America is in crisis on many fronts. She is facing some of the most challenging problems since she was formed. The problem is many Americans are not accepting the reality, the facts, the truth of our problems. Politicians in Washington need to also stop the arguing back and forth about our problems and start to solve them, time is running out to solve them.
I hope that in this column, I am able to do one thing and that is to inform, educate and hopefully get people to accept the facts, the truth, the reality of our problems and stop demanding outrageous things that can no longer be expected. I am going to list our problems and offer simple logical common sense solutions to these problems. I wonder if the politicians that need to solve these problems have the intelligence to understand there are simple solutions.
Let's begin with most pressing problem - The 10% unemployment problem:
What has caused the loss of nearly ten million jobs over the last ten years?
The closing of plants in the U.S. and the outsourcing of these jobs overseas is what has caused it. And Walmart my dear Americans has been
the leader of the pack causing this.
Did you know that nearly all refrigerators are now made either in Mexico, China or South Korea. Whirlpool still has a few plants in Canada and a couple of the U.S., but to compete with all these foreign brands, it too had to go south reluctantly. And believe me from my own experience the last couple of months pertaining to this, you want to try and find a refrigerator still made in the U.S. or Canada. They are far and few between but you will save yourself a lot of headaches if you do. It will also keep jobs here in the U.S. Inside the door, top right usually or on the label inside the door is where the appliance
was manufactured at. Make sure you check to see where it was manufactured at. If you check consumer complaint boards, you will find many complaints
about compressors going out in 3-5 years on these things made south of the border and elsewhere.
Corporations such as Walmart must stop dictating to companies that they must go overseas to make products cheaper to sell in Walmart stores. And you the consumer need to stop purchasing them made overseas.
I have written and warned what was to come concerning job losses and the causes over the last several years. You may wish to read them.
What Has Truly Caused the Job Losses and the Banking Crisis - The Facts! February 6, 2010
Job Loss and Unemployment Hit Records Highs
November 30, 2008
The Truth About The Job Loss In America -
More Job LossesTo Follow - February 20, 2004
The bottom line if you want jobs in America again. Americans must start buying made in the U.S.A. again to bring the jobs back home. Americans have got to stop buying the Walmart, Kmart, Target specials made in China, Taiwan, Malaysia or wherever.
IIf Americans do not start buying made in the U.S.A., you will never see the jobs come back home. The only way to get this message across is to hit these corporations in their pocketbooks, they have shareholders they report to, don't forget that also.
We need to stop the tax credits to corporations for going overseas. Instead give corporations tax credits for reopening plants here in the U.S.
The Financial Meltdown/ The Economy Problem
Oh boy, this is so simple. I loved President Reagan as a human being. He was a kind, caring, loving man that truly cared about his fellow man, but he knew nothing about economics, greed and crooks. He also had a bunch of crooks in his cabinet that led him around by the nose doing things such as the banking deregulation acts during his two terms that set the stage for the 2008-2009 financial meltdown. It opened up pandora's box for greedy crooks in the financial markets and look what happened to ENRON, have you forgotten that mess?
And the selling of mortgage derivatives? This means basically the reselling and reselling of mortgages over and over again based on "future" worth of appraisal. This only produces "fake" equity based on market values that can decline at any time and when they do because of loss of jobs - guess what - the market collapses worldwide because these things were sold worldwide.
I have readers that have written me telling me after weeks of dealing with trying to find out who actually owns their mortgage, many have found out that their mortgage had been sold as many as 20 times over the last ten or so years and was actually owned by investment banks in France, Germany, England and of all places Saudi Arabia. Even the Bank of China.
You see, every time these mortgage packages are resold as a derivatives, each person gets a commission on the re-sell, which is always higher and higher. They are sold on future earnings of the interest rate and current so called appraised value. Do see now how pandora's box was opened for greedy crooks and it is still going on today.
President Obama wants to bring this out in the open. The Financial Giants and certain members of Congress are fighting him on it just like they did Health Care Reform. The reason why they are fighting him is because once this gets regulated, it will stop this producing of "fake wealth" that these crooks are making billions on. These conglomerates including some of the top banking conglomerates, CitiCorp, Bank America, Wells Fargo will lose billions of dollars on "fake" assets. That is why Goldman-Sachs executives have recently been force to appear before Congress. It is estimated that Goldman-Sachs will lose over $20 billion annually when regulated. However, the hearings were more like a witch hunt by all members on the panel from both parties, they really didn't get to the root of the problem and that is financial reform and regulation must be instituted at once.
