My Stimulus Plan

For months now I have been reading about how bad our economy is and how it needs to be stimulated and bailed out. Yup things are bad. and the "everyone panic" mode Congress and the media has be trumpeting is only serving to make it worse in my opinion. I am not a expert but it seems to me that once again they are going about it all wrong. Ok let's face it we asked for lower credit standards and we got them. Of course that has had a big impact on where we are today. Along with the corruption of course. the people hold some responsibility for this mess. Ohh there is enough blame to go around. The general public has been living on credit so long they forget that it is not real money. This whole mess reminds me of the college kid who gets their first credit card and goes nuts buying and then is shocked when the bill comes and they realize they actually have to pay for their purchases. Hello America the bill has come due.

I read daily about more and more companies, organizations and states coming with their hand out. Excuse me but these are the people who failed to get it right in the first place so we are going to hand them billions of taxpayer money ( pssst for those of you who don't understand how it works the federal funds they are passing out is actually your money). How many times are we going to sit back and say "it's ok, we understand you weren't planning and it's so easy to get distracted and spoil yourself instead of taking care of your business"? and how much money is enough? The amounts keep growing to unrealistic amounts.

As a parent you learn early on not to reward bad behavior or it will only encourage more bad behavior. It's such a simple concept. Applying it to the business world seems rather simplistic to some but it does apply. On the day my son's graduated high school I gave them both a speech. My younger two children will get it also. It is a speech our government needs to give to the business world. My speech went something like this:

Congratulations.. you are now an adult. You are your own person and your father and I have tried to give you the tools and morals to succeed in this world. I can not tell you what choices to make any longer. I can only offer advice but it is up to you to either take it or not. You will succeed in things and those success are all yours. You own them. No one else can take credit for them. You will also fail at somethings in life. Those failures are also all yours and you can not blame them on anyone else. So be wise in the choices you make in life. Learn from your mistakes and don't repeat them. Learn also from your successes.

In my mind it applies to the business world as well as those private citizens who think the government is should be there to fix it every time the hit hard times or make stupid choices that cost them. You succeed or fail of your own accord. Whatever you do in business or in life is going to have consequences and you must accept both the good and the bad of your choices.

So now to my point.. we are in a mess economically. And because we ignored the problem for so long and let it get so out of control we are going to have to step in for the good of all ( because of the stupidity and irresponsible behavior of a few)and fix this. Throwing billions up on billions at businesses and organizations and projects is not the answer. Here is what I think we need to do. Take all this stimulus money and give every single working American a million dollars. With stipulations of course. They must use the money to pay off existing credit debts they have. Mortgages first. Ta da the banks are back in the red. Credit cards and loans second.. ta da businesses and banks are in the red. Now for those of us who have watched our spending and lived well with in our means.. we get to keep the excess and spend it. Stimulating the economy. Yeah yeah I know to some extent it is still rewarding bad behavior but it just seems to be the simplest way to level the playing field and boost the economy in a quick easy clear cut manner to me.