The recession, the depression, the falling economy — it has many names that all seem to mean one thing: Everyone is becoming poorer.
Not just people mind you, but entire nations, regions and currencies. A year ago, $1 U.S. would buy you .75 Euros or .69 British pounds. Today, that same dollar buys .69 Euros and .62 British pounds. This figure fluctuates constantly.
The dollar is losing value in the worldwide market. Traveling to Europe right now would be more expensive for Americans than it was last summer if we could even afford to get there in the first place.
Despite all of our economic problems in the Americas, Europe isn’t doing as well as they’d like for us to believe.
Since the introduction of the Euro as a multinational currency, it has made the European economy similar to the United States’. For example, in the U.S., California, Michigan and other rust belt states were dragging the economy down. In Europe, Ireland, Portugal and Greece are their Michigan and California. 
Despite being separate countries, they share a common currency and therefore must ensure that failing economies in certain countries don’t drag down stable economies in others. 
While there are obviously many factors that have contributed to this worldwide recession, one of the biggest is undoubtedly overspending. Not just overspending, but overspending on things we don’t really need. 
This year, the United States government spent $928.5 billion on defense while spending only $140.9 billion on education. What these numbers say to me is that we have plenty of guns, but we’ll be too stupid to know how to shoot them. 
Moreover, $898 billion was spent on health care, but just about all of that went to either senior citizens or welfare recipients. So we’ll still have plenty of guns, but the middle aged middle class will be too sick to shoot them. Beautiful. 
Greece is in a similar situation. They spent entirely too much borrowed money on projects such as the Athens Olympics in 2004.
Greece also has a tourism dependent economy, so when the rest of the world became too poor to go to Santorini every summer, they suffered. Now they are asking for a second bail out package to accompany their original $146 billion package. 
Ireland received a $113 billion bailout package. Naturally, $112 billion will go towards whiskey research, and the last billion buys everyone a Guinness for their troubles.
Portugal received a $110 billion bailout, which I imagine will be spent in full trying to get back at Spain for winning the World Cup. 
The only country that is clearly doing worse off than the United States is Mexico. The peso fell further than the dollar, and drug driven cartel violence makes many regions of the country nightmarish to say the least. 
The bottom line is that we have to spend less money. Simple as that. While spending less is a priority, spending more responsibly is just as important. We need to cut spending where we can and perhaps even increase it where it’s more needed, if we can afford it. 
These are basic principles we learn as children. If you don’t have enough money to go to Chuck E. Cheese, then you have to earn it so you can. Even when we finally got to Chuck E. Cheese — a toddler’s Bellagio — all he did was teach us how a casino works.
You buy tokens in hopes of winning lots of tickets, which translate into big stuffed animals and Chinese finger traps.  
Nobody gives loans to children; that would be crazy. But if they disguise themselves as government officials, then maybe one day they’ll get a multi-billion dollar bailout. 
Wouldn’t Chuck be proud. 
Parker Cramer is a 20-year-old animal science junior from Houston. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_pcramer.
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Contact Parker Cramer at [email protected]