FZ2878

The United States is facing so many domestic problems at the same time right now, we can only hope that when President-elect Barack Obama finally gets into the White House, he has the vision to look at the “Big Picture”. All of these problems are intermingled, and unless the solutions are intertwined as well, we will find ourselves putting a band-aid on one problem and exacerbating another.

Follow up:

The auto industry’s meltdown and the solution to save the jobs which could be potentially lost are directly tied to the energy crisis and this nation’s addiction to foreign oil. Both are tied to local, state and federal government’s refusal to develop quality, usable and successful mass transit and efforts to reduce automobile gridlock in many areas of the country. And all are tied to mismanagement, corruption, and greed at the top levels of both industry and government.

The nation’s infrastructure is outdated and in some cases crumbling, requiring a sizable investment to ensure the safety of our citizens who depend on it. Not just our roads, and bridges, but also our electrical supply grids. The way we do business is tied to and depends on the infrastructure and how we move goods, and all of these shortcomings have cost the United States millions of jobs.

Our education system has fallen from one emulated by country’s around the world, to one passed by as it has failed to focus on the rapidly changing technological advances and the millions of high-tech jobs we Americans are unqualified to fill. Government is so fearful, or just unwilling to step in where aid is needed we have failed our public schools, and focused on once again favoring the rich by providing vouchers for private schools so they won’t have to attend the inferior public schools. The cost to attend college has gotten so high, many potential graduates never enter college or must quit before they finish, creating a new generation of young people ill-equipped to compete in the world's marketplace.

Our health care system is in shambles because the government refuses to take control and regulate the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Millions of Americans remain uninsured, millions more can’t afford the medicine they need, hospitals have failed, and a recent survey showed that thousands of primary care physicians are considering discontinuing their practices because the insurance red-tape and high malpractice insurance costs keep them from doing what they want to do, which is to care for their patients and provide the best medical care possible.

Government can’t run everything, and it’s proven that too much government control or ownership of many industries fails. We don’t need communism, or even government owned and run socialism. But we find ourselves in the most dramatic crisis of our lifetime, and nothing short of something similar to a modernized, 21st Century, FDR style New Deal will solve all these problems simultaneously and get Americans back to work.

And let’s face it, that’s the only real solution. Not saving the company names, not saving the company image, not saving the company executives, but once again just as FDR recognized, we need to build from the bottom up, and save the workers by providing new jobs, in new fields which help the big picture and move this country forward, so we can once again create a fresh atmosphere of free enterprise, and once again fulfill the American Dream.

William S. James, Counting the days to January 20th