I find myself interested, hopeful, and at the same time ambivalent about the historic recall elections occurring tonight.
A change of helm may make Wisconsin's citizens feel more involved in the process and their own destiny, but I ask; now what? How do we really fix the serious economic problems we have?
We can't just roll back all of the legislation. We can return taxes to a more sustainable level, but that won't solve any long term problems.
Nearly all of us share at least one common goal; to provide to those who depend on us and to make sure the next generation is no worse off than the current.
Personally, I am concerned for many things.
That when my son enters the workforce in 20 years he will be competing against older americans for which retirement is no longer a feasible option. It's conceiveable that social security and health insurance programs [if they exist at all] will be paying out 50 to 75% of what they pay today [adjust for inflation]. Shrinking wages and rising unemployment means more people living paycheck to paycheck and fewer Americans will have access to save in individual retirement accounts. Just because I -might- be financially doesn't mean that all of those earning less than me will be. Aren't we supposed to care about what happens to our fellow man?
I am concerned with the overall lack of tranparency in most elected officials regardless of party, and the reductions in liberty that both have promoted
I am concerned that we are willing to allow our leaders to turn our collective backs on society to perpetuate the economic model we have, one that is clearly not working well and is distorted by pay to play politics and campaigning.
We can't just eliminate programs without providing an opportunity to earn these things on their own in the so called free market. What sort of jobs are needed as technology continues to produce automation and efficiencies of scale? We cannot turn back the torrent of technology.
How do we balance resources, population, and consumption?
I don't know the answers to these things. I know all things are finite and self correcting, including economic growth, so is tying the necessities of life [food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, water] to it a smart thing?
I would actually be sympethetic to the situation in London if they were looting necessities of life. I'm not saying it would make it "right", but LCD TVs are not necessities. My TV is from the 20th century. I manage to survive day to day.
Some will always act outside accepted societal means. I believe people are free to channel their energies into a negative or positive matter. Are there scalable ways to deal with those who choose the negative path without suspending liberty for all?
