We will, many of us, be getting a refund check of sorts from the government in the next few months and I wonder how many of considered what to do with it that could be rewarding and instructive and if done with enough frequancy could impact our cultural fiber.

I was prompted to consider this with the arival of an email this afternoon that suggested buying products not made in America, by companies owned by Americans, would serve to pull us further down economicly at a time when gas is nearing four dollars a gallon, houses continue to forclose at high rates and even the prime mortage market has a 90 day default rate at a record high over last year. I don't know that this is the best answer but trying to leverage six hundred dollars to do more good than offer a brief euphoria induced by something I could do without is my goal.

My thinking is to find an American company that is researching, promoting, or selling, something you believe in or think is an idea worthy of support and invest in them. That keeps the money in the US, and has the potential of creating jobs and changing lives through innovation, and if done wisely and with a little luck, could pay you back more than you invested. I would also write a little note to the company you choose and tell them why you picked them. Tell them you like their vision and believe they can change the world, that can mean more to the company and the process than the money alone. Its says you are entrusting your hard earned money in them, as an individual, what company executive worth his or her salt would not take that as far more meaningful and a better motivating ideal than an anonymous and imperceptable blip on the days trading of shares.

Maybe if that had happened just one time for every 100,000 people invested in Enron they would not have forgotten their responsibility but been motivated by it. How many lives would have been impacted differently. Its an awesome responsibility shouldering the responsibility for any company and compounded so much more as the lives it comes into with contact with grow. I think it would be a welcome reminder to those who are gifted to run such companies to hear that it is you trust in them and shared vision that brings you together. That is infinitely more valuable than the check that proves it.In celebration of the capitalist way, tempered with the knowledge of responsibility I remain, One AngryFish