What Do You Think?

Consumer spending is down. That does not seem surprising to me at all. In fact, it seems only right. I am sorry for the small businesses, like the one I worked for in Illinois for a while. It was a family business and I was not family, but they took really good care of us. When I couldn’t find insurance, they found it for me…and…they paid half of it! They treated us like family.

I am not so sorry for the big businesses who lay people off right and left, cut salaries, eliminate bonuses, or make them almost impossible to get. Nor, the ones who jack up interest rates without any provocation except that the people at the top are greedy.

People have to have money in order to spend it.

And having a little money, good people are sharing it with their friends and family who are not so fortunate, rather than buying extra junk, or even extra necessities. Those of us who live at the bottom of the tank need to band together if we are going to survive this little American adjustment.

Those at the top are not going to give up their life styles, or deeply ingrained beliefs without a fight and they are experienced fighters. The idea that they are entitled to their multi-million dollar homes, personal jets and special treatment while those who work for them sometimes don’t even have enough food, or health care is not something they like to think about. It is pretty easy to justify who you are if it has always been that way.

As changes go, this has been a gentle revolution so far. No riots in the street, no storming the halls of justice, no brandishing of arms in front of the magnate’s homes, but life in America is changing, as it had to do. There is always an end to the cornucopia and with more billionaires digging into it, that has become apparent to everyone. Now the top few percent grapple for what’s left and then we will really get down to business.

I see good people trying to care for those around them and I worry they will give until they too are in dire straits. What a strange and long spectrum this is.

So, what do you believe? Are there people out there who should not have the right to eat, or receive medical care, or even have a decent place to live? And if there aren’t, doesn’t something need to change?