Mid-term elections are approaching rapidly. This will be a national day of balancing the scales. Nearly 60% of the nation recognizes that a mistake was made during the last national election in which an unqualified, untrained and ill-advised man became president. We are entitled, as a nation, to make mistakes. This was a doozie ! But, we will have a chance in early November to fix much of the damage that we did to ourselves. It’s time to give ourselves a face-lift.
It is this writer’s opinion that a new agenda must be put in place that not only rectifies mistakes made during the last decade (Yes, George Bush made too many mistakes too!), but which sets a course for economic prosperity, freedom and national joy. The following is my list of ten courses of action that must be pursued:
1) It’s time to re-evaluate our role in the world. We must stop giving our money away to dictators and punks. The United Nations must be closed down and the U.S. Treasury must be closed to enemies of the U.S. A friend is not one we must purchase.
2) The national income tax system must be revamped to include all working Americans as tax payers. Excluding Americans at the lower ends of the economy from paying taxes only devalues their contribution to the national life, and devalues them as people. Everyone should pay something. A national fair tax makes sense. The size of the IRS should be cut in half, a realistic objective if the code is made simple.
3) A national strategy to support American businesses must be implemented with the objective of encouraging exports, encouraging the repatriation of manufacturers w ho left America to produce in China, Mexico or elsewhere. All that we enjoy in our national life is the product of prosperity that government can either facilitate or destroy. Our national government and state governments have been destroying our manufacturing sector for 25 years. It’s time to make the destruction of the private sector illegal with penalities of life imprisonment for those found guilty of wrecking the American Dream!
4) It’s time to leave Afghanistan, Iraq, South Korea and any other place in the world where the U.S. is positioned militarily.
5) It’s time to defeat the powers of the air – namely the attorneys. Their power is pervasive, their corrupting influence is ubiquitous. Until the lawyers are brought down, nothing else in our national life can thrive. They are a cancer in our domestic polity.
6) Corruption in public life saps life. It’s time to enact legislation to deal with corruption in an extraordinarily aggressive manner including long mandatory sentences for congressmen and women and senators who are found guilty of illegally using their power for personal gain. The U.S.A. should be known as the one nation on earth that cannot be bought, and its leaders cannot be bought. Instead, we have become a sewer of political corruption from which no good can spring.
7) We must stop spending money we don’t have. We must stop borrowing money to feed our habits. We must stop the insanity of bailouts and “stimulus” programs that only benefit labor union and public employees, and mismanaged state and local governments. Our national deficit is financing China’s military. It is anticipated the Chinese military will have exceeded our own in fire power, warships, warplanes and general armament within ten years. And, the U.S. is paying for it all. Deficits must be made illegal (except in times of war) and there must be a Constitutional Amendment requiring a balanced budget except in times of war. States must be required to also have balanced budgets.
Term limits are a must. National political life will ultimately corrupt anyone with the ambition to run for political office.
9) A national policy to develop our own national resources is a must. The government’s massive support must be focused on developing alternative energy sources, but in the short term, we must fully develop traditional energy sources that are available.
10) The most important item on this list is this item. God must be invited back into our national life. Freedom of religion is a Constitutional right but not to the point of ejecting God from the national life. The pain we are experiencing today is the consequence of pushing God from the scene. If we are going to enjoy the prosperity of a blessed people, we need to turn from our wicked ways, ask for forgiveness and beg God to place His hand back on our national shoulder. A God-centered nation is a blessed nation.
Posted on: September 3rd, 2010 > Read More »
Once a year I write my economic predictions down so that two years hence, friends can study them and see how on or off I was in my predictions. For me, it’s just fun. Most of the time, I’ve been pretty close. But last year’s predictions for 2010 I missed a few important numbers.
For example, I thought inflation would be running about 7% by the end of 2010. It doesn’t look like I’m going to be close on that one. Indeed, I am more worried about deflation than inflation. More on that later.
But, I predicted we would come out of the recession but that our recovery would be lackluster. It’s turning out a little worse than I thought.
