Economy

I've been thinking about our economy this weekend. There seems to be no cure for our problems. I believe there is a cure but first it will take a change in the mindset of Americans.

There was a time when we produced and sold more to each other than we purchased from other countries. We had natural resources to back up any money held in our hands. Of course, these days, the money is only as good as we believe it to be (consumer confidence). I also think of it as being only as good as our government, since the government is printing the notes (money) and standing good for its value.

I am not an economist in the college-educated sense. I have lived a pretty long time and have struggled with getting money to buy the things we need to survive. You know, housing, food, clothes, transportation, movie rentals, whoops, strike that last one, it is not really a necessity and we have probably not rented more than a dozen in our lifetime.

The problem is that the global economy is good only for those countries that do not produce their fair share of the needs of their country. Maybe it is not a kind statement but poor countries soak up the wealth of other countries like a sponge. Some countries are poor, not because of a lack of resources but because they can not stop fighting each other and their neighbors. There are countries that could do well on tourism, if it was safe to travel there.

Anyway, back to the U.S. economy. I don't know when we started borrowing from China so much. I do remember when our jobs started being exported to other countries where people had to work for next to nothing. We became a country of services. Someone decided that we would do the white collar work and let others do our grunt work. It has not worked out so well. We still have many people who had rather work with their hands and make things. Instead, their working hands must learn new trades which require a delicate touch or they must slip away into the sunset.

We are in a cycle with China. We borrow money from them to buy the things they make. It does not take a genius to figure out where most of the money ends up. The wholesale price of the goods goes back to the ones who made it with cuts from the 'middle-men'. The loans accrue interest which must be paid. There goes more money out of our country. The goods are made elsewhere, so there goes the wages which will be spent in a foreign country. There isn't much wealth staying between the oceans for us to work with.

I do not believe that an economy that produces no tangible product can survive. By tangible, I mean something you can touch. We have lots of services but you cannot eat, wear, or ride in services. Renting a car is a service but it is based on a tangible.

We must cut cost, produce products that our people can afford to buy and keep the money in our country. I'm all for teaching people how to fish so they can eat. I do not believe that one nation has enough fish to feed the world. Each nation must be taught to live on its own resources and balanced trade. One-sided trade will bleed one side dry while making another rich.

The government ought to take the lead but they will not. People will have to stop using credit like currency. "Living within ones means" is a good idea. The government gets their taxes even on credit purchases. If the debt goes bad, the government still has their cut. So, it seems good to the government to encourage credit spending. Indeed, I don't think they could get along with their current wasteful spending habits, without the 'buy on credit' tax money.

No, the government will not change. It is almost enough to turn one against education. Some of the most educated people in the world are running our country and they can do nothing but get us further into debt and let wars strip the economy. If you must buy something, pay for it. If you must go to war, win it and come home.

Afghanistan

Something bothers me about our efforts in Afghanistan. I have no problem with finishing the job. I do have a problem with our tax dollars going to a corrupt government. Their president does look rather prosperous for a country struggling with such a war. I do not know if he is a corrupt leader or not but if we knew it, why has he been getting our money for so long?

The real thing that bothers me, at least the one I was thinking about the last couple of weeks, is the news footage of the military units getting ambushed. They seem to always be on the lowest ground around with the enemy on the high ground. That is a violation of basic military strategy.
In every thing that I have read and in all the training while I was a member of the military, you are suppose to always take the high ground. Also, you do not trust your safety to the immediate camp but are to set up outpost so that you can see the enemy coming.

The way to protect the towns is not to make our military a target in the cities, that is where the Afgan folks can do the most good, but take the routes the enemy would use, i.e. the high ground. Anytime you go marching down a valley, you are inviting someone on the ridges and mountains around you to take up positions in a trap.

It looks good to have our military walking through the streets but that is false security. They need to be out on the trails stopping the supply routes.

Where did our generals go to school anyway? Or is it as I suppose, some civilian calling the shots?

My opinion.

Call it something Different, It is still war

Obama has apparently come to the realization that terrorist must be stopped. Right now the focus has shifted from Iraq toward Pakistan (Pokistan as he says). He calls it something like a shift in resources, Bush just said it plainly...invasion. I do not think we will make a ground assault on Pakistan unless they ask for help. I cannot help but wonder about two countries that have been fighting for decades over a small piece of land called Kashmir. Maybe I spelled that right.

The very issues that won Obama the office now face him and like Mister Bush, he must confront those issues. He is good at calling an apple an orange but they are still fruit nevertheless.

He can lay blame whereeer he pleases and most people will accept it as fact but a review of the last 15 years will show where the blame lies.

I still believe that the inaction of Congress during the last year of Mister Bush's term caused the meltdown of the financial market. They stopped all he tried to do to make him look bad. Check it out.

So, even if one plays the name game and the blame game, the issues are the same and the reactions are the same in some form or another. Mister Obama has a hard job. Reality is his main course now.

America doesn't read anymore (much) but I think the history books (honest ones) will show Mister Bush in a different light than what is said now by many. I also think the blame will be (or should be) laid at the right door if there remains any integrity at all.

Their Little Trick

The way to get something over on the American people is to give it a name and keep calling that name over and over. It is like having a pretty basket. (Is it ok for men to say pretty?) You really like the design and the ease of handling but there is no telling what gets put in the basket. Such is the so-called stimulus gizmo. It all started out as a way to give the banks a lift so they could give the people a lift and get the economy going again. Now it is just another basket for our federal government and the new administration, to stuff their programs in. The basket has gotten so heavy it will take generations to move it from one place to another.

It is the same way they wrap other things like war. They put that in the patriotic basket whether the war is necessary or the right way to solve a particular problem. Of course, we will support the troops once they are in harms way but that does not make a particular war the correct way to handle a particular situation. Our problem with war is that we are excellent at getting into one but we are clueless on how to give the country back and get out. We do not have a rapid response program regardless of our fast moving aircraft and ships. We need to learn how to get out when the time comes.

I am not against standing up for ourselves. I am against being tricked into thinking something is this when in reality it is that.

Government