After the speech, the GOP had a chance to comment (attack) what Obama had said.  Representative Paul Ryan, R-Wis appeared on national TV to let us know that Democrats want to spend more and have not been able to create new jobs.  Ryan’s demeanor while reading his speech was considerably better than Obama’s.

Now lets get to the bottom of what needs to be done which has nothing to do with what was said during any of the speeches.  To set the tone we need to recall the visit from China’s president Hu Jintao.  During the visit two interesting things were clearly stated.  First, China does not want to hear the USA tell their country what to do or not to do regarding human rights.  In other words, Hu Jintao told the USA to mind our own business.  As we all know the USA has been forcing our believes and way of life (including capitalism) to all countries in which for business reasons there is some type of gain for American businesses.  Second, China will continue to design, manufacture and sell their products all over the world including the USA.  American businesses may want to sell to China, but that is not going to happen.  For example, China is going to design, manufacture and sell airplanes to compete with Boeing (USA) and Airbus (European).  China has somehow acquired / developed stealth technology for combat airplanes.  Not only that, but Embraer (Brazilian) is not going to build a plant in China because of the business repercussions.  This important fact was, is and will be ignored by American companies who do not care about what happens in a few years with the USA as long as they can get higher dividends next month at the cost of dozens, hundreds or thousands of American jobs that will never return.

So lets get back to what politicians from both parties (Democrats and Republicans) said last evening.  The only way to improve our economy is to design, develop, manufacture and sell our own products.  That is not going to happen.  American businesses (American Royalty and Wall Street) are only interested on the bottom line.  In other words, what the market bears.  What happens to the people and the country is not part of Capitalism.  As long as I have my money who cares about the rest of Naïve Americans.  All decisions are made based on business reasons ignoring moral and ethic ones.

About seven years ago, my sister, wife and I were driving in rural Indiana.  We landed in Indianapolis and rented a couple vehicles to drive to a small town to attend the wedding of my youngest son.  It was a warm summer afternoon and cornfields with luscious plants were all over.  As we drove for hour and a half the conversation took a turn into Globalization.  That is a word no longer in vogue.  Globalization meant to move production overseas (to China and India) in order to reduce the retail price of products and at the same time increase profits for the company producing the product and the company selling it (primarily Walmart and Sam’s Club).  At that time many American companies were furiously moving manufacturing and design overseas.  It was considered a poor business practice not to do so.  In addition there were tax benefits and ways to shelter some of the income overseas.  A win-win-win situation.  American companies would close their plants in the USA and build them in China.  Chinese people (not Americans) would manufacture the goods while learning and keeping some copies at their disposal to reverse engineer without the years of experience and hard intellectual work.  The products would then show up at retailers who could increase their sales volumes because the products were lees expensive.

In actuality the quality of good has dramatically dropped since manufacturing was shifted from the USA to China.  I have many personal examples of this.  Allow me to comment on just one.  At home my wife and I have a DeLonghi coffee maker.  We purchased the unit last summer.  The previous machine, from a different manufacturer, lasted about a year.  During the past few weeks I have had to dry up the counter in the mornings before using the coffee maker.  It leaks water from the base.  Sometimes I have to tilt the unit for it to drain.  This is completely unacceptable.  My family comes from northern Italy.  That is a very industrialized part of the country.  DeLonghi is headquartered near Venice (Venezia).  This model, among others, is manufactures in China (no quality whatsoever).

My wife and I walked down the aisle that displays small appliances (i.e., coffee makers) at Costco in Burnsville, MN.  Due to moral and ethic reasons I do not wish to step into a Walmart or Sam’s Club store.  We turned every single product to read the country where the appliance was manufactured.  ALL, including a different DeLonghi coffee maker model, were manufactured in China.  So what are politicians, Wall Street and the American Royalty thinking on how new stable and well paying jobs are going to be created in the USA when American Companies are designing and manufacturing all their products in China and hiding money to avoid taxes?  More important, what are Naïve Americans going to do when things just worsen in the next few years?  What is going to happen to the USA?

