Must follow rules of supply, demand
There is talk of another Stimulus Package. Here we go again, borrowing from China and adding to the national debt. This is a country living on credit as a way of life, both individually and nationally. Who will benefit? When will we learn?
"Trickle-down economics" does not work and got us into this trouble. It is a concept to benefit only the wealthy. The concept is to give the money to the wealthy in the form of tax breaks or subsidies to business and they will then use the money to create new business and new jobs. What? There is already an oversupply of products and services on the market and companies are laying off people. Create more products and services? Who is going to buy them? It doesn't take an economist to figure out the problem is not on the supply side. The problem is people have run out of money and credit to buy which has created the lack of demand, not a lack of supply.
We have spent a trillion and half dollars in stimulus money to bail out the executives of Wall Street, the banks and the companies in the auto industry. All of this after Bush's enormous tax break without cutting expenses, and of which 95 percent of the benefit of the cut went to the wealthy. Yes, all with borrowed money from China. This strategy of borrowing money from China and giving it to the wealthy will not create more demand, nor will it turn the economy around. It will only create huge inflation in the near future, which is a terrible tax especially on seniors and the middle class.
A trillion and a half dollars divided by 300 million people is $5,000 for every man, woman and child in America, or $20,000 for a family of four. Stimulus? If we're going stimulate the economy, give it in the form of tax cuts or stimulus to the people who will spend it immediately on the existing oversupply: the middle class. Can you imagine how fast the economy would have turned around if the people had that money to spend? Demand would have gone up for products and services, and jobs wouldn't have been lost, nor companies shut down. I believe that demand must always come ahead of supply. In the long run, the wealthy can only benefit with a healthy middle class, and that cannot happen shipping our jobs and money to China. Only trickle up economics at this time can achieve that, and we need to get back to a pay-as-you-go economy, both individually and nationally. America is in serious trouble until we change our approach to credit, supply and demand.
Leo A. Dietrich
Lake Villa