Americans Are Sheep

Andrew Napolitano speaks about Americans as sheep on Fox news. You know where I stand on civil rights. I think Americans are sheep as Napolitano suggests. Americans blindly trust the government rhetoric and surrender civil liberties without discussion, a fight, or even a care really.

An Argument For Prudence On Global Warming

I've always felt that we can't afford to be wrong on the global warming issue. Would it kill us to take the possibility of it seriously even if it turns out to be a "natural cycle"? Though this video takes an extreme stance on both arguments the logic is clear. By taking global warming seriously we are reducing our risk. I understand this because I do the same kind of thing with my investment portfolio. It's called hedging the risk.

Politcal Cartoon About a Virtual Border

The Associated Press: Moussaoui Judge Questions Government

The Associated Press: Moussaoui Judge Questions Government

Nobody supports terrorists. But how can we function as a free and democratic society if our government cannot be trusted to produce all evidence it has in it's cases. The CIA and FBI have incredible leeway in dealing with their classified information. They withheld information that would have hurt their case against Moussaoui. They can classify information and hide it under the guise of national security at will and there is little that can be done about it. Even a federal judge has difficulty making the information available to all who should have access to it during a trial.

This may seem justifiable during a terrorist case, but how can we suspend our national values to prosecute those who want to destroy our national values? We will become just another corrupt judicial system run with strings attached by the executive branch. But this can't happen right? This is America.

Feds' budget tricks hide trillions in debt - MSN Money

Feds' budget tricks hide trillions in debt - MSN Money

It is staggering the sheer amount of money this country overspends and how they play with the numbers to hide billions upon billions in overspending.

With the middle class getting the knock out punch from inflation (food price increases, gas, medical insurance) there isn't a very strong base to pull us out of this when the social security problems begin to hit.

Intelligentguess - Analysis of Market Economics » USA - Relationship between Total Debt ( data from 1929) and External debt as a % of the GDP (data from 1995)

Intelligentguess - Analysis of Market Economics » USA - Relationship between Total Debt ( data from 1929) and External debt as a % of the GDP (data from 1995)

I've talked a lot about the Republican cut and spend policy and how it is hurting out country. Here is a nice graphic illustration. It's a graph of the national debt as a percentage of GDP. Look at how in recent years what has happened under Republican Presidents. They increase spending but reduce revenue in the form of tax cuts. The size of government has grown incredibly under George W which is normally a trait of the Democrats.

I'd actually support a cut and cut policy if it reduced the national debt. Cut and spend is damaging the future of the country.

Report: Americans getting poorer - MSN Money

Middle Class Squeeze

I'm a little fearful of the current state of our middle class. Anyone who is middle class like myself has been under a squeeze for the past few years. I know the inflation index is something like 3% per year, but that index doesn't take into account all of the costs the pile up on the middle class. Our tax burdens have increased, health care costs go up 5% on a good year, more on every other year. Gas has taken a heavy toll. Even granny on social security thinks long and hard every time she gets behind the wheel to go to the store. Wages don't seem to be able to go up enough to compensate. Companies are transferring health care insurance increases onto their workers. I can't blame them as they can't absorb the increases either.

My father was a union pipefitter during the booming 80's. Everything was going great as the ecomomy was going gang busters. I remember when the union voted down a $5 pay raise because it wasn't enough. And this was 1980 dollars. Then Reagon ordered them back to work with a pay freeze. Oops.

It was feasible for families to have only one bread winner and a stay at home parent. Our standard of living continued to go up. And it kept going up into the 90's. It wasn't necessarily a gang buster economy that kept the standard on the rise, it was the introduction of the 2 parent income. Mom and dad both worked and their combined income was better than 1 80's income. Our houses got bigger, our cars got bigger.

And so here we are now. We don't have a third worker to give our middle class families that boost in income. In fact, that two parent income under the pressures of inflation is only doing what 1 income did in the 80's.

People have been predicting the death of the consumer for a long time and again and again the consumer has risen on their plastic. I'm afraid this time the consumer is tapped.

This article talks a little bit about the topic. It is inconsistant and shows how difficult it is to track how our wages compare to other places. It is an interesting read though and worth browsing through.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/ReportSaysAmericansGettingPoorer.aspx