The American Recovery and Reconstruction Plan

Everyone is talking about it...Congress has accepted it...and now it's law. Obama's new $787 billion stimulus package has finally been signed, sealed and delivered.

But, it's creating quite a stir from both sides of the House, which really got me to thinking...is this about money or, bottom line, is it really about accountability? Washington Post had a great article today about this very issue. (Check it out.) I'm no economist, but it seems to me that a plan which encourages people to buy new cars and first homes, offering tax credits and deductions as incentives, is a sure-fire way to get people spending...if they have the money. But, what about those who continue to struggle in this fledgling economy? What about folks who have lost their jobs, or even worse their homes? Mortgage help is now available and this new recovery plan has specific measures meant for those who are really struggling. The package allows for unemployment checks to be extended out 20-33 extra weeks, gives specific income groups an extra $25 per week, and more than 3 million jobs are supposed to be emerge.

While this plan sounds great, I am still struggling with accountability. I don't think we, as a nation, can point fingers and blame the entire crisis on past or present administrations. What we need to do is take a hard look at OURSELVES, as INDIVIDUAL consumers. As a nation, we are consumers. We overeat, overwork, oversleep, and OVERSPEND. Money has become virtual - almost an intangible object that is borrowed, traded, and spent using plastic and the Internet. We rarely see it and, as a result, live with the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. It just seems that when dealing with money as an intangible object, it's a lot easier to get carried away and lose focus of the bigger picture (actually PAYING the credit card bill each month).
I admit, I rarely use cash. And, like most Americans, I could stand to scale back on my spending and beef-up my savings. But, one thing my dad taught me at a very young age was to LIVE WITHIN MY MEANS. This means spend only what I can afford to pay-off. While I do this, I also CONSUME much more than I need to. Maybe we need to revisit bygone eras when recycling was not a fad - it was a necessity. We need to start at the deck-plate level and consider what we, as individuals, can do to lessen the recession, reduce, reuse and recycle. This mantra applies to so much more than garbage. For all of us, this idea of sharing and caring needs to become our way of life.