These are segments of a Washington OP-ED about Health Reform plus separate personal commentary at the end.
Obama's illusions of cost-control
By Robert J. Samuelson
Monday, March 15, 2010 Click here to read the original

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Almost everything you think you know about health care is probably wrong or, at least, half wrong.

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"What we need from the next president is somebody who will not just tell you what they think you want to hear but will tell you what you need to hear."

-- Barack Obama, Feb. 27, 2008

One job of presidents is to educate Americans about crucial national problems. On health care, Barack Obama has failed. Almost everything you think you know about health care is probably wrong or, at least, half wrong. Great simplicities and distortions have been peddled in the name of achieving "universal health coverage." The miseducation has worsened as the debate approaches its climax.

How often, for example, have you heard the emergency-room argument? The uninsured, it's said, use emergency rooms for primary care. That's expensive and ineffective. Once they're insured, they'll have regular doctors. Care will improve; costs will decline. Everyone wins. Great argument. Unfortunately, it's untrue.

A study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that the insured accounted for 83 percent of emergency-room visits, reflecting their share of the population. After Massachusetts adopted universal insurance, emergency-room use remained higher than the national average, an Urban Institute study found. More than two-fifths of visits represented non-emergencies. Of those, a majority of adult respondents to a survey said it was "more convenient" to go to the emergency room or they couldn't "get [a doctor's] appointment as soon as needed." If universal coverage makes appointments harder to get, emergency-room use may increase.

You probably think that insuring the uninsured will dramatically improve the nation's health. The uninsured don't get care or don't get it soon enough. With insurance, they won't be shortchanged; they'll be healthier. Simple.

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...expanding health insurance would result,at best, in modest health gains.

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Think again. I've written before that expanding health insurance would result, at best, in modest health gains. Studies of insurance's effects on health are hard to perform. Some find benefits; others don't. Medicare's introduction in 1966 produced no reduction in mortality; some studies of extensions of Medicaid for children didn't find gains. In the Atlantic recently, economics writer Megan McArdle examined the literature and emerged skeptical. Claims that the uninsured suffer tens of thousands of premature deaths are "open to question." Conceivably, the "lack of health insurance has no more impact on your health than lack of flood insurance," she writes.

How could this be? No one knows, but possible explanations include:
(a) many uninsured are fairly healthy -- about two-fifths are age 18 to 34;
(b) some are too sick to be helped or have problems rooted in personal behaviors -- smoking,diet, drinking or drug abuse; and (c) the uninsured already receive 50 to 70 percent of the care of the insured from hospitals, clinics and doctors, estimates the Congressional Budget Office.

Though it seems compelling, covering the uninsured is not the health-care system's major problem. The big problem is uncontrolled spending, which prices people out of the market and burdens government budgets. Obama claims his proposal checks spending. Just the opposite. When people get insurance, they use more health services. Spending rises. By the government's latest forecast, health spending goes from 17 percent of the economy in 2009 to 19 percent in 2019. Health "reform" would probably increase that.

Unless we change the fee-for-service system, costs will remain hard to control because providers are paid more for doing more. Obama might have attempted that by proposing health-care vouchers (limited amounts to be spent on insurance), which would force a restructuring of delivery systems to compete on quality and cost. Doctors, hospitals and drug companies would have to reorganize care. Obama refrained from that fight and instead cast insurance companies as the villains.

He's telling people what they want to hear, not what they need to know. Whatever their sins, insurers are mainly intermediaries; they pass along the costs of the delivery system. In 2009, the largest 14 insurers had profits of roughly $9 billion; that approached 0.4 percent of total health spending of $2.472 trillion. This hardly explains high health costs. What people need to know is that Obama's plan evades health care's major problems and would worsen the budget outlook. It's a big new spending program when government hasn't paid for the spending programs it already has.

"If not now, when? If not us, who?" Obama asks. The answer is: It's not now, and it's not "us." Pass or not, Obama's proposal is the illusion of "reform," not the real thing.

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What people need to know is that Obama's plan evades health care's major problems and would worsen the budget outlook.

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[Ed.Note:]
There at least three other very good reasons to avoid further government in health care issues.
The government performace track record:
Financial Help Failures!
Healthcare or Insurance?

failing government programs

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We don't know what this bill does!

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There are 6 versions of Bill Number H.R.3590 for the 111th Congress

1 . Service Members Home
Ownership Tax Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)[H.R.3590.IH]
[PDF]

2 . Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)
[H.R.3590.EH]
[PDF]

3 . Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 (Placed on Calendar in Senate)
[H.R.3590.PCS][
PDF]

4 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Amendment in Senate)
[H.R.3590.AS]
[PDF]

5 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Print)
[H.R.3590.PP][
PDF]

6 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Engrossed Amendment as Agreed to by Senate)
[H.R.3590.EAS][
PDF]

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From the State of the Union Speech - comments

And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.
Impossible to verify and denied by a majority of citizens in various polls.

They don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn't;
Wall Street is the gambling playground of the rich and powerful.
Main Street is the workplace of the poor and have nots.
Money begets money, work begets more work.

or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems.
The ability for citizens to elect honorable, capable and responsible servants is tainted by politicians, wealth, media, political parties and corruption.

I campaigned on the promise of change - change we can believe in, the slogan went.
Change occurs even without promise. Our hope is that only change for the good of all would be considered but the trend to do otherwise continues.

And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change - or at least, that I can deliver it.
Some never believed in either. Most that did were hopeful but now discouraged.

What has changed?