I normally don’t write down two predictions in one year, but I have recently glimpsed the future and want to share it with you. My glimpses, by the way, are not supernatural or clairvoyant. But, if I see some warning signs, over 35 years I’ve learned to interpret what they mean. So, here goes:
Economic activity in the Taiwan fastener industry has just dropped to nothing. Orders from the states have fallen off dramatically. Fastener exporters and manufacturers in Taiwan are desperate to keep enough business to keep their machinery running, but new business has dried up. As old orders fill, new ones are not arriving.
This condition is not caused by China taking the business from Taiwan. China is experiencing a contraction too although the depth of that contraction is not clear to experts because of the tightly controlled veil China keeps on its “true” economy.
In the United States and Europe, starting about a year ago, manufacturers enjoyed a significant recovery that has lasted now about one year. Inventories had fallen below traditional support levels prior to Q-4 2009 so that most of the economic activity during the last Q-2009, Q1-2010 and Q2-2010 have been related to inventory building. However, in the current quarter inventory is now above support levels. The engine has run out of steam.
Obama’s economic team and the Dems in Congress cannot and will not honestly or accurately evaluate the conditions of our economy or the causes of our economic malaise. The stock market, housing, and retail sales have all been in a slump for the last two years. Businesses of all sizes and all industries are still laying people off (500,000 new unemployment claims were reported just two days ago) and at the end of August, we are going to see unemployment climb, and by September 30th, it wll hit 10% again. A national 17% unemployment rate (almost 1 out of 5 Americans!) is a reality if we’re willing to count those who have given up looking (thanks to 102 weeks of unemployment pay for anyone who wants it).
With Bush’s tax cuts set to expire in just over four months, every American is going to share in a significant economic blight that will start in Q-4 2010 and continue for at least three more years until such a time as we elect a Congress that will apply smart business, not political, principles to the economy. While the politicians have tried to pit the working classes against the wealthier classes (sound like the Bolshevik Revolution in early 20th century Russia?) the truth is that the wealthier classes produce the jobs. The working class cannot allow the wealthier classes to be hurt unless they have a morbid desire for economic suicide. We all need each other – wealthy or poor, workers and thinkers, risk takers and middle-of-the-roaders, Republicans and Democrats.
It is folly to think that Obama or Congress know what to do. If anything good is going to happen in America during the next decade, it will have to be Americans who do it – not the blue suits in D.C., but Main Street Americans. We are going to have to start by replacing Congress. Vote by vote, blue-suit by blue-suit. We need Joe the Plumbers, and pastors and teachers, bus drivers and soccer coaches, housewives and warehouse workers. I’ll settle for a pound of common sense and decency any time when compared to a ton of sophisticated and polished turds.
For my employees, I counsel you to start building a personal financial discipline into your lives. Save, save, save. Buy gold if you can – even an ounce or two. Reduce your debt as aggressively as you can. Write a family budget. Don’t incur any additional debt.
If you don’t follow this advice starting now, you will be sorry later – of this I am sure.
Congress, as it is presently constituted, is trying to destroy this great nation. They are half-way there. The Obama-care plan and the anticipated expiration of the Bush tax cuts are coffin lids that have been nailed shut on small and mid-sized business plans for expansion and hiring. But what’s worse – the people who own businesses (large and small) are scared to death, they will not hire and will not retain employees because the known cost per employee is expected to rise 30% during the next three years. The unknown costs per employee won’t be known for months or years to come. Ironically, and tragically, the Dems in Congress and Obama, in their desire to help the workers in America, have done the opposite through foolish, ideologically driven and nincompoop schemes.
We’ve had tough times these last 3 years. Tougher still are those times we face. Everything you can do to prepare for the long night ahead will make your journey easier. Have your lamps filled with oil – and keep them filled. For the time is short.
Posted on: August 19th, 2010 > Read More »
Employees of companies can get bogged down in anxieties and apprehensions about their employment security, their economic future, and about the faults of their fellow employees and managers. If a manager is not paying attention, it’s easy to awake one day and discover a malaise has crept into the work place that is difficult, sometimes impossible to fix. Inattention to daily leadership can result in a team that is stressed at the seams, unable to coordinate their activities to reach the goal line. A single bad-apple in the company can rot the whole barrel. Like Achan in Joshua Chapter 7, he was the bad apple in Joshua’s camp and so long as he was part of
Joshua’s army, made it impossible for the Israelites to conquer Ai. Joshua did with Achan what all good leaders must do with bad-apples – toss ‘em.
