It is hard to miss that the united States is in an economic and social mess in this day and age. High unemployment haunts us at every turn, and does not seem to want to rebound. Foreclosures at extreme highs, real estate prices plummeting and not regaining. Every one points fingers as who is to blame, The Obamites blame Bush, the Bushites blame Clinton and Obama.
The truth is the Presidency while having some effect is not the total cause of the situation. Yes there were roots inthe Carter Administration that set the whole thing in motion when the edict came down that every American should be able to own a house, and as time worked its way around, and lending restrictions relaxed making way for the undocumented loans and sub prime loans as well as interest only payments the housing crash and economic demolition did begin. However if you dig deeper, you find the root cause of the problem. It is the people's greed. No longer happy with a small house with a master bedroom and the kids sharing a room, then a family room, kitchen and maybe a dining room, we started demanding a master suite with 1 bedroom for each kid, a play room living room, and ore and more space, much of which actually went underused. small 1000 square foot houses made way for 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 and even 5,000 square foot houses while average family size actually decreased. Add on top of that we want televisions in every room, and the kitchen has to have stainless steel appliances, imported marble countertops, and custom made tile floors, with pantries large enough to sleep in. Bathrooms have to have whirlpool tubs seperate shower stalls, and more. We could go on and on Closets have to be filled with shoes and clothes, but if you look at the labels, you find what used to be made in the U.S. is now made in China, Malayasia, Mexico, Guatamala, and other remote places. Our neighbors get more, so we want more becasue heaven forbid we can't fall behind. We demand raises and higher and higher minimum wages, thus driving the price of the products we make higher and higher, while we demand more and ore goods, so the manufacturers find countries with lower and lower wages and less restrictions to keep the cost down. What was once an extravagance susch as microwave ovens and mega sound systmes, become a neccesity we have to have them or we just can't survive, thus looking for cheaper and cheaper goods. We become a disposable society shoes we wera once or twice then go the back of the closet and eventually thrown out, so China's economy grows and our manufacturing base continues to shrink. If every American bought pair of American made shoes we could reopen most of the shoe factories in Maine and remploy thousands of people, but we won't because they cost to much and who can live with only one or two pair of shoes...(I have a pair of sneakers, a pair of work boots, work shoes 1 pair of dress shoes, and a pair of beach shoes,and my winter boots, that is it, Oh I almost forgot my one pair of well worn hiking boots that have hiked many New Hampshire Mountains, American made, and 36 years old but still look and feel in pretty good shape.) If we bought American made clothes, from natural fibers such as cotton or linen we would put farmers back to work, we would put textile mills back in operation. If we repaired clothes instead of throwing them out we would employ more seamstresses, and tailors. If we would buy 1 or 2 American made Televisions rather than having to have one in every room we would open more factories. Just think about it. If we bought more domestic goods rather than foriegn goods our economy would rebound very quickly. I we gave people hands up instead of hand outs we would have a very robust work force.
I hear the cry Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, where are the jobs the government promised us....face it folks the governement does not have the power to create jobs that are meaningful and self sustaining, they can expand governmment departments but those are tax dependent jobs. Only we can be the force to create more meaningful jobs b demanding American made products, thus putting more of our fellow countrymen back to work.The choice is ours, and ours alone. We were once a mighty manufacturing giant, but where are we now...those facotries sit vacant or are being demolished. Do we allow this to contiue to happen, or do we get offour asses and do soemthing about it, and rebuild this mighty country.
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