WWOD

In my last article I listed what I thought were our countries four biggest problems. I stated that these problems were the environment, our education system, our health care system and our countries infrastructure. (See the article titled “reality” for my explanation). I believe that this time could be a turning point in the history of the world. We as a planet have huge challenges. We also have a huge amount of potential we can draw on to fix these problems. What we cannot do is to continue doing the same things we have done for the past hundred years. We as a society have must find the strength to fundamentally change the way we do things. This change has to be universal. Everyone in this entire civilization must participate in this change. Nothing signified this era of change more than the election of Barak Obama. This administration will inherit a host of problem. How they go about solving them will say a lot about the future of this planet. If they try to solve them using the play book that is 80 years old and written for a very different era then we are all doomed to failure. If they can find the political will to attempt the bold strategies they have promised us, then we have a chance to do a lot of good for ourselves as Americans and as citizens of this planet. There were a lot of promises made during this election. Here are the top 4 things I would like to see this new administration accomplish.


1. A New Power Grid

When I mention this in conversation I am usually greeted with a bunch of puzzled stares. How could this be the number one thing I want the president to do? I stated earlier that I think the biggest problem we are facing is the environment. A power grid would be a big step in our environmental policy and out energy policy. This project would also begin to address the problem of our crumbling infrastructure. Our energy grid is completely insufficient for our 21st century needs. It is extremely inefficient and it leaks power. We need a grid that can regulate the amount of energy used in off peak hours. A new grid needs to be able to store energy being produced in non peak hours and then use it during peak hours. Our current grid cannot do this well if at all. There also aren’t enough safeguards built in. To be honest, I am shocked that we have not had crippling power outage on the east coast. With an expanding population that is continually using more energy it is only a matter of time before the whole thing collapses.

The second thing to consider is what the politicians have promised in terms of energy policy. I have heard a lot of people promise wind and solar power. These are things that I very strongly support. The only way that these things will help us is if there is a way to get the power from where it is generated to where it is needed. It does little good to build a solar field in Arizona if the power it generates cant be used in Los Angles. A wind corridor in the middle of the country would be a great thing, but if we can’t get all that power to the big cities on the east coast then we are not getting the most out of a very costly investment. We need a power grid that can transmit power from where it is produced to where it is being used. Our current grid cannot integrate these technologies. Also consider the idea of an electric car. If we do manage to solve the problems of battery technology, what is going to happen when millions of people plug their cars into a power grid that is 90 years old and already inadequate? We will need a new power grid no matter what alternative energy policy plan we adopt.

The other thing building a power gird will accomplish is creating jobs. We will need people to build these power lines and infrastructure. We need city planners, architects, ditch diggers, foreman, metal workers and a whole host of other people do to this. The people whose jobs are threatened by slow downs in other sectors of this economy can be employed in this endeavor. This could also create a demand for these kinds of jobs. The people who decide to do these jobs will be building something that we will all desperately need.


2. Government Audit

Everyone knows that are government has a lot of wasteful spending. We have all heard politicians say that they are going to do something about it. This is time it must get done. We have a 9 trillion dollar national debt. In reality all of the wasteful spending is only a drop in the bucket but we first must stop the bleeding. Before we can go forward we must stop funding things that do not work. In conjunction with this I would like this president to change the way things are done in Washington. The idea of adding a bunch of frivolous spending programs just to get a bill passed has got to stop. The practice of earmarking must go away. Not only do we have to fix passed mistakes but we have to change the way things are done in the future. We cannot continue going down this same path of waste and corruption. Maybe I am expecting too much from this president but with the situation this country is in I don’t see how I can expect any less. I heard both presidential candidates say they would end the process of earmarked spending. I also heard Barak Obama say in several debates that he would “go through the federal budget line by line” well this is one campaign promise I am going to hold him to.


3. Health Care Reform

We have a 9 trillion dollar debt but we have 54 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities. This is money that the government has obligated itself to pay. A big part of this number is health care cost. I must pause here. I HAVE NO ANSWER FOR HEALTH CARE. I admit this problem may be too big to solve. Perhaps someone that is smarter then I has a solution but I do not. Having said that, there are a few principles that I intuitively believe should be considered when embarking on health care reform.

The first thing my gut tells me is that if you computerize health care records you will save money in the long run. I believe this will initially cost money. To outfit every health care facility with new computers, bar code scanners, training of employees, and everything else they will need will be a huge investment. Consider how much it cost to record data by hand. How much time is wasted just on medical record keeping? How much does it cost to store and further retrieve this information. I also think that in the long term there will be fewer mistakes made. Cutting down on mistakes is also crucial to reducing cost.

