Tax Rebate check received

We got our $1200 rebate check today! But after all my bills I now have $1900 in my checking account. So the rebate check definately helped us and has helped to create a little bit of a safety buffer. $1900 sounds like a lot but I am supporting four adults plus a young Marine who lives with us part-time. He never asks for money but I help him out when I can with gas - it's so expensive for him to drive from the base to our house. Takes him almost an hour each way.

I also had to pay $535 for my auto insurance policy today. I'm insuring four cars now. I'm definately glad to have that fourth car in the family. It sure helps me with my job - especially this week when I needed my car four days this week for work.

So when the government wonders what happens to rebate checks mine will go towards bills and living expenses. Just a band-aid. But I worry about this getting added to the national debt and future generations of Americans having to pay for it. I dont see how our national debt can ever be repaid. I dont see how the U.S.A. can continue to go on as a spending nation and not a saving nation. I think I read that two-thirds of our GDP is made up of consumer spending. What's going to happen to the GDP when people stop borrowing and spending so much?

Check out http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355 and download the MP3 file about "The Giant Pool of Money".

"The Giant Pool of Money" - "A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR news. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money."