Dave,
What you say about stocks is true. It is not, however, the whole truth.
Being a teacher, you have interacted with many people who own stocks and other investment instruments. It is a common lunchroom topic.
I remember a young teacher named Frank. He and his wife, who were in a childless, two-income marriage, were doing quite well financially. Great house, great cars, great vacations, and so on.
Then the "high tech" bubble broke in the late 80's. Frank was in shock! He told me, "I have lost over $200,000 dollars!"
Not a happy time for Frank and Company.
Fortunately for Frank, and a whole lot of other folks, our resiliant capitalist economy was able to absorb the shock and return to a growth mode. I hope it continues for a long time.
But I think that we should think about these things holistically. Our prosperity is fueled by the exploitation of energy, much of which flows from the Middle East. We keep it flowing by paying big bucks for it, by supporting corrupt petty dictators like the goat herder "kings" of Saudi Arabia, and by using, (or threatening to use), our military power to keep the area stable.
This, of course, is why so many countries joined the USA in the first Gulf War. If Saddam had been able to control all the oil from Iraq and Kuwait, plus dominate Saudi Arabia, Quatar and the other little gulf states, he would have had the economy of
the entire world subject to his whims. So, over 20 countries participated in throwing him out of Kuwait.
Our current concern with Iran as a potential nuclear power is just a continuation of the same concerns....with the added concern that they just might supply a bomb to Hezbollah or some other terrorist group. If Iran can dominate the Middle East by nuclear blackmail, they will then have the world economy right where our old friend Saddam wanted to have it.
As Hillary Clinton said in a recent speech, "A nuclear armed Iran is unthinkable."
Stay tuned...we will either stop them by peaceful means, or we will bomb them the way we did Serbia.
This is also the reason that almost all the Democrats and Republicans in Congress voted to invade Iraq the second time. Real world issues drove that decision, and all the rhetoric about it since then is just politics.
The next time you get a nice dividend check from your stocks, take a moment to thank the folks who were, and are, willing to take the criticism and rage of their political enemies to pursue this policy. You also might want to remember the folks who put their lives on the line so you can cash those checks.
Blessings,
Thomas Maddux
