US Economy: Will it Turn Around?

In the January 7 edition of Forbes magazine, Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of mexico and now director of the yale center for the study of globalization has an intriguing article. He touches on the recent down fall of the US economy and how the global economy will be affected during 2008. One of the problems that he mentions is America's propensity to consume and our negative savings rate. As many of you may be well aware the savings rate is negative in the United States. That means that on average an American citizen spends more money than they make. It means that a growing number of the US population is imprisoned by debt. Ernesto mentions that this behavior of "swallowing our savings" has troubled many analysts because in the rest of the world there is a "savings glut." Other countries around the world love to save. This is our major problem, not big corporations and not corrupt bankers and brokers. It is us.
The reason why we are even in a credit "crunch" is primarily because Americans have no soul. It is not because some broker wanted to make more money though that is part of the problem and let me emphasize, they are only a smalll part of the problem. The major catalyst is the prideful desires of american citizens. We do not respect money and what money can give us. No, we only love what money can buy. Therefore, even if we don't have the money we lust after the "things" we can have and consume. Eventually this lusting forces us to buy the product on credit. We will refinance our homes, or even take out second mortgages so that we can buy more and more stuff. We will even sell our souls for the new plasma, car, bigger house or lates video game console. Thus, we have no principles, no self control, no morals and sadly enough, NO Soul.
Consequently, the government should not step in and help the economy. The markets need to correct themselves. If GDP must decrease because Americans are finally realizing that they can't just keep buying everything they want then let it decrease. They are begining to realize that if they are not smarter with their money they will lose their homes. Reality is finally starting to settle in. If I don't have the money then I can't buy it. What a concept. If millions of Americans need to lose thier homes so that they and the rest of prideful america can wake up, then so be it. But no. We have some fake Republican in the white house who is now going to "fix" the problem by sending people more money. It is ridiculous and it will only encourage people to not learn that they can not spend more than they make. Though this "stimulus" package may help in the very short run in the long run it will only continue to damage the crumbling value of the dollar and continue to distort American's view of reality. Wake up People! Think for yourselves! Regain Your Soul!