So Where Do We Go From Here

I was told tonight that most people are too busy living to fight the system. It's a good point. But I think, especially after rereading some of the Constitution, like I did for last night's post, that we all have to step out for a moment from behind our lives and speak out.

We have an obligation for the freedom our these old white slave owners have passed on to us. They weren't perfect and they birthed a country that's not perfect. We're spoilt, arrogant, prissy do gooders on the international stage. We're selfish, stubborn, self righteous bigots at home. And people still want to come here to live.

Go figure.

So we the people have an obligation to set a national standard. This is a call to revolution. I don't mean an overthrow of the government and the constitution. That blood soaked document is the backbone of the vision America has of itself. We just need to use it to our advantage. The political parties who are dictating the leadership and the policies in this country need to be brought to heel. Neither Republicans or Democrats have shown they have the best interests of this country at heart. They only care about power.

OK. That's the way the world works. So WE THE PEOPLE need to speak up to the caucuses and back room dealers and the politicos. Tell them that we need them to meet the basic goals of the manifesto. Tell them, Republican or Democrat, that they MUST obey. No more lies. No more sound bites. Hard, cold concrete facts.

We can't have social programs without a funding source that is renewable.

Taxes depend on the growth of the economy. With a good economy, one built on creativity and accomplishment, as opposed to subservience and dealing, people will have the money to pay taxes.

Make the tax system fair. Everyone pays, each to their ability.

Make the care of our poor, old and infirm a reality. The current system of health care must change in order to fix the problems.

Recognize the realities of economics. Economics is the study of how external forces affect the flow of trade. Everything from Aunt Myrtle's indigestion to the latest bill in front of Congress affects the economy. Greenspan proved how he could manipulate the economy by simply changing interest rates. So every change to the rules effects change to the economy. The trick is to find the right changes.

As an engineer, when faced with a problem that has too many variables to calculate I would try to derive an empirical solution by changing factors until I understood the behavior of the system. Market economists will certainly call me an idiot for suggesting it, but a public experiment might just have the effect of generating the controlled changes we need to improve opportunities for the youth and help pay for the old folks.

Think about Reagan's "trickle down economics". Not much of a theory but rather a touch stone of capitalism. Whatever it was did have an effect on the economy. Legislation guides our economy, whether intended or not. We should have front page public reporting of the effects each law has.

I'll finish tonight on this note: My investigation into the energy bill to find examples of legislative economic impact brought me face to face with the illiteracy of profundity. These boys can't get one clear thought through all of their hedging. There ought to be a law requiring clarity in bills. Maybe there is one, but they certainly didn't get the results expected from it.

I suppose that's one more thing to go one the manifesto. A style guide for clarity in legislation. Put a roomful of lawyers out of business if anyone could read these documents and no where they stood.

Details

The devil's in the details.

In order to have a new manifesto we need to be clear what that means. The manifesto is a living document that details our (the body politic) view on how the country shall be run and what the national goals are.

For instance:

We require honest politicians who look for the best ways to accomplish the goals of the manifesto.

We require universal affordable health care that is paid for by a vigorous economy.

We require constructive work in our economy. Makers are happier than users and typically more satisfied.

We require participation by all people.

We require fairness to all.

We require justice to take off her blindfold and check reality.

We require that the constitution be treated as the straightforward document it is. There are no hidden meanings or unwritten rules. We are a country of free and responsible people who OWN the government. We are not children.

We require our government to concern itself with the welfare of the citizens of this country, whether it be their economic, social or international well being. Remember Americans love to travel but we can't if a) we can't afford it and b) we're going to be killed. Let's try NOT to piss off the rest of the people in the world...

We require that the government study issues without regards to partisan feeling and present the results in a clear and concise manner to the general populous. Don't say that we won't understand, MAKE us understand.

Now some people might find this outline of a manifesto insulting. Some might find it naive. Some may agree on one point but disagree violently on others. Good. Tell me what you think. How can we make this a better document? What do we want our government to do?

