Volunteer to Fight for the U.S. Economy

Things now are officially so bad in the Great Recession that those of us near the bottom of the economic food chain need to start doing something--anything!--to try to fuel a recovery from the bottom up.

President Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill--with almost no constructive help from the Republicans--are struggling to do what they can, within the painfully slow, inefficient and chaotic framework of U.S. politics.

Meanwhile, many among us are suffering and getting their butts kicked. We need to try to help them, today.

Can you start a business, no matter how small? Can you create a job, even part-time, temporary or something for a consultant to do? Can you do it today?

Will you do it today?

Can you buy something extra? (It almost doesn't matter what: a latte, a Lamborghini, a Lava soap bar, a lava lamp, a leg waxing, a loaf of bread.) Almost anything you buy can help save or create a job. Can you buy something today?

Will you do it today?

Can you use and pay for somebody's service? Get the gutters cleaned, get a bicycle repaired, get a haircut, get a pizza delivered--today?

Will you do it today?

Can you donate money or food to a food bank and clothes, unneeded tools and other useful items to Goodwill, the Salvation Army and other organizations and agencies in your community? Can you do it today?

Will you do it today?

And don't forget churches, whether you attend or not. Many churches now are struggling to keep unemployed members, parishioners and strangers afloat even as they try to keep their own doors open, too. Can you donate a few bucks to one or more of them today?

Will you do it today?

Anything and everything we can comfortably afford to do needs to be done...today. Now. Immediately.

Do it today.

Start pushing the economic recovery from the bottom up and keep pushing. Do it today.

Maybe those at the pinnacle of the economic food chain soon will learn how to stop playing "gotcha" games (we can only hope) and start helping push recovery dollars downward where they are now desperately needed.

And maybe we'll all meet in the middle soon and hope things never get out of control like this again.

But it all starts by doing something today.

-- Si Dunn

Have We Recovered Yet? Well, Why Not???

By Si Dunn

It's getting ridiculous out there in World Recession Land.

Pollsters here and abroad are surveying the public on whether or not they expect President Obama to make a good speech to Congress tonight about the economic crisis. News flash: Some people do and some people don't expect the President to make a good speech tonight. And a few people have no opinion at all or just don't care. (Feel free to quote my unscientific but common-sense poll results.)

The Republicans already are attacking the speech before it has been given and lining up a multiracial presidential hopeful from Louisiana (that paragon of fiscal stability) to give the GOP "response." Can you say "Tax cuts"? How about: "Earmarks" and "Why weren't we consulted? We have a lot of good ideas, such as tax cuts...and more tax cuts. Oh, and tax cuts!"

Meanwhile, world economies seem to be in free fall. Their financial leaders are particularly worried about Citigroup and Bank of America and AIG, plus a few others. Meanwhile, everyday citizens here and in Great Britain, Ireland, Russia, China and elsewhere are blaming "greedy bankers" and "bank bonuses," because the rest of the mumbo-jumbo makes absolutely no sense to those of us who don't have MBAs and a few years' experience at investment banks and have just lost our jobs and life savings.

We can certainly imagine major investment fraudsters hanging from lampposts, but we can't figure out how to string up or shoot a "derivative."

Anyway, everything apparently hangs in the balance with President Obama's speech. The whole enchilada. Some people apparently hope he will come up with the magic formula that gets us back to "the good old days" by next Friday, or Monday at the latest.

Good luck with that. A good speech is just a good speech, unless it somehow generates a rallying cry that sweeps America and the world.

Look, no one is going to save us except ourselves. The recovery will have to come from the bottom up, because the top is in meltdown and total chaos and ruins.

Figure out what you can do today to help yourself, your family, your friends and your favorite small businesses stay afloat in these absurd times.

Spend some money. Save some money. Sell off some crap on eBay or Amazon. Unclutter your life. Get lean and mean. Take some classes. Learn some new things. Stay in touch, but don't let the bad news keep knocking you down.

The recovery starts with you, with me, with us. Let's get it started now.

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Get Mad as Hell at the Recession---and Don't Take It Anymore!

By Si Dunn

What are you waiting for? Godot? A government bailout? Manna from heaven?

