Fall Back Plan for the Future

As some of you may have noted, the Popular Progressive blog has been quiet in the last few months. This was wholly unintentional, but it is symptomatic of where the author has been with regard to the body politic. To press for progressive ideals is not a non-contact sport and it has become somewhat brutal when faced with the likes of the Tea Party and right-winged firebrands who cynically believe that we have become too progressive in Iowa and elsewhere.

Nonetheless, during my time away I have been taking in the voices of gloom and doom and they have given me some pause to reflect. As a person who works with trends and looks at them with a eye that wants to be able to explain what it all means, this is what I can conclude: we have come to the end of the age of quick fixes and easy answers. And had we actually been paying attention, our President, among others, was telling us from the day he was elected and since.

Unfortunately, many people have the mind set that all problems should and can be solved in an election cycle or else, throw the bums out and try again. That type of magical thinking works marginally well with sports teams (although as a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, I can assure you that it doesn't always work). The President and Congress are dealing with the economic carnage of two wars, as well as banking and housing financing fiascoes that broke down the markets (caused by egregious policy/practice mistakes of the past--and yes, there is blame enough to go around for both parties, the industry lobbyists who convinced them it was good politics, the Gordon Gecko wannabes who recited the greed-is-good mantra to underlings who made it so, and the simple-minded consumers who accepted this false largess as their birthright). Add to this an emotionally charged "fixing" of an ailing health care system that is still some time from being realized and is it any wonder that people are questioning their allegiances?

Fast forward to the election that will occur about a month from now. With the pumping media storyline that Republican and particularly right wing voters are being "energized" to vote and lefties and Democrats being "disenchanted"--it would seem that results are already in and we'll go from having a party of "No" to a nation of "No."

And what do we get in return for our buyer's remorse, a promise to bring back the failed policies that created the deep hole that we find ourselves in. Like all efforts to turn the economy around, we have to remember that it is not like a family budget and it is more like a million headed hydra that generally works best if investment is occurring. If the private sector really is the answer, why is it so reluctant to step forward and lead us out of the recession? Is it that those who have feasted during the "good" times are still too bloated to stand up?

Instead, the spotlight has been shone on the one sector that is actually investing in helping the economy to reinvigorate itself. Unfortunately for it, but fortunately for the democratic process (and unlike a Fortune 500 company--where the CEO gets what they want)-- our elected CEO doesn't call all the shots. Opposing forces (and by this I mean members of Congress from both parties who are holding out their hand to interests who care not a whit about "the average American")count on these failures to weaken the position of those shaping policy and, while opinions may legitimately be different, real people are hurt waiting for the promised "trickle down" to happen.

Regardless of the outcome of the election, there is some serious work that needs to take place in this country:

1) People holding the purse strings need to pony up--if it is a business that isn't investing in its next generation or a billionaire who is sitting on his or her money, get off the dime. The government should not need to give you an incentive to invest in the country and the people who have gotten you to where you are today. There is something very patriotic about investing in solving your country's problems.
2) Gasbags, whiners, and blamers need to shut up and roll up their sleeves to give back to this nation what they have been fortunate enough to get out of it.
3) Regardless of what party or ideology you belong to, we are in the midst of a crisis of confidence in each other. United we stand, divided we shall surely fall. Find something that you can do in your hometown or state that can make a condition better--that was the pioneer spirit that created so much good in this land.
4) Reevaluate what is really important. Instant gratification is expensive as we have literally taxed our planet's limited resources to death. What if the measure of wealth was not how much you have, but what you do with what you have?
5) Reimagine the future for your family, town, country and help to create the plans that gets us there.

I do not doubt that we are bigger than our problems. I do believe that our short attention spans have clouded our ability to believe that things can and will get better. I close by repeating these words that Paul Wellstone said, "If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."

Things Are Looking Bad or Are They?

In my counseling training program years ago, I learned that what people believe is more important, from a therapeutic perspective, than what they know factually. This is to say that what a person thinks is more important than what is true. So that brings me to today's CNN poll that says that almost 75% of Americans are somewhat or very scared about the way things are going in the U.S.

I would argue that this kind of national malaise is a case of self-fulfilling prophecy--kind of like Chicken Little saying "the sky is falling" and lo, the sky falls, and falls, and falls some more. What this might say is we don't have any confidence in ourselves and our ability to solve our own economic problems or maybe it is deeper than that--we want other people to fix things for us and don't have any confidence they can.

Either way, this thinking leads us to where it is darkest before it goes completely black.

So what to do? Acknowledge that we are in a hole and stop digging deeper:

1) We need to unplug ourselves from those folks who insist on telling us how to think and think for ourselves (I'm not telling you how to think--just offering a suggestion). Investors rely too much on advice from others rather than their own judgment. Maybe if folks ignored some of the "expert" adivse they are getting, the economy would actually turn around faster.

2) We need to invest in our country. Crazy notion, but buying savings bonds might actually be the sanest way to make sure your life savings don't compleely evaporate because other folks are panicking.

