You had to see it coming
I'm in Political Science and I have a newspaper dossier to compile, I was bound to begin talking of the world outside my bubble. And I can pretty much sum it all up as the following:
It. Drives. Me. NUTS.
Granted, I do find some fascinating articles on culture that could make excellent resource material for writing, but on the other hand, I just really, really want to rip my hair out. I've made a concession: politics can be interesting, it's politicians that I can't stand.
At my core, I'm an idealist but I'm one that knows the world can be an incredibly rotten place and consequently I'm quite cynical. However, even I'm getting sick of all the doom and gloom. Not in the "we're all screwed!" sense but more in the vein of "jeebus, would ya knock it off already?". The economy is bad. I know that. You know that. The squirrel knows that. I also know that for it to get better, it has to get worse. Fine, deal. Instead of obsessing over it, let's look ahead -and to Harper's and Obama's credit, that's what they're trying to do.
I have a basic grasp of Economics, thanks to high school education and now Macro. I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with the man, but Harper and his party have the rough idea of what to do: spend, spend, and spend (although, how the dollars are distributed is another basket of apples entirely). Inversely, I can't get behind Obama and his proposed budget. It does have lots of spending -obviously- but protectionism helps absolutely no one. I understand it's a government reflex -just take a look at history- but it shouldn't be acted on. Oh and Charest, the moment you start granting privileges to one group of people, i.e. Quebecois musicians, and are unwilling to provide the same for others, that's protectionism any which way you slice it. Saying it's in the name of culture is all well and good but we've got a global economic crisis on our hands. Let's worry about that first. (Quebec isn't going anywhere, our money, on the other had, is.)
Cutting taxes isn't a smart idea either, or should I say, not the best. In theory, yes, it does leave more spending money for the citizens to stimulate the economy but there tends to be a general problem: they don't spend. People are always scared of an economic fallout and at the first sight of extra cash, a chunk immediately goes to savings. The economy doesn't move, it stagnates, regresses, people save more, it just keeps going. The government needs to do the spending -as much as Republicans and Conservatives don't like it. Because, let's face it, most people can't take care of themselves, nevermind a country. The "laissez-faire" approach does. Not. Work. Investing in stocks isn't bad either, dubious as that sounds, because with the low prices, the market is pretty much on sale and when those shares bounce back... Of course, you must be prepared for risk.
Obviously there's not just the recession in the news, there's the Bloc Quebecois getting in a tizzy about Sarkozy and the voting on Harper's buget, etc. Fun stuff, guys, fun stuff indeed. From a strictly politically scientific perspective, this is admittedly interesting. I just don't like living in it and having my shadow of a faith in humanity pounded further into the ground. This is precisely why I avoided the news for nearly eighteen years.
It. Drives. Me. NUTS.
Granted, I do find some fascinating articles on culture that could make excellent resource material for writing, but on the other hand, I just really, really want to rip my hair out. I've made a concession: politics can be interesting, it's politicians that I can't stand.
At my core, I'm an idealist but I'm one that knows the world can be an incredibly rotten place and consequently I'm quite cynical. However, even I'm getting sick of all the doom and gloom. Not in the "we're all screwed!" sense but more in the vein of "jeebus, would ya knock it off already?". The economy is bad. I know that. You know that. The squirrel knows that. I also know that for it to get better, it has to get worse. Fine, deal. Instead of obsessing over it, let's look ahead -and to Harper's and Obama's credit, that's what they're trying to do.
I have a basic grasp of Economics, thanks to high school education and now Macro. I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with the man, but Harper and his party have the rough idea of what to do: spend, spend, and spend (although, how the dollars are distributed is another basket of apples entirely). Inversely, I can't get behind Obama and his proposed budget. It does have lots of spending -obviously- but protectionism helps absolutely no one. I understand it's a government reflex -just take a look at history- but it shouldn't be acted on. Oh and Charest, the moment you start granting privileges to one group of people, i.e. Quebecois musicians, and are unwilling to provide the same for others, that's protectionism any which way you slice it. Saying it's in the name of culture is all well and good but we've got a global economic crisis on our hands. Let's worry about that first. (Quebec isn't going anywhere, our money, on the other had, is.)
Cutting taxes isn't a smart idea either, or should I say, not the best. In theory, yes, it does leave more spending money for the citizens to stimulate the economy but there tends to be a general problem: they don't spend. People are always scared of an economic fallout and at the first sight of extra cash, a chunk immediately goes to savings. The economy doesn't move, it stagnates, regresses, people save more, it just keeps going. The government needs to do the spending -as much as Republicans and Conservatives don't like it. Because, let's face it, most people can't take care of themselves, nevermind a country. The "laissez-faire" approach does. Not. Work. Investing in stocks isn't bad either, dubious as that sounds, because with the low prices, the market is pretty much on sale and when those shares bounce back... Of course, you must be prepared for risk.
Obviously there's not just the recession in the news, there's the Bloc Quebecois getting in a tizzy about Sarkozy and the voting on Harper's buget, etc. Fun stuff, guys, fun stuff indeed. From a strictly politically scientific perspective, this is admittedly interesting. I just don't like living in it and having my shadow of a faith in humanity pounded further into the ground. This is precisely why I avoided the news for nearly eighteen years.