Wading into the political waters today, somewhat fearfully... If you wonder why a commercial realtor would address a topic about the US Government budget, the answer is that commercial real estate and residential real estate for that matter is heavily dependent on the economy.
I know that there are a lot of concerns about the budget and I do not want to take them lightly. However, I would like to urge everyone regardless of your political beliefs to support this process. A few years ago, during the presidential campaign, the government benefits of many European countries were often touted. Yet, look at Europe today. Country after country is facing financial crisis and bail outs are being routinely required that are linked to severe financial requirements for the countries receiving aid.
The current spending of the United States has us on a similar course. As I see it, we can either take the initiative to decide for ourselves who to resolve this crisis or allow other countries, perhaps China, to dictate those terms to us a few years down the road. Difficult as it may be, I say let's decide our own future.
I realize that the budget is a political process but I have been angered at the comments coming from our representatives in this debate. As we have faced hard times, who among us has not had to cut back spending 5 or 10%? In my years as a consultant, it was sort of a rule of thumb that it would be fairly easy to get at least a 10% decrease in expenditures for any given company. Yet many of our representatives would have us believe that more than 1% or 2% decrease in our federal budget would be catastrophic.
Again, I do not want to minimize the fact that there will be some hardships in this process. But wouldn't it be better to have to suffer through a 5% or 10% decrease in benefits annually than to lose them completely a few years down the road because of an economic crisis where an outside entity gets to call the shots? Ultimately, I think that our economic health is in jeapordy if we do not act.
Just my opinion. Hope you are enjoying this beautiful day. AND of course, be sure to let me know if you need any help with your real estate needs!
David
David W. McCoy
Associate Broker
Commonwealth Commercial Real Estate
10444 Bluegrass Pkwy
Louisville, KY 40299
As a follow-up, in today's news is word that Standard and Poor's has said that the US could lose its AAA credit rating by 2013! (that's correct - ONLY 2 YEARS FROM NOW) if the US budget is not fixed.
ReplyDeletePerhaps even more concerning is movement by other nations to replace the US dollar as the defacto world standard currency. Other nations complain that the US currency is no longer the most stable currency in the world. Some nations are pushing for the Chinese yaun to take its place. If this were to occur, the other nations of the world would no longer have incentive to support the value of the US dollar.