The media and government leaders are being more successful than they should be at convincing the masses that our problems are not serious. A daily dose of bread and circus, has kept large amounts of our population silent about government offenses which would have had our founders beyond war. Here are the seven of our largest problems and some solutions.
#7 OUR TAX SYSTEM
We have the largest most complex tax code in history. Most people hire someone to do their taxes for them. The belief held by many is that the current tax code makes the wealthy pay more. It is simply not true. Wealthy people can hire tax lawyers and use various means to exploit loopholes in our insane tax system. You may say, even with the loopholes they still pay a higher rate. Yes, but they pass the cost on to others. A rich business owner does not just suffer when their taxes are raised. They raise the price of their product and cut the costs (pass the burden to their workers) to make up for the high taxes. Rich people, do not, and never will, pay more taxes than you. They pass the burden to the little guy.
Many are upset that a large portion of Americans pay no taxes. While many are not paying income taxes, everyone pays taxes. Everyone, pays the tax of inflation. Everyone, shoulders the burden of high corporate taxes by losing jobs to other countries, and paying more for goods and services. Everyone, pays sales taxes when they purchase goods and services. Except for those who are on some form of welfare, everyone is being sucked dry by a burdensome tax system.
The solution?
Make reform of the tax system a top priority in the upcoming election. Our founding fathers dumped tea into the harbor. We need to be bold. I'm not advocating violence or destruction of property. However, we need to make our leaders nervous, get in their faces. We need more peaceful protests. Having a large crowd march on Washington for one weekend is not enough.
More than anything, we need economic protest. Do not underestimate the economic power of millions of people.
#6 Military spending
I've been clear in the past about how I feel about military spending. We spend seven times more on national defense than China. Of course to fund this, we have to barrow money from China, thus giving them great power over us. Yet, we don't even bother to secure our own border. You would think that would be one of the first concerns of national defense.
It is time to close unneeded foreign bases. It is time to stop expending large resources to solve problems in other nations which have little (if anything) to do with our national security. It is time to stop depending on government contractors (which cost the tax payer far more) to do jobs which could be done by our actual military.
The solution
See the solution to #7
#5 Our national dept
I rank this at only five because it does not require much thought to fix this problem. If you are spending more than you are taking in or could take in, you need to cut spending. Don't raise the dept ceiling and require a balanced budget each year. Just like any other organization, the first thing the American government needs to do is balance the budget. That does not mean cutting the programs you don't like while continuing deficit spending on the programs you like. We need across the board spending cuts.
The solution
We need more house cleaning; 2012 and 2014 needs to be about getting rid of these spend happy dinosaurs of both parties who have infested Congress for decades. This does not mean vote for them if they change their tune and campaign on a balanced budget. They have been doing this for years with no results. There are a few that have good voting records and have been in for a while, but they are very few. It is time to vote out the old guard and be clear why. Congress works for us. If your employees are not doing what you pay them to do, and will not stop, you need to fire the ring leaders. The others will get the message.
#4 Our trade dept
We have the worlds largest trade dept. If this continues, the economy will only get worse. We are outsourcing jobs at an alarming rate. We need to stop signing free trade agreements with our enemies. Communist China, is not our friend. It is more than simply out-competing us; they are waging full scale targeted economic war. They are purposefully devaluing their currency to cut the price of their goods on the world market. They are using this trade surplus to buy up our resources, including land.
We need to create a business friendly climate. Less taxes. Less unneeded regulations.
The solution
While restructured trade agreements and the removal of government burdens would be a big help; ultimately the consumer has the power. It's not realistic to buy just American made products, but we can reduce our purchasing of foreign goods, especially Chinese goods. You are not saving money buying cheep Chinese products. If you think you are, I suggest you look again at how much you are paying in taxes, and figure out how much of that is paying for social programs like unemployment. Look at the label and do the right thing.
#3 Our freedoms are vanishing
The last century, America has year by year become less free. The government has restricted our economic freedoms by creating and expanding each year more socialist programs. Each year, there more unnecessary laws, which turn decent people into criminals. In the name of our security we have traded our freedom and received neither. We have the highest crime rate in the world. We also have the highest incarceration rate in the world; that includes countries such as Iran or North Korea.
The solution
Morality. Moral people can govern themselves. A century ago, a man's word was good enough to make a large purchase. Today, it takes a a legal contract for any kind of credit purchase. Why? Enough people have become immoral, to make such things necessary. I don't need a law that forbids me from shooting up heroin. I don't need a law forcing me to pay my debts. The cure for social ills is not through failed government programs like the war on drugs. We don't need more laws.
If you want future generations to live in freedom, you need to teach them morality when they are young. This does not mean we need a new government sponsored youth morality program. We need to counter the corporate media propaganda and government schools. I believe with all my heart, a large part of why we are having youth flash mobs, is because we are teaching macro evolution as absolute fact in public schools and in the media. When you teach children that they are nothing more than animals and combine this with moral relativism many of them will grow up to act like animals.
#2 Our families
I could write about this for days. Our families are in trouble.
We have the highest divorce rate in the world.
We have more and more children growing up in single parent homes. I was one.
Many parents are no longer raising their children
The solution
I'm not a parent, and am not going tell you how to raise your children. All I can do is look at trends and point out some things that would help society.
We need to cut cut social programs. A large part of why we have so many fatherless children is because the government has replaced the father in many homes. Before the Great Society few men were despicable enough to leave a woman and child destitute. While it is still a great evil, the man can justify it much more easily knowing that Uncle Sam will do his job.
While there are times when divorce is best, it should be a rarity. Abuse or infidelity are good reasons for a divorce; but we fell out of love? I was once engaged. I told the girl (nicely) that she better be sure, because once we are married it's to late to go back. I told her, if she ever wanted a divorce, I would make it as difficult as I possibly could.
My mother was far from being the perfect parent, but for all her flaws she did a lot of things right. I am blown away, by all the parents who want to be friends with their children, I'm glad my mom was not concerned about being friends with her seven year old child. I'm also troubled at how little time parents spend with their children. Part of this is a tax burden that forces both parents to work. Unfortunately, it's more than parents having busy work schedules. Even when they are all under one roof, many rarely interact the way families of the past did. TV and the internet are having a much greater impact on many children than their parents.
#1 Apathy
Any one of the previously mentioned problems should have a large majority of Americans concerned enough to make drastic changes. The most troubling thing I have noticed is the lack of outrage. People should have taken to the streets long ago. Instead, we have large portions of our society who just don't care. If you are reading this, you are probably not among the more apathetic. Thank you.
The question is, do you care enough to act? Every one of the problems I have listed have solutions we can influence. This is what the powers that be fear more than anything. This is why the media goes to such lengths to mock and demonize the Tea Party.
The solution
There are four things we need to do:
I. Weed out corruption.
A lot of people I talk to simply have stopped caring because they believe the system is so
broken it is not worth trying to fix. Again, I go back to the solution to #7.
II. Less circus
Many of the apathetic young people are being taught to be apathetic. They are not learning history or the principles of liberty in school. They think that sports and music are more important. I love sports and enjoy music, but those things are not more important than my country and community.
III. Less Bread
The Tea Party backlash has occurred because middle income earners have felt the pain. We need to stop making people comfortable in their poverty. We need to end long term unemployment, and seriously limit hand outs for people who have a sound body and mind. If you cut off the government check you will wake up a lot of people.
IV. Challenge people
Often we do not want to offend. Would you not tell someone if their house was on fire because you did not want to offend them by interrupting their dinner? The house is on fire!
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