I never thought I would ever participate in the blogosphere until this current financial crisis has caused several of my friends and family to lose their jobs. I guess you could say I'm lucky enough to still have mine, though I honestly feel it might be better to be unemployed (explanation will follow on a separate post). Our country has gone through a lot over the past 2 years; our financial climate and institutions look very different, we've racked up an enormous amount of debt and emerging markets like China, India and Brazil are finding themselves invited to tables previously reserved for the G-8.
So that answers the economic part, but how does this affect me at work? That's the question I'm hoping to help answer throughout this blog. Americans need to better understand how each hour they slave away in an office, construction site, school or church ends up affecting the US and global economies. It's not just the hours though that we need to better understand, it’s how the income we end up using to buy and sell goods & services from this work affects the economy.
Without employment, people do not have money to spend. When people do not have money to spend, businesses do not sell their goods. When businesses do not sell their goods, suppliers do not make a profit. When businesses and suppliers can't earn a profit they stop producing finished goods, stop harvesting food, stop trading raw materials and the whole economy as we know it collapses. This is the point where the government then has a decision to make - bailout businesses or let them fail.
What many of us didn't realize is how critical of a role we all individually play in this vicious economic cycle. If it hadn't been for us (consumers) pulling out of the economy (along with a variety of other reasons), this deep recession could have been less painful than it will be. Let's get educated, let's understand what role we have in the global economy. Once we have a better understanding of our role and the different players, it's my belief that we can help mitigate future crises by being responsible and holding not only our leaders accountable but also ourselves.
