Why do the Presidential candidates keep telling Americans to sacrifice more?

I don't know, but there is not much more to sacrafice. At least not in my house.

My personal opinion on the subject: In order to have a strong America, we the people need to be strong as well; including better quality of life. How dare the presidential candidates tell us to sacrifice more. Thousands have sent there sisters, brothers, fathers and mothers off to war for several years, our economy is in the crapper and it is VERY hard to find a job right now ( i am unemployed). I would like John McCain or Obama to come live in my tiny apartment for a week and receive 111 dollars a week unemployment. Then maybe they'll realize what a state our nation is in, and it's not a good one. I am not the only one going through hardships right now, I'm sure a lot of the people on MyLot are. So to tell us to sacrifice more is just a huge slap in the face. I honestly believe this country needs to elect an intelligent middle class person who knows what sacrifice is, maybe they would actually try to improve the quality of living for a stronger America..instead of telling us to basically suffer and suck it up.

I dont know about you but I myself am tired of sacrifice,I work 40 hrs.a week and so does my husband and no kids at home we dont have a fancy house or anything that would be concidered lavish and we struggle all the time.Politicians should give up some of their 2000 dollar a plate lunches and do with out some of their live styles that we are paying for and take away some of our hardships and quit helping foreign countries before we become one ourselves.Have a great night.

I do have to say one thing though, and it is not in defense of politicans who say we need to sacrifice more, but it is something I have noticed. We as a whole are very materialistic in many ways. I mean this is a small example, but a good one. Look at how we rush into the holidays. We have replaced the actual meaning of it all with the $$ signs of after T-day sales, and hurry up X-mas is coming sales....we do not even enjoy the season while it is here...it is a shopping season now. Ask many people what they like about thanksgiving? the sales mostly will be the answer. There are already x-mas stuff in the stores...it's not even halloween. That is a very materialistic way of looking at the holidays. It's based on money and value of the gift....it should never have become that.

One of my co-workers figured out that $700 billion would equal out to be around $90,000 per U.S. citizen I feel (I realize this is radical) that if we had each gotten that much money we would have done things like pay down debt, buy new cars, put the money towards mortgages and maybe even bought stock. I don't know finance on such a grand scale but it seems to me that the markets would have bounced back very quickly. They could have done vouchers so that it wasn't cold hard cash to be stolen and put security measures on it for safety. Even if they had limited what it was to be spent on, that's fair, it's free money for the sake of boosting the economy. I'm not sure why they would trust the people who got themselves into the mess in the first place to use the money wisely.

Well, I halfway agree with you. True, I think politicians need to do more to help the average American. I think they spend way too much time thinking about how to get elected and how much money they and their friends can pocket! On the flip side though, we Americans also live our lives in a way that I think does us more damage than we think. I do believe sacrifice is needed on our part. Sacrifice from people who can afford it, not the people who are supporting families on $30,000-$40,000/year.

I feel as though the burden is equally divided. One the one hand, our government should have learned from past mistakes and it doesn't seem to have. On the other, so should we. Our government has encouraged us to spend, spend, spend so as to "keep the economy strong". They have also spent our tax money in reckless ways, as in on a war with no real meaning. We don't seem to like to think for ourselves, we'd rather the government do it for us, and this is what that has led us to. Yes, we have, overall, become terribly spoiled but then, that is what our government has encouraged us to be. I think it's time we started thinking for ourselves and not take the word of politicians as the gospel.

I agree with you. This is an old discussion, but still relavent in a lot of ways. Why don't the politicians start sacrificing, and let people just be people? I wish the government would just leave us alone, and go live on an island somewhere as far away from us as possible.

I understand just what you are saying. I am tired of giving to all those fat pocket CEO and Politions. I am working to keep my money in my pockets. And I have found many ways to do it. Obamas says that you will keep you company insurance....Well what if you can't afford you company's insurance. Guess what, you still can't see a doct. or go to the hospital. So what in his plan is going to help me. and many others out there. So I am tired of the company's controlling me, I am taking my control back. *I sat down and figured up everything I have coming in and going out *I have cut out things I don't need, Such as the high package cable, now just have basic. *I have cancaled my phone service, I live in a very rual area that 2 miles is long destance. I now have just a cell phone, with alltel that gives me a cir.of friend that allows me to call 10 friends and family anytime day or night. As well as other alltel users free and nights and weekends free to anyone. By cancaleing my phone service I am saving over $1200.00 a year. My mother got what they call a jump jack and she pays only 19.99 a year for her long distance service. She is saving over $400.00 a year. *I create my own gift to give for the holiday *My husband and I are getting ready to sell everything and move to a motor home. All the kids are all over the states and this will allow us to eleminate many more bills. *We are working to pay off all our credit cards, And that gets into the Company's profits. And destroying them once they are paid and Puts control buck to us. *America has to quite depending on credit. So this is were you need to learn, if you don't have the money don't spend it.. ***It may not get into there pocket right away, But they will feel it, if enough people start cutting back

