How I plan to save the economy.

After listening to our president present his "plan" (borrow, spend, tax, spend blah blah), I got to thinking and now I can confidently say:

I have a plan. A REAL plan.

Follow me on this one, and share it with your friends because it will only work if everyone gets on board.

First, you need to know a couple off the "Jim's Rules Regarding Everything". Maybe one day I'll codify the full and complete list... but it will have to stop growing and changing first. The complete set of rules really represents some hard and fast rules mixed in with some theories waiting for more data. Anyway, the ones you need to get familiar with are:

• A healthy economy is not one where there's a lot of wealth but rather a lot of money moving around. A high level of personal wealth hoarding is very nearly opposite to a healthy economy.
  
• The economy is driven primarily by emotion and faith. As long as the good vibes are flowing and people think it's going well, it will be well.
  
• The economy is like the ocean. The water doesn't just sit still, but is bunched up in waves with highs and lows. A high can't last for ever and a low can't last forever.
  
• The government can't help the economy, but it sure can hurt it (see the first point in this list). The mere presence of the government mucking about with the economy can induce panic.
  
• Government's primary responsibility is to keep the playing field level for the relatively honest/long term players and to try to keep the cheaters out and to punish the cheaters when they can't keep em out. While not relevant to the topic, this one and the prior one lead to the rule that a moderate level of regulation is required to keep the economy functioning correctly.
  
• The only economy that matters to you is your personal economy. You can be having a bad year when everyone else is having a good one and vice versa.

Now my plan is this:

• No more "me first." Think about others before thinking about yourself.
  
• No more hunkering down and tightening belts. We can hide in our trench while all the ones around us get overwhelmed, but where does that leave us?
  
• No more overextending ourselves so that we get in trouble.
  
• Therefore, continue to save, but also to spend rationally.
  
• Spend locally, even if it means spending a wee bit more. Try to spend locally when it is practical to do so... i.e. buy your Shadowrun books at Game Kastle instead of Amazon.
  
• Reward people for doing a good job. This can take many forms, but I'm primarily thinking that we need to ditch the discount mentality as a nation and demand quality.
  
• When things get good again (and regardless of what the government does, this will be substantially turned around w/in 3 or so years), make special effort to save again.
  

This is based on nothing more than "Pay me so I can pay him so he can pay her so she can pay them so they can pay you." If I only watch my own back then I'm likely to find myself standing alone. If I'm looking out for others, hopefully they're looking out for me. Don't rely on the cavalry to save you... be the solution! Etc, etc, etc.

If enough of us start getting our personal economies flowing again, the rest of the economy will follow. Will it all look the same? I hope not. We need more sustainable practices in every way imaginable and probably need more mid-sized companies instead of fewer megacorps as part of a general theme of more decentralization. But at the end of the day, all I care about economy-wise is that all of us know where our next meal is coming from, have confidence that we can access healthcare etc, and have a roof over our heads. The treasures we store here are lost when we die, so the only treasure that matters is the treasure we can lay up for the next life. That's spirtual treasure and is measured by the good we do and so get out, take a risk, and spend!

That ends my latest screwball idea.