One of the headlines on Google this morning is labeled “Obama Puts Jobs on Labor Day Agenda”.  Apparently Naïve Americans had enough of Obama, his promised Change and Democrats in general.  There are several seats in Capitol Hill coming up for re election and the polls appear to be leaning towards the Republican side.  Obama being a career politician has to follow orders from the American Royalty.  He needs to convince Naïve Americans that Democrats in power will help solve the problems in the USA (ha, ha ha).  If you believe this you need to educate yourself by reading books on American and World history.  The American Empire is collapsing (like all other civilizations have) and the only thing we can do is to attempt to slow down the process as mush as possible in order to soften the fall.

President Obama mentioned that the US economy is moving in a positive direction, jobs are being created; they are just not being created as fast as they need to, given the big hole that we experienced.  Stop for a second and think about this absurd statement made by a career politician that serves the American Royalty.

The facts are that the US economy is NOT moving in a positive direction.  The only to achieve this is to reach a point in which the US is producing services and goods that are desirable all over the world.  Every day we see in the news and in our communities that small, medium and large size businesses are closing their doors.  This is happening because our production costs are high compared to other countries and the innovation and quality of our services and products is reaching all time lows.  Nobody wants to buy American made products.  Just look around.  Most products that are offered by American companies are manufactured and starting to be design abroad.  The quality of our products is very low.  Things do not last what they used to and their prices are going up.  This is causing millions of Naïve Americans to loose their job.  Now, explain to me how building roads, fixing railroad lines and building new airports is going to help America to produce services and good that are desirable all over the world?

Another irrational comment from our leader is that the USA is moving in the right direction.  We just have to speed up the process.  Once again, putting money that we do not have into building infrastructure will never help.  I fully understand that on the Great Depression that helped the country but those were different times.  The USA was about to peak at that time.  In the 1950’s the USA started its decline.  Since then our country has lost grounds in almost all fronts.

Way too many reforms are needed.  From the political (no politician may serve on more than one office and never be reelected) to the educational (our K-12 has been doomed for decades and our higher education is starting to show problems) and economical (outsource design and manufacturing) fronts, just to mention a few, the USA is loosing grounds at an alarming state.

What we need is money.  I do not mean printing more Dollars to give away to BRIC (China, Russia, India and Brazil) but to immediately boost small businesses that develop products and services that are desirable world wide by dramatically reducing the tax burned and providing low interest loans (not $50,000 from the Small Business Administration which is completely useless) to get Naïve Americans back on track.

Please note that the American Royalty needs to be taxed and their salaries and bonuses need to be limited by law.  But just taxing Naïve Americans does not lead to new and better services and good desirable worldwide.  Increasing taxes to be used to provide for unemployment and infrastructure is like a charity.  We need to teach Naïve Americans to fish, not just give them free fish!  Do you remember a couple decades ago how bean counters and politicians were in the Globalization bandwagon?  Well any individual with a reduced IQ could have been able to figure out that Globalization was a really bad idea.  So why did it occurred?  Well American Royalty (i.e., CEOs, corporate executives, Wall Street) got their instant gratification (i.e., high salaries, bonuses, golden parachutes).  How about the rest of Naïve Americans?  Who cares.  American Royalty got their money.

On the long term, revamp our educational systems not by wasting more money in teacher unions but to improve in the methods used to educate our children and young adults making teachers and students accountable for their acts.

I know the suggestions presented in this blog will never make it because the ideas go against the American Royalty.  CEOs, Wall Street and politicians will never make a change because it goes against their interests.  We will have to wait until the point of no return to experience change.  That will sure come at a very high cost and will put America in the back burner for the foreseeable future.

Lets work together by being less greedy and complacent before it is too late.

The Naïve American

Early this morning I checked the news and read a few articles regarding last night’s presidential speech.  I kind of liked the structure of an article by USA Today (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/01/obamas-promises-verbatim/1).  I am taking the bullet points from the speech and commenting on them.

Bank Fees.  The only thing that will happen with this approach is that banks will pass them on to their Naive American consumers.  This is just a cost of doing business.  Bank fees, not a good idea.

