A Conversation with a Young Obama Supporter

A Conversation with a Young Obama Supporter
 
Is life as good for you as it is for me?  I hope you guys are doing as well as I am.  It has been so much fun taking advantage of these negative real interest rates (the rate minus inflation).  This is free money, and I love the word free.  I just received a sizable loan from our government (HUD loan) with a fixed rate of 2.3% for an unbelievable 35 years.  
How can they offer me all this free money?  Someone will have to pay for my subsidy, my gift, and I think I know who.  I hope you are able to take advantage of programs like these.
Oh, I hear it is much harder for you to even get a loan.
 
Have you taken advantage of this Federal Reserve induced bull market in stocks?  What a no-brainer!  It was obvious to folks like me that the President's fiscal policies of higher marginal tax rates and increased government spending would lead to higher deficits, therefore lower growth.  This would force the Federal Reserve to print money that would find it's way into the stock market, not the economy.
 
Understanding how our economy and markets work is very advantageous.    It's a shame that there are too many low information voters who have not benefitted, and will continue to be worse off.   During the President's tenure, 8 million folks are missing from the labor force so the unemployment rate is much higher than the official rate.  The official rate conveniently does not count the missing. This has resulted in little or no job creation. If you are one of the lucky ones who has a job, how are your prospects for a raise?  After all, you just had a tax increase.  Sorry about that paycheck shrinkage.  I thought he said he wouldn't raise your taxes.  I wonder what the final cost of Obamacare will be?   Will gasoline soon have a $5 handle ?  Don't you think  that building the XL Pipeline would help lower the price by increasing supply? Just a thought!
 
Even though Obama's reckless fiscal policies, and his influence on monetary policy have been financially beneficial to me, I did not vote for him because in the long run these policies will set our country back for decades.
 
When I taught Economics at a Jesuit School, I had a disagreement with one of the priests.  Since most of my course dealt  with theories on capitalism, he thought these theories were socially unjust.  I agreed with him that a capitalistic economic system would fail if the producers failed to provide assistance to those unable to be productive.  But I felt that current policies dealing with fairness and social justice were counter productive.  Take the current length of unemployment compensation at 99 weeks.  After 2 years wouldn't you think there would be irreparable damage to their work skills.  How about 50 million on food stamps where one can use a stamp to buy a lap dance.  Another out of control program is Social Security Disability.  There are more enrolling in this program than jobs  being  created.  I didn't realize that the workplace had gotten so dangerous. I explained to the priest that I understood and applauded his mission of helping those in need, but the above programs tend only to lengthen the time one spends in the prison of poveryt.  My mission was to educate so that there could be a successful jail break.
 
Borrowing money is really renting money.  I hope you young people realize that sooner or later, free rent will be a thing of the past.  You and your government will need to borrow more and more and the cost will force both of you to give up your wants and maybe your needs.  If you think this sequester is painful, you ain't seen  nothing yet!  Wake up young voters!  It doesn't have to be this way.
 
Ray Zimmerman