I heard a quote that I love the other day. It says that “history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” Now it took me a few minutes to totally appreciate that quote. I’m not a history buff, but I do know that every 4 years during election years there is always volatility in the economy. Jobs are lost, stocks waiver and reporters tell us how the world is going to end if the person they don’t like doesn’t win. I’m not sure about you but when I was a child I was read a story about Chicken little who went around telling everyone “the sky is falling.” Isn’t this the same thing? Fox news who claims they are fair and balanced was behind McCain and every chance they had would bash Obama. CNN who backed Obama would support him and bash McCain when they could. You almost have to watch both channels all the time to get a truly “fair and balanced” perspective. 

It really isn’t the end of the world no matter who wins. Frankly both Obama and McCain scare me, but then again it’s because they are politicians. There is a history of politicians telling you what you want to hear and delivering very little. So to me hearing what they “want to do” doesn’t matter much. It really is more about the person and how I believe they would react to various situations. 

So now Obama won by a landslide, and I think it’s for two reasons. First because he had one heck of a campaign. I mean this guy sold himself like no other. McCain on the other hand didn’t sell himself. It’s like he was running the worst campaign ever. I wonder if he even wanted to win. You would think that he would have been more visual, he would do more to get his name and face out. Did you know that Obama even went so far to create an iPhone/iPod touch app for his campaign? That was genius! You can tell which candidate was more knowledgeable with current technology by how it was utilized in the election. And with both of them wanting to digitize health records to save costs perhaps it is more beneficial to have someone who can actually use a computer. Heck Obama has several quotes showing he uses Youtube. 

The second reason I think Obama won was because of the current republican party. People are just sick and tired of the same thing. Every day we turn on the TV and hear about billions more being spent on wars over seas while our economy tanks. I don’t believe in handing people money, but I do believe that we have plenty of homeless and others in our own nation that need assistance. And because no one but “the other guy” is being helped americans are sick of it.

Regardless who won the economy is in bad shape. And regardless who won it will continue to be for sometime. It does irritate me that both Obama and McCain voted for the $700 billion dollar bail out plan that had to be completed within a week to save the world. And now they are still figuring out what to do with the money. And of the money they distributed AIG used some to take 2 retreat/meetings. And other banks are sitting on it for “tougher times” as it said in one article I read. That’s right, we as tax payers appear to have paid $700 billion to give banks more money to sit on so they have reserves and extra cash to buy up their competitors when they fail. So I’m so glad that the money we are all paying for is being put to good use. Of course this was passed weeks ago and the economy is even worse now then it was…. So tell me how exactly did the bail out work? But have no fear, a second stimulus package might be passed soon so that’s even more money we get to throw down the drain! Woohoo.

Here’s my bailout plan. The companies that are failing, let them fail. Will it hurt the economy? Sure it will. But tell me isn’t it pretty lousy now? Companies that are not fiscally responsible should not be rewarded by being handed cash. They should be allowed to fail and other companies should take them over. Isn’t this what the saying “only the strong survive” means? When the world is deregulated as much as it was allowed to be this is bound to happen. The company I work for almost went under. Did the government throw us money? Nope. Instead we had to go through bankruptcy court, restructure and lost a lot of jobs, closed 107 stores and had to correct our mistakes. If we were buddies with anyone in Washington we probably could have continued doing business as usual which would have ultimately lost more money because we wouldn’t have changed our business practices. But we did and now are doing decent taken into account the economy.  I believe that throwing money at the problem will only delay the inevitable, businesses must fail, others must change their ways of doing business to survive. It’s a little something called evolution.

You can see the picture here that shows why businesses fail. It’s because they quit trying, they quit working. CEO’s get greedy, workers quit caring.

Another plan of action for my bail out plan. Rather then handing out money to people in the form of welfare that would stop immediately. There is to much trash on the streets, to many things that need to be done and I think if people want welfare the government should put them in community service type jobs and make them EARN  the money. Hmmm, earning money by working for it? What a concept! And I know there are some that can’t work physical jobs, so in home programs could be setup like data entry, making phone calls, envelope stuffing or other low impact jobs. Hell even make these people write a paper on what they will do with the money when they get it, and how it will better their lives. I bet most of those on welfare would refuse to work, but then they shouldn’t get the welfare check. After all, why am I paying for sally joe bob to stay at home with her 14 kids watching Jerry springer while I’m working 40-50 hours a week? People would stop getting handouts for doing nothing if I was in charge. The programs would still be available, but you would have to do something to get your check. Work, right a paper, just something. 

But I digress. I’m tired of everyone bashing Obama and McCain. Am I happy with how it all turned out? I’m impartial. Do I think that good things are coming? Definitely, in fact I wish that we could start early with the president-elect. But then again no matter who won my attitude is the same. The reason is because regardless who won the election, these bumps would be happening, the stock market will waiver, but like a cold give it a little while without medication and it will heal itself. Treat it with the incorrect medicine and it only gets worse, and a government who has got us into so much debt in the last 8 years apparently only knows how to treat problems in one of two ways, going to war with it, or throwing money at it, then there is always the hybrid of going to war and throwing money. Treat it correctly and it will be healed in a very short amount of time. So hopefully there is a plan now that doesn’t include throwing money at the problem and instead actually focuses on fixing it.  But people just need to keep in mind that history rhymes. Every time there is an election year things get bad, come December or January everything will most likely be just fine. 

But in the meantime, I’m enjoying the $2.09 a gallon gas. I’m contemplating taking some money and putting it in the stock market. After all, with stocks this low it’s a great time to buy! This part of the economic cycle is when people that make the right decisions can make serious money. It’s everyone with the “sky is falling” attitude that is killing it. Why not just yell “FIRE!!” in a crowded theatre?