Knock it off!

Shut up! All of you! Economists, bankers, politicians, reporters and businesses – knock it off! You make me sick!

I want all the pundits to just shut their mouths and stop lecturing the rest of us on what we should do and how we should spend our money.

Note: I said our money, not theirs!

Any money in our pockets or in our banks is ours. Even the money under the mattress is ours.

Regardless of where it is, it’s ours. We worked for it. We earned it. And, it’s our decision what we do with it. We can spend it on items of our own choice or – and, here’s the biggie – we can choose not to spend it.

I’m fed up with broadcast and print news taking average Americans to task for not spending more money over the Christmas holiday or spending money on things they “need” rather than things they “want.”

What a concept! Buying things you need!

We’re told that retail sales this season appear to be down 8 percent over last year. The final figures aren’t in yet, but there’s no doubt sales are down despite the massive reductions and sales retailers hoped would lure shoppers to open their wallets.

I saw one headline in the Las Vegas Review-Journal concerning the drop in holiday shopping sales, which stated: “Industry crippled as shoppers put needs before wants.” That attitude pervades most of the coverage of seasonal retail spending.

Another indication of a change in consumer spending habits is that sales of lottery tickets are down. That has “experts” wondering why people aren’t taking a chance to win some easy millions.

Trust me, they’re not concerned because you’re missing out on some “free money” – politicians are fretting because the drop in ticket sales means that various state and local projects will have less money for their budgets.

The truth is, they don’t care about you; they only care about covering their own ineptitude in governing. When politicians fund “necessary” programs with lotteries, it’s a certain indication they’ve already overspent and are looking for a quick fix that looks better than raising taxes – again!

But whether people decide not to spend or to spend differently, it’s their decision. Despite current popular opinion, it’s not our responsibility to fix the damage caused by the reckless and, more than likely, illegal activities of corporate managers who knew better but ignored better judgment.

It’s not our job to fix their mistakes, and the truth is, we couldn’t if we tried. Trust me, spending a fortune on Christmas gifts wouldn’t have a chance in Hades of being the salvation of today’s economy.

Let’s be clear: The financial “geniuses” on Wall Street and in Washington managed to bollix up not only the insurance, banking mortgage and investment system in this country but they laid the groundwork for the economy to bottom out leading to a growing series of industry and business failures – from the Big Three automakers to small Main Street businesses. And that aspect of the problem has only just begun.

People across the country are losing their jobs, have lost their savings and retirement nest eggs and have lost or walked away from their homes.

The economic bust staring us in the face has spread across world economies, carrying with it the grim promise of worse times to come.

Yes, they tell us, we are in a recession – well duhhhhh.

And, yes, more than likely, we’ll soon be in a depression. The estimates on how deep that might be are wide ranging – from equal to the Great Depression of the ’30s to a far worse calamity.

If Americans choose to spend fewer of their hard earned bucks or, if they choose to buy practical merchandise rather than luxuries whose only purpose is “conspicuous consumption” – good for us! It just proves good, old-fashioned common sense is alive and well.

It shows there are Americans who have a sense of personal responsibility. They realize it’s their job to take care of themselves and their families. They realize that economic survival in tough times takes tough attitudes. Americans knew how to hang together and struggle together to survive in the past, and they know how to do it now.

Even though government tells us to “get out there and shop” and “spend, spend, spend” – the truth is, we’ll listen to ourselves, not politicians.

I remember President Bush telling us to “go shopping” after 9/11. It was enough to make me gag then, and I hear the same message now. It still makes me sick and insults my (and your) intelligence.

What we need is a full investigation of how and why the insurance, stock, banking and mortgage collapse was allowed to happen, and I want heads to roll.

Let’s have some perp walks from the courthouse to the big house for lots of people, politicians included.

We need laws changed and properly enforced, and it’s got to start now.

Barack Obama preached “change.” I’ll believe it when he puts the American people first – before the corporate big-wigs and their political donations and before the politicians, many of them in his own party, who enabled the crash that could bring down this country.

Change? Put up or shut up – now!