The country is suffering from a lot of problems, or at least perceived problems, for which the politicians say they have an answer. Just vote for them and all your problems will be solved. But, I wonder if anyone really has an answer to any of them. At least one that will actually work without disastrous consequences. I will try to list some of them and take up further discussion in later blog postings. Some of them may be real problems and others may be only those created to serve some political end. The list is just too long to have a meaningful discourse on all of them at once.
The wealth disparity. There is a vast gulf between the wealthiest among us and the rest of us. There is the fact that 0.1% if the population own about 25% of the wealth. The bottom 90% own about 20% or another way, the top 10% own 80% of the wealth of the country. That is a problem for all of us because that means that a very small number of people are really controlling the economy. And, they will take actions that will benefit them before they even think about the public good.
The middle class is disappearing. There is the lingering and growing problem of the disappearance of the middle class. The middle class is actually the ones who fuel the economy. They're the ones who purchase the cars, appliances, homes, etc. There is a two tier system; the people with the right skills in high demand and are compensated well, and those who have to settle for low skilled jobs and the low pay that goes with it. The old blue collar middle class jobs, which were primarily in manufacturing, are disappearing overseas or to the incorporation of extensive robotics. More and more of what's left of the middle class is composed of people working on the taxpayers dime. The problem, perhaps, is that the public sector of the job market seems to be growing.
Poverty level. There is the unyielding poverty level for about 15% of the population that is not getting any better. The government has tried many programs to try to lift the underclass out of poverty with little success. Making matters worse is the growing number of families where there is only the under trained or under educated woman to provide support. There is a valid argument that the real poverty level is really closer to 2%-3% after one factors in government programs such as assisted housing, food stamps and other forms of government assistance.
Cost of education keeps rising. A college education is getting almost prohibited to the children of the lower economic classes unless their child somehow stands out, either athletically or academically, and can get a scholarship. College tuition and other expenses have risen much faster than the growth in wages for almost everyone. The most elite universities are for either the very gifted, or with the right connections (meaning family money) to get admitted. What this usually means is the student graduates with a mountain of student loan debt that has to be repaid by somebody. To make matters worse, many of the degrees granted to graduates are really of no real value in the work place. It is common for a graduate to be under employed, if they have a job, with a huge debt.
The exporting of jobs. The continued exporting of jobs to foreign countries where the labor costs are much less than in this country is a problem. The global economy has resulted in the United States workers having to compete with foreign workers making a tenth of their salaries. Companies have had to move their operations to a foreign workplace or automate in a big way in order to compete in today's market.
The national debt. The growing, ever growing, national debt is a real problem now and more so in the future. I seems that we can't get off this ever expanding need to borrow money to finance ever growing demands from the public for more and more entitlements. Any politician who attempts to cut the entitlements now in place must be ready for a firestorm from the left, especially those who are getting the benefits. The main thrust by the liberals in congress at any attempt to control government expenditures (when they even think about such things) has been the effort to cut the military funding to a level that is posing a real threat to American interests. The interest on the national debt is growing and taking up more and more of the budget. We're in a position now where we are borrowing money in order pay the interest on the debt we already have. And a huge amount of that debt is owed to foreign countries.
The trade deficit. There is huge and expanding trade deficit. We are importing much more than we export. China virtually owns the United States now and the export deficit just keeps growing. Look at virtually everything you own, from your clothes, appliances, and cars. Chances are that most of them were manufactured in a foreign country. Even those brands we think of as American, think of Ford and GM's products, might very well be actually made in another country. Or at least a good number of the parts that go into the product even it's assembled in the US.
Public employee retirement benefits. State and local governments are faced with crippling unfunded benefits for their retired employees, and it's growing. The unfunded pension obligations for the State of California, for instance, has grown 3,046% since 2003. At that time the underfunded amount was 6.3 million dollars. It has grown to 198.2 million dollars in 2013. The emergence of the public employee unions and the fact that they can pour huge amounts of money into election campaigns, has resulted in elected officials being sympathetic to their pleas for greater and greater retirement benefits as well as pay raises and other benefits while working. The workers can hire their own bosses. Here in California, one of most powerful unions of public employees is the teachers union, who almost dictate the running of the public schools and are instrumental in the state wide elections. They have demanded and got retirement packages that are so liberal that it is heading toward bankruptcy with the taxpayer is on the hook for bailing the fund out.
The infrastructure. The public infrastructure of this country is breaking down. The highway taxes levied on gasoline, which was intended to keep the roads and bridges in good order and and for expansion of the highway system as needed, is commonly hijacked by the politicians in the state capitols for other purposes. Pot holes appear on our freeways and bridges collapse while we divert money elsewhere.
The public education system. Our schools are perceived to be among the lowest ranking of all the education systems of the industrial world. We spend a fortune on education while our students are being graduated without the skills to balance their checkbook or read simple directions. I wonder is this is really true.
