The first dealt with the amount of savings that would be made (in the order of billions of Dollars) if our government decides to replace the use of Dollar bills with Dollar coins.  The savings are based on the replacements costs of the One Dollar bills.  As far as consumers is concerned, there is little, if any, impact on carrying one Dollar bills or one-dollar coins.  I am not a young pup so my habits may differ from the younger generations; nevertheless, I typically use a credit card for most (with few exceptions like the occasional lottery ticket which must be purchased using cash) of my purchases.  My wife and I try to keep the card with a zero balance so we pay it in full each month.  A nice feature of using a card for purchases is that at the end of the month you get an itemized list of purchases.  If I use such approach, I would assume that most Naïve Americans would be fine with using coins instead of bills.

So why the switch is not a reality?  The issue as usual is special interests.  One has to consider the companies involved in providing the materials (i.e., ink, paper, plates, print press, etc) for the One Dollar bills.  We also have to consider vending machines.  Most are configured to accept bills.  Few are ready to accept one Dollar coins.  As usual, special interests pay off politicians and who cares about then Naïve Americans that got them elected in the first place.

The second story relates to wealth distribution in our country.  Statistics show that the top 1% of the population has grown richer by a factor of three while the remaining 99% has become poorer.  Something is not working at all in the USA.  Naïve Americans claim that we are free and live in the land of opportunity.  That may be correct for a very reduced minority.  The majority of Naïve Americans are experiencing tough economic times.  On one side one we have Republicans, which do not want to raise taxes because they will reduce jobs.  Not sure who came up with that twisted logic but it appears that millions of Naïve Americans believe it.  On the opposite corner we have Democrats who wish to raise taxes to pay off unions so they can be elected to office.  What about the majority of Naïve Americans?  Most of us do not benefit with Republican or Democratic governments.  We need to elect a president that is not Democratic, nor Republican but American.  Of course such candidate does not exist.

At some point in time in the very near future, the top 1% of the population, which are the ones that control politicians, need to realize that some changes are needed if we wish to preserve our way of life.  When I say our way of life, I refer to the economic climate of the early 1950’s.

Hopefully a few Naïve Americans in the top 1% will come to realize the gravity of not inducing a change and will put some money and effort in helping our country.

The Naïve American

Besides the general treatment on how to negotiate which according to the author is based on: intelligence, power and time two (2) things mentioned were quite interesting and close to me.  The first relates to the fact that things do not just happen because you know you have the truth and knowledge to backup your position.  I have learned through life that this a very important point to always consider.  I personally have a hard time accepting this due to cultural and family values.

The second item is that of power.  You can negotiate all you want with a person that has no saying in the matter and the results will always be the same.  Nothing would change because the individual at the other end, even though it might sympathize with your cause, has no way to affect the outcome.  I have seen this in action many times when a person (who understand the power issue) asks who is in charge before saying anything else because it is just a waste of time.

Last but not least time.  This is very easy to see and understand.  It has happened several times to me.  You go to a store and engage a sales person with questions.  As time goes by and you get answered most or all of your questions, yet you remain hesitant as to purchase the item.  Silence seems to work at your advantage most of the time.  You might even leave the store and come back asking to continue the conversation (more unanswered questions) with the same salesperson.  The sales person has invested so much time with you or might be tired of repeating the same things that he / she will figure how to close the deal by offering additional discounts or other creative ways to finance the item in order not to call the experience a total waste of time.

The Naive American highly recommend this book.  It is interesting, keeps you captive while reading, it is relative short and inexpensive to purchase.

About a month ago the State of Minnesota run out of money.  After several weeks, a compromise was achieved and a new budget was approved.  Most Naïve Americans did not think much of it, at least that was what people interviewed on TV was voicing.  The Naïve American saw the entire exercise through a different colored glass.  Allow me to explain.

The issue was a disagreement on the new budget.  All families in this and any other country tend to live within their means / budget.  On occasions when for some reason or another they do not, the family has to file form bankruptcy and are forced to change their life style.  In America it appears that that rule should not apply.  Why you may ask?  Well because we live in a crystal tower up in the sky.  In other words, there is no reason for common sense rules not to apply to all of us.  When the State of Minnesota does not have enough money for their next budget two (2) things have to happen:  reduce spending and increase taxes.  The cuts appear to be quite simple.  We have so many social programs that spend so much money and the returns are dismal.  On the other hand, most large companies avoid paying taxes because of laws and exceptions they have obtained by “bribing” politicians.   Bribing means legally providing money and deals (i.e., books, future consulting jobs, etc) to get them elected and to hold their lucrative positions.  It is not only the companies that bribe politicians; unions do the exact same thing.  Mr. Dayton, the current governor of Minnesota, was told by the union of school teachers that they elected him because of the promises he made to them to continue to raise indiscriminately their pay and benefits even if the results are not there.  By the way, results do not mean comparing students within the country but rankings should always include students from around the world (including China).  Yes, Minnesota students rank better than students from Alabama, Mississippi and New Mexico, but how against other countries which in the eyes of Naïve Americans have lower standards of living than the USA?  You can figure that on your own.