What started this mess was the deregulation that started in 1986. It opened the door for third party mortgage brokers offering low interest teaser rates. These companies were qualifying people for $150,000 homes based on incomes that really only qualified them for a $60,000 home. Reason? The interest rate was ridiculously low at around 1.5 to 2 % for 3 to 5 years….however, after that time it would change to prime + 1,2 or 3%.
Sure, it got these people into these homes of $150,000 with payments of only around $700.00 a month, but when the 3 or 5 years were up, guess what, their payments just tripled to over $2,100 a month which they could not afford. And then there were all those people refinancing and refinancing during this time, again getting these low ridiculous rates for 3-5 years, and then BOOM, their payments went up. Now, couple this with the loss of jobs because of corporations closing plants and moving overseas and what do you have…people not being able to afford their homes because their months payments have now tripled when the teaser interest rate went away - they can't afford much less anything because of loss of jobs and what do you wind up with…the financial meltdown of 2008-2009.
And there are these people who I feel are missing the boat on seeing the depth of America's problems. They attend protests listening to Sarah Palin about less government and lower taxes and it puzzles me to no end. What is so alarming is the people at some of these rally's are allowed to
carry arms to these protests… you see these big bully looking men carrying these big rifles as if to say, don't mess with me. How inane is that? What is that solving? Nothing because, I'm sorry these people don't have a clue to what the real problems are, what and who caused them and they don't want to accept that we have some real problems in this country and their mis-informed demands of less government and less taxes is NOT A reality!
Please, would people with intelligence please email me and tell me you see the simplicity of this problem and that we have to get things changed, more Regulation to prevent this from ever happening again!
Again, I wrote and warned about these problems in these columns in years past:
What Has Truly Caused the Job Losses and the Banking Crisis Meltdown - The Facts! February 20, 2010
Causes Of The Financial Crisis Today - September 18, 2008
America.. It's Time For Some Wake Up Calls ! - June 28, 2008
Eyes on China - The Price Of Oil - August 30, 2004
President Bush, while in office two terms increased federal spending 21% and the Republicans who were in control of Congress during this time participated in this --- continued to hawk for more tax reductions for the big corporations, especially the banking corporations. The real truth in these so called tax reductions, the average American worker is getting much less than those earning $200,000 or more a year. The Bush Administration while all the while talked about less government boosted the number of people working in the Federal Goverment to a 15 year record high. And on top of this all, he started a war that is costing $87 to $90 billion dollars a year since he started it.
DAILY COST OF IRAQ WAR - DAILY: $720 million in 2008, that is $2.62 TRILLION A YEAR
DAILY COST OF AFGHANISTAN WAR: $13 to $17 million 2003 to 2008, that is $6.2 BILLION a year
By 2010, both wars will have cost the U.S. $8.2 TRILLION DOLLARS
For all of these tea party groups and other people wanting less government, less taxes, in case you have not understood the facts, we can't have lower taxes. America has TOO much debt to pay off. That is the simple truth, the facts. The facts and truth speaks for themselves. The problem
is some people simply don't want to accept them. Can I ask a simple question? With this amount of debt along that has been created because of the wars in Irag and Afghanistan and don't forget the billions we have given to Pakistan and other countries to fight terrorism, how do you expect this to be paid? Do you think that someone is just going come along and wipe the debt away?
It is no different than you going out an running up credit cards. If you don't pay them, what happens? You have to file bankruptcy. We can't have lower taxes because of this debt because it would cause the U.S. to go bankrupt and if you think the last depression was horrific, well the one that would rise from this failure would be ten times worse just because of the population growth since 1929. So all you people carrying sign at protests wanting lower taxes, it just can't happen and you are going to have to accept that reality. This is what I mean... have certain Americans lost all sense of reality of our problems? Yes they have and it is time people to grasp the reality, we have some very serious problems in this country and we better start working to resolve them now. What worsens this problem is the amount of debt that America owes other countries, especially Japan and China. See the section below for these details. America owes $8.5 trillion in government bonds and notes to governments. Where do you think we have gotten the money to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The tooth fairy? And it has to be paid back and that cannot be done with lower taxes for anyone. The one thing President Obama pushed for was the severe indifference of how many making more than $200,000 a year were paying less taxes that someone making $50,000.00 a year.
