Financial Stability in America and American Responsibility by Chelle Stockman

The financial problems in America began with Americans. Let us consider how the dollar has lost its purchasing power. The first and most powerful way we have decreased the value of our dollar is by not using it. You see, the dollar no longer stands for spending power. We trade predominantly with credit and debit reserving cash for smaller items; therefore our dollar has less purchasing power.

Now let us consider how we do business. We buy things on credit and because credit is so freely given and so freely taken in exchange for goods and services, prices of those goods and services continue to increase which places a strain on the supply end of the production train which also drives up costs. That in return forces suppliers to look for areas where they can increase production without raising the cost of their products which is merely a temporary solution because as the supply becomes available, the demand continues to increase. If we paid cash for goods and services, the demand would be more stable which means the cost of production would decrease but because we buy things on credit, we can have what we think we want right now and concern ourselves with paying it at a later date. In essence, our jobs go overseas to fuel our appetite for goods that we buy on credit.

Credit has replaced the currency in America. To restore our country's financial stability, we must cease using credit except to start up businesses and purchase homes. For everything else, including health care, we must use cash. When we pay cash, we should try to pay for things made in America and if we simply must have something, we should then seek to pay cash for items made on our continent. This will help to solve immigration problems, and the trends will eventually catch the eyes of economists who will start chatting about our spending habits. They will be forced to adapt to the consumers demand rather than string us along on the perilous path of job losses and credit woes.

In the arena of health care, the cost will drop drastically if we can avoid using services that we cannot pay for. The health industry regulators fear a sickened and possibly infected society and will make policy changes (reluctantly) to curtail the never ending inflation of health care costs.

You want to keep jobs in America? Buy American made goods and when you aren't able to find them, write your representatives. Write the companies you prefer to do business with and encourage your friends and neighbors to also do so. You want to have affordable goods and services? Pay for them with cash and buy only what you need to use. Don't visit doctors every time you get a cold or a sliver. Go when you need to. A wiser use of your cash would be to visit menu planning nutritionists who promote longevity diets rather than wait for sickness to force you into a hospital where even Tylenol is served at an inflated cost.

Americans don't realize that our oil costs per barrel decreased when we used less. OPEC and other oil commodities have production limits that are heavily taxed when they over-produce. In a way, that's how it goes for other goods and services we purchase. You want affordable housing? Buy more affordable products and save for a larger cash down payment; the market will adjust to our spending habits. It's pretty simple if we'd only do this.

We the American people can serve one another best buy developing better habits as consumers. I'm ready to get started. You folks with me? The time to restore the value of our currency is now and that can only happen if we trade and sell with cash, resisting the urge to use credit and debit.

God Bless these efforts.

Chelle Stockman