I was speaking with a friend of mine the other day and had a really difficult time getting a message through.
She believes that the reason our country is in such financial difficulty is because we "keep giving money away", and we should just stop it, starting with the auto makers. I tried to tell her, it just doesn't work that way.
Let's say we let 'The Big 3' sink. That's hundreds of thousands of people who lose their jobs, hundreds of thousands more who lose their pensions or suffer income cuts. These people land on unemployment and would not make enough to keep their homes, so foreclosures go up. Banks would be faced with a ton of bad debt and property they can't get rid of, and they would fail. More people would be out of work and without benefits. These same hundreds of thousands of people would not be spending money, buying luxury items like cars or cell phones, perhaps not even able to pay their utilities or get groceries, so more and more businesses would fail. More people out of work, more people not spending, more people on unemployment or in welfare lines. Taxes would increase because who is going to support all these people who are on unemployment and working? The ones who still have jobs. Of course, those that still have jobs would be faced with higher taxes and higher prices for things, so they also will spend less, donate less to charitable organizations, and more businesses would fail, and more people would be out of work...it goes on.
And while this is all oversimplified, you can't just say "let them sink" without affecting everyone, absolutely everyone. It works the same for helping other countries; our country's economy is inextricable from that of others. We do not operate in a vacuum.
She claims our President has broken all his promises - didn't he promise to get us out of this economy mess and didn't he promise to bring our boys home? Yes, he did, but things like that don't happen overnight. Instant gratification just isn't going to happen. She thinks that all President Obama has to do is make a phone call and everything will be okay. I just can't get it through...IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY. Immediately withdrawing our troops and immediately withdrawing all aid to other countries would start a war, at the very least.
Speaking with someone who has their mind made up is incredibly frustrating. I still say, give President Obama a chance. He hasn't even been in office three full months.
Michael said... You cannot reason with an ideologue. And you cannot pry them away from the poison tit of right wing hate radio,where their every prejudice is validated. Better to spend your time with folks who are open to life and love.
