In case enough opinions haven't been exchanged on this subject, the battlefield is here, the enemy is us, and the weapon of mass destruction? It's the economy, stupid.

I mentioned Franklin Roosevelt in my previous post. We need something like his new deal now, and who knows about new deals better than a retailer like me? After all, our industry offers a new deal just about every fifteen minutes.

Our economic New Deal needs to be about investing more than about spending. The $300 (for an individual) and $600 (for a couple) rebates that recently went out, costing the government $152 billion, make about as much sense as handing out condoms in the Vatican or selling fur coats at a PETA conference, because that money won't go into the economy. It will likely be used to pay down debt, or stowed for a rainy day (though it's looking increasingly cloudy recently).

Even if you wanted to spend it, with the cost of gas as it is, how many fewer Americans can even afford to drive to the store to spend their rebate, let alone drive to work? And if you do spend that rebate on gas, the money isn't going to our economy; it's going to the Middle East. Or, if you can make it to the local store to buy basic household needs, if not electronics, or maybe something to wear, that money is probably going to China.

The economy can't "get going", as I also said in the last message, unless people start spending, or, better yet investing -- and they aren't going to do either unless they think it has already "gotten going."

If our government actually invested in our economy what's being spent every day in Iraq (estimated to be $720 million, when you factor in things like the costs of future health care for veterans), we could buy homes for almost 6,500 families or health care for 423,529 children, or could outfit 1.27 million homes with renewable electricity, according to the American Friends Service Committee.

Add to it the $152 billion they're sending out in the mail, and you could provide $10,000 grants to 150 million college students... or purchase a $100,000 home for 1.5 million homeless people in America.

Probably as important as any one of these things, we might actually be able to kick start our economy, which would help all Americans

We need to invest. And if by chance we are not sure as to how and where it is best to do so, I happen to have inventory on just the right product that is guaranteed to "improve the standing" of all Americans. How about a chicken in every pot and the finest in footwear on every foot?

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it (for now).

[Image Source: New York Stock Exchange, December 2007, by ThreeOneFive on wikipedia.org]