America has fallen, can she get back up?

The U.S. has rendered ourselves so reliant on foreign countries that we are in dire danger of becoming a second-class financial and industrial power. Thanks to the Bush Administrations policies and the mishandling of economic conditions, we are about to be passed by China in both rankings.

The U.S. is a bankrupt nation. Medicare and Social Security are under-funded, our state and local governments are under-funded, private-sector pension plans are under-funded. How did we get into this mess? Inept politicians, apathetic voters, and rampant greed and cynicism on all levels.

We are becoming increasingly indebted to China and they are buying Wall Street. The very financial cornerstone of our economy is failing and they are taking advantage of it by buying an ever increasingly larger stake in our financial future. Capitalism is taking a hit and its hurting us all. George Bush’s response is as long as money is changing hands and his cronies are getting their share it is all good. Never mind that the rest of us are loosing our shirts, homes, and jobs.

Our dependence on foreign oil has allowed Saudi Arabia to wield a much larger controlling stake over our economy than any foreign entity should ever have. The very greedy and selfish nature of capitalism has brought us to this point. And Americans refuse to curb our driving habits to ease this dependence.

Our greatest chance to reverse these trends is to replace George W. Bush’s policies with something that will return America’s future as top priority ahead of personal gain. We have fallen victim to greedy political power hounds who have distanced themselves from any accountability and in doing so has left this country to flounder due to a lack of direction. The needs and concerns of the citizens of this once great nation have fallen to the wayside while political hacks like Karl Rove, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have decimated and dismantled the constitution. They have, in less than eight years of political circus-acts, the likes of which this country has never before seen, have turned this once thriving, self-reliant nation from an industrial and financial power into a groveling street beggar for foreign oil and money. They need to be booted out immediately. At this point, anyone is a better choice.

Our Congress, the very people who are charged with keeping this country focused on our future, spends countless millions of dollars and expends countless hours pursuing such secondary and tertiary issues as steroids in sports and pointing the finger at each other over who did or said what to whom instead of tackling one of the greatest threats to our sovereignty: illegal immigration.

We have been coerced into funding an illegal war, we have been spied upon under the thinly-veiled disguise of terrorist threats, our dollar is shrinking at an alarming rate, and Congress spends its time on preserving the purity of baseball! The irresponsibility and incompetence is outrageous!

There was a time when citizens would stand up to our government at all levels and demand to be heard and listened to. There was a time when the future seemed promising. There was a time when citizens actually believed that if they did stand up and speak their minds, if they did protest, they would be heard and the future actually had promise. These political dark ages that have befallen us are the direct result of politicians who are more concerned with their own re-election and therefore place more importance on their financial backers than on what the everyday blue-collar taxpayer has on his mind. Public outcry for the common good has been drowned out by special interests so often that we no longer see the point of voicing our opinion. Apathy has finally won out. The ‘Silent Majority’ has grown larger and as a result wealthy special interests now run this country. And look at where it has gotten us.

Lawyers get rich defending insurance companies who back out on their obligations, ad agencies get rich peddling products they try to convince consumers we can’t live without, corporations get rich selling products that help ruin our environment, and our federal government passes legislation to protect them all. What do taxpayers get? We get to foot the bill and the occasional joke of a handout in the form of a $300 tax refund designed to ‘stimulate’ the economy.

Our political system has become a game where the expectations of the voters are acknowledged and then step by step, debate by debate, through name-calling, character assassination, and generally dirty politics, the candidates are whittled down to the smoothest talkers with the thickest skins. And in the end, what do we have? A changeling who is able to bend, twist and re-invent themselves at a moments notice to whoever can get them re-elected. We have given up on using our moral compass as a guide. Political integrity and courage, along with personal pride have taken a backseat to money. Capitalism, perfected.

That ‘Going to Hell in a Hand basket’ phrase I grew up hearing about seems more relevant today than ever before.

Work for your own future

Gen-Yers say they are willing to make financial sacrifices to make the world a better place. How very ‘generous’ of you. How long can you really expect to work less, volunteer more--and count on your aging parents to push back their retirement?

Too many twenty-somethings are still living with Mom and Dad. Too many twenty-somethings think they can just quit their jobs because they are not having fun. Too many parents have instilled in their children that ‘you can be anything you want to be’ without instilling in them the fact that they have to actually work for it.

