Here's my, admittedly limited, view on the whole matter. If you disagree, doesn't bother me. If you agree, whatever. So long as you understand my position, I'm happy. Feel free to skip over stuff...it's long and I don't think you need to read everything, just skim til you get to something that catches your eye. The last paragraph or two generally sum up my point.
You can't really blame bush for the economic downturn. Granted, he's made a few choices with this nation that I would most certainly not agree with. I also strongly believe that his actions are not for humanitarian reasons or for any of the wacked out garbage I hear on the news of liberating people and that it's gonna put big punch in the head for the national deficit. Honestly, going off topic for a sentence, if he were to just say something that made sense to me like "I'm goin to war cuz my daddy didn't finish it" or "I'm goin in and comin out with gasoline" ... I would not have ANY problem with it. But the economy can't be blamed on Bush for the simple reason that the economy is controlled by factors out of his control. He had nothing to do with the whole enron crock pot o trouble. He had nothing to do with 9/11 (unless you're one of those conspiracy theorists). History also shows us that presidents generally can do little to the economy and are often just swayed into action by the general consensus.
For instance, everyone learns in grade school that FDR with his new deal pulled out of the great depression. Very untrue. Granted, he created a lot of jobs, but at best, he only slowed the degradation of the economy. If you look at the impact his reforms had on the economy, he barely made a dent, despite the fact that he passed hundreds of new ideas through congress in assembly line fashion. It was the World War and the mass industrialization that pulled us out. The debt incurred for the war, IMO, is good because it's not US debt to foreign markets, rather, it's about as direct an infusion of government capital in American industry as you can get. This money goes to military defense companies and pays the wages of americans. It's money that will come back to the US because, in case you haven't noticed, the tax system in this country is geared so that any time anyone moves any money, the government gets its share. It's a debt America incurred to itself pretty much.
As far as SS, Medicare, and Welfare are concerned...I fully believe that they can be reasonably cut or at least trimmed. As far as SS goes, I don't see why it can't be paid to those after a certain age and not taken out of the taxes of the previous generation. once again, it's a debt that the government should get returned to itself given sufficient time. Simply require those who collect SS to live in the states. Medicare, IMO, is a good program that's been abused an awful lot. The cost of health care in this country is absolutely ludicrous. Look at your hospital bill and tell me that it's fair that it costs over a year's wages for some to have your appendix removed. Imagine paying it without medical insurance. You can hardly blame doctors tho. They're some of the most taxed and stressed professionals ever and they take home precious little because of insurance. On top of that, they have the hippocratic oath that binds them into service. Add our "sue the doctor" mentality and you have a very stupid situation develop and deeply rooting itself into society. Medicare is a good crutch to lean on, but I'd much prefer not needing the crutch at all. Welfare, IMO, is just plain stupid. It's WAY too easy to abuse and it serves no practical purpose anymore. Those who need it don't get enough. Those who don't need it get way too much. I say kill it. It's funny too, however. Those who look to the government are usually the first in line to proclaim "Kill the commie bast@rds" when they are the ones who want the need based system socialism offers.
And as far as the "the top 10% of the population" argument goes. It doesn't work. All it does is to further blind the masses of people to a rational way of thinking. By saying the top 5% of the population owns 40% of the wealth implies that somehow, someone isn't getting their share. That the 5% of the population up there is going around robbing homes while the owners sleep. You realize, however, that no one ever seems to say the top 5% of the population GENERATE 40% of the nation's wealth. This is closer to the truth. If you're gonna say, well they have the means to create that level of wealth, it's not fair...don't bother. I agree. If i had a million dollars, I could easily generate 1000 dollars compared to a guy on the street with a buck fifty and a pack of smokes. I just have more options open to me. The fact is, so long as the US takes in more money than it spends or loses more money than it takes in...it's not a zero sum game as some would have you believe. It implies that if I work my nads off and bust a hump working at a job I hate to make 1 million dollars...I've somehow impoverished some fellow in bumblefvck alaska because I make money and he doesn't.
People who feel that they're being screwed by large corporations need to open their eyes. To them, inflow is a dirty word and the mega millionaire is some evil tyrant unwilling to part with the wealth they've earned and give it to them, who have done nothing and risked nothing. It implies that, if I make money, I am duty bound to give my wealth to someone in need based on little more than the virtue that they want what I have. Honestly, the corporations ARE the American economy. Without them, we'd all have little mom and pop stores that would stagnate. Ship overseas? Nope, no shipping company large enough. Ship cross country? can't turn a profit, costs too much. Internet? No backbone or infrastructure to support tech industry. Tech industry? No capital to research and innovate. Professional Sports? HAHAHA. Entertainment? No production company with capital. Eventually Bob will out sell Bill and form a larger company that CAN handle a national infrastructure...but then Bob becomes the bad guy. Bill starves and this country will shut him down.
The problem in this country can't be solved by pointing fingers at bush or the war or putting little changes that cater to everyone. There are lots of fundamental problems in this country that should be addressed, but prolly won't be until I'm long dead and eaten by worms. I'll list what I THINK are the issues needed to be addressed. I'll use IT, since that's the field I'm most familliar with, but it applies across the board in general.
