, throughout the political scene. We no longer focus on fixing our own problems, whether it's economic, educational, military, or social, in nature; instead we've been coerced into believing that we have a duty to fix the rest of the world's problems first. I agree that the whole world must work together in this environment of globalization, but they must do so as independently sovereign states, able to freely speak for themselves.

This mentality saturates our media as well, which is no mistake by my reckoning. Whether advocating reconstruction by force as per the terribly unfortunate current events in Iraq or advocating reconstruction by more outwardly peaceful means, which usually amounts to throwing money at a problem (money we don't actually have, mind you), the media assumes we don't know an alternative to nation-building.

The point is it isn't our responsibility. And even further than that, these people who have come to depend on our government's handouts (read: your and my tax money) are human beings just like the rest of us. To assume that these cultures do not possess the same potential for a free and just society that we had at our nation's founding is both immoral and racially crude, based, in my opinion, on the same style of ludicrous research as early eugenics, which aided Hitler's genocidal thinking, and action. This mentality has the potential to stop civil rights advances in their tracks, something this nation cannot afford.

When you think about it, excessive foreign aid makes a lot of sense, seeing as how America no longer owns itself. Hmm, I think there's another word for not owning oneself... what was it again? Oh, that's right: Slavery. It's past time America broke free of its proverbial shackles and once again owned its own destiny.

Stay tuned for more on this topic, namely the When and the HOW (I need to do more research).