In a study released this summer, global employment agency Manpower found that across the developed world, under-30s would overwhelmingly rather "pursue their passions" than "make lots of money," with 73 percent of young Spaniards and two-thirds of Americans and Canadians backing that statement.

I think it is necessary for every person to pursue their passion, and I certainly do not advocate the very unhealthy, stroke-inducing, all-out drive to earn as much money as you can before you die mantra. You don’t have to push yourselves into an early grave to earn more than anyone else. What I am saying is get out there and earn something for your future. Earn enough for the basics and a little extra for vacations and, if you like, for charities. But for God’s sake put some in savings and stop living off of your parents. They are trying to survive too. They have worked long and hard for it and now that you are old enough to support yourselves they should spend it on themselves.

The main thing that these twenty-somethings have failed to realize is that inevitably they will be too old to work and they will need a ‘nest egg’ to help them survive because Mom and Dad are not going to always be there for them.

Another thing, it is very selfish for these twenty-somethings to drain Mom and Dad’s retirement savings because they don’t like their jobs. Well guess what, Mom and Dad most likely did not ‘like’ their jobs either but they had the work-ethic to stay with the job because they also were very aware that they alone would have to support themselves when they retire.

Now, that work-ethic is disappearing, or maybe it is being put off until later, I don’t know, but one thing I do know, the less you work the less money you have for retirement.

The Social Security Administration was created by the government because people were not saving enough money to fund their retirement. Now we are reverting back to that same inability to support ourselves in retirement due to lack of savings.

Why do you twenty-somethings think you don’t need to work towards a financially secure future of your own? Here is how the Social Security system is set up to work: Mom and Dad’s income feeds the fund with the promise of supporting them in their retirement. That money went to help fund their parents generation so they could retire. Your income goes to support your parents retirement. When you don’t work you are not putting anything into that fund and therefore your parents are not going to have any money for their retirement. This is extremely selfish of you. But you go ahead and have your fun, just keep putting off the inevitable collapse of your dream world until the day you suddenly realize you have no income because your ATM, your mom and dad, have passed on, or, more appropriately, spent it on themselves.

How much ‘fun’ is life going to be then?

Where is the stigma that used to drive ‘adults’ out from under their parents roof? Why has it become acceptable for ‘adults’ to continue to live with their parents and be supported by their parents long after they have reached the traditional age of maturity? Why has it become acceptable for you to continue to go out and play instead of work for your own future?

This may come as a shock to you but trust me when I say that your parents, who have worked steadily at their jobs (jobs that they did not always find ‘fun’) so they could afford vacations from that ‘boring’ job and so they could afford to retire in some relative comfort, was not planning on supporting you for the rest of their lives. And now that you are ‘forcing’ them to do so by not pulling your own weight, you are sucking them dry of every dream they have worked for. Can you not see that this must be a very difficult and depressing realization for them, that their hopes of retiring have gone away because you are too self-involved and narcissistic to support yourself?

What are you going to do when your world comes crashing down around your ears because you did not get that big inheritance from your parents when they die? What are you going to do when you find out that the family house that you thought was going to support you has been heavily mortgaged to help support you while your parents were alive because you refused to grow up?

Your parents likely feel an embarrassment that they did not do a good enough job at raising you to be an asset to this society instead of the money-pit you have become. Since they love you they will continue to sacrifice to help you, even when they know there is no prospect of you helping them, because how can you, you have not been earning any money to support yourself, how are you going to help your parents when they need it? Deep inside, they feel a resentment towards you for not taking it upon yourselves to support yourself and they also feel a disappointment in themselves for not being strong enough to teach you the importance of a good work ethic.

Parents who give their kids everything are not doing their kids any favors. In fact they are prolonging one of lifes most important lessons. That lesson being that the only way a person appreciates what they have is if they have to earn it for themselves with their own blood and sweat.

In May, Britain's HSBC banking group released a global study on the future of retirement, which found that in nearly all of the 21 countries they studied, senior citizens--those who in times past would have been cared for by their grown children--gave more money to their offspring than they received. What are they going to retire on? What is their prospect of earnings when they are too old for work?

This country, as a whole, does not respect their elders. This country does not respect to the wisdom of age. This country would rather hire young people and let the elders fend for themselves. And if the young aren’t going to help support them then their future is pretty dismal.

