The Choice - - Going Forward or Back

What are we to believe about where the country is headed? People say Obama is going to bring the country to its knees, but aren’t we kind of there already? The question really is what steps should be taken to restore our pride, self confidence and economic muscle?

CNBC's Cramer says the president caused the steep market downturn by frightening the American people into believing we’re in a financial ditch. Of course Cramer was telling investors to buy when the Dow-Jones was around 12,000, and fellow CNBC’er, Kudlow, said the worst might be over back in the early stages of the market’s fall from grace. People in the investment sector and many others seem to have forgotten that the stock market was originally a reflection of how well-run industries and efficient companies contributed to the nation’s financial well being.

Somewhere along the line the stock market became a thing unto itself, a kind of high stakes game in which speculators and hedge-fund operators made huge cash deals in minutes, even seconds. And it didn’t seem to matter in the world of big money and enormous profits that we didn’t actually make things any more. Service industries, financial groups, big-box stores selling cheap goods from other countries masked the reality that jobs were being out-sourced and middle and lower-class wages barely budged while the rich controlled more and more of the nation’s capital wealth.

And despite capitalistic warriors’ insistence that theirs was the best, indeed the only, way to grow the economy and keep the country secure, free-wheeling money hawks and weak regulatory policies helped to destabilize an economy in which major players were left unaccountable for their profligate ways. Cramer and others strike fear into the hearts of investors by disparaging the administration’s plans even as they accuse the president of fear mongering. They focus on market ups and downs without paying much attention to other factors that impact the larger financial crisis - - health care, energy policy, and jobs. Unemployment numbers often seem almost an abstraction in financial circles.

It is said by some that Obama is promoting socialism, forgetting the entrepreneurial spirit and competition that made us an economic power. In order to compete in the world market, they say, we can’t pay our work-force so much more than laborers in other lands. Is it our economic destiny then to become more like third-world countries and turn to an unregulated plethora of entrepreneurs tasked with making us a market giant once again?

Republicans insist FDR’s policies didn’t work - - forget that New Deal nonsense and Keynesian drivel; government spending won’t end the recession. On the other hand, government outlays for huge defense projects, of proven worth or not, have always met with Republican approval as an acceptable way to grow the economy - - what Barney Frank calls “a weaponized version of Keynes”. Are we really supposed to believe, despite our terrible circumstances after their long hold on the reins of power, that we should trust their judgment once again going forward?

On Friday's Real Time with Bill Maher Newark’s Mayor Booker said discussions about our current problems shouldn’t be about “right and left” so much as whether we will look “forward or back”. His comment crystallized the national need to address our concerns in a rational, seriously bi-partisan manner - - working together to fashion a meaningful future, not standing aside regurgitating ideological dogma.

I recall a day at a nearby park filled with children of all colors, shapes, sizes, sexes and ages. It sticks in my mind because at some point, a few children decided to fashion a kind of fort on top of some large boulders. Little by little other kids climbed up and began helping collect branches, twigs and what-have-you to enhance the project. They did all this almost wordlessly; no harsh words were exchanged, nor was anyone denied entry into the endeavor. For the most part, the participants didn’t know each other; they just decided the task was worth doing and wanted their handiwork to be part of it.

Perhps the community effort those children in the park enjoyed won’t find expression in the political world any time soon. Still, their cooperative venture might serve to instruct those who would presume to lead us through the perilous times that confront us. It may be time to put aside childish things, but not the sense of accomplishment those kids experienced in finding common ground and building something together.