Yes, the financial news is bad, all bad. More bailouts, more layoffs, more fiscal stupidity everywhere we look.

And yes, we're all down. But we're still not out in this bad-and-getting-worse recession. No matter how hard we have been slammed to the turf, we are still not out of the game.

When you get knocked down, what matters is how quickly you get back up and start hitting back.

So get up. Hit back. Any way you can.

Turn Off the TV

Don't just sit there watching the Dow Jones and NASDAQ and the increasingly gloomy economists on the news.

Go outside and do something. Fix something on your house or car. Help a friend or neighbor or relative fix something.

Invite a friend or several friends over for coffee and conversation.

Contact distant relatives more often and go visit nearby relatives. Let them know you still care, no matter what else is happening.

Lighten up your load. Clean out a closet and get rid of some clothes you no longer need. Donate them to a charity that helps people who need more clothing. Clean out unwanted stuff in your garage and donate it, too, or recycle it. Having too much stuff sitting around just drains your psychic energy.

Spend some money on stuff you need. No, you don't have a lot to spend, and neither does almost anyone else. But if we all spend a little bit on things we need or want, we can help people keep their jobs. We can help keep money moving in the economy. This is vital.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Eat out every now and then. And add an extra dollar or two or three to the tip, whether the waitperson really gave you good service or not. He or she may be having a bad day or worrying about a sick child at home or just scared of going broke. A few extra bucks tonight could really help.

Do some things you've always wanted to do. Take up guitar, aerobic dancing, acting, bird watching, historical re-enactments, model airplane building, whatever. Read some of the books you have put off reading because you have been too "busy." See some movies, some plays. Go to some local concerts and recitals.

If you attend a church, get more involved. Maybe someone has started a program to help out the local food bank. Make a donation and volunteer to help. Put a little extra in the collection plate for the church and its staff, too. It's tax deductible. Sing in the choir, even if your main contribution is to just stand there, move your mouth and make the choir look bigger.

Improve your health. If you need to lose weight, start exercising. Spend a little less on groceries and use some of the saved money to fund a new hobby, a new membership, a new subscription or a new charitable contribution.

Find a New Focus

Get more focused on your community and its needs. You can't save the world. You can't stop the recession. But maybe you can help save an historic building from the wrecking ball and turn it into an arts center that serves as a magnet, a training center, and a rewarding outlet for people with creative talents. Maybe you can volunteer to help a preschool apply for state and federal grants. Maybe you can teach a community-education class or lead a volunteer recycling program.

Get more focused on your family and its needs and your friends and their needs. Those who need the most help may be those closest to you. Let love help push away the doom and gloom. You may have to help keep relatives and close friends from giving in to despair if they have lost their jobs and their homes. You may have to help them in other ways, too, including financial. It's just the way things are right now. Yes, maybe they did make some poor choices, or maybe they didn't. But what matters now is getting through this terrible downturn. We can all use the lessons learned to build better and more sensible lives later.

We will get through this. Together. But only if we get up and start punching back now that we have been knocked down.

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The Coming Rise of Online College

By Si Dunn

The cost of a university education is staggering. And it's about to get much worse as revenue-strapped states find themselves forced to sharply raise some of the fees for attending college.

Attending is the operative word here as beleagured parents and students try to figure out how they will afford a good education. It costs a great deal of money to house and educate students on campus and to pay the salaries of professors and support staff. And the costs keep soaring at a time when more and more parents and students are unemployed or underemployed.

Online college courses already are providing at least some cost relief. For example, I live in Texas, and I am now taking an online course for credit from Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. The online class is costing me nearly $500 less than attending a similar course on campus at a local university just two miles away.

Several reputable universities now offer degrees that can be earned completely or almost completely online.

There are scams, too, of course. And the degrees or class credits from some online schools may not be worth much academically or in the job market.

But America's current economic crisis will force many parents and students to take harder looks at online classes for at least part of a college education. And the quality and acceptability of online education will continue to rise.

Well-known schools such as Ohio University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Colorado, Harvard and many others now offer online courses for credit.