The governor (a Democrat) and the members of the house (mostly Republicans) were elected by registered voters that live in Minnesota with the idea that they will spend their time and efforts to improve the lives of people in the state.  As the budget deadline approached, the number of CLOSED DOOR MEETINGS increased.  What in hell can / should elected politicians discuss that the people that elected them should no hear about?  The answer is NOTHING, yet they did and to top it off they missed the budget deadline.  Because of that, millions of dollars in revenues were lost every single day while the government was shut down.  Naïve Americans (not including me, but my grand daughters) that enjoy state parks in Minnesota had to cancel their vacation plans because the parks were closed.  How is it possible for Naïve Americans to put up with such behavior?  We believe we have so many rights and live in the land of the free, apple pie and blue sky.  In actability a reduced number of incompetents career politicians elected for and by selfish people have more saying that they should be allowed.

In conclusion, Naïve Americans living in Minnesota should write don so they do not forget the names of the politicians involved in the state budget fiasco and send them a copy of the “You Can Negotiate Anything” book and by the end of their current terms, make sure no one ever votes again for them.  We do not need people like the governor that after the shutdown decided to take the weekend off and let laid off people wait because the elected official wanted to enjoy a summer weekend (

The Naïve American

PS:           Scott, when done please return the book.

The issue this time appears to be tax relieve for the middle class.  Apparently Republicans are blocking an extension on reducing taxes up to what is considered middle class income.  That is about $250,000 per household combined.

This is clearly a political maneuver by the Republicans to get more people dissatisfied with the current administration in order to get additional votes for the next elections.  Not sure when politicians will understand that the USA is no longer able to withstand such games.  The price of gold is on a record high.  Exchange of the Dollar compared to Euros is low.  These are symptoms that our economy is in bad shape.  Our government needs to provide Naïve Americans with a feeling that things are going to improve.

That said, providing tax breaks for the lower and middle class is just a palliative.  America is on its way out of being a supper power / economy.  The American empire is declining at a fast rate.  There are so many issues that attempting to address one or two will not be enough.  A drastic, dramatic and total change needs to take place.

Naïve Americans should support changes that will help the economy.  Tax breaks will provide additional time.  Tax breaks will not help at all to solve the issues.  America needs to start producing services and goods that are desirable worldwide.  History has shown us time and time again that small businesses have made America what it is (was).  Large businesses typically buy small to medium businesses to grow and keep up with technological changes.  In very few occasions large company have introduced new ideas and concepts that have changed the world.  As a handy, simple and relatively recent example is Facebook.  A movie about its history has just opened.

Hopefully the tax breaks extension will pass and be extended.  Hopefully the Obama administration will provide big money and incentives to small businesses so they can grow, hire people and provide goods and services desirable all over the world.

The Naïve American

Not sure the exact current state of the healthcare bill that you and most Democrats are promoting but it appears that it might be enacted into law very soon unless most Republicans can manage to stop it.

I have to congratulate you and the Democratic Party for the effort of recognizing the need for a healthcare reform.  Many Naïve Americans, including myself, are convinced that healthcare reform is needed but what is being done might not bring the desired / expected results.  Being a computer scientist I have to think in a rational way.  I fully understand we all make mistakes.  The problem is that the USA since the 1950’s has been in a downward spiral (i.e., economy, education, healthcare, manufacturing, immigration, science, politics, etc, etc) and cannot afford additional fatal mistakes.

I would like to briefly explain how proper software is developed so we (most important you and the democrats) can draw analogies and check if the proposed healthcare reform bill makes sense.  The beauty is that we do not need to look at the actual bill because we are just talking in an abstract and logical way.

When a project / product is proposed, time is spent in defining the problem(s) / situation(s) that need to be address with the resulting software.  After the goals have been put in writing the next step is to propose an initial design that will logically address the problem(s).  The team then moves into a set of phases (in my opinion only three) of design, implementation, and testing.  After the first pass a review of the requirements and design is conducted.  That helps clarify the goals and design, which leads to some changes in the implementation and testing.  Software projects should take about a year.  Enough said about this software development methodology.

Getting back to the main subject of healthcare reform, have you and your advisors figured out what the healthcare issues are?  Have you and your advisors figured out what the goals are?  Have you and your advisors figured out the exact cost of the project / bill is going to be?  For the time being lets assume you have (The Naïve American does not believe you have gotten close).

Today if any person (not just Naïve Americans) in the USA gets ill and needs medical attention they can go to any emergency facility and will receive urgent care.  If the person does not have insurance coverage the city, county, state, country, and finally Naïve American tax payers get the bill in the form of taxes.  This last statement is 100% correct and any somewhat intelligent individual should accept it.  The issue here is preventive medicine, which hopefully should be addressed by the bill.

