I agree, but there is nothing I can do to change it.

[dnalexander]

On this forum there are many topics that we discuss. Racism, patriotism, education, terrorism, political candidates, energy\food prices, conservation, unfair treatment of the average working class,  excessive corporate profits\ control of the country, and a myriad of other causes. But to play the devil's advocate I ask what are you really doing to solve the problems? Not much are you? I know we are all caught up in the daily struggle that is our life. I am certainly no better than anyone else. Yes we are the best county in the world and people flock to us to live in our freedom and wealth. Does that mean we can't improve? I don't think so; when you are the best you need to fight to stay on top. We talk a good game but could you do better? As of now it looks like we won't solve these problems until it comes to bite us in the backside. Below are some topics and statements for your consideration. I hope the pessimistic tone of this post won't keep you from doing what you can do to make the necessary changes happen sooner rather than later.

The trade deficit is hurting our economy and dragging us down. Then stop buying cheap stuff made in China and buy local and support your American economy. Support your local farmer\shopkeeper so that you have a job. There is a big price to pay for our quest for the cheapest product that comes from China or a mega farm.

Don't use so much energy and conserve. $5.00 a gallon gas is cheap compared to the rest of the world. Why do you need two cars. Support alternative energy, but realize we can only get there by using our current gas, oil, coal resources to produce these new sources. We have to start now before it is to late and we have no energy to switch over. Realize there is a great chance that you are the oil speculator that you are complaining about.

Education and creativity is our best asset. Fight for education of everyone and support our creativity to find the solution. We are no longer able to compete in manufacturing and technology. China and India through sheer size and determination are beating us in that arena. We can not stick to our old resources we need to do what we do best and create the new economy that will keep us at the top of the global economy.

Embrace our diversity of cultures and peoples and expand your universe for what we have in common not what our different values and religions are.

Stop complaining and work on the changes that you can even though you can't tackle all of our problems. Do what you can to help and then do just a little more.

Participate even though the enormous task makes you want to hole up and only think about yourself.

I hope these words make you think and know that we can solve these problems

Tell us what can  we do to solve our problems. If you can't then I think we are headed for a societal failure that will make us all wish we had done something sooner.
O.K. I am off my pessimistic, devil's advocate soapbox. What do you say?
David

[Warph]

Good post, David.... and gee, looks like I get to go first.  I'll try and keep this serious.  TERRORISM!  Here is how America could solve her terrorism problem the easy way:

1.  Stop sacrificing American soldiers to bring "freedom" to savages in Iraq.  Pull our soldiers out of that hell hole. ( Iraq is not and never was the main source of terrorism against America.  Iran and Saudi Arabia are.)

2.  Declare war on Iran.

3.  Obliterate, from high altitude and long distance, all known Iranian military assets, all Iranian government buildings, all Iranian mosques and madrassahs, and the residences of all Iranian leaders, imams, clerics, and government officials.  Hit these targets when they are most likely to be occupied (e.g., mosques during the day and residences at night).  Do not send soldiers in on foot, except as necessary to identify targets or gather intelligence.  We do not need to send soldiers in on foot to fight, and it would be immoral to do so.  We have many big missiles, fast planes, and good bombs, and we should use these liberally while building bigger, faster, and better ones.  Truth be told, our military might is second to none!   

4.  Airdrop leaflets across the Middle East explaining: "From now on, this is how America will respond to any and all threats to her citizens or allies.  We look forward to the time when you decide to civilize yourselves, stop taking religion sooooo seriously, renounce the initiation of physical force, recognize the principle of individual rights, establish rule of law, and join the free world. Until then, we will be watching you from way up in the sky—higher even than Allah, by means of technology He cannot fathom—and if we see anything that we so much as feel might conceivably pose even a remote threat either to America or to our allies, we will annihilate it and everything in its proximity without further warning."

5.  Notify the regime in Saudi Arabia that it got lucky and has the option of not being obliterated; that we are prepared instead to seize "its" oil fields and sell them to private industry, in part to pay for the campaign against Iran, and in part to return the fields to private industry where they belong; that it has 24 hours to turn the fields over to our agents; and that if it fails to comply or ignites the fields or does anything to thwart our program, its leaders, like those of Iran, will meet Allah sooner than later.

6.  Terrorism?  Problem solved!


If we took these (or similar) measures, our terrorism problem would be solved.  Sure, there would still be a few isolated instances of terrorism here and there in months and years to come; this much is inevitable given how long we have permitted the Islamists to plan and plot and establish cells.  But, so long as we follow through as indicated above and immediately destroy anything that we think looks even remotely threatening, state sponsorship of terrorism against America would be over; the major threat to our lives would be gone.

