Headline Shenanigans

“Will there be another 1929 Crash?” “Is the American Economy Unfixable?”

“Will Americans Ever Really Retire?”

You’ve read these and similar headlines. Most are found on the internet as lures to news articles; you know the ones, not really ‘news’ but opinion packaged as news. And the articles are on ad-studded spaces where traffic counts are important for someone to earn some points and dollars for that traffic. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? What are news organizations about these days? Is it all about traffic counts? Network ratings? Ad rates?

Maybe. But something else is happening at the same time: weakening of credibility of the very institutions we all have come to rely on for facts and figures that matter. Perhaps no more.

Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News sits pretty on the set and offers a practiced visage so we can believe his utterances. Trouble is the utterances ring hollow more often and we begin to turn away toward other sources which give us the facts. Analysis is my job; so is it yours. You don’t need me or anyone else to tell you what the facts mean. You can do that yourself. It takes a little work, but you’ll be glad you did.

The economy is weak and struggling, that is if you count the world’s largest economy as weak. Of course we can measure it and learn it is still in some doldrums, but not as bad as it once was during the period from 2007 to the present. Things are better today and getting stronger. Some progress slips from month to month, but the base is repairing. More jobs in the private sector are steadily being created. Government sector jobs continue to be weak and form the primary base of job losses over the past 3 years. Guess the Republicans got what they wished for; governments across the land are shrinking! Trouble is the local governments are ones which do a lot of our needed public work we so often ignore. Policemen, Firemen, Teachers, Streets and Sanitation. Do you do this work? Do private companies do this work? No. These are the tasks and careers of civil servants. Like the military, too. And NASA workers, and so many other government jobs. All in danger because some ideologues think government should not be in that business. Private employers should be.

I guess like the private military helpers in Afghanistan and Iraq, huh? You know the ones, they did nasty security jobs the military didn’t. They had embarrassments over there that nearly took down the global image of America! They were the mercenaries who warped the good name of the USA, but private profits of those companies soared didn’t they? Contractors of the American government.

The American economy is doing much better. Of course it would have rebuilt faster if the Republicans would have cooperated, but they were noisily absent because they did not want Obama to get any credit for an improving economy.

Well, the economy is improving. But guess what? There are other reasons the economy hasn’t improved magically as fast as we would want it to. Here are some reasons:

First, our economy had run its course on then current technology and basic industries. New industries and technologies were begging to be unleashed. New futures are being born!

Second, when we deny this fact, we get very slow formation of economic equilibria.

Third, if we pull back from embracing the new, we thwart capital formation for new investment to make the new futures take root and succeed.

Are we a nation falling prey to negative campaigning? Do we really believe the best is behind us and the rest is mediocre survivalism?  If you believe that, then shame on you! Your future is dreary.

But America for me is much more than its past. It is about building new futures, leading the way, discovering, expanding and pushing limits. Like it always has been.

We need new energy to run the nation. We need to invent it not drill for it. We need to harness physics to create energy that is portable, flexible and powerful, yet safe and nurturing of a sustaining planet. Not oil!

We need to dump a lot of old educational methods and processes and find new ways of unleashing the human power within each student no matter how old or young, how able or not, how culturally different from the norms. We can do this. We must continue to find ways for people to live their lives productively and satisfyingly.

We must find ways to build justice into our culture so women, immigrants, people with different abilities and cultures are treated with equality and dignity always.

We must find ways in which the religious are nurtured and sustained while not disempowering the non-religious or differently religious. Ours is the land of the free and the home of the brave where religious beliefs are allowed unfettered in the land as long as you don’t cram it down unwilling throats.

We need transportation that fits our land and lifestyles without polluting both.

We must treasure and protect water to sustain life not waste or contaminate it. Same with the air and soil!

We must learn new investment strategies as a nation to ensure infrastructure is available and maintained so that all can use it reliably for life and business.

I do not fear government because we can control it. It is not my parent but our partner. It will not run away with the power because we vote and monitor its functioning. And we participate in it and imbue it with necessary authority, but clip its wings when needed to keep it in check.

I trust that partnership. I do not fear it. I sometimes wonder and sadden when I witness impractical or ineffective government. But then I see the imbalances that made that happen. And that is what needs to be fixed. Not the government per se.

Yes the challenges are large. But so are we as a nation. And our abilities. We can meet those challenges and have a ball doing it! Don’t we even want to try? Or are we so busy feeling defeated that we won’t lift a finger to do what we do best?

Come on, sleeping giant! You can do it. For all of our sake, and for the world’s; we need to do this.

October 22, 2012