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. (copied from http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Preamble)

Doesn't that speak volumes? We the people... form the government and are the government. Let us stand forth and tell them what to do.

Foreign Policy

Do you ever wonder who sets foreign policy? Are there old man in dark boardrooms making decisions based on economic (for them) advantage? Is it the concerted will of the people? Or is foreign policy set solely on the inclinations of an individual?

The essence of foreign policy ought to be the welfare of our country and our society. This might seem obvious but some of the foreign policy issues to date do seem a little at odds with the needs of our country. Like the supposed free trade pacts. CAFTA and NAFTA both allow American captal to move jobs from the US to foreign countries (or worse lets foreign capital in foreign countries take market share and jobs away from us.)

In one way it could be a good thing, taking old technology and dead end jobs from our economy freeing up workers to take on new technology related positions. But that's not happening. The technology sector is out sourced to well educated but underpaid countries like India and China where workers make a fraction of the American wage yet produce equal or better product.

Sounds hard to hear? Ask another question. How many parents are having children in their 20's come to them with carreer questions? What can you tell them? The technology bubble burst. We have more computer geeks than we need and don't want to pay them anymore. They can study the really hard biologicals and do something useful assuming they can cram all the details biology demands into their skulls before they die. Average people aren't seeing average jobs in any creative technical sector. All the kids can reasonably look forward to is making fast food or selling washing machines made in China.

Oh yeah I forgot... Our foreign policy has made many openings in the Army and Marine Corps. Great travel opportunities and rapid advancment.

What is a Minimum Standard of Living?

Good question.

I've been told by banks that your debt to income ration shouldn't exceed 36% including your home and utilities. If that is a measure to gage standard of living then lets do the arithmetic.

I live in a rural area. My house payment (mortgage + taxes + insurance) = $783 per month
Utilities (electric and oil, telephone, internet access, satellite TV) average = $702 per month
Total = $1485
For a 36% Debt to Income Ratio I must make AT LEAST...... $4125 per month

Of course that's pre tax income.....

Let's confuse the issue.... This $50000 a year supposed income is taxed at approximately 33% by all concerned with such things. That make a monthly take home of....................... $2763.75

and a net disposable income of ..........................................................................$1278.75
Of course this disposable income is needed to pay medical expenses, - $250
food - $500
gas - $200
clothing - $100
misc - $100
leaving a balance of .............. $128.75 PER MONTH
to go to savings, credit card debt, religious obligations and fun......

Not bad on $50K a year.

But that salary, based on a normal work week of 40 hours and getting paid for holidays = $24 per hour wages.

Unfortunately the median income for all occupations in Northern NY where I hail from is $26,770 which translates to ....................................................... $12.87 per hour.

Which means two people working at decent (not minimum wage) jobs, might be able to get by. Unless something happened to one of them. Or their wages didn't keep up with the actually increases in the cost of living.

More to follow.

Sound Bites (or Are we as stupid as they think we are?)

During the last presidential election the commentators constantly referred to the need to create the perfect soundbite to impress the populace.

I have to ask my self why?

These sound bites are like movie trailers. Short on substance, long on flash and sometimes its the best part of the whole movie.

What's wrong with the political system? Do they really think we're that stupid? The pundants claim the average citizen is too busy to sort through the polemics of political thought on all the muzzy issues in front of us today. They claim we (Joe Average citizen) would rather get a thorough report on Angela Jolie's latest conquest as opposed to lucid political discourse on the values and solutions presented by proposed leaders.

Instead we're supposed to vote for the guy we believe will "git 'er done" whatever we believe "it" is.

Look at the results of the last election. We got a "git 'er done" leader, no doubt in my mind. What he intends to get done is not quite within spitting distance of what Joe Average wanted him to get done.

