It has been my belief for quite some time now that our corporations, and the federal government have been under the control of thieves. What we are witnessing is the total rape of the US. Gamesmen, con men, opportunists, politicians, stock brokers, and corporate officers have been systematically ripping off whatever they can. I first started to notice this during the death of industrial America (ie: railroads, domestic electronics, steel...) in the late 60's, 70's, and 80's. In many respects, the entire computer era is a direct result of the actions of these people. The Vietnam war was kept going as long as possible to create fantastic profits for the military industrial people.
In the name of conservation and air quality, in the 70's relatively economical automobiles had pollution control equipment installed that drove fuel economy down to 4 mpg for a Chevrolet sedan (1973 model). And with the use of low octane unleaded fuel, engines went from 6 cylinders, and small v8's to 500cubic inch monsters, just to provide modest performance. Is it any wonder that the American auto industry has been slowly dying every since. (rip: American Motors, Chrysler, Plymouth, Oldsmobile...) But think of the profits made selling imported cars, gasoline, and oil.
In the 70's, the personal computer started a fantastically hyped industry that is now starting to fail. In the late 70's and early 80's, computers were sold on hype alone, as they were almost capable of doing something, but not quite. Motorola, Intel, IBM, Apple, and Microsoft managed to convince us that we needed to buy a new computer about every 6 months, as "progress" was made. The creation of the Internet provided another opportunity for hype that has kept the "technology" madness accelerating. It is my opinion that the PC industry has peaked in 1999, and has started to collapse. If you look at the capability of the systems available today, versus the cost, you can see what I mean. One result of all of the hype that I have observed is that we have a generation of management types that believe the most important thing they can do is to go from meeting to meeting and plan the purchase of more and more "technology". It seems that whatever the organization is supposed to do is lost in the endless cycle of meetings. Actual workers are being downsized constantly as the jobs are sent overseas.
In the orgy of greed that was the 90's, obscenities like Enron, Microsoft, .COM's, and most of the Stock market managed to rip off most of the investors, while trashing pension funds, and destroying lives. In the middle of this, the corporate gamesmen continued to play the acquisition game. In the computer industry for example, Compaq bought Digital Equipment Corporation, and Hewlett Packard in turn bought Compaq, and nearly foundered in the process. Hewlett Packard is now the largest and least efficient computer manufacturer in the world, and the woman that did this left with a golden parachute. The once powerful IBM, has sold it's PC business to the Chinese company Lenovo.
In recent years since the .com stock market collapse, the same forces are at work in the housing market. It looks to me like the housing bubble is poised to burst in the near future.
Since the turn of the 21st century, our economic policy appears to be, if it moves export it, if it doesn't sell it.
British Petroleum has become the largest supplier of petroleum products in the US. OPEC fiddles with the supply of oil all the time, and with modern communications it has been possible for the gasoline vendors to instantly adjust prices to the oil futures market price on a daily basis. Isn't it interesting with "free enterprise" that overnight the vast majority of gas stations are within 1 or 2 cents of each others pricing. And in a "free enterprise" situation, in Minnesota it is illegal to sell gasoline for more that 5% under the current market price.
General Mills has purchased Pillsbury, which was in turn purchased by Grand Metropolitan of England. In the recent port operations flap, an English company was selling the port operations for American sea ports to a company from Dubai.
Damlier Benz of Germany has purchased Chrysler, the Sebring I drive was made in Canada with a Japanese engine. Ford now owns Volvo, Rolls Royce, and is in partnership with Mazda. General Motors is in partnership with Isuzu, Daewoo, and has plants in Communist China.
You can't tell the cheer leaders from the players without a program.
Our continuing failures in foreign policy have fanned a smoldering ember of hatred from the Muslim world into a roaring blaze. The same world we are dependent upon for energy. So when Elquida destroyed the twin trade towers, our leader used a lot of bombs to stir the rubble in Afghanistan. Failing to capture Osama Bin Laden, we were led into the current war in Iraq. This is the first time (other than possibly Panama, and Grenada which were invaded by G.H.W. Bush) that I can recall that the United States has invaded a former ally. G.W. Bush declared "mission accomplished" in the summer of 2003, but the dying and reckless spending continue both in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Dick Chenny's friends, Haliburton are very happy with the current situation, profits are fantastic.
I would characterize this war as trying to control killer bees by taking a 2x4 and banging on the hive.
As I am no longer young, and middle aged (if I believe I will live to 116), I have now been introduced into the loving world of medical self insurance. When I was working, I thought that paying a co-payment was strange. Now that I am not working I see that I did not understand the situation at all. The charges made by the medical industry have always been nearly impossible to follow, but now they have archived new levels of opacity. Even at my peak earnings, I could not have afforded the rates they charge for medical insurance. But, now that I am no longer a perfect example of the human race, they will not sell me insurance at all. So my only option is MCHA, and I pay $180/mo (and rising) for a $10,000 deductible policy. By paying attention I have been able to minimize my health care cost. But Medicare part D that my wife is enrolled in, seems to have been created as welfare for the pharmaceutical companies, and as a quick way to kill Social Security. My drug costs will probably be less than my wife's, by going through AARP. (Is AARP an organization, or an insurance company?)
As I am one of the dreaded baby boomer's, my plan for retirement was more or less dictated to me by circumstance. I saved as much as possible while paying high taxes and social security for others. With my job exported, I am using those savings to live on till I am old enough to collect social security. I have a modest pension from PERA, and will collect a small pension from GE when I am 60, unless they decide not to pay it. We have enough money now, but, the future is very uncertain. But, if all of these forces continue to influence our country, sooner or later a tipping point will be reached, and the United States will cease to exist. (at very least as we know/knew it) In that event all bets are off, the money is worthless, and every one for themselves, devil take the hindmost.
I am reminded of a German 2,000,000,000 mark bill that I saw one time. In the late 1920's the Wiemar government was unloading bales of these bills in front of the banks in the night, and no one bothered to steal them.
02/29/08