Clean Economy

On the rare occasion when we have nothing better to do, Mrs. Pundit and I sit down and watch one of those shows where some expert in cleanliness and/or organization comes in and helps some poor soul with a messy house. You know the kind of show I'm talking about...in the first segment, we are shown from room to room where there is stuff piled high enough to lose a toddler in, leaving only a thin path down the middle, and every horizontal surface is stacked with everything imaginable. My wife likes to watch these shows with me because when I was growing up, my room could have been on one of those shows...but that's another post.

Anyway, in each of those episodes, the first piece of advice that the expert gives to the hapless homeowner is to get rid of the junk. "It will be painful, but you have to be ruthless about this," they'll say, "because you can't get organized until you have fixed the underlying problem." In other words, all the organizational tools in the world can't help you if you continue to behave in the way you did to cause the mess. I can't help but make a comparison to the economic turmoil we are in as a country. We have selected President Obama as our expert consultant and are waiting for him to work his magic to get us out from under our economic wreckage. Unlike those experts on TV, however, he seems reluctant to counsel us to change our behavior and get rid of the junk. In fairness, no one in a position of authority seems to want to give us that advice. Congress has just passed a stimulus package which makes an effort (a wildly expensive one) to fix some of the symptoms, but does nothing to change the conditions which caused those symptoms in the first place. In other words, we are installing new shelves in the closet without realizing that they are nowhere near large enough to organize all the things we have stacked on the floor over the years. We need to clean house before we can organize. As with a messy room (and trust me, I know), it is unpleasant to get rid of much of the stuff you have collected, but it is necessary if you are going to ever get ahead of the clutter.

While I make no claim to expertise in matters economic, I do have a couple of modest proposals:

First, let's recognize that nearly any large company going into bankruptcy can cause an adverse impact on the economy as a whole, but that the short term pain will be worth it. Think of it as getting rid of some of those broken appliances and gadgets in your house that you have been meaning to fix, but never got around to it. After all, there is a reason those companies are failing in the first place. If the product or service they provide is in demand, someone else will quickly figure out a way to provide it. (OK, so this one's not original with me, but it does fit nicely into my illustration)

Second, we need to be realistic and admit that many of the houses currently facing foreclosure are owned by people who have no business in a house of that price. For years, it has been too easy to overextend financially and get into more house than you can realistically afford. Trust me, I've been there, too. Instead of just paying off people's mortgages, we need to figure out how to get people into the houses that they can afford. How about this: anyone who was paying more than 40% of their annual income for housing as of August first of last year would be required, as a condition of accepting a mortgage bailout, to move into a house costing no more than 30% of their annual income within the next year. This would take care of them for the short term, while still fixing the problem for the longer term. Think of this as getting rid of all those clothes in your closets that you just know will come back in style so you can wear them again...after you've lost that last 15 pounds and can fit into them again.

I am under no illusion that the adoption of these proposals would fix every problem, but it would at least demonstrate our willingness to actually face them instead of just trying to cover the symptoms. I am also under no illusion that either of them will actually be enacted. I think as a nation we would rather spend huge amounts of money on fancy shelves than actually put forth the effort to solve the problem. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to the hardware store. They're having a sale on closet organizers.