Stop Drop & Roll Economic Recovery

Dear Friends, Family and People I’ve Never Met –

It’s time to start a revolution. The incredible economic mess we’re in may have been precipitated by greed and poor financial management on the part of the “leaders” of our nation and corporate America. However, the crash in the market, the resulting recession, high unemployment and general dismay is caused directly by We the People.

When WE panic and sell off our 401(k) s the market drops…because WE sold our stocks. Therefore the stock is now devalued. WE panic and stop patronizing our local businesses. These businesses now have to layoff employees, decrease their orders to vendors and possibly shut their doors. Unemployment costs just went up and tax revenue to our local government just went down. WE have caused a domino effect to a struggling business, its employees, its vendors and our surrounding community.

WE Are the Economy
CNN recently reported on comments from George Akerlof, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics and co-author of the new book "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism.

“Stories about the nature of the economy that pass from person to person are another reason why markets go up and down. The stories that friends tell one another or that are propagated through the media influence people's confidence in the market and therefore affect the market itself,” said Akerlof.

Start a Revolution
So do you get it? We have to stop wringing our hands and waiting for our “leaders” to rescue us from our own ruin. Remember, these are the guys that started the snowball rolling down the hill. Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, Socialist or Anarchist you can’t be happy with the state of the Country. But at this point, who cares who's at fault. Let’s just fix it already!

So here’s our very simple three step plan to fixing the economy ourselves. When you’re on fire, do you wait until the fire department arrives to rescue you? No… you STOP-DROP-ROLL. Save yourself and your country in these three painless steps:

Stop the negativity! No more horror stories. No more gossiping about who lost a job, who might lose a job, who lost their life savings. It’s done. Any additional negativity you send into the economy will come right back and bite you in the ass. In case you need more proof, re-read the quote from George Akerlof.

Drop the news! The 24-hour news cycle is only perpetuating the panic and sensationalizing the despair of the American people. Did you know that, in fact, the government reported a larger-than-expected increase in consumer spending in January? The first gain in 7 months. And personal income rose. You probably didn’t know that because it appeared in the back of your local paper or as a crawler on CNN. Stop obsessing about the ups and downs reported in the stock market. Stop panicking and STOP FEEDING THE NEWS BEAST!

Roll your spending to local companies. No, I don’t mean overspend or increase your debt. I mean continue your regular purchases at your favorite local establishments. Ask your employer to check out options for local vendors instead of international conglomerates. We’re not going to get out of this mess by giving more money to WalMart and Starbucks. We’re going to see daylight when the Mom & Pop store on the corner has to hire more people to handle the morning coffee rush. More employees, more cups, more coffee, more napkins, more cleaning supplies, more taxes to local government. Get it? If you scrunch your wallet shut as tight as you can, you’re succumbing to the faux-panic created by…WE the people. Here's another radical idea...buy one share of your favorite stock. How much could that cost you at these market prices? But imagine if 10 million people all bought one share of the most fiscally responsible companies. How do you think that would effect the economy?

Maybe it sounds simplistic, but maybe that’s what we need. The government can take a simple idea and contort it into a trillion dollar fiasco. Why can’t WE the people take a simple idea and start a revolution?

If you’re feeling desperate, helpless and frustrated…stop wringing your hands! Do something and do it now.

Send this link to everyone you know or don’t know. Every friend in Face Book, every connection in Linked In, every contact in Outlook. This is viral marketing at its best, but this marketing is for our very existence.

Still not convinced? Well, how's the current situation working for you? Sitting around watching your life savings plummet sounds highly overrated to me. What do you have to lose?

PLEASE ADD A COMMENT TO OUR BLOG...