"Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody." Benjamin Franklin's words seem to ring a bit more true in light of today's economic struggles and the resulting exposure of the underlying causes. I don't think "rich" would aptly describe the good ol' USA right now – both because we are neither content nor financially sound. As far as how much the latter affects the former? I think it has a lot to do with the way Americans view money.
Though I will not pretend to be an economist or to understand the depths of the issues surrounding the trillions of dollars of American debt, I will venture to say that what Americans need is a new outlook on money and its value grounded in practicality. A newfound respect for the dollar and how it is earned and spent is a necessity for our economy to turn around. If this deference is coupled with a demand for business ethics and the repudiation of frivolous spending, America can still become a model of financial responsibility.
But we are far from this paragon status. I wish I could look to those on Wall Street and respect the way business is done, the way wealth is distributed and the way money is valued. However, this is the furthest from the truth.
As we've seen, the recent distribution of $165 million of the bailout money to American International Group (AIG) employees for bonuses has evoked exasperation at the apparent lack of scrupulous action. "Our country's borrowed money should not be given to the rich to make them richer!" is written on so many American faces. Our money has been abused when it was meant to find solutions.
Well, Benjamin Franklin also said, "He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money." The notion that money will do everything, especially on an individual level, needs to be replaced with the idea that the human intellect behind the money is the real solution.
Even though many of those who received bonuses at AIG with the stimulus money are returning it, the fact that it was given out in the first place is evidence that even a beleaguered economy won't stop some from engaging in the greedy practices that contributed to the economic crisis in the first place.
AIG was willing to hold true to the bonuses in its employees' contracts, despite the fact that the stimulus package purported to help out where money is needed, not to excessively add to where money is already abundant. So we're all sitting around America throwing our hands up in the air, but where do we come in and what can we do? This is a question I ask myself when looking at current events and catastrophes. And I see that I'm as much a part of this country as those on Wall Street messing things up.
Why? Because I, too, am guilty of disrespecting money. As we open our first credit card accounts and enter the working world, it's advantageous for us to apply what we've learned in our required ethics classes to how we treat money, but this doesn't always happen. Today, it is too easy to open a credit account and to spend what we don't have. It's the sort of thinking that led the economy to the edge of the cliff upon which we stand.
Economist and author Peter Schiff accurately predicted the economic downturn that America now faces when many thought he was crazy. His foresight on what would result from Americans' spending behaviors has been proven right. Schiff hit it on the head when describing America's view of money and credit spending:
"Without a doubt, Americans…benefit from having access to 'rainy day money.' But Americans should be saving for a rainy day, not adopting the attitude that if it rains I'll whip out my credit card. If Americans need to pay for a suddenly ill dog, to straighten their kid's teeth, or to pull them through a period of unemployment, they should save some of their present earnings."
We're young and in the midst of a strong recession. Let's take the hint and focus on being fiscally responsible from the get-go in our spending and saving careers.
As Wu-Tang Clan once said, "Cash rules everything around me." But what needs to happen is for us to rule that "dolla dolla bill, ya'll," by valuing it ethically and sensibly.