Like Joe Biden, I Really Don't Know Where to Start on the Economy

Wall Street and Washington Still Are Dithering on Need for Fair Trade, Jobs

October 4, 2008
By: Dave Rogers

Like Joe Biden, I really don't know where to start on the economy and all that.

All I can guess is that Joe Six Pack is probably in alcohol rehab somewhere and the hockey mom is being prosecuted for banging the rival coach over the head with her kid's stick.

And, as a New York columnist wrote recently, if I hear the juxtaposition of Wall Street and Main Street one more time I'm going to be very ill.

It's not just the stock market or mortgages, stupid, it's the jobs and the economy, stupid.

All the money in the U.S. Treasury won't last long if Americans don't have good jobs; and good jobs come from companies that make and sell something to other countries.

The old joke about everybody making a living cutting the other guy's lawns is ringing truer every day.

The news has come out that the flood of illegal immigrants across our borders has dropped significantly.

Why? Can the folks who have stormed into the U.S. for so many years now make more money in Mexico? So now they're deciding to stay home?

Or is it because we finally began to enforce our immigration laws?

Perhaps the so-called "jobs Americans won't do" that illegal aliens have taken will soon be available to Americans who will work.

The best thing any politician can do for Main Street (read ordinary working folks) is not to bail out Wall Street every time the bankers get an anxiety attack, although a case can be made that the latest was an emotional crutch we required, but to work on getting fairness into our trade policies.

So jobs can come back to places like Bay City, Saginaw, Midland and the rest of Mid-Michigan.

And put fairness back into our tax code so the corporations and fat cats pay their fair share along with the rest of the people of the country.

At least make an effort to control corporate greed and actual corruption that has turned the U.S. into the ultimate mother of all banana republics.

Fairness is the American creed; fairness is what makes democracy work. Americans thrive in an environment that is fair and right now it's not fair in terms of jobs, housing, health care and other essentials.

The heart and soul of America has to be restored from the grass roots. The trickle-down theories that started with Ronald Reagan have not worked because greed and ideology stepped in and stopped the trickle.

People basically are greedy (it's human nature) and they resented even the slightest trickle falling into the mouth of somebody they considered inferior. So, like the Victorian England of Charles Dickens and France of the Kings Louis, the rich got richer and to hell with the poor. You can write the script of inevitable class conflict, or just read Les Miserables.

It may be news to some that the U.S. Army is preparing for action -- no, not another overseas venture but right here inside the country. Violence and civil unrest are no doubt expected as our society crumbles under strains of economic disasters. President Bush has assigned the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team under the control of U.S. Army North (NorthCom). According to the Army Times, the soldiers could be called upon for tasks including quelling "civil unrest." Soldiers of the command are reportedly training with shields and batons, beanbag bullets, and Tasers.

As for the Presidential election, character assassination will feature the remainder of the campaign. It will not be pretty: Obama will be targeted based on his tenuous associations, Tony Rezko, Weatherman Bill Ayers, Pastor Jeremiah Wright, Franklin Raines, etc., and McCain has his own erratic personality demons plus ties to bank fraud tycoon Charles Keating, who is still in jail, some wacky pastor in Texas, acid tongued Phil Gramm, Treasury Secretary in waiting, who blames the recession on poor people, and a host of in-house shysters on his campaign staff like Rick Davis with enough hands-in-the-till conflicts of interest to scare Mother Teresa. Of course the perky young governor of Alaska will face multiple attacks too, some justified, some overblown, like the entire political universe is experiencing these days.

Unfortunately, the issues that concern the nation most will likely be lost in the toxic smog of political acrimony. Again, Americans will be shortchanged by our degraded system of elections. The biggest liars with the most money to con the majority of the hapless voters are the winners. Change is needed there most of all.

An electoral college tie of 269-269 is predicted by some pundits, with the decision up to the House of Representatives.

Will troops be needed to control Washington if that occurs?

Will the cities burn if the Obama supporters feel they got a raw deal and the election is stolen once again?

Will Rush Limbaugh puff up so big he explodes, taking out all the nation's radio networks?

Will Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity dissolve into molten metal like sci-fi movie anti-heroes?

Stay tuned for the apocalyptic conclusion of this 21st Century American Electoral Drama. You have only a month to wait.

Why government policy gurus haven't figured out that the key to the American economy is not the Dow Jones industrial average on the New York Stock Exchange. It is the number of jobs, the type of jobs and the average wages that are the most important numbers.

God bless Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical and super investor Warren Buffett for their plan for a manufacturing summit. But why wait until next spring to hold it? The urgency of the failing economy obviously demands an immediate injection of confidence that someone in leadership knows what they are doing.

Without the jobs that formed the bedrock of the local economy for most of my lifetime, there will be nobody to buy the houses or pay the property taxes. And soon the rich will no longer be getting richer. And America will no longer be free. China will own us to an even greater extent than they do now.

And mom won't be able to afford even a cheap hockey stick made in China and Joe will still be right where he is now -- sitting on the curb with a six pack of empties, no job, no home, no health care and no hope.###