Of course, we will not take such measures any time soon.  Altruism will not let us.  We will not take such measures until there is widespread understanding of the moral rightness of doing so—that is, until a substantial number of Americans understand that self-interest is moral and self-sacrifice is evil—and we are a long way from that.  But such measures are morally correct—they are what we should do—and everyone who understands that they are should say so loudly and clearly.  By placing such actions on the table for discussion, we create an opportunity to explain why they are morally correct—and that is what Americans (and westerners in general) most desperately need to learn.  Jefferson, Adams, Washington... this is what our founding fathers fought for.  A free America.  A safe America!

[sixdogsmom]

Warph, I believe that is how Barry Goldwater lost the presidency. He scared the heck out of the American people wanting to bomb this and bomb that. This after we had loosed the atomic bomb on the world. I do agree with you in that we need to get out of Iraq's business as we could never win that, and have never won a war in which we went in to settle what was essentially a local feud.

I agree with you David in that we can control imports to a certain extent, however I do not think you understand the circumstances of the this local economy. We do not as a rule buy anything new, most wearing apparal comes from yard sales or thrift shops. This as well as household things. I am not complaining, but in the past year I have bought one pair of capri pants, (made in USA), and one pair of summer shoes (made in China) new. Anything else was new to me and I don't mind. It;s fun to go mining for goodies at the sales. I also sell on Ebay and have clientel all over the world. Business right now is really bad, the worst it has ever been, so I know that people are hurting all over. My sales have shrunk to nearly all overseas because of the shrinking dollar value. And yes, I pay taxes on what I sell.

Most people here are retired with very limited resources, and when John McCain speaks of ending Social Security raises that are tied into inflation, well I panic. We have to watch our pennies as it is, most of our resources go to health expenditures as hubby is a heart transplant patient. Health insurance takes a large bite of our money and travel to get to the doctor takes a lot more, as his case is managed in Kansas City. As you know, T.Boone Pickins has just made an announcement about pushing for wind energy (a good thing), switching to electric for heating as well as cooling for the U.S. And using natural gas for transportation. This all sounds like a good thing, but I wonder how the speculation is going in the natural gas market, and how much richer the oil companies are going to get? We just cannot afford taking a big hit for heat this winter. We already watch those thermostats like a hawk, and used our stimulus package moneys to button up the house even more. I don't know what the object of those announcements was except to drive the price of natural gas upward?

This sounds like a whine session which I guess it is. The trade deficit could be resolved by not allowing these goods to enter the country cheaply. When it becomes less expensive to make it here and sell it here, then jobs will come home. We need some really good economists in the cabinet of the new presidency

[Catwoman]

I agree with the three of you, with this one caveat...it is the interdependence economically of the worlds' populations that has kept it from sliding off into another global war.  Some say to quit buying items from other countries...yet it is those very items that have allowed our working poor to have a decent standard of living compared to past generations.  The idea of alternative energies is a huge piece in our effort to become less dependent on foreign oil...yet no one as far as I know currently, beyond Gov. Arnold out in CA, has made any move to try to put an infrastructure in place that would support the use of hydrogen fuel, whose only waste by-product is water.  Ethanol will never be viable because of the undue strain that it puts on the world food stocks and corresponding economies.  And, as far as terrorism is concerned, we will never 'win the war'.  The fanatics will always be there, stirring the pot in order to keep their own agendas alive.  Personally, from everything I've read, the only thing that will drive them back and keep them back is the knowledge that we have a bigger stick and are willing to use it (ala Warph  )...but then, we have to actually be willing to use it...which I honestly don't see happening.  We, as a nation, put a higher value on life than the fanatics do. We try to protect civilian life...whereas the fanatics don't care who gets killed, as long as there is as large an amount of damage as is possible.  So...no, there's nothing the common man can do, except try to live as sensibly as is possible and try to do the least amount of damage that is possible. SDM, yes, this might be a 'whine session' but this is generally how people start to solve problems...people start communicating and strategies hopefully come from what I like to call BMW sessions (b----, moan and whine).  I think that if more upper mucky-mucks listened to these types of sessions they'd actually have a partial picture of the truth.   

[dnalexander]

Definitely a whine session no doubt about it. My main point is we must all do what we can depending on our circumstances. I have lived in cities both big and small and realize the differences in the economy. Midwest economy is hurt by the decline in farm jobs and manufacturing jobs moving to other areas. The West Coast economy was hurt by all of our high tech moving to India. Yes we benefit by the lower prices, but when we have no economy and can't get a job to pay for even things at Walmart;  we will wish that maybe we didn't outsource everything to the rest of the world. These problems are not limited they are happening all over the US. What I am asking is for everyone to think about and do what they can and then do a little more before we are forced into a failed economy that will make the Depression look mild. I look forward to hearing more of what you all think can be done and even more to hear what you are doing.

David

[dnalexander]

Warph that is what I call the "Field of Glass Theory." It might solve some of our Middle East problems but we would probably end up turning our planet into Mars.

David

[Catwoman]

I agree with you, David...because I don't see any nuclear war being started by a major player...it will probably be some third world minor player with a nut at the helm who pushes the button first.