More Good News

by

John Wright

 

Last evening I saw a newspaper headline that continued the same theme as the recent Alan Greenspan warning about Social Security. The headline was as follows: Medicare: Bankrupt by 2019. Now that is what I call a succinct headline. The editor should be commended for conveying maximum essential information with the minimum number of words. I guess that is why I would never make it as an editor! Obviously, this article is about writing styles … Not!

I was thinking recently about writing an article titled: "Open Letter to John Kerry," in which I would lay out the only platform for the Democratic Party that might win the election and get the USA back on track economically for the long-term. The headline last night, however, was so appropriate to my objective that I decided to give it top billing. It is after all the economic and quality of life issues that are killing our present and our future that demand attention by all politicians of both parties, not the names of one or two presidential candidates or members of the Congress.

I intend to take a big step back from current events in this article to give perspective to my rather harsh statements and conclusions. One path of examination addresses the larger mistakes that have been made along the way in the 20th and now the 21st centuries. Another path addresses why we will experience disaster if we don’t wrest control of the USA from the lying business and political thieves in power who have been and are destroying our lives through economic irresponsibility. The final path addresses the evolutionary steps we have to take to realize Destiny goals.

Hell, with the above objectives I could write another book! I choose not to do so, for my book Destiny contained much of this material, and brevity is appropriate in emergencies. We have multiple simultaneous emergencies at this moment in time. If you think not, stop reading now. I’m going to use the terse style of the newspaper editor and dispense with smooth monologue. I may err by assuming you know more about some subjects than you do. Oh well, sometimes I assume I know more about some subjects than I do!

Where the USA Went Wrong in the 20th Century:

  1. Schizophrenia in legislation thanks to Socialist Liberals competing with selfish Conservatives. Points of agreement: Both sides were happy to rape us through income and other taxes and then take turns using the booty. Both sides were happy to grow government control of citizens instead of providing basic opportunities for citizens to self-govern intelligently (that requires good education and honest, informed media, not to mention high moral standards and behaviors by leaders). Points of difference: Liberals were utterly irresponsible in wasting income tax revenues and Social Security tax revenue and creating much debt through programs like Medicare. They single-handedly created high inflation in medical services. They created the non-productive but expensive Welfare society. Conservatives put the screws to the common people by spending vast amounts of money on military buildups (nuclear weapons, B52’s, etc.) instead of funding national infrastructure, and they promoted class differences in education and wealth. Conservatives allowed big business to kill unions and to begin international outsourcing. Both sides flipped in the last 20 years of the century with regard to financial responsibility, with conservatives putting us deeply into debt for military programs and buildups and liberals bringing us out of debt by sound fiscal management, e.g., cutting military expenditures and welfare to balance the budget. Yes, schizophrenia is the correct term. Yet both Democrats and Republicans have evolved to become the lackeys of big business.

    2. What has to happen:

  2. Now I’m going to upset some of you. All socialist programs other than WPA, that were of a permanent variety, like Social Security, Medicare, Welfare, Unemployment Compensation, Workman’s Compensation and others were terrible mistakes. They never should have begun. They should be staged down and then stopped as soon as possible. The genesis for socialist programs was the income tax, which gave government operatives the notion that it was okay to do income redistribution in the manner they saw fit. Once started there was no way to stuff the genie back into the bottle. Political expediency led to the rape of Social Security monies contributed by the baby boom generation, who are now told that the system will be increasingly insolvent as they arrive at retirement age. Medicare was a guaranteed creator of massive inflation. In short, when income is taken from the individual via taxes to create social programs the cost for services rises dramatically and the quality diminishes. You lose control of your destiny. Government had no business screwing with our wallets or the economy or our personal freedoms and responsibilities. Rollbacks are the only sensible solution. It will take most of us a long time to again learn personal financial responsibility.

    3. Who are the Bad Guys:

  3. Big business, financial institutions and unions all suck. All proved their ability to be utterly self-serving. United Auto Workers (UAW) gave not one damn about the inflation they were creating in the 1960’s. General Motors gave not one damn about the inferior automobiles they were selling to us, on behalf of cost control/profits in the 1970’s. Banks, credit card companies and department stores charge interest rates that should be declared illegal. Every time we allow power to coalesce we get into major trouble. That, my friends, is the real issue behind all of our present and pending problems. Both government and business have become far too big. They must be downsized now, as they have become our enemies. Adults who have done nothing to earn benefits have them. People who work hard to succeed are bled out by taxes and high prices for products that are absurdly cheap to make, like most pharmaceuticals. People who have amassed wealth have become as hooked on money as any heroin addict. They forgot when to stop, which was the point at which they could buy most anything a private individual could consume/use. They must be relieved of their excess wealth, in the same manner that we dry out alcoholics. They must be denied the freedom to eliminate our jobs via international outsourcing.

