I have always been told that America is the greatest nation on earth. Our economy is the richest, our democracy the oldest and our armed services are the best. Our country was a place where people took responsibility, were hard working, honest and self reliant. Our education was the very best. We made some of the greatest cars from the 1940s with 16 cylinder Cadillacs, the Packard, and Piece Arrow to the 1970s with a wide variety of great cars. Our crime rate was low and there was little racial disharmony with some notable exceptions. We could leave our doors unlocked because people respected private property and their owners.
How are we now?
Our economy is still the richest, with China catching up. But we have a projected $1 trillion budget deficit this year and are $20 trillion in debt.
Our democracy is still the oldest, but it has become more extreme and divisive. Members of Congress seem to have lost their capacity to be civil and to find common ground with the opposition. Our federal judges have been less objective with rulings lately that can only exaggerate this bias. Judges seem to file objections to everything they don't like. Lately one judge ruled that the expiration of DACA, a temporary program created by presidential action and scheduled to expire March 5th, can't expire. A judge ruled against ending the program because he didn't like candidate Trump's remarks while campaigning. The judge said that he had to consider those remarks in making his ruling even though letting the program end has nothing to do with anything said a year ago instead of being based on the case before it now and not the judge's objection about the past. It will go to the Supreme Court which will quickly rule against the lower court judges. It is obvious that the current president or Congress can let the temporary program end.
Our military is still the best but it got bogged down in Vietnam, a civil war that had nothing to do with us. Our troops went to Iraq even though it was not in our national interest. It cost billions or even trillions U.S. dollars and thousands of American lives and it seems that we can never leave. We see the same in Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. We are stuck in these battles that could go on forever. We have more than 800 foreign military bases so we can defend Europe against the USSR that no longer exists. We have been in South Korea for 65 years to protect them against the million man army of the North. We just can't leave, leaving 30,000 service members defending a country that has not been attacked since 1952.
Our great military is not sacrificing lives and spending billions, to keep America free; we are trying to make other countries free and are not succeeding. Did Vietnam and Cambodia avoid going communist? No. Now that we helped depose dictators in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, are the people there better off? It's much worse, with most countries becoming failed states.
Are we still hard working, honest and self reliant? Leave your front door unlocked and you will soon get the answer. Are we all self reliant or do many of us depend on government support. We feel our condition is not our fault, it is society to blame, we are innocent victims. While some of us are hard working, doing very best we can, too many of other fellow Americans seem to take a more leisurely approach to work. We don't need to answer our phones at work because we have voice mail and we don't have to respond. And are we honest? Watch or read the news. Less honest it cannot be. It has become totally biased and tells us half the truth which is on a par with lying.
Our public education is not great anymore. Since the 1970s, standards have gone down. In our efforts to be all inclusive with students from several countries and different capabilities, teachers have had to insist on less and have gotten what they expected. It's not the students' fault or responsibility, it's because of their socio economic condition or cultural background. We blame the teachers for low test scores, never the students or their families. We no longer have the best education or the brightest students. We have fallen from number one to being far down on the list of countries with the best education.
What has happened to America's automotive excellence? I have written in previous columns that it looks like American car makers have given up producing passenger cars including station wagons. The Wall Street Journal just had an article about this situation. All three automakers are discontinuing many of their car lines with more to come. Chevy is getting rid of the Bolt and the Impala, which has been around since 1958. That would leave just the Volt and the Malibu. Chrysler is almost completely getting out of the market. It got rid of the Dart and the 200 with the 300 to be next. it is now depending on Jeep sales. Jeeps haver been rated less reliable and are not recommended for purchase. Ford is dropping most of its passenger cars, which have also gotten terrible ratings. The Lincoln model has been terrible for years. No one is buying Lincolns meaning it too might be on a future chopping block. The Cadillac is no longer the gold standard of cars. It is mediocre and not luxurious. An Audi A4 is even a more desirable car for much less the price. Cadillac sales are down as are their resale values with many auto reviews telling people not to be one. The companies say that with low gasoline prices, people want big SUVs and trucks, but we are still buying German and Japanese family cars, with great success.
Life today seems much more violent than it used to be. We have gangs in Chicago and Baltimore that are breaking all records for murders and other gun violence. Part of the reason might be a lack of jobs for the less fortunate. We used to produce 90% of our goods and services; it is now down to about 2%. We have outsourced our factory jobs abroad to countries like China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia and then blamed automation, but these foreign factory workers are doing the job without automation. We have in-sourced our entry level jobs to our millions of undocumented workers and recent immigrants. We are told that Americans don't want the jobs. They would if they got at least a living wage and benefits like healthy coverage. We have 300 million privately owned guns including the assault rifle, a big seller. We have violent video games, violent T.V. shows, even what used to be news magazines like 2020, 48 hours and dateline have become reenactments of violence. We watch the violence of football and boxing without thinking that they should be discontinued
Maybe America is still great, but in need of many improvements. We can all do our parts with elected officials caring more about the country than about their party; with the media being more concerned with objective, and unbiased reporting, even if the stories aren't as sensational; and with us doing our best to change our country for the better.
