The People’s Money

The United States economy is the most competitive in the world. Nonetheless, American citizens have been subjected to hard and costly living standards as a result of the unbalanced economic debt suffered by the economy. The determination of the society serves as their greatest asset despite the challenges they get during such economic times. Mr. Scott Rasmussen in his book The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt, introduces us to the strategic roles of American society in changing the economic challenges that the high costs of federal debts have brought. This paper, therefore, provides a review of the book and explains the concepts advocated for by Mr. Scott from an economic point of view.

The American Spirit of Economic Dedication

American society is willing and able to correct the fiscal insanity instigated by a unscrupulous method of governance. Government spending has become a major challenge. The federal government has indeed been overspending for quite a long time, hence, exposing the American economy to massive uncertainties. The greatest misfortune that befalls American society, however, is political leaders.

The campaign strategies of political leaders are highly sarcastic because they are generally blaming the authority and the society for not supporting new ideas, condemning an effort of trimming government spending. Spendthrift politicians who have acquired massive wealth and stored their wealth in foreign lands complain that the present government opposes economic growth and development by cutting down government spending.

The book provides exclusive coverage of the American fiscal information from the past administrations to the present Obama administration. One homogenous characteristic that the American society has maintained throughout different administrative eras is the willingness to sacrifice their earnings to help grow the economy. American voters presently understand the hypocritical approach of their political leaders. For these reasons, their passion for economic growth is changing gradually. Voters are very keen, shifty, and careful about what type of a leader to elect. The American media also plays a very important role in determining the type of leaders elected. The indoctrination of the American society by the media, as the greatest tool of information dissemination, has indeed changed voters’ understanding of political leaders.

Fiscal Reports and the Role of Media

Statistical reports such as SAT scores, academic reports, and public opinion polls indicate that an average American voter has little or no knowledge of the civic policies formulated by the political class. Unfortunately, this group of people has exclusive knowledge and training in matters pertaining to economics. The greatest percentage of the voters’ populace apparently consists of average American citizens with little or no knowledge of economic matters.

The media should provide nonpartisan social education to American society on economic matters, strategies, and policies that the federal government follows to sustain a manageable fiscal debt. Unfortunately, the majority of shareholders in the media houses are the political leaders. They control the greatest share of the information aired by the media. In fact, the majority of the media houses do not report accurately since the types of news are predetermined by the political class who are the executive shareholders in the media sector.

Manipulation becomes the greatest opportunity of the egocentric politicians to turn voters against the federal government. Nonetheless, the fact that the opposition lures voters to believe that the federal deficit is the result of poor planning and prioritization of economic policies does not mean that the government is not guilty of the fiscal debt. The federal government has taken the philosophy of democracy very far.

Democracy and Economic Development

Democracy is undoubtedly the best political form of government that has ever existed in the history of the nation. The level of democracy in the American case has unfortunately been misinterpreted by the administrations. Liberalization of the economic principles and policies outlined in the American constitution has been the genesis of the expensive living standards, poor economic growth, and development process in the economy. According to democratic principles and rules, voters have exclusive powers and constitutional rights to either change or amend any law.

Fiscal Correction Measures

However, the greatest challenge, when it comes to a democratic style of governance, is the fact that democratically elected political leaders tend to manipulate voters by presenting captivating and exclusive political strategies during their election campaigns. Government spending, in the case of the U.S, starts from the campaign rallies staged by different leaders. In fact, this country according to Scott (2012), has the most expensive campaign budget in the world. These campaigns are unfortunately funded by taxpayers’ money. The fault exists in the American constitution. When the constitution is very lenient and supports democratic approaches to every aspect of governance, then citizens are bound to be exploited by the political class. Scott does not support the idea of exclusive democracy, especially when dealing with economics.

The ideas of Scott are extremely similar to Thomas Jefferson’s: we need a restrained government when it comes to utilization of the fiscal resources of America. It is high time to rescue the American economy by bringing back the stringent constitutional governance principles of capitalisms. Although socialism appears to be very fair and attractive, it is indeed the greatest reason why the Americans are lamenting the inflated costs of living in the so called global leader.

His capitalistic approach to rectify the fiscal debt is apparently the best chance of balancing it. The challenge nonetheless remains very real; can an average American get the sense behind the adoption of a capitalistic policy in an era where the political class is highly manipulative? Absolutely not; the fiscal debt of the country will keep on growing day by day due to the spirit of democracy and socialism that has ruled masses.

Scott’s approach to explaining the exploding fiscal debt, however, appears to be inclined to one specific side. The war between capitalism and socialism is the prime standard of his book. He refrains from explaining the serious disconnection amid the political class that is fooling voters and the economic class to curb the huge deficit, while, at the same time, upholding modern and humanistic styles of leadership, such as exclusive democracy. The book dwells on a rather interesting approach when studied from an economic point of view. In every economy, there are periods of recession, growth, and equilibrium. The most appropriate way to deal with economic changes in a perfectly competitive environment is the formulation of highly flexible economic policies rather than maintaining inflexible constitutional ones in the name of protecting an average citizen.

