My economic advice

In his press conference tonight, President Obama stressed, as he has in previous talks, the point that even when the economy recovers, America can't go back to the bad habits of its past decades. He says "we" a great deal, but many people with whom I talk seem not to see how this point applies to them. So, I thought I'd reduce the core of it to a simple rule:

Don't spend more than you make.

In the ancient past, in the faraway U.S. of half a century or more ago, most people grew up knowing they'd have to save to get what they wanted. Easy credit offered tempting ways to apparently by-pass this requirement, and many people succumbed to the temptation. Of course, there is no way around paying for what you want, so these bad habits came back to bite many folks.

At this juncture in any discussion on this topic, a lot of people will blame the availability of easy credit for this behavior.

That's bullshit. I'm not fat because it's easy to find bad food. I'm fat because I choose to eat bad food--and too much of it. It's my responsibility. In the same way, if I live beyond my means, it's my responsibility.

Yes, of course there are people living in poverty who have to spend beyond their means just to survive, but they aren't at all the heart of the problem; what's hurting us so much is that we are a nation of people living beyond what we can afford.

We must stop doing so. That's each of our main jobs in helping our country recover.