The Pusillanimous need not apply
Jan 4th, 2010 by David Anderson
America is at a point of decision. Some say that we are a power in decline just like Rome of old. The case for decline pretty strong. We have gone from surplus to huge deficits in a decade. We have gone from almost of a third of the world’s GDP to less than a quarter. We have cultural rot and economic decline. We are half heartily engaged with radical Islam in a struggle of civilizations. We have lost about a third of our manufacturing base. We invest our time and resources into meaningless pursuits. Foreign lands hold the mortgage to our economy. Our treasuries were the safe haven for the world just a year ago and now are under pressure. The dollar lost half of its value. Some wonder if the decline can be reversed. I would add that we abort a million children a year. Our government run educational system is second to none in the developed world or third or fourth…. In fact half of the people will need a dictionary to understand the title (cowardly), not because they are not smart, but because the system does not teach.
I understand why people look and say that America is in a decline. It happens to all great powers. Interestingly enough, the Roman example offers a measure of hope. Rome reinvented itself and bought itself more time. America has no great competitor. Our nearest one is China. It has its own challenges. I will address its strengths and weaknesses another day.
We still have breathing room. We can still make the changes necessary to build upon the American heritage of freedom, prosperity, and family.
I believe that we need to address 5 areas.
Strengthening the economic foundation of our land.
Strengthening our Cultural foundations.
Strengthening our national security.
Securing our families.
Strengthening our Human Capital by valuing it as much as our financial capital.
If you are up to the challenge, engage with me on these ideas over the coming weeks. I will address each in detail.
This week, I will start with the economy.
If an enemy wanted to weaken America, he could not have done a better job designing our tax system, monetary, and trade policy. We need to abandon our tax system which costs us a quarter trillion in compliance cost, penalizes savings, pushes us into an ineffective and costly health insurance scheme, rewards relocating jobs overseas, taxes hiring people, focuses more on redistribution of wealth than creation of wealth. I believe that the Fair Tax would solve all of these issue. It is a tax program designed and vetted by economists not politicians and lobbyists.
I believe that America was built by having an aggressive trade policy, now we are basing our trade policy upon redistributing the wealth to the rest of the world and it is working. Free trade works. Unfortunately, what we have in many cases is one way free trade. We have lost half of our manufacturing base in the last 25 years and nearly a third in the last decade.
We have not really thought about our national infrastructure since Eisenhower. Ike gave us nuclear power, the interstate highways, the research programs which gave us the space program and other advances, and other basic infrastructures which gave us a foundation for prosperity for 50 years. I think the Perry commission has started to lay down the framework for the new century. We need to pay attention. We have to develop our own energy, upgrade our electric and communications infrastructure, and value engineering again.
We need to address run away federal and state spending. I am all for devolution of responsibility to the appropriate level closest to the people. If the individual can best handle a problem, leave it there. Some problems should be solved in the private sector. Some by local and or state governments. Some by the federal government. A few need international cooperation. The current attitude is bigger is better. If we value controling our own lives, smaller is better.
I like the thinking on entitlement reform advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan. We need to find a sustainable way to deal with the entitlement time bomb. The promises made by the federal government are 4 times larger than the economy. They are unsustainable. We need smarter ways to provide services. Services provided in the private economy create wealth. Services provided in the public sector usually subtract from wealth. Government needs to encourage development of the private sector and stop trying to be all things to all people.
Our culture is corrupt and vulgar; even if this is not so when applied to the ‘average’ American on an individual basis. The media hierarchy that drives the ‘entertainment’ industry- music, videos, movies, television and magazines knows that appealing to base desires, particularly sex, sells. And, since it takes very little talent to produce smut, it is inexpensive to produce, thus, is quite profitable. Whether your desire, as a producer of garbage, is to weaken the national ethic (and thereby make the popuation more vulnerable to alternative sociopolitical models) or simply to make money, smut (and promoting homosexuality, self-mutilation, etc.) is an effective means to the desired end.
Rome was an ossified universal state, existing only to perpetuate its own miserable existence. Christianity offered a venue for the creative minority to exercise their talents, abilities that would have remained repressed under Roman administration. Ultimately, Christianity was the catylist that led to the modern Westen state. Now, we are returning to our roots, so to speak.
Christianity is vibrant and ready for the challenge. The corruption of the culture has helped to awaken it.
That is certainly possible.
America is a resilient nation filled with a good and wise people. We, the people, will not be long fooled by foolish leadership. Courses will be corrected. Fresh starts made.
Political personalities in Washington will come and go. They are only “temp” employees. The common sense wisdom of the common man will prevail. Our nation will resume her journey.
We Americans will not let our country fail.