Let's consider that the "parties" need to open a dialogue with the people, and instead of proposing they listen. It's not a Democratic or Republican position whether we need health care, support for the retirees, jobs for the kids that have a future and goals, energy in quantities to support our standard of living or honest politicians who are up front and honest with the public. Let the parties tell us what values they espouse. Who is really important to them, and how they are really going to meet our needs.

Let there be open political debate on the goals our country needs to set for itself and the methods we use to achieve these goals.

Let the press (print and electronic media) keep the reporting to substance and eschew the posing and sound bites. Hell if the press ignored the posturing then the parties wouldn't bother.

People it's time to demand honesty in politics. For the good of our country and our freedom.

TANSTAAFL

Tanstaafl is an acronym for "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch".

The sentiment comes from the sage SciFi writer Robert H. Heinlein where he explains the meaning in his novel "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress." Essentially the moon is ( in his story ) a prison colony that by its nature must be self sufficient. Nothing is free, including water and air. This tended to make the Lunies (as they styled themselves) very industrious people.

This harsh reality is not fiction but allegory.

Nothing comes free. We've heard the patriotic phrase a hundred times "Freedom isn't free, but paid for in the blood of patriots." This is true, and so is "for every profit taken someone else has to pay."

Politicians, Big Business and the People are on the this merry go round, pointing at each other saying someone else has to pay. I could go into the myriad ramifications of this you pay I profit circle but its as pointless to detail it as it is for the players to participate.

We all have to pay.

Big Business is the engine of the American economy and the People are its backbone. You can't starve the engine and you can't break the backbone. Politicos are responsible for this balancing act, or should be. Governments create an economic reality. (Oxymoron: How can you create a reality????) But in fact we bend our economic efforts around avoiding paying taxes. So does Big Business, and they do it better. Big Business does it so well that they take their capital off shore to avoid paying tax at all while removing capital from the pockets of the PEOPLE.

Fair is fair. Without the people being solvent corporate America has to rely on third world countries for its income. If we're important to their pocket books then they should treat us with respect.

If I were to write a new way of budgeting money in Washington I would make every project, every "pork barrel" (though many of them have a lot of validity in road construction and helping the local governments help the people) every need out of Congress and the White House, subject to a line item veto of the people. Not a vote so much as a comparison to the requirements of this New Manifesto.

Does the project benefit the people? Are the costs of the project being shared equitably by all sources of capital? Does the project meet the standard of integrity we expect of our government?

How many line items in the current budget would meet these requirement? Half? Ten percent? Any?? I don't know. I expect the answer is "damn few." The tax system in itself isn't fair and equitable. The burdens and expectations placed on the average working man exceed his capability to pay. The benefits of many projects are not obvious.

Why does the War in Iraq come to mind? Who is benefiting from that? Not us. Not the Iraqis, at least in the sense that its hard to plan a future if you aren't sure you'll live through the night. The only possible beneficiary of the War in Iraq project seems to be Al-Qaida. They are getting trained in the most grueling school every created, attacking and resisting the strongest, smartest and best led Army on the face of the earth. They are gaining recruits to their cause or faction or whatever they think it is.

On the other hand they are teaching the youth of the Arab-Islamic world that the only value they have to the old men who lay down the fatwahs is to die. So instead of a steady stream of eager young minds being trained to creativity and commerce they have a steady stream of fools blowing themselves to hell and leaving no hope for the rest of their people.

I guess we need to say TANSTAAFL to the mullahs as well.

Politics is Economics

In the same vein as my last post, politics is the control of economic forces.

When a group of people come together economic forces are unleashed. What one member of the group has another needs. How these needs are met defines the nature of the economy. Some places and some times the needs of one are gratified by use of force. In other times and places trade occurs. In all cases someone benefits more by the trade than another.

Politics occur when people allow their trade and equity to be controlled by an individual or an organization. In all cases the populace has to believe their leadership is serving their interests. If not, invariably, just as Rome fell, governments change.

