"Unprecendented Times"

Yesterday I read yet another article on Google News predicting the end of the United State's position as the #1 economy.  That followed an article about how close we are as a nation to defaulting on our debt.  Near that was an article about how when people travel to the United States, they are likely disappointed by what they see (especially, the article asserted, when they turn on the television).  Everything I read states how we are, in the mind of the author, in the worst times in the history of the country.  I have two responses to that:  1) as compared to what? and 2) are you serious?  Here are my thoughts on this:

Currency - The value of the dollar has dropped.  Because of the fear of what may happen, people are investing in commodities.  OK.  What other currency will everyone agree on?  Prior to the devastating earthquake and Tsunami that occurred in March, I had heard that the Yen might be the new currency.  Look at how quickly that changed.  China is an emerging threat, but the Euro is established and agreed to by a majority of Europe.  Also, I cannot imagine the Arab countries agreeing to use another "Western" standard.  The U.S. Dollar emerged in the mid-20th century as the standard and it stuck.  Changing standards is difficult and introduces uncertainty.  The global economy is not excited about uncertainty, as demonstrated by the markets.  Seems to me that people moving towards commodities indicates that they are hesitant to invest in another currency and rather distrust anything not tangible.  Our dollar used to be backed by gold and silver - perhaps it will return. 

U.S. Debt - I'm reading that we are close to defaulting on our national debt.  Standard & Poors downgraded the U.S.  To me, that's a dumb move because that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.  News reports that financial markets or a particular institution is weak tends to just make that problem worse because what confidence was left is shattered.  During WWII, there were posters that said "loose lips sink ships".  I'd argue that playing fast and loose with announcements ruins economies.  But that doesn't make for a nice poster and the news media has effectively destroyed patriotism.  By the way - this isn't the first time the U.S. has been close to a default.  It happened most recently in 1995.  How quickly we forget.  If you don't believe me - see this article:  http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/25/what-would-clinton-do/.  Amazingly, if you look at the current developments, the Congress is going back to some of the tools that were used to diffuse the last situation.  At least someone is paying attention to history.  Finally, I'll share some insight from my Economics professor at DU - whose class I took in 1995 when this issue was in the forefront.  He said "if the U.S. was a person who was walking along and dropped a trillion dollar bill on the street, he wouldn't bend over to pick it up."  We all sat there looking at this guy like he was crazy.  Then he explained.  He had served as a consultant to one office in one building on one military base.  There were 5 people in the office and they had a billion dollar budget for the year - 5 people had one billion of the federal budget to spend.  Having been a public auditor now for 13 years, I can corroborate his experience.  I have seen small governmental agencies whose audit materiality (what we would consider important enough to change our audit opinion) for a single year's audit was in the millions.  The threshold beneath which we would even consider it worth our time to test an asset was more than most Americans will see in a decade.  The size of the U.S. economy is massive.  I'm not saying I like the current debt levels, but we are not in danger of a massive financial collapse that will end up with all of us standing in line for bread anytime soon.  That leads me to the next item...

Food supply - I recently saw a commercial saying that 1 in 4 children in the U.S. are facing hunger.  I'd like to know what "facing hunger" means.  Does it mean that they really don't have enough food?  If so, say that.  My guess is, however, that the situation is that by some statistic, they don't meet a certain standard.  I've been hungry before - my Mom and I were broke from 1980 to 1986.  We worked two extra jobs to make ends meet.  But we were hungry by U.S. standards.  I was still on the growth charts, just skinny.  And I was not facing health issues.  Our grandparents told us more accurate stories of true hunger during the Great Depression.  They ate lard sandwiches.  I have never had to stoop to eating lard sandwiches.  A recent Qwest commercial shows a family having to choose between internet and cable services because of the hard times.  Boo hoo.  At least it's not a choice between who amongst the family gets to eat today.  I challenge the U.S. hungry to be compared to the hungry in Africa or India.  We have how many shows on TV about the obesity problems in the U.S.?  Our access to food is unlike so many other nations.  And the "Extreme Couponing" shows on TV demonstrate that you can feed a family of 5 for less than $160 a month!  The tools exist in this country.  Our access to clean water is also unprecendented.  We all take for granted that our water supply is just here.  Again, travel to areas of South America where U.S. teams come with supplies to teach them how to take their horrible water supplies and make it clean.  We just have to turn on a faucet.  Heck, we play in it!  Waterworld and Elitches's water park have remained open during our "Crisis".  Finally, I urge folks to do research on how many farming families get paid NOT TO GROW a certain crop (Federal subsidies used to manipulate the price of agricultural commodities).  I credit my husband's small town upbringing for enlightening me to this.  If a crisis really materializes in the U.S., those folks can start growing! 

