Our Gift to The Future

While the older of us in our generation bask in the warmth and glow emanating from the births of our great grandchildren as they enter into their new world, our gift to their futures, we struggle arduously to survive the greatest recession since the great depression of the “Thirties” and the massive destruction, debt, and disruption suffered in the wake of the many wars since. Laissez Faire Capitalism worldwide verges on failure, about which Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan Administration Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and former associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal has written his book: The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism, described as follows:

“This book is a major challenge both to economic theory and to media explanations of the ongoing 21^st century economic crisis.

It outlines how the one percent have pulled off an economic and political revolution. By offshoring manufacturing and professional service jobs, US corporations destroyed the growth of consumer income, the basis of the US economy leaving the bulk of the population mired in debt.

The American people do not benefit from Globalism. In addition to offshoring, business leaders are replacing Americans with foreigners in those jobs that they retain in the US in order to lower costs, fraudulently claiming that they cannot find enough Americans with science and engineering degrees to fill them.

No one seems to understand that research, development, design, and innovation take place in countries where things are made. The loss of manufacturing means ultimately the loss of engineering and science.

This is the book to read for those who want to understand the agenda that is bringing the West to its knees.”

The premise of his book is:

          “There is no economic recovery.”

“Economists who have spent their professional lives rationalizing ‘globalism’ as good for America, have no idea of the disaster that they have wrought…”

“Globalism is a conspiracy against First World jobs…”

“The US is no longer an opportunity  society.”

Anyone who has read my blog knows full well my concern for the political and economic wellbeing of our great nation. As I read this book, I am compelled to share it with you. To this end, it is available from Amazon.com in paperback, used for only $1.98 plus $3.99 shipping, new, $16.95 plus and, if you have a Kindle Reader, you can buy that edition for $9.99.

If you really care about your country and why and what is happening to us—if you really want to know—I recommend this book to you. You may not agree with everything written, but you will at least have the opportunity to know.

In addition to the attributes of the author, Paul Craig Roberts, stated above, he has, also testified before committees of Congress on 30 occasions, and held academic appointments in six universities, including Stanford and Georgetown. Dr. Roberts was awarded the US Treasury’s Meritorious Service Award for “outstanding contributions to the formulation of US economic policy”.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

         

Our Current State

It’s notable as I listen to “all these experts and politicians” as they espouse their thoughts and positions on a multitude of subjects; they continually bash President Trump every day, all day, and all night. I’m downright tired of hearing it. I myself have said on more than one occasion that I don’t like the man. I don’t like him personally, and I don’t like him politically. He is incompetent intellectually, experientially, and morally to be the chief executive of a large and dynamic country that used to be the leader of the free world. Those are facts. However, our people with full knowledge and little, if any, in-depth forethought have elected him as our president. Our elections are not unlike taking sides in a football game. As my father used to tell me, “that’s just the way it is; and we can like it or lump it”. Let’s get on to running our country.

Our news media has made millions of dollars promoting this charlatan, millions of dollars electing him, and now, millions of dollars trying to destroy him. In the process, they have made even more millions by not having to spend on reporting “real news” going on behind the scenes, using their “circus reporting” as a smoke screen. As Donald would say, “Sad”. There are mountains of news occurring all around the world every minute of every day, and we need to know about it–all about it.

Donald Trump is what he is, and he isn’t going to change, but he has accomplished some things. He has exposed the weaknesses in our system of voting; and, in the process, he has exposed the Republican Party for what it is and what it is not. It becomes very obvious that playing politics as if we are at a game of football is a fool’s errand. We the people may be dumb, but we aren’t stupid. We will take back our country from this Oligarchy of the Corporatocracy and Power Elite which, like they have done in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, are helping to cause this mess in our country from behind the scenes. We will “smarten” up. We will take our country back.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

Let’s Come Together and Save A Lot of Money

March 4, 1789, the date our Constitution became effective, the population of our nation was just under four million people, five percent of which was urban, i.e. city, and ninety-five percent rural, i.e. they lived in the country. Moving forward two hundred years to the end of the twentieth century, our nation’s population increased to just less than three hundred million, eighty-one percent of which was urban and nineteen percent rural. Can you imagine the immense change in the cultures of our people then as compared to now; then, when our neighbor was over the hill, down the road, up the holler, on yonder knob, or some miles away; or now, when our neighbor is next door, upstairs, downstairs, on the other side of the wall, or just down the street? Think of it! Can you imagine the vast differences in how we live now compared to how we lived then? Can you envision the vast difference in education, knowledge, and communications of our people then as compared to now? Also, I urge you to be mindful of the immense change in complexity of our foreign relations over this same period of time. To this end, think relationships, national security, foreign trade, etc.