UNLESS things change and they change in the very near future, the USA will be a country with 15% to 20% unemployment.  We will become the equivalent to one more country (probably not like Germany but more like Spain) in the European Union.  The weak Dollar might (chances are that it will) be replaced by a different currency for international trade.  Naïve Americans with less and less skills, thanks to the poor K-12 public education system who wants everyday more and more money but produces results (high school graduates) that rank 33rd in the world.

America needs less government and less spending in order to reduce the deficit.  We need to realize that government jobs do not product good and services (cannot sell them to other countries in exchange of money) that are of no value to the economy.  We need laws to protect Naïve Americans and small businesses from career politicians, Wall Street and the American Royalty.  We need to stop imposing our flawed way of life to other countries.  We should revise the concept of Capitalism and adapt it to the new emerging world in which the USA is number two and China is number one.  Eliminate public education and make Naïve Americans responsible and accountable for their actions.  By working together we may be able to get the USA back to be number one.  Based on the current state of internal and world affairs this endeavor will take two to three decades.

THE SOONER WE STAR THE SOONER WE WILL GET TO OUR GOAL!

The Naïve American

I have received a few invitations but have never bothered connecting to watch such web casts.  My though process is that if president Obama sounds like a preacher and is not coherent or logical on what he has to say, what could come out of the mouth of one of his advisors.

Just before 01:00 PM EDT I power up my wife’s laptop in the kitchen area and connected to the White House page on Facebook.  Set volume and waited.  I live in Apple Valley, Minnesota (CDT) so it was lunchtime.  The idea was to watch the web cast, possibly enter a question or two, and what is more important get some sustenance.

Around 01:15 PM EDT (the web cast was scheduled for 01:00 PM EDT) the program finally got on its way.  During the wait time, many people were entering questions and complaining about the delay.  After a brief introduction, Mr. Axelrod started answering questions.  Not sure how many Naïve Americans were watching the program but questions were flowing at a good pace on Facebook.

There were very few comments (not questions) posted by Democrats who drink the purple Kool-Aid.  There were some comments probably posted by Republicans and / or Independents expressing their opinions about the Obama administration.  For the most part questions were related to the economy, jobs, healthcare, and housing and for some reason gays.

While reading most of the questions being posed it became apparent that Naïve Americans do not think in a rational, logic and educated way.  To understand my comment lets refer to evolution and history.  The oldest records and findings from mankind tend to indicate that the primary concern of humans has always been food and shelter (after keeping alive).  After millions of years humans started gathering in towns and cities and societies started to become prosperous (for their standards of living).  People started to experience leisure time.  That is what prompted people to think about who they were, what they wanted and how to improve on society.  We have to agree that to some extent the process has repeated several times with all great civilizations (currently including the USA).

At the base of all progress is economy.  When people have peace of mind provided by food, shelter and health, things go well.  Security, gays, politics, arts, religion are just some of the byproducts of societies that have reasonable means.  Today we need the huge homes, multiple automobiles, but Incas in South America did not know about such things.  Yet they were prosperous and with time achieved most of the by products of societies.

Today the USA is experiencing a unique economic crisis that was caused by wealthy Naïve Americans who controlled and still control the government.  The issues were cause by outsourcing jobs at all levels and by people (Wall Street and Naïve Americans) interested in making money at all costs.  We also have to take into account unions interested in getting paid as much as possible doing the least amount of work.  In conclusion the world of me, me and only me who worship the Dollar god

The economic crisis in the USA is very serious.  I fully understand that Democrats, Independents and Republicans all have something to say about the economy.  The fact is that none has a solution.  Politicians promise jobs but have no idea on how to materialize them besides creating bureaucracy, which creates more taxes for the lower income Naïve Americans.

