What's needed IMHO is some goals, and a lot of cash, from the Govt. that turns America around and makes us into the world leader in cutting pollution, instead of the worlds biggest polluter. We need to be the leader in energy efficiency, instead of the biggest energy waster.
Massive govt. spending may send our dollar further into the dumper, but frankly it's going there anyway, we need programs to reinvigorate America, and I think it can only be done by bringing back what we always have done best, innovate.
I won't blame the FED for all our problems, there's plenty of blame to go around. We've let corporations and politicians do far to much to destroy what America should stand for. It's easier to build modern plants elsewhere, so we don't invest here, then we wonder why things cost more to produce here. We invent new technology, but others utilize it.
We invented the Internet, yet it runs far faster elsewhere. HD is higher definition elsewhere. In short, we're the most innovative place in the world, but others profit on our innovation.
There is no doubt, the worlds economies needed to be built up, so all we've done is not wrong, but we've forgotten to build ourselves up as well. No one likes more taxes, and I'm not sure they're needed, but right now we need to prime the American pump and get people employed on things that lead to improving the infrastructure, energy saving, energy creation, reducing and reversing pollution, in short, we must become the innovators we once were in working to save the planet, and greatly improve America while doing so.
Yesterday I was at a meeting where we discussed a program to take disadvantaged kids in Los Angeles fishing. This program has been run for years, but now the kids aren't allowed to keep the fish they catch. Why, because the fish that can be found in our local waters are becoming scarce, so catch and release has become the thing to do. We need to work on things like replenishing our oceans rather than polluting them.
All these things require spending money, money we don't have, but if we spend it, it has the potential to pay us back in spades. If America develops ways of eliminating or reducing pollution, the world will buy it. If America develops new ways of generating and saving energy, the world will buy it. In short, the more we do to make this a better planet the more marketable what we produce becomes.
I'm certainly not against industry, I don't know what we'd have been without the industrial revolution, but now's the time to turn the revolution around to cleaning up in addition to building the products we all like so much to consume. I believe America can lead the world in this effort, but it will take money to prime that pump and right now it's govt. money that's needed along with major incentives to make it work. If we do it today, in a decade it should start to pay the govt. back, it won't happen overnight, but in time making the world a better place could become our biggest revenue producer.
Gary |