The bulk of current medical expenses are in:

So, is your healthcare bill going to address the issues listed in the table and at what cost.  Please remember that the US has a deficit in the trillions of Dollars and there is no sign in the future that the US economy is going to pick up.  As a nation how are we going to pay an additional trillion Dollars in the next ten years?  As I mentioned before, I do not care and Naïve American should not either.  We elected you and the career politicians you are surrounded by.  All what matters is that you Mr. president and the career politicians (mostly democrats) who support the healthcare bill that have signed on the dotted lines are going about the issue following a logical and scientific approach.  God bless America (I am a Deist) !!!

What Naïve Americans need is a FREE basic healthcare system, which includes prescription drugs.  This is the goal, which you and your team of career politicians have not figured out.  How to pay for it is relatively simple and requires Medicaid and Medicare reform and budget cuts for so many programs all over our nation that are used as paybacks to career politicians.  Perhaps some taxes might be required.  If so most Naïve American will agree given that the proposed plan / bill makes sense and is for the good of the many.

To complete my suggestion, I would like to ask you Mr. president and democrats, what happens when a company in the so call free market that we tent to promote fails to develop products and services to support their existence?  The worldwide answer is, the company goes out of business, unless in the USA the company gets bailout money and continues to exist getting their way until the entire country collapses.

Given that career politicians have it made because they are not responsible or accountable for what they do, the Naïve American suggests something quite simple.  For any failed bill all career politicians that sign it MUST go to federal prison for a period of time that is a function of the cost of the failure.  Specifically, if and when the healthcare bill fails, all involved parties might (will) end serving life time terms in prison.

So Mr. president, and all politicians that support the healthcare bill, are you ready to put your mouth in prison?  If so then lets move forward with the current healthcare reform bill.  If not, stop, think, change the bill, and then move forward.  YOU wanted CHANGE.  How about this proposed CHANGE?

Yours truly,

The Naïve American

PS:           Mr. President, do not feel bad, Republican career politicians would NOT go with the prison incentive either.  America needs a CHANGE and career politicians will never make any positive changes for America.  PLEASE prove me wrong!!!

A business associate and I roomed at an extended stay.  I was impressed with the facilities and service.  The hotel had breakfast every day and hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine Monday through Thursday.  I have to admit that one evening I ingested four hamburgers (what a pig) with vegetables (healthy).  This is in addition to lunch and occasional dinners that we were treated by our gracious hosts.

After a couple days in Irvine, I could feel my weight going up.  We decided to hit the exercise equipment forty-five minutes a day.  There was a weight scale, but we decided to skip on the reality check.  The exercise room had a large flat screen.  Most of the days the television set was tuned to CNN.

By now every Naive American knows that a considerable sum of taxpayer moneys, in the order of billions of Dollars has been, and will continue to be handed to bail out AIG (http://www.aig.com).  I am not going to cover in this blog if bailing out AIG is the right thing to do or not.  Will leave it for a separate entry.

The fact is that after the US government handed bail out funds to other financial institutions with few (if any) strings attached, AIG takes some of such funds and hands bonuses to many of their executives.  When the AIG bonus news hit the media, there was an outrage across America.  Apparently the AIG bonuses were authorized by a small clause (a sentence) in the law that was passed a few weeks ago.  CNN asked every single politician involved in generating the bailout law if they had added such phrase.  Believe it or not, not a single politician wanted to admit they had written such clause.  Senator Christopher Dodd (Democrat) of Connecticut was interviewed and he stated on camera that he did not know about the clause that mysteriously was added to the AIG bailout.  A couple days later he admitted that he authorized the clause, but he was not aware of the exact wording. 

We Naive Americans need to think about the actions of Senator Dodd.  First and foremost, he lied.  This is typical of most (if not all) politicians.  Second and most important, why would a politician do such an unethical and immoral thing?  The answer is simple yet disturbing.  The checks and balances in the US make it difficult (not impossible) for politicians to accept bribes.  Our political system allows for lobbyist and political contributions.  Most AIG executives live in mansions in the state of Connecticut.  Do you see the relationship?  Lobbyist for AIG pressed Senator Dodd to include such a ludicrous clause so their customer (AIG) could collect their bonuses not associated with performance, but in return for supporting Dodd’s political aspirations.  What is the saying that comes to mind “You scratch my back, I scratch yours”.  As most Naive Americans may realize by now, our electoral system is flawed.  Money paid by companies (i.e., AIG) to politicians (i.e., Senator Dodd) through lobbyists is what dictates US policy.  This is nothing new.  Has been in place for the past fifty years or so.