3) Support your community, taking a sort of "think global, act local" approach. It may be healthier to support those people around you who are struggling just the same as you are. We might not be able to take care of the whole world, but we sure can take care of our blocks, neighborhoods, and schools.

4) Learn from our own history, unlike the Great Depression, we don't have a Dust Bowl to contend with, so our green economy that feeds us and supplies us resources to deal with other problems is in good shape.

5) A good question to ask yourself when you are worried about things is "How is my life different today than it was yesterday?" If you find yourself saying, it is no worse than the day before, perhaps your angst is not called for.

6) Lastly, if you think things are bad, really bad, challenge yourself to identify 10 things that are going okay. For instance, when I was laid off last summer, I took great comfort in the fact I had a house, a great partner, the best dogs in the world, good friends, a guitar, a car that ran, feet that work if the car didn't, and so on.

In the mean time, let's try to have some faith in our fellow humankind, not give in to gloom and doom, and conserve our energies to fight the really important fights that are likely to lie ahead. Who knows, maybe the one-hit wonders Timbuk 3 were actually right.

Clean Water Infrastructure Is Good Infrastructure

Anyone who mucked about in the floodwaters of last spring should have no trouble grasping the sad state of affairs that our waterways in Iowa are in. Our representatives in Washington should be supportive of efforts from groups like the Iowa Environmental Council who are front and center on this issue. The IEC has the following to say with respect to the stimulus bill working its way through the US Senate.

The Iowa Environmental Council is encouraging U.S. lawmakers to increase clean water infrastructure funding in the economic stimulus plan, now under consideration in Congress. The House version of the stimulus package currently includes $8 billion and the Senate bill $4 billion for clean water infrastructure. The EPA estimated the cost of meeting our clean water infrastructure needs at $580 billion during the last assessment in 2004, according to a GAO report.

In Iowa alone, the Department of Natural Resources estimates water infrastructure needs to be over $618 million over the next two to three years.

According to Susan Heathcote, water program director for the Iowa Environmental Council, 87 of these projects, with a total cost of $306 million, could be underway in three to four months if the necessary funding were made available.

Sixty-six communities in Iowa do not have a public sewer system and 21 communities need help to upgrade their drinking water systems says Heathcote.

"These needs combined with the fact that we could have shovels in the ground as soon as funding becomes available make them perfect candidates for funding under the nation's economic stimulus package," said Heathcote.

In letters to Iowa Representative Boswell and Senators Harkin and Grassley, Heathcote outlined Iowa projects that could proceed immediately with available funding:

- 25 communities with sewage treatment plant projects, with estimated needed loan amounts of $165 million;

- 41 small unsewered communities, with estimated total cost of $72 million.

- 21 communities with need for upgrades to their drinking water systems, with an estimated total cost of $69 million.

Heathcote says, in addition to the new water projects outlined above, Iowa communities also need help to address ongoing efforts to separate outdated combined sewer systems and to repair or replace aging sanitary sewer system pipes. Until this work is completed, Iowa communities must continue to deal with the public health threat from frequent failure of sanitary sewer systems that result in discharges of untreated sewage into Iowa rivers.

"While we are addressing our ailing economy, why not make a real investment in clean water?" said Heathcote.

Yes Virginia, There Is An Economy

Dear Virginia,

There is an economy. It may not be something you see, but like Santa Claus, if you can just believe, it is there. How do we know there is an economy? There are things called predictors; things like consumer buying behavior, and housing starts. When these things are up, the economy is likely to be good. When things like unemployment and interests rates are up, the economy is likely to be bad.

When these predictors are showing the economy is going to be bad, people are afraid to spend money or make investments, this makes the economy worse which leads to dire predictions and screaming from TV market analysts (they are "experts"). Then banks get scared and stop making loans and start buying other banks. This is good for the banks, but bad for the economy. Because you see, Virginia, people can't buy things if they can't borrow money.

The economy is so important that elections are often decided by the belief that one candidate will do a better job to "fix" the economy than the other. The truth is, that the economy only gets better if people are spending money. Virginia, the economy is not based on actual worth of anything (and hasn't for a long time), but it is based on people thinking it is going to be okay and not being afraid to spend money, even if they have to borrow it to spend it.

Sometimes all it takes is something called a "stimulus package". This is when some of our taxes are given back to us so we can buy things like holiday gifts or food. However sometimes "stimulus packages" are not enough, particularly when people are paying for things that they borrowed for in in the past with the money they get back. You see Virginia, since most loans are based on high interest rates, many people take longer and longer to pay them back and when they don't have a job, it makes it even tougher.

If the economy were to be fixed properly, the government might force creditors to lower the interest rates they charge to lenders so that they can pay back their debts more quickly. That way, there would be more money flowing and the economy would likely be on its way back to health. But that Virginia, would take an act of courage by Congress. And in politics, dear Virginia, courage is hard to come by.