A layman's view on the economic crisis

Everyday I check my email and see the half-dozen New York Times updates and a frown jumps onto my face. "Great," I think sarcastically to myself, "I'm glad things are working out."

Its very hard to think positively about the economy today, especially as a college student. It doesn't make the prospects of getting a job out of college look any easier (although suddenly grad school looks like a much wiser option than jumping into the work force right away). The fact is, the American economy just isn't what it was in the 90's; anybody with half a brain can see that, which is why Sen. McCain's comments about the strength of our economy makes one skeptical.

But we're not talking politics. We're talking jobs. How many jobs are going to be available in the coming years? In which sectors? Which areas of the economy are doing well. The entire thing can't be tanking, can it?

These are questions that everybody is asking. And nobody really knows the answers. Its a pretty good guess that service-sector jobs are going to be fairly stable, but for how long? People are only going to pay for people to low their lawns when they have the money to afford it. They aren't going to go out to eat if they're trying to save money for gas. They're going to be less willing to turn over their investments to the giant financial institutions if the places are going bankrupt. 

You see the trend? Consumer good purchases go down. Investments go down. Service sector labor falls due to lack of customers. The entertainment industry suffers. People lose their jobs. They lose their homes. People start raising chickens in their backyards. Great Depression. Suddenly it looks really good to live on a farm, because at least you can feed yourself.

It seems over dramatic, and maybe it is. There isn't a single expert that thinks this debacle is anywhere near over. Most think it'll only get worse.

Today, Wall Street suffered another massive blow, this after the news that the federal government was going to step in - the largest bailout in history - and save them all. 

Is bailing these companies out the right thing to do? Are they really going to drag us all down? Is it smart to save institutions that have obviously failed? Just think of it as Business Darwinism: those who fail fall off the train, while those who hang on survive. Maybe we should be looking at this as a weeding out of the unwise investment bankers from our economy. Can't be anything wrong with that.

Except that billions of dollars of the nation's dollars have been entrusted to these businesses. The house-slump knocked a lot of people down, and now - with people losing their investments left and right - the last thing we need to do is hold that down there.

I'll let you decide the right way to go about this. I'm no expert, and I'm not going to assume for one second that I have all the answers. But this November, we should choose our candidate based on the man with the plan, not on who we like more.

Your thoughts?