Posted by
Harrison Condit on Tuesday, November 25, 2008 12:00:00 AM
The auto industry in America has worked under a failed
system for years. This system is one of believing that they would have a
monopoly on the worldwide auto industry forever. As a result company leaders of
GM, Chrysler, and Ford have made bad decisions that they, up to now, have not
been held accountable for. Union leaders have maintained their power base by
insisting on unreasonable wages and benefits for their workers. Workers have
accepted these wages and never considered that “the chickens might come home to
roost” someday. And because the American education system does not teach
citizens about money, marketing, the constitution, and many other important
issues, the workers just went along, listening to the outrageous nonsense from
politicians. And, national media
that maintained their power base by supporting this easily recognizable failure
bound system of doing business.
Similarly, the American people have supported or ignored an
equally failed system. No, it is not just George Bush, the Republican Party,
and the Democratic Party that is to blame. It is we, the American citizens. The
system we have been supporting has been steadily drifting from Capitalism to
Socialism. It is only now that many have begun to recognize this reality.
This did not just happen as a result of the Obama election.
The drift has been a steady one going back probably to before the Roosevelt
administration in the 1940’s.
Many people (similar to the union auto workers) have embraced
politicians that have promised to give them things. The promises have ranged
everywhere from welfare to farm subsidies to regulations that strangle business
in the name of helping the less fortunate, Politicians have perverted the
language, the constitution, and the common sense rules of decency to maintain
their power base, while the poor people have just gone along with it. The power
base of these politicians has grown, along with the number of people “on the
take”.
What is even worse is that the leaders in our major
industries have accepted tax breaks; handouts and subsidies, just like the
poor. They too have allowed their greed to override their knowledge of the
long-term consequences of such ideas. Many of these leaders should have known
better. They should understand that the acceptance of these bribes from
Washington were great for their current pocketbooks, but in the long run would
destroy the very system (Capitalism) that got them and our country there in the
first place.
Small business owners and employees are the most to blame.
They have been the engines that have driven this once great country. They,
unlike the guys in big business, really understand how Capitalism works. Like
the big business leaders, they didn’t learn it in school, because America
doesn’t teach it there. The small business leaders learned these principles by
doing. They understand supply and
demand, the market place, meeting
payroll, and the like. They had to correct their mistakes along the way or they
were out of business. That is capitalism.
The mistake of this large group of people was that they just
wanted to be left alone. They did not want to participate in the political
system that was creating the crippling legislation, the tax regulations that
took their money and redistributed it to others and put in place government
programs that assured the growth of bigger and bigger bureaucracies. They left
this task to others, unfortunately to their own peril.
So they sat by and didn’t help kill legislation. They didn’t
participate in stopping the advance of state income taxes, inventory taxes,
inept politicians. They didn’t run for office. They didn’t support candidates
that they knew could keep to the constitution. They just went home at night
after fighting for their lives and listened to the sound bites of the national
media.
As a result of all of this, America slipped quietly and
predictably into Socialism, a system that has never worked anywhere in the
world…. EVER. This is why we now have had two candidates run for office that
are either liberal (socialistic) or “progressive” (Communistic). This is why
during hurricane Katrina we saw the welfare state of New Orleans uncovered the
result of years of handouts from government). This is why politicians went so
far as to force banks to give loans to people who couldn’t afford them., thus
destroying the international financial markets. It has been a failed system from the beginning.
Like the failed American Auto industry, it is now a time for
the current American culture to admit bankruptcy and start over again. America,
like the auto industry, must realize that it will not be up to Washington to
fix our problem. We, the people, must do it or it won’t get done.
These are the things I believe we should do:
1.We must, as a people, recognize the problem. All change
must start with this. We as a country, at least those of us who have studied
and paid attention, know that the problem is the bastardization of our
Democratic Republic (not just a democracy).
It has been this form of government that made us great along
with the capitalistic economic system. These are the elements of our society
that need to be restored.
2. To do this several things need to happen:
a. We need to pass a law that requires ALL government
employees to uphold and defend the Constitution of The United States of America
and, if ANY politician or government employee violates this oath, they will be
prosecuted. Right now the oath has no accountability.
b. The education system in this country needs to be
repaired. Government will not do this. We, as private citizens need to fashion,
fund and administer schools in this country to have ever greater populations of
Americans understand, REAL American history, Capitalism, The Constitution, The
Bill of Rights, How money works, How to critically think, etc. These are all
areas of learning that are required to maintain and defend a Democratic
Republic. None of these are taught today.
Turkey (the country) has businessmen who are already doing
this. Their schools are great, inexpensive, and they have built 1000 schools
around the world, all built by businessmen and women.
c. Help promote and put people in office that understand
what this country is all about. Promote them with your time, your money and
your influence. This will pay big dividends in the long run to you, your family
and your neighbors
d. Work to repeal or reduce taxes on all forms of business.
Institute a flat tax. Repeal the capital gains tax. Do away with industry
handouts, both present and past (you can faze these out). Work to
get rid of many government bureaucracies (the Department of
Education, the Commerce Department, the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, etc).
e. Openly boycott mainstream media. Create an organization
that publishes to all the business in America the names of the organizations
that are undermining our nation. Most people already know this.
f. Don’t look for handouts from government. Don’t fall prey
to their bribes. It is not their money. It is our money. Taking government
money is the same as stealing from your neighbor. It makes you feel guilty and
makes your neighbor angry.
If you are in trouble, look to you neighbor for his or her
VOLUNTARY help. And if you see a neighbor in need, help him, if he has been a
good neighbor. This will restore relationships between people and restore
personal accountability.
These and many more actions are the things we, as Americans,
we can do to restore the country we once all loved. All of us who pay attention
know exactly how to fix our country. It is only those who don’t want it fixed
and ourselves that stand in our way. If we don’t take this opportunity to
retool we, like the failing auto industry, will become ancient history very
soon.