by 1911fan on Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:38 pm
Re #2, Foreign Aid, properly done, has done more to help the nation than almost anything else. While helping nations stand on their own is ideal situation, there is far more to do with creating favorable conditions for american products than most see.
If you look at what a logical outcome of europe and japan post WW2 without the Marshall plan, and its pretty clear that may be the best money ever spent by the US. Likewise, for all the billions we spent in preparing to fight the soviet union in the cold war era, it was less then 200 million we spent giving aid to the taliban that brought down the corruption that was the Soviets. And us not spending a few million more to shore up good relations has cost us nearly 10 billion in a war there.
Immigration, we do not need any more people in the US, lets keep them out, but help them understand why we want them to stay home and work to improve their own nation.
Re 11. Kids are the most valuable resource, lets pay teachers like we believe in that. Have a national standards of basics all kids have to learn, Make daily Gym class, arts and music a requirement. All kids need to have math and science skills, and a healthy understand of history and politics. NO need for diversity classes or other wastes of money, because if taught correctly, kids will learn that the 442 combat brigade was the highest decorated unit of the second world war, and understand WHY that significant or who the Tuskeegee Airmen were and why that was groundbreaking. A teacher with a masters should be making a hundred grand a year. That will bring better people into the profession, and make it a job competed for.
re 18, Oil is the answer now only because we have walked down that path,
Oil is the best fuel available for automobiles, densest source of BTU's that is reasonable safe and portable, HOWEVER< for electric energy for other sources, oil/NG are not the best options by far. There are other ways, Nuclear is one option, but it has such serious downsides as to really need rethinking. Hydro has vast ecological effects which are hard to balance out, tidal hydro, geothermal, biomass, all have better upsides, as does using directed solar to drive fuel cells. In other words, if you do not have to have portable fuel, oil is a terrible way to do it.
Conservation and new technologies could cut domestic power use by upto 1/2. ONE HALF. something like 34 % of total electric usuage in this country is lighting. using CFL and LED technology it might be possible in the next ten years to drop that by 80% Newer forms of A/C can cut that usage by 50% or more, solid state cold plate technology already exists in european appliances and reduces the operating expense of a fridge by some 65%. Variable speed blowers in home HVAC units can save between 8 and 12 %, Upping the requirements for green roofs and better insulation can have a payback date of less than four years, Saving millions of BTU's of energy.
The country has plenty of energy, the allocation and distribution of that energy is the problem.
19, re Labor Unions, read up on the life of the worker before the coal wars, or the life expectancy of a mill worker in 1901, Unions have a role, a strong and healthy role in keeping big business from exploiting workers.
I think the biggest issue in american life is corruption, and moral decay. I have a friend who thinks political office should be like jury duty, a random number generator spits out ss numbers and you get a term in office just getting a term on jury duty, you get paid what you are making at your regular job, and thats it. Maybe a bit harsh, but it would seem to get a better chance at getting people who actually care about that nation.
I think that there should be limits on CEO and officer pay based on worker wages. I think you need to tie them together. EG, No CEO of a publicly held business can make more than say 25 times the lowest wage paid by the company. Bonus's can be paid, but are based on the performance of the company over the last x number of quarters, and must be tied to worker bonus's. This can be changed if the owner is principally involved in the ownership. That is, entrepreneurship is encouraged and rewarded. If you are at risk you are to be rewarded, but these CEO who come in and raid a company, make the stock look good for one or two quarters but have plundered the company to do so would leave empty handed.
Politicians who breech the public trust lose everything. jail time, but they lose all privately held assets. You take a bribe, get a cushy job for your wife doing nothing, rig a vote to purposely enrich friends at a loss to the nation, you go home broke.