Sometimes employees don’t appreciate the circumstances that make the boss or his managers the way they are. The stress of meeting a payroll, of pounding out a strategy to keep the employees all working through a recession, of paying suppliers and subcontractors on time – these things wear on a manager or owner. Not all of what he does, but most of it, is focused on keeping the corporation’s commitments to others – esepcially to its employees but also to the bank, to the suppliers, to the truckers and the health insurance company.
So, the next time your boss barks at you or a Sonfast manager tells you to stop complaining, or when he asks you to work smarter, remember that his responsibility includes you and your family, and your bank and your gas and electric company.
In a small company, there are many blesssings that are not available to employees who work for large companies. In a large company, what employees have is anonymity. They can get along without doing much important or impactful stuff, they can hide in the shadows and not get noticed. And, employees of large companies are frequently just payroll numbers, nameless and faceless numbers who pay the price for management not doing its job. But, at Sonfast, no matter who you are or what your job is, you have the opportunity to have an impact.
Your work is visible and noticable. So, if you do a good job, it will be noticed. If you do a lousy job, it will be noticed. But, in this highly transparent environment where everyone touches your work in big and little ways, you and your work can shape the destiny of the company every day. In this way, you can shape your own destiny.
I’ve always felt that working for a good, small company was the ideal environment so long as your boss and his managers were competent and moral men and women. But more than that, it’s good to work at Sonfast because what you do can and does bear directly on our company’s success, and therefore on yours.
No matter what your position in the company – from driver to general manager – you are important. We want you to be important in positive, meaningful ways. Ultimately, in a small company like Sonfast, the employees and their spirit and vitality, their energy and intelligence, their spirit of cooperation and coordination, and their desire to make a difference are all necessary to keep Sonfast at the spear-tip of small hardware distributors.
So, what do you think? Let’s make a difference today !
Posted on: August 16th, 2010 > Read More »
Hello Everyone !
I apologize for not keeping this blog updated. Just too busy with too much stuff.
I want to make a couple of comments about Obama-nomics. I’m registered as an Independent, but I am fiscally conservative – extremely so. I don’t mean to offend any Obama-fans out there, but if you ask me, our President is off his rocker.
I want to complain about two things: The first is his frequent comments about how he will lower capital gains taxes for small businesses. A capital gains tax is applied to the earnings of an investment. For example, if I purchase $100 worth of General Motors stock (I don’t know why anyone would do that!) and sell it later for $110.00, I have a $10.00 gain. A tax against that gain is a “capital gains tax”. The problem with Obama’s promise to “lower capital gains taxes for small businesses” is this: small business rarely has capital gains.
Businesses do not have gains because they do not earn gains. Think about the small manufactuer – what could he buy, hold, then sell later at a higher price? How about a small service firm, restaurant, hardware store, doctor’s office, clinic, private school, nursery, farm, etc. What could they purchase, hold, then sell later at a higher price? Answer: Nothing !
The only small firms that could benefit from a reduction in capital gains taxes are those which buy something, hold it, then sell it later at a profit. A small stock brokerage firm or bank might benefit from this tax reduction. But, almost nobody else. I wonder why Obama would tout a benefit that served only bankers and stock brokers?
So, the promise of lower capital gains taxes for small business is blue smoke. But, it sounds good, doesn’t it?
The second issue I have is the V.A.T. This is the “Value Added Tax”. It is being considered in Washington, D.C. as the solution for government irresponsibility. The logical thing to do when you run out of money is stop spending and stop borrowing. Our government cannot be counted on to do the logical thing.
(By the way, I have a solution for government irresponsibility – it’s the same solution we use for criminals!)
