Editor,
God willing, I'll graduate in May with my MBA from the Anderson School of Management. But it doesn't really matter what degree I'll have, because it'll still be hard to find a job given the current economic conditions. Unbelievably, I still retain a decent measure of hope for my future prospects, though it's not coming from where you might expect.
Just a couple days ago, our president penned his name to yet another multi-billion dollar stimulus package. I'd like to know where I can find the stimulating effects from the first stimulus package that was tapped into last October. I only wonder: Will this new one be enough? For some reason, I don't think it will. Besides, it seems like bad logic to think that we can spend our way out of a spending problem.
One of the reasons we got into this mess can be traced back to dishonesty. Borrowers were dishonest about how much debt they could handle given their current incomes and savings. Loan officers were dishonest with the borrowers and themselves about how much debt the borrowers could handle. All the investors were dishonest for thinking they could buy risky assets yet treat them more like risk-less ones.
When I was a little boy, I got spanked for not being honest. It stung a little, but pretty quickly after, the pain was gone, and I had learned my lesson. Unfortunately for all of us, these government bailouts are reinforcing our bad borrowing/investing behavior. Whether they actually help is not really the issue. Lasting hope for my future of finding a job and living in a country with a strong economy will come only if I am given the opportunity to learn from my mistakes.
In the future, one thing we can do is learn to save our money again. My grandparents were pretty good at it. But somewhere between them and my generation, we seem to have lost the art of saving. A year ago, our former president encouraged us all to do the economy a favor and go out and spend. If we didn't have money, that was OK. The IRS sent most Americans a check in the mail. Looking back, it didn't seem to do much.
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I said that I still have hope for the future. And I do. My hope lies in our ability to change our behavior.
It's not a short-term solution to our problem. I think it's important to remember the problems facing us today are the product of many years of bad behavior, and it's ludicrous to think that we can fix a long-term problem with a short-term solution. We need to feel the consequences of our actions, and hopefully they will motivate us toward a permanent solution. We need to work hard; we need to save our money. When it comes to genuine change - behavioral change - our government will never be able to bail us out. Only you and I have the power to do that.
Andrew Waldum
UNM student