"Their concerns must be our cause," said President Barack Obama in his first speech to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009. To demonstrate the focus of the goals of his administration he physically presented three persons with real life concerns. This is where change would be made. Now a year later here are the results.

Leonard Abess (Banker)
distributed his $60 million payout on retirement as majority stakeholder in Miami's City National Bancshares among current and former employees, deciphering amounts based not on job title but on years of service. Some janitors received more than vice presidents.

"The risk here is that people are going to lose hope. I worry about what it does to our society, having people out of work for so long and struggling so hard to find work and getting into despair and things like that. People want to work and need to work. It goes beyond making a living. A lot of people are very scared, and they're starting to lose their spirit."

He once inspired hope but is now greatly depressed at Wall Street's behavior. He sees Wall Street bonuses, and says "Wait a minute! Didn't anybody learn their lesson? "

Bob Dixson (Mayor) Greensburg, Kansas
Tornado devastated 95% of city. Federal money spent to rebuild - $20 Million. Another $20 million from state and donations. Half the residents left. Small businesses initially interested in Greensburg have been unable to procure loans. "We think we're about ready to land a company and bring in some jobs, but then reality hits. They don't have the cash. They can't get a loan."
"We're just trying to fill in the town."

The only way to lure people back is with jobs and the only way to create jobs is by bringing in employers. But in the continuing recession, Greensburg's redevelopment seems unlikely. Town redevelopment cost todate equals $50,000 per remaining citizen, but they have no jobs to sustain living there.

Ty'Sheoma Bethea (8th grade student) Dillon, S.C.
112 year old J.V. Martin Junior High School's gym is a converted boxing arena with a leaky ceiling and a wooden floor that buckles and slopes. During his campaign Obama visited J.V. Martin twice...once spending two hours touring the decrepit old building. "He's getting us a new school," she said.

Architects and CEOs flew in from across the country to propose plans for a new school. Gone would be the condemned auditorium with busted-out windows, the cold classrooms in mobile trailers and the dirt playing fields surrounded by barbed-wire fencing. School officials contemplated a $55 million proposal. "We just wanted a working ceiling, and now we were talking about having the finest of this, the best of that." Dillon's unemployment rate is 18 percent. Its largest employer is a chicken processing plant that pays $9 an hour. All six of the town's schools remain in various stages of disrepair.

"There was a lot of smoke, a lot of talk about getting a new J.V. Martin, but it's just gone nowhere," the mayor said.

The only stimulus money that arrived has gone to road resurfacing. The city struggled to procure a substantial loan in an unstable economy. With no immediate funding, CEOs stopped touring J.V. Martin, and architects moved on to other projects. The superintendent of school's budget will be cut by 15 percent next year, so that means slashing administration jobs, furlough teachers and no substitutes.

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The basic information used in the above article was taken from an article written by Washington Post Staff Writer Eli Saslow and published on 26 January 2010.

Yes, Haitians suffer and they did so, well before the recent earthquake.

There are issues of human suffering all over the globe, some at the hand of nature but more at the hand of man himself. A point to consider is that in every instance not all suffer within each country. There are some who live relatively much better and some outrageously better. Most often these well to do are of, or exert significant influence upon, a governing body which can be any form from socialist to monarchy. As never before in history, the masses have been incapacitated - unable to revolt except by death in massive numbers. In the past with such conditions, revolution occurred and sometimes made changes for the better.

Now consider that the ruling classes are willing to aid in cases of natural disaster. But why not before when thousands of Haitians were dying weekly from malnutrition? Where men of means control, they insure the status quo. Where nature controls in some foreign place, men desire to show a good face...as if in fear for that which cannot be controlled.

In fact, most efforts for outsiders to resolve suffering within a region, where intervention was employed, resulted in failure. History has it well documented.


"The Tree of Life is Self-Pruning"

Healthcare or Insurance

The House of Representatives has passed a bill which addresses insurance. Insurance does not address health care, it addresses how health care is paid. U.S. citizens pay more for medical care than most other countries and the care received is less accomplished than in most other countries. Medicaid and Medicare are current government programs which are much more costly than ever was projected. By forcing insurance the government hopes to defray some of that cost. The legal system has forced health care facilities to provide medical care to indigent persons regardless of citizenship. If one does not have insurance and does not pay for their medical care, the cost of their care is passed to those who do as if it were overhead. Check you medical bills. When a stay in a hospital costs thousands of dollars just for the bed and board, the next bed is occupied by a stranger whose care you will pay for within your bill. The hospital has no choice but to array its costs among those who do pay.

If more of these "don't pay" patients are covered by insurance, due to government program, the cost of insurance will rise to cover the additional costs to insurance companies. Why? (1)Because the effect of the government program does not reduce greed on the part of the insurance companies or patients. (2) Because the number of malpractice claims in courts will increase the potential of lawyers who feed at that trough with ever increasing greed. (3) Because the program does not resolve a shortage of competent doctors entering the system, less capable physicians remain, providing cause for more legal claims and less in the value of care given.

In fact there is no "reform" in the government program, if you consider reform to mean improvement will result. Medical care costs have risen because the cost to provide it have increased. This increase not based upon value, but to cover the extraordinary insurance cost for providers to avoid risk and to cover the cost of significant increases of "non-paying" patients.

It is a simple problem to resolve:
(1) Allow medical facilities to deny non-paying customers.
(2) Establish a fair and reasonable limit to malpractice claims.
(3) Provide medical education at government cost to students who contract to provide medical practice at locations determined most needed, for a period of obligation, at a reasonable wage. A student who fails, would be charged the full costs expended.
A doctor who reneges on his obligation, is jailed where he can provide for other criminals.

