Acts Chapter 2 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, (New International Version Bible)
The above is a prime example of a concept espoused by two very different groups that exist on opposite ends of the political universe. Most religious groups believe communism to be inherently evil while many proponents of communism find the religious community to be foolish magical thinkers. It amuses me to contemplate the disdain these groups have for one another despite this common ideological concept. Political divisions in this country continually pit Americans against one another. Meanwhile, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the powerful gain more power, and the powerless have even less. These political divisions serve big business, big politics, and big government while continuing to bleed the average citizen of their labor, liberty, and even their lives. These divisions are created by a combination of rhetoric, fear, ignorance, and misinformation just to name a few. I myself have been a victim of divisive politics in the past, but no more. My mission is to seek out candidates who are willing to set aside partisan rhetoric, and work for the common good of all by introducing legislation that benefits the average American; additionally, we as a society must change some of our thinking and values while making a few sacrifices.
There are many problems in this country that, if resolved, would go a long way toward making everyone's lives better. Two of the biggest, in my opinion, are corporate and personal greed (which are more closely intertwined than many realize) and entitlement. I am sure that both conservatives and liberals alike are bristling about now. The sacred cows of social programs and free market capitalism are close to the heart of their proponents. The truth of the matter is that both need some tweaking to make the average person's life better. So let's examine greed first. Voltaire said, "The perfect is the enemy of the good. "
To paraphrase this in financial context, you could say that more is the enemy of enough. Nowhere is this more evident than in today's free market economies. The current Occupy Movements site "Corporate Greed" as an object of their protest, but does corporate greed exist? A corporation by definition is a legal entity formed by people that insulates it's members from personal liability. The truth is that personal greed is always the catalyst for "corporate greed." The corporation simply decreases the risk while allowing gain. The next question is, who are these greedy individuals enslaving America's working class? The answer is likely found in your mirror. If you own a 401k, 403B, IRA, Annuity, or any other form of retirement savings, then you are part of Corporate America. Who among us is not always looking for the best return? Maybe you are saying, "well, it's the wall street stock brokers who are so greedy." Guess what, they work for you. Those guys earn money by making you money. The demand by stockholders, ie. 401k, IRA types, for higher returns drives corporations to increase profit margins. I posit that the problem is not corporate greed, but the average American's refusal to be satisfied with enough. This can also be seen in American workers constant demand for higher wages. We have made decreasing cost a necessity for our industries and corporations. The primary cost in almost every industry is labor. Our drive for more has caused our companies to move work overseas to cut cost and increase profit margins. Our economy's wounds are self inflicted. The vicious circle of consumerism has nearly killed what was once the world's most powerful economy. How? It starts with the American Dream. The dream in the contemporary sense is owning lots of stuff. The only way we can afford more stuff is buy either earning more, or using credit. The latter always leads to a need for more earnings. These increased earnings drive up labor cost for employers making increasing profit margins, which we demand, more challenging. At first, most employers attempt to cut cost by finding more competitively priced resources such as office supplies, equipment, and raw materials. One guess where all that comes from? Products made overseas. This adds to the sense that the economy is in trouble as U.S. companies either fold or move their operations overseas in order to compete. This almost always ends up being a band aid on an arterial bleed. In the end, cutting labor cost is the most effective way of cutting cost. Another aspect of this cycle is marketing practices used by corporations to encourage us to buy more, thus increasing sales and profits. The problem is that those buying all the stuff are also the employees who in turn demand more income to pay for the stuff they are being unwittingly coerced into buying. This cycle is not sustainable as evidenced by the current financial climate in the free market world. Something has to give if the American economy is to survive. We as a people must be satisfied with enough. Now that I have ticked the conservatives off it's on to the liberals!
Is healthcare a social program? If Life is a right guaranteed
by the U.S. Constitution, then healthcare has to be considered a part of that. Healthcare is, in my opinion, a right mandated by the Constitution.
So the multi-trillion dollar questions are: What are the root causes of dependence on social programs, and how do we fix them?
