The decline of America

Once upon a time, America used to be a nation of producers. We built things, cars, buildings, televisions, steel, we were industrialized. People got up in the morning, they went to work and at the end of the day there was a product for the American consumer to buy. Now, now, we are a nation of servants. The majority of all products consumed are imported from other countries - mostly China and other countries of East Asia. All of our electronic products are produced overseas. Our economy is based almost entirely on providing services. Yes, we still have an auto industry - but not one that can stand on its own without government aid, the exception being Ford and those foreign companies that build cars here. The growth of wealth is no longer based on items of value but on the production of paper based on "wished" value. Today our government and its economists talk of "too big to fail." This very phrase should send a chill down the spine of every American. We used to talk about mom and pop businesses, small businesses, people dedicated to providing a quality product at a decent price. Remember when you could go to a Hardware store and find the widget you needed, made in an American factory and the owner/operator when asked just about any question could answer it. Now you go to a Home Depot or Lowes and rarely do you find the item you need because everything has been over standardized and when you ask one of the sales persons a question 90% of the time they don't even know what you are talking about. We used to dominate the world in steel production now we import all of that. I admit that I shop at Wal-Mart, because it's cheap - in all ways.

What happened? It has been a long and slow decline certainly and we have yet to reach bottom. Both sides of the political spectrum have their pet theories but neither side is entirely correct. The left wants to blame the greedy capitalists and the right wants to blame the unions and socialism. The rise of the environmentalist movement has contributed to the decline of our industrial base - death of the steel industry. The politicization of the Unions has contributed to the movement of our production based society overseas and in turn has led to the consolidation of a large part of the remaining industrial base - mostly the Aerospace and Military Industrial Complex industries. The lack of real enforcement of existing Banking Laws has led to the consolidation and growth of the large bank/investment houses. The economy is driven by large businesses paid for by small businesses. The government bailout of the banks (TARP) and GM and Chrysler was a slap in the face of small business because it was small business' money that was used to pay for the bailout. One can argue that there is some benefit to be gained from consolidation of businesses but not always. The large Aerospace companies are no longer the innovative entities they once were. The Boeing's and Lockheed's innovate by buying up small businesses then sucking the life out of them. The decline of our economy can be attributed almost entirely to the growth of our government. Tax laws have forced companies to be valued primarily by their stock rather than real tangible assets. Over regulation and under enforcement of critical regulations have allowed companies to take risks that they would not have taken when real value was at risk.

Much as it pains me to say this, but it is time to start breaking up the large conglomerates and reinvigorate competition. The left will love this but I am not talking about driving the companies out of business, because along with the breakup will come massive, real, changes in government including a decline in corporate taxes, and changes in how corporate profits are taxed that promote reinvestment, a change in the laws that protect unions - repeal of the Wagner act, in other words. Also, there has to be real regulation not this faux crap that passes as regulation. Every major economic hiccup tied to corporate collapses, Savings and loan, Telecom, Enron, now the bank and house markets have been shown to be not a result of deregulation but the lack of enforcement of existing regulations. Had the government actually done its jobs then the listed events would never have occurred. Likewise large companies like the banks and the auto companies, when they get into trouble have to be allowed to fail and if necessary go out of business. Only when you inflict severe pain on the work force will they be willing to toss off the fake security that they think unions provide. Also, if large investment firms collapse then investors will stop taking a passive involvement in the investments. the Obama talks about "skin in the game" when he attacks businesses, but that term has also to be applied to the workers and Americans in general. The current economic turmoil is entirely the fault of Americans and their lack of involvement - which has led to the massive growth of the government nanny-state. I am not opposed to Wal-Marts, but it would sure be nice if the goods they sold were made right here in America. It is too bad that too many Americans think that social evolution means working less, producing nothing and living on credit - ie being lazy.

