Just be glad you're not a politician!

I guess it is a lot easier to make popular decisions when there is money in the kitty to spend. There are a whole load of politicians caught between a rock and a hard place by the current economic conditions.
Unpopular decisions of the year so far include changing the way that welfare benefits rise each year. They have been tied to inflation thus far, but suddenly someone has realised that benefits have risen with inflation over the past 3 or so years, whilst wages have either been frozen or made very small gains, below the level of inflation. "It's not fair," someone cries- and maybe it isn't. We have all got used to a reasonable sized slice of the cake and now that the cake is smaller, we all want to argue that our slice should stay the same size. The only trouble is that that means that someone else's slice must get smaller!
If you were a politician, what would you do? If you please the education lobby, you will have to disappoint health, or roads, or funding for the arts........ 
It's not popular to feel sorry for politicians, but I do. They cannot win. If they give in to all the different special interest groups, the country will be bankrupt and everyone will lose. If they make tough choices, there will always be a significant chunk of the population who disagree with them and think they should have chosen differently!
Another tough choice has been the stance to take on those claiming benefit because they are unable to work. Many people are incensed because of stories publicised by the media of benefit cheats who take advantage of loopholes to claim benefit when they could work. This has led to an unpopular assessment system which has seen many vulnerable people being told that they are able to work and that their benefit is being stopped. Criticism of the heartless way in which the frail and ill are being treated is growing, especially as people see their own friends and relatives being targeted.

Can there be a way through this economic and moral maze? I am sure that economically we will emerge eventually in a more stable place than we are in at present. What seems inevitable is that there will be winners and losers as politicians make their decisions. Unless we, as individuals, are prepared to uphold the rights of others and not just look to our own self interest, poverty, abuse, cruelty and disease will strengthen their grip on our nation(s). 

A man shows his humanity when he sacrifices his own desires for the welfare of others.

So where has all the money gone?

I guess this article will prove that I didn't learn much when I did economics at school!
Where has all the money gone?
We receive money, both individually and as nations, when we do a job or sell something or provide a service. We pay out money when we buy goods or services. This suggest that if the money goes out of my pocket, it goes into someone else's. On a global scale, surely it means that if one country is spending the money, another country is receiving it.
This is the basis for my simplistic view that money is like the tide. If it's out here, it must be in somewhere else!
So how can there be a global recession?
Is there a country somewhere receiving lots of money and then burning it as fuel? I just can't get my head around it.
I just know that the news this week that the UK may not get out of debt until 2018 at the earliest is very bad news.
Everything has gone topsy-turvy in the world. How can you be in boom one year then just a few years later be in recession? How did it happen? What changed and why did no one see it coming?
My final mind-boggling question is, "Is it real/true anyway?" (I know- I'm beginning to sound like a conspiracy theorist!)
Take people I know. Essentially life is the same as it was before, except that they are more worried about the future, financially, and less inclined to spend money. This leads to a reduction in sales and demand for services, which affects businesses. Those businesses become worried about the future financially and start to reduce their workforce. People lose their jobs and it gets in the paper and on the TV. Then my friends and neighbours read the news and become more fearful about the future and the whole thing goes round in a self fulfilling prophecy loop. So who started the loop and on what basis?

I suppose I am not really questioning whether there is a recession- the evidence is all around me BUT I just can't help wondering what it all really means...........................