I think we can all agree that the key to escaping your current lot in life is education. There is no one thing that our government does that is more important than education. We must return to funding our educational institutions as if our future depends on it, because it does! Funding by itself is not the complete answer. We must also reform the way we educate. I am sick of my kids being taught to a standardized test. I want our schools to teach our kids to think. My wife and I do this at home, but not all parents do. If you are wondering why they are being taught to a test, I will tell you. The current system provides extra funding based on performance on standardized test. The intention was to improve our schools. Of course the government can not do anything without statistical data, so the standardized test became the vehicle for proving statistically that education is improving. The problem is that despite increased funding, American students continue to lag behind their peers in other developed countries; in fact, the gap continues to grow. The next question is why do our kids continue to fall farther behind? The answer I believe is multifaceted. In the effort to increase funding we created part of the problem. As I said before, the government, faced with demands for accountability with education funds, decided the standardized test would be the vehicle for measuring success. This approach allowed for politicians to point to readily available statistical data to prove how successful the program was. The data was used to distribute educational funds based on test scores. The schools, already underfunded, could not justify turning these funds down, so they were forced to join the program. Where our educators failed us was by not recognizing that teaching to a standardized test was decreasing the quality of our children's education. Sure, many scores came up on these standardized test; however, our students performance levels continue to decrease in relation to their international peers. The answer I believe is to increase funding at every level of government for education while encouraging our teachers to teach our kids how to think. The ability to find information and apply it properly is vastly more important than wrote memorization. I think making all test open book test with open ended questions requiring the student to extrapolate meaning from the text and apply it to formulate an answer would greatly improve student's ability to think. There will be no data or statistics on this effort for 10-15 years, but I guarantee you that we will catch back up with the world. As far as funding goes, we must simply give our educators what they need to get the job done. This applies to all levels of our educational system. If that means that Tunisia has to take a cut in foreign aid, or we don't have as many bike lanes, then so be it. Education is the key to greatly reducing dependence on social programs.
It is time for us all to come together and do what is best for America as a whole. Being satisfied with enough and funding education is a start. We have dug ourselves a hole so deep that we are unable to escape it as individuals, but collectively we can pull together and rescue America from certain doom. This will take sacrifice and concessions by all, but in the end, we all win. Time to let the Dems and Repubs know that the party is over. This is the people's time!!!
There are many problems in this country that, if resolved, would go a long way toward making everyone's lives better. Two of the biggest, in my opinion, are corporate and personal greed (which are more closely intertwined than many realize) and entitlement. I am sure that both conservatives and liberals alike are bristling about now. The sacred cows of social programs and free market capitalism are close to the heart of their proponents. The truth of the matter is that both need some tweaking to make the average person's life better. So let's examine greed first. Voltaire said, "The perfect is the enemy of the good. "
To paraphrase this in financial context, you could say that more is the enemy of enough. Nowhere is this more evident than in today's free market economies. The current Occupy Movements site "Corporate Greed" as an object of their protest, but does corporate greed exist? A corporation by definition is a legal entity formed by people that insulates it's members from personal liability. The truth is that personal greed is always the catalyst for "corporate greed." The corporation simply decreases the risk while allowing gain. The next question is, who are these greedy individuals enslaving America's working class? The answer is likely found in your mirror. If you own a 401k, 403B, IRA, Annuity, or any other form of retirement savings, then you are part of Corporate America. Who among us is not always looking for the best return? Maybe you are saying, "well, it's the wall street stock brokers who are so greedy." Guess what, they work for you. Those guys earn money by making you money. The demand by stockholders, ie. 401k, IRA types, for higher returns drives corporations to increase profit margins. I posit that the problem is not corporate greed, but the average American's refusal to be satisfied with enough. This can also be seen in American workers constant demand for higher wages. We have made decreasing cost a necessity for our industries and corporations. The primary cost in almost every industry is labor. Our drive for more has caused our companies to move work overseas to cut cost and increase profit margins. Our economy's wounds are self inflicted. The vicious circle of consumerism has nearly killed what was once the world's most powerful economy. How? It starts with the American Dream. The dream in the contemporary sense is owning lots of stuff. The only way we can afford more stuff is buy either earning more, or using credit. The latter always leads to a need for more earnings. These increased earnings drive up labor cost for employers making increasing profit margins, which we demand, more challenging. At first, most employers attempt to cut cost by finding more competitively priced resources such as office supplies, equipment, and raw materials. One guess where all that comes from? Products made overseas. This adds to the sense that the economy is in trouble as U.S. companies either fold or move their operations overseas in order to compete. This almost always ends up being a band aid on an arterial bleed. In the end, cutting labor cost is the most effective way of cutting cost. Another aspect of this cycle is marketing practices used by corporations to encourage us to buy more, thus increasing sales and profits. The problem is that those buying all the stuff are also the employees who in turn demand more income to pay for the stuff they are being unwittingly coerced into buying. This cycle is not sustainable as evidenced by the current financial climate in the free market world. Something has to give if the American economy is to survive. We as a people must be satisfied with enough. Now that I have ticked the conservatives off it's on to the liberals!