Now lets focus on the recipients of the AIG bonuses.  For starters, traditionally in our society, bonuses are given to people based on performance.  If the company is doing very well, then bonuses are in order to provide incentives to motivate hard work above and beyond the expected 40-hour week.  Two things come to mind.  [1] If the a company (i.e., AIG) is doing poorly as a result of bad and irrational decisions made by management, how in the world do they deserve a bonus?  [2] If a company (i.e., IAG) is doing poorly to the point of being in the verge of closing, how could the company get funds to pay bonuses?  The logical and simple answers are: no one deserves a bonus and there is no money for bonuses.  How in the world could lawyers and politicians come up with any valid concept or idea that would justify this absurdity?  Do not forget that the money at stake came from Naive American taxpayers.  I do not know about others, but this Naive American is completely against handing a portion of my taxes as some type of bonus to any company receiving bailout money, no mater what their situation is.

Naive Americans have heard people in Wall Street justifying that high-level executives need huge compensations to do what they do.  This sounds like royalty to me.  Upper management in the Financial System is incompetent and greedy.  They should all be fired and replaced by Naive Americans that are willing with a salary that cannot exceed by law the one paid to the president of the United States of America.  The majority of stockholders must approve any and all bonus to any and all executive.  Disband all board of directors.  Bonuses must always be paid in the form of stock options (not cash).  This proposal should not be taken as a suggestion by all types of companies, but should be made law in the US.  Please keep in mind that if the company is doing well, stock holders are collecting high dividends and would be willing to allow some shares to be purchased as options to compensate the hard work of executives.  If executives perform poorly, then dividends would be down.  The affected stockholders would not be willing to hand options to such individuals.  They would probably consider firing them.  This brings up the elimination of all “golden parachutes”.  If executives are fired for poor performance, then they should collect unemployment like a large percentage (currently about 10%) of Naive Americans are doing today.

Incompetent group of executives in all types of companies believe they belong to some type of class (royalty) that is above the rest of Naive Americans.  The US government should pass legislation in order to eliminate such class.  Please read what has happened to royalty though the ages in different civilizations.  Hopefully the economic and political unrest in our country will not lead to such dramatic and permanent actions.  As unemployment and unrest grows, the US is at a high risk of making dramatic changes not spearheaded by politicians but by Naive Americans.  We are in desperate need of CHANGE.

The USA is in need of simple legislation to get us back on track.  Regrettably this falls in the hands of politicians that are being bribed by companies and entities via lobbyists.

I urge each and every Naive American to put pressure on their representatives to induce peaceful and gradual change.  The same holds true to management in all types of companies.  The US needs to wake up and smell the roses.  We have been living in a dream in the past fifty years.  It is time to wake up, make CHANGES and work together for a new USA.

Last time I heard, on the recount, they were 225 votes apart.  The group in charge of re counting went over 933 improperly rejected ballots and figured out that Al Franken was now ahead of Norm Coleman.  Al Franken became known for his role on the TV show Saturday Night Live.  Norm Coleman is the incumbent MN senator.  At this point in time it appears that the winner is Al Franken.  Of course this may change with time.

No matter what the results are after the final count by the canvassing board, the looser is expected to file a lawsuit. Our society has become very litigious.  The US has more attorneys per capita than any other developed country.  Attorneys provide a service.  They contribute to the economical issue of having 80% of the working force of the US population being in services, not in engineering, science and manufacturing.

A few weeks ago I was watching the 06:00 PM news on cable TV.  They showed some of the people that were revising the questionable ballots in order to decide (guess) to which candidate should they be assigned.  They showed a few of the ballots.  Without asking each voter there is no way to come up with an answer.  Let me give you some examples of this ludicrous attempt.

A ballot had a pencil mark that was close to a check box for a candidate.  Clearly the mark was done by accident.  The voter did not mark the box.  They assigned it to a candidate whose box was closer to the mark.

In a separate ballot, a voter marked candidates for other positions (i.e., president) but did not mark the ones for the MN Senate.  The ballot was assigned based on the affiliation of the political party of the ones selected for other positions.  The team came to such conclusion assuming that if one votes for a state representative affiliated to the DFL, then even if the person did not vote for Coleman or Franken, they probably intended to do so for Franken, but forgot.  Have you ever voted for local candidates only in a presidential election?  Perhaps one does not like the choices for the MN Senate.

I believe in the fundamental principles of the Republican Party.  I fully understand this last statement is subjective.  Do not like most of the ideas of the Democratic counterpart either.  That said, I strongly believe in some basic health and retirement plans for all Naive Americans.  Apparently either party does not support these essential needs.  Our president-elect Obama has a health plan.  I will wait sitting down, not holding my breath, waiting for these specific CHANGES.  One way or the other when I look back at the last two (2) presidential periods of the Republican George W. Bush, I feel ashamed to be associated in any way shape or form with the Republican Party.  Looking back at the 8 years of president Bill Clinton, my feelings are exactly the same.  In the past 16 years, half dominated by Democrats and the other half by Republicans, our country has continued to spiral downward.  The only thing to be going up is lack of morals and corruption by career politicians and business executives.  So perhaps it was my ballot that was shown on TV with the blank check boxes for Barack Obama and John McCain.

