Time To Think American....."it's the economy stupid"

After the shocking news this week of the assassination of Prime Minister Bhutto, it was interesting to listen to television, and newspaper pundits try to make news and change the focus of the 2008 election in this country to international events once again with the old standby of al-Quaeda, nuclear disaster, Muslim extremists, terrorism or anything aimed at taking our eyes off the real focus here, our daily lives. Not hard to do as Americans daily are faced with working longer hours for less, often working more then one job, and in married/cohabitating households both adults working trying to make ends meet while sinking further into debt.

So the news media reacts spreading fears of this disaster and basically an end of life scenario for us all. Just what we needed, and of course just what we are susceptible to......more fear. With families finding themselves facing increasing debt, not because of luxury items mind you, but for just simple items such as food, clothing, shelter, and basic health care, many Americans have mortgaged their retirement, college education funds and homes to meet today's expenses for who knows what tomorrow will bring, but if the past 30 years are any indicator, it's not a pretty picture.

In a not so recent piece (2001) JustPeace a catholic organization published an article on the decline of the middle class, that solid group that for so long has been this country's center piece for success. Citing comparisons between the 1970's and the turn to the 21st century, we see no real growth in income despite the introduction of women into the workforce, and in fact a rather noticeable decline in living standards. Of note during 2007 has been the sub prime mortgage crisis, as well as just an increase in credit debt and general defaulting on mortgage payments for a majority of us. However, for the upper five percent of the income market the opposite is true as evidenced in an article in USAToday published 12/28/2007. The writers look at Naples Florida and the income disparity in that area that keep the average citizen who makes up the infrastructure such as policemen, fire fighters teachers and nurses from living in the community they they serve. In the words of one high end real estate broker there, "Bill Earls, a real estate broker who lives in Port Royal, knows the area needs affordable housing but says, "In the real high-end part of Naples, we don't want to see those 10,000 rooftops going in. We don't want to see our streets clogged. ... I don't want to see the Chevy Spectrums and Ford Focuses on our highways. I know we need them, but there's got to be a balance". Another real estate broker notes; "We've had probably one of the strongest high-end runs we've ever had," says Stephen Shapiro of the Westside Estate Agency in Beverly Hills. He laments that there aren't enough homes over $7.5 million for sale. "There's a dramatic lack of inventory being chased by a lot of people with money."

To further highlight the problem in 2005 the Providence Journal published a revealing article about CEO pay on steroids that makes the recent baseball steroid scandal pale in comparison. This though according to the MSM is not a problem. Possible threats from al-Queada and the middle east should be a prime concern. To further ensure we remain on the edge of our seats biting our nails in fear and anxiety, there has been a complete cut off of outside reporting of the views of the rest of the world, though we will be told we should worry about the possibilities that the rest of the world might possibly seek to undermine us. So go the politics of fear.

Americans today are working harder, and longer, faced with mounting debt and lack of health care. Forget the fact that jobs are being exported to other countries, hell companies that were once U.S. employers are moving to other countries, including those companies who are extensively involved in profiteering from taxpayer funding of increased national security interests. Increasingly, government agencies are going to contractors to fulfill their functions because they are unable to retrain and recruit workers to complete their agency's mission i.e. the CIA. Buck Naked Politics on December 18, 2007 published an excellent article on the expense of outsourcing government services to contractors, with multiple links to follow up stories.

Bottom line the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the middle class vanishes faster then a magic coin in a magician's stage show. Salient points to ask our representatives are overlooked or ignored such as how can a company that employs a large overseas work force enjoy the competitive tax breaks that employs U.S. workers? How is it justified that companies that ensure such lavish golden parachute benefits for failed executives who want more and more expensive amenities outside their salaries (i.e. company private jets, country club memberships, etc) be shielded from paying workers retirement benefits that that the workers themselves contributed to from their pay? Yes folks there is plenty to fear, but compared to the struggles for daily living, bin-Laden is far down on the scale.

Al Gore pointed out the the end result of the public's inability to think straight due to the politics of fear in his book Assault on Reason. Basically it boils down to an overwhelming build up of fear in the mind of the listener which is an emotion, and hence, results in an emotional response such as fight or flight. This leaves no room for thought. Despite the many political postings I have done here, most if not all have been aimed at educating and protecting the average American. We are headed for a financial crisis very soon or so the pundits tell us. Let me ask you this then. The monthly cost of the war in Iraq is roughly ten billion dollars. If we disengaged and offered the average American citizen say their equal share of the wars expenses for say two to three months would not that solve a great deal of this country's economic woes? Hell be nice include the rich in that dividend and everyone is happy. If we re-employed civil servants giving them their health care and retirement instead of more expensive contractors who though they pay their workers higher salaries without benefits such as health care, couldn't we then justify tax cuts without increasing the national debt?

These are simple questions with simple answers. I cannot understand the justification of American GI's handing out lump sums of money to Iraqi home owners and shop keepers to help them open stores or fix broken windows while the average noncom can't afford that for his own family? For all those who want to tell the world how to live yet would ignore their neighbor in need I would respond that it is time we think America and American values while demanding our leaders return those provisions to daily governance. For as politicians spend more dollars overseas, our national debt rises and the value of the dollar decreases to the point that many in the world want to change international financial values away from a once stable dollar to a more secure euro further decreasing our standard of living and so called "place in the world". Yes you idiots out there, it's the economy stupid and right now we are headed from world example to world's largest third world economy.

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