Inhumane? No, just practical. Sickness and poor health is not caused by society or government. Whether by accident, misfortune, genetic predisposition or neglect, the health of an individual is an individual responsibility. The risks must be assumed by the individual. If I were to become ill with a horrible disease must my neighbor then take on all of my care and needs unwillingly? If my neighbor feels compassion or charity towards me can he not give what he believes to be reasonable care within his means? Could I die? Inevitably yes. At what point in life is society responsible for my continuing living? Under what conditions should I expect strangers to care for me...regardless of what I have done to care for myself?

Reform must begin with the individual.

A Schedule Retreated

To my funeral I could not go, on my schedule it was not.
With undeniable force, I was there, but not laid at rest.
One's life must be defined, managed, and given a slot.
Adherence to that is the measure of living done best.

Timed frames for duty and diligence are needed!
These planes of life you cannot refuse as if blind.
Meetings met at appointed times well heeded,
Have worth greater than mere presence of mind.

I check mark with glee a clocked event as done
A pleasure precisely so accomplished each one.

I could not go to my funeral as it wasn't planned
No allotment of my life listed was open to it.
While busy counting marks I was untimely banned
My worldly casket was shut and I lay restless within it.

Had I but defined an emptiness for the slots of calendar
The event could have been checked off as won.
I could sigh in pleasure for the penciled reminder.
But now I ask where love and life went undone.

Here in darkness I see regret, not for that which pleasured
in times done , but for that which was not so measured.

Kenneth Brahmer, 2009

It's time for revolution!

Today I received yet another email from our President...asking me to write congress urging them to support his health reform...and asking for money to support the cause.

Citizens have funded campaigns in the selection of elected officials. Why should citizens continue to pay for their elected officials to do their job? I pay taxes and they receive salaries with immense perks with those taxes. I've already paid, damn it!

The problem, which our founding fathers did not desire, is that elected officials do not focus on serving the citizens of this nation. The congressional entanglements are more interested in what will get them re-elected and what they must do to satisfy their party...and that goes for the president too! The backroom games, the maneuvering, the party line guidance and the outright extortion or vote buying within congress has value only to special interests and not the populace at large.

Advanced citizenship for elected officials means they do things right and they do the right things according to a conscience devoted to the people.

Most of us do NOT get paid to arrive at our workplace and then expect to be paid extra to do our job...nor do we spend inordinate time at work trying to retain our job regardless of the survival of the company that employs us.

So here's my urging to congress. Quit screwing around and do your job!
And to the President, I say - if the only way you can get the right things done is to get more money from me, then I'm going to start by getting another President.
But to my fellow citizens, I say - it's time for revolution!

Insurance is NOT health care reform!

My fellow Americans (grin):

After days and many hours spent reviewing data sources, fact checkers, census reports, politician statements, truth reports and commentaries about health care in the USA, it is clear to me that Orwell was an optimist regarding the manipulation of language and communication functions. As for statistics the old saying applies, 'Liars figure and figures lie.' You can construct an argument for or against with significant 'factual reference' and 'truth' evades logic.

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There are three facts about health care reform which seem most clear:

1. There isn't just one bill. The legislative process has many miles to go before each chamber enacts a final version of reform -- if it gets that far. What "THE" bill will include is mutable.

2. The federal government has a poor track record in accomplishing the stated promises of social programs. The bureaucratic entities managing them are ever increasing in cost as are the programs they administer. The real costs have never been as were initially estimated.

3. The various legislative and administration processes address insurance - not health care improvement. If there is a direct correlation between health care insurance and the quality of health care, I cannot find it. More people insured does not equate to better health care for the average citizen. It means more money for the insurance industry.

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Wouldn't it be nice if Congress and the President could improve the quality of health care for everyone nationwide for less money?
Yes, but are they, can they and will they?
[If you are holding your breath for this to happen you will not be improving your health care!]

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http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/

This is the most salient question on health reform !!

Tom Coburn, a U.S.Senator from Oklahoma and a medical doctor, raised concerns in his article of 10 August 2009 regarding "health-care reform" entitled 'Ten Questions Politicians Won’t Answer.' [Source article]

You may hold issue with some or most of the Ten Questions, but there is one which I think is the most salient, most prominent of all. The way he put it was, "How will a government-run public option perform better than other failing government programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Indian Health Care?"

To that I will add numerous other government programs, oversight and regulatory agencies that have failed to accomplish what was their original intent.

One example of failure comes to mind as a fair measure. The Department of Energy. (see details below *)

Another example is the Federal Reserve.

The Social Security system was originally defined with some simple goals. Subsequently it has been altered by congress over the years with incremental additions and coverage which now put its costs orders of magnitude greater than originally described and defined.

Our history is replete with examples of governmental ineptitude and inefficiency in management of efforts to "do something" about issues that were deemed beyond the private sector and individuals themselves. In the great majority of these government added little value and made it worse.

Some facets of life should not be subjected to governmental intrusion. One of them is my health. To measure, I ask what is the practical and sustainable value added? What government has done to date has made the health cost problems we face today...caused by legislation, lawyers and insurance companies. All three of these enhance themselves by the "reforms" being presented.

At the risk of improperly quoting the saying, I believe that government that governs least governs best.

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* On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Organization Act (Public Law 95-91), centralizing the responsibilities of the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Federal Power Commission and other energy-related government programs into a single presidential cabinet-level department. The DOE, activated on Oct. 1, 1977, provided the framework for a comprehensive national energy plan by coordinating federal energy functions. The new Department was responsible for long-term, high-risk research and development of energy technology, federal power marketing, energy conservation, energy regulatory programs, a central energy data collection and analysis program, and nuclear weapons research, development and production.

