Fixing the Economy

3-30-09 patriotic brain

I don’t write much about “politics” yet in my blog, probably because I was burnt out from all that went on last year. In Iowa, the Presidential campaigning really started in 2007 as candidates spend time in Iowa preparing for first primary run off which was the Iowa Caucus held Jan 2008.




I was deeply involved even back in 2007 when Greg and I hosted a John Edwards campaign worker (Heather) for December 2007 up to the Caucus.

Heather was a very intelligent and interesting gal who we fell in love with. Heather is my “six degree of separation” link to many well known people. She even drove Kevin Bacon around Iowa as he was campaigning for Edwards at that time. She then went on to work for Obama.

I’m leading up to an email (humorous? or serious? or both?) sent by my cousin last week concerning the big news story of the day: "Fixing the Economy". What I found amusing were some of the responses I got back when I forwarded this one to others.

The original Email was:
This was an article from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?"

Patriotic retirement:
There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations.
1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.
2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.
3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

Responses I receive back were:

This is good! (from KRD)

He has forgotten one very small detail. Most of us will need that money just to REPLACE the money we have lost in our IRA's that we used to have and were planning to use for retirement anyway. That aside, not a bad idea. Why don't you forward it to Nancy Pelosi. She seems to like to spend our money.

An even better thought just occurred to me. I wonder how many Congress people are 50 or over? That would also be a grand way to wipe that slate clean and start over. (from TM)

Who’s doing to pay for my health insurance if I retire early? Will I get Medicare early? (I wrote that)

Then my witty and wise husband wrote:
So let me see if I get this right...The Baby Boomers -- one of the most privileged generations in the history of the world -- now each deserve $1M each to retire early. The 'Me' generation certainly has not broadened it's perspective over the years. GSB (a Gen-X'er, obviously)

Greg’s reply got me thinking about something I read last night, and MAYBE as Boomers, we need to start thinking of others more than we do. Can we re-learn and teach the next generation about SERVICE? or is it too late us?

I slept and dreamt that life was joy,
I woke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold,
Service was joy.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)