The value added tax is applied at every level of production. There are many inherent dangers associated with this tax, but here’s one important one: Because this tax is applied to everything produced in America, it will raise the price of the final product. For example, VIZIO televisions are made in California. A V.A.T. would be paid by VIZIO on the plastic, the electronic resisters, conductors, capacitors, cathodes, anodes and pequodots; the tax would be paid on all the glass, resins, wire, copper, steel, aluminum, and everything else that goes into the TV. So, VIZIO pays the V.A.T. tax, then adds it to the price it charges the master distributors. The master distributors add another V.A.T. to the retailers. Then, the retailer adds another V.A.T. to the consumer. So, instead of paying $500 for a 36″ color TV, you pay $700.00. Aren’t you happy now?
But, wait, the televisions made in China are still arriving in the United States at $400. How on earth will VIZIO compete with Chinese televisions if a consumer must pay $300 more for the privilege of buying an American-made TV? Answer? It can’t.
An excise tax on Chinese televisions won’t work because the Chinese would simply refuse to pay it. China owns America. We have sold our political leverage to China for about $1,000,000,000,000.00 worth of U.S. debt.
In 1970, American manufacturing accounted for nearly 50% of America’s wages. Today, that number is less than 11%. Why stop there? Right? WRONG ! China is growing at 4 times the rate of the U.S. becasue we have sent our jobs there. If you care about American workers and American debt and American jobs, then it’s time to send a message to our government to keep the dollars here and bring the jobs back.
The V.A.T. is a certain way to destroy American manufacturing once and for all. It’s time for you to choose.
Til next time, simmer !
RWP
Posted on: April 7th, 2010 > Read More »
Greetings, Sonfast !
For some of you who don’t know me, I’m a Christian. I’m a sinner too, so I don’t preach to you from above, but as an equal in the eyes of God. One or more of you who receive this email may think I’m a religious nut. Yes, it’s true. You work for someone who is crazy for Christ. I hope you will all join me in the asylum one day.
If you are already Christians, you will understand what I’m about to say. You will recognize the truth behind these words and if you are like me, you will have to admit that you don’t always practice the sensible advice found in the passages of Scripture I’ve included.
If you are not a Christian, these words will be foolishness to you. But, hold on to the email because someday, Lord willing, you will join us in the asylum.
Sometimes we worry about the future. We think of all the things that could go wrong. We doubt that there’s anything we can do to create a successful scenario. You might be worried about an important
customer leaving Sonfast. You might be worried that a sales call won’t produce a positive result. You might be concerned about the outcome of the test you had at the doctor’s office. You might be worried that you won’t have enough cash to pay the mortgage or rent payment that’s due next week.
For Christians, worry and doubt is normal, but it is also sin. The word “sin” is translated in both Hebrew and Greek as “missing the mark”. If we trust in ourselves to produce the favorable outcome, we will usually miss the mark. If we trust in God for the outcomes, He is always reliable. Always !
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:11-13)
As Christians, we must choose either to allow God to fulfill His plan for us, or we must choose to take responsibility for it ourselves. God is willing to step aside and allow us to be responsible for what happens in our lives.
The history of God’s people demonstrates that when the people decide for themselves, outcomes can be disastrous. The alternative is to seek God’s will for our lives and ask Him to decide for us. We cannot have it both ways.
“You do not have, because you do not ask God.” (James 4:2)
The advice of this letter is to choose to trust God and ask Him to
order our paths and guide our steps. We must conduct ourselves with responsibility and discipline, but rely on Him to determine our futures, because we will screw it up if it all depends on us.
As a point of fact, whether you are a Christian or a heathen, you are powerless to determine the outcome of anything in life. Any thought you have that the future is up to you, you are dallying in self-delusion and idolatry. It is idolatry because you hold yourself up as being the
one who judges and manages the circumstances of life that determine destiny.
WIlliam Henley, British 19th century poet, wrote these famous lines: “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” to which I say, “Nonsense!” There is but one master of destinies – God. There is only one captain of our souls – God.
This is my advice to each of you – choose ! Who do you want in charge of your destinies? You or God? If you choose God, then I suggest you start believing in His promises, promises of “peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope”. The God Who created the universe is fully capable of surprising you with good news concerning your futures.