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In simple terms, in the 1970's an Arab oil squeeze threatened to strangle U.S. commerce and transportation. To prevent this from occurring in the future, the DOE was established with a clear understanding it was to develop means to avoid our dependence upon foreign oil and it's leverage against our country.

For FY2009 the DOE requested a budget of $25 billion dollars and noted approximately $200 billion expended in the past eight years. It began with about 20,000 employees with a budget of $10.4 billion. The number of people employed and the offices established now are greater.

Yet, the U.S. dependence upon foreign oil is even greater today than in 1977...much much greater. And that department has not developed other energy sources. All of the fine goals and promises for the changes made came to nothing and worse.

Black like me excuses

You're black? So?

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I was raised in the deep south at a time and place where negroid people were treated as a separate race, with separate public facilities, separate social structures and separate rights. Since that time many social changes in America have addressed the plight of negroes. Despite the legal destruction of "separate but equal" judgement for negroes, they are still treated as a separate race in the affairs of daily living...often because negroes enjoy the advantage of being treated with separate distinction. It is still heard as the cause of unrest, that negroes were slaves and their descendants suffer as victims of that enslavement.

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I never learned to think of negroes as inferior due to difference from me. I do not have a bigot's view so that I abhor negroes or consider them with negative prejudice.

I do however, abhor the "negro excuse" employed by so many to be treated as victims in this day and time. I am prejudiced against irresponsibility, stupidity, the purposely ignorant and those who do not contribute as members of the human race.


You're black? So? And I'm not! So?

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If you are a negro and feel you are a victim because of it, read below to learn you yourself are not a victim anymore than any person in this country. Do something positive to rid yourself of the "negro excuse."
If you are not a negro and feel negroes are unimportant to your society, make no impact on your life or are inherently inferior, read below to learn differently. Do something positive to rid yourself of prejudiced behavior or thought regarding negroes.

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The first black slaves were enslaved by other black tribes (a common occurence in Africa) and sold to traders who brought them to America beginning in 1619. In 1808 United States law banned import of slaves. No person alive today was brought to this country as a slave. The immensely greater majority of negroes in this country are not first, second, third or even fourth generation offspring of slaves.

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So many negroes have distinquished themselves as significant contributors to our daily lives, that to somehow erase the presence of negroes in our past would severely impoverish our society. Their existence is proof that there is no valid "negro excuse" for blacks that they are unable or prevented from improving themselves and society today. Every ethnic or other grouping in this country is a "victim" of prejudice from some other group. There is nothing unique in encountering difficulty in life because you are labelled as a member of a group disdained by another group more interested in advancing members of their group. But that has not prevented any one individual or group from advancement.

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Blacks have been achieving presence and recognition at all levels of society for a century. Albeit, persons without talent, intelligence or drive have not and that applies to all of us. Here are examples:



1920
Lucy Slowe became the first black woman tennis champion in the United States. During a tournament in Baltimore, she won the woman's singles title.


1921
Bessie Coleman became the first United States black female pilot.

1924
Clifton Reginald Wharton, Sr. became the first black to pass United States Foreign Service exam.


1939
Jane Matilda Bolin became the first black woman judge in New York City.

1950
Ralph Bunche became the first black to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Charles Cooper became the first black player in NBA. He played for the Fort Wayne Indiana Celtics.


1947 Jackie Robinson



* The first African-American to play on a Major League baseball team in the 20th century.


* The first Rookie of the Year Award is awarded to Jackie Robinson.


* The first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.


* The first Major League baseball player to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp.


* The first baseball player to have his uniform number (42) retired across all teams by the Major League.


* The first UCLA student to earn a varsity letter in all four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track.


* The first African-American baseball player to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.


* The first African-American to serve as Vice-President of a major American corporation, Chock Full O' Nuts 1957-1964.






1954
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became the first first black general in the United States Air Force.

1955
Marian Anderson became the first black singer at the Metropolitan Opera.

1957
Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title.

1958
William O'Ree became the first black hockey player in the NHL, playing for the Boston Bruins.



Ruth Carol Taylor became the first black woman to become a stewardess.



Clifton R. Wharton became the first black US foreign minister.

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Learn the value of contributing members of society -

Apollo Theater


http://apollotheater.org/

BIO's Black History Study Guides


http://www.biography.com/classroom/blackhistory.jsp

NAACP


http://www.naacp.org/

History.com's Voices of Civil Rights Site


http://www.history.com/classroom/voices/

History.com's Black History Site


http://www.history.com/minisites/blackhistory

The King Center


http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/index.asp

Library of Congress - African-American Mosiac Exhibit


http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html

Library of Congress - African-American History Month


http://www.loc.gov/topics/africanamericans/

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center


http://www.freedomcenter.org/

National Visionary Leadership Project


http://www.visionaryproject.org/index.asp

National Civil Rights Museum


http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/home.htm

An MLK site with documents from the National Archives:


www.archives.gov/education/lessons/memphis-v-mlk/

History Classroom Brown v. Board of Education minisite:


http://www.history.com/classroom/brownvboard/

History is repleat with examples of slavery. Consider the Hebrews of ancient Egypt. I have never met a Jewish person who expected advantage in compensation for their ancestors having been slaves.

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Everyone knows the dollar's got the blues.

