It wasn’t until sometime this past week that I realized that in addition to starting a New Year on January 1st we also would be starting a New Decade.
As I thought about that, I reflected on the past decade and
I Was Pretty Shaken.
I can remember as we approached January 1 of 2000 all of the fear about Y2k. The computers were going to crash and the world would be in chaos. Some of my friends stockpiled bottled water and groceries to tide them over because water and food would be scarce.
Fortunately the predictions never came through. January 1st, 2000 came. The computers didn’t crash and life went on.
Trouble Did Develop
We Americans were shaken in September of 2001 with the attack on the World Trade Center. Over 3,000 lives lost. Suddenly we realized that terrorists could attack us right here in our own country. We also realized that the government did not have the systems in place to identify the potential threats from terrorists and stop them before they could lead to loss of life. Our own lives and those of our family and friends were in jeopardy.
Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda wanted to bring the United States to its knees. Their plan to do this was by striking the country at its core, its financial center. That’s what the attack on the World Trade Center was supposed to accomplish. Actually it failed. All that really happened was that over 3,000 people were lost and an angry American public resolved to defeat the terrorists.
The Sad Thing Is
While Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda failed to bring America to its knees, we did what they wanted to do ourselves. We did this through the financial crisis which has engulfed our country for the last several years.
How did the financial crisis develop? If you look beneath the surface, you will find that it occurred because of the greed of some people and the financial companies they worked for. In the early part of the last 10 years, they became accustomed to making a great deal of money and just wanted to make more and more. In their haste to do this they relaxed all the standards in place which would have prevented a financial collapse from occurring and being as deep and complete as it has been.
The Consequences
Our country is experiencing the consequences of the financial crisis.
The official unemployment rate is 10%. The actual rate is much higher because people who have given up and felt they never will be able to get new jobs have come out of the number.
For many others their standard of living has dropped. They lost their jobs and have found new ones. However, they are earning far less now than they were earning before.
The last estimate was that in 2009 foreclosure action commenced on 3.9 million homes. That is up from the 3.2 million homes in 2008. Stop for a moment and think about that. In 2 years, the total is over 7.1 million homes. We all know someone who is in this predicament.
Foreclosures have had an impact on each of us. The values of our homes have dropped.
There is more polarization in our country now than there has been in quite some time. We have red states and blue states. It goes far beyond that. The severity of the financial crisis has each of us pointing our finger at each other. We are also blaming the government.
Many say that those experiencing the greatest financial challenges have brought it on themselves. If they were more careful, they could have avoided it. If they had paid closer attention, they could have seen that the company they worked for was having difficulty. They could have looked for new jobs earlier. The government is doing too much to help them and in the long run the government’s help is costing us money.
Financially the Last 10 Years Have
Been The Worst Since the Great Depression
I heard that on a news report this past week. When I thought about it, I realized that most of us were not alive during the Great Depression. Those who were were very young. So this is something new for each of us. Actually this is the worst financial period of our lifetimes.
So on this the first day of 2010 I wish you
Happy New Year and Happy New Decade
Let’s put the last 10 years behind us. Let’s focus on making the next 10 years the best that we have had. Each one of us can start by vowing right now to make today a great day for us and to make tomorrow greater than today.
How can we do that? Each one of us has certain talents, abilities and gifts. Let’s use those to help our relatives, friends, business associates and any strangers we meet have a better day. If we all do this, we can resolve not only our financial problems but any others that may develop.
At times you may slip and not follow through on this. When you realize that is happening, just forgive yourself for it and start again.
Have a great day.
Bob Paroski
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