Following suit, Mr. Axelrod did not take a single question that was remotely related to the economy.  He talked just like his boss president Obama.  The web cast reminded me of the movie “Spies Like Us” with Chevy Chase and Bill Murray.  In specific the scene where Chevy Chase is explaining something (who knows what) to some reporters.  Yes, Mr. Axelrod and Chevy Chase in that movie acted quite similar.  The only difference is that Chevy Chase (just a movie) was funny while David Axelrod (real life in the collapsing USA) was not.

If you get a chance, log on to one of the web casts from the White House on Facebook.  They are completely useless and a waste of time.

The Naïve American

Hope this blog finds you and your family doing well.

Most Naïve Americans and in general the United States of America as a country continues to collapse.

Yesterday evening my wife and I watched Dateline on NBC.  The first (hour) segment dealt with the absurd war your predecessor, president Bush thanks to the vice president at the time, Mr. Cheney (a.k.a. defense contractor), promoted an impossible to win war in Afghanistan.  I believe you have been in office for about year and a half and have not lived up to any of your presidential campaign promises.  Naïve Americans should understand that the promises came from a politician and should not expect them to be fulfilled.  Most Naïve Americans do not appear to be too smart when it comes to politics.  Perhaps they are and voted for the democratic candidate based on promises made behind the scenes by the Democratic Party to special interests groups (i.e., unions).  As usual the common Naïve American was left out in the rain.  So far you have not delivered a single CHANGE but the USA needs to put up with another two and a half years of your administration.

The report on Dateline showed how the Taliban killed and injured dozens of Naïve American soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.  I happen to have military background and when I saw the location of the camp, immediately the idea crossed my mind that the soldiers would not be able to make it in such location.  It took a few days and dozens of dead and injured young Naïve Americans for the Army to close the new camp.  If I am not mistaken, during your presidential campaign, you promised that the arm forces deployed overseas fighting absurd wars would be brought back home.  If I am not mistaken you even had the audacity to provide some rough schedule to bring back home our troops.  Nothing like that is happening.  The USA will never under no circumstances will destroy the perceived enemy in Afghanistan.  The Soviet Union failed and we will too.  Perhaps you need to change your military advisors with people with common sense and no special interests.  A personal question Mr. Obama, do you happen to have stock in companies that manufacture weapons?

A few minutes ago I read on the web an article titled “China pushing the envelope on science, and sometimes ethics” by the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/27/AR2010062703639.html).  The article contains a picture of Zhao Bowen (not John Wayne) a 17-year-old Chinese scientist.  This Chinese (not Naïve American) teenager was part of a scientific team that last year cracked the genetic code of the cucumber.

If you have a chance to read the article, the change in science and education has been quite radical and fast.  A few years ago most people, excluding this Naïve American, believed that uneducated China would always be there as a source of cheap labor.  Today China has not only surpassed the USA as an economic and military power but is already stating to show super powers in the scientific arena.  So what is left for the USA?  I can tell you, we have a plethora of lawyers, politicians, business, sales people and CEOs, which are not able to provide a single good or service desirable outside the USA.  Not sure if you Mr. Obama or your elite team of advisors needs the example that my son and I used to describe global economy to my ten-year-old granddaughter.  She does not understand economic theory (if such a thing exists), but she can tell you that our economy the way it is going will not be able to make it.  On the other had, she fully understands how China is growing and will continue to grow.  I know she is on summer vacations.  If you need an economic advisor I believe we could arrange her to meet with you.

I fully understand how incapable your administration could be if something unexpectedly was thrown at you.  I am referring to the 60+ day fiasco with BP in the Gulf.  It does not take much to figure out that if you are slow to react to an unexpected problem, the problem will destroy you.  The issue is that after two months there is no clear and absolute resolution to the oil spill.  Given that you and your administration lack of engineering and scientific background, you are handling the issue like a politician.  Millions of wild life specimens are and will die before the problem is resolved.  Millions of Naïve Americans will loose their jobs and hundreds of thousands of small businesses with go under.  I guess your green initiative should provide those Naïve Americans with new well paying jobs funded by the few taxes paid by the few Naïve Americans that are able to hold a job.

Following is some food for though.  Please take the amount of oil being spilled in the Gulf by the BP oil well and think of it coming from a flotilla of oil tankers sunk in the Gulf by Osama bin Laden.  911 was caused by a handful of airplanes hitting very few targets and it created a serious problem for the USA.  I guess Tony Hayward BP’s CEO is better dressed and more influential that Osama bin Laden so all is and will be well.

America is sinking and you and your administration have not done a single thing to solve the obvious problems.  All we have seen is additional useless bureaucracy in the economic and healthcare front that are making it harder for most Naïve Americans to get ends to meet.  Hopefully these few words will motivate you and your administration to wake up before things get past the point of no return.  I fully believe we are almost there.  When we pass such point, there will not be enough CHANGE to make a difference.

Sincerely yours;

The Naïve American

Yesterday I changed channels to the local CBS station just before 06:00 PM EDT.  “60 Minutes” was scheduled to start at that time but given what I have observed in the past, I was expecting as usual some delay.  CBS was showing a game between The New England Patriots and the Tennessee Titans.  The Patriots won the game 59 – 0.  I do not care for watching football games.  As a matter of fact I do not care for watching sports at all.  I have a hard time watching people play a game and getting paid millions of Dollars for something that should just be done for entertainment and health.  During my life I have done that and had a good time.

The game went on and on and on.  Finally as soon as it finished CBS decided to switch to the game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills.  In that match The Bills defeated the Jets by 16 – 13 in overtime.  This game was also as boring as they come.

When the games were done, CBS broadcasted “60 Minutes” (no Andy Rooney) and then “Amazing Race”.  “60 Minutes” interesting as usual.  “Amazing Race” entertaining as expected.

Getting back to the football games, if CBS is willing to delay other shows and cancel one of them (whatever followed Three Rivers) it is obvious that they do it for economic reasons.  More people (fans) must watch football than the program that was canceled last evening.

A few weeks ago I was watching the local news and they mentioned that the Metrodome in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul was packed with fans watching the Twins (local professional baseball team).  Apparently the Twins won that particular game.  After that they were flying to New York City for the next set of games.  The newscaster mentioned that for the next local game seats were priced between $45 to $500 US Dollars (not Monopoly money).  What is wrong with Naive Americans?  Our economy is in shambles and the future for the US is extremely dim.  Yet we are willing to pay up to $500 per seat to watch a game of baseball.

Who are the fans cheering for?  It appears they cheer the players and the team.  The players who make millions of dollars a season and they are willing to change teams as soon as their contracts expire going to play for the team that offers the most money.  Given this fact, do you honestly believe that any player cares about their team or fans?  They only are in it for the money.  That is OK is you are a player, but were does it leave the fans?  I would say in need of some psychiatric evaluation.

In the past couple weeks it has been in the news that the contusions incurred by most football players eventually lead to different mental illness being the most common dementia.  Again, as a Naive American fan, are we routing to see how people injure themselves for our amusement and pleasure?  Please take a few moments and get acquainted with the events at the Coliseum in Rome about 2,000 years ago.  Are we in the same boat today?  Are sports events, specially football, an indicator of where our society and country is going?  I can bet that if we could travel back in time and ask any fan that attended the events in Rome 2,000 years ago about the decline of the Roman Empire, they would at least have laugh at us (probably would throw us into the arena to be slaughter).  Are we in the SAME boat and we do not realize it?

One thing led to another and somehow we started talking about the current state of the US economy.  My two granddaughters asked what were we talking about.  My son took the lead with an example, which might not be only good for a ten and an eight year old but for most Naive Americans including President Obama and his economic advisors.

Due to space limitations I am not going to go in detail on our two hour conversation / discussion / learning session.  I am just going to provide a sample of it.

