I'm not going anti-American or pro-Canuck on y'all just yet...but here's a little more anecdotal evidence that our fiscal policy here in the U.S. is costing us buying power, and with it, another slice off our standard of living. Since we in Wisconsin are parked up here close to the border...I'm sure many of you remember crossing into Canada and enjoying the purchasing power that came along with the strength of our economy...
OTTAWA (AFP) – The Canadian dollar, or loonie as it is affectionately called here, is likely to soar above parity with the US greenback this year, experts at a Canadian bank said Wednesday.
Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada (CIBC) chief economist Avery Shenfeld said the Canadian dollar had already gained several cents in recent weeks as the market firms up expectations of an interest rate hike in July.
If as expected, the central bank "is out in front of the US Federal Reserve by a couple of quarters" in raising interest rates, the Canadian dollar could reach 1.02 dollars versus the US dollar by September...
I know, not significant...how often do you travel to Cananda, right? If that's your thought, I would like to suggest you re-think. Its not about buying Canadian Maple Syrup...its about what our habit is doing to the standard of living our children can expect to live.
I'm hardly an economist. I'm sure many Americans don't fully fathom terms like GDP or numbers the size of our national debt. (for reference....The Outstanding Public Debt as of 11 Mar 2010 at 03:15:09 PM GMT is: $12,559,536,523,726.87
The estimated population of the United States is 307,988,539, so each citizen's share of this debt is $40,779.20. THIS IS PER PERSON _ NOT PER WAGE EARNER!!
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of$3.97 billion per day since September 28, 2007.)
GDP isn't some economic term you need an MBA to understand. GDP is simply what we create. Its not a government thing... Its a people thing. A business thing. A job thing. We work hard. We create things other people want. They buy them. The greater number of people that work, the more we innovate, engineer, create, the greater collective success...the more GDP.
More GDP, more opportunity to pay back those we owe, and then create wealth for ALL OF US. We then have a strong dollar that buys more things for U.S. Citizens.
Somehow, it seems, our government would have you believe thats a bad thing. If we have 'more', someone has less. How crazy is that? We have more only means we DID more. We CREATED more. We HELPED more. Helped people all over the planet have things they want and need.
I'm done here for today...but think for a few moments - how do we help people to produce more? What is the incentive? How do we help them to want to work hard and be able to expect a decent standard of living for their children? Do we give them things like health care and expect nothing in return? ...or do we say 'work hard, and for the toils of your labor, you and yours have the benefit of a strong currency, good standard of living, and great health care...' Do we create a society that helps us all, or do we instead say 'hey - you don't have to help...someone else can do it...big government, greedy corporations'.
Will we ever realize that big government is us? That companies are the people that work in them, or invest in them? That creating is what we are SUPPOSED to do...for all of us and for future generations? The buck stops with you. Literally. Personal responsibility. Effort. Reward. Giving 30 million people more free stuff ain't gonna do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment