Archive for October, 2011

The World Is A Mess

Monday, October 17th, 2011

OK that is no surprise to anyone paying attention. The financial world is all messed up and in a screwy twist of fate the rich are doing fine and it is the poor and middle class who are in trouble. Schools are getting cut back just at a time when we need more and better educated population. And there is this whole health care situation which could be a lot better.  Oh and the government budgets are out of whack as well.

The financial mess is almost completely the fault of the big banks and investment companies. Oh sure they want to blame people who took out loans that they couldn’t really afford but honestly the banks should have known better. The people who took out those loans didn’t really understand what they were doing and in many cases were deliberately deceived. The derivative mess was a shell game to make bad loans look good and profit by moving money around without creating anything of real value. It pretty much had to fail based as it was on risky loans. And the people who made billions in the process either did know this or should have known this. It is outrageous that many of these same people were paid big money to stay and “fix” things afterwards.

Many parts of the country are trying to balance their budgets by cutting back on essential services. This is especially true in education. This is akin to eating the seed corn. In other words we are setting ourselves up for a major step backwards. If anything we should be spending more on education to make sure that we are preparing students for jobs of the future. Instead we are doing all we can to make sure they are prepared for manual labor and other jobs that do not move the country forward economically. What idiots think this is a good thing? Well apparently many governors and state legislatures. What’s wrong with them?

Healthcare? We pay more and get less than many other countries. Oh sure it is all fine and dandy if you are rich or have a really good insurance plan. But many are not rich, do not have any health insurance or have such high deductibles that they can’t see a doctor until things get really bad. Oh and did I mention that healthcare costs are making life difficult for many companies? It seems to me that some sort of government healthcare like they have in many other companies would be a good thing. And not just for individuals but for companies. If there was a national health insurance and companies didn’t have to pay for it themselves they’d be better off. Even if they had to pay more in taxes it would likely be less than their current healthcare costs. Even if it didn’t work out that way in outlay of money it would probably make for a healthier work force. If anything companies should be pushing for universal healthcare.

Back to government budgets. Sometimes you have to stop cutting spending. What if you and I had to cut out food spending, That would be too much after a while. What would be do? Try to increase income. At one point my wife and I had 5 jobs between us to make ends meet. Yes it took more time and energy but putting food on the table and educating our son was a priority. And yes we worked extra jobs to pay for a good education because that was the right thing to do. Cutting education when it was possible, though not always easy, to raise income was a good investment. We don’t regret it for a moment.

Government could raise taxes on the very rich. The rich can afford it. It is not what they would lose that you have to think about but what they would have left and they would still have plenty. Oh we hear “but the rich need that money to invest and create new jobs!” Heck of a theory. The problem is that they are not creating new jobs. They are waiting for someone else to fix the problems that they themselves have the resources to fix but refuse to do. The rich caused this economic mess we are in and they should be asked to pay some of the cost to fix it.

These are all old fashioned and dare I say it “Christian” values. Take care of the hungry, the sick and the poor. Educate everyone as an equal. Ask those who have been blessed with much to help those who have less. We could do it but for some reason those in power don’t want to. It makes me sad and I feel frustrated. This is my scream in the dark.