CHAPTER 7 - SOLUTIONS

by David Michael Beachwood
A Better World

Problems cannot be solved with the same consciousness that created them. Albert Einstein

We are often told, it is easier to complain about problems then to provide the solutions to them. While this sometimes is true there are times that we, as citizens, talk about our problems with our friends and family and we often come up with answers. Solutions which seem simple to us, what is more we can easily agree on them. This is because we can see that they would benefit the majority of people. We ask ourselves why our government isn’t already doing these things. At the end of our discussions we say our Good-Byes and nothing more is done. In an effort to not let some of these ideas, of friends, family and others, be lost I have brought some of them forward here as a form of food for a different kind of growth. I refer to a growth that strengthens the majority of citizens, not just a few. The ideas here are offered in the hope that they might provide a starting point for future discourse. While these ideas are not final solutions and could be improved upon; they might just represent a new beginning.

To start with, we understand that most problems already have solutions, which we may or may not agree with. Generally if we see existing solutions as bad ideas, it is because they are not benefiting us. These solutions, most likely, were written to benefit a small minority of the population; this rarely is right and most often it is wrong. To really determine what is best we need to reestablish a national code, a set of rules, goals and guidelines that should be followed. Only then will we make progress on finding the proper solutions for our nation’s problems. If solutions are framed to meet our common objectives then our nation will be strengthened. Such a partial list of codes could be:
· Our solutions should, over all, improve the United States of America. (By practices which are as fair and just as a society based on good can create; I hope you don't think we are based on evil).
· Our solutions should follow our belief in a government of the people and for the people. (Which means those ideas must be beneficial to the majority of people not just to a select few).
· Our solutions should protect the equality of all of our citizens.(Our self-evident unalienable Rights)
· Our solutions should acknowledge that our founding fathers leaned toward a Controlled Capitalism as our chosen form of economy. (Currently our economy has been altered to make it overwhelmingly a vehicle for the self-interest of the few, we need to fix this).
· Our solutions should improve our belief in “The American Dream”. (A concept of an individual being able to achieve happiness, wealth and/or just live a great life here in the United States of America through his or her honest hard work and/or honest creative genius, or honestly secured funds).
· Our solutions should not take excessive advantage of any law abiding segment of our citizens.

I know this again is not a complete list but it gives you an idea that by going back to some basics we can right some wrongs that have crept in over the years.

As already noted many currently existing solutions to our problems seem mostly to have personal agendas attached to them, which benefit small groups. These kind of solutions rarely are in the best interest of the majority of the people. Once solutions are reviewed based on the bullet points noted above a just conclusion should come to the surface. We should understand that individuals of great wealth, honestly secured, did and can exist in a system of government, which is primarily based in the best interest of the masses. Indeed the ranks of these wealthy individuals should increase under the ideals our founding fathers voiced long ago. Our world is a very complicated place. So please recall my disclaimer of sorts. I do not claim that the ideas here are 100% correct and some may turn out to be unworkable. However, it must also be noted that as citizens we do not always have all the facts surrounding events to make proper decisions in coming to solutions. As humans we understand there are variables, which are constantly changing. However these ideas may, if we are lucky, just require some work to make them useful.

The role of the common citizen
United States Citizens, as a whole, have ELECTED to be treated unfairly. Through the support of a corrupted two party systems, of which the large businesses clearly have the ears of both parties, citizens have relegated their rights to the corporations. Further a great number of the citizens have acted as drones choosing to ignore what is clearly placed in front of them to view; or are they asleep? These citizens have no right to complain about educational problems, health care issues, wars, unemployment, immigration or any issue they seem to think they have a voice on. The fact is those rights have been purchased by the large business lobbyist. This condition is demonstrated by the lack of either party to correct campaign finance issues which lay at the root of the problem. They allow these corporate voices to perpetuate themselves to the detriment of the majority of the people.

Our government was originally set up as a constitutional republic, a republic, which wisely supported moral capitalists. The republic was to use the tool of democracy to help shape itself. Our federal government was set up to provide limited services and benefits. The state and local governments were meant to provide the greater part of necessary services and benefits to their citizens. The federal government was to be “of the people and for the people,” meaning the masses, and was designed to limit special interest control over the population. Its prime directive was and still could be to benefit the main body of the people. In other words this capitalist government has a primary responsibility to assure that the majority of the people in the society profit from the capitalism. Our Capitalism does not exist for the good of a few, but for the good of the country as a whole.

