Dear Editors:
This report and the associated link was interesting. It repeats advice that has it roots in the early Bible which are still valid. It also reveals that our economists and financiers don’t really understand economics. They follow a lottery and slot machine philosophy.

You should know that there is no value or production in either of these schemes. They are simply designed to transfer your money to their pocket but, in order to get you do do that transfer they offer an incentive. With the slot machine it is called the Jackpot. This is always enhanced by the dribble of small payoffs as you play the machine.

Take a hard look at the stimulus package that seems to be cut an dried at this time and you will see what I mean. It is all focused on money just like the lottery and the slot machine. It is not based on service or material which is our economy. If you have nothing to trade we can’t do business and when we do business we expect to earn a profit high enough to make it worthwhile for me to trade with you. Finance or money is only a measure and method that makes trade much simpler and easier but has no other function.

A recession is caused when we run out of paying customers. We are not running out of people who want what we produce but we are running out of the profit that makes it worthwhile. The parasites that suck the blood out of our commerce is often caused by politics where we try to shortcut the laws of physics that govern commerce.

Commerce is not the movement of money but the movement of goods and services. When the freight costs as much as the product’s profit there is no incentive to produce. If you can’t sell there is no need to work to produce. Hence productions stops and depression follows. Today’s wage in comprehended as money rather than profit. Therefore politics tries to produce money but they can’t print money. It must be produced and it is the production that makes the wage, not the money which is the measure of the value of the wage.

The advice in the link,
http://www.savingadvice.com/blog/2007/12/28/101982_recession-maybe-protect-yourself-in-2008.html,
is good but it also reduces the demand for the goods and services you are cutting back on which will have an effect on employment. As we cut back on the unnecessary we remove some of the inflation in our commerce. I think this is good and proper.

When we consider the drain from taxes do we see that a large portion of that tax is the result of trying to get too much fuel economy from our trade — That is, we expect our trade to yield more profit (horsepower) on less fuel. I hope you can follow what I am trying to illustrate.

I have a Dodge van that averages about 16.5 miles to the gallon of gas. If I try to make it run 17 it will run out of gas somewhere along the road because I have not provided the necessary fuel that it must have. This is the political solution to our economy and it won’t work. Therefore we need to review our political solutions and adjust them by reality.

The poor are not entitled to the property of the rich. Neither are the rich entitled to the property of the poor. For either to take from the other is stealing. A person does not have to steal to become rich but many have become rich through theft. I do not begrudge the rich his wealth but I do not support theft, whether it is by the rich or the poor.

Le 19:13 Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
Jer 22:13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

This isn’t something that has just happened under President Bush but well established long before Bush. This is the primary cause of our recession at this time. By the slot machine of politics we have let the government take our earning, just like the slot machine, under the pretense of a jackpot and a few nickels along to keep us playing.

Just as this report advises. we cannot prepare without cutting back on our spending and rearranging our finances. This will have an effect on commerce but should not cause a loss of jobs where they are most needed to produce the things we need first instead of the things we want first. Note that we have been paying a high price for entertainment and that without complaint. This is usually things that we can do without. We just need to learn to enjoy and be thankful for those things that are the more important and this is very possible.

We do not need to go into a recession but we will unless we rearrange our priorities and political thinking. We need to put more emphasis on producing the things we need and less on producing the things we want, One person can’t do this but one person can do whats right and if enough do this it will be like a flood of rain that comes just one drop at a time. We also need to put our environment in its proper order rather than use it to curtail production.
Richard