Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

It's the economy?

About a year ago, my wife, my younger son, and I took a trip to Tennessee to visit my mother and my aunt. They lived in a manufactured home in Sevierville in a development where every street was named after a famous horse. Their street was Silver Charm Way. Over the winter, they sold their heavily customized home and bought a new house in a nearby development. As I understand it they got a substantial chunk of cash for their old home, and they made out quite nicely with the construction of their new one. We'll be going back sometime to see the new home.

Actually, our plans are to move to Tennessee sometime in the next year. I had been hoping we'd already be there, but some things take longer than you expect and besides, I still have a lot of work to do on my house before I'll be ready to sell. In the meantime though I'm sure you've heard that the bottom has dropped out of the housing market. What this means to me is that when I sell my house here in Washington, it will probably sell for substantially less than it would have a year ago. Perhaps that won't be so bad, depending on how the housing market in Tennessee is. If their housing market is equally depressed, it'll be like breaking even. If Washington's housing market is doing better, I may still be somewhat ahead. On the other hand if Tennessee's housing market is doing better, I might lose that new shirt I bought over the weekend.

Which Presidential candidate is going to urge congress to use their power to regulate interstate commerce to guarantee me a level playing field when I go to buy that new house?

I'm not a rich man. I don't have enough money to buy the home that I want just sitting in the bank or in investments. Like most people I bought my current home with a mortgage, and I haven't paid it off yet. I'll have to use the proceeds of my home's sale to pay it off when I decide to move. For some people this is a problem. Some people have found that their home's value has declined so much that they can't sell it for enough to clear their existing mortgage. They'd end up writing a check to sell off what ought to be their greatest financial asset. Essentially they're trapped in the same neighborhood even if they want to move.

Which Presidential candidate is going to compensate me for my losses if I want to move to another part of the country and find that I'll end up losing money if I try to sell my home?

Like I said, I'm not a rich man. After I sell my existing home, I'm going to need to purchase my eventual home in Tennessee with a mortgage. The problems with Fannie May and Freddie Mac scare me.  Thanks to all of the bad debt that they're carrying there may not be any money available to lend when I get ready to borrow.  If there's not, what will I do? Will I be forced to rent?

Which Presidential candidate is going to guarantee that there's money for me to borrow when I want to buy a new home?

Betty and I enjoy buying coffee at the many roadside espresso stands in the Pacific Northwest. The coffee is convenient, if a bit expensive. It's usually of pretty high quality too, especially compared to the coffee you can get in fast food joints and gas station food marts.

One thing that we noticed while we were in Tennessee last year is that there aren't very many of these roadside espresso stands. There were a few Starbucks stores though, complete with drive-thru windows. We figured if Starbucks had opened the market, that there just might be some potential there. So part of our plan for moving there was to open up our own coffee company, and sell the beans over the Internet. We'd also open up a roadside coffee stand. It seemed like a fun way to supplement our income, and, who knows, maybe the business would even grow.

Now though, watching Starbucks closing stores nationwide, and even closing two thirds of its stores in Australia, I wonder. It seems like there's some sort of government conspiracy to prevent my happiness. After all, what else could be the explanation? Just as I'm getting ready to step out into the world of small business the bottom falls out of the coffee market?

Which Presidential candidate is going to subsidize my dreams of success and prop up the failing coffee market? Isn't the federal government supposed to be “looking out for the little guy”?

Fuel costs are skyrocketing. Well, OK, they've gone down a small bit in the last couple of weeks. Because of this, airlines are now charging extra for checked baggage. There's a fee for your first checked bag, where it used to be included in the price of your ticket.

That doesn't seem fair to me. First they took away the meals that they served in coach, giving us only a packet of peanuts. Then they decided to charge us for a cup of soda ($2.00 for a small plastic cup of soda?). Now they want to charge us $15.00 to check a bag. Gosh darn-it, air travel is a Constitutional Right! They're already charging an arm and a leg just to fly now they want to soak us even more?

Which Presidential candidate is going to insist upon a Congressional investigation into these unfair business practices by the airlines? How DARE they try to make a profit and stop losing money?

Has my point soaked in yet? The entitlement mentality has infected every aspect of our lives and politicians are exacerbating the problem.

Sometimes things go your way and everything falls in place. You make money on the sale of your home, you're able to move and purchase the home you want and come out ahead on the deal. You can go into business in a thriving economy and succeed. Travel is sometimes cheap and convenient.

Sometimes things don't go that well. You lose money on the sale of your home. Moving is expensive, and you sometimes have to settle for less if you decide to relocate. Not all businesses succeed. Travel sometimes is expensive and inconvenient. Living in the real world involves risk.

Most of the problems in our economy aren't the result of a lack of government regulation. They're the result of too much regulation, or of attempts at social engineering through governmental policies.

We have high fuel prices not because of greedy speculators, or obscene profiteering by the oil companies. We have high fuel prices due to attempts at social engineering by our politicians. They want us out of our big cars. They want us to pay higher prices for petroleum products so that we'll use less of them. They don't want us tapping our own natural resources because they don't want us using natural resources in the first place.

There's a ripple effect throughout the rest of the economy. Higher fuel prices mean higher commodity prices. Higher fuel prices mean that businesses that provide transportation have to find ways to compensate or lose money. Higher fuel prices mean there's less money available for other things like coffee.(No, I don't really, believe the bottom has fallen out of the coffee market, just that Starbucks has found a need to become more efficient.)

Government regulation and social engineering are also responsible to a large extent for the problems in the housing market and the mortgage industry. Sure, lenders were irresponsible, but they were encouraged by governmental policies. Subprime lending wasn't designed by the mortgage bankers after all.

That's the way life is. I really don't want government interfering in our economy. I don't want a Presidential candidate that promises to solve my problems for me. I want one that will promise to get government out of the way so that I can solve them myself. I want one that will promise to get the governments meddling hands out of the economy.

I think Ronald Reagan was right. The words we should fear the most are “I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.” When a politician promises to “fix the problems” I've learned to grab my wallet.  Someday the rest of the electorate will learn that too.