Economic Stimulus: Not a Silver Bullet.

simple pleasures

stim⋅u⋅lus
/ˈstɪmyələs/
–noun, plural -li  /-ˌlaɪ/
1. something that incites to action or exertion or quickens action, feeling, thought, etc.: The approval of others is a potent stimulus.

As January posts an unemployment rate of 7.6% and the clamor for things to be done is reaching its height thus far, I fear that the desperation will cause people to fool themselves into thinking that the Economic Stimulus plan is the silver bullet to end all their fears.  That is a huge mistake.   I’ve been reading that there is a lot of argument over whether this will actually help or further sink the economy but what isn’t being mentioned is that it really is more of a choice of doing something or doing the same nothing.  Here’s a link to a Newsweek post on the matter.  Yes this is a huge risk.  It has so many dependencies on it, mostly that the American people and corporations will reverse the fear from the Economic Sinking Ship and take the steps towards rethinking the ways they do things.  Right now, its like watching the rats run to the part of the ship that isn’t sinking into the sea.

Panic.  Fear.  Flight.

This sort of reactionary behavior will not facilitate the possibility of leading ourselves off this ship and live to build a better craft.  Industries need to rethink how they do things to not find themselves in this position.  The people of the land need to rethink the way they live their lives and spend.

The other dependency is the need for the American people to move away from the Baby-Boomer mentality and move towards the Millennial mind set.  Namely, the shift from a top-down paradigm to problem solving to the collaborative, something characteristic of the Millennials.   Most of the articles you find on the comparison is about the differences in the workplace and the buying habits of the 2 groups.  But if you look at the characteristics of each generation, you see that Obama’s effort is dependent on either the existing mindset to move towards the spirit of collaboration and balance or that the Millennials step up and create solutions to the problems of their forefathers.   Some people have called characterized this generation as lazy with a false sense of entitlement.  I don’t believe that.  I believe their priorities are based on their group mentality and social awareness that does not make much sense to a generation where priorities were set by an authoritarian and materialistic society.

But to my original point, this Stimulus is meant to try to facilitate an environment where the solutions will come from the collective strength of the people…not from the head of the government or corporation.  Obama is leading by example in his efforts to reach out to all members of government to assist in rebuilding the Government machine.  At least, he’s trying to attempt to change the way things have been done thus far.  Govt is broken.  The people must help facilitate change from the outside.

The last thing we want to see is a country that is impoverished and falling apart.  To put an illustration to this post, I chose to post a photo of an older homeless man that I met on the streets of SF.  This is someone’s father, uncle, brother, lover or friend.  It could be you.