REALITY

Most people in this country would admit that America has some pretty serious challenges. There are people however on both sides of the spectrum. There are nuts like Sean Hannity that say we are not in a recession and we liberals are paranoid. There are also people that think we are FREAKED and that any effort to solve our problems would be an exercise in futility. I am an optimistic realist. The reality of the situation is that we have MAJOR problems that need to be fixed RIGHT NOW. They cannot wait until the next generation or the next election cycle or maybe not even until next year. Our future as both Americans and citizens of this planet is in jeopardy. In my opinion these are the four biggest problems our country currently faces in my perceived order of importance.

1. Environment – I believe this is the most important problem our generation faces. This are affects every aspect of our lives. I believe that if we do not drastically alter the course we are on this planet will not be able to sustain us. I believe the planet will one day repair itself but I don’t believe we as a civilization will be around to see it. Most sensible people would agree with this statement. Most people do not agree with me with the immediacy this scenario will play out. If we stay at our current rate of growth I believe we will reach a level of catastrophe in decades, not in a century or a generation. The reason for the urgency lies in the nature of the solution. It will take years to implement any plan of action. We can not be a polluting careless society one day, and then a completely environmentally conscious one on the very next day. This transition will take time. If we wait too much longer any solution we try will be too late. Indeed there are some that already believe we have passed the point of no return.

People may question why I could put the environment first when we have so many problems. To people who hold this opinion let me ask a series of questions. What would our national security and foreign policy look like if we weren’t using any Middle Eastern oil? What would our economy look like if companies didn’t have to build the cost of fuel into their profit margins? What would the stock market look like if we weren’t going trillions of dollars in debt to other countries because of what we are consuming? What would health care look like if all our citizens were breathing clean air? What would health care look like if we could remove the environmental component to cancer and other complex diseases? What would our country look like if we did not have to deal with record flooding and increasing number of hurricanes? Many of these problems may still occur with improved environmental policy but one cannot deny the role that bad environmental policy has played on every aspect of this country. This issue is the biggest threat to our way of life and our continued existence on this planet.

2. Education – Education is absolutely essential for making sure this country is competitive in everyway in 21st century. We have lost track of how important education is. Education is one of the principles that have made this country great. The idea of public education is essential to the American dream. The idea that America is place where one can rise as far as their ability will take them is IMPOSSIBLE in the absence of an excellent public education system. This is the idea that attracted hard working dedicated people from all over the world and education is the vehicle that allowed them to attain much of their success. In the later part of the 19th century we as a country adopted the principle that education is the great equalizer. No matter where you were born, no matter where your parents came from, No matter your economic status America had free public education and if you worked hard you could attain your dreams. That is the American dream. The reality is that many people’s life outcomes are determined by their zip code. There are two school systems in this county. There is the one that the wealthy and middle classed has access to and then there is the school system in rural and urban areas. The second school system does not work. It is completely inadequate for the 19th century to say nothing of the 21st. America can not be good at anything when a significant portion of the society is relegated to being a permanent illiterate underclass.

The second part of education deals with the university experience. We have the best universities in the entire world. These institutions are becoming less accessible to the average person. More opportunities must be made to grant access to worthy individuals to pursue their academic endeavors. The third part of education deals with the training and retraining of a work force. It is estimated that the average American will change careers (NOT JOBS) three times in their life time. In a fluid dynamic economy it is essential to have a training mechanism that can train and retrain large groups of people quickly and effectively.

3. Health Care - America has a staggering 9 trillion dollar debt. This debt is growing at a record pace. The scarier number is that we have 54 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities. At this rate the dollar will become completely worthless. If the dollar is no longer valued we are SCREWED. People say this could never happen but when you look at the situation objectively how could it NOT happen. Most of this 54 trillion dollars comes from medicare/medicade and other healthcare cost that the government has obligated itself to pay. This number cannot be reduced until healthcare is fixed. Further more I do not believe American businesses can compete in a global market place as long as they are saddled with health care obligation. In addition to this, no one wants a significant number of people to go without basic medical care. It is a tragedy that people die of so many preventable causes.

4. Infrastructure - There are several parts of this country’s infrastructure that need to be completely rebuilt. We have a power grid that was built a century ago when electricity was not being used at the rate it is today. In addition to this the power grid leaks electricity and it does not allow us to take advantage of modern technology. We have a highway system that can not handle the increasing population. We have a complete lack of public transportation infrastructure. In addition to this we have levees, bridges, and roads that we depend upon for our very survival (in some cases) that are completely falling apart. We cannot wait another fifty years for these things to be fixed. They must be fixed now.

Notice that I didn’t mention the economy or job creation. If you fix our energy policy, our healthcare, and our education you will fix the economy. If you fix these problems you will create jobs and a better country for ourselves and our children.


I think the world as we knew it is coming to an end. America has had a wonderful 100 year window. We could spend as much money as we want and not worry about paying it back. We had a nice big ocean that separated us from most of the world. We could pick and choose who we wanted to be friends with and keep our enemies ad a distance. We could enact any policy we chose and not worry about the consequences. We were in a situation where no one could really hurt us. We could betray our fundamental convictions and no one would see anything other then what we wanted them to see. We could make any crappy merchandise we wanted and we could sell it to every one with out any competition. We were the only game in town. We had tons of free fuel and the fuel we didn’t have we could manipulate others into selling it to us cheaply.

THE PARTY IS OVER. That world no longer exists. This care free Leave it to Beaver world that we all know as Americans is gone. The reality of the situation is that the difficulties we are facing are a fraction of the pain that most of the world has been facing for centuries. We are now in the same rat race that everyone else is in. “The conspiracy of comfort as” Marty McConnal so eloquently has kept us from seeing the reality of our circumstances. It has put us into a situation where we could first ignore that we had problems and then delay implementing the solutions. We are not in a position where we can pretend any more. Maybe putting and end to this conspiracy is not such a bad thing. It is not a bad thing that we can see the problems the rest of the world is facing. Maybe it is not completely bad that we are in this world with our neighbors and we will have to work together to solve these problems. The fact that others have an increasing standard of living is not a bad thing. The fact that this increasing standard comes partly at our expense may bad a bad thing. The fact that America was caught unprepared for this new reality is the problem.

In spite of the grave reality I have outlined, I am still optimistic. I still think that we can work to solve these problems. I believe that we have an amazing opportunity to correct some of the longstanding injustices and emerge from this era a better country a better people and a better civilization. I think if we can solve these problems the world we will be left with will be a wonderful place. It will be a place where all of the world’s citizens will have hope. I believe that we are not passed the point of fixing these problems but we have to start solving them now.

I would love to hear what problems you think are the most important and why.

My next blog entry will be about the steps I would like to see the new leadership of this country take in solving these problems.