My son drew an analogy that each house in our neighborhood was a country.  Our home was the USA.  For sake of argument we had a million dollars is cash.  Other homes represented different countries.  Our neighbor to the left was assigned China.  I was assigned the roll of president, my son was a car manufacturer (i.e., GM), my oldest granddaughter ran a business that manufactured car parts, and my youngest granddaughter was a physician.  For some reason my wife just added her comments and opinions.  She did not assume a roll in our economy.  Perhaps she was representing the news.

In our example the car manufacturer used to purchase parts from the small business for about $100 (the example was aimed at kids).  The car manufacturer would sell a car for $1,000.  The money stayed (changed hands) in the country.  My granddaughter could see the physician who would charge $20 per visit.  With time all Naive Americans could purchase a car.  Life was good.  The kids followed up on the idea with some additional examples.

Now the greedy car manufacture (my son) came to me (the president representing politicians at large) and gave me money in the form of political contributions (perfectly legal but complete immoral) for me to allow the car manufacturer to get the cars from my neighbor (China).  My granddaughter lost her job.  She was not able to see the doctor when needed.  In fact she did not have money for anything.  My son (the car manufacturer) reduced the retail price of his cars from $1,000 down to $990.  The difference was pocketed by bonuses and stockholder dividends.  Cars were now cheaper but fewer people in our house (the USA) could buy them.

When my granddaughter needed a different doctor (a specialist) in a different house she was unable to afford it.

We then changed the scope by going back in time some fifty years.  Things were different in our neighborhood (actually in the world).  Our house (the USA) used to produce automobiles, people in our house and other houses in the neighborhood wanted to purchase our cars (and goods).  Money was coming in (no deficit) to our house.  Life was good.

After the exercise my granddaughter asked is the USA would ever be like it used to be.  I answered as follows:  “If things continue as they have been in the past fifty years, the answer is NO.  We need radical changes at different levels for something like that to occur”.

Mr. Obama, could you please take a few minutes to explain this example to your economical advisors and in the near future on one of your economical addresses to the US could you explain how “our house” (representing the USA) would be able to produce goods and services desirable to the rest of “the neighborhood” (representing the world)?

Naive Americans are still waiting for the CHANGE you promised during your presidential campaign.  Without additional sources of revenues none of your proposed programs including healthcare will be successful.  They may be started but in a few years will be bankrupt like the rest of ideas proposed and executed by previous administrations.  Do not forget that bureaucracy does not produce a cent.  It costs billions of dollars a year.  Without revenue there is no hope for our country.

Yours truly,

The Naive American

I have two sisters.  Both are physicians so I always get comments when the subject of healthcare is discussed.  In this case the surgeon that performed the original procedure might have not been too competent.  An example cannot be taken out of context and generalize it to the entire Canadian healthcare system.  I agree with this but on the same hand I have heard several stories from my wife’s nice and other Canadians and none promoted socialized healthcare.

Due to work and pleasure I have had the opportunity to travel in Europe several times.  Healthcare in England and France are not on the top of anyone’s list.  The main reason is due to the fact that (any) government has never and will never be able to compete with the private sector.  The reason for this is lack of competition and accountability.  Government operations are not for profit and most workers do not care about providing better service.  They just want to keep their cushy jobs and hope for an early retirement.  This is similar to union workers in the private sector.  Because of complacency manufacturing is almost gone from the USA.  In general Naive Americans demands high wages and only want to meet their job description.  I fully understand this does not apply to every single worker, but it does apply to a huge percentage.  If this would not be the case then the US economy would be great and most (quality) products would be labeled “Designed and manufactured in the USA”.

A few days ago some politician finally stated something the Naive American has been saying for a while.  Healthcare reform is good and we should move forward with it but not right now.  We cannot afford it.  The issue is that if we continue the path we have in the past fifty years we will never be able to afford it.

Let’s be realistic.  Healthcare will have to come with additional taxes.  That is fine if our economy is booming.  The fact is that our economy will just continue to shrink due to lack of quality good and services desired by people all over the world.  Our automobile industry just gave us a good and costly example of what has and is happening in the USA.