In some cases, you may use your computer to watch videotaped lectures and use email to send in completed assignments or questions for your instructor. Other schools may use various other methods to deliver course materials and lectures online. Old-fashioned correspondence courses also are still available, and these make it possible to handle all of the classwork and tests by mail, without computers and Web and email access.

Some online courses allow more time for completion than a usual on-campus semester. And some classes can be started at any time of the year.

You may not want to pursue an online degree. But taking a few online courses may be a good way to reduce the cost of your college education. And the accessibility of these courses may help you get a good, quick jump on earning a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, or even a Ph.D.

Just be careful to pick a well-known school with online class credits that can transfer from one college or university to another.

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Welcome to the Depression

By Si Dunn

West Texas is the wrong place to be driving while listening to the latest job-loss figures, the latest appeals for bailout money, and the latest--deeply gloomy-- prognostications from learned economists.

Parts of Highway 287 between Decatur and Amarillo seem like the surface of Mars. Rugged, uninhabited land for miles and miles; low hills in the distance.

What looks like patches of snow in some fields turns out to be cotton left unpicked because of falling demand and weakening prices.

Now and then, a house appears along the highway--windowless, holes in the roof, abandoned years ago. Its nearby barn is missing boards and shingles and leans precariously toward collapse. Or, it has already fallen into a rotted, weatherbeaten heap.

At dreary rest stops along the highway, signs implore people heading into the restrooms to "Watch Out for Snakes."

It's too cold for rattlesnakes on this early December day. But there is plenty of wind sweeping tumbleweeds across the road. A big one suddenly rolls and hops into my grille and hangs there like a small, dead Christmas ornament in the 70-MPH slipstream.

The seemingly unending land occasionally gives way to small towns along the highway. I pull into one to get gas and stuff the tumbleweed into the pumpside trash can. Nearby, almost every building in the small business district is abandoned. Some were boarded up decades ago, in a previous economic downturn, and never reopened. But some of the newer buildings sport fresh plywood or empty windows festooned with "For Sale" or "For Lease" signs. Even a church building is for sale.

In one small town not far from Amarillo, however, there is one small sign sign of hope along the road. A restaurant advertises: "Now Hiring Smiling Faces."

But as I pass the sign, an economist being inteviewed on a newscast predicts the unemployment rate--already at 6.7 percent--will surpass eight percent in 2009.

The restaurant probably pays $2 an hour plus tips. And there won't be many big tippers among the farmers, ranchers and oilfield workers now watching their incomes fall like meteorites. Will one of them soon become one of the "smiling faces"?

Meanwhile, what will the hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed do, now that their jobs in the financial industry, manufacturing, telecommunications, automobile sales and housing construction have gone away?

They can't all be "smiling faces" at small-town restaurants. They can't all build roads and bridges and clean up parks in a 21st-century rehash of the Works Progress Administration. Where else can they work? Will they now pack up their cars and head west, like 1930s Okies, looking to take away jobs from the illegal immigrants now working in California's agricultural fields?

Another news report on the radio describes an increasing number of two-parent families moving into homeless shelters, because Dad and Mom both have lost their jobs and worn out their resources and the resources of their relatives. The homeless shelters now are desperate for financial help, but companies and individuals are cutting back, because their incomes have fallen.

As I reach Amarillo, I turn off the radio and check into a motel. At the restaurant next door, I eat a small meal. I am the only customer in the place. The dozens of tables, booths and counter chairs are starkly empty. The three waitresses stand and look out the window, hoping for more customers to come in. To have something else to do besides straighten napkin holders and check salt shakers, they occasionally drift by and ask me if my meal is okay and if I need anything.

When I finish, I leave them each a $3 tip. It is all I can do.

In my motel room, I tune the radio to a classical music station. I lie down and let Mozart wash over me. It cleans away some of the day's gloom.

It is all I can do. All I can do.

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How One Dollar Can Help the Stupid Economy

By Si Dunn

Most of us can't battle layoffs. We can't bail out banks or corporations or sectors of the economy. Some of us think we can't do anything except stock up on canned goods and water and hide in the attic or basement until the current bad times blow over.

