TURNQUIST COLUMN: A bit leaner turkey this year

By Terry Turnquist, Sauk Prairie Eagle columnist

As we sit down to our turkey this Thanksgiving, we will be thinking about our economic futures, and what can be done to help the situation.

I think the slowdown in the economy has affected almost every family in some way. It may be as simple as not spending as much on Christmas shopping as we did in the past or as serious as job loss of one or more wage earners.

It always depends on who is affected. I was told in my earlier life that a recession is when your friends are out of work, and a depression is when you are without a job.

Sadly enough, that is probably how most of us think, unless of course loss of job hits a family member.

I am one of the skeptical people who did not believe the 700 billion dollar aid package was a good idea, but those in power seemed to think it was necessary. Sometimes, you need to let the bad businesses go under, especially if they were not run well in the first place.

I guess I would have just let the over zealous lenders go under and let their stockholders take a hit instead of the American taxpayers.

But, people who must be much smarter than I am made the decision to give huge amounts of money to people who can't make good decisions in the first place.

That seems like throwing good money after bad, but we will see.

They turkey still will taste good this year, but as we gorge ourselves and later flop on the couch to watch football, our minds are going to drift ahead to next year, and what that will bring.

Can our government really make a difference, or will the economic situation just have to heal itself?

I have to ponder the idea of our government owning so much of what once was private business, and how close are we getting to socialism?

How much more national debt can we stand, and how will that debt change our way of life?

Some of my acquaintances highly recommend the European idea of universal health care or socialized medicine. They highly recommend the way the European countries live and think we need to take some of their ideas. I don't agree with them, our forefathers came over here to get away from that way of life.

We need to make our way of life work a little better and that will include some personal responsibility for our economic decisions. The people who lived within their means should not be penalized by higher taxes to bail out those who lived too high and spent too much.

We need some changes, but throwing money at problems without a good long-range plan is not the right way.

We will be enjoying the traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year and I hope you will enjoy yours as well.

We are in for some changes in our lifestyles in the near future, but if we think things over well, and do not think that we can solve all our problems with bailouts, we will make our economy strong once again.

We have to start producing some products in this country that can be sold abroad.

We cannot continue to send more money out of our country than we take in. Changes are necessary, and I hope Mr. Obama realizes that some of his give-away programs will be very expensive and probably unjustified.

Time will tell and four years will go by quickly. We can hope for the best, and help by keeping our own financial situation under control.

- Terry Turnquist is a combination of Andy Rooney, John Wayne and a 16-year-old boy with a new sports car.