Changes need to be made in order to provide every single Naive American with universal healthcare.  On the other side our current healthcare system from physicians to laws need to be revised.  But before we do this we need to build on education, science, engineering and manufacturing.  Those are the skills and jobs that will enable our society to be able to provide universal healthcare, universal housing, and universal nutrition.  Hopefully any of those plans will not work as poorly as universal education K-12 has.  The US is currently ranked 15^th worldwide in K-12 education.  Our government with our career politicians is just doing great.

A few minutes ago I visited the White House web page (www.whitehouse.gov) and saw one of your pictures while visiting Cairo.  Looking good.  Hope your visit will result in positive improvements (CHANGES) to the US.

I would like an answer to one and only one question from the Naive American.  Before I pose it allow me to briefly provide some background and motivation for it.

A few weeks ago I was reading an article on the BBC on-line (http://news.bbc.co.uk) which called my attention.  The article was based on an interview of a woman that I will call Jane Doe.  Jane actually lives in Washington State.  For many years, Jane used to work as a mechanic in the aerospace industry.  I believe she worked in a Boeing plant.

As you well know, because labor unions, Jane was making very good wages for a person with her education and skills.  Unions raise manufacturing costs, which force employers to outsource and lay off Naive Americans.  Years ago Jane got laid off from her well-paid job.

A few months later, having many expenses including a mortgage, which is impossible to pay with unemployment benefits, Jane was lucky enough to get a job in the local government.  Given that the government does not produce many desirable goods or services her wages were quite less than while a mechanic, but she was able to make ends meet for a few years.

It was not until recently that Jane got laid off from her local government job.  Apparently Jane will be loosing her house in the near future.

The reporter interviewing Jane asked her to comment on the future.  Jane was quite realistic on her response.  Things are not looking good for her or for Naive Americans in general.  Most manufacturing jobs have left the USA and will never come back.  As the population increases, less well paid jobs for people with two to four year degrees will be available.

Changing the subject from Jane Doe to when I was growing up, I recall a joke that I saw in a magazine.  Perhaps you have run into a version of it.  Picture on the background a white board with some mathematical equations.  On the left side is a student wishing to get a passing grade on the subject.  On the right side one finds a perplexed professor trying to make sense on the answer provided by the student.  As you look closer into the math, a cloud is pictured with the following label:  “… and then something happens…” and the correct result is displayed.

I would like to modify the joke by replacing the student with you Mr. President, the professor with Naive Americans, and the mathematical problem with the simple question: “What CHANGES are you going to make in the US?” to get to the expected and correct answer “Stable economy as it was many decades ago“.  So far Mr. Obama, you and the rest of politicians and advisors always evade the difficult yet realistic issue that there is no well thought plan on how to solve the economical problems for us, our children or generations to come.

Please respond to the Naive American with a reasonable and realistic plan, not just a magic cloud, which will allow the USA to get from were we are to were we all would like to be.  I sincerely hope you prove me wrong with your response.

Yours truly,

The Naive American

About ten years ago he moved to the Twin Cities looking for a change and to be close to relatives.  He worked at a local casino and at the international airport.  He then found a job at a Walmart store in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota.

Joe worked five days a week.  His schedule changed now and then.  Most of the time he worked over weekends.  He would get up early in the morning to make sure he had enough time to get to work on time.  He was never late.

A few weeks ago Walmart start cutting his hours and shifting his schedule.  Given that Joe has been a loyal Walmart employee for several years, his current salary is somewhat higher than of new employees (or associates as they are called by Walmart).  Joe is quite desperate at this time looking for a new job because with no more than twenty hours a week he is not able to pay his bills.

Most Naive Americans are aware of the economic condition in the US and around the world.  What most Naive Americans do not understand is that American Royalty created the crisis.  It just happens that the Walton family who is the largest shareholder of Walmart and Sam’s Club are part of such American aristocratic class.