Two hot news flashes for the attic hiders and basement bunker-ites: (1) Things are gonna be bad for a long time; and (2) things are gonna be even worse if you try to hide from the recession.

No, you can't battle layoffs. You can't bail out banks or corporations or economic sectors. But you can help a few people save their jobs. And, in doing so, you will help lighten the load for their families and their families' families.

Tip a waitress or waiter or your barber an extra dollar today. Put an extra dollar in the church collection plate. Buy a birthday card or get-well card from a little, locally owned gift shop. Donate an extra dollar to a charity or a school fundraiser. Add an extra dollar to your kids' allowance or your grandkids' birthday envelope--and forget the usual admonitions to save it. They'd rather spend it anyway.

If there is something inexpensive you have been wanting to buy for your house or your car or your yard or your favorite hobby, buy it now. But don't spend every penny at your local big-box retailer that can still afford to undercut every Mom-and-Pop shop in your town. Go to the little shop in your neighborhood, instead, and willingly pay a dollar more than you would at the big shrine at the edge of town.

Your individual dollar makes no big difference to Wal-Mart or AIG or Bank of America. But to somebody trying to earn a living with a bicycle repair shop or a hair salon or a one-truck lawn service or a tiny hardware store, that dollar can have direct impact on keeping the doors open and keeping at least one person or a small handful of people employed and working.

If each of us keeps doing a little bit--a dollar here, a dollar there--to help out, the recession can be shorted and many jobs and households at the heart of our economy can be saved. But we will have to sustain the effort and keep doing it for a long time.

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Want to Help Fight the Recession? Buy American...Anything!

By Si Dunn

Billionaire Warren Buffett recently has announced that he is now aggressively buying American stocks, because the current financial crisis has left them undervalued and ripe for turning a profit once conditions improve.

Most of us won't be buying large blocks of stock any time soon, of course. But there is another, less-expensive, way we can follow Mr. Buffett's lead.

The prices of American services and American-made goods also are being depressed by the economic downturn, as providers and merchants struggle to keep their doors open and pay their employees during the long months of recession that lie ahead.

We'll all have to be careful with our money, of course. But those of us who still have jobs and savings should make a special effort to help keep our favorite restaurants, car repair shops, laundries, book shops, gift shops, produce stands and other small firms in business.

We can't help everyone, of course. We can't save the economy on our own. But if we make a deliberate effort, at least a couple of times a week, to buy something extra or get a long-overdue problem fixed, we can keep a little money moving in our local economies.

The laundry owner who makes a few extra bucks today by dry cleaning your suit may decide to buy a hamburger on the way home from work. The tire salesperson who was happy to replace your thin tires earlier this week may have gotten just enough commission to buy a spouse a birthday cake from a favorite little bakery. A $5 gift you're planning to buy tomorrow may help provide the shop owner with just enough lifted spirit to decide to stay in business.

As the old saying goes, every little bit helps.

And don't forget the charities, churches and special programs in your community. The ones you have supported could use an extra dollar or two right now. And the ones that you've thought about supporting are now in need of something more substantial than your intentions.

Everyone is hurting, and we're all in this together.

If we each do a little bit and keep making it a weekly habit, our small gestures can add up to big help in a hurry, for our neighbors, our community and our nation.

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McCain Advisor Dr. Phil (Gramm) Declares We're All Mental Cases

By Si Dunn

We're all a bunch of whiners, and the recession is all in our minds, one of John McCain's economic advisors, Dr. Phil Gramm, recently told The Washington Times.

"Whew! I feel better already!" a recently laid-off airline baggage handler declared after learning of the upbeat economic diagnosis by "that other Dr. Phil."

"For a moment, I thought was severely depressed about losing my job and not having any money or benefits. It's great news to know that I am just imagining all of this and whining without appreciating how well off I really am! Things could be much worse. I could still be commuting 40 miles each way to that job I used to have and still paying record prices for gasoline. I should count my blessings," the ex-baggage handler declared.

He was interviewed while standing in a block-long line outside the local office of his state unemployment agency. When others in line overheard Dr. Gramm's diagnosis, loud choruses of "Hallelujah!" erupted, and many people left the line and headed home with big smiles on their faces.