A jobs bill.  Unless you are planning on creating additional bureaucracy (such jobs are paid by tax payer moneys which are in a decline and do not produce desirable goods or services) that will keep on destroying the US economy how are such jobs going to be created?  Are Naive Americans going to build roads and install green house equipment in business and homes for people that cannot afford it or is the government going to subsidize the purchase of Chinese equipment to offer low paying jobs to Naïve Americans?  A jobs bill, not a good idea.

Job loans and tax incentives.  Not sure from where the $30 billion which you are planning to use came in the first place.  Given that the US economy is in shambles that money must have already been loaned to us.  I guess delaying repayment would be OK if small businesses are the true recipients of the funds.  In the history of America small businesses have always provide the source for innovation and growth that we have been accustomed to.  The government should treat small businesses that have ideas, products and services that are desirable not only in America but also worldwide, as saviors and gods.  Innovation and wealth does not come from large companies.  It comes from acquisitions of small businesses by large ones.  The Obama administration needs to provide huge amounts of funds in the form of grants, loans and tax incentives to create new and to help grow small businesses.  That said I am not referring to small businesses that just sell goods manufactured in foreign countries (e.g., bike shop, car dealer, etc) or simple services (e.g., restaurants).  Job loans and tax incentives might be the first good idea of the Obama administration, but do not hold your breath on the implementation.

New Wall Street regulations.  The regulations that have been past are completely ineffective.  What is needed are new, effective and simple laws that will put caps on what Wall Street is doing.  For example, cap the total compensation of all executives to the same salary as the president of the USA.  Bonuses must come from stock of stockholders approved by the board of directors and all stockholders.  This way the pressure to perform will be there and bonuses will not be given to incapable executives.  Most executives are business and accounting majors who have not an idea on how to develop and sell desirable goods and services.  Get rid of them.  New Wall Street regulations that way you have them, not a good idea.

Energy programs.  I do not know if you or your staffs of advisors understand the energy issues in our country.  The main energy issue is with oil and gas we purchase from other countries.  For each Dollar we pay in energy to a foreign country we get back a few dimes with goods and services we export.  This is why we have trillions of Dollars in our trade deficit.  The electric car is the only proven, feasible and available technology, which will improve our economy in a foreseeable future.  The issue is that major corporations hire lobbyist that have paid off and continue to pay off career politicians to kill such a great idea.  Other sources (e.g., fuel cells, natural gas, etc) are extremely more expensive for the Naïve American but have huge benefits to car and oil companies.  Your energy programs, not a good idea.

Education.  Education is one of the pillars for the success of any country.  That is what made the USA what was a few decades ago.  Since the 1950’s education in our country is getting worse by the minute.  The K-12 schools have turned into expensive day care organizations paid by taxpayers.  The main issue is that this has been going on for so long that most Naïve Americans are not capable to understand what is going on.  To pot it off we have unions which hire lobbyist to pay off career politicians.  On the next level we have colleges that are teaching Naïve Americans skills that are not in demand in a high tech economy.  The courses and degrees offered by most universities have been declining through the years.  Just stop at campuses in universities and you will see that for the difficult degrees (i.e., science and engineering) enrollment has declined and most students are foreigners.  Why would someone spend considerable time and effort to find that most well paying jobs are outside the US?  A major overhaul in the education system in this country is needed.  Nice buildings and better-paid incompetent teachers do not help produce better professionals.  Education as you propose, not a good idea.

Healthcare.  In the past few months Naive Americans have heard enough of your preposterous plan for healthcare reform.  What we need is a system that is free for all Naive Americans.  We need to get rid of healthcare insurance companies.  We need to make accountable healthcare providers and companies (including drug manufacturers) to make sure they are properly compensated for their efforts but do not enrich themselves (high executive salaries and bonuses, high stock dividends) at the expense and suffering of Naive Americans.  Simple and clean law could address healthcare reform in a very short period of time.  Healthcare as you propose, not a good idea.

Debt and deficits.  Freeze on government spending is a must.  The problem is that national security spending is out of control.  When you have a bomb proof truck that costs a million Dollars that can be disabled with a $10 Dollar explosive charge, simple math is against us.  Wars only benefit the companies that make weapons and equipment used by the military.  War does not produce benefits for the Naive American.  War just brings pain.  You are proposing to get a bipartisan fiscal commission of career politicians paid by lobbyist to address this issue.  How could that work?  Debt and deficits as you propose to address, a bad idea.