Those are the things that must be corrected and there are many. Actually in my opinion, they need to do away with the present 4,000 page tax code and filing and institute a flat National Federal Income that everyone pays regardless. Same for corporations, a flat tax, no deductions, a flat tax on revenue. This would save over $400 million a year alone in the present tax collection methods. When are we going to start doing things simple in America instead of doing things backasswards and so complicated with any of our problems or areas of government? I have come to the opinion that we create havoc and more problems by all the red tape bureauracy we have created in government. We don't necessarily need more government, we do in some areas like banking regulation, but we need to clean up the ridiculous red tape out there, simplify things, do things easier because if we do, it is done more efficient with less costs. I strongly believe we have people that do nothing in our governement but who sit around thinking, "well now how complicated can I make this to prorect me job?" It sure seems that way doesn't it to you? But let me caution you, we do need regulation and oversight by our government to protect us and our rights from crooks,
but it must be the correct and efficient regulations and oversight.
IMMIGRATION:
What really boils my blood is when I see state after state starting to publish Driving Tests in Spanish and nearly every state now publishes election forms in Spanish. In addition, public documents are now being published and paid for by tax dollars to have these documents published in Spanish. In addition,
they are paying to have notices published in newspapers on election both in English and Spanish. Where and how did this get started and why
did we let this get out of hand. Why are we allowing people to vote that can't speak, read or write English?
What is wrong with this picture? Hello…this country was formed on the English language, NOT Spanish! We need to stop accommodating these people. If they don't want to learn to speak, read, and write English, then they need to go back to their own
countries, regardless of where they come from. This is insane. The Spanish population has grown from only about 6% of the population twenty years ago to over 31% today. It is also estimated that nearly one third of this 31% cannot read, write or speak English. What is wrong with this picture? Not only are we spending tax dollars to publish things Spanish, but hospitals have to have on staff at all times someone that speaks Spanish to handle emergency room patients who can only speak Spanish. That problem is now in homes for the elderly where more and more older Spanish people are being put into
homes that cannot speak English. Where does this end?
There are a couple of states that are putting referendums on their ballots come November to do away with all of this. Our tests for citizenship or to acquire any government service, test for drivers license, a social security must only be printed in English, nor more Spanish. How did we get here? And no I am not a racists. I have some very dear Spanish friends. I think they are some of the most loving and caring people I know, but if you can't speak, read and write English and don't want to or can't, I'm sorry, you need to go back to your own country. America is not for you if you do not want to respect her enough to learn to read, write and speak English. This goes for anyone, even if they some from the planet Venus and only speak Venusian.
I am also tired of seeing a Mexican national flag being paraded down a U.S. City to protest immigration laws by most likely people that are here illegally.
How did we allow the politicians in Washington to sit on their asses all these years and let these things get out of control? I tell you how. Because you,
America were not paying attention to what was going on. Politicians have not addressed the immigration issue because they have been wanting the
Spanish voter. All parties do it and it is wrong. This issue must be addressed now as President Obama's says regardless of who likes it. We have Arizona passing a law that gives power to a police state to question a person's citizenship basically by their skin color. We are all in jeopardy with this law and we never should have let it go this far, but we did. Bush and even Clinton by giving amnesty when he was in term did not address this issue and now we have this mess today. Why do we do these things to ourselves. Are we not smarter than this? Yes, we are, the problem is our country was high jacked by crooks for a number of years, and I am talking about both Republicans and Democrats!
Again, I wrote and warned about these problems in these columns in years past:
The Costs of illegal immigrants - April 15, 2006
Is It Time To Really Close The Southern Border? February 28, 2005
There can be no more amnesty for the illegals that are in the country as Clinton gave nearly 4 million when it was in office. It is estimated that there are nearly 15 million illegals in this country taking away from Americans nearly 5 million jobs in construction and other jobs such as hotel cleaning, restaurants, even meat packing plants and chicken farms, not to mention the farm produce pickers.
HEALTH CARE REFORM:
I have written extensively on this issue and why.
Below are links to my columns. Read them. This must be changed even further to provide every American access to health care and we need a National
Health Care program and do away with all profit making health insurance companies in this country. Some say no..no..socialized medicine. Hello, we already are there with Medicare and Medicaid, the problem is it is costing the government and YOU the taxpayer a hell of a lot more than it should if we eliminated greedy profit making health insurance companies. Do you know how much the executives at the top ten health insurance companies were awarded in bonuses?
