Retirement City

I’ve taken a long vacation away from work, technology and cell phones. I picked my mother, stepfather and grandson up in a small town just outside of Mobile and we drove to San Antonio. Since there was a tropical storm warning for the Houston area we drove from Mobile to Hattiesburg and on to Vicksburg to pick up Interstate 20. In one of the towns we passed through there was a sign welcoming us to the “retirement city.” The industries in the city looked like they were shut down. Many businesses were boarded up and there was an appearance of worn out and “has been” in the town.

My mother and I discussed the fact that many people are retiring because of the economy and I jokingly commented on the fact that the town could be retired because all of the jobs have gone overseas and there wasn’t anything else to do except retire. If that is the case, then there are a lot of retirement towns in this country.

Hilary Clinton announced that the U.S. government was going to invest in small and medium sized business development in Pakistan. I understand that this will help stabilize the region. Truthfully, I believe in providing the aid in the forms of loans to other countries, as long as they spend the money in the U.S. to buy equipment and infrastructure supplies. With a stable government, this would be a wise investment. The money would be repaid and the materials and supplies bought from U.S. producers would generate jobs in the U.S.

My question of the Obama administration is why they can’t do the same for the small and medium sized companies in the U.S. So far the government stimulus plan has been primarily aimed at the creation of government jobs (temporary ones). The reason FDR’s government spending worked was because he built dams which electrified large sections of the U.S. which did not have electricity. By providing access to electrical power, Roosevelt provided the initial round of jobs which provided money to buy products that could be used with electricity. This stimulated the private sector.

For Obama to provide jobs in the government sector that will achieve the same result, the federal funding needs to be spent on making new or desirable technology affordable , such as alternative energy. Many Americans would switch to alternative energy if it wasn’t so expensive. Well this is beside the point.

It seems that Obama would be willing to do for his own country what he is willing to do for Pakistan. He could create policies and provide accessibility to loans for small business growth. While it has been mentioned in rhetoric, it hasn’t been happening and more businesses are contributing to the “retirement cities.” Many businesses are hanging on, hoping that the economy will improve. They are hanging on, but the economy isn’t improving. Everyone I talk to tells me that they are worse off financially. How many businesses are going to go out of business before the Obama administration wakes up and takes action? More specifically, when will they treat their own citizens as well as they treat other countries?