Looking to Washington for Action

The workers who are returning home to tell their husbands and wives and children that they no longer have a job, and all those who live in fear that their job will be next on the cutting blocks, they need help now ... They are looking to Washington for action. --President Obama

No they're not, if they're smart. It's fine for Washington to try to do something to help people, but if you have all these major problems, you live in fear, and you need help now; Washington isn't a reliable place to look for action. People with these financial problems need a) to look to people who are poorer and see how they survive with lower consumption, and b) to look to people who earn more to see how they do it so they don't have to use the skill of lower consumption from part "a" indefinitely.

Washington didn't create the a feeling of needing more, and it can't make it go away. It can and should do something to help people at he federal poverty line, but it doesn't have a great record of fast acting help. I have high hopes that President Obama will improve the government's record at helping the poor, but until then people in need should look to themselves, their families, their friends, vendors, and anyone else they can think of before looking to Washington.