If you give in to your fears about the future, about the inevitability of reality, of the worse-case scenarios, I guarantee you that God will demonstrate what happens when you are the responsible
party. On the other hand, if you abandon self-reliance and turn it into God-reliance, (not partially or half-heartedly), God will see to it that the best possible outcome is produced – His outcome !
Romans 8:28 says, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Trust in God and you can trust also in His Word. Failure is not inevitable unless you are in charge.
I recall the comments of a judge to a defendant in court who wanted to represent himself. The judge said, “Sir, if you choose to represent yourself, you have a fool for a client.” In life, if you choose to represent yourself in the matter of your own destinies, you have a fool for a client. Lean on Him, not on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)
2 Chronicles 20:20 – “Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established”
Posted on: January 19th, 2010 > Read More »
October 8, 2009
Sonfast is a Christian company. What, you might reasonably ask, does that mean?
Sonfast is owned by Debby and Rich Pappy who are themselves Christians. We acknowledge that all blessings come from heaven (John 3:27). We acknowledge that Christ is our teacher and example and that we must obey His commandments (John 14:15).
Not everyone is a Christian and there are those in business who may not understand why we say “we are a Christian company”. We declare our faith because we are Christians (Romans 10:10) and because we want you to know that we desire to treat people the way we want to be treated (Matt 7:12; Luke 6:31).
As Christians, we believe that God is in charge. We believe that God is sovereign, that He is omnipotent, and that He is comprehensively involved in the details of His creation which includes all of us.
These are difficult times in which we live. Our customers, suppliers and our competitors are all experiencing business challenges unlike anything we’ve experienced in the past. Christians should be encouraged by the fact of God’s love for His creation, and in particular, Christ’s love for His church.
All trials are, for Christians, ways by which God matures us in our faith. Yet, these times are opportunities for Satan to enter into our lives to damage our faith, to weaken our trust in the name above all names (Phl 2:9). We must not yield to the powers of darkness which are always on the prowl seeking someone to devour (1st Peter 5:8). Rather we must make our confession by the way we live our lives, trusting in the One who will manage the circumstances of our lives in a way that leads always to good (Ro 8:28).
To our Christian friends who are struggling, we offer encouragement. Trust, always trust in the One Who loves you and has the power to do something about it.
And to our friends who are not Christians, know that we love you and pray for you and we want to assure you that God knows “the thoughts that He thinks toward you…thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon (Him) and go and pray to (Him) and (He) will listen to you. And you will seek (Him) and find (Him), when you search for (Him) with all your heart.” (Jer 29:11-13).
Posted on: October 8th, 2009 > Read More »
77,000,000 people were born between 1946 and 1964. Today, over 50,000,000 of them are still alive. They are called the “Baby Boomers”. In 2011, the first of these will have reached the age of 65 and the largest retirement of Americans in history will commence.
The number of births during the 18 year period ending in 1964 was 26 million more births than reported in the previous generation and 10 million more than in the subsequent generation. The senior citizen population in the U.S. appears to be headed to a 40 percent increase in the next five years. By 2050, the population of 65-and-older folks will triple from 516 million worldwide to 1.53 billion by 2050.
Boomers who reach age 65 in 2011 are likely to live, on average, at least another 18 years. All are likely to draw from Social Security while 2/3 of them will pay little or no income taxes.
In 1990 the percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in America assigned to health care was 12%. It is projected to be at least 20% of GDP by 2011. All healthcare spending this year is expected to be $2.5 trillion dollars.
These U.S. Census Bureau statistics and forecasts express staggering sums of people and money to fund their healthcare. These numbers are why we have a healthcare debate in the U.S.A. in 2009.
So, problem #1 is population. Add to this the fact that HR3200 is going to try to add 30,000,000 enrollees into the nation’s healthcare system during the next four years in addition to the millions who will be retiring during that same term.
Because of these numbers, Medicare and Social Security are both going to be bankrupt soon. There aren’t enough dollars to maintain a level of historical healthcare service to 30,000,000 more people let alone 50,000,000 retirees in addition. There aren’t enough doctors. There aren’t enough nurses. There isn’t enough money.