Government and election reform.  This is not a simple task.  You are proposing career politicians paid by lobbyist hired by well-funded special interest to address the issue.  I am starting to think that my two-year-old grandson has better ideas than you do.  The simple approach to this issue is to outlaw any and all political contributions.  Outlaw lobbyist.  Make accountable organizations, individuals and politicians for accepting bribes and punish them with ten years of mandatory prison for each offense.  Problem solved.  Your proposed Government and election reform, one more bad idea.

Disaster response.  History has proven that the USA is not prepared for disaster response.  Each time something happens we find more and more flaws.  We need to come up with simple and relatively fool proof mechanism to prevent and if they do happen to aid Naïve Americans in stress.  Before just throwing money it would be best to evaluate what we have today, eliminate issues and then come up with mechanisms to help us with nuclear and bio terrorism.  That said I would like to bring up a simple idea that is used in good engineering.  Go after the cause of the problem, not the side effects.  For example, if the hard disk in your computer system is failing, do not start modifying the software to address the failing disk symptoms, change the disk.  In the 1940’s the world (with perhaps two exceptions) loved the USA.  Since then most countries dislike the US and many are just plain enemies.  Today we cannot count with the fingers in our hands enough countries that are truly our friends.  We all know the reasons for this.  Instead of addressing them we declare wars that kill innocent people.  Disaster response, as presented, not a good idea.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  This is a touchy and politically loaded issue.  If you have served in the military you probably have a better opinion as I have.  Our country at this point in time has so many long term serious issues that are rotting our society to its roots that issues with gay people is like saying that you are on your death bed and are discussing the color of your sheets.  Bringing this topic us appears to be just a political maneuver to get support from lobbyists.  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell a completely irrelevant issue at this point in time.

Immigration.  Completely in agreement that our immigration system is broken.  We need incentives for intellect to come to the USA to study, create small businesses and hopefully to integrate and make America their home for them and generations to come.  That is more important that putting up a wall and spend resources patrolling the borders.  If people and companies do not offer jobs to illegal aliens then the problem is solved once and for all.  If the government does not provide a single benefit to illegal aliens then they will not want to be in the US.  America needs to bring in the best of the world for them to integrate and make their lives here.  Immigration a good idea but so far the implementation has been poor to say the least.

In conclusion Mr. Obama rehashed promises that were used in the presidential campaign but that have not become reality in over a year in office.  What America needs are CHANGES to the core.  If we do not do this we will continue to fall into the abyss.

I am sure you have read the news about the increasing unemployment in our country.  As soon as the “Cash for Clunkers” program finished the artificial slight economical improvement disappeared.  What were you expecting to happen?  Today in the news we are able to read, from democratic senators, that things could be worse if the stimulus packages (i.e., financial institutions, automobile industry) would not have been implemented.  On the other side of the table we have republican politicians telling Naive Americans that the democratic president failed once again.  I fully understand that career politicians so not care about much but their own well being so what they say should be completely ignored.  What cannot be ignored is what is going on with the economy and the increasing numbers of unemployed Naive Americans.  So what are you going to do Mr. President?

As more and more Naive Americans loose their jobs and are not able to pay higher taxes, how do you and your advisors plan to pay for unemployment benefits?  It does not take an intellect higher than a ten year old to figure out that Naive Americans will need shelter, clothing and food while they are out of work.  Unemployment benefits are not a cure.  They are only intended to address a temporary condition.  The problem is that since the past fifty years (going now to sixty) the USA has been in a downward spiral in many fronts.  The Naive American calls this the fall of the American Empire.  What is interesting to note is that in the same time period the number of millionaires in our country has increased.  Why do you think this has happened Mr. President?  The answer is simple; the American Royalty has been buying politicians via lobbyist and have been passing laws to destroy the USA.  By destroying engineering and manufacturing very few people in the US are able to benefit from the savings obtained from outsourcing jobs to other countries.  The only ones that benefit are the very few people and families controlling medium to large size companies.  Those individuals (The American Royalty) are getting paid in the dozens of millions of dollars a year while their companies are collapsing.  As companies collapse, more and more Naive Americans are being shifted from the middle to the lower economical class.  The middle class is disappearing in the USA.  This can bring a huge and serious problem that can explode at any moment.  Mr. Obama, you have mentioned that you like to read about past US presidents.  I would suggest you reading about the civil war in the United States.  Unless you really fulfill your promise of CHANGE, something serious might happen just under your nose.