Socially - Socially we have some ills.  I think anytime people live together, they'll be present.  But I think of the very recent history of this country.  The powder keg of 1968 (be it race, riots, etc.) is worse than what we see now.  There's also a lot of discussion about the gap between the rich and the poor and how big it's grown.  Grown?  Does anyone read history?  Explain the difference between the poor and John Jacob Astor in 1911 and how that isn't the exact same as now.  The difference in wealth disbursement in September of 1929 was way out of control.  Colorado in the late 1800s was a place where you needed a gun.  Not true now.  France is arresting women who are wearing veils over their face.  The U.S. is not.  Many countries deny women the right to hold public offices or have careers of their own outside of the home.  I read a statistic the other day that there are more women graduating college than men in the U.S.  Women are taking leadership roles in companies across the U.S. in record numbers.  Funny that 100 years ago, women weren't allowed to vote.  50 years ago, blacks and whites were seggregated.  Seems like we're better off now.

Healthcare - This one really gets me.  A fellow high-schoool graduate who is an endocrinologist can tell you how much better things are in the U.S. than most any other country.  Another article I read yesterday said that an inmate in a NY prison could have received a life-saving heart transplant at the taxpayers expense, but he declined it.  He's in prison because he sexually assaulted a child.  Don't tell me that we deny medical treatment to people in the U.S. when we will give a heart transplant to a convicted felon.  Some friends of ours went through a medical issue this past winter and they were having troubles with their insurance company.  Children's Hospital was ready to set them up on Child Health Plan Plus in a minute to pay their expenses and negotiate costs down.  St. Jude's doesn't charge patients if they can't pay.  If you don't have adequate access to care in the U.S., you're not looking in the right place.  Our church alone (1800 people in Castle Rock) gave out almost $200k in one year to families in need.  All people need to do is ask.  Routine vaccinations have eliminated many of the major killers of children in just the last 50 years.  But now, fear in the media has people afraid to vaccinate their children.  My pediatrician put it to us this way, "What's worse, side effects or death from a cured disease?"

Reality -  The reality is this - our country is not perfect.  Nor will it ever be.  We'll keep finding ways to improve but that is not a criticism, it's a strength.  Our Constitution and government is flexible enough to change when it needs to.  We don't get content with the status quo - we seek what's better.  I like that.  We have a massive country that has massive resources.  We have technologies that can turn old abandoned coal mines into sources of new fuel just by adding water!  Silicon Valley is still the center of major IT advances and many of us have the resources to keep consuming their ever-changing products.  The amount of land available in the U.S. is incredible!  You don't believe me?  Come visit me in Castle Rock, we'll take a short drive and show you.  Or better - head out east on I-80 and tell me how much open land you see.  We also have an incredible population that is educated (whether or not we think it's the best, we can read and write and get jobs).  If the U.S. needed to stop importing, we have the infrastructure to replace the supply.  Because of the work of labor unions and OSHA, we also work safely.  And, unlike 100 years ago, we don't have to put our kids to work.

The truth is, we are all fearful and that fear makes us do crazy things.  We need to cut off the fear.  FDR said "we have nothing to fear but fear itself."  Agree.  Our fear is making us forget history.  Every Christmas I watch "It's a Wonderful Life".  And every Christmas I'm amazed that I know someone who has never seen it.  That explains how in 2008, less than 80 years after 1929, people were again making runs on the bank.  We learned nothing.  Thankfully, not relying on the people to learn, the U.S. government learned and all of us had the pleasure (thanks to the FDIC) to just be annoyed when our bank changed ownership rather than losing all of our money.  I urge folks to watch George talk people out of their fear and stop the run on his bank, which saved it.  What was George's argument?  If you act out of fear, you'll end up having the richest and most ruthless bail you out and then you'll be owned by him.  Hmm - amazingly applicable to today.