On another example, the voter marked one of the candidates but one could see a speckle on the box for the opponent.  The mark could have been made accidentally by the voter, have been picked up from the folder used to transport the ballot from the booth to the reader, by the rollers in the reader, or by … (you get the point).  The people looking at the ballots were discussing if the voter was undecided and he or she meant the candidate with a stain in the check box or if the ballot should be dismissed.  I was just laughing so loud during the news broadcast that my wife though I was watching The Colbert Report on the Comedy Channel.  The news show was quite amusing that day.

Given the disagreement that occurred in the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore counting paper ballots in the state of Florida, the US government has spent millions of taxpayer Dollars to replace systems and machines used by Naive Americans to vote.  If the issue of electing “career politicians” to bring CHANGE at all levels is important to Naive Americans, how is it possible that up to this past elections the USA does not have a unified and secure electoral system that works?  Perhaps it is not a priority for the US Government, the “career politicians”, the Democrats or the Republicans.

Do you own a credit, debit or an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card?  Most Naive Americans do own several ‘plastic’ cards.  The US economy is based on spending what we have and what we do not (consumer society).  This is one of the contributing reasons for the economic debacle our country is in today.  When was the last time a Naive American used their ‘plastic’ and the charges were not properly recorded?  I am nor referring to mistakes made by the hotel (front desk clerk) were you stayed on your last 5 day vacation and came back with charges for 7 days.  That mistake has nothing to do with using and properly recording the balance after the transaction was completed.

When was the last time that you withdrew $200 Dollars from your user-friendly ATM machine and it did not show up in your balance because the machine was in a different city, state or country?  As a matter of fact last summer my wife and I were shopping at an outlet located north west of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  We do this once or twice a year.  It is about an hour drive in good weather conditions.  Common practice for shoppers is to shop for a few items and then return to your vehicle to unload the bags and repeat.  Even though I mentally prepare for this occasional ordeal, I am not able to take it for more than a couple hours.  As we were leaving the last shop and heading to our car my wife’s phone rings.  It was the card fraud department of one of our credit cards.  They wanted to confirm that we were shopping and that our card had not been stolen.  The spending was out of the average for us.  I thanked the caller for their concern and informed them that we were done with our shopping for the day.  By the way, at the end of the month, our credit card statements reflected ALL our purchases indicating the EXACT amounts.  The system used by the different shops accepting credit cards did not get CONFUSED (not even once).

I have been developing computer software for over 30 years.  Much of my work has been dedicated to products sold and used worldwide.  I cannot understand how could it be possible for a reputable and qualified company not be able to develop in one year time a nationwide secure and accurate voting system that would eliminate the three ring circus we currently have in MN.  The dispute between George Bush and Al Gore was FOUR years ago.

To summarize, Naive Americans go to the polls in an attempt to select one or more “career politicians”.  Very, very, very few politicians serve a single term and then move on with their lives.  In the US once a Naive American experiences the power and wealth brought in by politics they never wants to leave the spot light; WOULD YOU?  Many companies and Naive Americans contribute to the campaign funds of their favorite candidates.  The Democratic and Republican parties spend millions of Dollars in attempts to win the different political posts all over our country.  The “career politicians” that make up the Federal Government in an attempt to clear face and pretend they care to address the issue that helped them get were they are, have funded some companies to develop voting machines.  Surprisingly none of such efforts has paid off yet.  The simple objective method to manage elections appears not to be important or popular enough.

If common sense was used to decide which ballots were intended for each of the candidates, now hired guns (lawyers) and our inadequate and incompetent legal system will be called upon to decide who won the US Senate election in Minnesota.  Perhaps they have a crystal ball that anonymously can read the minds of the voters who filled the ballots in question.  Sounds like something you read in a 19^th century novel based now we now call a developing (third world) country.

Not sure what could the Naive American do to induce CHANGE in our society before it is too late.  We need to realize that the issues are all over our country and society.  If you have an idea please send me a comment.  I would like to hear your comments and ideas.

During the last presidential elections there were a few (very few) entertaining political television ads. I have to label them entertaining due to the fact that advertisements are geared to sell the viewer on something and lets face it, politicians in general, do not have desirable ideas for sale. The ad I have in mind might not have been so good because I am able to remember it but cannot recall the candidate behind it.

I spent a few minutes on-line looking for the ad in question but my search did not return the desired results (sorry about that). Due to this fact I will attempt to briefly describe it. Perhaps the reader has seen it.

The TV ad focuses on a set of about four (4) individuals sitting on the higher end of a titter totter. The expressions on their faces and the clothing they are wearing tend to indicate they are angry representatives of the working class. On the other lower end of the titter totter there is a single smiling overweighed male adorned with jewelry wearing a nice suit. The ad makes it obvious that the weight of the well dress single individual could not possibly hold him on the lower (and controlling) end of the titter totter.

