Tag: old people running the country

A Sad Decline for America

I am not happy as I did support Hillary Clinton. However I did not support her because she had anything worthwhile to offer. She was “the lesser of two evils” in my opinion. Trump won because he promised change. That was the Obama promise too. We all know how that turned out. Millions of people believed that Mrs. Clinton was just a continuation of the same gridlock that has kept the same bunch of elected people in office (and that includes Republicans and Democrats).  It’s unlikely Trump will be successful but the public keeps hoping.

Charles Krauthammer in his November 11, 2016 column mostly wrote about how a Republican congress can now cancel Obamacare, end Dodd Frank consumer protection, and impose their solutions for illegal immigration.  One point he made does make sense: “Trump spoke to and for a working class squeezed and ruined by rapid technological and economic transformation.” While Krauthammer was correct in that analysis his solutions make no sense.

The greater question for me is what will Donald Trump actually do as president?  His history of remarks and promises is full of contradictions.  Many of those contradictory statements have been played on CNN and elsewhere. A good example is in 1999, when Trump forcefully argued for universal health care, telling CNN’s Larry King, “If you can’t take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it’s all over. I mean, it’s no good. So I’m very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better.”

The world has changed dramatically over the last two decades.  Donald Trump cannot roll back the impact of globalization.  Our congress is filled with people with an average age of Members of the House at the beginning of the 114th Congress of 57.0 years; of Senators, 61.0 years.  These are a bunch of older people many of whom do not understand the changing world.  This is not the group likely to lead this nation in a rapidly changing technology world.

Sadly, we are likely to see an America in decline.  Tell me I am wrong and why.

The Impact of Technology on Blue Collar Workers

We are about to select a new American president in a world that is rapidly becoming more technically advanced than anyone could have imagined in the year 2000. Remember that as the year many of us were concerned that clocks would stop, power grid systems might fail, and commercial aircraft might fall from the sky. Of course none of that happened. What has happened is the rapid advance of technology and a globally connected society. Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat” (Published April 5, 2005) was not only a recognition of a changing world economy but the need for America to look forward and plan for the new economy.

Take just one new technology, autonomous (self driving) cars and trucks, that is predicted to be launched by the year 2020 to 2025 and consider the impact and you will understand that no one – no president of the United States – can stop the impact on the public in either the United States or other countries.

Don’t Tell The Teamsters: But Driverless Trucks Are Already Here.  Driverless trucks are operating in an Australian mine. When those trucks arrive in America the Teamsters will fight with everything they have to stop those autonomous trucks. Feather bedding will be a prominent part of their strategy. There are currently 900,000 active working Teamsters in the United States and Canada. There are approximately 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States, according to estimates by the American Trucking Association.

What will all those families that rely on those truck driving jobs do when they are replaced by self driving trucks? As a nation we have not looked forward. We have looked back.  Technology’s impact on the trucking industry is simply one example of the changing work environment.

Donald Trump promises to bring back the jobs that have been lost due to out sourcing. It is not clear what will motivate the return of jobs other than tariffs that could start a trade war.

Hillary Clinton says she will propose investing in infrastructure, manufacturing, research and technology, clean energy, and small businesses. The costly $787 billion spending bill that President Barack Obama signed into law soon after taking office had little effect. It was argued that it was insufficient.

obama-signs-the-american-recovery-and-reinvestment-act-of-2009

In all of the Trump and Clinton ideas there is no consideration of the future.