Do you really believe thirteen sovereign nations under one flag or, as we are now with fifty states, fifty sovereign nations under one flag, could survive as a leader of nations in today’s world? The biggest arguments against our Constitution in its creation was “too much power in government”, states’ rights, and the lack of a bill of rights, the latter of which was resolved and signed into law December 18, 1791. Doesn’t this sound familiar? We have been fighting over the other two ever since, for the past two and a quarter centuries. I submit that “No We Can’t”. I submit that “United We Stand”, “Divided We Fall”. For two hundred twenty eight years we have literally wasted billions, if not trillions of dollars fighting this useless battle to nobody’s interests except for the Corporatocracy and Power Elite of this world. Except for a few years in the interim (I’m thinking of perhaps the 1920’s, the latter forties, fifties, sixties, and maybe part of the seventies–you will recall that Theodore Roosevelt put these Robber Barons in their place in the first decade of the nineteenth century and Franklin Roosevelt again in the thirty’s and forties), our people certainly haven’t benefited by all of this.

I submit to you that we need a strong central government, a government that will serve the rights, needs, and security of the American people with honesty, integrity, and transparency–all the people, the ninety-five percent as well as the five percent. And, if our business organizations can operate efficiently and effectively, devoid of politics, so can our government. We don’t need politics. What we need is a democracy of the people governed in the interests of the people. We need to come together as a people in the interests of all–not just a selfish few. We must come together as a people.

Do we need business? You bet we do. But, we need business whose purpose is to serve the people, their customers. Do they need to make a profit? Yes they do. Profit is an expense of doing business just as is the rent, wages, taxes, etc. Profit is the purpose of the investor. Business needs investment to operate their business; but, if they do not serve their customer, there is no need for their existence–no need for a profit.

 There is one more distinction to be made. Speculation is not investment. Speculation is gambling for which there is no redeeming grace except in the pocket of the gambler. As I write this, the financial collapse of 2008 comes to mind. Shut the liars out of your mind. What they say notwithstanding, that crash in 2008 which almost caused the destruction of the economies of the whole world was caused by speculation. If you are informed by all this, you will recall to mind that Goldman Sachs came out of it all with a profit–they did not lose money, unlike many of their competitors as well as their customers who went broke; and no one went to jail (I wonder why). Refer to William Cohan’s book, “Money and Power”, a biography of Goldman Sachs.

Do we need collectivism in government? You bet we do. Again, don’t listen to the self-serving liars among us. There are many segments of our economy that are not adaptable to the free market, as they call it (This is another subject of its own. I have written about it before, but suffice it to say here that the only really free market I know of in this day and age is on the chalkboard of a college classroom). Some examples of this lie in the fields of medicine and healthcare. Let’s not kid ourselves. People cannot with knowledge and forethought freely distinguish between, or select for that matter, between hospitals, doctors, drugs, procedures, etc. Really! Neither can they intelligently evaluate and distinguish between the many insurance plans on the market. In the end, it is just their best guess. Nobody knows that better than you. Hospitals, for the most part (Personally, I know of none) don’t even have cost accounting systems. I’ve spent many an hour in the hospital, and I know of no price lists to support their charges; and, for that matter, except for drugs, how can one have a price list without a cost accounting system to support it.

There are other examples. Let me suggest a few. Can you select on the basis of a free market your public utilities, roads, bridges, etc? These are the easy ones. Think about this. Lenders lend money at a variety of risks and interest rates for many applications ranging from small personal loans to home mortgages, school tuition, etc. Many of these loans are guaranteed by the government (you, the taxpayer). If the taxpayer, the government, is going to guarantee these loans, why don’t they go ahead and make the loans in the first place, taking the “sharking” out of it in the process. I am thinking of tuition loans and home loans. You will recall that government guaranteed loans were heavily involved in the market collapse to which I referred earlier.