Is any of this getting through to you selfish, lazy, narcissistic heathens? Sure, most of the blame begins with your parents for not instilling in you a strong work ethic. Sure you could blame a lack of ‘fun’ jobs to keep your interest. Sure you could again blame your parents for always giving you what you want instead making you work for it. But, sooner or later, you are going to have to realize that your future is your own responsibility, not your parents, and not anyone else’s.

Who is protecting the American consumer?

This rash of recalls of China-made products needs to be looked at and the U.S. government does not seem too interested in taking any initiative. Why? Are they afraid of damaging relations with this behemoth of a trade partner? Are they worried that this lucrative market will take its business elsewhere? Not a chance. Are they actually choosing to make money over the safety of their fellow countrymen?

We have had a wide range of products recalled due to inferior quality that could result in injury or death to U.S. citizens. Contaminated pet food, faulty automobile tires, cancer-causing chemically-laden fish, toothpaste laced with chemicals and lead-laden toys have all been recently found coming from China. The scariest part is that these products were only discovered after they had reached the U.S. and most were already for sale to consumers.

Why don’t I hear more of an uproar about this problem?

There needs to be more oversight and inspection of these products before they reach our shore. One would think that given the fact that these items have been sent back (they have been sent back, right?) that China would do something more to ensure these problems are not repeated.

I understand that some of these products are made by U.S. companies that have either moved from the U.S. or have simply outsourced their production seeking cheaper labor costs. It is bad enough that these companies have forsaken the U.S. worker in order to save themselves money so they can realize a larger profit margin, but to completely disregard their fellow Americans health and safety to earn a buck is the height of greediness.

These companies need to be identified and their products boycotted.

In almost every situation in life when some crime or under-handed action is learned of it turns out to be only the tip of the iceberg. And with the limited resources available to organizations like the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, who is responsible for recalling inferior and unsafe products, you can bet their hands are full. In fact, Scott Wolfson, the commission's deputy director for public affairs says he expects to recall about 450 products this year, about 60% from China - up from less than 50% in previous years.

The majority of these products are made in Southern China’s low-cost manufacturing hub that is notorious for it’s lax regulations. Why is it, that since we know where the problem with lax regulation is, the Chinese government isn’t doing something about it?

Or, maybe they are. To give them the benefit of the doubt, at least for now, that region has grown very rapidly in the past few years due to U.S. companies leaving the U.S. behind so they can take advantage of a cheaper labor force. In China, they don’t have to bother themselves with such ‘burdens’ as health care, social security, and workers compensation. Side note: if the U.S. had redirected the over one trillion dollars it has wasted to support the war in Iraq toward a better healthcare system and a better funded Social Security system and a better funded Workers Compensation program then these American corporations would still be in the U.S. spending their profits to pay American workers instead of foreign workers.

But, I digress. We will assume, until we have proof otherwise, that because the manufacturing region in South China has grown so fast that China has not had the time to create quality-control inspectors to ensure our safety. They have the incentive to do so. I know they are serious about product safety because they recently executed the head of their equivalent of out FDA for taking bribes. If only justice could be meted out that quickly here in the U.S. we would be infinitely better off in so many ways.

China needs to put safeguards in place quickly, and American companies in China need to be more vigilant about our safety, because the American public is, or will soon be, fed up with not being able to trust China-made products. Since, it seems, they are being ‘forced down our throats’ we better get used to the idea that China is going to be our biggest source of damn near everything. The first line of defense in preventing unsafe products from reaching our shores should rest with the companies producing those products. And the cost should be absorbed by them.

The second line of defense rests, now as it always has, with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. However, it is impossible to test all products coming into the country, especially considering the size of this regulatory agency. The commission has about 400 full-time employees, an amount some lawmakers say needs to be boosted. I agree and, again, if we wasn’t spending so damn much money on Iraq the commission could have more full-time employees to protect our citizens.

The FDA has a similar difficulty, in that it tests less than 1% of all imports, down from 1.5% in 1997. Here is another place where some of that money going to the pentagon could be spent where it would do more good.

So, you see, we never have had a history of inspecting 100% of all imports. To think we ever could would be fantasy. China has to step up and take responsibility for what they claim as coming from their country and the American companies that do business there need to work with the Chinese government to ensure that it happens.

For those of you who are interested, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's Web site lists trinkets, toys and other products recalled because of dangerous lead content or other safety violations. The FDA has a similar recall page on its Web site, or you can visit www.recalls.gov for a compilation of government agencies recalling products.