The “New Generation” needs to speak up!

The Environmental Defense Fund is asking for our help again. They have begun a campaign to ensure that Global Warming, Alternative Energy and other Environmental issues are included in the presidential debates, and not pushed to the wayside by typical politics. Think about what concerns us most, especially if you are in Generation X or a Millenial. This economy and multi-trillion dollar debt will affect our lives and our retirement, and add to that the possibility of ever-changing weather due to climate change, and we face some major issues as the Baby Boom retires. We need to make sure that our issues are heard, so we have a clear choice of who will lead us into the future.

The current administration has stalled our growth by reducing spending on capital in the science and technology sector, and we need to get it back before the rest of the world catches up or surpasses us. In Europe, they are in the large-trial stages of stem-cell transplants, and in the Scandinavian region, countries have tidal power, geo-thermal power, hydro-electric power, wind and solar power. Feeling a little behind? Well, they are also driving on electricity, CNG, and ever-reducing their dependence on foreign oil. One of the reasons Japan lost WWII was an oil embargo against them. How would you function if the world all of a sudden had a beef against us, and decided not to sell us oil?

Alternative Energy sources are a major part of National Security, and this administration has ignored it. Sign the petition to keep the Environment on the list of issues during the Presidential Debates.

In ECON 201 today, I became more depressed about the state of the US economy. I wish I could put my 401K money under the mattress right now, but I'm going to "ride it out" like the "experts" keep telling me to. This $700 billion bail-out is absurd. Instead of thinking what is "bad or good" for the economy, think of it as "easy or difficult." The bail-out is the "easy" way out, which is not always best in the long run. Think about it – stopping terrorism "over there" instead of dealing with it "over here" seemed like an easy answer, but look at where it got us in the long run. Are we any safer from domestic terrorists than we were 7 years ago?

Bailing-out the banks is an easy way to STABILIZE the market for RIGHT NOW. It does not guarantee the prevention of a slide in the near future. It will only "open up" the credit market, or so they "speculate." It will not prevent a recession – at 6.1% unemployment we are already 1.1% ABOVE the "preferred" unemployment rate, therefore we are already in a recession. The bail-out will create inflation, as it makes the dollar weaker. It will make it harder to buy the essentials, much less pamper ourselves with Starbucks and HBO. And as a Gen-Xer, I can live every day for the rest of my life, knowing that my 5 member family donated $10,000 to corrupt bankers who made horrible decisions, so their credit market could be re-opened. Every day, for the rest of my life – I really hope my kids forgive us if we let this happen. If you haven't written to your Congressmen/women or Senators, do it now.

Think about it, if every "bad" mortgage was re-negotiated at lower interest rates, people could afford their mortgages, the banks would end up getting most of their return on investment, and real-estate would not sit empty as homelessness rises. It is difficult for the banks to sit on their bad debts and wait over the long run for a return on those investments. So they would rather the US taxpayer buy those bad mortgages, re-posses the properties, and hope that someone buys them as they sit, empty, at prices just out of reach of many Americans. How strange would it look to the rest of the world as houses sit empty while "Bushvilles" pop up across the nation?

If you look at the raw basics of this crisis, it is not a difficult decision to let "Lassiez faire," or let the markets be free, in good times and in bad. And if the big boys can't play right, then they need to share the profits with the debt-holders. At least raise the tax rate back to what it was in 1999, and start paying off some of the debt that already exists.

– $ 9,795,674,339,326