I would just like to touch on your heal5thcare reform plans.  Are you starting to understand why healthcare reform is a great idea but the time is not right.  You first need to solve the economical problems affecting our country.  Then you can move to address education and last but not least healthcare.  All of these sectors have similar problems in that they have, currently are and in the future will be caused by the American Royalty.  The CHANGE that you promised for the Naive Americans is not going to happen unless you first change what is wrong with companies whose executives make money destroying the America.  This is not going to be an easy task.  Chances are that you will go down as one of the (if not the) worse presidents in the US history.  This statement is based on the fact that you were elected president because of the efforts of your political party who responds to the American Royalty.

What we need is a quick boost on all small businesses that develop products and services desirable by Naive Americans and more important by the world.  American Express has a nice advertisement on television.  They claim they are helping small businesses grow and helping bring prosperity.  The businesses they show are:  a bicycle shop and a bakery.  That is not the kind of small businesses the USA needs.  What we need are companies that design and manufacture low to high tech goods that can be sold outside the US.  This will generate new jobs and will start bringing the trade deficit down.  As long as we continue to buy everything from China and China has no interest in buying things from the US our economy will just continue to go down.

Mr. President, the BRIC acronym (Brazil, Russia, India and China) does NOT include the USA.  You can attend as many G20 summits as you want.  The USA is declining and will become a second world county in the next couple decades unless you truly bring CHANGE as promised.

Yours truly,

The Naive American

www.naiveamrican.org

The options are quite simple,  [1] do nothing,  [2] increase support (more troops and money) or  [3] start backing out.

Doing nothing might not be the proper political answer.  The war in Afghanistan is getting old and the US is loosing grounds day by day.  Naive Americans have and will continue to questions why are we spending billions of dollars in a war instead of helping our country getting back on its feet from an economic perspective.  Naive Americans must note that the war in Afghanistan started by attempting to capture Osama Bin Laden and destroying the Taliban.  After years, billions of dollars and thousands of Naive Americans killed and permanently injured, NONE of these goals have been achieved.

Reducing support might not be bad.  We could shift the resources into rebuilding Industry and Education in our country in hopes to be able to afford the mindless and expensive programs suggested by the current administration.  On a side note, The Naive American believes in a form healthcare reform in which ALL Americans get insurance for life at NO cost.  This is easy said than done.  On a different economy (50 or 60 years ago) all that would be possible.  Today, it is better to back off Afghanistan and any other conflict / war before considering healthcare reforms.

Increasing support attempting to convince Naive Americans that our country is in danger might sound good for the administration.  Remember President Bush and his defense contractor (better known as Vice President Cheney)?  There is only a minor issue that we should consider.  So far no country has been able to win a conflict in Afghanistan.  The last ones that tried it were Russians.  They failed.  We have been at it for several years and there is no victory in sight.  Mr. Obama, please read my lips:  “The USA will NEVER win a war with Afghanistan”.  Are you interested in the reason for my statement?

You have mentioned that you like to read about past presidents to learn from their mistakes and successes.  I would suggest for you to read world history and psychology textbooks.  Perhaps you have some advisors in these fields.  When a man has nothing to loose, like the people in Afghanistan, then nothing we or any other country could possible do to eradicate the enemy.  We have no commitment or interest in wining.  There is nothing for the US in Afghanistan.  The Afghan people have nothing too loose.  Sooner or later we will leave Afghanistan with one or more excuses or just a simple statement (we lost just like in Vietnam).  We do not have enough resources to support or justify the war.  The US has not been successful in decades.  We are great at bombing and leaving (IRAQ) but not winning.

