A picture of the Great Depression. The "Great Recession" is a vacation compared to the 1930s. Americans don't know what real poverty is anymore.
There’s a reason why all super prosperous nations crumble. If you look closely at the United States it’s obvious. We’re too rich to care about anything other than the next piece of entertainment. The nation grew for 150 years from the work of people trying to make a better life for themselves and for their families. They were immigrants, religious groups, and risk takers. We now stand on their shoulders. There is no land to conquer. We’re rich and entertained. We have movies, music, books, TV, video games, computers, iPod, iPads, and travel. Even the poor in this country are rich compared to the rest of the world or our ancestors.
In the 1800s, most Americans would never “go on vacation” and the idea of retirement didn’t exist. Over Thanksgiving weekend it’s good to remember how great things are compared to the past. Go to any graveyard that’s older than 100 years. Tombstones are riddled with wives who died in childbirth or of disease. Many young children died of diseases that are completely preventable today. There’s something about the human condition that quashes achievements in order to find new things for which to complain and worry.
Do we really care enough to do anything about the problems our nation is facing? Are we really serious? I’m not so sure. I got to thinking about this after watching the last GOP debate. In the debate Newt Gingrich was asked about Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Gingrich’s answer was obvious:
“We ought to have a massive, all sources energy program in the United States designed to once again create a surplus of energy here,” said Gingrich. “So we could say to the Europeans, pretty cheerfully, that with all the various sources of oil we have in the United States we could literally replace the Iranian oil.”
I don’t think anyone could disagree with his assertion, but the reality is that the United States is incapable of this approach. Good ideas die because of the well funded opposition. We could produce enough oil to satisfy Europe and drive down our gas prices. If we were serious it could be done in a decade. Unfortunately the organized left is philosophically opposed to oil. They believe in the “sustainable energy” fantasy. They believe that the world is warming at unprecedented levels. Neither is true, but liberals in science, government, higher education, and journalism believe that green energy is real.
Thanks to naive liberals in Congress the green energy fantasy has created another dependency group: the big farm industry in the Midwest that loves ethanol subsides. Subsidizing ethanol isn’t green, it’s not good for consumers, and it’s driving up food prices. Why are we doing this? It’s an unholy alliance between the “land of make believe liberals” and farmers who love subsidies. Both groups will fight change until the bitter end.
A similar problem exists on the right with the issues of illegal immigration, Medicare and defense. The list goes on and on. Everyone pays lip service to “change” but don’t you dare touch my Social Security, Medicare, subsidy, tax break, or other pet project. The reality is things aren’t bad enough. We’re in a recession, but the threat of starvation isn’t in the picture. Americans are still looking forward to the next movie, gadget, book, concert, or football game. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those things, but as long as Americans are consumed by the next distraction there will never be any serious reform.
Most Americans can’t name their senators or representative in Congress, but they can name their favorite TV show, movie, musician, book, or sports star. Sure, Americans have opinions on energy, war, and taxation, but it’s not much more than talking points they heard on TV. Hey, I’m not indicting anyone. I’m as guilty of distraction as the average American, but I don’t see how the current society can rise to the call. In 2008, the left had a religious experience around Barack Obama and they best he could muster was ObamaCare? That’s the great cause on the left? A nation on the brink of bankruptcy and all they have is another entitlement?
The answer to the United States’ problems isn’t a new leader. The current occupant of the White House is clueless, but he’s as clueless as the people he represents. The American people are the ones that need to wake up. The smartest man in the world could be elected next year and it won’t solve the problem with apathy.
Politicians love to talk about alternative forms of energy. It’s like they believe if they talk about an issue or subsidize it long enough it will simply be. Solar energy is a great example. The United States currently subsidizes a technology that isn’t a viable alternative energy source. Bill Gates has an interview in Wired Magazine that touches on this fairly simple point.
I think people deeply underestimate what a huge problem this day-night issue is if you’re trying to design an energy system involving solar technology that’s more than just a hobby. You know, the sun shines during the day, and people turn their air conditioners on during the day, so you can catch some of that peaking load, particularly if you get enough subsidies. It’s cute, you know, it’s nice. But the economics are so, so far from making sense. And yet that’s where subsidies are going now. We’re putting 90 percent of the subsidies in deployment—this is true in Europe and the United States—not in R&D. And so unfortunately you get technologies that, no matter how much of them you buy, there’s no path to being economical. You need fundamental breakthroughs, which come more out of basic research.