Walmart lobbied for vendor companies to outsource in order to reduce their manufacturing costs while maintaining their profit margins selling at a discounted price to them.  Walmart helped companies reduce their costs by moving manufacturing offshore.  So who benefited from such approach?  Well, consumers that shop at Sam’s Club and Walmart did.  Who paid for the lower prices that made huge profits for Sam’s Club and Walmart?  Most Naive Americans.

As manufacturing jobs fled the US at an accelerated pace, more and more Naive Americans lost their jobs and had to look for new lower paying jobs.  The condition got so bad that Sam’s Club and Walmart lobbied for an increase on the minimum wage in the USA.  Walmart did not care about what they were paying their employees but they reasoned that by increasing the minimum wage they would increase their revenue.  Most people that shops Sam’s Club and in particular Walmart are lower income families.

Lately Joe experienced a couple personal issues.  His mother passed away a few months ago.  In the past month or so Joe’s hours at Walmart were reduced from five to three days.  It appears that due to the additional stress (and to some extent his genetics) he developed a case of type II diabetes.

The question that all Naive Americans should ask our government is how the road construction and lately rapid trains will help Joe in any way shape or form?  The answer is quite simple.  Those projects that will cost the USA billions of Dollars will not help Joe and millions of other Naive Americans.

Last week, on the evening news on April 15, reports from protests in many cities around the US showed some Naive Americans protesting against taxes.  The interesting this about such protest was the tea party theme.  This is how the USA came to be by rebelling against the British.  If things continue to go the way they have been, sooner than later we might have some type of massive protest in our country, which will have serious repercussions for all Naive Americans and the world.

We need to put pressure on all politicians to take immediate action (or quit) to induce CHANGE.  The American Royalty has to go!

I am sending you this letter in hopes you clarify how your stimulus package(s) are going to help Naive Americans that are or have worked in Wall Street and are loosing or already have lost their jobs.  I am also interested in finding out what your administration is doing or going to do to prevent the issues that caused the US economic meltdown not to repeat.

As I have stated on previous blogs, I am a computer scientist not associated in any way with Wall Street.  I have read several articles on Wall Street and watched several segments on the subject on national TV.

The financial system in the US is completely corrupt.  Greed had been the motivation for most people involved in the financial industry, which I will refer to in general as Wall Street.

The Oxford on-line dictionary defines Greed as follows:

Noun intense and selfish desire for food, wealth, or power.

All is well with being greedy as long as it does not compromise moral and ethical principles.  Given that you are a lawyer by trade, I assume that you are familiar with the base principle of morality (which has nothing to do with any religion):

Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you.

Based on the news, it appears that some (very few in the opinion of most Naive Americans) Wall Street executives are under scrutiny by the US legal system to determine if they have committed crimes.  The issue with this is that many Naive Americans have become very good snake oil sales people (deceiving others) and like to walk on a thin gray line between what is criminal and what is not.  No matter what people in Wall Street say or how are they represented, they all knew what was going on and they did nothing to correct or stop earlier in the game.

As you well know, most of the economical issues the USA is currently experiencing were precipitated (not started) by a law passed towards the end of the Clinton administration (way before the 8 years of George W. Bush while you were a politician in the state of Illinois and the few months of your administration).  It appears that greed, lack of responsibility, lack of morals, etc, etc, etc was not only something found in Wall Street but it was (and still is) spread all over our society.

This Naive American fully understands that it is important to recognize the past, but it is a complete waste of time and resources to just complaint and not CHANGE.  Sounds familiar Mr. President?  We need legislation to be passed to address the issues that led a small set of Naive Americans to take advantage of the majority without any legal consequences.  We also need to make sure that checks and balances are in place in Wall Street so greedy Naive Americans are not able to repeat what they have done.

