The Upside of Economic Apocalypse

Today, I called my grandfather to wish him a happy birthday; he was doing laundry but paused long enough to ask me what the mood seemed like in New York. So naturally, I told him all about the gloom and doom, the bad and the worse, etc. And he responded by asking a question that must have lodged in his head when he was a child during The Great Depression: "Do you have enough to eat today?" I assured him that I did and he replied, "If you had enough to eat today, then everything is okay." He didn't mean that quite literally, but I did take his point that I'm alive, healthy and likely to have the opportunity to make amusing new mistakes tomorrow.

As we talked further, I started to think about the positive aspects of flirting with disaster. Sure, one can obsess over the whole economic nightmare but that's so negative. And besides, the media is locked in a ratings race to to see which outlet can deliver the most bad news the fastest. I simply can't compete. Instead, I'm going to take a few minutes to accentuate the positive.

Let's start with the electorate, which has finally woken up to the fact that the November election is actually important. All the people who sacrificed to give us the universal franchise must have been spinning in their graves as they witnessed the theatrics that the campaigns had descended into or the indifference -- versus outrage -- with which the public greeted those entertainments. Fortunately, the economic crisis is like a bucket of cold water being hurled at people who are hungover from 7 years of over-consumption: we're shivering but very, very sober. And sober people know that the country doesn't need someone who looks good in a flight suit landing on aircraft carrier; it needs a smart, creative leader who is capable of forging consensus to get us out of this mess. Reasonable people can disagree about who the better man is, but I'm pleased that so many people are considering the question rationally.

There's also terrific news with respect to the federal government, which finally seems to understand all these wars of ours are being financed on what might as well be a credit card, one issued by a Chinese bank. Don't get me wrong, I supported our efforts in Afghanistan, but the war in Iraq was simply a hugely expensive blunder that never should have happened. But now, we can no longer afford Bush's neo-conservative folly: lack of money and soldiers will force that conflict to end. The fact is that we should not engage our wars unless the whole country -- in and out of sacrifice -- is willing to make the necessary sacrifices. (The people who send soldiers to fight should be willing to foot the bill, even if that means higher taxes.) By necessity, the executive branch's appetite for destruction is declining. That's something to smile about.

And finally, the knife poised at our economic jugular reminds us that the same fiscal gravity binds us all. If you buy a house on credit, wait for it to appreciate, and then borrow on the bubble-generated equity, then you're likely to get in trouble because the real estate market can't go up forever. If you let Wall Street create financial instruments that only a few people actually understand and allow them to enrich themselves without regulation, then at some point, something unexpected (and very bad) is inevitable. And if the federal government consistently spends more than it has in its coffers -- without even bothering to ask how it will be repaid -- then our whole economy will find itself in peril. Both history and common sense tell us that this is the case, but it's better to learn the right lessons late than not at all.

I'm not stupid: I wouldn't wish the current situation on ourselves. But we're here, and I can find real cause for optimism in an electorate that suddenly understands what we're up against as a country and the use of the ballot box as a first step to doing something about it. Change is coming, and that is something to smile about.

Comments

[Idaho5b]

Thoughtful. I'm astounded this concept is not common air-waves knowledge.

[jhNY]

Usually when the rich have a rash, the poor are dying of smallpox. In hard times, the rich will keep to themselves, and in solidarity with all the broke people, will spend very little, even though they still have money. The poor, having no money, will have already spent what little they had, and will be seen by all who pass in long lines around the block for the free supper at the church, unless there's no supper. Of course, you might look at this as a teaching moment for regular folks, who you imagine will become more progressive-minded out of practical necessity. But it's more likelywe will get a bunch of angry proto-fascists looking around for the Mexicans or Blacks who took out all the sub-prime mortgages that caused the financial meltdown for good Americans who were and are blameless of any such wrongdoing.

Yes it is likely sweeping changes are coming for the US, but you might want to visit a place like AOL message boards to see the racist paranoid crap the yahoos are slinging for a better picture of future political developments. It ain't pretty.

[WorkingClass]

Nice try. But its lipstick on a pig.