You want to know which country would be successful in Afghanistan given they would have an interest?  CHINA.  They would send enough troops and invade the country staying there forever is necessary.  Obviously at this time China has no interest.  Do you think Naive Americans are willing to permanently relocate to Afghanistan and assure peace and prosperity in that country?

In conclusion, The Naive American would suggest a quick exit from Afghanistan and divert the resources wasted there to fund small business that are the key to engineering and manufacturing in order to boost our economy.  Who knows, with time the US might be able to start producing goods and services desirable in the US and other countries.  At this time China owns most of the manufacturing and shortly will own most of the engineering centers in the world.  The next global power will be BRIC (the US not included).

Any comments Mr. President?

Sincerely yours;

The Naive American

www.naiveamerican.org

Not sure why president Obama gives his administration such high grade, I would give him an F.  The reason for this is that nothing has changed in the USA that has the potential of improving the current state of affairs, which includes the economy.

What we have seen is some tax breaks on April 15^th.  The average tax refund per family averaged $2,500 US Dollars.  What can a family of two parents currently unemployed with two kids, a mortgage, car loans, credit cards, medical and possibly education expenses do with $2,500 Dollars a year?  I guess it can help the monthly unemployment benefits that add up to a little over $1,000 a month.  The sad reality is that unemployment does not cover the living expenses of most Naive Americans currently unemployed.

Perhaps unemployed Naive Americans can get construction jobs and stop receiving unemployment.  That way their education and work experience could be tossed out the window and they could start working on construction projects at a lower pay rate.  This could be done for a while and then, when the US government runs out of money, …  The infrastructure construction jobs proposed and currently being funded do not produce goods or services that may provide revenue for Naive Americans or the US, unless some politician has the idea to add tolls to all the roads to raise money to pay for unemployment and the construction workers.  What kind of illogical thoughts are these?

Closing the facility in Guantanamo and hopefully leaving Cuba for good might help if the embargo is also lifted.  Cuba is in need of good and services.  The problem is that the rest of the world is also in interested in providing such goods and services, which every day in the US we continue to outsource and globalize.  Besides, Cuba has no money and they rather deal with China and Russia than with the US.

Almost every day in the news we learn that the executives of some financial company did something unethical and / or illegal.  This appears to be normal behavior of American Royalty.  What happened to the politician that allowed by law for AIG executives to get bonuses from bailout money?  Nothing.  What happened to the moneys?  Nothing.  Nothing has CHANGED.

The only glimmer of light in the past few weeks is the possibility for some reform on credit card companies.  That is a start but it is just a palliative.  What we need are deep changes in our society and help to small and medium size businesses.  They make America.  The large companies should not be allowed to grow so large and when they fail should not be bailed out.  The US car industry has been loosing ground because of their doing for decades.  The President should watch some 30, 20 and 10 year old movies.  Thirty years ago automobiles on the roads were almost all American.  He should then stick his head out a window on the White House and count how many domestic and foreign automobiles are at a time on Pennsylvania Avenue.  Why should Naive Americans bail out companies that have miserably failed for decades and they will continue to do so until they disappear?

American automobiles are going the way of the dinosaurs as televisions, watches, radios, and most other industries have already done.  What the current administration needs to do is to IMMEDIATELY concentrate on helping small and medium size businesses that produce (not import) American desirable goods and services and in the LONG RUN change education.  Building roads and railroads will not solve this serious problem we are currently in.

I hope this letter finds you in good health and most importantly warm.  Not sure if you are still spending most (or some) of your time in the Windy City or have settled in warmer weather in anticipation to your change of address in January 2009, but here in Minneapolis, just four hundred miles west of Chicago, winter has arrived a few weeks early.

I admit I never watched any of your presidential campaign speeches, paid TV programs, radio or internet propaganda.  I did watch a few debates and read a few (okay more than a few) articles on the web.  Don’t be upset with me, I did the same for your competition which, earlier this year held their party convention in St. Paul (about twenty minutes from my home).

The purpose of this letter is to comment and suggest what Naive Americans might consider a better approach to solve the current economic crisis in the Unites States.  A few weeks ago I watched an interview of you  on 60 Minutes.  You said you read about past presidents in an attempt complement the courteous-yet-limited advice provided by the living presidents.  This Naive American applauds your intentions and was happy to hear that they chose not to share their thoughts with you.  Keep in mind that all of them were part of the problem that has dragged our country to the state it is in today.  I wish to remind you that your platform was based on CHANGE.  Trust me, we do not want more of the SAME.

