What Does America Really Want?
America is polarized, well that’s not quite true. If you read the polls, clickbait for political junkies, you would think that America is really divided, actually that’s not quite the truth. America is actually quite united. Most Americans believe the same thing, it’s only a question of whose fault it really is. Americans pretty much are all in agreement that the country is going to hell in a handbasket. I don’t think there is anyone who is happy with the direction the country is headed, whatever direction that is.
I read today that even Republicans are becoming dissatisfied wth their party,[1] and that surprised me. I thought I could always count on republicans to be rock solid in their party support. It’s that rock solid, lockstep, single-mindedness that has led them to where they are today. Republicans for decades, since the first days of the Moral Majority have been solidly of one view, contrasting nicely with the democrats, who have been all over the board. Will Rogers said it best, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” Democrats continue to flail around on the political stage, frequently leaving their friends to become speed bumps. Republicans, have always been refreshingly predictable and unimpeachably consistent. You know where they stand and should you be wrong, all you have to do is look to your right and there they are. But now…
The most interesting question that no one is asking is, “What do Americans really want?” The only difference between the left and the right is who the bogieman is. Neither side believes that America is headed in the right direction, but neither side can articulate what it is they are really looking for. We are besieged with slogans; Country First, Hope, Take America Back, Yes We can, but none of these define what the vision for the country really is. When one side or the other attempts to convey their vision it quickly becomes painfully obvious that it is a work of the imagination and not a viable destination. For a vision for the future of the country to be viable it needs to be something that everyone can get behind. The visions put forth by the political candidates is more like a bad trip down a rabbit hole. Fanciful descriptions of a utopia where only about half of the population can live isn’t a vision, it’s a hallucination, it’s fantasy, it’s deranged.
We’ve had over thirty years of trickle down, voodoo economics, that’s plenty of time to see good results. What is it that we actually have? Most all of our cities are starting to crumble or have collapsed like Detroit. Our roads are falling apart, bridges are collapsing, and we keep building new that we have no plans to fix. All of the infrastructure in this country needs to be fixed, replaced, or at a minimum–seriously updated. How many computer systems are being hacked each year. The federal government has even been hacked. What is it we have that we can use to create jobs and generate wealth? Even Donald Trump’s suits are made outside the country. How many more super storms do we need to realize we need to repair and replace our broken society? JFK spoke of a vision that everyone could get behind, going to the moon. We, as a society created one of the most massive technological jumps in human history and we completed it on time. The sad part is that it turned out to be just window dressing and a carnival stunt. We got there but didn’t have the courage to STAY there. We retreated and continue to retreat as a country. Now, nearly fifty years later, we can’t can’t even get astronauts out of low Earth orbit. Where is all the results Reagan promised us? Heck, even Kansas can’t get it to work and that is about as republican and conservative as you can get. If the home team can’t even make it work, how do you expect a country of diversified opinion to make it work?
Consumers continue to pull back as evidenced by the continual discounting and fancy financing schemes. Same as cash it a common sales pitch, unfortunately there is nothing that is the same as cash. Financing for car loans is now in the five to six year range. We can’t continue to finance purchases like that for longer periods of time because we get to a point that the product is worn out before it is paid off. Growing up, the unofficial life expectancy of a car was five years. Americans looked at buying new cars twice a decade, now how often do they buy new cars. The last new car I bought was over twenty-five years ago, before I was married. I doubt I’m alone here. Home loans used to be the biggest long term financing purchase a person would make, now it is joined by education, medical bills, and other purchases. How many of our college graduates are attempting to join the workforce with college loans as big as a house loan? Anyone who doesn’t believe that will impact their consumerism is whistling past a cemetery.
Another problem we continue to ignore is retirement of the baby boomers. The Greatest Generation saved the world for democracy, worked hard to build a prosperous country and retired with pensions and social security. They continued to consume right up to the end. They continue to buy cars, take trips, eat out, until they succumbed to death or disease. The Baby Boomers will be just the opposite, when forced to retire, they will attempt to survive on underfunded 401(k) plans (which by the way were designed to supplement pensions and social security, not replace them). What people don’t realize is that 401(k) plans are truly fixed income. The best year of one of those plans is the first year and it goes down hill from there until the recipient runs out of money. There are not cost of living bumps with a 401(k), just less spending power year after year after year until they are broke. They aren’t going to be consuming, just surviving. They aren’t going to be going on trip, unless you consider a day trip to the local government building to apply for assistance a vacation.
The list of problems is endless. There are many more social and economic problems out there just waiting to reek havoc on our economy and social fabric. Most of the laws we are passing now are only making them worse. Many say we can’t afford to fix the problems so the solution is to do nothing, the problem is we can’t afford not to solve the problems. Not spending more to fix our education system isn’t saving money, it’s just pushing the problem down the road so it can cost more. Kicking people off of public assistance isn’t making them wealthy, it’s just making someone else pay or costing taxpayers more. Tax cuts haven’t saved us a dime, they will cost us dearly to fix the neglect.
We have a little over a year to have some important discussions, loud vocal discussions, not that they will happen. We, as a country, need to decide where we can actually go and stop wasting time on fantasy and silliness. We have real problem that slogans can’t solve. We have an economic crisis that won’t go away. Who really cares what the markets are doing, how about what the average family is doing.
I don’t believe the current economic or social environment is sustainable, nor do I believe that anyone does. I see profit taking and positioning for a economic and social meltdown. What I want to see is realistic interventions to prevent the meltdown. The people that get hurt in meltdowns are average americans, regardless of whether they vote. Life has become cheap and society doesn’t matter. At some point it will stop. At some point Americans will say enough is enough and make due with what they have, or revolt, and that’s bad for business. Average citizens are the real job creators, it’s high time we started to take responsibility and demand change. For those who think job creators are not average americans, what would happen if everyone went on strike for a week and stayed home?
[1]: Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...)
Originally published at www.dailykos.com on July 27, 2015.
