Stuff Prez candidates should bring up

I simply do not understand why some things aren’t in the public discussion of politics.  If some Republican candidate would bring up these subjects, I guarantee it would cause a media stir and it would make him/her look like a genius. 

            Retirement.  70% of seniors say that retirement in USA is in a state of crisis.  Whenever you have 70% of anything in politics, that’s a huge issue and a sure winner for someone who gets on the right side of it.  Median savings upon retirement is $50,000.  Median SS income is $16,000.  Taking $3,000 a year out of savings gives a median income of $19,000 a year.  That’s food stamps territory.  Add health problems and see how far $19K goes.  To make matters worse, SS is collecting less than it pays out (since 2012) and left unchecked SS and MC will use up All discretionary budget funds by 2030.  “All” means no money for military, Post Office, national parks, Coast Guard rescue and a thousand other functions of government. 

            So a smart candidate needs to spell out a program.  Christie has tried this but he doesn’t spell it out in human terms that capture the dire consequences to the country.

            Military Recruitment and Education.  21 million young people are eligible for the military but we cannot recruit about 200,000 a year for the following reasons.  7 million are too obese.  6 million cannot pass the necessary tests, especially math. Many others have children or tattoos and crime records or other social/dependency problems. Our recruiters hand out lots of incentive bonuses, free college, career training, etc. yet we still fall beneath recruitment quotas every year. While physical/ health problems and social problems are a difficult problem interwoven in our society, failing a math test is just a matter of training for 99% or recruits.  What the hell is wrong with our education?! Of the 45 OECD countries (developed world) we are 28^th in math, 28^th in science, 17^th in reading.  If our local public schools can’t get it done, perhaps we need special military pre-schools that can teach stuff like how to add three 2-digit numbers in your head (necessary to assess windage corrections in rifle shooting).  Surely our kids are smarter than the ones from Appalachia and inner cities who fought bravely in Vietnam, aren’t they? I’d also relax the tattoo prohibitions in consultation with our military leaders.  Our country’s military is being forced out of existence by diabolical leadership.

            War on Women.  What women want is a society where they can freely develop a fulfilling life with their talents and destiny.  Pro-life is not war on women.  Cradle-to-grave security as a disguised form of dependency serfdom is a war on women.  You don’t become a true princess by sitting around sucking up benefits.

Climate Change.  About half the people believe that increased CO2 has caused a global warming, predicted to be 2 degrees in the next 100 years.  Chemical composition of the atmosphere, however, is just one of several effects postulated by scientists.  What someone needs to say in a debate is this.  Okay so you believe in 2 degrees due to CO2.  What about solar radiation?  It varies considerably more and we have historical records of it.  The Little Ice Age from 1309-1850 dropped temperatures 9 degrees.  The Medieval Warming was several degrees warmer.  And what about oceanic circulation.  When that changed during the Younger-Dryas 12,000 years ago, temperatures dropped 17 degrees.  And the nutation of earth’s rotation which changes axis tilt causes 30 degrees temperature drops and brings on ice ages.  Why is no one saying anything about this?  I’ll tell you why.  Because CO2 production is the only effect that allows politicians to call for socialism.  It is the only effect that government can make people feel guilty about so that government can tell you how to live and what to do.  This is how socialism works.  And does government ever truly fix anything?  I suggest we rely on private sector solutions to our CO2 production and tell government to get out of the road of the people!

            Islam. President Erdogan of Turkey, a key ally of ours, is also a conservative Muslim.  He says there is no such thing as moderate and radical Islam.  “Islam is Islam” he has said.  And there are aspects of Islam that order the followers to take over the entire world by peace or by force.  Then offer a few quotes of the Quran. Explain that these are non-abrogated passages. (Doctrine holds that there are false verses in their scripture that are overridden by later revelations.) “Terrorize the infidels and beleaguer them.  Cut off their heads and cut off their fingers.” Sura 9:3.  “Kill the infidels wherever you find them.” Sura 147:43.  Point out that the faith will not rest until Sharia Law supplants all other law.  So then the question becomes, will refugees from Syria live in quiet toleration of faiths in America?  We should only accept immigrants from Islamic states through meticulous screening and probably far less than the 200,000 that Obama is letting in from Syria.

            Liberty.  So many people say that we have a constitution based on Christianity or no religious origins. But if you ask where they got that info they are clueless.  But we founded this country on the principle of Liberty.  All the founders knew what Liberty was.  It was a term coined by John Locke, the father of modern psychology and a government philosopher who has two direct quotes in our Constitution and thoroughly influenced our founders.  Liberty means being able to follow the inner voice in your head, that is, follow your dreams, follow the Holy Spirit, follow your faith.  If you have a mission in life, be it from God or your own deduction, being allowed to follow it is the absolutely fundamental bedrock of our ideals and our Constitution.  No Liberty?  Then you are just a lousy serf of an overreaching government.   

