Green Shoots

I am really starting to hate all those “ever optimistic” folks that think things are turning around. It is mostly among Obama supporters that I hear of things getting better daily, but there are some Conservatives that are doing it as well. Now don’t go all Galt on me here, but when a fire is put out, there is always a new beginning as well. It is at once the End and the Beginning.

By America’s very nature, we always are looking to rebuild, whether it be hurricane, fire, earthquake or financial holocaust. Like beavers, without explanation hopeful people begin putting things back together, picking things up and cleaning in the corners, looking to bring some sense of order back into their lives. And this financial tsunami is no different.

The ‘green shoots’ everyone talks about are more obvious in the vacant parking lots of closed factories, but never-the-less is being touted as sprouting up in all sorts of places, places no one would have ever suspected 6 or 8 months ago. By our very nature, Americans are industrious and creative. And at the same time, not every American is living week to week.

Many simply stopped spending when things went Dixie and now are again jingling the coin in their pockets thinking about starting to live normal lives. Time to clean up the yard, slap on some paint, fix that gate, even maybe buy a new car, or at least paint the old one. You see, most folks didn’t lose everything in this calamity. What they lost was courage. They pulled in their horns, folded their hands, put their marbles back in the bag and went home. But now, bored to tears, looking at all the great deals available and seeing their neighbors out barbequing and polishing their cars, they are beginning to see some stability and ready to dip their toes back in the pool of life.

No folks, this isn’t about a turn around in the economy, due to efforts by Congress or the White House. You don’t turn around an economy by placing more obstacles in front of it. It’s about people with money, ideas and ambition being bored out of their wits and ready to get back in the game. But when they get in this game, it’s with a new understanding that government has far less interest in their success and more interest in their taxes. So, it’s just a matter of how well we increase one and lower the other