JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Does Economy get better?

Though I am not in Bill's cataclysmic camp, I will say that the working poor (emphasis on actually WORKING) have it the worst in the USA right now. Many are having their full time wages cut below 30 hours a week (from 30-40 to 15-25) all because of one thing, the "affordable" care act, better known as Obamacare. It will destroy both the finest health care system in world history, where most new medicines, new procedures and practice/equipment upgrades take place than anywhere else in the world (and in some cases more than the rest of the world combined). That amazing health care system is one reason why, for now anyway, we are the largest economy in the world. When it fully kicks in, more welfare, more unemployment and more working poor/black market labor pool with no benefits or protections of any kind, will pop up and our country will slow down to a stop and collapse inward. Austerity will hit in 20 years (or less) and our standard of living, among the highest in the world outside of small misleading countries where workers out number the non working at a far higher rate than here and/or where oil and other similar commodities come from.

All but 4 states currently are seeing meteoric rises in insurance premiums all in the goal to shift us to one payer systems all while the famous one payer systems are switching back to insurance companies or farther into socialism/statism/communism. Ironically Canada, who has become much more conservative with their social programs and their money in general, is switch back towards insurance while we are racing towards single payer. Most of my friends and members I know in the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany already have private insurance in addition to any state benefits because they are okay for some things, but terrible on many others, including life threatening diseases/illnesses and anything that is life improving but not life saving. You don't want to be a woman with breast cancer in the UK. You don't want to need an MRI in Canada or surgery or you'll often come across the border in the USA to skip the line if you can afford it. But not for long, we'll be filling those lines to overflow soon enough with little place to go (the USA has more people coming here for medical care from outside of their country than any other) ourselves. As healthcare goes, so goes our economy and even though who wrote the bill still are shocked by much of the unintended consequences coming up. It's horrifying in the literal sense of the word. Those of us stuck in ages that won't be able to work enough to buy premium private healthcare options like our government reps and their staffs all have (oh, for those who don't know it, the US Congress and all their staff and families do not have to live under Obamacare. That is just for the "little people" who are beneath them.

All we can hope for is to show them the voters are their bosses and clean house on both sides of the aisle and installing laws that state no government employee may EVER skirt any law that a general citizen must follow. That would also include their legal ability to insider trade on wall street as much as they like which is how they all become million and billionaires in office. Who couldn't? They got caught, passed a bill banning it, then quietly worked together to pass another bill which allowed them to continue. The leadership of BOTH parties are among the biggest pigs in the trough.

A Constitutional Amend. for Term Limits. Removal of Obamacare (it leaves just as many people uninsured by the way... did you all know that?), a Constitutional Amendment on Balanced Budget, Congressional pay and budgets based on GDP success or failure, Each department employees pay and budget based on measurable success of publicly stated and addressed goals, Jail terms and legal liabilities for any non elected officials actions, no government employee eligible for Presidential Pardon!!!. I could go on and on. But I can't image out of simple fairness and common sense that anyone could be against these things unless they accept what is happening right now. Most people on Food Stamps, lowest ever measured working % of the population, etc. It's a disaster. The Unemployment rate has been fixed by each successive white house to make the number look better by changing the rules more and more. People in the USA work less per person right now than at any time in our history. And to make matters worse, we have the lowest birthrate we've ever had, not even enough to sustain ourselves without constant hyper-growth of low skilled immigrants. We should allow anyone in who has an advanced degree or quantifiable advance needed skill into the USA immediately with a Green Card and a path to citizenship that knocks off a year for every year they work in that advanced level job that corresponds, or starts a company that employs AMERICAN workers or LEGAL IMMIGRANT workers to advance our country while all those American kids who choose to get high and play video games in their parents basements will have to compete or go to colleges that actually TEACH THEM SOMETHING OF VALUE to the working world so that when they graduate they can work or create their own jobs.

It's not that tough folks, we just need to be a little tougher.

I do like Bill's post for the Jefferson post that sums up a lot they already knew in the 1700's USA.