This is why rationing is an inevitable product of the balooning retirement population because the system just isn’t deep or broad enough or sufficiently funded to bear this responsibility. So, what do we do?
1) Reduce the size of all federal bureaucratic agencies by 50%. Savings: $l70,000,000 per year.
2) Close the IRS and replace the tax system with a flat or fair tax resulting in 80% reduction of personnel and 85% reduction in legal and administrative costs associated with running the IRS – $75 billion a year.
3) Tort reform: Reduce insurance liability premiums by 2/3. Save $350 billion.
4) Waste, fraud and abuse. Increase penalties for willfull misconduct and enforce the law vigorously. Save 3/4 of the current wastes. Save $75 billion.
5) Cut foreign aid. $200Billion.
6) Restrict the Federal government to the management of agencies which look out for our national safety and management of revenue. Savings: 50 BILLION.
7) Tax the extremely wealthy up to 70% on personal income but corporate business taxes ought to be reduced by 80%. Keep the businesses healthy and competitive so they can grow and hire.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, the federal government has a very limited constitutional responsibility to keep our nation safe and to provide for the domestic tranquility. Let’s get them reducing the scope of their activities over time to just these two.
The cash that these changes generate could solve Social Security and Medicare forever and not require health care to be rationed. No death panels.
The program must, however, be moral. It must be managed with the highest integrity and the strongest, most determined prosecuting attorneys who will treat violations of law as acts of treason. Punishments must be set accordingly.
Posted on: September 15th, 2009 > Read More »
There is a healthy (pardon the pun) way to view the healthcare debate that is raging across the U.S.A. There is one point of view that fits all people, that accommodates the right and the left, the retiree and the youngster, the pregnant mother, the workers and self-employed. That point of view happens to belong to Christ.
Let’s start with first principles: Everyone does not have a right to health care. Jesus said the poor shall always be with us, but he never said they were entitled to healthcare, free or subsidized. What he did say was that we are our brothers’ keepers and that our second most important responsibility in life was to love our neighbors. Jesus wants us to care for those in our society who are the least.
We all should share in the responsibility to defend, protect and encourage those in our society who cannot make it work on their own. This pricinple requires that everyone who has been blessed be willing to share with those who haven’t. Christ said we are to take care of the least of these in our society.
Even if we, as a society, possessed the will to take care of our own, The U.S. Government is the enemy of such reform. The U.S. Government does not care about people; it cares about power. Its own power. So, Americans must recognize that Congress is the problem. Corruption is indemic. We have a perfect vehicle for fixing corruption – it’s called the ballot box.
Citizens are not going to be motivated to change their ways of thinking so long as they have leaders in government who are unwilling to change their habits of spending, and of being wined and dined by lobbyists. We must accept the fact that our government is corrupt – through and through. The problem is not everyone else’s representative or senator. The problem is also our own representatives and senators. We must look at 2010 as an opportunity to send a message that the people have the power to eliminate every single incumbent who is up for election. In 2012 we will repeat the process and by 2014 we will have sent the message that business as usual is no longer.
The men and women waiting in the wings to run for election in 2010 are no different that the ones who are in office today. Simply picking the alternate won’t solve the problem because greed and ambition are both requirements for anyone who runs for public office today. The system by which we select and elect must change because it too is corrupt.
We must search out men and women of virtue and integrity. Men and women who are not ambitious about serving the nation. Men and women who by their integrity have established themselves as wholesome, true, reliable and honest. In short, we need heroes and heroines. We need men and women who cannot be corrupted and they should be encouraged to serve.
These men and women can be identified in every community. There are some in the churches, some who serve in the soup kitchens of the cities, they can be found on farms and in factories, teaching class and driving busses. Some serve on prison ministries and others in homeless shelters. Retired military would provide a great fountain of servants. God has raised these people up to be prepared to save our nation and to lead it along still waters. We must identify them and encourage them to serve our nation in Washington, D.C.