Money spent on research would be a better government investment, but I fail to see why the government should spend money developing a technology that the private sector is already hard at work developing. There’s a huge monetary reward for a solar technology breakthrough. There’s no need for the government to be involved. It’s just another money hole.
Why are we paying for this?
Entitlement reform isn’t the only area of the federal budget that needs to be addressed. It’s obviously the most important because of it’s size, but there are some common sense things Congress could do right now. Ending farm subsidies should be a priority.
The only reason we continue to subsidize farmers is this nostalgic idea that farmers are the backbone of the nation. Just read this tripe:
Family farmers are being forced out of business at an alarming rate. According to Farm Aid, every week 330 farmers leave their land. As a result, there are now nearly five million fewer farms in the U.S. than there were in the 1930′s. Of the two million remaining farms, only 565,000 are family operations. As established family farms are shut down, they are not being replaced by new farms and young farmers. Very few young people become farmers today, and half of all U.S. farmers are between the ages of 45 and 65, while only 6% of all farmers are under the age of 35.
I’m not concerned. My ancestors used to be farmers. Most people’s ancestors used to be farmers. Thank God that’s not my profession today. This is progress and it’s nothing to be alarmed about. Groups like Farm Aid have propagated the myth that we need to be concerned about a dying part of our economy.
The United States pays out $20 billion in agriculture subsidies. Plus the United States controls the price of milk and sugar. There’s no justification for this to continue. The Daily Plunge has written extensively about Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. His number one priority is to secure as much farm assistance is possible. He’s a big reason we have the ethanol subsidies. Even Al Gore believes that subsidizing ethanol is a bad idea.
The ethanol subsidy should be eliminated immediately. John Stossel agrees:
The time to end the government powered ethanol subsidy has come… and gone… multiple times. It’s an expensive waste of money, and a GAO report confirms that if it is left unchanged, the
… annual cost to the Treasury in forgone revenues could grow from $5.4 billion in 2010 to $6.75 billion in 2015.
The government has tried to promote the growth of ethanol since the Energy Tax Act of 1978. Additional waste comes from the renewable fuel standard which:
requires overall transportation fuels in the United States to contain certain volumes of biofuels…
So not only has Congress passed legislation that forces consumers to give their gas money to ethanol companies, but also they provide a tax credit to these same companies, allowing them to “double dip” in your pocket.
Before being elected in 2008 then Senator Obama voted for the current Farm Bill. There’s no hope he’ll rise to the challenge of eliminating this vast waste of taxpayer money. It’s truly staggering how many people are receiving some kind of government welfare.
Last summer I covered proposed move of the Boston Red Sox spring training facility to Sarasota. Ultimately the Red Sox were able to squeeze more money out of the city of Fort Myers. The Cincinnati Reds played their final season in Florida earlier this year so Sarasota was looking at having no spring training team in 2010. Last week the city of Sarasota, the county, and the Baltimore Orioles agreed on terms to move the Orioles from Fort Lauderdale.
The elected leadership of Sarasota County and the city of Sarasota is patting themselves on the back for a job well down. Meanwhile the taxpayers have to subsidize a $30 million project. In today’s Sarasota Herald Tribune Kevin Reichard, publisher of Ballpark Digest says he believes the Ed Smith stadium renovation will cost $40 million. This is hardly shocking to anyone who is knowledgeable about these kind of subsidized projects. The Heartland Institute has an article about a recent study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. It turns out these projects always cost more than initially believed.
A 2007 study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation found heavily subsidized stadium projects were significantly more expensive on average than largely privately funded projects. The study found stadiums where taxpayers bore a majority of the cost were $65 million more expensive on average than those for which private entities paid the bulk of the tab.
While private financiers have every reason to scrutinize costs closely, “Government bureaucrats … are often more concerned with reelection prospects and PR plaudits than with cost containment,” the study notes.
In addition, the study found the average taxpayer subsidy per stadium is on the rise and shows no signs of slowing. The amount taxpayers paid for each facility rose 41 percent in just the eight years leading up to 2004.
The main argument for the agreement with the Orioles was the fact that it was going to be paid for in part by a tourist tax. Who pays for the shortfall? Here’s a hint; it won’t be the Baltimore Orioles.
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