We are a nation of “get rich schemes” from books to videos to infomercials.
We can buy books on how to start your own home business making Widgets or on how to get money from the government “that’s just sitting there waiting for you!”
We can take expensive courses from the likes of Donald Trump, hoping to learn how to make it in the Real Estate business but to learn the secrets you have to come back next week at the cost of $150 only to find out you have to keep coming back over and over again.
We are a nation that lacks innovation and invention, well unless you tune into the newest reality TV series that lets you hock that “continuous toilet paper dispenser with fresh Spring scent” that you’ve been trying to gorilla glue together in your basement.
Without innovation or invention, we stand still and become complacent with what’s around us. Without innovation or invention, revenue and consumption does not roll to create jobs.
Innovation and invention pushed the US from the turn of the 1900’s through the 1960’s only to trickle out in the 70’s to today. The conviction by people named Mellon, Carnegie, Ford, Kennedy and Tucker pushed the US to further their innovation and invention and now we are stuck with Vince the “Shaw-Wow!” guy and other hucksters.
The Obama stimulus missed the mark by about 50 years with innovation. Yes, we need repairs to our infrastructure that produced roads and railway in the 1950’s under Pres Eisenhower, but not the “shovel ready” type they bet on. No, the infrastructure repair that were needed had to do with our electric and cable system, call it “shift alt control ready.”
The innovation of creating a new efficient electrical grid and Wi-Fi system is needed. The revamping of our nations computer systems to help deter hackers and not compromise our nation to terrorist cyber attacks. Seriously, it’s rather scary that some bored 15 year old zit faced computer nerd can easily hack into our National Defense or Investigative Services such as the FBI and CIA. Makes me beleive Hollywood was right back in the 1980’s that a nerdy kid with a Commodore 64 could cause a nuclear war in the movie War Games!
Jobs could’ve been created easily for this, but instead, it was wasted on pothole patching and line painting. Yes, I know, many states need(ed) road and bridge repairs, but think about the electrical grid this summer when we hear stories of people dying in the Midwest due to blackouts in 100 degree temperatures because the grid is outdated and overloaded.
Oh, fear not Republicans, I have words for you as well. You too are of partial blame for this issue. How you ask? Well you are breaking your promise given last year in your “Pledge to America” that the economy is top priority and you have the Con-Opinionating Media to thank.
Republicans are lacking innovation as well this Congressional calendar. They continuously bring up facts from the 1980’s of Pres Reagan and 1990’s of Pres Clinton.
Living in the past of 15 to 30 years ago does not help America, that was then this is now.
Their claims of “shrinking government” is a façade, since a large majority of their legislation actually grows government and does help job growth nor does it help the consumer’s bank account.
Take for instance an article written last week by The Hill’s Gautham Nagesh.
Nagesh reports on Texas Republican Representative Joe Barton introduction of legislation to let only Internet Poker become legal in all 50 States.
So creating websites for Internet Poker is how Rep. Joe Barton wants to help the economy with job creation?!
But how will Internet Poker be monitored, I mean someone has got to regulate it to make sure they are being fair. Well Rep. Barton’s plan also involves the creation of a government regulatory commission to placed within the House Energy & Commerce Committee.
That’s right, Rep Barton’s plan to the economy and jobs outlook is to legalize internet poker and so you bet your $ away, as well as pay government employee wages and benefits, and Gramma’s Social Security check is not used for medications and heat.
A National Lottery system has a better chance of working, play twice a year, each ticket costing $20 (that’s what most play on a slot machine within the first 10 minutes anyway) and play as many times as you want. Let’s say the prize is either $250 million after taxes or maybe 5 tax free years.
Congress is better off creating a National Lottery system or put a giant roulette wheel on the Washington Monument. It might be more cost effective for taxpayers than anything that’s currently coming out of Washington.
There’s a reason why taxes were high under Pres. Eisenhower. We were on the cutting edge of innovation and invention with a growing country, industry pumping out new cars, televisions, radios, and building skyscrapers and housing.
