If I had to choose on even that will have significance in my life it would have to be “The Great Recession”. The economic turmoil that started in early 2008 by the fall of Bearn Stern the 4th largest Investment Banking firm in the U. S. followed by the collapse of Leman Brothers in September of 2008 has led to the worst recession since the World War II and has been called The Great Recession.
Being 31 years old and having witnessed recessions before as well as transformation of our economic system to service sector over the years from manufacturing as well as outsourcing of millions of job, I personally think this recession will have significant impact in our country in respect to our economic policies, political reform, historical implications, diplomatic matters with our trading partners, and also sociological and psychological effects as well. Over the last 3 decades we have seen a bigger gap between rich and poor in this country in incomes earned and wealth created.
Never before the gap has been so much larger than it is today and it’s getting even bigger. I can’t recall a country that survived by having 99 percent of its population in the bottom while the other 1 percent got all the income. We have lost our world respect in regards to Capitalism. For decades many in this country advocated that Capitalism is the way to go and laughed at some European nations who are Socialist as if they are naive and don’t know what’s best for their people.
As it turns out there is actually a lesser income gap between rich and the poor in countries such as France not to mention lesser government debt and same amount of taxes as United States even though some would argue they pay much higher taxes in Europe which is not true. We are at an important point of time and have choices to make as a country as far as what direction we want to go forward when it come to our economic policies which are result of The Great Recession.
The effects of this recession will make us change the way we live, consume, invest, and deal with other countries. No longer have we had the luxury of dictating to other nations how to live their live and to adopt our way of live, our culture or our politics. We will have to decide as a country whether or not we want to have the same laws in place that lead to the current economic conditions which have result in 15 million people to lose their jobs, millions more lose their homes, and millions enter poverty.
If we had the Republican leadership in power now they would say the solution is to give tax breaks to multi billionaires and that will eventually lead to more money for everyone else, however they have never been able to explain the logic behind that ridiculous idea. However, the Democratic party does not have a better track record either so we have to choose between either dumb or dumber (Democrat/Republican). We can also adopt some reform and have a 3 party system of government instead of just the two we have now which will result in compromises between our elected representatives and hopefully maybe some reform and better legislation.
Our ways of spending without ever worrying how to pay for it is probably over since we are running out of countries to borrow money from to pay for our IPods or whatever else we don’t need but must have. We as a country need to look deep inside and ask ourselves do we want to leave this country better off for our children or we simply want to continue on the destruction path we have been walking for that past 30 years. Let’s hope we will wise up and make the right decisions in years to come.
