Once upon a time there was a young Sheppard boy who was taking his turn watching the sheep of the village. He soon became bored and decided to play a trick on his fellow villagers. He cried “Wolf! A wolf is chasing the sheep.” The villagers ran to the screaming boy armed with axes, knives, and all manner of objects to protect the sheep and chase the wolf away. When the villagers arrived they found the boy laughing. The villagers scorned him for playing such a cruel trick on them and returned to the village. A few days later this same boy was again watching the sheep and was getting bored. He decided once again to play a trick on the villagers and began to yell, “Wolf! A wolf is chasing the sheep.” The villagers like before ran to aid the screaming boy and again found him double over laughing. They scorned him for his awful trick and returned to the village.
A few days later the boy was again watching the sheep when the villagers heard him screaming, “Wolf! A wolf is chasing the sheep.” The villagers had had enough of this boy’s antics and decided to ignore the plea and keep on doing what they were doing. As the sun began to set the villagers became worried because the boy hadn’t returned with the sheep. They set out to see what was wrong and found several dead sheep and the rest were scattered all over the valley. They soon sound the boy crying under a tree. They asked him what was wrong and the boy answered with tears running down his cheeks. “A wolf appeared and starting chasing the sheep so I called out but no one came.” “Why didn’t you come?” The villagers answered, “no one believes a liar even when he’s telling the truth.”
I believe President Obama is acting like the boy in the story. Ever since becoming President he was proclaimed gloom and doom to the economy if we didn’t pass what he wanted immediately. He accused anyone that disagrees with him as playing politics and not having the best interest of American in mind. After passing the stimulus bill the gloomy predictions continued if we didn’t pass the Omnibus Spending Bill things would get worse and the list goes on. His constant fear mongering about how we have to act or we are all doomed has rallied the people several times to support legislation that no sane person would support under normal circumstances and that has little or nothing to do with the current problem. Obama is becoming that boy and when he needs to rally the American people to a real crisis that we can actually control we are not going to believe him. He will have lost our trust and respect and it will be for the doom of us all.
It all comes back to the economy. It’s easy to blame capitalism for our current predicament but it doesn’t make it true. I have no desire to rehash for the bazillionth time the hows & why’s of the collapse but it was not capitalisms fault. Capitalism is what made our country what it is today. Socialism while on the surface has some appealing aspects helping the poor and needy has failed time and time again.
Recessions are a normal occurrence in capitalism. I would compare it to fire for forests. Even though fire is initially destructive to a forest it serves an even greater good. Burnt trees fall and are used as shelter for all sorts of animals, from insects to birds and will eventually erode and enrich the soil so new trees and plants can grow. Some trees can’t survive without fire. “The Lodgepole Pine, for example, needs fire; the heat opens its serotinous cones and releases seeds for germination.” Out of the fire come new trees that are stronger for being born out of the destruction.
Recessions are ways for the market to clean up and get rid of bad companies that only drag the economy down. The main thing we can learn is that both are natural. We cannot and should not seek to control them. Mother Nature has proven that she is in control and its way past time that we can’t control the market as much as we might think. The more governments past and present have tried to control recessions the worse and longer they have become. Once a recession has run its course and fixed the problems made by bad companies and stupid government policies things will begin to turn around. Obama should stop worrying about never allowing a “good crisis to go to waste” and allow the market to fix itself instead of trying to play Father Market.