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Twenty-twenty hindsight is often bashed as "easy for you" to affix blame. But it also allows you to examine the flaws which lead to disaster. So this is about an hour's worth of simple research from which I draw some conclusions that you might want to consider as you think about what you can do to determine cause not blame.

Whose work is 1000 times worth more than yours? Here's some of the gurus that helped make the current financial crisis what it is today:

1. Royal Bank of Scotland:£9.6m pay package for chief executive Stephen Hester.
   
2. HSBC: Michael Geoghegan receives a basic salary of £1.1m and a long-term incentive of £7.5m.
   
3. Lloyds: Eric Daniels is paid an annual £1m in basic salary, plus a maximum of 200 per cent of salary, or £2m, as a long-term incentive.
   
4. Citigroup: Vikram Pandit was awarded a $10.8m compensation package for 2008.
   
5. MasterCard: recruited Mr Banga a $4.2m signing-on fee and stock and options worth about $7m.
   
6. Merrill Lynch: executive vice president Peter Kraus leaves with more than $10 million in compensation. (500 lose their jobs)
   
7. Merrill Lynch: Peter Kraus received a payout of $25 million dollars for working at Merrill Lynch for just three months.
   
8. Merrill Lynch: Just before being taken over by Bank of America $4 Billion was paid as bonuses to executives.
   
9. Citi senior exeutive Ajay Banga leaves to join MasterCard as president and chief operating officer. He is in line to become chief executive of the credit card company next year. MasterCard is paying Ajay Banga a $4.2m signing-on fee and stock and options worth about $7m.
   

I stopped looking at the large array of exhorbitant executive compensation packages. I'd seen enough to know.

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How is money handled by those in positions of control?

1. A former Morgan Stanley vice president (36 year old Richard Garaventa Jr.) has been charged with embezzling
   more than $2.5 million from the investment bank.
   
   
2. A former China head of Morgan Stanley Real Estate is being investigated by the United States Securities
   and Exchange Commission for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
   The S.E.C. believes that Mr. Peterson violated the act to make several property deals for the bank in China.
   
3. Bernard Madoff (one-time Nasdaq chairman) caused $50 billion in losses - perhaps the biggest scam in Wall Street history.
   
4. Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford (Stanford Financial Group) was jailed on charges his international banking empire was a Ponzi scheme built on lies, bluster and bribery. More than $1 billion from Stanford's alleged scheme remains unaccounted for, and if anyone has access to it, it's Stanford.
   

I stopped looking at the financial criminals of this past year. I'd seen enough to know.

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What's so bad about our financial systems?

1. 40 banks failed/closed so far in 2009 in just three states Georgia, North Carolina and Kansas.
   In the past year (as of June 2009) 99 banks failed according to the FDIC.
   The FDIC expects roughly $70 billion in losses due to the failures of insured institutions over the next 5 years.
   
2. $700 billion in bailout money to faltering financial institutions.
   
3. AIG $100 billion bailout by the U.S. government
   
4. For 30 years of incompetence by American auto companies leads to sales off more than 30%...and requests for $34 Billion bailout by the U.S.Government to forestall meltdown.
   
5. CitiGroup 75,000 job cuts and $20 billion handout from the U.S. government and backing $300+ billion of its toxic assets to keep it from collapsing. Most of these were off-the-books Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs).
   
6. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac balance sheets riddled with toxic assets and the equity holders were wiped out.
   
7. Money market funds, auction-rate securities, the Reserve Fund, Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) decimate Wall Street with loses in supposedly secure investments that were given the AAA seal of approval by the ratings agencies.
   
8. Moody's, Standard & Poors and Fitch gave AAA top ratings for Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), which are based in part on pools of subprime mortgages. These agencies get paid by the issuers of the CDOs to make a supposed objective rating.
   
9. Hedge funds - see Bernie Madoff and his $50 Billion scam.
   
   
   
10. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan whose reputation was deemed infallible, erred terribly in the risks in the system from subprime mortgages
    and the bonds sold against them. So he admits.
    

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In spite of the troubled environment, market rates for bankers has changed, improving the pay for bankers partly driven by a need to hold on to good staff – and partly to offset the threat of bonus taxes or caps in the US – UBS, Merrill and Morgan Stanley have all increased their basic pay substantially. Citi now plans to do the same. According to insiders and rivals, market salary rates for managing directors have jumped from about $250,000 (€180,000) only a few months ago, to closer to $400,000. As well as base salary hikes, banks are once more offering guaranteed bonuses to staff approached with lucrative offers by rivals.

Regulators will be concerned – increasing basic pay and guaranteeing bonuses run
directly counter to their efforts to push banks towards pay that better reflects
long-term performance.

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Conclusion(s)and Observvation(s):
Despite the many areas, layers and levels of financial managers; despite
the oversight and national financial regulation by the Federal Reserve, the
Security and Exchange markets; the gurus of the market and the corporate might
which has never been so massive - systemic failure!

Many of the money managers, despite reputations and ratings, are corrupt,
inept, dishonest, and seemingly beyond the reach of laws in any effective manner.

Of all those affected, the average "have not" citizen will suffer the most and those inthe "have" positions will recover soonest.

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These are elements which have historically lead to revolution. And in many casesthese have resulted in autocratic rule emerging even where revolution was fomentedto ease the burden of the average person. Almost always the means by which autocrats achieve this - the promise of change and them at the hand of the government which first represses opposition (and thereafter ever increasing).


Beware Greeks bearing gifts, orators promising a return of glory and the
arrogance of the wealthy. Thus will the meek inherit the earth following
armeggedon.

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What can you do?

