My high school class recently was given the opportunity to meet our current County Executive. She spoke to us about our local, state and national governments. A big problem that came up in all three was debt. Debt plays a large role on the national level because this is what the state and local governments feed off of. This problem of national debt is increasing in size by the day. Both, American citizens and American officials cannot seem to keep their hands out of debt. Our country is currently in over $12 trillion in debt from failing to pay back other countries, and personal debt from our citizens. We need to educate our citizens and help them understand that conserving personal and corporate spending can go a long way.
The Great Depression could be described as the starting point from national debt. Throughout that time period, Roosevelt tried to deficit the government's spending. This plan worked for a short while, but he eventually stopped around 1937. This is when the economy nose-dived and all of our money went down the drain. When all of our money was gone, we did not stop spending, we kept spending. Our country's economy is running on debt to this day, and has to be paid back over decades. Many presidents after Roosevelt had numerous attempts to reform the debt, but only small dents were made. President Obama recently issued the economic stimulus package that was designed to create jobs, and decrease our debt. For instance, one part of the package is that businesses will get "bonus" depreciation for investing in new plants and new equipment. This plan itself is $125 billion bigger than the controversial bailout for the financial-services industry. It will eventually restore our economy to some extent and in the end reduce our national debt tremendously.
I agree with Obama's plan for the most part, because in order to crack the national debt, we need an unemployment rate at its lowest ever. We also need to get the citizens to stop spending frivolously. We have to educate our citizens and let them know that our debt has to be decreased now because we eventually will become too far into debt, and it would be impossible to get out. In order to get the American citizens to believe in saving money instead of spending, we need to offer incentives. Incentives such as a couple that clears 30 percent or more of their credit card debt should be eligible for a tax reduction from the government. By simply conserving money that is spent on unnecessary items, huge amounts of money can be saved.
In conclusion, everyone knows about our country and its debt, but no one seems to want to do anything about it. The government needs to step up and offer more incentives for “smart savers,” that are trying to do well not only for themselves, but for their country. President Obama is doing all that he can, but he needs some moral support from his citizens.
Sources:
1)http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123202946622485595.html
2)http://zfacts.com/p/318.html
3)http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
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3 comments:
A smart savers plan is a really good idea for getting out of debt.
I liked this writing. To cut debt we have to cut spending. We can't do this in a nation where everyone feels entitled and everyone screams when we cut any program. For example, if we cut your program, you would complain. Likewise if we cut special education, or gym, or music, or art. And that's just in education. When you consider ALL of the government there is no one with the courage to cut spending.
I would tend to agree with you that more incentive plans would have an overall positive effect, as long as they are chosen wisely. We must be careful, of course, because incentive plans certainly do increase our debt in the short-term. If they don't end up paying off, we have not created any value for ourselves and have, in fact, rapdily increased the deficit. However, I think Obama's willingness to spend, as long as it is done intelligently, is a breath of fresh air. There has been far too much short-term, short-sighted thinking in the past few decades.
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