That Great Money Machine in the Sky

The economic news continues to be bad, and I am constantly amazed why government officials are so surprised. It’s very simple, until some normalcy returns into the country’s financial life, banks will be reluctant to lend, businesses will be reluctant to expand, entrepreneurs will be reluctant to take risks, and consumers will be reluctant to spend. The rule of the day, preserve what you got because you never when “they” will be coming to take it away from you.

For the economy to work, there have to be rules. People have to know what to expect. And the Obama administration has turned the rules upside down. A friend of mine said it best, it’s like everything is backwards. What concerns me the most is I am hearing this from places where I shouldn’t be hearing it, and from people who have rarely say anything at all political. They don’t understand what is going on, and they are afraid of what is going on. The contrarians among us will say that is a good sign. Don't bet the rent.

President Obama and his cohorts in Congress just don’t get it. There isn’t some big money machine in the sky that continually pours out its bounty on America. America’s wealth comes from Americans that work. And Americans won’t work if the government is going to take what they make away from them. The least scintilla of government abuse of power will cause these folks to pull back. We have more than a scintilla. If I have heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times. If the government can takeover GM, what can they do to me? No matter what the motivation of the government, what has happened is inherently un-American, and the population is beginning to sense it.

That doesn’t even begin to tap into the growing fear of increased taxes, increased energy costs, increased inflation, and increased interest rates. All of these are legitimate fears.

A client of mine is the epitome of an entrepreneur. He and his family work in several separate but related businesses. They work 12 hours/day, 6 days/week in the most basic of American undertakings…buying and selling surplus merchandise. These guys know one thing, hard work. But the client said to me today “I just don’t get it. What is the government doing? These people work for us, or at least they used to, and I am deeply concerned.” And that pretty much sums it up.

Deeply concerned is an understatement. No one will do much of anything if they think the government is going to tax and spend us into the poorhouse. I don’t think that President Obama is a bad man. He is a creature of his upbringing and his experience. He attended private school growing up on scholarships. He attended undergraduate schools on scholarships. The attended law school on scholarships. Throughout it all, he was at the receiving end of racism while watching the benefits of privilege. When he finished his education, he went to work as a community organizer, which basically lobbied to take money from one group of people and give it to another.

Now, as President, he continues his redistributive ways. That is what he knows; all the while thinking the pot of money at the end of the industrial rainbow will never run out. Even his stimulus package is based on social fairness rather than projects that will generate hard jobs that use concrete and steel. They don’t need any more jobs for white construction workers. Nowhere is there any incentive for business start ups, business expansion, and job growth and creation.

Meanwhile, those of us down here in the real world are scratching to make a living, reluctant to take the chances that will make this country grow again, and wondering whether or not the government will ever realize that in order for that big money machine in the sky to work, it has to prime the pump with some incentive.