A voice comes on and starts providing the political message. As this is occurring the expression and actions of the well-dressed individual start changing as he starts going up and the group of working individuals start assuming the lower and controlling position. This Naive American got the message loud and clear. The RIGHT CHANGE could only occur if fellow Americans cast their vote for the proper career politician. One could conclude that some branch of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party was responsible for the contents of the ad.

As we all know opinions are subjective (may or may not be correct). In the US we are taught that Americans are entitled to have our own and different opinion. On what we base our opinions is a complete different story. We are made believe that our opinions count due to our corrupt, inadequate and irresponsible legal system. For some reason most Naive Americans believe that a group of jurors (typically with a lower level of education) are able to determine who committed a crime based on the way two (2) individuals (trial lawyers trained to convince people) sell their stories. This may sound absurd but this is how we do it in America.

Remember Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1485)? He came with the idea that the world was round based on a simple physical fact (not opinion) and the rest of the world was wrong. That earth is the center of the universe? That was worse. Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) came up with the idea that the earth rotates around the sun and because of that he was not only ignored but also prosecuted. Galileo had the facts the rest of the world had just wrong subjective opinions.

You might say, well we have come long ways from the time of Columbus and Galileo, and what is mot important those two (2) guys were not Naive Americans. Do you recall in 2003 listening to Richard Cheney and George Bush making the argument that Saddam Hussein, president and / or dictator of Iraq, had weapons of mass destruction, and in order to prevent him from using them against the US and our allies, we started a war that has cost the lives of many Naive Americans and greatly contributed to the destruction of the US Economy? The fact is that the entire intelligence was based on a false story of an Iraqi national seeking residence in the US. I guess that was an expensive “Green Card”.

It appears that most people come up with subjective opinions based on hear say and the media (television, newspapers and the WWW) and do not wish to seek and take into account the actual facts. In retrospect every single time the reasons for people coming up with wrong opinions could always be traced to the interests of few powerful individuals and / or organizations that wish to control masses of Naive Americans for their own financial benefit.

Getting back to our political ad, we have two (2) very well defined groups of Naive Americans. The members of one set include mostly blue-collar workers, epitomized by the “fat and lazy union auto worker” that want to make more money than they should based on their education and level of skills and work as little as possible. Let’s face it, we all know unions were a fast remedy for the labor issues in the past, but they are no longer needed and should be dissolved. We now have labor departments and unemployment benefits.

The members of the second set are company executives that make millions of Dollars in compensation a year. What could a person do that is so important and so unique when running a company that deserves in return more than the salary of the president of the United States of America? The answer to this question is nothing. Take for example the top management of all three (3) car companies in the US. Combined they make about $100 million Dollars a year in compensation. Look objectively at what they have accomplished with their respective companies in the past decades. All three (3) companies are about to disappear. Their troubles did not start a few months ago with the bursting of the housing bubble caused by Wall Street.

In conclusion the USA is in need of a dramatic CHANGE, which will not be brought by president-elect Obama or his staff. Politicians in this country are part of the problem, not part of the solution. The change must come from every single Naive American, which includes leaders and members of unions, employees and executives. The issue is that without a reasonable and attainable plan, nothing is going to CHANGE.

The Naive American proposes the following plan that is simple to understand and follow, and would facilitate economic recovery.

Politicians should pass legislation that caps salaries for all executives in all companies to $200,000 Dollars a year. No other benefit (i.e., house staff, company car, company jet, company yacht, company house, vacation house, etc, etc, etc), except health insurance would be allowed by law. Vacation time should be limited to a reasonable two (2) weeks a year in addition to all Federal US holidays. If the executive is used to an extravagant life style (which most do) then the spouses should look for a job like most Naive Americans do.

Naive Americans working in companies as white-collar workers should concentrate and dedicate themselves to their jobs by being on time and working hard and smart. Legislation should be passed to cap their salaries and compensation just like executives. This way management and technical white-collar employees would be similarly motivated to work.

Professionals and white-collar workers would have a range with a cap on salaries based on the type of work. This would allow employers to provide the best workers with higher compensation but within reason. The logic behind is to keep costs under control. Companies should be allowed to motivate good employees with stock options.

Naive Americans working on blue-collar jobs would have their wages adjusted and topped by law based on the skill level. It is not possible that a person sweeping floors in a building be earning $30 Dollars per hour with a guaranteed number of overtime hours per month at time and a half. How can the economy of any country keep this up with a working force in which 80% of the population is dedicated to services?

No matter which type of job is performed for a company, employees could be rewarded with stock options at a price set by law as a percentage of the current value of the shares. Stock options should have waiting and expiration time periods. The logic behind this approach is for employees that feel they are not properly being compensated to leave for a different job and most important, for the stockholders to be able to compensate upper management that performs. Could you imagine how greedy stockholders would react by having to dilute their shares to compensate a CEO that in years has not performed?