In our country we handle this change in a less violent manner than Rome. The emperor is seldom assassinated in the physical sense. Morals, ethics and legalities, on the other hands are all valid assassination techniques in the politicos play book.

So where does that leave us. We are the backbone of the economy. As Americans we are as independent as cats. We hate to do anything other than what suits our "lifestyle". We leave politics to the dirty politicians and vote for the lesser of the evils, if there is such a thing. And we, in so doing, cede our country to the morally impoverished and egotistical.

We need more than a regime change (a favorite phrase of a certain president named Dubyah). We need a fundamental shift in the way we as Americans view government and politics. This is not a call to Anarchy. Anarchists are like Atheists. Short sighted. We need to refuse the panderings of the politically astute. We need to raise our voices in our demands for action that benefits all. Worry the side issues later. Lets rethink the American Economy.

Why? How can we do anything about something that is? The economy is a living breathing monster obedient only to its stomach. What it consumes is what it is. The advertising world has proven that over and over again. Selling $150 running shoes for kids to single parents struggling to make ends meet. Selling gas guzzling rugged four wheel drive vehicles to Moms and Dads whose idea of going off road is to drive on the grass at the soccer/ baseball/football field.

So lets tell "them" what we want to sell. We want to sell renewable energy sources and the hydrogen economy. We want healthcare for everyone. Period. We want true security for our old people and our own declining years, and a guarantee that if we should be smart enough to have something left over we can use it to our children's benefit or the benefit of others without the State expecting some or all of it. We need the rule of innocent until proven guilty to actually apply to the innocent. We need the right to protect ourselves spelled out so there can be no confusion about who the bad guy is. Self defense in the course of ones lawful normal daily life should get you a pat on the back and not a criminal hearing.

We need to NOT accept bad politicians.

If a leader is morally ethically or legally bankrupt he should not be allowed to lead us. We the people of the United States of America, shall NOT except anyone less than a leader who is fair and honest, who seeks truth and honor in his daily business and who is responsive not just to polls but to the real needs of the people.

The Economics of Politics

While, no doubt, common knowledge among the business and mercantile congnicenti, politics is a matter of economics. Money drives special interests. Money drives campaigns. Where money is spent drives voter interest.

Money. Money. Money.

However necessary money is to the wheels of government and the economy of the nation, just like your home budget, the country needs to set priorities. The moral standard we set for home should be echoed in the governments planning, but then our home budgets are a reflection, a mirror image, of the priorities the government sets.

For instance: We budget more for medicine when the government budgets less
We budget more for education when the government budgets less.
We budget less for self defense when the government budgets more.

OK and on a personal note: I spent thousands educating my children in private schools that didn't give a rats patooty about their aptitudes interests or desires. I spend thousands every year on medicines I don't really believe in, Dr's tests and hospital bills. I also have guns but not for self defense. I wouldn't want to waste the cost of the bullets (or the legal fees but that's the subject of another post I think).

The point here is: A better general study of the economics of everyday life needs to be made. Or made public. To include an accurate definition of what the "average" family spends their money on. Then figure the up and down sides of the bell curve. You know... One and two standard deviations each way? Lets see how the "deviants" live as well. Some people can make very little money and live well. Others can make "stupid" money and always be in debt. We need a thorough public study of the economy presented with scenarios everyone can relate to .

The economy is the root of our society. Not the root of its strength or the root of its problems, just the root. Always been that way. Before Rome fell the Emperor needed to keep the people happy in order to maintain order and therefore power. Several did this by ordering months of feasts and circuses where they literally fed the populace for free and entertained them all day. Most of the people in Rome went to the circuses so there was little business being done. The economy of the state quickly declined, which prevented the Emperor from paying for the bread and circuses, and the Army which revolted, killed the Emperor and replaced him with another who stole enough money to provide bread and circuses. This sounds a lot like the last few elections in the US. Slick Willy and Dubyah. What a pair of con men.