First, this country has not scaled its production and workforce like other places have. You could argue it'd be much too hard to do so with an infrastructure this large, but it's still an issue. The quality of workforce this country has has degraded in recent times. It used to be when you hired someone to run your cables, they were skilled professionals who could theoretically build you cat5 from a bag of pennies if necessary...someone who could answer any question about the cabling you had. If you hired helpdesk technicians, you got people who could diagnose 90% of problems inside of 4 minutes and were efficient enough to keep chugging the whole workday easily. Nowadays, through bad business practice or just incompetence of staff and management, you often get a virtually army of techies who all run to the 1 or 2 guys who actually know what the hell they're doing. You don't advance without the office politic backing you up. The competent techs are overrun because their subordinates are incompetent and look like fools to management who don't do anything to promote good work. They lose their jobs and some moron gets a promotion. If they can't do their job, they point a finger, some guy loses his job and management throws more money and replaces him with 5 more idiots. And people wonder why companies have no qualms about firing massive amounts of people when things look down....the workforce they have is mostly worthless. Problem is, now you can't tell who knows what they're doing and who doesn't. I've literally seen 1 technician take over the workload of the last 12 people who were laid off after he got on and not worry too much about it. How ridiculous is this? What's even more ridiculous is that it's somehow become the norm.
Second, this country takes away too much money from the workforce. It used to be, you had incentive to work hard. You made money that bought luxuries and made it possible to live. Now, however, your paycheck hasn't scaled with the increase in cost of living nor with the amount of money the government needs and when you see the check, you often find that the government took a big old bite out of it. This leads to laziness. Why should I bust my hump when bill lounges all day, gets paid 14k more than me, is loved by management, when uncle sam just takes off money I earned...leaving me just enough to survive. The economic system needs to be worked over. Cutting government expenses helps. Cut the taxes that the average joe pays helps too. But it also leads back to the fact that businesses have no way of really telling who is producing and who is consuming. Honestly, the job-seeker shouldn't have to see a 60k/yr job and instantly calculate he'll only take home about 40k after taxes. That's a bit harsh.
Third, the quality of person in this country has fallen DRAMATICALLY where it should have INCREASED. It used to be that high school graduates could read and do math at a high school level. Nowadays, you can find 4th graders who are more well read and educated than your average high schooler. What does it say about a nation whose children come out of high school through social promotion and whose only skill involves lobbing spitballs with deadly accuracy? Whose one hope is to get hit by a car and sue the living sh|t outta the driver? This is the nice thing about the military, you get to actually know what the hell you're doing, or you get booted. Teachers are not respected at all anymore. Indeed, teachers being assaulted and molested is 10 o clock news gold. We also spend too much money on producing idiots at an alarming rate. In this country, there is a huge gap between those that innovate and those that do not. Those who do well in school are often harrassed by their classmates. They are labeled nerds and garner respect only as a con man regards his mark. You have boards of parents who are more concerned with the quality of the cafeteria food than the quality of education. You have boards that are so conservative in their thinking, they halt and even REVERSE the influx of technology in the classroom, preferring old school and disproven methodologies. Take a look at South Korea or China. They consistently produce better results in their students than the vast majority of the US(exceptions exist in many suburban and urban areas) using a fraction of the budget that the US pumps into each student. Their schools are wired and their teachers are respected. There is no social promotion nor is there need. Parents send their children to school to learn, not to be watched over while they go off to work. If you don't perform at least rudimentarily, you get shipped to military school. You lose your friends and familiar environment. Scoring well is a plus in school, not a burden. A student who does well is also more likely to help his fellow classmates. The level of education received in high school generally surpasses that of a US college graduate. No wonder many firms outsource to foreign nations for IT work. It's not the cost, it's the fact that they get a better value and people who grow up knowing the value of hard work and can spend less. I guarantee you it'll return more to pay 5 technicians who know what they're doing and can acquire skills quickly, than 100 technicians who just b|tch all day and do maybe 10 minutes of work a week.
My point? <- read this for the summation
This country's problems can't be blamed on any one group or person. It's EVERYONE'S fault. It's my fault. It's your fault. Hell, I'll even venture to be the first to say it's my fault. Flame me. Post threads about me. I admit it. It's my fault. It's my fault for playing games when I could be teaching people to be more tech literate. It's my fault for watching the television when I could be writing a note to my senator or composing an email to DC. It's my fault for reading a novel when I should be in the latest Bd of Ed meeting yelling at the board members to get off their lazy as$es and stop screwing around. It is my firm belief, that if you wanna point a finger and blame someone for something, the first place you should start is with the guy in the mirror, other people second. You can hardly expect others to do something, if you yourself are not willing to shoulder the blame for inaction. It's only when you can say that you're part of the solution, can you point to others and say they are the problem.
People who help old ladies across streets, people who teach you and make you a better person, people who protect you at night, or even people you know like those who provide hosting and other services freely, people like the grand naguses(nagusi?) who scour around and freely post deals they find, people who make you laugh, and people who make you think instead of follow. These people are part of the solution because they are fixing problems. They are people who could easily say "fsck it, their problems ain't my problems, I don't owe anyone anything" and, instead, take time and effort to correct something. I imagine they contribute to many of the problems we perceive, but it's a damn sight better than people like me right now, who's just throwing up opinion on a board and pointing a long finger at myself.
Sorry for the length, it won't happen again, I'm pretty much done as far as my opinion goes.