How the People Can Fix the Economy All by Themselves
Americans as well as many people around the world have a pretty good sense of what it means to roll up their sleeves and get the job done. With the right motivation, it doesn’t matter if they’re doing it for themselves or for the good of others because they are not just givers, they are the doers. In this day and age, it is easy to feel dependent or helpless in the presence of big government, big companies and big money that we think run the world and should fix it but, that’s only part of the picture. There is something that all of us can do.
The Plan
1.) Everyone that can afford to, selects a job, large or small, at their home that needs to be done and has it done.
2.) Everyone that can afford to, selects something that can be bought or fixed for themselves or another person that would improve their life and does it.
3.) Anyone with time, treasure or talent puts it to work.
Yes, it is that simple. We can start in our own back yard and have a great effect on the global economic picture. The problem with simple ideas is that they can be very broad and take an enormous amount of explanation to convey to an audience. The broader the concept, the easier it is to find the exceptions to the idea or theory. The real beauty is that the better the idea, the more pure it is, the more it begs an effort to make it work and the happier people are with the idea when they see it. In this case, the idea is not to over-emphasize consumerism to the point of being wasteful but, to fix up or take care of what we have and who we have. If more people that could, would do one thing for themselves or someone else that really should be done, then someone would most likely get paid for goods or service. Every time this happens, money is turned over or someone has cared for something to the point that the value of it is increased.
What a lot of people don’t focus on is the number of people in the country that are actually doing O.K. Even in these bad times, some people already have a nest egg in the bank, a retirement plan, health insurance, a house that’s paid for and to add insult to injury, social security on top of all that. In spite of the fact that such good fortune that used to be a little more common, would not be as easy to reproduce now in the life of many people in America
In case you’re frowning or saying, “yeah-but”, let me explain where these ideas are coming from. It all started one day when I was wondering why a friend of mine who happens to be a building contractor didn’t have more work. He is a perfectly capable, self-employed guy and in my line of work as a real estate agent, I could think of all kinds of people that should have something done to their house but, I didn’t think it was my place to be actively trying to get more work for my contractor friend unless somebody asked me for the name of a contractor. In addition, if I suggest that someone needs work done, it can be interpreted as a criticism that might close the door on the relationship. As I would come and go looking at homes, land and commercial properties to assist in buying, selling or leasing for my clients, I had exposure to a much greater number of properties than a contractor would normally have a chance to see. In addition, I was often asked for recommendations and opinions as to what to do with the properties to get them ready for market or what they might need to fix them up.
One thing I began to notice is that many property owners are a little too close to the forest when it comes to being able to see their property in the same way that the rest of the world sees it. After all, when you live with things the way they are, day in and day out, you just don’t seem to notice the things that could be done to make a big difference. Other people often do but, I think its part of the territorial feeling or the self conscious nature of people and their “stuff” that makes it hard for someone else to make a suggestion about what other people should do to improve how they look or the place they live in. Maybe, there’s a way we don’t have to suggest it if we could make popular the idea that people raise the questions themselves.
Before I begin, there are a few premises that I would like to put forth that help to provide a foundation for the plan. One, as you might have heard it said, is that we all have something to offer; time, treasure or talent. Another is that anything that doesn’t grow, dies. In this case, if the economy doesn’t grow, it gets worse and I assume we don’t want it to go too fast in either direction. One more premise is that a good plan should be able to be applied to large and small jobs or rich and poor people for the benefit of all. We all swim in the same economy and as we express a belief in the currency and assets of the economy, the value of it grows.
There is a particular category of people in the economy that is near and dear to my heart and they are, the self employed. I would like to pay special attention to these people to help show how immediate and instrumental they can be to improving the overall economy, including big business and government. In this big nightmare of a recession that we’re going through, I think it is the self employed that have been hit the hardest and I also think they are the category that are the hardest to keep good statistics on. As the economy started to crumble, the self employed were among the first to feel it and likewise could be the first to fix it. Why? Because, what ever money they receive is likely to turn over quicker.
To paint a more dramatic picture on how this can happen, imagine a rich person in town that builds or rebuilds a big fancy house and the people that see this, say to themselves, “Oh, another rich one-percenter, overindulging themselves when they should be giving to the poor”. There may be an argument here but, I don’t want to make it because, unless there have been any laws broken, there probably won’t be an end to it any time soon. Some people build big, fancy houses and it is their right to do it if they want to. But, I can tell you from experience that the people that got the jobs for the framing, electrical, plumbing, painting, etc. were probably happy that job came along when it did. Assuming that the job was well run, all the people that got paid were now able to take their money and spend it. One big job like this can employ quite a few people that will spend it very quickly on necessities. This has an immediate and beneficial effect on the economy.
Now, if another rich person sees that the first rich person had the confidence to build or saw the value in building and decided that maybe it would be a good time to invest, then there could be 20 or 30 more people that get a job out of it. Enthusiasm is infectious. More and more people get enthusiastic and gain confidence when they see other people popularizing an idea. And, you know what? It doesn’t have to happen with only the rich people. We’re all the same. If you didn’t have any money and could pull the weeds around your house and keep the place tidy, the neighbors would feel the pride of the neighborhood. If you were unable to care for your place but, the neighbors had the right idea, they would probably take pride in helping you out. Life moves in one direction and so does the economy.
The idea is to do what you can do. There’s no need to feel helpless about fixing the economy and it is not always the case that spending money is wasting it. Invest in yourself or someone you would like to help but, invest in something. Dream it up and do it. Make a list of what you can do, that’s good for you and do it. If you can do it, give somebody a job or buy something from someone else. The longer your money is inactive, the longer we wait for the economy to recover. The longer we wait, the more the infrastructure goes to seed and the harder it is to recover.
The government doesn’t need to hand out money it borrows to each and every person to help the economy when we can do it by investing in simple everyday tasks that will generate income that other people will pay taxes on. You win, the person you hire wins and the government wins.
If only one person got this idea, the overall effect would be small. But, if a million or ten million people did it, the overall effect would get noticed on Wall Street and those stocks you hold in your retirement plan would increase in value. So, how can we get everybody in the country to dream it up and do it? Simple, we franchise the plan and sell it or just send this article to someone else. Every business, every church and every civic organization in the country would do well to support it and promote it. If it is cheap enough to get on board, they’ll do it. If you can’t come up with something to spend your time, treasure or talent on by yourself, then get on board with the company, a church, a club, a neighbor or any NGO and work on a project.
If you think about it, we spend too much time doing nothing and so does our money. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Steve Ericson
ericsonrealty@gmail.com