I feel that in order to get where we need to be we have to really watch what we do, but in all honesty in history every single time that we have been in a way we in America have had a major recession and once a depression. It has happened, and will happen again, however, our government should have learned from the past. You would think as much as the candidates are reflecting upon the past with words that have been said that they would already know this. We need the government to help us out, not bail us out, because we didn't get ourselves in this position to begin with. I am truly against the war in Iraq. I pray our soldiers are ok, and are doing well, but I don't feel that the war was against the right place. I feel that we should have not been in the war, but maybe there was more factors than I am informed of. I will support our troops, but I don't support the reason that the government sent them there. The government needs to step it up a bit for Americans, we really need help, but we can't afford any more losses. Great discussion.

I don't know if you're talking about the debate but I don't think anyone was asking us to live on less. Getting this country stable and strong again is a process and it's going to take help from the government and from the American people. Cutting back on our fuel consumption where we can, reducing our electric consumption, those are things that we can do. Making use of alternative sources of energy as they become available will also help.

I don't recall the candidates asking us to sacrifice, if they did that they would be too honest! Instead, we are having to fork out even more money to fix the economic mess we are in and I suspect more money will be required to recapitalise the banks, not just getting rid of the IOU poison (bad debt) but rebuilding the bank's balance sheets (the UK is about to launch such a plan today). But they won't tell us this will baloon the debt and that this will, ultimately, cost us more in taxes. The truth is that Americans are in for a hard time. We have been living, both as govt and indididuals, beyond our means for a long time and now its pay back time. There will be no room for tax cuts whatever the candidates may say, instead there will be further tax rises and spending cuts to try and control the deficit which is going to go up exponentially to fix this economic and banking mess. The candidates may seek to implement their tax cut plans, but you can be sure that taxes will have to increase elsewhere to pay for the economic mess we are now in. So I believe the level of taxation will inevitably go up, together with deep spending cuts to bring the budget under control. The only issue is how the extra taxes will be raised and how their burden will fall on individuals. Will the wealthier Americans be hit to a greater extent as will likely be the case under Obama, or will they be hit to a lesser extent with tax increases falling on lower and middle income earners (McCain's plan)? You can also be sure that indirect taxation will go up, something which will affect the vast majority of Americans and will hit those at the lower end of the income scale disproportionately.

I'm waiting to see if the politicians are ever going to "sacrifice more". Like maybe they will take a voluntary pay cut or maybe they will sell a car or house or two.

yes my brother that the state should intervene and putting things in order to satisfy all parties

I do not think they asking those of you who have already sacrificed to do more. They know that you are already doing it. They are asking for those who squandered their money and put things on charge accounts to act more responsibly, and they cannot say Mr. Jones who lives on 122 Hillhouse, Santa Monica, or give the names of everyone who wastes money to stop wasting money because it would be embarrassing to do so. They could cut their salaries and make it equal to yours, but if you had a grade 12 education and got a job out of high school, would it be fair for someone to lower their salary if they went to University and had a career? So I would say if you already sacrificing, you should take that message as being directed not at you, but those who were wasteful, and lived high off the hog when they could not afford to.

I am living on a shoestring budget right now. I live in my dad's house, and pay what bills I have as much as I can. I am very frugal to save money for other items, mostly bills. I think we are sacraficing too much as it is. We are sending our loved ones to ANOTHER country to make ours free??!! Does this make sense? This becoming communist country! How is my brother dying in another country going to make my life any better? Can anyone answer that? I am scraping by with 4 kids on 2 jobs at minimum wage on both. I cannot afford to get higher education, because with raising my kids, and working two jobs, I have no time to wait for a grant check--the amount just dropped--to show up after 3 months. I believe we need a change to make us better but it seems to me that we aren't getting anything better than what we started with. I feel you on this one!!

I guess it's politicians' way of sharing the blame for the global economic crisis we're in at the moment. I agree that we shouldn't have to sacrifice anymore than we are now (except that I support biblical tithing in churches). It wasn't our fault that the people we elected let us down through corruption and poorly made predictions.

I believe a lot of us can make sacrafices that do not lessen our quality of life. I don't mind making a sacrafice to have a strong country. However, before asking us to sacrafice another thing, I want to see some serious action taken against these corporate executives for their despicable behavior. Not only should they have to pay the money back (AIG for example). They should be fired and face criminal charges if at all possible. SHOW US that before asking anything else of the common citizen!!!!

I am so sick of having to sacrafice also!i mean seriously with allthe money they got rolling in should THEY be the ones to sacrafice. I mean in all honesty how much more can the American people sacrafice. We are all struggling as it is!!! Agh. It's such a frustrating situation!

I'm afraid that we have not yet begun to sacrifice. Notice that they don't ask just the poor to scrifice they ask all americans to sacrifice. If you consider it an appeal tp the wealthy it may not sting so much. Remember others are worse off.