We, the people, need to subdue its corrupt nature and guide it toward a more humanistic behavior. Control over capitalism was and is imperative. Capitalism produces wealth and wealth too often promotes power and greed. History is lined with the examples of the nightmares that, individuals with power have caused. The fix was, and is, to make society, as a whole, and when appropriate, the primary beneficiary of capitalism’s virtues; and not a few greedy citizens. This control was and is meant to keep these few greedy individuals from pushing the masses into detrimental situations. Though the appropriate oversight of commerce, based on our national codes or objectives, these individual self-serving schemes would be minimized. The wealth than would be maintained within the nation. Prosperity on a national level could flourish by limiting the negative actions of individual greed. This would greatly reduce the negative economic effects imposed, on our nation, by individuals with get rich quick schemes that had potential to threaten the nation’s security. The effect of these actions was and is to temper the dark side of capitalism. We should understand that it is the hard work of the common majority that provides the infrastructure, which enables entrepreneurs to succeed and prosper. Most businesses rely on the stability of civilization to prosper. Through the use of government provided systems, and the people are the government, most businesses benefit exponentially. The building of the roads, hospitals, schools, police stations, fire departments and other services pave the way for entrepreneurs to become developers, doctors, educators, lawyers and more. It is the common citizen or the majority of the people, who build these systems and maintain them, that deserve priority considerations from the government. Not because they are any better or worse than any entrepreneur but in securing their future we secure the country. They are a support foundation that holds our country up.
Governmental decisions made on anyone’s behalf should be made to benefit the majority of the people. We need to do all of this while still adhering to the national goal of maintaining the American Dream. Individual business interests will have to be addressed on a merit system rather than a lobby system. Individuals would have to demonstrate that whatever they petition for will benefit the majority of the people, the nation. Any Capitalist venture, which request government assistance, should require special restrictions. This is to assure our country under our national goals would share any windfalls. The people, including both poor and wealthy, are the country. If the people help build the country they are the prime Capitalist and their business venture is The United States of America thus they should be one of the prime recipients of the wealth not solely individuals who use the countries infrastructure and institutions to benefit themselves excessively. While creative individuals and businesses should expect to benefit greatly from their work, the idea that common individuals had no role in their success needs to be corrected.

The Role of Corporations
Corporations currently are viewed, as if they were individuals, like you and I, when they approach our leaders, this privilege needs to be rescinded. They are already made up of individuals who already have a voice. Giving them too much of a voice leads to deals like NAFTA, G8, WTO, and ultimately to the end of our Constitution. They should not be allowed to drown out the voices of “We the People.” The corporate role should be to make the United States a country for the world to emulate. They should not be turning it over to a World Government to rule. The United Nations is already an example of how these ideas works or better how they do not work. Corporations need to adopt a new “Code of Conduct” stating a pledge of allegiance to the United States of America not to the New World order. There may be solutions however, which will favor the large corporations but not always to the extent that the current system does. It is possible that both large and small concerns can again be brought together to strengthen the United States of America. We can work together to nullify those who’s personal greed damages our country. We can reform our political parties so that they do not have to bow to those individual “greedy” demands. Sometimes old ideas do work better. We need to look for them and use them if we can.

Campaign Finance
Lobbyists have supported corporate leaders who look for every way they can to take from America and give to their own pockets. Many corporations seem to have little regard even for their own stockholders anymore.[1] The country’s strength is slowly being drained and our representatives don’t seem to care.[2] We need leaders who will look into the ideas of the public financing of elections, the use of some television and radio station airway time as a condition of lease, and expanded use of existing government access stations.[3] Yes the networks will lose those political commercials but with a strong economy other business will be able to buy some of the airtime lost by these actions. The stations stand to loose far more if they have to operate in a nation that becomes third world quality. They will also be better able to report on the issues with less fear of losing their paycheck since they will no longer be beholding to the political sponsors.