I cannot finish without reminding you of this. Collective governance and economic planning are not Socialism. They are not Socialism any more than “Too big to fail” support of banking and corporations (Surely you haven’t forgotten the bailouts in 2009), disaster relief, Social Security, Medicare, Workmen’s Compensation, etc., and neither is it Communism–unless, that is, you allow it to be as a result of a lack of your due diligence, keeping informed, and at the ballot box, which, under our Constitution, is our job of course. If, on the other hand, we the people allow others (I’m thinking the Corporatocracy and Power Elite) to take over our Congress, as they do now (You know they do), what else? What do you expect?

To our Congress, The House of Representatives and the Senate, I ask, “When is our country going to be more important to you than party politics or getting rich or getting reelected? When?

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

Our Government

Our governance coming out of Washington these days is abominable, an embarrassment, if not a disgrace to our people and our country. Arguably as the leader of the free world, our actions notwithstanding, we are under threat, if not in peril. This madness must end. We must get hold of ourselves and our nation.

We are told all men are created equal. We know this is not true. Every one of us is born with differences from one another and given different gifts from God. We are born equal only in the eyes of God and, supposedly, under the law. What then are we to do with these gifts, and who is to benefit from them?

Therein lays the answer to our question along with the real solution as to how we should govern. We are told, to whom much is given, much is expected. We are told the poor will always be with us. We are told by Jesus to “feed My sheep”. We are told Jesus came to the people. We are told that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And we are told we cannot serve both God and mammon—we cannot serve two masters.

Draw your own conclusions; but, in my mind, this tells me the world is here for all of us and we should govern accordingly. Our governance should be governance of the people, by the people, and for the people with equal opportunity for all and help for those in need and less gifted. We must rid government of corruption and greed and put the best interests of our nation and people ahead of individual gain and party politics. To this end, we need competent qualified leaders in our government who can and will serve the people, serve the nation, and lead the world, traits and service sadly missing in the present.

In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller at www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

Our Defense Budget

As I have commented in the past relative to our Department of Defense, their immense responsibility to the security of our country and the American people notwithstanding, they do not have an accounting system, i.e. a set of books, integrated with our national system of accounting that are auditable. In short, their books don't balance.

 When Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense during the administration of George W. Bush (You remember Dubya) entered office, he promised to correct this problem. We soon entered the war in Iraq, and his promise was forgotten.

I think this condition is a disgrace to the people of our country. We have huge transnational corporations in this country (they may be even bigger than our whole government), and their accounts are integrated, they are able to balance their books, and they can account for every dollar they receive and every dollar they spend. There is no reason our government can't do the same except they don't want to.

 Solving this problem they won’t be able to lie, cheat, and steal and/or hide what they do from the American people without getting caught. In conjunction with this think the Military Industrial Complex. As long as they can hide the truth, the American people are uninformed and unable to fulfill their Constitutional responsibilities in the electoral process.

Our country has the largest military budget in the whole world and, yet, they want more. As I speak, their requested budget this year is approximately $700 billion, just over three quarter of a trillion dollars, and they still claim they don't have enough money. They want more and they want to take it out of our Social Security and Medicare. If you don't believe me, just listen to Representative Paul Ryan, our illustrious Speaker of the House of Representatives, on the evening news. As usual, we fiddle as Rome burns. This phenomena is what economists term “guns vs. butter”. I submit to you that if a government doesn’t provide for the needs of its people, they may not have a people to defend.

So as not to overburden you with my thoughts, let me refer you to those of others. For your convenience, listed below are a few articles relating to this subject:

Pentagon’s Failure to Audit Contracts Wastes Billions

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/05/21/Pentagons-Failure-to-Audit-Contracts-Wastes-Billions

Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic …

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.5a1f121743ed

Audit: Pentagon Cannot Account for $6.5 Trillion Dollars Is Taxpayer Money
ttps://www.mintpressnews.com/audit-pentagon-cannot-account-6-5-trillion-dollars-taxpayer-money/219246/

Fake News? I don’t think so. There is much more. It’s easy to Google. Study for yourself and see what a sick state our nation is in; and, you know? There’s absolutely no sense in it.

I’ll be back. In the meantime, this is Ronald Miller. www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

A New Year–2018

I recently received a message on Facebook, a message with which I fail to agree, to the effect that the year 2017, just ended, was a very bad year, but 2018 would be a better one–much better. I disagree because I believe The United States of America is under attack and our very sovereignty as a democratic republic is at stake, i.e. our very democracy is at risk, if not already lost. If we the people fail to identify and solve our problems, i.e. “Take back our country”, we will continue our downhill direction beyond our ability to recover. We need to get off our ass today!

