Tonight I got an email from an old friend of mine living down in Los Angeles, about what she should do with the tax rebate coming in.
She's not totally politically unaware, rather fond of Obama herself and a pretty sharp cookie in her own particular style. But honestly, I really didn't expect the question she asked me about over email tonight.
The gist of it is on over the jump...
She's a pretty damn opinionated and assertive woman in her own right, which is part of the reason her asking advice on this caught me a little off guard. Don't get me wrong there though; I admire those qualities in her a great deal. Even if they DO once in a while rub me the wrong way. :)
I thought I'd share my response to her here and see what others around here might think about it. Perhaps start brainstorming ideas and methods of being prepared for a worst case scenario.
RE: the tax rebate, well...
The laws creating that rebate, are pretty much a bone thrown out into the pit, while in the same legislation dumps a whole bunch of help to the big businesses that caused the problem in the first place. It's a freakin' con.
The idea is to inject liquidity into the consumer market in order to pull out of the downward slide. But for it to really work, they'd have to give MOST of the stimulus (the cash to pump into the market) to those that are most likely to actually SPEND it and get it into the market.
As it stands, the sorry sum they're handing out, at present, will most likely be dumped into people's savings or paying off the huge debt a lot of people are carrying. In other words, none of its likely to actually BE injected into the wider economy, it won't actually stimulate it.
Basically it's yet another way to redirect money back up the ladder, while effectively starving the federal gvmnt and things like social security, college grants and loans, unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, education, etc, etc, ad naseum...
As for what you should do personally about it, well... that's up to you really. No way would I blame anyone for taking it and using it, god knows most of us could use the funds these days. There are a few options though:
1 - Keep it and save it
2 - Keep it and pay off debt
3 - Keep it and go on a shopping spree
4 - Tear up the check and forget about it
Or, my personal favorite
5 - Return the check to the IRS with a letter telling them to stop fucking around and trying to bribe me into apathy. Or some variation on that theme that strikes ya well.
Most people out there in America have become aware that we're in trouble economically. Talk of recession all over the place. But a less well known, is just how very severe the situation really is out there.
There's a serious fucking shit-storm rolling in and it's picking up steam. Think the 1929 crash and depression. Think post-communist collapse after the USSR collapsed. This thing has damn good odds of running off on us big time. It has the potential to end up a catastrophe the likes of which neither us, nor our parents, have ever experienced.
But the signals are out there and unless you're paying close attention, reading, researching, analyzing the info, you'd not likely really see the bigger picture. This is most likely part of the reason your renting traffic is so bad. People are tightening their belts. But overall, people being in the dark about it all is NOT unintentional, in fact.
The folks at the top of the heap know damn well what we're looking at here. They're worried about a panic, worried about some politician, backed by many millions of Americans, coming along and bringing them all to heel and making the serious changes needed to deal with the problem to the benefit of everyone. They're afraid of having a large part of their misbegotten financial gains taken away from them to REALLY stimulate the economy.
Greed and short-sightedness rules the roost.
You're most likely reading this and thinking I'm freaking paranoid and alarmist. It all sounds that way to me too, it's really difficult thing to believe. But THAT tendency is likely due to the same lack of direct experience I mentioned above. We've never seen it first-hand ourselves, so it's tough to imagine, tough to recognize the signals out there. For that reason, I've been very careful about going into all this with non-political people. It's frightening.
But at this point, I'm seeing things slipping more and more, quicker and quicker. So it's time to try and help people be prepared. Things could get pretty ugly out here.
I wanted to actually talk with you and Tracy about all this over T-day down there, but it just wasn't a good idea at that point I think. :)
If you're at all interested in what's behind all this. The news stories, economics info, etc, let me know and I'll put it together for ya gladly. Sort of a "red pill or blue pill" trip down the rabbit hole if ya know what I mean. :) But it's up to you.
... (a bit of personal comments) ...
Jesus, I've got to sound like some goddamn conspiracy nut. :( Believe me, I might be a bit crazy in a way, but I don't think that way is this one. And apologies, as I think my whole diatribe here is probably a bit more than you were looking for. :)
Anyhow, gimme a call when your aversion to those plastic talky things has lessened or let me know when to call you. Been a while since we had a chat. :P
Stay cool out there bella! Don't let any of this cause you too much anxiety. Just start considering ways to get yourself prepared and do so. Forward thinking is the best antidote to it.
So there you have it! Pick it apart, tear it up, tell me I'm a complete alarmist!! (PLEASE!)
I know everyone's still rolling on the "debate" of last night. But I figured what the hell. :)