John Dean, former head of the DNC, recently said that the “trial lawyers own the Democratic Party”. This is why Congress will not tackle the national problem of tort reform. A level of reasonableness in legal costs and penalties could be achieved but for the trial lawyers. We have heard that America spends $500 billion per year on premiums for liability insurance to protect doctors from lawsuits. Certainly, there are some doctors who should be sued for malpractice, but reform would focus legal action where it belongs and cut costs on most of the $500 billion just by eliminating frivolous lawsuits and capping judgments and legal fees at reasonable levels. Congress won’t tackle the problem because they are corrupt. All of them.
Foreign aid, earmarks, waste, fraud and abuse. These are each the product of corruption. Without corrpution, we would keep trillions at home and spend them on proper and needed solutions to the problems we face. But, we won’t stop senseless foreign aid if we have political leaders who want leverage over foreign governments. We won’t stop putting pet projects (i.e., research on the mating habits of peel worms, the expansion of inner-city advanced physics education, or the study of rodent social behavior in small acreage farmland) on legislative bills until we have people who know how to focus on the main thing. Keeping the main thing the main thing is not a slogan heard much in the halls of Congress.
Wall Street, Corporate Board Rooms and liason offices of foreign governments (including the United Nations) are just as corrupt and self-serving as our government. Wealth accumulates in the hands of the wealthy and little good comes from that wealth except to create more wealth. Capitalism is a good thing, but it becomes corrupt when not restrained by good morals. Governmental corrpution and corruption in business occur simultaneously because rats need company.
Health Care is just one of our national problems. Others include the unrestrained greed that forms the basis of our financial institutions; the lack of accountability of Obama’s Czar system of government which has functionally replaced the cabinet minister system; stupidity, complexity, the IRS, outsourcing, bailouts, governmental ownership of the means of production (fascism), dishonesty at the highest levels and throughout government, Republicans and Democrats and bureaucrats, Medicare fraud, the immanent collapse of Social Security, the unaffordability of war, and corproate welfare, and subsidies of labor and agriculture and education that dumbs us down instead of preparing us for the future.
We can solve none of our problems of health care or any of the other catastrophic problems we face in the next dozen years unless and until we go to the very heart of our problem – corrpution in government. We need more of the values of Christ in our government and in our daily living. We need to expurgate the demons of greed, ambition and power and we need to do it quickly before there’s nothing left to salvage.
Posted on: September 7th, 2009 > Read More »
We are a society that trades money for goods and services, and goods and services for money. The total of those trades, expressed in dollars, is called “Gross Domestic Product”. GDP for 2008 was 14.4 trillion dollars. So far, in 2009 GDP is running about 6.5% behind the 2008 pace.
Manufacturing represents a portion of a nation’s GDP. China, for example, generates 35% of its GDP from manufacturing. China is #2 in the world in terms of percentage of GDP from manufacturing. The United States, by comparison, is 75th in the world and generates only an estimated 10% of its GDP by manufacturing.
Between 1990 and 2005 the U.S. lost 25% of its manufacturing jobs, roughly 5.2 million jobs. In the last eight years, 35,000 U.S. factories have closed. In 2006, we imported 1.8 trillion dollars of manufactured goods (13% of GDP) 40% of which were made by U.S. corporations which had located in countries outside the U.S.A.
Why have U.S. companies relocated to other nations? Cost is the simple answer. Corporate income taxes in the United States are among the highest in the world. Manufacturing wages and legacy costs ditto. Corporations chase profit and the simple truth has been that there are more profits available by making things in China than in the United States.
In 2009 we will spend close to two trillion dollars in manufactured goods made somewhere else, by somebody else. Included in those two trillion are nearly all standard fasteners – nuts and bolts and screws and washers. This is a problem because we don’t even possess the machinery to make these products in the U.S. nor the tool making skills required. Over 90% of all standard fastener parts come from either China or Taiwan.
Imagine a scenario where China takes over Taiwan as it took over Hong Kong not so long ago. China has a claim to Taiwan that predates WWII and has promised to re-absorb Taiwan into its empire. If China becomes our adversary, just imagine from whom will we buy fasteners if we need to make our own tanks, guns, fighter planes, bombers, air craft carriers, etc. For want of 1/4-20 nuts, we could be rendered incapable of fighting a war that actually required weapons.