    4. Well, yes, there are even more "bad" guys:

  4. I hate to admit it, but one of our religious fanatics, Pat Robertson, hit the nail on the head when he let us know that we are losing our culture by allowing masses of immigrants in who have no interest in changing to our cultural ways. We are becoming a bunch of socially isolated special-interest groups, not a nation with a common sense of self or purpose. We are seeing major changes in demographics based on the unwillingness of the immigrants and other established minorities to manage their reproduction rate and then use of "free" social services. These idiotic practices have to stop, and I mean the immigration and the free services and the citizenship based on country of birth. It is time to move to a society where contribution determines income and all associated benefits. You keep more of what you earn and you pay for your needs because you are the only person responsible for having those needs. As in the past, the least capable will join together for mutual support, while the most capable will take the nation forward in technology and expanding economy. Meanwhile, it is most appropriate to absolutely stop immigration, period, through laws and very tough border controls. We don’t need more people. And as for things like school taxes, you can send two children without penalty. Each additional child costs the parents the average cost per pupil in their community, assessed as an income tax, such that the parents cannot decide to leave the child unschooled.

    5. And the Bad Guys must be punished:

  5. As I reviewed what our politicians and business leaders have done in the past fifty years, I decided that their actions were/are criminal. No politician could have raped Social Security without knowing that they were screwing the contributors. No businessperson can outsource internationally without knowing that they are screwing the present and the future of all USA citizens except themselves. These crimes must be so recognized and punished, for the perpetrators are intelligent people with full knowledge of the results of their actions. They must be punished harshly, in proportion to the amount of damage done. A modern day Oliver Cromwell/Teddy Roosevelt is needed up to the point we have smashed our current power structure. Giving government freedom from legal responsibility for results was and is wrong, both for our legislatures and for our criminal justice and civil court systems. Severe reduction of limits in civil litigation judgments is required to get the cost of insurances back to something reasonable. Income producing jobs are required for our prison population while in prison, both to effect restitution to victims and to help support their own innocent families.

    6. And our globalization errors must be corrected:

  6. Meanwhile, it is time to return to tribal imperatives before the other regions of the world, like China and India in the Far East, eat our economic lunch in its entirety. We don’t need those people. Let me repeat that statement … we don’t need them! We don’t need their labor. We don’t need their raw materials. We don’t need their ideas, their language or their customs. We certainly don’t need their ideology or religion(s). We gain nothing by making them wealthy. Our business people, however, think it is important to pursue outsourcing because folks like the Chinese and the Indians are a cheap source of labor … for the moment. We have to stop this practice now, and I do mean NOW. We can stop it with boycotts and with electing people to our Congress and the presidency who will not listen to or accept any money from our wealthy business people. This mess can be reversed, but it will likely take 20 to 30 years to rebuild the manufacturing infrastructure, steel industry, etc. in the USA.

    7. No way can we evolve holistically unless …

  7. A nation or a world weakened from cultural, political or economic chaos is not a good foundation from which to realize Destiny concepts. The problem is that we have to change Governments from top down and people from bottom up, not top down. It is the human animal that must be changed, not the method by which we use the human animal on behalf of business wealth or excessive governmental control, or honoring nonexistent deities. We individuals lose unless we are enhanced via genetic engineering to keep pace with modern technology and scientific discoveries. Each time in history that we humans have been freed to seek our destiny (like the Rennaisance) we have been unbelievably creative. It is as it has always been … the individual, not the group, not the power structure, is omnipotent in bringing great new ideas and products to civilization. Once enhanced we will do all the necessary controlling and creating ourselves, individually, through education, enlightenment and creativity. Unfortunately, history has proven consistently and conclusively that putting our best interests in the hands of governments and businesses and religions has always, ultimately worked against us … Yes, I know, that is hard to accept. But, it is true. Big is bad. Power does corrupt.

    8.  

    Okay, my seven diatribes are done. I have no interest in debating anything. I don’t offer my thoughts as suggestions. I have stated what I consider to be the invariant truths and I am done. Accept them and act on them conclusively or suffer. Your choice, your future. The most immediate emergency is the elections this year. We cannot afford another four years of criminal stupidity in Washington, and that means the presidency and the Congress. John Kerry, are you listening?

    FOOTNOTE: Kerry just announced his plan for bringing jobs back to the USA via financial incentives to large corporations. I suppose we could call that a move in the right direction if more work/jobs appear in the USA. It is, however, difficult to endure the necessary wooing of big business just to get Kerry into office. Yes, it is the politically expedient thing to do now, but I would hope that once we get some good people elected that we see legislation that flat out denies companies legal privilege to export jobs. Patience, John … one step at a time.