Nothing! Like 300 million citizens will do. You'll sit back and take it. You hope
some charasmatic leader will come to the rescue. You'll seek your personal level of
greed, safety and satisfaction by working around the system to simply survive.

I ask you how could one percent of the population impoverish the ninety-nine percent without that segment's fear, apathy or willing acceptance?

How did things get so bad and what now?

Japan once found itself trying to recover from disaster after WWII in much the same conditions as the United States now finds itself. At that time it was generally accepted that anything "Made in Japan" was of little value. In fact, one manufacturing town made use of its name which was Usa to label its products "Made in USA" (Usa, Japan is located in Oita Prefecture on Kyushu Island and was so named a thousand years before WWII). Today "Made in USA" does not carry the distinction it once had. Competitors in Japan and China have overtaken the USA marketplace in quality, price and quantity. So much so, that a significant number of daily use items can only be obtained via Japan or China because US manufacturers could no longer compete and quit.

So how did we get where we are now and how did Japan surpass us?

It is convenient, if not totally accurate, to place the blame for the US economic collapse on various political entities who served the populace poorly. Be that as it may, closer examination reveals that at the base of the economic pyramid, the value of significant national products have greatly weakened due to the practices and leadership of our production as manufacturers of the finest and best. The automobile industry is good example. And so as government officials often do, they throw money at the "problem" but it rarely does more than entrench the problem.

We don't produce much...and not the finest and best. That applies to most of our institutions and providers. Education does not produce as it once did. Manufacturers do not produce well. Government does not serve as well. The populace does not contribute citizenship as well. Our military is inept under the existing conditions and forms of conflict. Even our religious entities do not serve as well. You may argue. However, what some consider "as well" is not good enough if not bad. That is how we got here. Fingers point almost in every direction except towards the pointer himself. But that is where the problem resides.

That was Japan 1946. What did it do? Unsung leaders gathered to recruit and follow the business and cultural methods of an American. Dr. William Edwards Deming.


Deming's 14 points

1. Create constancy of purpose.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality.
4. Minimize total cost, not initial price of supplies.
5. Improve constantly the system of production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between departments.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and numerical targets.
11. Eliminate work standards (quotas) and management by objective.
12. Remove barriers that rob workers, engineers, and managers of their right to pride of workmanship.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

If we want change...the above explains what that change must be like.
You will note that the above isn't something you should expect government, industry and commerce should do for YOU. It is what everyone must do in everything they do and that includes your personal efforts.

http://www.lii.net/deming.html
http://www.managementwisdom.com/index.html?gclid=COSG9aPZ2pkCFQZlswod81n8Wg
http://www.4ulr.com/products/productquality/jedwardsdemingphil.html

Obama Stocks White House With Lawyers

Well, I won't be the first, and likely not the last, to suggest that lawyers make poor government managers. However, many attorneys from both parties marvel at the sheer number of lawyers Obama has appointed or nominated so far, particularly at the White House counsel's office, which will have at least 22 attorneys working under counsel Greg Craig. That's more than twice as large as the office was under Bush, with three deputy counsels, the special ethics counsel and 18 associate and deputy associate counsels.
Of course, President Obama is a lawyer as are a great majority of Democrat Party VIPs. Also, almost all of the appointed lawyers are liberal minded.

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Why is this a concern?

Lawyers are disciplined to address issues, problems and challenges in legal terms. Got a problem? Pass a law! Invoke the law! Change the law! Take it to a court of law for resolution!

How does a lawyer do that? He talks. He writes. He persuades with words. In essence, a lawyer will express the wishes of a client and addresses matters in terms of what he is willing to go to court about. These are legislative approaches, not executive actions.

As almost anyone who observes our judicial system can attest, any court make make a ruling...but that doesn't make it happen. As almost anyone who observes our legislative system, laws abound which cannot be enforced, are not enforced and often ignored by the judicial system.

Ask a company or corporate lawyer if it's okay to do something for which there is no legal precedent, and he will most likely say there is too great a risk...no!

Ask any member of congress if he is able to personally compile his own income tax return. Yet, congress passes every tax law and the morass of legal expressions therein are difficult even for experts. Worse, massive bureaucratic organizations exist to attempt to enforce and act upon these laws.

As most teenagers have heard, "saying it, doesn't make it so."

President Obama and a majority of lawyers in his employ, concern themselves with what is legal...not moral...not practical...not what is doable...not even what is economically sound! What's that you say? There ought to be a law?

Abraham Lincoln faced a similar dilemma...legally states had no right to withdraw from the union...it took the military of the North, Ulysses Grant and half the males on both sides to make it happen. Lincoln was a Republican lawyer.

My concern is that there are talkers and there are doers. I don't see enough doers to back up what the talkers are saying.

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Mother said, "Actions speak louder than words!"

No iterative improvements - change

President Barack Obama and many lawmakers want to use infrastructure projects to create jobs. The House was expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus bill on Wednesday. Of that money, $150 billion would go to fixing infrastructure.

Our infrastructure requires more...much much more. At least $1 TRILLION to restore aviation, bridges, roads, waterways, drinking water, waste water, dams, hazardous waste, solid waste, schools, rail, energy, levee, inland waterways, transit and public park systems. That is according to estimates EPA, NEA, and engineers. A significant portion of that is a continuing annual maintenance increase and not just a one time fix.

These "fixes" are iterative measures to sustain the existing systems. This is not change but more costs for the same stuff.

