I don't know how to restart this ramble and rant. So I lead a good life, in some ways better than my parents. But my parents raised us in a simpler time, when people were less materialistic and more concerned about just making a life for their families. Now we have plans for everything going out to the end of our lives, and all of those plans include buying lots of stuff. This consumerism has fueled our economy for the last thirty years, the thirty years of my generation. In that time we have paid less for most of our consumer goods, but the cost of the things that really matter has skyrocketed. Health care, energy, housing and education are a larger percentage of our income then ever before, and the middle class jobs that used to pay for these items plus our consumer goods have all moved to Asia where they now fuel the Asian economy and standard of living rather than ours. The decisions made by US companies to send these jobs overseas has resulted in profits and increasing shareholder value for the shareholders (which, yes, includes our 401K's) but a non-existent middle class.
When I went to college the first time (someday we'll talk about that fiasco) The cost of one year at a state college was $300. Room and board was another $1200. Today Plymouth State is a combined $15K and UNH is $20K. The average student leaves college with a $50 to $100K in debt, a burden equal to a mortgage in earlier times. The opportunity to start adult life looking towards the future is looking pretty tough.
Although it looked like I wasn't completing part 2, circumstances intervened. The stock market crash is a direct result of pure greed on the part of individuals and companies more concerned about the price of their stock than about the people who work for them. How much is enough? When individual CEO's earn $50M in a bad year and then are given $100M to leave, what are these boards thinking. The fact that we have looked the other way while companies were blindly allowed to follow their greed means only that we are all to blame for allowing our government to be driven by the same greed as these corporations. It's time for reasonable profits and companies that are more concerned about their responsibilities not only to their shareholders but to the people that work for them and what is best for all concerned.
New dirty words: conservative, liberal, family values, patriot, socialism, terrorism.... When are we going to start fixing the problems that confront us? Because I think the Iraq war was based on lies and a vendetta held by the hawks in one party doesn't make me any less of an American or less of a patriot. It just means I disagree over the war. And it doesn't make me support our troops any less then the anyone else. They have a tough job to do and I support them whole heartedly. But the use of labels thrown around to pump up the party faithful only continues to divide us, polarizing into us and them.
There have been some refreshing parts to this campaign season. Neither of the campaigns seemed to bring up "family values". Maybe they suddenly realized that there are so many different definitions of a family today that it was only falling on the ears of the party zealots. Unfortunately we continued to question each others patriotism by suggesting being an Arab or a Muslim was wrong. I have known good people of Arabic decent and good Muslims. I don't need peoples ignorance to tell me the difference between a fanatic and a good person.
I know there is a percentage of the population that believes it doesn't matter who gets elected, that nothing will change for them. Change comes gradually, sometimes over generations. Go out and vote tomorrow. And when the election is over, work to solve the problems we face, not to tear each other down because we might disagree.
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