Think now for a moment about those 5MM jobs lost in manufacturing. They were high-wage jobs that pushed laid off workers down the pay scale and therefore, down the standard-of-living scale. Losses of American jobs rarely resulted in upward mobility.
Dollars flow in and out of America each year. Between 2007 and 2008 Americans spent 3/4 trillion (that’s $700,000,000,000,000.00) than we took in on all goods and services. That’s 3/4 trillion per year fewer U.S. dollars in our possession than in the possession of China, India, and others. It’s easy, therefore, to understand why home prices are going down in America. Home prices reflect our wealth. If we have less wealth in the U.S. to purchase homes, home prices will come down. There is no more direct indicator of wealth in the U.S. than home values.
Don’t expect home prices to return to historic levels because wealth would have to increase to make that possible. And wealth cannot increase if we are sending it everywhere in the world by the trillions.
Economics is a complex subject and lots more could be written. For now, suffice it to say that without a national policy which supports American manufacturing development and sustenance, not only are we in grave peril of being unable to independently produce military hardware, but national wealth will continue to decline.
What’s next? The U.S. dollar will become cheaper in the world markets which will make foreign goods, including oil, more expensive. Everything we buy in the U.S. will become more and more expensive because more cheap dollars will be required to purchase the goods and services we desire. More people will have fewer dollars to maintain a historically high standard of living. Home values continue to fall (discounting inflation). GDP discounted for inflation will remain flat or grow at historically low rates. The standard of living will continue to fall in the United States as more and more of the developing countries see increases in their GDP and standards of living.
Americans, wake up! Obama’s drunken-sailor approach to spending is driving the last nails into the coffins of the American standard of living. Unless we stop the insanely reckless spending strategy of this Administration, we will have been party to an irreversible harm to this nation’s opportunity and prosperity structure.
A national discipline must be instilled in which we don’t spend what we don’t have, we reduce corporate income taxes to encourage and sustain American manufacturing, and we enact legislation to discourage expatriation and encourage repatriation of manufacturing.
Those in a position to lead have failed to lead and have failed to take responsibility for the American future. Those with great privilege have great responsibility, says God. Whether Republican or Democrat, union worker or Wall-streeter, all have fallen short. The dream that once was America can be again. Now is the time to act to put our national house in order.
Posted on: August 15th, 2009 > Read More »
I learned recently of a young man who, by circumstances he had created, was forced to resign from his job. He had made an expensive error and then tried to hide it, to cover it up. Ultimately, the error could no longer be concealed from his employers at which point he confessed and resigned.
As a Christian, I am fully and sometimes painfully aware of the role of sin in our lives. No matter how close we try to walk with our Lord, we are not perfect and will never be so long as we inhabit this earth. In the present day, our churches and educational institutes have stopped teaching right and wrong. In the schools and universities, moral certainty has been disconnected from its knowledge base. Consequently, right and wrong are circumstantial and connected more to feelings than to knowledge of the One who created right and wrong. In churches, pastors and preachers are afraid to teach core truths about right and wrong and instead focus on keeping their people content (and asleep) by not imposing an absolute morality on their lives like Christ did 2,000 years ago. It’s no wonder many Americans (not to mention most Europeans) have lost their way – morally speaking.
The beauty of Christianity is in the forgiveness it teaches. What makes up for the sin in the world is the grace in the world. The sin may be grave, as it was certainly in the situation of this young man, but the employer needs to consider a proper, moral response to this situation – to abandon the customary “business response”, to forget the text book and to consider the grace that is offered to make this situation right. In forgiveness, a new relationship between the man and his employer could be formed with an infusion of grace that would bless employee and employer alike.
It’s never easy to go against the practical teachings of this world – once bitten, twice shy ! If we could learn simply to forgive we may learn a valuable lesson that may one day be repeated in reverse in our own lives. As Christ reconciled us to God, we need to allow Christ to reconcile us to those who have offended.
Posted on: July 21st, 2009 > Read More »
