Tomorrow Should be Better than Today

In a nutshell (Brazil Nut), a liberal can be summed up as a person who believes that society (and he being a driver/participant in it) works to ensure that yesterday's ills and wrongs can be overcome. The resulting effect of this triumph over the "wrongs," be they technological or wrought by basic human prejudice, is that everyone eventually will live a better, happier life.

In a nutshell, a conservative believes this is all pie-in-sky nonsense and that it is each man for himself, survival of the fittest. And, if the "fittest" have a conscience then they donate to charities of their choices.

The Rule of Thumb

An economist by the name of Arthur Okun stated that when unemployment drops by 1%, GDP drops correspondingly by 2% to 3%. Many hesitate to call this a law so therefore, it is called a "rule of thumb."

Over the past 30 years, our economic ups and downs have all revolved around either the creation of virtual wealth; speculation on bubbles in the investment arena such as internet/techonology and then the real esate bubble; and, ultra-hyper-mass consumption leading to the "virtual ownership" through the abuse of consumer credit.

Conservatives and believers in the tooth fairy still like to claim that tax cuts were responsible for much of the growth of this era but what they are not willing to admit is that the vast Reagan and W tax cuts came during periods of massive deregulation of our banking and financial markets. Perhaps, it was the loss of oversight on these industries which led to the increases in investment?

Progress

30 years ago, we had no internet and the government, led by rising stars like Al Gore and then Bill Clinton, wisely aided the development of this technology. The internet today has arguably had more impact than any development since the creation of electricity. Had W been president, then we would still be mailing letters and calling each other from telephones attached to kitchen walls.

In these 30 years, we have also seen a massive assualt on modernity. The republicans/conservatives, led by their bible-thumping breathen from the Southern states, have reacted in many of the ways that Islam has reacted to US encroachment on their youth cultures via our enticing soft culture: Benjamin Barber a pompous but very wise former-Rutgers professor called it Jihad vs. McWorld. Fundamental, theocratic cultures are being threatened by the internet and its uncontrollable morals and so we see violent reaction.

These reactions manifested themselves on 9/11 and they have united and made powerful the GOP since 1994. Barry Goldwater was liberal in many of his views compared to what the conservatives of today espouse as rational, intellectual thought. They call any progressive behavior communist and as is typical in reactionary, fear-driven, change-adverse societies (I happen to live in one today), forward-looking, intellectual thought is called "pseudo" and "faux."

Yet...tomorrow may not be better

For 30 years, we have seen the lives of Americans made "better" thanks to the increase of consumer credit. Yet, today, we have more Americans bankrupt or in crippling debt than at any other time in our history. We have not seen the advance of any serious, long-lasting technologies, other than in the military industrial complex, during this period.

At the expense of our long-term well-being, for the sake of short-term profits and massive bonuses, conservatives have poohed-poohed investment in any area that might have paved the way for gradual and positive development in our economic infrastructure: what are we capable of leading the world in today other than in the field of arms? Obesity? Soft culture?

Driven by greed and void of the so-called 'invisible hand', big business has been free to make profits off of their profits without showing anything other than virtual wealth and needless consumer goods.

In the never-ending quest for lowered margins so that quarterly bonuses could be ever larger, big business, patriots all of them, "Jesus-sayers" predominately from Southern states and almost always conservatives, willingly drove their businesses out of America. Unemploying the American workers, they espoused that the market, the gospel of the profit incentive, demands such sacrifice. And so, today, we see that as 1% of Americans join the ranks of the unemployed, the GDP is dropping faster than it did in the past--and vice versa: Okun's rule is screamingly conservative compared to today's reality.

Another consequence of our failed experiment at a greed-driven economy void of governmental regulation is that these jobs, it is estimated, won't return to our eonomy after the downturn subsides. The lost jobs are lost for real because places like China and India and Mexico are now doing the work that Americans did just 20 years ago; but, for a mere fraction of the cost and all for the sake of the quarterly profits of that shrinking pool of owners.

Obama's Vision

They obstruct and they obstruct yet the conservatives haven't yet found the key ingredient to dismantling the man's vision. He has vision and being an American, I am addicted to vision and national goals: a man on the moon by the end of the decade, only fear we should fear, ask not what your country can do for you, etc., etc.

President Obama is trying to make the changes we found impossible to make beginning in January 1981 when greed came to town. President Reagan had vision, granted, but he also had an economic understanding that was perfect for the nation in which he came of age. By letting Detroit off the hook on gas emission requirements in the mid-80's and pretty much paving the way for SUV's, Ronald Reagan took our economy back to the post-WWII era of useless consumer crap in all shapes and colors for everyone at the lowest possible price. Which has directly led us to where we are today: nowhere.

We are for all intents and purposes bankrupted as a nation. What is our plan for going forward? More consumption for the sake of consumption? More unregulated profits thanks to super risky mortgages, etc.? President Obama is trying to make us a green nation because he knows that this may be one of our last pillars of world economic leadership. We are America. We used to be the smartest nation until taxs were cut so far that federal funding dried up for research grants resulting in a dumbing down of our universities (although, we still are the best in this area, the world is catching up fast).

Our college grads speak English poorly. Too many are focused on making big and quick profits in finance. We have lost our way and been dumbed down thanks to the cultural battle against modernity. We have to seize the golden opportunity which is sitting before us and we must become the world's leader of all green technologies. Europe and Asia, led of course by China, are making great strides at capturing this new and growing segment of the world's market.

It is time for us to boldly strive forward, like Americans, and to conquer yet another frontier for the betterment of our nation. If this means that we need government leadership and funding then so be it. Because one thing is for sure, the sales of more cans of soda or bigger bags of beef jerky at Wal-Mart are not going to preserve our place at the top for much longer.

Conservative response: "need to cut taxes. The market will make the necessary adjustments and then all will be good again." Been there, tried that and look where it got us.