Ignorance Isn't Bliss

There is a Haitian proverb that says "ignorance doesn't kill you, but it does make you sweat a lot", that has been true for many Americans, and it has been particularly true for Black Americans. We can see this magnified by the demise of the United States economic system. As the financial crisis strangles the American economy, a sizable number of Blacks (college educated and non-college educated) admit to not being intimately familiar with economics. There is no problem with not knowing, the problem comes when people don't actively seek the information.

In a recent conversation I had with a friend, I informed them about a wildly successful Black owned energy company based out of Houston, Texas. Their response was "well how am I supposed to know about that?" That type of thinking is unacceptable. With the Jericho-like falling of United States financial institutions many political conversations are turning into economic dialogues. Sadly, folks are rehashing the infamous John McCain line "admittedly I don't know as much about economics as I should." yet people are not seeking out the information to better inform themselves.

In order to have your own analysis on the financial freefall, one has to evaluate their feelings about government's role in capitalism. Those who feel it is government's job to reign in over-ambitious speculators and investors feel that the government fell asleep at the wheel and allowed Wall St. to get out of control. If you are a strong proponent in government intervention than you probably would be supportive of the $700 billion dollar "bailout". Conservative columnist George Will appearing on ABCNews' "This Week" said that if the government continued to bail out financial companies, than the top executives there should be paid the same as a GS-15 (the highest level salaried civilian government employees). However, there are those who are more of libertarian in their economic views. They feel that governement regulation is one of the things that got us in the financial bind we're in now. These are people like Rep. Ron Paul. Paul believes that the bailout is bad business and that the free market is such a way that it will correct itself.

In order to fully understand the issues we need to familiarize ourselves with the work of companies such as Lehman Bros., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bears Stern. From there we as a people we can make a more informed decision as to what direction we would like to go with our money, if we would like to do business with one of those companies, or if we feel we'd be better suited in trusting our money to a smaller Black-owned company such as Brown Capital Management in Baltimore or Smith, Graham & co. in Houston that has not had some of the problems these major financial institutions are having. But this decision making process starts with us being an informed group of people conscious of what's going on in the world around us.

With the treasury secretary teetering on what some are calling the closest thing to socialism since the New Deal, there is no more important time than now for those in the Black community to inform themselves of the economic makeup of the United States. One probably won't learn overnight the ins and outs of free market enterprise, asset management and financial holdings; but we must familiarize ourselves with at least a pedestrian understanding of the country's financial situation. If for no other reason than because the government may very well be using your money, as a taxpayer, to bailout the struggling financial institutions. If more of the United States economic infrastructure continues to crumble, the Haitian proverb will be the truest words ever spoke for Black Americans because our ignorance may not kill us but it will make us sweat.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/; http://www.browncapital.com/; http://www.smith-graham.com/