In 2007, $480 billion was paid to the top ten profit making health insurance companies in addition to another $500 billion in employee matched contributions and another $10 billion from individuals. This is nearly $1 trillion plus annually paid out in bonuses to These profit making entities out of health care insurance payments you make each month either as an individual or as a business owner.
Health care costs increase 50% during Bush two terms and he sat there and did nothing!
These were the facts before the Health Care Reform Bill was passed but it still does not solve the problem!
We have 45 million adult Americans and 15 million children in this country without health care.
And yet we have 11 million children in this country going to bed hungry every night.
And yet we have over 7 million elderly that have to choose between food or medicine.
122 Americans Die Each Day for Lack of Health Insurance Nov., 4, 2009
Has Common Sense and Honesty In Health Reform Been Replaced With GREED? ...Follow The Money - August 19, 2009
WHO OWNS AMERICA ?
Do you know? Here are the facts.
Foreign purchases of U.S. securities rose in April as investors ramped up their purchases of U.S. Treasuries and bonds.
Foreign countries acquired $102.8 billion in long-term maturity U.S.securities in April, nearly double the $53.3 billion purchased in March, according to the Treasury International Capital report, which the Department of the Treasury releases each month.
However, the biggest holder of Treasury debt was the U.S. government itself, with about 52 percent of the total $8.5 trillion in paper that's out there. Most of the government's holdings are massive savings accounts for programs like Social Security and Medicare. Just as you may prefer to keep your Individual Retirement Account in the safe Treasury bonds, the folks who manage the Social Security Trust Fund are looking for a secure investment, too, but how safe are they?
So, that leaves a little over $4 trillion in public hands. The biggest chunk (about 25 percent of the $8.5 trillion total) is held by foreign governments. Japan tops the list (with $644 billion), followed by China ($350 billion), United Kingdom ($239 billion) and oil exporting countries ($100 billion).
Other big holders of Treasury debt include state and local governments ($467 billion); individual investors, including brokers ($423 billion);
public and private pension funds (319 billion); mutual funds ($243 billion); holders of US savings bonds ($206 billion); insurance companies
($166 billion) and banks and credit unions ($117 billion.)
U.S.Treasury Listing from Treasury Dept. website
Make sure you read my column that covers this and more…
Causes Of The Financial Crisis Today - September 18, 2008
Global Warming:
Unless this is immediately addressed by Americans and people from around the globe, In another 50 years, the earth as we know it will not exist. The facts are in.
Make sure you read my column that covers this and more that I first wrote in 1997 and warned people about this. I again wrote about it in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Global Warming - Fact or Fiction - August, 1997
Rain forests diminishing by 10% a year. Worldwide oxygen production decreasing.
Global Warming August 1997
Global Warming: Is It Too Late? - March 2006, Updated April, 2007, August 2008
Ice Shelf Falls Off Into Artic - Is Global Warming Real Enough Now?
Global Warming March 2006, Updated April 2007, August 2008
America, you must wakeup. We have some very serious issues facing this country. We must stop the arguing. We must accept the truth, the facts and the reality that unless we start to resolve these issues, we are headed down a path of self destruction from within. Parading around in protests
demanding things that simple can't happen is not helping. Accept the reality and truth of our problems and stop all this nonsense. To protest
is our right in our country, but protest for the right things. Protest in getting corrupt politicans that won't effectively start passing legislation to
effect needed changes to bring our jobs back home, provide every American with health insurance and do away with the corrupt profit
making health insurance corporations who have left people die by dropping them when they got sick.
For all of those people that are protesting, holding signs at protests demanding less government, lower taxes…That is not going to happen as the facts speaks for themselves. Americans have allowed Politicians over the last 30 or so years to basically screw them with idealistic Views of less government, lower taxes and where has it gotten us…only in deeper crap! I'm sorry for being so blunt, but someone out here has got to wake up America instead of Americans listening to these idiots on the extreme right or left. And be very wary of these men and women that are changing their party affiliation from Republican or Democrat to now an Independent. We already have two of these liars in Congress that have switched, we don't need anymore. To me, they are nothing but hypocrites and wolves in sheep clothing, spewing lies from their mouths to get elected.
If you truly love America you will see that there are still some hard times still down
the road yet to come and will be willing to make those sacrifices. Not just Americans, but mankind has dug themselves a nasty hole concerning global warming that is going to affect food production. We already have water shortage appearing around the world. In the U.S. there are over 400 cities that are facing of running out of water within 5 years. We must stop all this stupid nonsense of arguing over things and get to work to solve these problems before it really too late.