What’s our problem(s)? What are we going to do about it, and when? I have posted detailed descriptions and recommended solutions to these problems over the several years since I have been writing this blog; and, therefore, will only mention them here in summary. You are able to look back in time by clicking below on the configuration, “Older Post” to read my past postings to this blog for greater detail.

In today’s New Year’s Day posting, I’m going to begin by listing what I see as the most important major problems confronting our democracy and sovereign democratic republic today with brief commentary. Then I’ll do my best to provide a brief summary of recommendations for their solutions. It is important to understand that my discussion here is with an overall view solely in the interests of our nation and our “government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” that they  ”shall not perish from this earth”.

To that end, I shall begin by submitting to you that the most major problem confronting this nation, and the world today, is a nuclear war. You and I both know that the solution to this problem is above and beyond my pay grade; but, if it isn’t solved and, I believe soon, all remaining problems are a moot point.

The second most major problem which confronts our nation today is the division of our people. We have had our differences throughout history, but never since the mid-eighteen hundreds, the Civil War, have we ever been more divided. I submit to you that there are only two solutions to this problem: Leadership and adherence to the Ten Commandments, i.e. “love your neighbor as yourself”. In that this nation was established as a democratic republic to be governed as a nation of law based upon Judean Christian values and subject to the will of the majority in conjunction with the protection of the minority, this problem should not be this great; but….

Problem number three, unfortunately, is we lack leadership. I think historians will agree with me that, here and there, throughout history we have had incompetent leadership; but, what we haven’t had is the intense complexity of today’s society, technology, and nuclear threat. Given the times and the challenges, this is the worst. I have spent over thirty years in corporate life, including corporate financial management, and I think I’m able to recognize management and leadership skills when I see them. I can tell you that a real leader doesn’t divide, He brings people together. He gets people to follow him because they choose to follow—not because he demands them. He inspires loyalty. He doesn’t need to dictate. Also, a leader has in-depth knowledge of what he is doing. He thinks. He plans. That’s as brief as I can get on that problem. I think you understand.

Our next major problem, our fourth (which, under normal circumstances should be our first), is the loss of our democracy to the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, a problem exacerbated by globalization. We have almost failed to recognize this problem because we can still vote, and our vote is still valued by our elected representatives (that’s why they spend such vast amounts of money to influence us); but, when the election is over, as a whole, they could care less. They only care for the wants and needs of the real rulers of our nation, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite, who rule through their lobbyists, paying them vulgar amounts of money for their services. It is they whom your elected representatives (titled Representative, for members of our House of Representatives, and Senator, for the members of our Senate [most of whom up to and including our President don’t know the difference between a Congressman and a Representative, i.e. member of the House]) serve, i.e. answer the phone, serve their wishes, take care of, etc. It is they whom our Congress represents and from whom they receive their campaign income. And what is the solution? Get money completely our of politics; but you just try to get Congress to do it. Then, you just try to get a President to vote for it. You just try to get a Supreme Court to agree with you. They still think corporations are people. God doesn’t think so but the Supreme Court of the United States of America thinks so.

Our next major problem is our national debt and our national deficit. I plan to write a specific blog on this in the near future, but only a fool will believe our nation can continue to survive with our present income to spending ratio. A wise man knows that we must get our deficit in hand by changing it to a surplus and, over time, pay off our national debt. Not only must we do it, we must do it now!

Moving right along, we have several more major problems (and I do mean major) which I want to mention and about which you can see in my past blogs and about which you may also expect to hear from me in the near future because they are critical to solving our spending and revenue problems (our national deficit and debt) as well as our vast social needs, i.e. education, Social Security, healthcare, immigration, tax reform, and prison reform.

For the sake of brevity, today, I’m going to close this for now; but there is one more thing I want to say and say emphatically: There is no reason this side of hell, our Congress and our President can’t solve these problems, Congressional rules notwithstanding, in a relatively short period of time! All that is needed is the will to do so! There are times when it is difficult to chew bubble gum and tobacco simultaneously; but, by god, it can be done. Almost every issue on the table has been studied to death to no end. No problem exists which can’t be solved by smart people; and those who aren’t smart and informed should not be in office.

I’ll talk to you later; but, in the meantime, have a wonderful holiday. This is Ronald Miller, www.sageobserver.blogspot.com.

P.S. I would appreciate your comments on this. Participate in your democracy. Please.