It takes money to make money. Everybody knows that.

If you want to start a business, you need money to set the business up. You have to advertise, there are start-up costs, employees, accountants and lawyers, city fees and taxes. Then there is whatever you have left over. That’s the money you make.

It takes money to make money.

There are a lot of people in America right now who would like to make some money. People who don’t like being out of work.  People with mouths to feed and  bills to pay. People who measure their self respect through what they produce, and who are eager to get back to the business of production.

But it takes money to make money.

So where is the money? Did it go away? Nope.

The money is the same place it was before this whole mess happened.  It’s on Wall Street and in bank vaults. It’s in the $20 million bonuses Goldman Sachs hands out.  It’s in their walled communities, spent on private guards, summer homes and tailored suits. It used to be with all of us, but we trusted them with it, and our money went away. So now the money is on Wall Street.

Well, OK, let’s shrug it off—fool me once and all that. If the money is on Wall Street and in the banks, then let’s get them to share the money so that people can get back to work. I mean, that is their business right? Investing in start ups, loaning money that sort of thing? And right now we need that money to make money. We need that investment so our people can get to work.

But Wall Street won’t help. The banks won’t loan.  And there is no money coming forth to make more money.

Who else has money?

The Federal Government does. Lots of it.

They will tell you they don’t. They will tell you there is a deficit problem. But that’s just not true. Trillions of dollars is spent by the government every year. You can’t count that high, not in your whole life.  The Feds have plenty of money, but instead of helping us by spending it, they argue with themselves about how much of it to take away.  And the fat cats on Wall Street purr.

Well, I think we have to do something about this. And I think we need to do it now. There is no time to wait. Unemployment just went up again, it seems to be getting worse not better. We have to act, to get those who have the money, Wall Street and the Federal government, to spend it. Or, at least in the case of Wall Street maybe we should just tax them and spend it for them. So that the money they hoard can be used, to make money, for all of us.

Photo credit: Emmanuel Huybrechts, Flickr