Getting Happy with the Future

America has finally obtained what so many of us has wished and hoped for, the success of countries all over the world. It’s not just European nations that have become prosperous. Even China and India have become nations with growing middle class societies that can afford homes, cars, and wide screen television. China has been documented on television in the United States about its growing middle and upper classes. Fareed Zakaria reports in Newsweek that China “will spend $200 billion on railways in the next two years, much of it for high-speed rail”. The Los Angeles Times reported on October 21, 2009 that China’s growth is at 8.9% thanks to their stimulus and lending programs. BusinessWeek reported on the growing middle class in Turkey.

The bad news is that their prosperity impacts our prosperity. Why? If those other nations prosper they will compete with the United States for the sales of many of the products we export to the rest of the world. Most other nations have lower labor costs than the United States and that affects our competitiveness.

For the United States to continue its economic dominance will require at least two occurrences.

First there will have to be a new advance in part of our economy that will be a show stopper. It will need the next new thing. It will be something that everyone realizes is a “must have.” The federal government is trying to motivate this idea with talk of the new “green” environment and the possible development of new energy sources.

Second, the cost to produce this something new will be accomplished in the United States at a competitive rate with the rest of the world. That evolution is already happening with the lower trade value of the American dollar. Americans may not like this outcome because the cost of oil, cars, televisions, and cameras will be higher. The cost of traveling to another country will be higher.

Just as buggy whips and newspapers are part of the past, new ideas are part of the future. Our inventiveness will make Americans happy with the future.

The President’s Vision

President Obama has already made history by being the first non-White to be elected to the presidency. That was a significant accomplishment. However, it is not enough for our new president. He wants to make significant changes to our relationship with the rest of the world and wants to re-make parts of the American economy. The changes he wants to accomplish are dramatic. Given his lack of experience, his objectives seem unrealistic. After all many Democrats as well as most Republicans hold historical views that are contrary to his ideas.

Obama’s allies are operatives who seem to see everything through a political spectrum. Those associates are driven by political motivation. They understand that their best opportunities to change America and its relationship to the world must be accomplished in the earliest part of the Obama presidency. That is the reason for the hard push for health care reform and the very aggressive foreign policy. It is not clear that his closest supporters even understand his vision.

I am not saying that his ideas are wrong. They are just views that do not conform to historic philosophy. It appears he may be correct in his views of the 21^st century.

In foreign affairs Obama wants the United States to step down from its position of supremacy. His calls for greater participation of other countries in resolving international issues is a view that was actually started by President George W. Bush. There is a good reason for this change of philosophy. This country currently has 300,000 soldiers in 150 countries and 820 bases in 39 countries. The U.S. military budget is approximately $500 billion. Starting with George Washington there has been an idea that the country would be better off with limited foreign entanglements.

In domestic affairs Obama wants to involve the federal government in more of the things that impact most citizens. Reform of health care is just the first step of his agenda. He wants the federal government to become more involved in the educational systems and the industrial system of our nation. I believe his objective is U.S.A. Incorporated. He sees this as the avenue to competition in a global economy. His list of books to read in 2009 includes Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. The recent decline in the value of the American dollar is a good thing when you are trying to compete with the low cost nations of the world.

It’s a scary set of objectives. I think I can see where he wants to take this nation. Many people will fight him because they are living in the past. The problem is too few have taken a really good look at where the nation is right now. Those resisting his ideas could easily stop him. The question is what is their vision?

The End of the World in 2012?

Over 200 predictions and counting!
Yes the end is coming, but all human predictions are wrong!

Mathew 24:35-36 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Jesus Christ.

Finally something Christ said that makes sense. Only God knows when the end of the world will happen. Perhaps there will be no end.

Nostradamus is said to have had the most success in forecasting future events. The problem is that the observations of his accuracy are made after the events happen. That is said to be the result of his complicated style of writing that was done to keep his ideas a secret from the Catholic church. His forecast of the end is the year 3797. That means the end will not be 2012 as the Mayans predicted. After writing this piece I have learned there is a movie “2012” being promoted at a really fun web site titled “who will survive 2012.” It offers great computer graphics and sound.

