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the pessimism that society will take its lumps and fix the problems, it is my duty in writing to this to point out what is needed rather than what will likely happen.

IDENTIFYING THE REAL PROBLEMS

When considering the problem, we must get past "what sounds good" and arrive at "what really is" the problem. It sounds good to blame illegal immigration, the war in Iraq, and the foreclosure crisis as the problems within the economy. While each can be delineated to demonstrate its effect on the economy, we must keep in mind that the economy is more like a sphere comprised of these lines rather than any one line by itself.

The real problems in the US economy are (1) the devaluation of the dollar, (2) increasing unemployment, and (3) a feeling of entitlement to be protected by the government. The solutions to these problems will require sacrifice on the part of the people comprising society, which is why anyone promoting responsible solutions to these problems has little chance of getting elected. Most people will spend more time trying to figure out which belt goes with which shoes than on what sacrifices they will need to make to not pass a much larger problem on to our children and grandchildren.

DEVALUATION OF THE DOLLAR

Devaluation of the dollar is also known as inflation. Prices appear to go up, but truly it is the value of money going down. There are some fluctuations in relative value of commodities, such as the prices of houses and gas, but, for the most part, the relative values of houses and gasoline have remained fairly consistent. That each costs more today than ten or forty years ago is, indeed, the creation of money through deficit spending by the federal government.

As we spent our Economic Stimulus checks recently, we were spending money that did not exist a mere few months ago. That money is now part of the supply of money for which there is no backing by new wealth. The existing wealth backing the dollar, then, is now backing more dollars.

In order for the government to stop devaluing the dollar, it must stop spending substantially more than it collects as revenue. Though we can point at the cost of the war in Iraq as part of this overspending, the deficit is greater than the cost of the war. We must also demand that elected officials take a hard look at spending on things like education, transportation, and even social security unless they provide for sources of revenue to accommodate such spending.

That does not mean that I am against such programs. It

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