Problems

Every generation has faced challenges. We are facing grave challenges that will alter human cilivization permentantly. Climate change threatens are exsistence. Conflicts that have gone on for thousands of years continue to bring unrest to the world. Resources are being stretched ever thinner. The United States military faces a formidable enemy and our economy is crashing down. The citizens of the U.S. have turned to the democratic party for answers to these problems. There was somewhat a revolution in November of 2008 when Barack Obama won the presidential race. We know that things are bad, but what are the solutions to this dire situation. Strong, wise leaders are needed. The democrats want to build a stronger government that will provide assistance to people. The problem is that for the last 30 to 40 years we have wasted vast amounts of resources within our capitlistic society. Free markets are great when resources are easy to find. This contraction has been in the making for sometime. People must get back to basic needs and forgoe frivilous spending. Banks must be reined in to more reasonable levels. They have created this cheap money that made it seem like the party could go on forever. It could have if we didn't run into the wall with resources. Energy is king.

Policy

Unemployment is on the rise. I expect January and February to be very bad on the unemplolyment front. I'm betting that many companies pushed layoffs to the new year, because they didn't want to do it during the holidays. We are in for continued difficult economic times.

Policy Shifts:

Obama has said that he does not support raising the age that people receive Social Security benefits. This is not an option. The age needs to be raised now. That would take billions off the deficit and require people to stay in the work force longer which would strengthen our economy. This relatively new notion of retiring at 65 is not realistic. I know that people have paid into a ponzi scheme with the expectation that they would get benefits later on. Well Social Security is not a vialble business model as currently set up. If you raise the age that benefits are dispersed to 75, it becomes viable again.

Competitive sports in state run schools (1st through 12th) need to be halted as part of the acedemic structure. Fitness is important, but traveling around to play other teams multiple times per week is weakening our school system. The coaches are sometimes the highest paid teachers, partly because they deserve it for spending so much time traveling around. We need to go to the club sports model that many other countries have adopted. Professional sports teams need to sponsor these teams, because they are the ones that benefit from the developement of players. We have already moved in this direction with AAU and other organizations for basketball, volleyball, and soccer.

There has to be a contraction in the system and these are two places to start.

Obama

Obama is doing a pretty good job with the transition. The sad part is that we are in one of the greatest crisis of all time and we have to wait until January 20th 2009 to get anything done. If I was Obama, I would have a very quick swearing in and would get right to work. We don't have time for ceremonies during this type of crisis. It reminds me of Bush reading books to kids as we were attacked on 9/11.

Crimes

I want to see criminal investigations into the large banks responsible for this collapse. I want to Allen Greenspan to be brought to trial for treason. He is one of the all time greatest detriments to our society. He thought that banks would regulate themselves. That is not a good enough answer to his incompetency. The Federal Reserve need to be replaced with a better system. The SEC needs to stand trial for it's part in letting these things occur. I know that these actions seem extreme, but we are experience one of the greatest collapses of all time and someone is to blame. Just because these criminals wear pin-striped suits and wing-tipped shoes that does not mean that they can bring down a country. Millions have lost their jobs because of these people. Trillions in savings have been wiped out due to these buffoons. Granted the stock market should never have been as high as it was.

Waste

We have wasted our world away and now the bill collector has come for his money. Bad news, we are broke. We decided that having a modest lifestyle was not good enough. The big corporations decided to use all of our resources to put us into a type of indentured slavery. Our debt has now reached 10.6 trillion dollars. The poor dollar does not have a very bright future. Where was government? The protector of the people. In the big corporations pockets. The sad thing is that other countries were looking at us as the model for their economies/societies. Bad move. As I have said before, great men and women must rise to the challenges facing our world. We are currently headed down a path that could lead to great social unrest. The scariest part of the equation is that I don't think that the people are willing to change. It is part of the "American Dream" to have as much as you want. This model is no longer sustainable. We have built a society with money we don't have. Our people have become complacent. There will have to be pain, before we can adjust to the old way of life. Living within your means. Work hard. Help your fellow man/woman. Greed and Sloth have brought us here. Giving and Caring will bring us out.

Hard Times

Guess what, the economy is in a ditch. It is amazing to me that people are actually surprised. A revolution is brewing. Voters are going to come out in record numbers to choose who will lead us through this mess. I hope they don't make the same mistake that was made in 2000 and 2004. Looking at the 2006 elections, it appears that we have learned a thing or two. Both parties have let us down, but it is time to let the democratic party have their shot. I do want to see investigations into the housing bubble.

Tight Race

The canidates cannot be more different. They represent two very strong segments of the United States. The old guard and generations X, Y, and millinials. The nation is divided about evenly, as it has been for the last few presidential elections. The election will be decided on Abortion. This issue has divided the nation more than any other issue in the last 20 years, with gay marriage coming in second.