Considering the shortfall, cost and efficiency...we need to step back and review our priorities and develop innovative, more efficient, practical, long term and perhaps revolutionary changes to arrive at sustainable infrastructure. Instead of increasing the size of the box, we need to think outside the box and what goes into the box.

I recently read a comment by a reader regarding US automaker bailouts and "Buy American" :

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you want us to "step up".......the gov't wants us to "step up".........the car makers certainly want us to "step up"...........try this one:

buy an American car....get a lifetime guarantee for the vehicle....yes, we've gotta maintain the vehicle, etc, etc......but, no tricky clauses, no "gotcha's".......plain language

You, the Buyer, get a lifetime warranty....PERIOD!

it's good for the car industry, it's good for the autoworkers, it's good for the tax revenue for the local and national economies.........and it's good for us , singularly and collectively

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I'd like to piggy back on that idea:

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The majority of Americans have a car payment in their budget...and there always seems to be one year after year. The budget also has a maintenance of car expense.
We as a nation are trying to become fuel efficient. We need to reverse the loss of industry technology and jobs in the US. The budget also requires an insurance expense. So how much is the cost of vehicle, maintenance, insurance, repair etc. over the complete lifecycle of transport means...for the average automobile owner today?

Suppose:

Suppose you could acquire a fuel efficient basic no luxury automobile...much like a lease except that full lifetime maintenance would be included. And suppose the car manufacturer determined the lifetime cycle of that car and replaced it when it became more practical than repairs it was doing. Suppose that the funding (for awhile) for the process was guaranteed by the government based upon the car manufacturer producing said automobile with specified and improving gas mileage or equivalent in alternate energy sources? And suppose the manufacturer was required to perform safety inspections on these cars as they cycled through their dealer's garages. Suppose they also covered repair/replacement from accident (mechanical coverage only). And since most manufacturers have an appendage corporation that makes loans, they would have to provide such loans based upon very prudent requirements.

Now say, you didn't have to take your car to the dealer to be serviced but could go wherever you wished...manufacturer support etc. is dropped...but it's your choice.

Now say you didn't have to get one of these low cost no frills cars with efficient gas mileage...no problem, buy what you like and care for it as you wish.

American citizens only! American made only. No contracting out to foreign companies for parts, labor, design etc.

Now there are various considerations that need to be built in to make this work, however this is only a concept paper.

What might the impact be regarding this (E)conomy-based (T)ransport - et-car:

For this et-car:
1. Two, four and six people versions...et2, et3, et4 cars...maybe
2. The two people version might be a three wheel very economical, minimal speed, vehicle with few amenities like one of the types currently coming into the market.
Gets you from point A to point B protected from weather with groceries at 45 MPG at max speed of 55mph. All might just be one color.
3. Economical life cycle considered. data, maintenance, et-car identity, insurance-repair-replacement-reuse-recycle


For the populace:
1. People regardless of income bracket could get suitable basic transportation... with no repair surprises, insured, safe, affordable, guaranteed transportation for a single monthly fee. Quality improvement.
2. More American made jobs
3. Potentially safer for all travelers
4. Government support for re-education for needed skills to produce everything in the US.


For the manufacturer/business:
1. Government financial support for re-design development
2. Guaranteed investment return for quality versus repair costs
3. Government support for start of businesses supporting the e-cars parts
4. More American made business
5. a standard sized et-car for more efficient parking facilities

For the nation:
1, Lowe unemployment
2, Bailout with targeted results
3. Return of technology and technicians
4. Effective use of job core type social programs in education and employment

Needed:
Departments Labor, transportation, treasury, HEW, etc. coordination - one heck of a lot of political power pressure with squabble suppression ability. Automaker acceptance or no bailout.

It has been said that Henry Ford had a vision of the common man being able to have automobile transportation within his means - and he created an industry to do that which enhanced the industrial might of the US AND provided a good job for employees.

It's time to do that again.

Bright spark of newly discovered freedom

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Just when you think you've awakened into an alternate world where nothing makes sense, you find something which accurately expresses your view of that world with style and reason.
Yahoo! Maintains a question and answer forum...you ask a question...anyone can answer and the answers are listed for all to view (including you).

Quite often you can tell by the questions and answers, that a majority come from youths, although quite serious questions are sometimes asked to which participants provide very helpful answers.

This one is a beauty:

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Does Anyone Know A Website for Cool Bebo Profile Names? Best Answer - Chosen by Voters 97% 405 Votes Let's get this straight, you're asking for a website from which you can pick and choose a "cool" profile name for your Bebo account. An account which is supposed to be a representative presentation of who you are and what you're about. Are you beginning to see the direction my argument is going in? Of course you haven't. I'll continue. Back in the old, dark days of the internet when men were men, women were men and children were FBI agents, no one cared what people thought of them. This was when the internet was still merely a bright spark of newly discovered freedom burning bright against the darkened backdrop of a world half enslaved by totalitarian freedom-hating governments, unscrupulous money grabbing corporations, backward millenia-old religions and millions upon millions of dead-eyed sheeple. The internet burned brightly as an escape, a way to show who you were to a wider audience, a way of discovering and sharing things you never knew existed, a way of forcing back the ever encroaching shadows of the real world to keep your internal flame burning just that little bit longer. The internet burned brighter and stronger as the rush of people to it acted as fuel to the fire, and the rush of companies to it was the oxygen it needed to sustain itself, and to grow. The Napster and Kazaa era came and went as the dark lords of the world attempted to wrestle back their power from this bastard child of technology and freedom that we know as the web. People pushed each other by finding, creating and sharing things that would have people in the old world hung, drawn and quartered but in this new space, this virtual plane of existence it did not solicit the fiery condemnation of preachers and politicians alike. We laughed. We saw these examples of hate, of destruction and of evil and we laughed and encouraged them; for it was not the same evil as that which ravaged the lands of the physical world, but an evil unsullied by power, money, dogma or time. This was new evil, strong evil, and pure evil. It shaped a generation and a way of life was born. The internet was no longer an escape from life, it was a mirror of it; a dark and distorting mirror in which our reflections are not always what we wanted, hoped or indeed expected to see. Bebo and such sites are like a swimming pool on an ocean liner, floating in the middle of the endless abyss of the internet. You get a taste of what it's like to be in the water, but you learn nothing of its depth, breadth or more unsavoury inhabitants. Whether we like it or not however, these fist-clenchingly corporately built sites are part and parcel of the modern internet. The reason for accepting them is that they are an easy way to share at least some tiny proportion of yourself with people. Show them what amuses you, what confuses you, what makes you you. You come before us, the anonymous masses to ask us for a "cool Bebo profile name" which you can use to impress your real life friends with just how stylish and original you are. We say to you that your attempt to bastardise the concepts of these halls will not be answered. Anyways, no I don't know any websites for cool bebo profile names. Good luck.

