What this blog is about

I've been stewing in this economy for the last 40 years along with the rest of you. America, the land of opportunity, has become, more and more, just like any other country, and that sad fact has spurred me to action. This great country has stood by and passively watched its economy and society decline into mediocrity.

Look at automobiles. The US, once the dominant manufacturer, now has a company called GM which is not the same one we all grew up with from childhood. GM had 54% of US market share in the 1950's and it has been down hill ever since. Today GM is number 2 behind Toyota only because of a massive bailout by the federal government. Who do we blame for this? Slovenly overpaid corrupt uneducated union workers? That's too easy a target but certainly union antagonism toward GM was an important factor. Entrenched, ineffective, outrageously compensated buffoons parading as corporate executives? Simplistic again but definitely a contributing factor. Allowing other countries access to US markets without reciprocal access to their markets? Hmmm - this is a path worth exploring.

Look at US Federal Government spending. You don't need to be a rocket scientist in order to understand that the data in this graph spells trouble: federal spending has outpaced median income by a factor of 9 over the last 40 years. Median household income grew by only 32% while federal spending ballooned 221%. Remember that the line on the bottom pays for the line on the top.
Where is majority of this money going?: the elderly and the military and the military-industrial complex. We spend billions fighting 2 wars and trying to build democracies in countries that despise us but want the yankee dollar to modernize their morally bankrupt, socially backward societies while decrepit US bridges fall from neglect (look here and here).
Our children consistently score far lower on international comparative tests because they must attend substandard underfunded schools. So what do we do to ensure that our children will grow to become adults that can compete with their Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and German counterparts? We transfer money from the young to the old: For every $7 we spend on the elderly (65 and older) we only spend $1 on a child (under 18).

There is plenty of blame to go around: republican and democrat, liberal and conservative. Just look in the mirror and think - what special interest group are you a part of that has dipped into the till and withdrawn more than to which you are entitled. Politicians know that even talking about cutting social security, medicare, or entitlements is politically akin to touching the subway's third rail. They also know that talk of slashing military spending gets one branded as some sort of commie pinko leftist sellout even though the US represents over 41% of the world's military spending and spends more than China, France, England, Russia and the next 10 largest military budgets combined!
So I'll leave you with these questions.
1) Why do we spend billions of dollars in manpower and equipment defending Germany, Japan, Israel, and South Korea? Why can't the citizens of these rich countries pay more taxes to defend their democracies?
2) Why can't we cut Federal spending (adjusted for inflation) to 1980 levels? Do we really need that much bigger a Federal government compared to that time period?
3) Why don't we take our entire foreign aid budget and invest it in our children?

This blog will discuss these and other important issues. I would like to have guests submit their own discussions or supply links that I can post on these same issues. We need to solve these problems; the politicians on the left and the right are failing us.