Four hundred forty-seven billion dollars is a lot of money. That's the amount President Barack Obama's recently announced American Jobs Act will cost to implement. With $447 billion, Americans could buy enough Subway foot-long subs to reach the moon and back more than 35 times. Is that a completely ridiculous comparison? Sure. Is suggesting spending $447 billion to begin fixing America's economy equally crazy? Maybe.
But, then again, what does it matter to Elon students? They're here in a cushy private school, getting what many would call a stellar education. The surrounding universe and all the harsh realities it holds is somewhere far off in the distance, right? Not something to be concerned about at the moment.
And it may have been that exact attitude that got the United States into the insane financial mess it is in today.
When people assume, mistakes are made. Corporations go unregulated. A market system that was literally invented by humans is allowed to grow into a monster unrecognizable to most people, the people it supposedly was invented to serve. That's the thing people forget about — the complicated world of stocks, bonds, funds and all that other jazz is all made up. Like Frankenstein and his monster, we invented it and we can control it, if we really want to.
Many Americans don't get the real causes of the financial meltdown that's been seen over the past few years. The collapse of major financial institutions, the housing market bubble, Ponzi schemes, government bailouts and so many more concepts are terms bandied about by politicians and analysts.
How much do you know about the system in which your money, your financial future and your country's financial future rest? Can you explain what has happened and can you see how to prevent it from happening again? If you demand your candidates in office fix the problems and bring new jobs to our towns and states, do you actually have any idea how that can be achieved?
These aren't questions that have easy or straightforward answers. But there are answers out there. In the case of the American Jobs Act, Obama's solution is to mimic FDR's New Deal strategy: spending money in places where he feels everyone will benefit. He also wants to make hiring people an incentive, because the idea that giving lots of people a little money is better than giving a little group of people lots of money simply doesn't work.
For Elon students, this could mean wonderful things. Businesses that hire new workers will see payroll taxes cut if this bill passes.
The jobs of up to 280,000 teachers and tens of thousands of police and firemen will be saved. Those who choose to "job share" instead of having other people fired will be eligible for special benefits. And all of this isn't even including the billions being invested in renovating and updating roads, schools and other vital infrastructure elements and community services.
These are the things that will matter to us in a few years when we are real people living in the real world, dealing with things like where to send our kids to school, how we're going to drive to work and if we're able to keep up with the latest technology around the world.
So this is a call to educate yourself. Even if you don't support the spending Obama is proposing, at least understand the motivation behind it. Understand where we came from and how we got here, and understand what the next steps have to be.
It won't be easy and we won't all get what we want. Compromises and sacrifices will have to be made by everyone.
And if we just realize that, accept it and move on, we'll all be leaps and bounds ahead of most of the people sitting in Washington.