Guest Post from Wayne Mackey: We Only Have Five to Ten Years

There can never be anything approaching a full economic recovery without the deliberate and active participation of the American consumer period. We, the American consumer, make up 70% of the entire U.S. economy.

Several years ago, we were told by Pennsylvania politicians from the governor on down the line that the electric utility rate caps set in place in a more prosperous time, would be coming off starting on January 1, 2010. There was a great clamor among our electorate for the politicians to do something about it. In the end, there was no obvious legislative solution offered and there was no apparent political will that seemed strong enough to force change. The rate caps came off, just as planned and right on schedule even though the entire country was now deep into the midst of the “Great Recession”.

If nothing substantial is done to jump-start our weakened economy, we, the American consumer, will languish for decades with high rates of unemployment and the continuous need to offer them financial support all the while. We will continue to increase our national debt beyond the point of no return, and we will continue, as a nation, to squander our national treasure on paying, at the pump, to import foreign oil, oft times from the very same people who are planning to destroy our way of life. They are serious. We will also continue to pollute the very air that we all breathe and increase the chances of global warming, to the point of no return, if nothing is done to stop it in the next five to ten years. The vast majority of scientists have been warning us about this for years now. It’s time to start taking them seriously.

However, there is a solution. But it will require us consumers to rethink how we use and abuse the power we currently treat with disrespect and neglect. It will require all of us, every man, woman, and child, to consciously start turning out the lights when we leave a room and turn off our televisions just before we fall asleep at night so that they are not on all night long. Yes, it all begins with simple, yet highly effective measures, like conservation.

There is a great big job for this nation to do. Right now! It is that one substantial thing I referred to above. It’s called, “ENERGY EFFICIENCY”. We could all make our homes and small businesses 20, 40, 60% more energy efficient than they are at the present with current materials readily available in our local home box retailers like Lowes and Home Depot. If our nation rolled up its’ sleeves and set about making this a top priority national goal, much like we did with putting a man on the moon back in the 1960s, we could achieve by 2020 energy independence, a fully engaged and productive work force, and all breathe a lot easier with cleaner air and have more money in all of our pockets and bank accounts.

Early on, I thought the only way to achieve this kind of goal would require our nation resurrect the WPA and the CCC Camps of the 1930s. Gather whole armies of men and women alike, armed with saws, hammers, and insulation and have them move from house to house, small business to small business, making all of them far more energy efficient and then moving on to the next block, town, and city.

All of this would be very expensive you say and right now, we just can’t afford to do it. And you’d be right to a certain degree. But, we “small people” as BP’s Mr. Haywards’ boss referred to us were not given any option back when the U.S. Treasury under the Direction of Henry Pulson pressed the U.S. Congress to pass the TARP program with the stated goal of helping out the homeowners who were under water with their mortgages. Then, three weeks later, make a switch-aroo, and give it to the biggest banks to bail them out to pay them back on the dollar for their all of their bad gambling debts. We’ve all heard by now, about privatizing profits and making the debt public. The results are clear. The Big banks have been saved and have returned most of the money to the U.S. Treasury. Even a complete idiot can make money if they are allowed to borrow money from the Feds at 0% interest and turn around and make loans to all of the rest of us at 3+%. Then they turn around and invest most of that money in the U.S. Bond Market and make even more money.

My main point is this. If we the people (non Wall Street Bankers) are in need of some help with paying for our mortgages and our utility bills to heat and light our homes and small businesses, then it is only right, fair and proper that the U.S. Treasury set aside the same amount of money and give it to the American Consumer to allow them the same opportunity to make themselves whole again by making them far more energy efficient in the form of tax incentives and outright direct in store cash rebates for high energy efficient appliances, windows, heating and air conditioning units, insulation materials, and renewable energy and energy efficient transportation. This would stimulate demand, which in turn, would stimulate job growth.

There is no good reason for this to be political. The vast majority (88%) of us consumers, still own their own home and there are many who own small businesses, wherein 80% of all the jobs in this great country are created. If these homeowners and small businesses were given the chance to reduce their energy usage, the consumers would have extra cash left over to pay their other bills, and small businesses would be far more price competitive with their foreign competitors. They money invested in such a manner would go right back into the U.S. Treasury and stabilize the entire banking system. We would drastically reduce the unemployment rate here in the U.S. in relative shout order and we could delay or eliminate the need to build any additional power plants that spew poisons into the air we all breathe. And more importantly, we’d be shutting off the money pipeline to those oil producing countries that only have our complete and utter destruction burned in their hearts and souls. Can we as a nation muster a greater dedication and commitment to energy independence to nullify their sinister plots? We have no choice if we want our way of life to prevail.