American’s; Running On Empty:
Good Morning
Perhaps even more troubling is the burning question of when the foreign nations (who loan us $3 billion per day) will begin to suspicion that 2008 may be a rough year in
The answers are that the world’s greatest consumers are in hock up to their eyeballs. The
There is also the possibility that our $700 billion trade deficit is making those who benefit from this horrendous imbalance a little nervous. The
All of these questions and pesky facts can give a person daily headaches. Throw in a never ending war, record deficit spending, a funded national debt of some $9 Trillion, an unfunded debt of $53 Trillion, and 78 Million Americans lining up to retire; and it just becomes mind boggling.
So have we played out our string? I think so. I believe that we have eclipsed the world’s ability to sustain our habits and I don’t think that is all bad.
Let’s reduce this thing to some common sense and an easily understood format with my patented Mikeronomics.
The
Overlooking the fact that the world was not inflatable was easy when “profit” is the headline and “sustainability” isn’t even in the text. Following this plan, you can see a really big predicament coming somewhere down the road. We have arrived.
All of the things that we take from the land, which is everything, stayed the same size and even after conferring with the Wizard, expanding the landmass to match our consumption, seems a daunting task. We are now beginning to run short on a few supplies such as oil, clean water, clean air, cropland, forests, iron ore, and holes large enough to dump our trash in. Nothin’ big.
You would think that perhaps one of the brighter bulbs would say, “Hey, why don’t we plan to use less.” But then the dimmer bulbs would say in unison, “That would be less profit you idiot,” and the bright bulb would be reduced in rank to 15 watts.
This brings us back to the
So how do you see this thing playing out? Where will the millions of new jobs come from? Where will the resources come from to fuel
I have my ideas for sure, but I want to hear from you. Oh, please don’t say, “They will come up with something.” What say you?
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This new philosophy you refer to will not happen over night as you well know. But there are a few things that should be on our leaders minds at this time (long before now would have been better).
An intense effort in developing alternative energy should begin immediately. And I am not referencing the ethynol hoax either (similar to exponential growth; it won’t work). Encouraging rapid development with the use of lucrative incentive programs for solar, wind and hydrogen energy sources with solar being the priority is a must. We must begin to understand that we have little control how much or what type of natural resource our neighboring countries use. With that in mind and at the presnt growth rate for many of these countries, fossil fuels will be ever more expensive and ever more in short supply until not far down the road, few will have the ability to purchase this resource.
We need to encourage people to stay in agriculture and recruit young people into this field, instead of discouraging our youth from this lifestyle, telling them this kind of work is for 3rd world countries like our peace man Al Gore has done. Letting potential enemies feed us is not a very smart thing for any country to do. This trend has to change.
Reversing NAFTA and WTO should also be at the top of the list of things to do. We (the middle class) have suffered enough from these failed, ill conceived programs. The only purpose for these programs was to stimulate exponential growth. We now know, or should at least have a clue, that this is not possible. So why would we keep these programs on line any longer than absolutely necessary?
Another very important task would be to seal our borders, immediately. At this time we should also stop immigration of any form for a period of time. Then after we have have stabilized, only allow numbers that work for a sustainable economy from that point on.
The “FED” should be shut down immediately. It will be years before we will recover from the Greenspan carnage and it just continues day after day. It is not that tough to use common sense in place of greed as our first choice. It is also not that tough to begin to educate ourselves on important issues, in place of the diet of sound bites and media spin we use today to make our important decisions. How about we begin today. -bb
BIlly B.
An excellent post with far too many hard truths for most to accept. But, for those who do, life can be good again.
The U.S. could grow a ton of people food on the ground that we now use to grow auto fuel (corn).
Why don’t we grow people food? It’s too labor intensive for the educated country that we strive to be. Like you said, growing food is for the 3rd world crowd.
Listen to our politicians who want to make it mandatory that children start school at 3 years old and obtain a 16 year government education. That oughta’ work. Government has planned well so far.
But, that too will change as the educated advertising executives and money managers begin to experience unemployment.
And finally, greed trumps all but universal law and mother nature just sat down at the table to dealt in for the next hand.