Political Parties
Our two party political systems, a duopoly as some have said, are corporate based. They support a corruptible system of political campaigns and they arranged to keep it that way. It is a system that assures power to those that “have” even if the country is destroyed in the process. We can address this by eliminating the lobbyist as one of the first steps in the reform of political campaigns. In addition, organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations should not be used to pick our representatives, unless they reform themselves. Furthermore, it is possible to make campaigns affordable so that many more citizens could potentially have an opportunity to serve our country. We need to open up the field of competition, why should we be limited to just two candidates, one Republican and one Democrat? If however, we do end up with two parties the process of candidate elimination should involve the American Public to a much greater degree. The original candidate field of choice should be larger and allow for public elimination of these candidates not corporate or party elimination. Cutting out the money reduces the corruption. This is America it should be our code to allow multiple candidates to debate. We can conduct an extensive debate series to thin out potential candidates. The public should own all the air waves and only lease them to public and private concerns. National resources not only belong to those currently living today but also those living tomorrow, therefore since future generation cannot vote on the sale of a resource the resource should always belong to the public. Leasing however could be considered if appropriate, such as with our public airwaves. However we should retain a block of time, and/or bandwidth in which we can conduct these debates. We should leave commercial television completely out of the political system. Then we should consider enforcing term limits across the board. This should include political staff personal as well, where appropriate.

Culture
Simply stated Christians and Jews are taught that on the sixth day God created all the races and he was pleased. While each race developed differently, depending on their location in the world, they are basically the same. Yet, while I can say that we are all unique in some way, saying we have our genetic differences might be received as taboo. In a form of “McCarthyism” the power of the political correctness movement wants to stifle such talk.[4] Science however, will not let us because many of us are medically predisposed to certain disease or effectively guarded from other conditions. Many races seem specially equipped with muscles, lungs, pigmentation, or other conditions, which helped them, survive in the areas of the world they came from. The human gene pool has mixed so much over the course of time that these benefits or detriments are getting less apparent but are still noticeable. It is not happenstance that there are more black athletes, than any other race in professional basketball. This doesn’t mean that all dark skinned people are better at basketball, only that the likelihood of finding a good basketball player is greater amongst this group. Each race on the whole has genetic benefits and/or detriments.
I am not trying to make a case here for or against genetic predisposition of “brains” to any given race. Christians and Jews are taught that all the people in the world are of God’s creation and he was pleased. I believe that the perceived differences in brains for the most part may have another cause other then genetics. In trying to explain our differences concerning the ability to learn it is my belief that we should look more to cultural rather that racial difference for answers. While none of us can explain why every student that fails, FAILS, most of us can picture in our mind the individual who is lest likely to succeed in school. You might agree these students:

Often come from broken or family deprived homes.
Often have trouble accepting authority.
Often have a need to engender threatening profiles.
Are more likely to be from low-income areas.

Of course many might want to put the blame on income alone. Money however will not necessarily correct the condition. There are too many examples of poor children succeeding and rich children failing. That being said we cannot deny that money could improve basic conditions and support success. There are some that would want to blame lack of learning ability on race but again there are too many examples of successful students in all races. While money and race may or may not contribute to an individual’s success I feel they are not the primary cause. I believe the root cause is culture. The list for success in school reads almost completely the opposite from the above and reading it is like reading attributes from a culture based on good. Students who succeed:

· Often have strong family ties.
· Understand the need for authority.
· Are secure in knowing they are loved and supported.
· Understand the importance of Education.

There is a culture here which fosters learning and teaches respect for others. It also nurtures an individual's self esteem, so they will not feel threatened and will not have to act out aggressively. It is a culture where no matter how many hours the parent(s) works they find a way for family involvement to make its mark. The more family involvement there is the greater amount of success. The optimum condition is when this family extends out to involve the entire community. A culture such as this affords a greater chance for individuals to learn. While money can ease the pain it is not the guarantee of success.

Denial
The first step to getting better is to first admit you have a problem. Bill Cosby has hit a sensitive nerve amongst a segment of our population.[5] There exists a relatively small sub-culture in the world, which represent the bad apples in the barrel. Each race has their share. These sub-cultures have infected the larger population with their sub par standards and ideals. For various flawed reasons, supported by our main characters, the larger segment of the population has protected them. Because of this the world has suffered. By allowing this sub culture to flourish the aspirations of millions of people are diminished.