A word of caution, our Federal Government would have companies heavily taxed when outsourcing any step in the design and manufacturing of goods. This would make the Naive American work hard and smart and not have our government resort to applying tariffs on imported goods. The Naive American needs to allow other countries to fairly complete in a global market with price and quality, not enabling greedy stockholders to continue to destroy the USA.

An alternative is not to CHANGE and continue with the free and unregulated market and watch how the USA continues its down spiral. The Bush Administration, spearheaded by Vice President Cheney, has scarred the Naive American with threats of terrorism in the US in order justify the huge waste in military expenditure and wars. The matter of fact is that Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and who knows which other terrorist group might be out there, must already have figured out that the US will succumb to itself.

We are the enemy!

Then came the 1960s and the 1970s. The Naive American behaved like a pubescent adolescent. We engaged in promiscuous sexual behavior and experimented with illegal drugs. Our culture venerated celebrities (i.e., rock stars, pop stars, movie stars) that portrayed unacceptable ways of life. During this period, our education, economy and manufacturing started to loose quality and fall behind.

Then the 1980′s came. Naive Americans were mesmerized with Wall Street. You could legally “place a bet” in the stock market (whoops my mistake, I meant “purchase stocks”) and, with some luck, you could get huge returns on your investment by selling or keeping some and collecting dividends. This practice allowed many Naive Americans to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle without working. What a lure (much better than religion or politics)! Stockbrokers and fund managers were appearing all over.

Graduating high school students flocked to universities and colleges seeking soft degrees in business administration and liberal arts instead of the tough engineering and science disciplines. Why work when you could sit in a plush office with a phone, an assistant, go to lunch meetings, play golf and make considerably larger salaries than people that actually work for a living (design and produce goods and services).

This trend continued through the 1990s and through most of the first decade of the new millennium. A few months ago reality came crashing down on the Naive American with repercussions all over the world. Now we have one more reason for people all over the world to hate us. We have not been scoring well since the early 1950′s.

So what is the problem and how can we fix it?

The smart, hard-working American is a thing of the past. Naive Americans don’t want to work at any level. Keep in mind, this all started in the 1950′s so this syndrome has had enough time, like a cancer, to spread through several generations of Naive Americans.

One of the first big symptoms was nicely labeled as Globalization. For the Naive American, globalization has little to do with selling our goods and services outside the US but with the price we need to pay for them. For example, the Walton family with their two well-known chains of retail stores Walmart and Sam’s Club were leaders in promoting “globalization”. In order to get prices down (and increase their profits) they would encourage manufacturers to move their operations overseas or replace comparatively more expensive components made in the US with ones produced in China, Taiwan, Korea, etc. In order to compete many companies followed suit. Next time you visit one of their stores do not look at the brand labels. Pay attention to the country of origin. Even food is starting to come from China. I have found seafood, cans of mushrooms, apple juice and other products labeled “Product of China”. An interesting fact to note is were these two companies are headquartered and associate it with some “career politicians” that were guests in the White House while this “globalization” was being promoted and in full swing. When done, associate them with their political party.

The effects of globalization had the largest direct impact on blue-collar workers. They make up the lower and lower subsets of the middle class.

Globalization was not enough for greedy Naive Americans running larger companies and their cronies the “career politicians” who receive advice from lobbyist paid by large companies. The new fashionable term became “Outsourcing”. Outsourcing encompasses all working Naive Americans that traditionally fall in the upper and center subsets of the middle class. It includes all types of professionals (i.e., accountants, engineers of all disciplines, physicians, scientists of all types) and had the added bonus that it also includes the entire middle class (i.e., assembly line workers, mechanics, clerks)

I’ve read articles (and seen firsthand) of company executives gloating that they are saving costs by outsourcing. Such remarks are generally welcomed by Naive Americans that hold stock in such companies. Naive Americans want to receive larger dividends, regardless of the consequences for the company employees or the US economy. Outsourcing became a trend during the Bush administration. Once again, which political party is responsible?

Yes fellow Naive Americans, the people responsible for the economic meltdown in the US (and the world) are not just incompetent politicians. Companies are run by accountants and business majors, but a great responsibility lies in most Naive Americans that (for the past couple decades) looked to “Wall Street” to provide wealth without any hard (or intelligent) work.

In order to remedy the situation, the Naive American needs to stop listening to TV commercials from Scott Trade and others alike and start working hard. Work was, is and work will always dignify people and will bring peace of mind to all of us. We need to make our “elected career politicians” do what the working class of Naive Americans need to change our economy (or don’t elect them). Our political leaders need to be scrutinized to ensure they don’t receive payoffs from special interest groups. In other words, our “career politicians” need to be held accountable for their actions.

