The Direction America Should Go In, Is…

Most polls which ask the question “Do you think America is headed in the right direction?” find that an exceeding majority of respondents answer “NO” to that very simple, straight-forward question.

Since January 2009 to today (October 13, 2020), those who believe the country is on the wrong track has ranged from a high of 76.5% to a low of 45.8%, with the majority occurring in the 60% range for most of that time, who think the country is headed in the wrong direction. That’s according to the averaged aggregate polling data collected by RealClearPolitics from a variety of polling organizations.

About the President, some have intoned sarcastically, “Poor ol’ Trump is the only President that has ever made mistakes.”

No, of course not, and it’s easy to understand the tenor and gist of such sarcasm.

Flooding by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans

I can say, have said, and will say this, however, and it is that, to date, in our nation’s history, he is the ONLY President whom has NEVER held any office of Public Trust of any kind, whatsoever – neither elected nor appointed – nor has he EVER volunteered for or with any kind of Public Service in ANY capacity with any public policy or public service-based organization. And for that reason, he is as unfit for duty as his bone spurs made him during Vietnam.

While many criticize and make political hay out of regarding a candidate’s “inexperience,” and tout that as being a strong point of benefit, there is this to consider – which I’ll explain using analogy.

Most people are employees. They have a job to do, and do it well. But they’ve never owned, nor run a company of any kind.

So it would be utterly preposterous, absurd, and even stupid, to imagine that just anyone would be able to step into Jeff Bezos’s shoes (Amazon’s Founder, President, CEO) and perform his job at least as good as he does.

We would be utter failures… just like the President is.

Another part of that problem is that the President’s “mistakes,” or “failures,” as they’re properly called, affects 330,441,455 people, and the world’s LARGEST economy.

And on that note, I’ll make this observation:

As the world’s 3rd most populous nation, to China and India, respectively, each with over 1 BILLION MORE people than we have, it is the height of absurdity and preposterousness to imagine for even a moment that somehow, with that many people and STILL GROWING, that we should somehow have a “smaller” government is not merely stupid, it is moronic.

Analogously again, it’s like imagining that you should wear smaller clothes the bigger you get. It’s nonsensical on the order of Alice in Wonderland.

VERY few people want to talk about it, and even FEWER want to hear it, but… because our elected officials (Republicans for the most part, since the Ronald Reagan era – the past 40 years) have embarked upon an ill-advised strategy of tax cuts (primarily focused upon benefiting the wealthy, the well-to-do, and their corporations),

Our nation is NOT poised to move forward into the next century,
much less the next decade.

Our nation’s roads, bridges, waterways, water treatment and waste facilities, pipes, schools, electrical power grids, telecommunications grid, railroads, public parks, hospitals, public schools, public health systems, dams, airports, ports, transit systems, drinking water, levees, and more ALL NEED MASSIVE REPAIR, REPLACEMENT & EXPANSION.

Those are ALL components of what is called “economic infrastructure” because it undergirds and forms the foundation of any nation’s economy – including ours.

Because of the inherent inefficiencies in our existing deteriorated national infrastructure in ALL 50 states, the American Society of Civil Engineers has stated that our nation’s economy would suffer a

$3.9Trillion economic loss to the GDP,
$7Trillion loss to business sales, and
2.5million lost jobs in the next 5 years.

Presently, the inefficiencies (extra costs) brought about by Congress’ failure to act by spending on economic infrastructure costs the average family $3400 per year.

But they’re not the only ones who have dire warnings about Congress’ failure to act.

The Geneva Association, sometimes aka as the “International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics,” a Zurich, Switzerland-based organization, has extensively studied global losses caused by natural catastrophe – floods, fires, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. – and has found that uninsured Global weather-related loss events from 1980 – 2017, losses and events have doubled since 1980, and reported that,

“In 2017, weather-related extremes accounted for 97 per cent of total reported economic losses and 98.2 percent of total insured losses. A significant portion of economic losses, particularly in the middle- and high-income countries, were caused by damages to infrastructure. Total economic losses associated with weather-related extremes reached USD 330 billion, with both reported insured and uninsured losses at a record high.”

Our nation’s own NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – found that from 1986-2015 the TOTAL catastrophic insured loss from hurricanes in that 29-year span was $515.4 BILLION. They also wrote that “During 2018, the U.S. experienced an active year of billion-dollar disaster events including the 4th highest total number of events, only behind the years 2017, 2011 and 2016. In 2018, the U.S. also experienced the 4th highest total costs ($91 billion) only behind the years 2017, 2005 and 2012.”

Research by he State of California’s CalFire agency – California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection – found that from 2008 to 2019, fire suppression costs ALONE totaled over $4.723 Billion.

Our United States Department of the Interior found that from 2000 to 2013, there were a total of 1,328,019 fires on public lands, involving 120,719,731 acres, at a combined Federal cost (Department of Interior + US Forest Service) of $26.6743 TRILLION.

Again, the ASCE wrote earlier (4 years ago) that, “By investing an additional $157B per year through 2020, we can prevent $3.1Trillion loss in GDP, $1.1Trillion loss in total trade, $2.4Trillion drop in consumer spending, 3.5 million job losses, and $3100 per year drop in personal disposable income per household.”

If those aren’t real problems that affect us all, I don’t know what are.

Government spending on projects like these are a significant part of our national economy. And every dollar spent goes right back into the Private Sector for raw materials and manpower (wages). That’s why I am NOT fearful or worried about taxes. Those who decry “tax and spend” policies simply do NOT know what they’re talking about.

Right now, if our government was to “man up” and decided to spend $485 TRILLION on economic infrastructure (that’s a ridiculous hypothetical figure, of course, Republicans would have massive strokes and heart attacks – which might prove beneficial to America, anyway😜) to include building a nationwide coast-to-coast high-speed maglev monorail train network in the lower 48 states, rural expansion, repaving and widening every road, making new ones, building new schools, hospitals, and PREVENTION SYSTEMS associated with natural catastrophe like storm and flood management, and changed construction techniques to make buildings and residences more resilient, we could put every American to work, create new jobs, new industries, incentives, and a whole new America… which is what we need, anyway. Science, medical and health research, NASA, the moon, Mars, underwater, pollution control, and more would ALL benefit… which means We The People would benefit.

Think about what it’d be like to have fiber optic Internet connectivity in ALL 50 states – even in remotely rural areas. THAT ALONE would be a significant game-changer. And we’re finding out the hard way that we should’ve done that 20 years ago.

Point being, is that tax policy which has favored the wealthy, the rich, the well-to-do, and their corporations, and policies which have gutted, hamstrung, and hampered our nation’s agencies – including the Internal Revenue Service, which now has even FEWER agents than it did in 1950 (even though we’ve grown significantly since then) – has been a slow knife to the throat of our nation’s progress. It’s called “Death by a thousand cuts.”

Arguing about what causes the rain when there’s a hole in the roof is useless.

First, fix the hole.

THAT is what America needs right now.