The Perception Driven Recession

Watching the news last night was kind of stunning. NBC hauled out its financial reporter who basically admitted that she had no idea why the market was slipping or what might happen next. Over and over again we hear that people's fears have led them to stop buying, change their investment habits, and basically cocoon themselves. Part of the problem here lies in perception.

First of all, a significant number of Americans have no real living memory of "hard times." The last time we really endured those was during the 1970s. If you will remember, a Democratic president attempted to implement share the wealth programs that burst the budget, shredded the fabric of society, and led to economic problems that lasted until Ronald Reagan followed the ideas of Milton Friedman and led us to prosperity.

Since then the economy has done extremely well. Our standard of living has dramatically increased, even among much of the group considered poor. we talk less about the poor starving and more about the poor being unhealthily obese. Two minor hiccups aside, we have seen the most dramatic period of expansion in national history. However all economies are subject to cycles and apparently this period of prosperity is ending. But why?

For one thing, people have no context of economic difficulty. If you listened to the Bush hating media all you heard about was how hard the economy was. A period of unemployment under 6% would have been considered amazing in the Carter years, but during the presidency of George W. Bush it was the Great Depression all over again. Those that actually lived through the Depression probably laughed at such claims. Media driven perceptions made people believe that the economy was bad when it was not. we had expansion during wars, attacks on our soil, and Katrina. These shocks individually would devastate an unsound economy.

Then came real problems. The sub prime mortgage crisis, driven by Clinton era mandates, weakened the financial sector. Add to that the energy bubble (now thankfully deflating) and you get a double whammy. Still in and of themselves, these should not have wrecked the economic ship. Perception has caused near panic to take place in investing and major purchasing. This brought on the specter of a very tough recession, tougher than necessary. Certainly Bush and Congress have done a great deal to help restore confidence, but it has not been enough to offset the damage inflicted by the media.

Hard times are difficult and people will have problems for a time. The only positive that can come from this is that it will give the current generation an understanding of what economic trouble really is. We are certainly not headed for a Great Depression or even a 1970s type recession, unless Obama tries to tax us out of our problems. However we must remain confident and optimistic that in the long run we will endure and return to prosperity again.

We are not Appalachian Serfs that need controlled

SERF (sûrf) A member of the lowest feudal class, attached to the land owned by a lord and required to perform labor in return for certain legal or customary rights. A person in bondage or servitude.

My family came to the area on a land grant in 1782 for services in the Continental Army. Since my roots are about 225 years old I believe I'm about as local as it gets. Appalachia has a unique and rich culture. Part of that culture is a right of self determination over ones property and life. It is the most dear principle of liberty, and one my ancestor helped secure by fighting against King George III some 200 years ago. I believe now that liberty again needs defending. This time not by force of arms, but by the voice of the people.

I read something this past weekend in one of the local publications in which the author couldn't understand why "Zoning" was a dirty word in our area. Simple, Zoning flies in the face of freedom itself. It stops self determination and it damages the economy by restricting it. Zoning is a Socialist concept that destroys the a free market in land, and removes its value without compensation to the owner. Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman said it best, "Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself."

These believers in Zoning, tend to be affluent and from the suburbs of a major city or at least lived there for a time. They falsely believe they are gaining some security by giving up some freedom. Ben Franklin saw right through this argument when he said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." These same people talk about how great living in Prince George's, Loudon, or Fairfax Counties was. My question is; If it was so great then why did you leave? The answer is they wanted to gain back that liberty they gave up. Despite all their rules and regulations that take away some of the liberty, they have much higher taxes, higher crime rates, etc and are less secure than we are here. Bad thing is many don't even realize that is why they left. Old Ben had it right, he knew the danger of this type of thinking.

In the article I read, it revealed that in Loudon County, Mobile Homes are not considered homes. That you can't put a mobile home on anything less than 5 acres. Wow! I have friends that are very proud to own their own home and some of those are mobile homes. This is wrong in so many ways. The only purpose of a zoning ordinance like that is to give power to the affluent in the community over the common man. It makes it harder for struggling families, low income wage earners, some middle class, or persons on a fixed income to own their own home. That is the thought process of the Socialist. The socialist pretends that a mobile home is not a home. That way when they deny your ability to own a home you can afford through zoning, they see it as not really taking away your right to own a home in their mind. It is a way for them to justify taking away the liberty of others.

Zoning tries to regulate bulk of the population into nothing more than Serfs of the rich land owners. In essence a Zoning Board will become the Feudal Lords, and the Taxpayers become the Serfs. (You don't really think the guy living in a trailer park, and working at the chicken plant will ever be appointed to the zoning board, do you?) We are not Appalachian Serfs that need controlled. We are free men and women that enjoy self determination over lives and property. If you try take away our liberty, then "Serfs Up Dude!"