The present economic collapse has been blamed on questionable home mortgages and fraudulent investment funds. This is a classic “I can’t see the forest through the trees” situation. These unfortunate situations are the result of the real problem but not the cause.

The real cause of the economic collapse is the under rated “discretionary spending” that is often mentioned as being controlled by teenagers. Discretionary spending has always been driving the American economy. World War Two ended the Depression. The GI Bill and two wage earner families restarted the engine. This allowed home ownership, improved education, and credit.

This influx of discretionary spending fueled Detroit and sold color TV. Teenagers buying Beetle albums and transistor radios paved the way for IPODS, cell phones and all new consumer goods.

The economy hummed along until the first oil crisis. This was our first wake up call. Nixon, Ford and Carter did not understand. The cost of oil soaks up discretionary spending. This in-turn shuts down the economic engine. The economy ground to a halt. The demand and price for oil fell. The situation leveled off.

The under rated “Reagan Tax Cuts” jump started the economy because it allowed an influx of capitol to the average citizen to increase his discretionary spending. This trickledown economics really does work.

The economy (discretionary spending) started to overheat because of one reason, very low interest rates. This made home buying affordable increasing demand for homes. Demand raised prices, which increased home equity. This new found wealth exploded the economy (discretionary spending). There was such an explosion of discretionary spending that people did not know what to do with it. They spent it on everything.

The industries that benefited from this crazy spending are the ones who want the bailouts. We cannot turn back the clock. It is time to let the “chips fall” and move on.

The idea of Government bail outs to treat symptoms and not the cause of the problem will not work. Adding a huge new tax increase masked by "Health Care" is absolutely the wrong direction and will only "tank" the economy further. The “turn around” is to increase the money supply to the average person. Increasing taxes to pay for a bailout will only delay recovery. It allocates discretionary spending to the government not the people where it works best.

I suggest eliminating income taxes on retirement income and pensions. This would send money across the whole country to people who need it most. They would spend it right away. Since this would have the same effect as an increase in retirement pay, pension funds and Social Security could put a freeze on increases for at least two years.

Today the cure is to prevent the cost of oil from strangling the economy. Obama and Congress should be directed to that goal. The future danger is that government expense and regulations will control a large amount of discretionary spending. This is done by ever increasing taxes to pay for government (Health Care, Cap and Trade) and othe phony causes. This is socialism creeping up on us..