Let’s wait and see how president elect Obama and his staff induce CHANGE in the next four years. One last bit of advice, don’t hold your breath. Work as hard and smart as you can so CHANGE will come from within and not DISAPOINTMENT from our government.

Banks and other financial institutions provide capital to businesses that actually work to create products/services used all over the world. If financial institutions stop lending money -fearing borrowers will not be able to repay their loans- it is obvious that production of goods of everything will be affected. Companies are forced to layoff workers. The laid off workers buy less products and services and the companies are forced to make more layoffs. The process spirals and could easily lead the US (and possibly the entire world) to a massive recession. In a nutshell our elected officials need to come up with a well though out plan that has a main approach and several alternates to quickly fall back on to assure success (perhaps I should become a politician).

While being concerned about the US financial system, which is typically represented by Wall Street with all its irregularities, immense greed, little accountability and in the minds of many Naive Americans with an ever growing touch of criminal activity, we are faced with the problems of a public company by the name of General Motors (GM).

GM is one of the three largest US automobile manufacturers. Among their products are brands like Cadillac, GMC, Hummer, and Saab. Most vehicles in the US are concentrated in metropolitan areas. The mix of cars and trucks varies by location. I happen to reside in a Minneapolis suburb. Due to car-pooling I head out of home no later that 07:00 AM and get to work between 07:30 AM and 07:45 AM. In the evenings I leave the office around 05:30 PM and arrive home shortly after 06:00 PM. I fight rush hour traffic during both commutes. Crawling through rush hour gives me the opportunity to observe vehicles on the road. After removing from the mix Asian and European models, it appears domestic makes combined account for less than half of cars, Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), trucks and mini-vans. After removing Chryslers and Fords from the mix it becomes obvious that the Naive American is not buying too many GM vehicles.

There are different reasons why consumers buy a vehicle. Some like the image portrayed by owning the largest, heaviest, gas-guzzler, off-road vehicle. As you may imagine this type of vehicle is quite useful if you reside in a metropolitan area were paved roads are properly maintained. Some of us go for the myriad of options and colors. In the past decade or so, the Naive American has been gravitating towards quality vehicles at an affordable price. Perhaps GM has not been offering the right product at the right price. GM wishes to portray itself as an innocent victim of the recent Wall Street fiasco. The savvy Naive American just needs to go to the Internet and use their favorite stock tracking / investing tool and display a five (5) year graph of historical values of GM stock. Perhaps GM’s current state is the result of poor management, poor marketing and poor products

When the price of gasoline was at an all-time high, GM started advertising the Chevy Volt. The Volt is an hybrid car designed to allow the American commuter to use electricity more than fossil fuel; an appealing offer. This is especially true when the advertised base price for the two-seat car was under $20,000 US Dollars. The TV commercial is gone. The main reason is that the car is just a concept vehicle and the price is closer to $40,000. This information comes directly from GM’s well-compensated CEO. By the way, GM’s stock is currently under $5.00. Main stock exchanges typically require higher prices or the company may be de listed.

A few days ago the three largest US automobile manufactures met in Washington, DC with representatives of our government. The envoys of the car manufacturers flew in for the meeting in their private jets. When was the last time the Naive American flew in a private jet? For the publicity alone, they could all have driven their American cars from Detroit. The CEOs aren’t even using their own cars, but they need our help to continue to produce.

So the big question for the Naive American is should we bail out GM? At least our “career politicians” in Washington, DC (led by Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and the Senate majority leader Harry Reid) said they want to put the bailout on hold until December to allow the car manufacturer to come up with a “viable” plan. The Democrats wish to convince the Naive American that Washington is on their side by playing hard to get

Should the US (and all Naive Americans) decide to bail out GM? Naive Americans believe our elected “career politicians” will come up with the proper answer to address the state of GM. Keep in mind, that these elected officials lack accountability and generally rely on popularity/good looks to get elected. Additionally, lobbyists (esp. those representing car manufactures, oil companies, and union autoworkers) will have more to say about the final approach than the Naive American.

GM, the other car manufacturers, oil companies, and for that matter any other business in the US should be treated the same. One of the myths the Naive American has been led to believe is that capitalism always triumphs and the USA is the bastion for it. The US government, however, provides subsidies in the form of aid and help to several countries, industries and special groups.

In conclusion, when a business is no longer viable it should cease operations. This is capitalism, correct? The Naive American can bail out GM by purchasing their products. If the Naive American wants to purchase Chrysler and Ford and not GM so be it. If the Naive American wants to purchase Asian or European vehicles instead of Chrysler, GM or Ford so be it.

What the US government needs to do is understand the real reasons that led to the current state of GM. If it was greedy management, poor designs, low quality, union autoworkers, high costs and lack of accountability (to name a few) then let GM disappear. Chrysler and Ford will need to change their business or follow in the footsteps of other poorly managed companies.