< meta name="DC.Date.Valid.End" content="20050825"> Amendment Nine: Quick Economic Rationale

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Quick Economic Rationale

We take it as given that our economy is in a slow but progressing move away from work and towards recreation. We’re getting older. To be productive at retirement-age means a less work (less labor) but more productivity (doing more for less). Notice that our economy is getting lighter. We formerly produced cars, trains, planes. Now we produce software, microchips, and business method patents. The move began after the Vietnam War and it is now in its second generation. Fighting the move will only cause more economic pain than the move naturally brings with it. Japan is a good example. The split-level economies already appearing in aging states like Connecticut and Rhode Island are also good examples. Therefore, enhancing the move from work-based to recreation-based, and ensuring widespread economic opportunity in the economy of the future, is the only sensible alternative. However, enhancing the move without realizing the implications this will have on our social network would be foolish and counterproductive. Civil unrest and unnecessary expense would likely result without planning for, and attending to, the needs of our communities. As a result, the impact that the new, recreation based economy causes on our daily lives must be addressed. That impact is real, and is already being felt by the professional class of workers. The time relief proposals contained herein are an effort to honor the American tradition, uplift the American worker, and enhance the valuable economic role families play in the world’s largest and most dynamic economy.

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