Payback time for the upper crust

As the reality of the recession sinks in, consumer confidence has reached frightening lows. People all across the income spectrum here in North Carolina are hunkering down – and worse. With job losses reaching record levels, the global economy has become a literal death spiral. People in my neighborhood are foregoing medical treatment to pay for food and shelter. People in other countries are simply starving.

As President Obama said last night, this precipitous decline has come on the heels of the greatest transfer of wealth – from the middle class to the super rich – in modern history. It is time for the wealthy to do their part. And not just by paying higher taxes.

Not everyone has been equally affected by the economic downturn. Some have lost their homes, some have lost their jobs, and some have lost their retirement nest eggs. And some have simply lost a chunk of their considerable net worth.

But there are many people who have lost almost nothing. They have secure jobs, manageable mortgages, and sufficient savings to get by just fine. I know. I am one of them. While my retirement fund has taken a big hit, that doesn’t mean my family is in dire straits. I will have to work a few more years longer than planned. Big deal.

Yet people who have little reason to be hunkering down are doing just that. They’re putting off purchases, forestalling home improvements, changing their shopping patterns, eating out less, cutting back on travel, and more. Swept up in the psychology of scarcity, they are trimming expenses wherever they can, even though they don’t have to. Whether it’s out of guilt or gloom, I can’t say. But I know it’s happening because I have been one of them.

So here’s the deal. If you are someone who actually needs to be hunkering down, go for it, by all means. It is the necessary and prudent thing to do.

But if you are someone who does NOT need to be hunkering down, well, it’s pay-back time. America has been good to you over the past ten or twenty years. It's time to do your part.

From what I can tell, the richest of the rich are still spending without restraint. They should spend even more. Not on conspicuous consumption of imported bling and baubles, but on strategic purchases that have direct effects on the US economy. Instead of buying a piece of furniture from a gallery in Japan, get a piece made by a craftsperson right here in the United States. Instead of buying a new Mercedes, opt for a Lincoln. Instead of purchasing a third home in Uruguay, buy one in Oregon. Instead of cutting back on home improvements, hire more contractors and landscapers and housekeepers. Instead of putting money into CDs, shop for undervalued stocks. Take the economic bull by the horns and do what’s needed to help us grow us out of this recession. Invest and spend.

Those who are not so rich, but who are in secure jobs with retirement still a ways off, should do the same. Instead of feeding our economic malaise through over-caution, invest in the future of our country. If you’re afraid of the stock market, invest in your home. Instead of living on Lean Cuisine, go out to a restaurant once a week and support your local economy. Instead of shopping at Wal-Mart, where everything is made somewhere else, look for local retailers and American made goods. Instead of vacationing in Europe or South America, travel to Taos and raft the Rio Grande.

People with good credit can buy anything they want right now. Those who are wealthy and those who do not fear the loss of their jobs should step up and put their money into play. Especially the very rich, the people who have been blessed with more money than they know what to do with.

I don’t have any hard data to support this claim, but I suspect that the top third of American income earners could single-handedly turn this economy around. With the right kind of strategic spending and investments, their money would literally trickle down and give our country and our state the boost it needs right now.

George W. Bush was guilty of many things, including the wholesale transfer of wealth from the middle class to the super rich. It’s time for those who benefited the most to do their part to get things back on track.