As I grew older (not sure about the wiser part) I came to the realization that the political system in the USA is no better and perhaps worse than in most countries.  We have managed to legalize unmoral and unethical practices.  Not only that but corruption is very well entrenched in business activities (more on this on a future blog).

Lets take a look at how we do a few things in America.

Elections.  When political election time comes around we start seeing advertisements for career politicians that want to get elected / reelected (looking or trying to maintain cushy job with no responsibilities or accountability).  Somehow there are many Naive Americans (with little or no qualifications) that are able to raise considerable amounts of political contributions (bribes) to get elected.  In general, salaries and benefits for the elected officials are substantial higher than what they typically earn working on their initial chosen profession (e.g., dentist, business administrator, wrestler, actor, etc) but are nothing when compared to the funds spent attempting to get into office.  I guess companies and wealthy Naïve Americans (in some cases nationals from other countries as was the case with Mrs. Clinton in the past presidential election) contribute not wanting something in return (ha ha ha).  Are we in La La Land or the USA?  All the immoral and unethical practices associated with elections are completely legal in our country.  Similar practices in other nations are associated with sheer corruption by the same career politicians.

Politicians.  Who are most (never say all) politicians?  They do not tend to be people with high education or managing from inception (more on this on a future blog) successful practices / businesses.  It appears that most people turn into politics when they are not successful in their private lives.  Most politicians go into politics and after a few years somehow they start doing well for themselves or for their families and friends.  How strange that they were not able to realize themselves in their chosen professions (yes it is that call from who know where to serve the country).  The job of being a politician should be quite rewarding given the fact that once they become a politician, they do not want to return to private life.  Politicians have no accountability.  When they fail miserable (most do) they just excuse themselves and promise CHANGE.  Try the same approach in the business world and they will find themselves out of a job in weeks or months.  The difference is that there is no accountability in politics.

Laws.  Politicians are behind the laws that are put together and then passed.  For some strange reason laws are not passed individually but in sets.  Doing so has two main advantages.  First no one is able to understand what is in a bill (not even the people who authors them) so politicians write laws that benefit lobbyist (American Royalty) and destroy the USA.  The second advantage is that politicians hide their personal interests (the interests of organizations and individuals who bribe them through lobbyists) by voting for the main subject of a bill but hiding hundreds or thousands of payoffs in the rest.  This is why bills are not written in less than a dozen sheets of paper.  Do you know how many pages are in the Health Care reform being promoted by the Obama Administration?  Over a thousand.  Rest my case.

Wars.  How can it be possible that our country is most of the time at war?  There is a documentary “Why We Fight” that attempts to describe and show why America likes wars.  The logic (which appears to be quite solid) goes something like this.  Large companies in the USA are in the business of making weapons and supporting the military.  Such companies / contractors earn in the billions of dollars a year when the USA is not at war.  When the US is at war spending approaches or exceeds a trillion dollars a year.  There is way too much money lost when we are not at war.  Because of this simple fact, politicians with the help of lobbyist are convinced that a war in Afghanistan will somehow make America more secure.  The matter of fact is that security has nothing to do.  The Dollars is the guilty party.  This is due to the fact that politicians can easily be bribed to the point of committing funds that we do not have (the USA is in a huge deficit) and lives of Naive Americans that are killed and many wounded in many occasions will have scars for life.  And all of this because?  Because of incompetent, immoral and unaccountable politicians.  Does Vice President Cheney ring a bell?

So next time that you watch the news regarding any facet of our political system, pay close attention to what is really going on.  We have legalized corruption and are as bad as any third world country.

I am a General Aviation (GA) aficionado.  Many years ago I looked into obtaining a private license certificate but at the time I had small children and little time.  A couple decades went by (time flies when you are having fun).  A couple years ago I decided that my two sons were old enough and I tried again.  After the summer season was over things got busy, many changes at work and then our economy took a plunge, so once again I decided to put this endeavor on hold.  Hopefully the next time I try it will be a charm.

I am a member of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA).  I fully enjoy their two main magazines.  The June 2009 issue called my attention.  The cover shows an Embraer Phenom 100 Very Light Jet (VLJ) soaring over Pennsylvania.  The Phenom is a very good-looking plane.  The main article in the last issue of AOPA Pilot magazine is titled “Thrill from Brazil” by Thomas A. Horne.  I enjoyed reading the article.

