81%
Friday, April 04, 2008
Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s, according to the latest poll.
In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said they believed that “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2003.
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Lets think about this, a never ending war that drains billions of our tax dollars every month, oil at $100 a barrel, the sub prime mortgage fiasco, corporate welfare bailing out Wall Street, an economic recession, higher health care costs, higher unemployement, trading deficits and the list goes on.
Wonder if the president will address this or just hide in his bubble believing that the country he inherited in 2000 is better off now. These numbers will drop in the next couple months when citizens receive their "Economic Stimulus" checks but that euphoria will be gone once the money runs out. Just yesterday NPR discussed thru behavioral economics the right approach to kickstarting the economy. You send out a check and many people will deposit it into their bank accounts where they will pay bills or just save it. You direct deposit the money, same thing, its all "virtual" with no real feeling attached to it. The best approach would be to send the money out on Visa debit cards which would force people to spend them at local businesses. This is a novel idea but then you take the freedom away from the individual and how they would like to spend their own money. I predict a large boom in flat screen tvs but unless people purchase from Philips all that money will go back overseas. I see a great marketing campaign for Philips here and if they don't act on it, they really shouldn't be in business. This is still a generalization and by no means "a what will happen" but it is worth considering.
Maybe the govt should develop a campaign to go along with the money highlighting what products are still made in the US. After some consideration and research I decided to purchase a new bike. Trek is a US company and the majority of their bikes are made here. There are some of the entry level models built overseas but the one I am interested in is domestically made. We have a Trek shop a couple miles from my house but I found that my local Berkley bike shop is still cheaper. Either way, I am supporting a local business, US company and a product that is manufactured in the states. Maybe I will buy a bunch of California, Oregon and Michigan wines with the rest of it, that way I will have done my part to help our economy.
Posted by mardenhill 4/04/2008 09:02:00 AM
Labels: Politics