This Naive American is not a political or history buff.  But as my parent would say, you need a rounded education.  I also found out that talking about computer science and electrical engineering does not get too many people excited; politics does since everyone has an opinion seldom based on logic and facts.  Apparently you have read about past presidents.  Given the state of the economy you mentioned President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).  He as you will in a few weeks had to deal with tough economic times.  I have also read a couple books about the life of FDR.  I am not too interested in the character or for that matter the actual individual.  What awakens my interest is what people do and how they accomplish it.

FDR was in office during the Great Depression.  One of the mechanisms used by FDR to provide Naive Americans with jobs was road construction.  It was in recent news that you are planning on spent billions of US Dollars in upgrading our transportation infrastructure.  It is a fact that many of our highways and bridges are in need of maintenance.  I live in the Twin Cities and a couple years ago a bridge on Interstate 35W over the Mississippi river collapsed killing and injuring several children, men and women.  America needs to take care of this issue but we need to put it in perspective.

At the time of FDR new roads were constructed with a double purpose.  First construction provided relative low paying jobs for blue-collar workers.  The point is that having a job is much better than not having one.  Back then building a mile of highway required more than three (3) times the amount of manual labor it requires today.  This implies that the number of Naive American that would benefit from such projects will be few.  I can see the hand of lobbyist for construction companies pushing for a “proven solution” (for their pockets).  Roads encourage people to drive.  I am not going to suggest that US has all the roads we will ever need, but at this point in time it appears to be enough highways which promote consumption of enormous amounts of foreign oil which in turn exacerbates the current economic problem.  Besides, people are driving less.  In conclusion, road construction / repairs benefit few and should not be considered a priority.  Another thing to consider is how is this highway / road project going to be funded and what is most important what is it going to produce sustainable revenues?  Is the plan going to be to increase taxes to pay for roads or are most highways going to be toll roads?  Chicago has many toll roads and the roads and highways are in no better shape than other parts of the country.  Not only that but most of the moneys collected in tolls are funneled for other uses (same hold true in the state of New York).  The Naive American is a little confused because highway tolls in the Chicago area (a city in your home State president elect Obama) appears to be just another tax.

Not sure about the qualifications or interests of your diverse advisors.  It appears that you are doing what is useless but “politically correct” surrounding yourself with Democrats and Republicans to justify failure.  Perhaps you have in mind four (4) terms in office and FDR?  Such approach is not CHANGE it just represents more of the SAME.

As I mentioned in this correspondence, I am a computer scientist.  In my line of work we use two (2) terms very often:  fixes and solutions.  A fix is something you do quickly to computer software to get the customer up and running.  In most cases a fix would address on a temporary base the issue at hand but may bring side effects, which might not affect the particular customer at the time.  The solution (some people believes there are many solutions to a problem, but in actuality only one is best), which typically takes a little longer to develop and test but permanently, solves the problem.  Road construction should be considered as an attempt for a fix not a solution.

Allow this Naive American to propose an actual solution.  The Federal Government should provide funds (if you wish to consider them a form of bailout) to all small, medium and large companies in need that develop and manufacture products and goods in the USA employing legal US residents and citizens.  By doing so jobs existing jobs would be maintained and new ones would be created.  Aid should be transparent in such a manner that it cannot be used to pay high salaries of executives, which the only thing they do is to contribute, to the high costs of goods.  Companies should pass a simple evaluation in order to qualify them for help.  The names and amounts should be posted on the WWW for all Naive Americans to see were the moneys are going.  All companies receiving aid should pay back the funds they receive in different periods of time.  Each period should be associated with a very small but increasing simple interest rate.

The Naive American does not wish to see the US government bail out companies that were doomed long before this recession started.  Keep in mind that the US is not able to afford huge government and wars.  By printing more Dollars we are just increasing the issues not only in the US but also in the world.  Sooner or later we will not be the leaders we are so accustomed to and the US Dollars might be replaced for a more stable currency accepted around the world.

Yours truly;

The Naive American