What called my attention is that the Phenom is a plane made by Embraer.  The Phenom is gaining popularity all over the country despite the bad economy in the US and in general in most countries around the world.  The Phenom appears to be a very well designed product that has mass appeal in GA.  Embraer is not an American company and their products are manufactured in Brazil.

In that same issue of AOPA Pilot I looked towards the end of the magazine at a section named “Fly By Wire”.  That section lists the companies that advertises in the current issue.  I believe the few American companies left that make VLJ are Cessna and Piper.  They did not advertise VLJ products in this issue.  Perhaps that was by design in order to allow Embraer to shine.

Our government and the poor economy caused by our government and the American Royalty are killing GA in the USA.  GA provides pleasure and rewards to the few lucky pilots that are able to enjoy it.  But most important GA maintains a healthy set of private pilots, which can be called to help in emergencies.  The companies that design and produce GA airplanes are similar to the automobile manufacturers, which we have been hearing about, in the past few months.  Airplane companies design and develop desirable goods and provide jobs to thousands of Naive Americans.  The way things are going with GA, we will soon experience another irreversible setback in our economy when each and every one of the American airplane manufacturers disappears.  The same as with car manufacturers, but at a smaller scale, will be the fate of GA airplane manufacturers in the USA unless something is done to incentive them.

The Naive American proposes our government, which in the past year or so has wasted Trillions of taxpayers Dollars in lost causes, to help out American airplane manufacturers reduce if not eliminate tax in fuel used by GA planes, eliminate all airport fees used by GA and help funding AOPA to promote GA.

Furniture, clothing, computers, watches, radios, TVs, automobiles, etc, etc, etc design and manufacturing has left the USA in order to make money for politicians and the American Royalty.  The way things are going, in the near future, airplanes will experience the same end.

We Americans should ask not our neighbors, or relatives or friend, but ourselves the following two (2) simple and basic questions:

1. Who the presidential candidates are?
2. Why are they so interested in getting a four (4) year job?

Following the trust and theme of this web site, we need to use a logical and objective (not subjective) approach to arrive to a logical answer.

Lets attempt to address the first question.  Both presidential candidates and their running mates are “career politicians”.  We must ask ourselves who are these politicians.  A “politician” is an individual (man or woman) that manipulates facts and opinions to achieve a purpose.  The best source of additional information would be a dictionary.  Today the best way to look up the definition of a word is on-line via the World Wide Web (WWW).  A convenient way to reach several dictionaries at once is following the http://www.onelook.com link.  “Career” is defined as a job, occupation, profession, livelihood, line of business, etc.  While surfing the net between dictionaries you might also be interested in looking some old American terms “snake oil salesperson” or “used car salesperson” (note that I used the word “salesperson” and not “salesman” which makes the expression “politically correct”) and see if you can draw an analogy between them and “career politician”.

Now lets take a moment to think about the second question.  Currently I am among the large (but sadly dwindling) group of Americans who have a full time job in the same field as my formal education and profession.  I have been at my current job for about fifteen (15) years.  I am constantly learning and fully enjoy my line of work.  By the way I am not a plummer.  Before the web became so popular, people would send their resume to companies in hopes to get an interview, which would lead to a job.  Depending on the type of job and qualifications, the candidate would drive to different local interviews or would take a plane and stay in a hotel for a couple nights while the potential employer would determine if the job requirements matched the qualifications of the individual and most important if the personality of the person matched the culture of the workplace.  Getting ready for interviews requires time and incurs in some expenses (paper, dress / suit, shoes, etc).  These expenses are not an issue because the ratio of salary / wages versus expenses has and probably will always be negligible.  Most candidates seeking a job typically look for jobs that would last many years if not a professional lifetime.

The last time I checked the US President position / job offers $400,000 US Dollars a year as monetary compensation.  The job is extremely demanding in time and effort.  The job poses many critical problems that will be very hard to resolve and the resolutions will most certainly affect the lives of all Americans.  Who in their right mind would like to spend hundred of millions of dollars to get such a job?  Most important, where is the money being spent in getting the job is coming from and how is it going to be repaid?

Given that we are Naive Americans we should just turn on our television sets, get the “facts” from the “politicians” paid by “political contributions” and on November 04, 2008 cast our votes.  I am a Naive American and I approve this message!