Portland.CityJournal.us

Today President elect Obama got the other half of the $700 billion. I guess the first half went poof pretty fast. One thing about how this money may be spent is that at least we might see some of it. I've been hearing about a long list of bailout ideas and it seems like everyone has their hands out. Funny that when I look at who's going to get the money, the list looks like a lot of Obama's biggest supporters. Yup, you guessed it right. Obama is about to go from being a top porker in the Senate to doling it out from the Oval Office.

I'm not the only one noticing this. The question is who will stand up and say something?

I'm at an age where I'm trying to plan for grandchildren and would like to make investments on their behalf that they can enjoy later. Looking down the road and making responsible choices today is a good thing. I'm of a double mind about this though. Some investments will pay off for future generations. Some will leave only the burden of repayment as a legacy. How to discriminate between the two will be key.

If I were to bet my grandkids' money, it would be on education. I benefited from grants and loans that helped me go to college. I've been paying it back in the form of higher taxes ever since because I earn a professional wage and I've never regretted that. Can we invest in education and research so that we'll produce a crop of high-producing, high-wage earning professionals who will be able to pay back all this money we're borrowing from them?

One option is to allow the government to tell kids where to go to school, what to study and how to make money. The other option is to count on good old American entrepreneurship and let people find ways to educate themselves into jobs making money. I'll put my money on the second option thanks. Somehow I just don't feel safe with all those politicians and all that money.

I'm afraid instead that we'll run head-long into the biggest spending binge in history and we'll do it all under the guise of saving the economy.