My second thought about health care is that if everyone is insured the cost will be cheaper. I intuitively think that my health care cost is so high because built into my cost is the bill for someone who didn’t have health care that still had to be treated. I believe that cost is passed on to everyone. Insuring everyone would ultimately be cheaper for everyone. Any plan that doesn’t insure everyone is inherently inefficient. I also think that if everyone has health care more people will go to the doctor more regularly. That means more problems will be detected before they become serious and these problems will be less costly to treat.

That brings me to my third thought that if there are more primary care physicians health care will be cheaper. If there are lots of accessible primary care physicians it will reduce the cost of health care in the long term. More physicians mean more accessibility for more people. Maybe people will feel more of a connection with their doctor because the doctors are seeing fewer patients. Maybe people will go to their doctor for treatment instead of the emergency room which is much more costly.

These are only gut feelings. I have no evidence to support this. I also have no coherent policy to integrate all this instinct. I have no solution. I have not even considered lawyers and the pharmaceutical industry or the education cost or any of the other factors that lead to the bad health care system we have. It makes my head hurt. That is why I am not president. I am not smart enough. I just know it needs to be fixed and I would like to see this president make it a priority.


4. Education Overhaul

There are many parts of education that need to be fixed. This area has been neglected for far too long. There are several parts to education I would like to see a new administration address. There are several things I would like to see happen at the k-12 level. Some of them are not entirely in the administrations control but none of these things require a crystal ball. They require the strength and will to do what is right not what is popular.

States must fund education in the state with something other than property tax. Funding with property tax creates an inherent bias in the way education is funded. The people who live in the nicest neighborhoods and pay the highest taxes get the most money for their schools. We need a system where the schools in need get the most state money. (Honestly if you just legalize marijuana and have state run casinos you will have all the money you need but that is another argument). We need a massive school building program. The schools in many urban and rural areas area simply falling apart. I know several people that teach in inner city schools where the building is over 75 years old. One person actually works in a school that is 100 years old. We can not go another 100 years without building schools in the inner city and in our rural areas.

TEACHERS NEED A PAY RAISE. A big one. I think teaching is one of the most important jobs in this society. The impact that K-12 teachers have on children cannot be measured. We can not have a viable economy or a peaceful society without an educated populous. In light of this importance the people dispensing the education need to be paid like the most valued members of this society. Why is it an absurd idea for teachers to make $ 150,000 a year? As of now we have to find whatever noble people we can find to take this hard underpaid job. As a result when a teacher is bad we are often stuck because someone in most cases is probably better then no one. We cannot replace the bad teachers until we have an over abundance of good teachers who are paid what they are worth. This country needs to take both education and its educators seriously.

The idea of a national teaching academy was purposed by John Edwards in the presidential debate. This academy would take the best and brightest and train them to be educators. People accepted into this academy would receive their education for free. This would be a format similar to the one employed by our military academies. In return they would have to do a “tour of duty” in the urban school districts where they are needed. When you consider the rising cost of higher education this would be a way to both find qualified teachers and to give more opportunities for people to earn a college degree.

I also think we need to look at the possibility of extending the school year. The idea of getting the summers off came at a time when most of the country lived on a farm. In the summer everyone of working age had to be home to help with the harvest. In today’s world that is no longer the case. Furthermore, the amount of information that the workers of tomorrow will have to master does not give time for kids to take a 3 month hiatus. Also consider the fact that because of globalization American children will be competing with BILLIONS of people for jobs. Can we really afford to take ¼ of a year to unwind?

We also need more opportunities to offset the cost of higher education. More money is needed to allow more people have a chance to earn higher degrees. Research also needs to be funded a lot more then the current administration is funding it. The age of information technology that we have all benefitted from was the culmination of a massive education effort in the 1950's and 1960’s. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were the products of this education movement. The educational investment we made in the 60s did not end with the moon shot. That energy and investment continued into the 70s and launched a computer revolution. That same energy continued into the late 80’s and 90’s with the application of the internet and other technologies. The return on the investment we made in the 1950’s has been immeasurable. The only way America can stay competitive in this world is to make education the highest priority.

I realize this is the only half of the picture. Parents must be held accountable for seeing their children get the best education they can. Parents must instill the importance of education in their children and then work with the school and the community to educate the child. Parental involvement is not the government’s job. Asking the government to be parents is not the solution to education. Government however has to do its part. It must stop passing the ball and minimizing the importance of education and the roll that it should play.

Is this expensive? YES. Are we going to have to cut other things to have this? YES. Will this require sacrifice by all levels of society? YES. Is it worth it? ABSOLULY. I believe the long term benefits of taking education seriously are immeasurable. I believe that radical education reform is necessary if America is to remain at the forefront of this technological revolution. Our very survival as a society may be at stake.


I will be watching this president very closely. Just because I voted for him doesn’t mean he gets a free pass. I would like to hear what others think this administration should do.
This is what I would like to see done. The question we all need to find the answer to is
WHAT WILL OBAMA DO.

WWOD