America’s leaders need political courage and bi-partisan cooperation to get the economy back on track. We need to reduce unemployment, decrease our national high debt and cut back on public budgets.
When our government’s elected officials are in a state of gridlock, with nothing positive happening, other players step in to try to fill the void. That is what the “Occupy Wall Street” gang is doing with its demonstrations taking place around the nation.
Who are the OWS protesters? They are a motley mix of have-nots, high school dropouts, college students, people out of work, and old-fashioned left-wingers who are unhappy with the down economy. Except for their joint antipathy to Wall Street and “capitalist greed,” they seemed to be leaderless and rudderless, an angry group that lacked solutions to the problems that brought them to the demonstrations.
Now, they have been joined by unions, so we can expect labor issues and positions to begin to dominate the redress that demonstrators claim to seek.
OWS has every right to demonstrate and should be allowed to do so. That’s the American way, even though no agenda has been set by them. They are expressing class warfare, by demonizing Wall Street and dividing America’s working class against middle class and wealthier Americans. Some OWS protesters are savvy in social networking, but their anger should be mainly put against the legislative leaders and the administration in Washington, D.C., not Wall Street or bankers, even if they were partially responsible for the problem.
OWS activists were probably discouraged because help has not been coming on foreclosures, housing markets are weak, minority unemployment is reaching 23 percent or higher, living expenses have risen due to the flatness of wages; and inflation has increased the cost of food and home goods.
In business, bankruptcy results from not paying bills. That is where we are heading in government. Instead of protecting their own political futures, our leaders should be working together for solutions, to build job growth and encourage investments by businesses. Eliminating some unnecessary and costly EPA regulations could help.
The private sector creates most of the jobs, not the government, but wages have stagnated. Our economy has slowed down. Consumers are not buying products because they are out of work, or worried about keeping their jobs. Those who are retired have seen their assets, such as home value and stock portfolios, shrink. Many people’s credit is maxed out, resulting in high financial stress and even higher public frustration.
Wall Street and the banks did not make the failed fiscal policies of our government. They were greedy and many were not ethical, but the bailout monies and grants given by the federal government to financial institutions were not enforced nor properly used by most of those institutions. The result was that the economic problems were not solved, and the funds that were given failed to produce jobs or business growth.
Most Americans now feel pessimistic and angry about the direction our economy is taking. Housing is weak, employment is weaker and transparency is lacking on the real deficit and entitlement spending that has been done. There are no solutions that will work in the short run. If we plan for the longer term, we might start recovering by the end of next year. It could take up to five years before the economy returns to normal.
Government should not raise taxes in these hard times. Instead, we need to revise the tax system and close tax loopholes. That includes reforms to cap government spending, reduce entitlements, and make investments. Those investments need to be in building our country’s infrastructure with better roads, bridges, waterways and school buildings. Politicians, and everyone else, have to make concessions. The rich and the poor, the workers and the owners, all should pay their fair share of taxes. No one should be able to avoid paying their share through loopholes and clever tax-dodging.
When businesses grow, jobs grow and people’s lives get back to normal. The private sector needs a plan to grow the economy, especially through world trade. We need to draw scientifically trained immigrants to come to America as future citizens, to help our industries grow and prosper for everyone.
Yes, we need to rebuild America in its old image. Capitalism offers growth opportunities in a culture that breeds success, but also learns from failure. Together, let’s cooperate on a bi-partisan basis and change the status quo in the economy today.
— Bernard Featherman is a business columnist for the Journal Tribune and former president of the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