A few weeks ago I was watching the news on national TV.  A Wall Street analyst stated that executives in his business live a different reality.  They need to be greedy and get paid millions of Dollars a year.  I can assure you that you can fire all Wall Street executives and in less that 24-hours such positions would be filled by better qualified Naive Americans which would be eager to work for a reasonable salary (no more that $400,000 Dollars per year) and get stock options from stock holders to motivate them to excel in their jobs.  In America we do not believe in blue blood or monarchies.

Regarding the stimulus package, how is it going to help Naive Americans that used to work in Wall Street?  Building roads, making buildings green, getting healthcare and unemployment benefits are not going to the problem.  The caps on Dollar amounts and periods for unemployment benefits might be fine for Naive Americans that had very low incomes, but not for middle and upper middle class workers from Wall Street.  Most Naive Americans are part of the middle class (which sadly is shrinking and could / will bring serious problems down the line).  Middle class Naive Americans need well-paid jobs that produce goods and services that may be consumed in and outside the US.  Well-paid jobs that demand skills and know how have gradually been outsourced.  Manufacturing has been affected by globalization.

In conclusion, pouring money that will never be recovered into the economy is just going to postpone and / or stretch the symptoms.  If the stimulus is coming from taxes, loans, or printing currency, things will just get worse.  The USA needs massive and deep CHANGES in our economy and society in order to get us back on track and leave our children and generations to come a better place to live in.

Yours truly;

The Naive American

PS:           Mr. President, please read the About section in the www.naiveamerican.org site to get a better flavor of what has and is happening with the USA.  Then prove me wrong by inducing the proper CHANGES!!!

Hope this blog finds you and your family doing well in the White House.

First I want to thank you for taking into consideration the suggestion offered by the Naive American regarding capping compensation for upper management in entities that receive federal bailout moneys.

On the topic of compensation packages for upper management in corporate America, I wish to reiterate that, legislation should be enacted for all companies (not just the ones receiving federal aid) operating or based in the US to mandate a maximum salary cap of $400,000 Dollars for all CEOs and monotonically decrementing amounts for the rest of the upper management team.  There should be no other compensation perk (i.e., company car, company jet, company house, company boat, etc, etc, etc) with the exception of stock options granted with approval of the majority of stockholders.  By the way the idea of preferred and common stock should also be eliminated in conjunction with any type of severance package (golden parachutes).  This way, if company management teams do not perform, immoral tactics employed by incompetent and greedy upper managers would not affect employees, stockholders and as a consequence the US economy.  I will have more on this topic on a future blog.

After doing some research on the web I found out that the current compensation package of the US president includes a base salary of $400,000 per year plus a $50,000 expense account, $100,000 non taxable travel account plus $19,000 for entertainment, plus use of the company mansion (The White House) and the country home (Camp David).  Not sure how the $100,000 travel account works due to the fact that you have access to the company jet(s) (I believe they are called Air Force One).  Overall, given the amount of work, responsibilities and number of hours on the job, most (if not all) Naive Americans would agree that for an elected official your compensation package might be quite reasonable.

I will now address the main subject of this blog.  Naive Americans are used to the concept of top ten lists.  Just go to your favorite web search engine and type in the search box “top 10“.  You will be amazed how used Naive Americans are to this concept.  There appears to be a top 10 list for any imaginable class.  Apparently Naive Americans like to know about the top 10 in any category, but the question is, do we know how to select the most important list and the items that should be included?

Following is the top 10 list of threats to the American Way of Life:

Please note that the order in the top 10 is completely subjective.  As we discuss each entry in future blogs they might shift around.

President Obama, please note that the top 10 list of the Naive American does not include the common threats to the US like Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, or Iran’s nuclear program.  In the opinion of the Naive American, all these threats could be minimized or even eliminated if we properly address the top 10 list presented in this blog.

In the next few weeks I will be posting blogs covering in more detail the threats and how they can be addressed.  Of course your comments and suggestions as well as the ones from any and all Naive Americans are always welcomed.

Yours truly;

The Naive American