The common sense approach to economics that most sensible individuals understand and adhere to in their own lives when it comes to spending their own money, do not apply when a group of politicians are allowed to spend the people’s hard earned money, with little to no accountability. These days, is doesn’t matter whether the politician calls himself a Republican or a Democrat, fiscal responsibility is no longer part of our elected officials DNA.

The constant pounding of the left wing media, the unabashed demagoguery of politicians, and the general public’s apathy and unwillingness to educate themselves beyond the headlines being fed to them daily, has tilted the balance towards the left in our country. This is why there is a large group of politicians in Washington today, who in typical liberal elitist arrogance believe that they are able to control the largest economy in the world from the their high and mighty pedestals of Capitol Hill, ignoring that only the freedom of the marketplace can help the economy rid itself of poor business practices, while promoting productive investments that lead to long-term prosperity and well paying meaningful employment.

As if the rampant spending of the Bush years has not been enough, the situation looks even bleaker when we consider the makeup of the current political landscape; all indications are that the spending will increase, which probably means that our economic situation will continue to get worse before it gets better. Even if the large amounts of bailout monies were to generate the false sense of abundance that the government is seeking in the short term, the repercussions of keeping sunken companies artificially afloat will have devastating consequences in the long run.

 One does not need to be an economist to understand the simple concept of supply and demand, which establishes that the greater the abundance of any item, the less valuable it becomes. The unfettered printing of dollars being dumped into our economy with little accountability will make the dollar even less valuable, causing inflationary pressures that will hurt the elderly and the poor on fixed incomes the most. We are already hearing rumblings about the devaluation of the dollar, something that will be an even greater blow to millions of Americans who have already seen their retirement accounts depleted due to the rapid decline of their investments, and the instability of the financial markets.

Still we continue to make “economic” decisions that have more to do with politics than with the economy. We are told that we are bailing out the automobile companies, when in reality it is the unions that we are bailing out. If we were interested on the long term survival of the industry, we would insist on their reorganizations, so that they can rid themselves of bad debt and obligations, allowing them to emerge stronger and able to compete. But politics as well as the lack of faith on the free market, leads our politicians to throw billions of tax payer’s dollars to a business plan that no private investor would spend a single penny on. 

It has indeed been a year of ironies; we have placed in charge of resolving the financial crisis, the same politicians that caused the crisis, by forcing financial institutions to play Russian roulette with our monies, and we are rewarding with billions of dollars our most poorly run and dishonest industries, regardless of their incompetent or reprehensible behavior.