I wrote this back in September but never posted it, until now. Hmmm. Now we’ve had the US credit downgraded which will cost hundreds of billions of dollars in added interest charges on the staggering national debt in addition to hundreds of billions in higher interest for the rest of us. Since September, we also witnessed Fukishima melt down only to prove that we can’t count on nuclear to solve our energy problems. Things just seem to be getting worse and worse
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Have you noticed a trend in the past several years? Things are getting worse and worse, not better. Our standard of living in the United States is getting worse and that translates into things getting worse all over the world. First, the US economy tanked because of the greedy folks on Wall Street, and in short order, the world economy tanked right along with it – save for a few exceptions such as China, India, and the oil exporting countries. We’ve watched as the US got sucked into two immensely expensive wars that are making the worlds largest debtor nation even more indebted. We watched as Hurricane Katrina showed how impotent the US is in dealing with the really big problems, then the BP oil spill in the gulf proved just how suspect our technology is. We are being told that global warming is real, but we’re not going to do anything about it now, we’ll wait for more technology to solve the problems. We’ve been waiting 40 years for that technology, but we’re gonna wait some more.
I started writing this blog about four years ago when GW Bush was president. The national debt was about $9 trillion, now it is $14 trillion and climbing. Don’t blame Obama, he inherited two wars and the financial crisis that is mostly responsible for that increase, although he doesn’t get off scott free either. Our education system is ranked 18th in the world yet it is the most expensive. The country is hemorrhaging jobs, unemployment is supposedly at 9.8%, but that’s just a slight of hand since its closer to 20% if you include people who’ve given up or are underemployed. Europe is about to tank financially with a domino effect of countries defaulting on their debt and the states in the US are in nearly as bad a shape.
At times like this we look for leadership, not just the president, but congress. Good luck there. The Republicans are doing a full court press to ensure that the Democrats cannot do anything of substance, and what little does get done, they are making sure that the laws enacted can’t possibly accomplish what they need to. Health care reform could have been a good thing to bring down prices and control costs, but the Republicans forced the Democrats to remove anything useful and ensure that it will be a colossal failure and even more colossally expensive. Most people didn’t want a national healthcare system because they were told a pack of lies about what it might do; but the bottom line is that without serious cost containment; the country will continue losing jobs to countries that do not suffer the crushing costs of providing workers health care coverage. If you wonder why the US can’t compete, look no further. There are other reasons, but employee benefits and taxes – taxes used to support health care, rank way up there.
The Republicans want to ensure we don’t get a climate bill passed, don’t want to rein in Wall Street, don’t want to see big business play fairly or responsibly and claim to be for smaller government; yet that deficit leap of $5 trillion came at the hands of a Republican with a Republican congress.
Before you flame me for being a bleeding heart Democrat, I’m a registered Republican and it sickens me to see that our country is being allowed to collapse for lack of leadership. We should have a renewable energy policy, climate change policy, health care reform, end the wars, fix the banks, protect American jobs and quite frankly I don’t give a crap who gets to take credit for it, but it needs to get done. Peering into my crystal ball, it ain’t gonna get done and the US will go the way of the Roman Empire. Look at the events of the past decades and you can find 1 for 1 parallels to events from history, events that led to the collapse of nearly all the great societies. You can find lessons that should have avoided the 2008 economic meltdown, lessons that should have avoided the BP oil spill, lessons that should have avoided the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, and on and on. These are not trivial mistakes. Each one will cost trillions or more, and even now, a trillion dollars is a lot of money. The really big lesson we’ve ignored will allow global warming to kill off our economy as well as millions if not billions of people worldwide. If that doesn’t kill our economy, energy will.