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October 17, 2009 Update: The Los Angeles Times has an article saying that scientists are trying to calm the ‘2012’ hysteria. What hysteria? The article itself is a great advertising piece for the movie.

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We all thought everything would stop when the calendar turned to the year 2000. Remember? So many people said nothing would function because computers were programmed with only two digits for the year. Either all the systems were fixed or we were very lucky or the computers were smarter than we thought.

Perhaps none of this is real. Perhaps “I think therefore I am” is just a line in a script? My theory is we are just too small and too inconsequential in this universe. It’s a great disappointment to those who thought the Earth is the center of the universe.

The High Cost of American Health Care

I took a book out of the library on mutual fund investing titled “100 Best Mutual Funds.” Just inside the first few pages was the author’s argument for making investments in equities (another word for stocks) rather than bonds or CDs. The contention is that stocks are responsive to inflation thus are the better investment. To indicate the significance of inflation the author provided these startling facts on the costs of things we all want or need.

	Year	Amount
First-class stamp	1934	3 cents
	1980	15 cents
	2002	34 cents
	Increase	1,133%

A new car	1934	$1,436
	1980	$6,200
	2002	$19,175
	Increase	1,335%

A day in the hospital	1934	$12
	1980	$344
	2002	$2,854
	Increase	23,783%

Sources: U.S. Postal service, U.S. Census Bureau, and the Wall Street Journal, April 2002

I was astonished to see that the cost of hospitalization had inflated at a rate of 17 times faster than the cost of cars. There is no doubt that health care has become an extraordinary burden on our country. The question is how do we bring this ballooning expense under control?

The Los Angeles Times article about a woman’s need for surgery that would have taken a waiting time of 39 months in Canada as opposed to two days in the United States tells me that nationalized health care will not provide the solution we need.

Forget the plans for health care that have been discussed in the House and Senate. This nation has a serious problem. No single person and no political party has all the answers. We need people of good will and intent to meet together to stop this outrageous theft of income. The sad fact is that we do not have the kind of people in our congress that will sit together to find a reasonable solution. Is it the people we elected, the political parties, or the lobbyists who are stopping the process?

Political parties do not matter. Electing people to office that really care about America’s needs ought to be job one.

A Poll Asks “Should Obama be Killed?”

I am quite certain that protecting George W. Bush from an assassin was difficult when he was president. I personally thought he was the devil but I never thought about killing him. Today we have a Black man as president. That fact alone generates hatred. The killing of Martin Luther Kings Jr. proves that many will kill just because someone is not White. A minister in Arizona has asked his church’s membership to pray for Obama’s death.

Protection of Barack Obama and his family has to be far more difficult than the protection of any family that has ever lived in the White House.

So here we have an articulate man and a beautiful family. Why should he run for re-election? I cannot think of one really good reason. Freedom of press can cause many people to speak about horrible deeds.

I found this article on the Toronto Star web site

Sep 28, 2009 04:41 PM

The U.S. Secret Service is looking into the person behind a “Should Obama be killed?” poll on Facebook, according to a report on the Washington Post Company’s online publication Who Runs Gov.

“We are taking the appropriate investigative steps,” Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told reporter Amanda Erickson of The Plum Line blog, housed on Who Runs Gov. “We are aware of it.”

The poll, first reported Sunday night by another blog, The Political Carnival, offers four choices to the question “Should Obama be killed:” 1) Yes. 2) Maybe. 3) If he cuts my health care and 4) No.

The application – created by an outside party, not Facebook – has since been disabled. It appears that at least 750 people had participated in the poll before it was taken down. (You can see a screen shot of what it looked like here:

http://bit.ly/4lUH0y

Users searching for the original poll are now greeted with the following message on Facebook:

“The application `Polls’ is temporarily unavailable due to an issue with its third-party developer. We are investigating the situation and apologize for any inconvenience.”Facebook’s spokesman for policy matters, Barry Schnitt, tells TalkingPointsMemo.com that the Secret Service asked Facebook on Monday to take down the poll, but that it had already been removed by then.

Meanwhile, TPM notes that a related poll subsequently surfaced: “Should the person who created the ‘Should Obama be Killed Poll’ be arrested?”

It, too, has been disabled.

Toronto Star