Shut Up ~ Open Up

So the federal shutdown is over and the federal government has reopened its doors and full functions. The debt ceiling has been extended so immediate fear of default on the national debt has been averted.  But what is next?

Indeed. We will go through a similar threat of another shutdown because the spending agreement takes us to January 2014. Just past the Holidays we face this ugly threat again. And in February the debt ceiling will need to be addressed yet again.

Here’s the thing: America used to be a nation of long term vision. In the past 68 years, however, we have become short term wonders. During that time, Japan rebuilt its manufacturing might and excelled American plant technology. The auto industry was won by Japanese auto makers and the major decline and fall of Detroit and the US auto industry followed. 

Same with steel production. Same with science education and world discoveries of exciting new industries and replacement manufacturing methods. In short, global competition has put America in its place. We are now second in many categories of industrial might. And we are incredibly low on the totem pole in such arenas as education, access to superior medical care, infant death rate, and crime.

What price freedom? Declining quality of life quotients. Just ask the demographers, economists, historians, sociologists and anthropologists. They will tell you how our nation has declined over the past several decades. It appears we are in a race to the bottom and we may just win it!

Freedom, it seems, says it is OK for rich people to get richer while the middle class shrinks, and the poor increase. Pretty soon projections will show when a tiny minority of the country will control 95% of the population. All through economics and legal power bought in the legislatures and congress.

The greedy propagate their power by spreading fear of the unknown to the gullible.

If we do not wish this vision of the future to emerge, we need to cease being gullible and learn to discern fear tactics when they occur.  This takes reading, research and education. Self-styled research and education, not the expensive kind, although that would help!

Education is the means to learn how to learn, to create and innovate fresh new futures. Education is not a rote process that accumulates facts, figures and theories in young minds. It is the development of critical thinking skills so the student can find his own way in a complex world without constant guardianship by elders and ideologues selling their preferred view.

Education is the one element that mankind can provide to future generations so that their futures will unfold healthy, vibrant, creative and innovative. In stark contrast to today our youth learn jobs, earn paychecks to support family and survival and group speak. That is no way to build a future that will flex with changing demands.

So let’s get back to what we should be doing. We learned this lesson many times throughout our history. We can do it again.

The process begins with valuing all people in our nation. No one person has a lock on the ideas that will propel us forward. No one person has all the answers to any issue, problem or challenge.

We each do in our own way. We each have talents and dreams. We need to nurture both – the talents and the dreams so we motivate forward toward a larger vision of what can be.

This ‘pie in the sky’ is not idealism. It is practical use of building a reward system that compensates those who work hard, take risks and dare to be visionaries from time to time.

We often forget that each of us is an engine of creativity but also a powerful unit of consumption. We need both in capitalism to produce the goods and use the goods. Without both working the owners of assets have little means of propagating their wealth or even keeping it.

‘A rising tide lifts all boats’ is a good analogy. Help all segments of society and we magically produce more to share and enjoy. Once a healthy equilibrium is achieved, it is much more easily maintained. What to do with that? A good question for another essay.

But one would think with time and funds available we would tackle quality of life issues. If you have time and funds, what do you do with your life? There is more to the answer than meets the eye.

October 22, 2013