Do you love America enough? Do you love Mother Earth enough?
The worst catastrophe the U.S. will ever have is developing in the Gulf of Mexico. Why? GREED and our dependence on oil energy
The oil well that is leaking in the Gulf of Mexico if not contained will create the worse catastrophe the U.S. will have see. It will destroy
the fish industry in the southern part of the United States. The lush water ways in the region that supplies a much needed fish industry for job
to people in that region will be destroyed for 20 to 30 years. Oil drilling at these depths should never be allowed at these depths. As seen in
this example, oil leaks at these depths are very hard is not impossible to contain. Billions of gallons of oil will be descending on the lush water ways
of the south. Hundreds of sea turtles and other sea life have already been killed by this disaster. At some point, when is mankind going to realize that the things they are doing is and or will destroy our eco system and our means to survive on Mother Earth. Every American should be outraged at what has happened and start calling, emailing their Congressman with, "no more oil drilling offshore and no more drilling in Alaska for new oil wells." By doing that, understand we have to
force new energy forums to replace our dependency on oil. We are running out of it anyway. Oil reverses worldwide will only last for
another 40 years or so and we better find other means to drive our cars, planes and heat our homes. Time is running out America, wake up!
How much longer are we going to be stupid about these things? Until we can't breathe oxygen or have enough food to eat? Hello?
Then start making a difference by putting the right people in Congress to effect the must needed changes. You did that America by electing President Obama, however, we must finish the job with like minded people as President Obama that see the urgency of correcting our problems. We do not need any idiots in Congress like Sarah Palin and why America are you making her a millionaire by purchasing her books and going to seminars that pay this woman $250,000 for an appearance. And now she has a TV deal for a syndicate travel show. Have people lost their minds supporting this woman
in this way? A person that points to Russia and makes a statement like she did about foreign policy that is well...I think everyone remembers that not too bright blunder down insanity lane. No wonder people in Europe call some Americans stupid!
Stand up and when needed, call an idiot an idiot like Barney Frank did in Congress when he asked that woman "From what planet are you from", when she make her ignorant statement about death camps in the health care reform bill. And guess who started that rumor…Sarah Palin! DO I need to say any more about Sarah Palin
The decision is yours…I pray you make the correct one America for all of our good.
Healthcare Reform, Energy Reforms - These Need To Be Addressed NOW!
I have written extensively why we must have Health Reform and Energy Reforms in this country. We are on a collision source that either of these, Global Warming if not contained or Health Care Reform is not done, either will cause a depression. If you have not read my columns on these issues, I hope you will to read the facts as to why we must have these reforms. Also, my next column is going to bring to light the poor quality crap that corporations are having assembled in Mexico and other places, like appliances, refrigerators, stoves all because of greed. Did you know that hardly no refrigerators are made in the U.S. anymore and none of them warranty rusting and they only warranty the sealed systems like compressors n ow for only one year, when they used to for 5 and ten years! It is going to be a real shocker folks! Start buying made in USA people. Click on the MADE IN THE USA image at the top of the website for links to websites that list companies still making products in the USA. Remember Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart. He had these
huge signs at the front of each store that said, "We only sell what is made in the USA." Within a year after his death, his heirs changed that philosophy that created jobs in America. The signs came down and Walmart started forcing companies to go overseas to make their crap cheaper for Walmart. Result, the loss of
over ten million jobs over the last ten years. Read my last column about those facts and in these other columns:
- The Truth About The Job Loss In America - More Job Losses To Follow
- Has the Walmart Corporation played a huge role in the loss of American jobs? - Feb. 2004
American Die Each Day For Lack of Health Insurance and Health Care - Nov. 2009
Has Common Sense and Honesty In Health Reform Been Replaced With GREED? - August 2009
Job Loss and Unemployment Hit Records Highs - November 30, 2008
Causes Of The Financial Crisis Today - September 18, 2008
America...It's Time For Some Wake Up Calls ! - June 28, 2008
Global Warming: Is It Too Late? - March 30, 2007
Ice Shelf Falls Off Into Artic - Is Global Warming Real Enough Now? - Jan. 1, 2007
The Costs of illegal immigrants ! - April 14, 2006
Global Warming - Is It Too Late? - March 30 2006
Eyes on China - The Price Of Oil - August 30, 2004
The Truth About The Job Loss In America - More Job LossesTo Follow - February 20, 2004
Global Warming - Fact or Fiction - August 1997
Here's my final thoughts...
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