            Try a few of these at the next debate and see if it doesn’t set off the Mainstream Media to gobbling like turkeys. And see if it doesn’t enthuse a few R voters.

Young, need job

I don’t know if you have seen this but the unemployment statistics are worse than awful among young people aged 16-24.  I’m not talking about the usual drivel about how minority youth can’t find jobs which is the standard template for a MSM story.  I’m talking about something we have never seen before.  Despite the talk of less unemployment, it’s a bleak story.  From a peak employment of 22 million in 2007, the 16-24 age group has slid to 17.5 million today.  In fact it hasn’t even made a comeback with the recovery started in July 2009.  So are all the young people dying off?

            Of course not! In fact the 16-24 population is a record.  They just aren’t working. The 55+ workers are.  From a fairly stagnant 16M in 2000 they have risen to 30M today.  These are stunning statistics.  We have never seen anything like this in our history.  Even the infamous 99% to 56% drop from 2007 to 2011 college grad employment saw a similar hesitancy to hire the young in the opening days of the Great Depression. But youth, with it’s beginner’s wages, eager energy, and new ideas has always made for a workforce that is desired by the boss.

            I don’t think you can conclude that the young are slackers today.  Employers are loading up on seniors because of supply.  A lot of seniors have paltry retirements and need a supplemental job.  Seniors often come with Medicare and—I don’t think, based on what I read in Obamacare—will require the purchase of healthcare by employers that typically amounts to about $5000 per employee.  And they often accept part-time. Moreover, employers are hunkering down reorganizing to minimize workers.  That often requires more duties and experienced folks to man the remaining jobs.  It’s going to get uglier for a young person to find a job. 

            It should be noted that total employment is 143M which is still down from the peak 144M in 2007.  Which is why so many are saying that the BLS is “cooking the books” to make unemployment look lower.  In fact they simply have reclassified vast numbers of workers as “not looking”.  If you counted all those workers, unemployment would be over 10%.  And that 143M counts a part-time job the same as a full-time job.  So lack of work is still quite bad.

            Here’s my advice if you are young and need a job.  1. Consider moving anywhere. Old workers won’t. Their house is paid for.  A lot of the jobs I have had don’t matter how smart you are, but can you take the grueling schedule.  Sure, you are willing to travel!   2. If you are in a hot field, that’s great but you need to get some sort of experience on your resume.  When I was at the university in the 1970’s, things in my field were bleak. Government labs and NASA were shutting down facilities.  Professorships were scarce. We joked about how we had to wait for someone to die in order to get a job.  I kept volunteering for curriculum committees and oversight committees and keeping a log of all the minimum wage jobs I had done.  You laugh.  Employers didn’t.  They saw someone who was willing to get his hands dirty, go the extra mile in his field.  3. If you aren’t in a hot field, study other industries and dream of how you could help them.  A lot of people say, I’ll do anything, but they haven’t studied the problems of business and can’t carry on an interview with a potential boss. Here’s the dirty truth.  A lot of people wind up with jobs not at all like what they studied in school.  Don’t worry about it.  Just adapt. 4. Take a stop-gap job.  Then when you have to explain that you graduated over a year ago and still don’t have a career, you say, “yeah, but I can’t stand not having something to do.  And I find it interesting to use my sociology in sales and marketing.”  This is music to a boss’s ears.  5. If you have the possibility of foreign study or just an excursion, go for the one that sounds like the most work. “I hiked the Appalacians”  doesn’t compare well with “I was a volunteer with the Forestry Service.” Better yet, go down the Chamber office and ask what you can do to volunteer.  They may put you on a board or give free training.  6. Get off the couch and write/blog. There is a need for all sorts of instructive ditties, but people fail to write about their experiences.  I once heard a world-renowned geo-scientist plead for this.  He said there is a need to write about the “craft of contouring a map”  or “how to load dynamite” in a seismic source and keep safe. Get published in a professional journal or on a trade website. Even if you are interviewing for something entirely different, there’s always a need for people who can document.  It will also help you articulate your skills. (“Being caretaker for my hospiced aunt was somewhat like working with an unskilled person because you have to be specific in instructions, but very respectful of the person. You also have to be aware of drug side effects.”)

            These are the kinds of things that make a young person look wise for their age, able to handle responsibility like an old hand, and willing to do the dirty work necessary.