When we see something that is wrong and repeatedly turn the other way without trying to correct it we only hurt ourselves. Let us suppose that there is a neighborhood where you look out the window and see you neighbor standing next to his car. You watch while car after car of people stop and your neighbor sells them, drugs. But instead of reporting the problem you say to yourself “well that man sure has a beautiful car.” You even defend him because you see him as an underdog who is making it. This protective behavior is self-defeating.[6] The neighborhood becomes depressed because most people would not choose to live there. You see, this sub par sub culture has a message of “anything goes” or “no limits” which sadly young people are easily drawn to and often for the better part of their youth. It promotes a lack of sexual morals and this is the first step toward a lack of respect for women. This sets up the next step, which is a lack of respect for people in general. The culture promotes drugs, which again disrespects people because drugs drag people down and often destroy them. The drug and sex behaviors lead to support of other negative behaviors after all, how do these victims, of poor culture, pay for the drugs and sex? While this problem is affecting the black race greatly there is not a single race which has not been affected. Young people of all races have been scarred by this sub culture. A few bad apples have caused a world of pain.

Fortunately there is hope because in proportion these sub-cultures are small and without the help and support of the larger population they will rot away on their own. Don’t support their culture. Understand they are not helping you but hurting you. They influence your children to do wrong. They affect your community by casting a negative light of it. They hold back the people of your community by stifling hopes for honest business opportunities, educational advancement and dreams for long lasting marriages. They “these small sub cultures” are the problem and to deny this is to protect a value system, which will only lead to more pain and suffering for you.

The Color of Our Skin
Do we hate a person simply because of the color of their skin? While I am sure there are some people who are so inclined fortunately most of us are not that shallow. The question should be. If we were all the same color would all of our difference go away? It has been said that in nature’s time, at some point in the distance future, all of our skin colors may be the same.[7] Let us say that gene therapy could make us all the same color today would that really solve the problems? I believe most of us know that would not be the case. I think the root causes of our differences are again our cultural values. While skin color can be viewed as a characteristic of difference it is mainly because it may help identify a culture. There is something to be said for wearing the same uniform in that it tends, right or wrong, to strengthen the ties. Gangs have picked up on this and use it to their advantage. This may be so, because it generally means there is a common goal or cultural value system that this group generally holds near and dear. Unfortunately these common goals are not always positive goals.
Even when we are taught to avoid stereotyping other people many people still use color cues to develop theories on behavior, at least initially. Skin color does help us rationalize a person’s behavior based on our understanding of cultural attitudes. This is where those sub cultures cause a great deal of damage. This is because some people sink to the worst thought at least on a first impression basis. While brown skin Arabs are not all-terrorist most terrorist have brown skin. At least initially color gives a person a means of trying to explain who another person might be. Color is a cue to cultural motives. Yet, we know there is no way we can know the person without more information. Whites in Iraq might suffer the same handicap when viewed by brown skin Arabs. The mind tends to run quick analyses of what we perceive. If we are smart we go to the next level before we make decisions on a person’s values. This normally happens if time permits.