The Mouse in the White House

In this time of global economic turmoil this country and this world needs more than just a windbag, it needs a true leader. Sadly, there is no one currently in power, anywhere, that can step up to the job. America's miserable excuse of a president is, as always, passing the buck onto the previous administration - blame Bush - and dodging every chance to take control of the rudder and guide the US and the world out of this current mess. One might ask why that is, well the obvious answer is - he is a socialist and as a member of the last years of the Baby-boomer generation - the blame others sub-generation. the Obama is every bit as immature as he is young. Being a lawyer has given him that arrogance of ignorance that plagues most lawyers from his generation - we went to a prestigious law school so we know better than you, what is good for you. Just because someone is stupid enough to sit down and attempt to read Joyce's Finnegan's Wake and then pretend they understood it, does not imply intellectual fortitude. Most of the people in the Obama's administration are of this ilk and most probably barely got C's in Physics for future the Obama administration appointees. They are barely qualified to wipe their own asses, and yet there are millions of Americans willing to let these same people wipe their asses. the Obama Administration is an unmitigated disaster all because the person (note I don't use man) in charge is not really in charge at all - (apparently Bush is still in charge, given all the blame that still flows his way). To be the President of the United States of America, requires more than ability to read a Teleprompter, it requires real courage to stand up, take charge, and when the S**T hits the fan, take responsibility - something this current mouse in the White House can't do.

The Hypocrite in Chief

On today's WSJ op-ed page, Karl Rove, says, in essence, that the president needs to practice what he preaches when it comes to Politics of Civility. Rove's article is a reminder the for the most part the Obama could well be termed the "Hypocrite in Chief." He does very little of what he chides others for not doing. This the Obama trait is one of the Hallmarks of a generation - tail-end-of the boomers - that has reaped so much benefit from this country and the efforts and sacrifices of previous generations. In return the Obama and his ilk have done nothing but complain and whine about how "unfair" America is to those who don't bother trying. A few mornings ago, I was listening to Bill Bennett's "Morning in America," and he had legal immigrants calling into the show and giving testimonials about how much they have reaped from coming to America and taking advantage of its infinite opportunity to succeed and the majority of those that had called in had succeeded - not by living off the dole but by hard work and by the sweat of their brows. One of the sad statistics that is little talked about is that relative to black populations that have been in this country for generations - the Vietnamese boat people here since the mid to late 70's - have succeeded by orders of magnitude over the blacks. The primary reason that the Vietnamese succeed as such high rates is that they are not being held back by the government's welfare state, which encourages many minorities - like blacks - to sit back and let the government take care of them.

So, coming back to my main point - the Obama has reaped much from this country - given opportunities to succeed not offered to his contemporary Anglo Americans and he, the Obama has taken advantages of those leg-ups to do well. He should, instead of whining all of the time, be thankful and say thanks to all of the "white" Americans that helped make his life a success and he might learn to stop being such a hypocrite.

Winning the Battles and the War

On every single issue since the Obama took office the Right has won the debate against the left - and we have not just beaten the left, we have trounced the left. On the health insurance issue, we stomped them; on cap and tax, we creamed them and now on immigration we are in the process of pounding the left into the ground. Not once, on any of the critical issues has the left, the Obama, put forward substantive justifications in support of their policies. During the health care debate the right beat the daylights out of the left on every single critical issue and the left did was turn the debate into a sob-athon by parading before the public a seemingly endless stream of individuals who's very lives depended upon passage of the health care bill. What did the right do in response - they went forward and dug up the truth that demonstrated that in ever case those individuals that the left put forward were in fact either covered by insurance or previously covered by insurance at the time of their illness or had access to the care they needed and in the majority of cases their current plight was not because of lack of health care coverage but their own laziness and irresponsibility. The left got their health welfare law - not by fair vote but by pulling a series of shenanigans in congress. They lost the debate and the public (70 to 20+ percent against the bill) knew more about it than the Obamacrats - but the left were bad losers and cut off their noses to spite their faces. On immigration the left has attacked Arizona's law that forces law enforcement officials to uphold the Federal immigration laws. Not a single attack by the left has been the truth - even the Obama went before an audience and basically and launched an ignorant attack against the law. He never read the law, none of his advisers read the law and yet he had not problem attacking it and making untrue statements about it. the Obama has to be the most ignorant president in American history. Not even Carter was that clueless about what is going around him. the Obama has underestimated the American people by assuming that we are just a bunch of uneducated hicks. Sorry to inform you Mr. the Obama - we may not have skated through Harvard like you but we are certainly orders of magnitude smarter than you.