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The only attribution I can provide is that the comment was made by RBX. Of all the questions which RBX answered, half the time his answer was selected as the best. That ratio is higher than the greatest majority of those who participate.


You have my salutation of appreciation, RBX, whoever or whatever you are!

Words tell you how things should be, action makes it happen.
If rules and regulations truly governed people, those ten commandments would be all that's needed. As extremists have shown us, the pen is NOT mightier than the sword.

We need the right people, doing the right things and doing them well...a job description doesn't make that happen. Words don't either.

While it is of value to encourage an exchange of views in determining the best course of action...some communicate via actions that words cannot combat. If they did, if talking with zealot enemies did any good, Neville Chamberlain would be the hero in WWII and Gen. Patton would just be a tank commander.

Prepare for action.

Beauty does not exclude ability or brains

Having once been a beauty queen does not make you stupid or unable to play the game.

I usually see our two-party system as two teams of hired guns whose methods are the same and whose goals are more alike than different...watched by a betting sadistic crowd who cheer when someone they dislike gets shot. Last man standing wins.

Recently I read an article...another "who shot who" of political grist that is a blatant example of the charade. But hidden in the unpleasant prejudice I found something that rang true and gave me a different perspective on politicians and specially on lawyers who become politicians. Ignore the party talk and concentrate on the individuals, their background and modus operandi. Can you see what I see in that article printed below?

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The Democrat Party has become the Lawyers' Party. Barack Obama and HillaryClinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers. John Edwards, the other former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer, and so is his wife, Elizabeth. Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate). Every Democrat vice
presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school. Look at the

Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.

The Republican Party not so! President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businessmen. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not a lawyer. The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Fristis a heart surgeon.

Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer? Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976. The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work. The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers.

The Lawyers' Party see business people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the money rich big business opposition in a court, while they are defenders of the common man suing for his daily bread.

Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing goods of value in our nation.

This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers. Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their clients, with extreme prejudice without regard to justice or moral constraint. Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always parse

language to favor their side.

Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a nation. When politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming. Some Americans become 'adverse parties' of our very government. We are not all litigants in some
vast social class-action suit. We are citizens of a republic that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers.

Today, we are drowning in laws; we are contorted by judicial decisions; we are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives. America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place should be modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked. When the most important decision for our next president is whom he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big. The power of lawyers in America is too great.

We cannot expect the Lawyers' Party to provide real change, real reform, or real hope in America Most Americans know that a republic in which every major government action must be blessed by nine unelected judges is not what Washington intended in 1789. Most Americans grasp that that more lawyers and judges will not restore declining moral values or spark the spirit of enterprise in our economy. When prayer was excluded from public education, via
Supreme Court decision, who was the beneficiary ... the lawyers who got paid...no child gained a
thing.

Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business.

Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work. Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse.

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Perhaps Americans will see that a majority of lawyers nurture "something for nothing", greed and vengeance with promises that are often unreachable or without conscience...that they get paid regardless of the outcome and are rarely held accountable. A lot of politicians are that way too...maybe because they are lawyers.

Of course, that's just my opinion...I could be wrong.

Image USA - Not good?

Recently I was asked to comment on the image of the United States globally considering it is so negatively viewed and often reviled:

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The USA image isn't reality but perception molded by media and political forces, many of which are greatly biased. History reveals that of the evils (as you might choose to say) committed by the USA, there are many other countries who have done the same. The point is not that the USA is no worse than others, but that it too has made mistakes.
However, no country has undertaken the restoration of countries damaged by warfare as greatly as the USA. No country has sustained an international forum for global care like the USA has with the UN, Red Cross, WHO etc. Charitable actions by NGO's from the USA are in more places and with more resources given, than ANY other country. The education institutes of the USA provide opportunity for more foreign students than any other country.

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For all that is wrong of the USA, there is much more than equal good which is extended globally.

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My view of the USA is that it suffers from an excess of riches that have rapidly come to a decline; that its citizens are apathetic, ungrateful, spoiled and naive; that its government is lethargic by its immense size and bureaucratic entanglements; and that it has wasted its resources and damaged its land with pollutants. These are the same faults as can be found in most countries. However, the USA is judged to be the worst because its citizens are generally better off that those of other countries and they are expected to behave better for it.
USA sins are deemed greater than the same sins of other countries, because of its greatness.

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My $.02

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