How are we now?
Our economy is still the richest, with China catching up. But we have a projected $1 trillion budget deficit this year and are $20 trillion in debt.
Our democracy is still the oldest, but it has become more extreme and divisive. Members of Congress seem to have lost their capacity to be civil and to find common ground with the opposition. Our federal judges have been less objective with rulings lately that can only exaggerate this bias. Judges seem to file objections to everything they don't like. Lately one judge ruled that the expiration of DACA, a temporary program created by presidential action and scheduled to expire March 5th, can't expire. A judge ruled against ending the program because he didn't like candidate Trump's remarks while campaigning. The judge said that he had to consider those remarks in making his ruling even though letting the program end has nothing to do with anything said a year ago instead of being based on the case before it now and not the judge's objection about the past. It will go to the Supreme Court which will quickly rule against the lower court judges. It is obvious that the current president or Congress can let the temporary program end.
Our military is still the best but it got bogged down in Vietnam, a civil war that had nothing to do with us. Our troops went to Iraq even though it was not in our national interest. It cost billions or even trillions U.S. dollars and thousands of American lives and it seems that we can never leave. We see the same in Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. We are stuck in these battles that could go on forever. We have more than 800 foreign military bases so we can defend Europe against the USSR that no longer exists. We have been in South Korea for 65 years to protect them against the million man army of the North. We just can't leave, leaving 30,000 service members defending a country that has not been attacked since 1952.
Our great military is not sacrificing lives and spending billions, to keep America free; we are trying to make other countries free and are not succeeding. Did Vietnam and Cambodia avoid going communist? No. Now that we helped depose dictators in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, are the people there better off? It's much worse, with most countries becoming failed states.
Are we still hard working, honest and self reliant? Leave your front door unlocked and you will soon get the answer. Are we all self reliant or do many of us depend on government support. We feel our condition is not our fault, it is society to blame, we are innocent victims. While some of us are hard working, doing very best we can, too many of other fellow Americans seem to take a more leisurely approach to work. We don't need to answer our phones at work because we have voice mail and we don't have to respond. And are we honest? Watch or read the news. Less honest it cannot be. It has become totally biased and tells us half the truth which is on a par with lying.
Our public education is not great anymore. Since the 1970s, standards have gone down. In our efforts to be all inclusive with students from several countries and different capabilities, teachers have had to insist on less and have gotten what they expected. It's not the students' fault or responsibility, it's because of their socio economic condition or cultural background. We blame the teachers for low test scores, never the students or their families. We no longer have the best education or the brightest students. We have fallen from number one to being far down on the list of countries with the best education.
What has happened to America's automotive excellence? I have written in previous columns that it looks like American car makers have given up producing passenger cars including station wagons. The Wall Street Journal just had an article about this situation. All three automakers are discontinuing many of their car lines with more to come. Chevy is getting rid of the Bolt and the Impala, which has been around since 1958. That would leave just the Volt and the Malibu. Chrysler is almost completely getting out of the market. It got rid of the Dart and the 200 with the 300 to be next. it is now depending on Jeep sales. Jeeps haver been rated less reliable and are not recommended for purchase. Ford is dropping most of its passenger cars, which have also gotten terrible ratings. The Lincoln model has been terrible for years. No one is buying Lincolns meaning it too might be on a future chopping block. The Cadillac is no longer the gold standard of cars. It is mediocre and not luxurious. An Audi A4 is even a more desirable car for much less the price. Cadillac sales are down as are their resale values with many auto reviews telling people not to be one. The companies say that with low gasoline prices, people want big SUVs and trucks, but we are still buying German and Japanese family cars, with great success.
Life today seems much more violent than it used to be. We have gangs in Chicago and Baltimore that are breaking all records for murders and other gun violence. Part of the reason might be a lack of jobs for the less fortunate. We used to produce 90% of our goods and services; it is now down to about 2%. We have outsourced our factory jobs abroad to countries like China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia and then blamed automation, but these foreign factory workers are doing the job without automation. We have in-sourced our entry level jobs to our millions of undocumented workers and recent immigrants. We are told that Americans don't want the jobs. They would if they got at least a living wage and benefits like healthy coverage. We have 300 million privately owned guns including the assault rifle, a big seller. We have violent video games, violent T.V. shows, even what used to be news magazines like 2020, 48 hours and dateline have become reenactments of violence. We watch the violence of football and boxing without thinking that they should be discontinued
Maybe America is still great, but in need of many improvements. We can all do our parts with elected officials caring more about the country than about their party; with the media being more concerned with objective, and unbiased reporting, even if the stories aren't as sensational; and with us doing our best to change our country for the better.
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