And finally, finally, the FED in emergency session just lowered the funds rate by 3/4 of a percent to induce borrowing my the worlds most debt ridden citizens. Brilliant.
Let’s get started on a new course, it’s a beautiful day to do so.
Hey Mike! Do you get the feeling that our economy is just like a mine shaft. The Government keeps using balsa wood timbers to keep propping it up whenever it starts to cave in. Of course for every shakey timber they put in place they allow other timbers(jobs, war funding, rebates for the poor, etc.) to be pulled out. Kind of reminds me of the game of staked puzzle pieces that each person has to take out one until the rest collapse. With Bush, Cheney, or Congress pulling out the pieces we have absolutely no hope at all. Hope your firewood timbers are holding up okay! Have a good one Mike!
Michael,
As we watch this mess come undone, I can for sure say that I told ‘em so.
Billy Bs posts makes good sense, it’s time to come clean with ourselves. Nothing is guaranteed and we have nothing coming that we didn’t earn.
The sooner we realize that we are literally eating ourselves out of house and home, the sooner we get back on track. Today would be good time to consider our own future and make the necessary changes to weather the storm.
Mike, Our biggest problem will be getting our elected officials to bite the bullet and take responsibility for beginning our recovery. Until they do we will have no recovery and maybe no country if it gets bad enough. With our population as dense(in many ways) as it is it will take guts and talent for someone to get elected on the “what has to be done” platform. It will also take a major re-education in this country on economics and responsibility. Our society has had the instant gratification so ingrained in their lives that we will have an uphill battle of Biblical proportions. As far as cutting foreign aid and reducing frivolous grants are concerned the public will probably be acceptable, but when it comes to cutting things that affect them directly(like raising taxes or cutting support fundings) there will be major resistance. We will need a very strong charismatic president to pull that off. Know where we can find one?
Mr. Hayes is correct when he states that our elected officials need to bite the bullet and take responsibility ofr our economic recovery. The problem arises in the fact that our elected officials for the most part are doing what we the majority of Americans are asking them to do and have been for some time now.
And this is where the next part of Mr. Hayes accurate statement comes to play. Unless we as individuals are willing to educate ourselves and make informed decisions about our government and sensible requests to our elected officials they will not change. How can they, when the vote is all that matters to them; and with that in mind they are doing what we are asking of them at this time to win that all important vote.
I do not believe we have enough time prior to election for the required number of voters / citizens to educate themselves in order to vote that informed politician; the one with character; who holds truth as something sacred, into office. This would be ideal as the informed citizens would then be prepared to assist the new and willing president to pass required legislation through congress much easier. If we elected this individual, Dr. Paul for instance without an inform society, our congress would shut down anything the President offered that required change.
So it is that we need the informed citizens. But so it is that this amount of change rarely takes place in any society without great pain associated with it. We are about to discover that; then the healing process will begin as we are forced into the role of an informed American, not just someone taking a ride and hoping someone else is holding everything together for us. -bb
Billy, Actually the majority of Americans are not asking anything of our elected officials. Therein lies the problem. We have become preoccupied with our own little lives and pay almost no attention to what is going on within our government, let alone the world. We tend to treat elections like we would a game show. Call it American Idle! The voting record of our voters is abhorable. It is becoming hard to call this a Democratic Republic when so few people actually participate. The education problem is quite a problem also. How do you educate a populace that has been dumned down over decades. Our educational system is pathetic and anemic. We used to be able to get some education through the free press but that no longer functions. Somehow we need to free our press from the corporate menace that has bought them out and silenced them. It is great that we can discuss this amongst ourselves but our audience is limited to this corner of the internet. There is a huge number of Americans out there that we need to reach and involve with this discussion and we have no decent way of reaching them. I have sent many letters to my Congresspersons and the media but naturally the responce I get is less than great. It does get more frustrating everyday. Have a good one Billy!
Hey Guys,
We have to start somewhere and I really do believe that we can make a difference for those around us.
If we are forced to organize sub cultures, so be it.
No use jumping off the cliff just because everyone else is doing so.
The emergency action of the FED today and promised stimulus package along with a probable FED cut 7 days from now smells of something rotten. There must be more bad news to come.
The question remains the same, where are jobs going to come from that can keep America working?