Okay, I'm going to try not to get too deep into politics here because I've got loyal readers on both sides of the aisle....but I do have some things to say regarding our current state. Too bad I don't have any answers. Since I've spent many more hours watching TV this year (maternity leave, sick leave etc) I've witnessed news/talking heads at their best. Every day you can find a morning show that has a personal finance guru going on and on about how people need 12 months of savings in their bank accounts...commercial break...now we've got the economist who repeats over and over how Americans need to restore confidence with the economy and get out there and spend. Wait a sec? Isn't this the same audience? Who should be saving and who should be spending?!
Last weekend I had a downer when Chris came in and said the Cliquot Cafe closed. One of the best parts about our house is that you go one block east and you are at the Birchwood Cafe, which is a very hoity-toity organic restaurant that people from all over the city come to. Really good, but expensive and always packed. When you go one block west you come to the Cliquot Cafe, a local neighborhood restaurant/coffee shop where you can actually meet people that live around here. Unfortunately it couldn't stay open. Now I know we couldn't single handedly keep this place open, but I felt bad that we hadn't been there in months. In the fall I would sit on their patio with Penny in the sling with a coffee and a book. It is such a good memory. Chris and I make an effort to eat at local places, but lately we've settled to buying better quality food at the co-op and Chris makes awesome meals that last for days. I wonder how many other Americans are doing this now?
Well, anyways, this brings me to answers. Should we be getting bail outs and stimulus packages? I don't know. If we didn't, how bad would it get? I don't know. Is it worth the years of debt to future generations? This morning my brother emailed me a quote from a book he is reading:
In 1789 Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to James Madison in which he argued that a federal bond should be repaid within one generation of the debt, because as he put it, "The earth belongs...to the living...No man can by natural right oblige the lands he occupied, or the persons who succeeded him in that occupation, to the payment of debts contracted by him. For if he could, he might, during his own life, eat up the usufruct of the lands for several generations to come, and then the lands would belong to the dead and not the living."
definition:
Usufruct-the right of enjoying all the advantages derivable from the use of something that belongs to another, as far as is compatible with the substance of the thing not being destroyed or injured.
Whether the stimulus is right or wrong, I think we all know that it will be part of our legacy that we leave to the next generation. I guess it is good that Penny, Molly and Dylan are geniuses. They are going to need to be to fix this mess...
3 comments:
Laura, I don't really know how to comment because you said it so well. The Thomas Jefferson quote is a thought that not enough generations have thought about or believed in. Where we are today is because of what we have done in the past, what/where we are tomorrow is what we do today! And the saddest news of you note - the great cafe is GONE! : ( You take care read good books, thoughts to Penny, we can make a difference if we continue to work steps at at time. Love you guys -
Little interesting tidbit about the "Stimulus bill"
Only 10% will be spent in 2009.
For the amount spent, we could have given every unemployed person in the United States roughly $75,000.
We could give every person who had lost a job and is now passing through long-term unemployment of six months or longer roughly $300,000.
Unfortunately, stimulus isn't the right word for this..... I am so sorry for what is happening now that will affect generations to come... I wish I could do more to change it.... I will be saying extra prayers that things change soon.....
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