We the people need to realize the economy runs through our hands and so does the economy of politics. We don't have to take the crap politicians that are handed to us. We don't need to look for the circus. What we need is to present the pols with a coherent plan.

Do this. This is our Manifesto.

4th of July

I spent the Fourth of July celebration with some GIs just back from Iraq. We talked and drank and shot guns in my woods (all legal) and generally had a good time.

Conversation ranged from women to the tour they just completed. They didn't offer a lot of detail regarding their experiences but one comment was telling. This one grizzled veteran (28 ) said: "It's not that there's a lot of fire fights. It's the IEDs. Everytime you go outside the fence you never know if your time is up."

That's anyone's definition of courage.

We the People

For some reason we've allowed the managment of our country to de-evolve from a people driven democracy to an us vs them autocracy. Witness the trashing of presidential candidate Howard Dean. The only candidate with an honest and detailed alternative to the faux Texan in the White House was dumped by the news media because he yelled.

How F$%%))_ ignorant is that.

The only other candidate to show any metal was Rev. Al Sharpton who conceeded his candidacy on race early on but stayed to show the country that there was more to politics than a sound bite.

So the two most human and normal candidates were shunted out of the race for the presidential nomination because of they were normal and human. Instead we had the double talking sound bite generating POLITICIANS running the show. AGAIN.

And we let them run the show into the ground.

I'm not a Democrat or Republican. I am not a Liberal or a Conservative. I despise these labels because they imply a preprogrammed platform of beliefs. Mine are simple.

I believe the people have a responsibility to control the government.

I believe the government should be the rational exercise of the will of the people.

I believe we should question the actions of the government and the politicians.

I believe the government, when it acts on the will of the people, should at least offer us all sides of the story instead of feeding us bullsh$$ to get a bill passed or to appear to be doing the will of the people.

Instead we have sound bite politicians reacting and controlling our governments policies and actions. Picture this : W in any red neck bar kicking back with a long neck and a couple of chums, lets call them Bubba 1 and Bubba2.

W: Well damn Bubba whatcha thinkin' or you jest drinkin'?

B1: I'm thinkin' we need to do some ass whuppin'

B2: I could go for that. Who's ass you wanna wup? Some of them funny talkin' fellows from up North?

B1: Nah. Stirs'em up t' much. They'd send lawyers in. Can't have that's. 'S no fun beating up lawyers. They jest sue ya. I think we need to whup them Ragheads over in A-Rabia. W's Daddy did a good job of it back when.

B2: Yeah too bad he didn't have the stones to kick that bearded freak's ass.

W: Guy's!! Daddy did his best.

B1: Uh Huh. It was a pretty war. Blew the shit out of that country. Too bad we didn't get the top dawg there, though. Kinda like that bass that slipped your hook last weekend. How big you say that boy was? 2 maybe 3 feet? Damn I ain't never seen a bass that big.

B2: Well boys I don't think W ever saw a Bass that big either...

(General laughter: They all know bullshit when the see it.)

B2: Of course there's that freaky Osama Raghead. Heard tell he wants to destroy the Yoonited States of America for which we stand...

W: What country does he own?

B1. Osama? He owns a couple of plantations but he lives in a cave in Afghanistan.

W: Wheres 'Ghanistan?

B2: That's where the Rooskies got there asses kicked. Remember? All rocks and dirt.

W: Oh yeah I saw that on TV. Good movie. Let's kick the Russian's asses...

B1: Can't do that. They're our friends.

W: I' d kick your ass. You're my friend.

B1: You'd try....

B2: Guys.... Have another beer W.

W: don't mind if I do... So we gonna kick some ass?

B1: Yeah let's do it.

B2: So whose ass we kickin'?

W: Let's get Hussein. He's easier to find than Osama, his country is more like Texas and he's got OIL.

B1: Damn W. You are a chip off the old block...............................