"John McCain and his brilliant advisors will save us all from the economic sins of poverty!" one woman shouted as she tore up her unemployment application form. "It's all in our heads, people! All in our heads!"

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Too Much Stuff: The Relief and Release of Paring Down

The poet William Wordsworth once cautioned: “The world is too much with us, late and soon; Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers…”

With the American economy now sinking deeper into recession, many people suddenly realize they have spent too much money on too many things. They are feeling the need to (1) cut back on cash outlays and (2) downsize their lives, to help ease some of the pain of higher energy and food costs.

Often, the world really is too much with us. We Americans tend to have too much stuff under our roofs. We fill up our houses and garages with things, and then we have to rent storage spaces when we suddenly inherit more things from deceased relatives.

Lately, I have been very deliberately paring down my belongings. I have donated items to charity; recycled items; dispersed items to family members and friends; sold items online; and tossed items into the trash only as a last resort.

As more unneeded things leave and more space opens up in my house, I feel a rising sense of relief and release.

Yet we cannot be only givers-away and sellers, especially now. Our economy needs us to still be buyers, as well, to help it recover from its current downturn and doldrums.

I am doing my part by not letting all of my newly emptied areas stay empty for long. A used book here, a new hobby item there, one or two new CDs, and maybe another movie on DVD. They don't take up much of the liberated space. Yet they do provide welcome changes and new pleasures at low cost.

You might consider that strategy, too. Pare down a bit; add a bit. Subtract much more than you add, of course. But don't cut too deeply. And don't just grab up all of your unwanted objects and impatiently throw them away. Make the effort to sort them out and determine the best ways to disperse them.

Somewhere, somebody may want and truly need some of the things that have become merely tiresome clutter in your life.

Help keep spreading the wealth in our magnificent--and temporarily weary--economy. Donate, give away, sell, or recycle. Make the landfill your last resort for lightening up your life.

Si Dunn is co-author of The Everything Online Auctions Book published by Adams Media.
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Economic Stimulus--from Planet Clueless?

By Si Dunn

Many Americans have been hurting economically for a long time, approximately the same length of time that George W. Bush and his disciples of greed have been in national power.

If you're middle class or lower, "financial struggle" is your middle name. And no amount of corporate or upper-class tax cuts will make much difference to your quandry, particularly in the near future.

Now that the careless Bushits have helped the nation's economy slam into a recessionary brick wall, leaders on both sides of the political aisle suddenly have been screaming: "Rebates now! Economic stimulus, now! Dole out the cash, now!"

So that's what's happening: Republicans and Democrats recently were trying to decide exactly how much allowance to give us, so we can blow it all in one weekend on pizza, Chinese lead toys, lottery tickets--and campaign contributions.

The Bush Administration initially wanted to hand out generous tax rebate checks of $800-$1,600, but only to people who already earn enough money to have to pay taxes. According to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, the Bush "largess" would have ignored 30 million working households where wage earners don't make enough to pay income taxes. And another 19 million households apparently would only get partial rebates.

In other words, the Bushy Boys wanted the money to flow straight into the hands of those who already have--at least theoretically--reasonably good to fabulously nice incomes. As for our poor robotniks who grub all year cleaning toilets, mopping floors and changing bed pans, yet never rise high enough on the income ladder to show up on IRS radar...well, let them figure out how to save more of their meager money and create their own economic stimulus packages. In other words, they should just buck up and quit being poor.

The bulletins now emerging from Washington say an agreement has been reached. The money--borrowed from somewhere to be paid back later (somehow) by others--soon will start flowing from the Treasury, even (at the Democrats' dogged insistence) to the "stimulus-unworthy" poor.

Once again, supposedly, we will now save ourselves and also save the world simply by spending a few hundred bucks apiece on electric bills, car payments, SUV fillups, karate lessons or nuclear-powered cell phones with built-in HDTVs.

There has to be a better way to run this economic railroad. And maybe we should start by running the Republicans out of Washington on a rail next year. But first, be patriotic: Spend your rebate! Buy some American cheese. Buy some American peanuts. Buy an American hamburger! Then leave the change as a tip!

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