With all the money our wonderful government has been throwing around lately – bailouts, cash for clunkers, and even the cash for appliances thing coming up soon – we have to wonder just where they’re getting this kind of money. One belief is that they are simply turning to printing off new money, which has no value to it. Or you may think it’s our tax dollars. Well, I’m sure it could be partially, but thinking about all this from a rational viewpoint, our government has no money. Taxes come out of our checks, the money goes to the government, and yet our government is worth nothing. They have nothing. Let’s do the math for a minute (and I’m not really going to literally sit down and do all the math – it’d take way too long). Our lovely government owes who-knows-how-much to other countries (the actual numbers can be found through the Census Bureau’s web site I believe – I found them somewhere once upon a time).
Oh, we can’t forget that our economy sucks right now, and isn’t going to get better anytime soon.
It’s funny how everyone turns to our broke government for financial help when the economy is bad.
No, I’m not screaming government is totally bad. All I’m saying is our wonderful leaders of this country have been making shitty decisions for quite some time now.
It may not make our economy do a complete 360 turn-around, but I have wonderful advice on how we can all begin to fix this.
You shop at Wal-Mart for everything right? Or nearly everything? I mean, why not? I do. It’s a convenient one-stop-shop for nearly everything you need. Well, stop, or at least pay attention to where items are made before you purchase them. Many are made from China, right? How does it help OUR economy by purchasing things made from another country?
Have you ever stopped to pay attention to all the things you buy from different stores? I would make a good guess and say that most of us buy things which aren’t made in America.
Oh, but it’s cheaper to buy things made from other countries most of the time. And, I’m sure, depending on the item, other countries may do better work at making it in the first place. All may be true. The cost of buying things from other countries is typically less than if you were to buy American made items, but other than giving employees a reason to be at work, you’re not helping our economy.
We need to start helping out those in our own town. As much as I hate to say it – help out your neighbors by eating at a franchise establishment rather than a chain restaurant like Ruby Tuesday or McDonalds. Or buy your own food from locally owned places and cook it yourself.
My brother refuses to go to the large, practically brand new car wash in town because it’s not locally owned and operated. Instead, he goes to the run-down car wash down the street that has a laundry mat attached to it because it is locally owned and operated.
I know many people who enjoy going to Goodwill to shop around and what not. I support what Goodwill does to a certain extent, but I don’t normally go there to buy things. Why? Because a portion of what they make goes to pay their employees when I could just go down the street to the thrift store operated by non-paid volunteers where all the money made goes to local charity and the Church.
Helping out your neighbors doesn’t stop there.
Take some time out to volunteer for a local cause or donate to charity if you can afford to. If you can’t afford to donate money, think about donating some of your old clothes or belongings to a local thrift store or someone you know who may need them rather than simply having a yard sale. Yard sales aren’t a bad option at all. Consider having one or consider shopping at yard sales to find clothes or other things you or someone you know may need. After all, if someone else has already purchased the items made from China, no more money is going to China by you re-purchasing the same items from someone’s yard sale.
Moral of the story? Do something to help. If we all stop depending on the government for help, maybe our government could eventually come out of the large amount of debt they’ve buried themselves under. Maybe, one day in the far future, they can actually afford to do something smart without devaluing a dollar.
What do you do to help out?
No comments:
Post a Comment