Economics vs. Reality

The reality demonstrates that there is an increased number of Americans who are not interested in balancing the deficit. The society still demands an exclusive supply of basic service with the highest mark of quality from the federal government as the central regulatory office. The last, on the other hand, cannot guarantee the supply of such quality services without pumping extra money into the banks.

The primary reason why the deficit continues increasing is that America does not control the global economy. Apparently, it, like any other economy, is characterized by incessant changes depending on the relationship between major economic variables of independent economies. Since the American administration in power exists to provide quality services to society without exploitation, the government is forced to engage in foreign borrowing to meet the demand of voters.

Unfortunately, American society is very opposed to such ways of increasing government revenue as a tax increase on domestic products (Mankiw, 2014). This is quite a sarcastic characteristic of the society that demands the best quality in the market. Foreign trade contributes to the greatest share of Americas’ revenue since the administration is under an obligation to meet the demands of voters without exploiting them. Government spending is undoubtedly bound to increase given the positive rise of the American population.

Because of the high-quality services offered by the federal government such as health care services, mortality rates in the United States of America have been reduced to negligible levels. This is one of the best statistics that any administration strives to achieve. The achievement, nonetheless, comes with an increased demand for basic commodities and services. Apparently, the burden returns to the federal government as the central authority. As a non-partisan party, the federal government must formulate prudent fiscal and monetary policies that protect people’s money from unscrupulous usage. The people’s power is also a very important requirement for the protection of the American economy from declining.

From a macroeconomic angle, the increase in demand as a result of the increased population will create a shortage of services and products if the supply is not increased. To increase the supply of services and products, extra financial resources are required. The argument of Scott that the federal government spending should be restrained at this point becomes obsolete. The increase in demand dictates the federal government to increase its spending so as to meet the demand of the American population. Although foreign investors bring in the much-needed support when it comes to meeting the demand, the federal government will incur extra expenses in performing quality assurance tests to ensure that products and services available in the market are fit for consumption.

Scott has tackled the question of the American debt in an exclusive manner; his book provides a considerable coverage of the source of the deficit. As Aristotle once said, a man is a political animal, hence, every activity that involves man politics will have a substantial influence. Politicians as our leaders in the economic world are bound to have a massive influence on what we do and how we do it. However, the argument that the current federal deficit is the result of democracy and socialism in American society is obsolete.

Responsibilities of Voters and the Federal Government

The voter is undoubtedly the most important factor in designing economic policies and leadership structure of the society. The economic responsibility entrusted to the federal government, nevertheless, is determined by the number of financial resources it owns. Although Scott is very correct when he points out that the political class bears the greatest responsibility for the current federal deficit, his recommendation to shrink government spending will increase the level of suffering in the country.

The book provides exclusive coverage of the American budgetary history and financial reports. It acts as a very important reference point required to formulate the future fiscal policies to sustain the growing population and, at the same time, settle the alarming fiscal debt. The primary objective of Scott is to make sure that voters understand that they are the prime contributors to the economic growth and development in the United States. As the prime contributors, they have the zeal and obligation to make several sacrifices in order to sustain their economy. However, the leaders in the American political environment seem to take advantage of the willingness of voters to sacrifice to change the country for the better. Due to such egocentric reasons, Scott enlightens readers to demand accountability from political leaders by sanctioning stringent constitutional laws.

This is a prudent approach to such a challenge. However, it is important to focus on the bigger economic picture that entails the global economic conditions, such as globalization, technology, and population increase, to help develop pragmatic policies for the American nation. This is the only aspect that Scott has overlooked in his book. Fortunately, the fate of the fiscal debt of America is not completely under siege. The country, as the most competitive economy in the world, has the best opportunity to support the incessant developments and change experience in the techno-modern global economy. Apparently, technology has become a fundamental requirement in the modern-day market environment.

Technological developments require a robust economy characterized by a massive wealth of both fiscal and labor resources. The American economy is a perfect prototype of such a system. Despite the bureaucracy existing in the form of out-of-date monetary policies, the dedication of the labor market surpasses such obsoleteness, making the economy a highly competitive and self-sustaining. The global market environment maintains a perfectly competitive structure. The prosperity of any player in this market environment is determined by the ability to attract the best and largest share. Fortunately, the U.S. tops the list of the most attractive economies and it is bound to attract the highest number of consumers and investors, who form the basic foundation of economic growth.

Other economists have pointed out the economic angle of the federal debt in an explicit way. The solution lies in the hands of the American people and the federal government. The last also needs to utilize resourceful insights from people like Scott, Mankiw, and other economists in the process of formulating fiscal policies. America, as the global leader, serves as the role model and an important determinant to other economies in the world. Therefore, the responsibility vested on the federal government is greater than the domestic requirement. From an economic point of view, such reasons make the exclusive approach to the federal deficit appear very manageable.