Is healthcare a social program? If Life is a right guaranteed
by the U.S. Constitution, then healthcare has to be considered a part of that. Healthcare is, in my opinion, a right mandated by the Constitution.
So the multi-trillion dollar questions are: What are the root causes of dependence on social programs, and how do we fix them?
I think we can all agree that the key to escaping your current lot in life is education. There is no one thing that our government does that is more important than education. We must return to funding our educational institutions as if our future depends on it, because it does! Funding by itself is not the complete answer. We must also reform the way we educate. I am sick of my kids being taught to a standardized test. I want our schools to teach our kids to think. My wife and I do this at home, but not all parents do. If you are wondering why they are being taught to a test, I will tell you. The current system provides extra funding based on performance on standardized test. The intention was to improve our schools. Of course the government can not do anything without statistical data, so the standardized test became the vehicle for proving statistically that education is improving. The problem is that despite increased funding, American students continue to lag behind their peers in other developed countries; in fact, the gap continues to grow. The next question is why do our kids continue to fall farther behind? The answer I believe is multifaceted. In the effort to increase funding we created part of the problem. As I said before, the government, faced with demands for accountability with education funds, decided the standardized test would be the vehicle for measuring success. This approach allowed for politicians to point to readily available statistical data to prove how successful the program was. The data was used to distribute educational funds based on test scores. The schools, already underfunded, could not justify turning these funds down, so they were forced to join the program. Where our educators failed us was by not recognizing that teaching to a standardized test was decreasing the quality of our children's education. Sure, many scores came up on these standardized test; however, our students performance levels continue to decrease in relation to their international peers. The answer I believe is to increase funding at every level of government for education while encouraging our teachers to teach our kids how to think. The ability to find information and apply it properly is vastly more important than wrote memorization. I think making all test open book test with open ended questions requiring the student to extrapolate meaning from the text and apply it to formulate an answer would greatly improve student's ability to think. There will be no data or statistics on this effort for 10-15 years, but I guarantee you that we will catch back up with the world. As far as funding goes, we must simply give our educators what they need to get the job done. This applies to all levels of our educational system. If that means that Tunisia has to take a cut in foreign aid, or we don't have as many bike lanes, then so be it. Education is the key to greatly reducing dependence on social programs.
It is time for us all to come together and do what is best for America as a whole. Being satisfied with enough and funding education is a start. We have dug ourselves a hole so deep that we are unable to escape it as individuals, but collectively we can pull together and rescue America from certain doom. This will take sacrifice and concessions by all, but in the end, we all win. Time to let the Dems and Repubs know that the party is over. This is the people's time!!!
Please feel free to post any comments and ideas. I believe this must be a collective effort if we are to succeed. I am a great believer in free speech; however, comments laced wit profanity and mean spirited comments will be deleted. I love constructive criticism, new ideas, and tweaking of my own ideas. Thanks for following!
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