[jeanrenoir]

This is 100% on target. I'm an agnostic, but I know my Bible, and if I were a believer, this whole economic debacle would seem like Old Testament payback for an entire society which has collapsed into lazy, narcissistic, and, above all, CLUELESS decadence. We are clearly reaping what our grotesque fecklessness has sown. Our culture has no relationship to the country which once produced people with the character of Washington, Lincoln, and George C. Marshall. But change is indeed coming, and Obama has the intelligence, calm demeanor, and disciplined character to lead us out of the abyss at home and abroad that decades of stupid, greedy Reagonomics at home and neocon adventurism have brought us to. It's obvious that, in any case, China and India, and quite possibly Russia and Iran, will end this century much richer and more militarily powerful than we are. At least Obama will have a shot at restoring something of our long lost dignity to fortify us for the long twilight of America dominance of the world. As opposed to the Bush-McCain formula for simply hurling our nation off a cliff as the mob which has loved them yelps in the agony their own stupid voting patterns have visited on them.

[kcmookie]

Loved your comments! I couldn't agree more.

I continue to pound people to vote for the candidate with the greatest capacity. Republican or Democrat, we need competent leadership above all else. Forget populism and the injection of moral values into the Presidential race, who has the greatest capacity to lead, to make intelligent decisions, to serve and to lead us out from under the gigantic dark shadow of the Bush administration? Which candidate inspires hope for a better tomorrow, and which one wants to just continue in the same path?

It is a no-brainer folks, if we can pull our heads out long enough to recognize it, otherwise we will continue learning nothing from our past mistakes. Think people, think.

[Sundialsvc4]

I sadly disagree with you on both counts, Michael...

(1) Even as we wring our hands, the Congress is quietly moving to pass a $612-billion defense bill. It will sail right through, land on the President's desk and be signed with nary a peep.

(2) Soldiers are no problem. On page 1,642 of that bill simply bury this one sentence: "The National Service Act of 2007 is herein incorporated by reference." (Look it up in the Congressional Record at http://thomas.loc.gov.)

Now, judging from your avatar I'd say you're somewhere within the age of 18 and 42. And the wife? The sister or brother? Great. "You're all In the Army Now-w-w..." No educational deferments: you do what the President tells you to do. Presto, I've got many millions of soldiers...

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[connors1]

Timely! Perhaps it's just me - living in a city, rubber-necking sensational media, and tethered to my computing devices 24/7 - but I've been prone to getting swept up by things your grandpa wouldn't consider important in the larger scheme of things. Thanks for the positive perspective.

[WASanford]

Michael, normally I would comment on your post, but you've said it all. Sometimes it takes a swift kick to the backside to get someone moving in the right direction, even if that someone is a nation or the world.

The kids in the backseat keep asking "Are we there yet?" But this is very likely to be a long ride; I"m looking for that $135,000 (or lower) average priced home in California before I"ll believe the real estate melt down is over. We"re a long way from that. Doctor Housing Bubble in Southern California predicts we"ll see that around May 2010. By then it may be too late. By the time this is over, everyone except the dumbest of morons will have gotten the message.

Keep asking the question; how can we give most of our income and wealth to a small number of folks and still have a viable economy? The answer is we can"t.

[BillZBubb]

Does the electorate really understand what we're up against? I doubt it. We haven't hit bottom. Too many are still enamored of Republican fantasies like "free markets", "tax cuts generate more revenue", "we've got to fight them over there...", "government is the problem", "we need less regulation", etc, etc.

[mlaskoff]

Couldn't agree more. We're all acting exactly like spoiled children. When things are good, we want Mommy and Daddy to leave us alone. We fell like 'big' girls and boys. When things are bad, we want the great, benevolent parental figures to make everything all better, even if that means government owning everything. Argghhh...

[RoloTomassi]

Indeed, but the bottom is approaching, and i fear that it is still far enough away that when we look up to discover the depth of the hole we're in...well, I think we'll be in the midst of GD2.

But that's our big opportunity as well; we who believe that socialist programs and free markets can co-exist and function well within an adequately regulated government must find our voices and HAMMER the postions of the rightwing ideologues who have brought us to this end. It should be our goal to reveal and highlight every aspect of the criminally corrupt approach the right takes to government, and build a new movement in this country that moves beyond the US status quo.

If Obama has given us one thing only [Ron Paul too, for that matter], is that we do have the power to change this, and the GOP deep pockets no longer have the power to shut us out.