Lack of Innovation Is Killing Us
For most of my 46 years I always took great pride in the fact that when America’s best and brightest put their mind to an issue and their nose to the grindstone, there was nothing on this planet short of death itself that could not be conquered or at least given one helluva fight.
I am not so sure about that anymore.
Since the global economic collapse began in 2007, I have seen the labor unions, the American automotive giants and the home mortgage industry start to “get it”. They finally understand that poor planning and outrageously bad choices, some made decades ago, brought to bear a butchers’ bill that was insurmountable given the old rules which guided their respective industries.
Labor unions have had to concede that America’s labor wage scales and benefits were so out of kilter with market-based reality that reductions across the board were going to have to occur if there was to be any manufacturing base left in this country.
Detroit’s Big Three had to change the way they built cars and paid workers if they were going to be around to see another model year arrive.
And yes, the home finance industry (at least those parts of it that survive) was going to have to cut back on the rampant bulk sale of mortgages to undercapitalized entities, not to mention cleaning up the horribly askew process which saw totally unqualified consumers being given home loans under conditions that bear no relation to good business sense or, for that matter, plain common sense.
In short, they have all learned that past practices in each of their respective fields had killed the golden goose that had kept them so comfortable for so long.
So while there are corners of America’s business sector that have decided to evolve, adapt, and reform in an effort to survive, I’ll be damned if there is one iota of evidence that when it comes to the major obstacles facing this country, our federal politicians and bureaucrats are doing anything important or innovative.
At the moment, we seem to have a gasoline crisis in this part of the world. The escalating price of fuel will affect the cost of every consumer item you can name, and every item you can’t. This inflation is what is known as an “economy killer.”
While politicians have always griped about the price of fuel, I seriously question what has been done about it in a real sense. How many times in the last 30 years has America kept the Middle East from erupting in regional armageddon?
The most recent example, of course, is keeping Libya’s crazy dictator fenced in, but we also saved Kuwait from the clutches of Saddam Hussein, and very likely Saudi Arabia from the same fate. They were scared to death of that guy.
America and her allies also keep fruitcakes like the Ayatollah Khomeini and, yes, Osama bin Laden, from forcing their fundamentalist whacko ways on civilized Muslims.
Should I also mention that we are the only thing standing between most of that region and the pissed-off bulldog with nuclear weapons that is the state of Israel?
I don’t believe they would ever truly prevail if such a conflict ever came to be, but little bitty Israel would take 95 percent of the modern Arab world back to dust and radioactive seed before all was said and done.
Is there a premium, or at least a family discount, that should be sent America’s way in return for such efforts over the last 75 years or so?
Wouldn’t you love to see an American president publicly call for such a thing? At the very least, we should be repaid for every dime we spent in Iraq, starting the moment Hussein began breaking international law.
At the very least, President Obama, citing national security and economic solvency, could issue an executive order mandating that all American gasoline be produced under one standard rather than the 100-plus state and local boutique blends that choke the supply lines and keep prices much higher than need be.
Such a move would help tremendously, and the current administration won’t even consider it.
Sadly, the gas crisis in one small example of many problems that America keeps ineffectively fighting, the same way it always has.
Our tax code is broken to the point that half the population pays no income tax at all and, yes, that particular half of the population tends to eat up social services and run public safety costs through the roof.
No serious solutions on the horizon there, either.
Illegal immigration? Anything new on that? Nope.
If our founding fathers had any idea what massive fovernment waste and impotency lay ahead, it is fair to say that our young republic may have very well been aborted before birth.
Ah, abortion. Well, you gotta give the president that one. He has protected that industry just fine.You Might Also Like:
Posted in Austin