Now we barely create Chia pets and doggie booties, while Congress and the President are betting the house on “Red 45”
Interesting post. I recently read an article on why the philosophy of libertarianism fails. At one point he says, "Conjure an ideal that makes an impossible demand on reality, then announce that, until the demand is met in full, your ideal can't be fairly evaluated. Attribute any incidental successes to the halfway meeting of the demand, any failure to the halfway still to go."
ReplyDeleteI guess my question is, do you have any prescriptive ideas for the problem? Is it to focus more on entrepreneurial studies in higher education?
the definition of Libertarianism has changed many times over since its conception. Many of those that belief in it can be linked to the likes of Ayn Rand & Murray Rothbard's idea of Anarcho-Capitalism, for they go hand and hand..
ReplyDeleteToday's Libertarianism in government are watered down and as you stated only go halfway in their venture. they believe in a smaller government and feel the community can better serve itself.
By strangling government you actually strangle the community as well. It's like building a damn next to a waterway. The communities that feed off the waterway eventually die away due to lack of water.
Eventually government dwindles and the next step happens, Anarchy, which is the Left equal to Libertarianism
You mentioned higher education and this is where the dwindling begins.
To say a teachers like Mr Keats (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society are missing is an understatement. It's not that those teachers are lazy since the Media's portayal that teachers are making $80k yearly average (simply not true), but it's because many are simply strangled by ciriculum that the boards set up to be taught.
Many teachers are Ben Stein, monotone in voice and just being a drone with words. They teach from the book, yet as we find in our history books, many are incorrect.
Many say Art Classes should be cut, but it's those type of classes that help stretch the child's mind. It's not just cut & paste, but other study such as photography, tech drawing, even graphic art.
All the computer and gaming Americans love to sit in front of is b/c of Art and Math. One government is trying to cut and the other American students are failing.
Due away with No Child Left Behind, free up the teachers to teach beyond the book and ciriculum. This is not a LIBERAL agenda as many may think, it's pushing the envelope of the child's mind.
Out in that classroom, might be the next Saulk of Medicine or Yeager of flight or Wright of Architecture, not the drone and lack of passion seen today dreaming of doing nothing
So, in a lot of words, you have stated that the primary problem and correlative fix to the problem is in education, correct?
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, you state that if local communities are to damn up the streams of national control/supply, that the community would die off from ?lack of access? Might the illusion of a single stream of life giving water pacify communities from seeking additional, possibly even more sustainable, equitable, and flourishing sources?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, education is not the end all answer, it's merely the starting point. Education can come in many forms, whether its a classroom in public/private school or sunday school.
ReplyDeleteThe home is another place to broaden the child's mind, not just plop them in front of a tv or let them play video games. There's little imagination to watching a show, but give the child a book and their brain ignites.
Today's society has become dependent upon federal government way too much. As time goes by and communitoes grow, they need more. When we read about times of the past, when communites were small, they depended upon each other. Now, communities are dependent upon higher forms of government for assistance. Like a druggie, communites got more and more from the government and when the government decides to scale back, the community begs for more.
ReplyDeleteLook at Texas. Gov Rick Perry for his entire term has used Fed Gov $ to keep the state budget balanced. How? a lot thru federal disaster money, he would put that $ into the state account and balance the books. This year, Texas has a huge deficit to correct, why? Just like many other states, they are recieving less federal $.
Gov Perry has cried that Pres "O" is giving less disaster raid to Texas then Missouri as punishment for being against Pres O. Yet, Texas has rec'v plenty of $, it's the fact that Fed Gov is actually making them do the paper work to clarify the $ requested, unlike in the past when the Fed just handed it without regard.
It also seems like your thinking of a Fair Tax lifestyle, where all pay equal. That is true to some respect, yet, even though each pay equal in tax, it hurts more from the smaller checkbook then the larger. 30% fair tax on each item hurts someone who makes $35k yearly then that of someone making $100k. The smaller consumer will buy less or bargain more and since we live in a consumption nation, revenue will fall