Who deserves blame for the bad economy? We do.
Let me get this right. We are in a painfully stubborn recession that began in the last years of George W. Bush鈥檚 presidency. And, if polls are right, President Obama, in office less than 21 months, is soon to be punished by voters who want to saddle him with a new, vindictive Republican Congress in November, committed to obstructing and blocking every White House initiative.
Huzzah! Let鈥檚 elect a GOP House and Senate, abolish federal taxes, and bankrupt the American Republic.
After the 1929 stock market crash, it took 11 or 12 years to pull the country out of the Great Depression. Poor Mr. Obama! He鈥檚 been given less than two years to perform some economic alchemy. Time鈥檚 up, Obama! Americans demand instant gratification after their binges.
We need someone to blame
Our sullen American electorate simply requires someone to blame, regardless of culpability. Today even my many Republican friends are flailing George W. Bush for running the US economy into the ground. Conveniently, they overlook the fact that they twice voted for Bush. Now they want to take out their frustration on Obama. We have become a mob exulting in political nihilism.
Yet blaming the 鈥淏ush leaguers鈥� no longer serves any useful purpose. The blame game creates no new jobs for the millions out of work.
Let historians judge Bush鈥檚 economic stewardship. Now is the time for the rest of us to immerse ourselves in political truth-telling 鈥� reminding ourselves, as Pogo said, 鈥淲e have met the enemy and he is us.鈥�
As part of their poisonous recriminations, Americans indict avaricious Wall Street brokers and bankers while failing to acknowledge that they were willing feeders at the trough. Home buyers and investors have been no less greedy and dishonest than the Wall Street titans they castigate. Remember the popular 鈥�liar loans鈥� that required no documentation of income to obtain a home mortgage? It took two to sign those forms. And do you recall the exotic bank investments that imploded two years ago? Someone gave them the money to gamble 鈥� it was us.
While I was out sailing earlier this month with a much chastened Republican friend who has watched his portfolio atrophy, he confessed he had invested far too heavily in high-risk stocks.
You can't get something for nothing
American investors deceived themselves with tomfoolery if they thought they were going to get something for nothing without risk or work.
Lesson No. 1: 鈥淣othing in life is free.鈥�
Lesson No. 2: Economies are ever cyclical. American economic history is packed like a Dagwood sandwich with booms followed by busts. During my past 40 years in the workforce, I went through at least five US recessions. Broadcasting is always hit hard. Many colleagues lost their jobs in these economic contractions. That鈥檚 the nature of the market capitalism we Americans revere.
Lesson No. 3: Economic suffering need not be catholic. Many more Americans could have safely weathered the financial storm of the past three years if they had heeded the wisdom of perhaps the wisest of our Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin.
Heed Ben Franklin's counsel
In two works, 鈥淭he Way to Wealth鈥� and 鈥淧oor Richard鈥檚 Almanack,鈥� Franklin preached virtue from the canons of the Protestant ethic, which, when committed to heart, could have saved millions of Americans much suffering in this recession.
Poor Richard said, 鈥淭he second Vice is Lying, the first is running in Debt.鈥� Think for a moment of the huge credit-card debts Americans ran up in the past decade. Worried about losing my job in the first Bush recession of 1991, I quickly learned the best investment you can make is paying off all your debts as fast as you can.
Franklin also offered wise counsel for those who placed their faith solely on the stock market, expecting it to pave their streets with gold. 鈥淗e that lives upon Hope will die fasting,鈥� he said. And to those with dreams of becoming Wall Street high rollers he warned, 鈥淸L]ittle Boats should keep near shore.鈥�
If you lost a bundle in the past three years in the market or in real estate, Franklin鈥檚 sympathy is spare. He said, 鈥淲hen the Well鈥檚 dry, they know the Worth of Water.鈥� He was even less empathetic with other economic gamblers when he observed, 鈥淎fter crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser.鈥� Having been raised an American Puritan, Franklin was our high priest of industry, frugality, and perseverance. 鈥淚ndustry pays Debts鈥�,鈥� he wrote.
Some writers suggest Franklin鈥檚 greatest invention wasn鈥檛 bifocal glasses but his aphorisms like, 鈥淚f you would know the Value of Money, go and try to borrow some.鈥� Too many Americans learned that truth painfully, buying ballooning mortgages and believing if they rolled over the investment quickly they would never have to pay off the mortgage. Wrong!
Perhaps if Franklin鈥檚 wisdom was taught again in schools, there would be less lust for political revenge this November 鈥� and more chastened self-reflection. We are a poorer people for ignoring his sage counsel. If we鈥檝e tuned him out, perhaps we might heed Shakespeare: 鈥淭he fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, But in ourselves....鈥�
Walter Rodgers, a former senior international correspondent for CNN, writes a biweekly column.