Is it possible that someday we might also blend our cultural values as well as our skin color? What could unite us, are all the things we hold in common. First of all most of us interface on a daily basis with generally a good number of people. Of these people we tend to migrate toward people of generally the same cultural values. However if we judge solely by stereotyping we may find that there are only a few cultural similarities and these may not be enough cultural ties for friendship to grow. If we are culturally compatible friendship can grow. While on the whole most people practice cultural tolerance younger people are generally more tolerant. This tolerance is probably because they are more in a learning mode at a younger age, but ignorance and lies can be taught easily at this time. This isn’t good, as major cultural changes require teaching to be based on wisdom and truth not ignorance and lies. If children are taught to steal, hate or murder innocent people by adults, one can only surmise these adults are not wise. In these cases the children are being used for evil reasons. If children are taught to love and respect innocent people and kill only if necessary, that is to defend your self then they are being used for good reasons. Yes we are all being used, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. It can also be viewed as helping one another. What really matters is that the net effect of our help, or use, truly helps the other and doesn’t knowingly cause evil. Since we live in a world that is complex, we have to learn to respect each other. We should try to learn which attributes of each culture are good and which are bad. Then we should try to build a culture, which works to strengthen our good. The family, or country, with a good culture will normally be more prosperous. For example a farmer coming to a new country should seek out the best farmer in the area to get advice on how to plant his crops. If he seeks advice from the worst farmer he is less likely to succeed. We likewise should seek out the best cultural practices to learn from. Unfortunately there isn’t any one perfect culture to adopt. Though most of us might think the one we grew up in is the best. The greater truth is each culture has many good qualities but also some bad qualities. The USA is said to be a melting pot of cultures. This was a major means for our early success as a nation. One reason for this is that the early immigrants had similar cultures to begin with. This made it easier to assimilate the best practices. Also the flow of immigration was never large enough to overwhelm the existing primary cultural body. A body that had tried to chose the best of the best practices to live by. Some cultures have negative traits, which act like bad apples in the barrel. These traits can cause the whole barrel to spoil. Cultural traits such as these have to be acknowledged for what they are. They are detrimental to a healthy and successful family or nation. Countries, which are melting pots, all run the same risk of some groups not wanting to melt. These groups think they have the best culture and everyone else should change. This is the danger host countries face and is a reason to restrict the flow of these people. If newcomers truly wanted a better life they would simply take the advice of the farmer and adopt the best of the best practices instead of holding on to their failed culture. Cultures that merge and do not melt become fractional and suffer enormously, for example the Balkans. Remember that almost all cultures on earth have a basic code, which can be expressed many ways but end up sounding like our “do on to others as you would have them do to you.” We are not so different after all. If our cultural practices do not allow melting than we should not move into countries, which have other cultures. This is to say we should not force our ways on others. We should always respect the host nation as in the old expression “when in Rome do as the Romans do.” I would go a little further and change this expression to read; when in Rome do only the good the Romans do and show them the good you can do, in this way both prosper.

The act of Steeling
Sometimes the smallest things can make a difference, even steeling. The act of steeling even such small things as a pack of cigarettes or a pencil can produce a ripple effect. We know there are those among us who steel. When they do they are helping to create the world in which we all live in. Our culture changes a little on each occasion where someone steels something. As humans most of us have emotions such as love, hate, remorse, excitement, greed, lust, compassion, guilt, fear, and many more. In our minds we try to rationalize our actions. Basically I believe people steel for three main reasons, the excitement, the perceived necessity of it, and or to be hateful. I am not here to debate whether some steeling may be justified; perhaps there is a situation which may require it. However, for what ever reason we do, most of us need to justify our actions. We may tell ourselves this act is so minor a crime; whom am I really hurting? We minimize the consequences both on ourselves and the people who are being stolen from. Worst we may tell ourselves we deserve this because we are better than they are. The problem with all of this is that we are not alone here. Others in our society see and read about these thefts and experience them. For reasons of revenge, to fit in or whatever they copy them and the problem grows. For too many of us, it is easier to sink to a lower level than to try to reach for a higher height. Each time someone steels a pack of cigarettes, a snow blower, a set of tires, a car, or robs a bank our culture changes. It slips a little, then a little more. We get little snap shots of what our society is becoming at times of crisis. For example the looting and crimes after natural disasters mark the extent of how low the fabric of our society has sunk. We end up doing harm to ourselves by the values we chose and actions we take.

There are those among us who are covert in theft. These could be the corrupt lawmakers who help their friends prosper at the expense of others they do not know. The corrupt bankers who find a way for their friends to benefit at the expense of others they do not know. These individuals also are making the world we live in. When you steel you are hurting yourself as well as others because each of us help to make up the conditions we live in. As lawmakers we could avoid actions which hurt more people then they help. As bankers we could make sure we are fair and honest. As individual citizens we need to do all of this. If we do, the world will become a better place.

Code to Live By
Most businesses have a company statement and a code of conduct. These promote the positive goals that the company wants to achieve. Goals they want their employees to live by. It is an important part of the business as it also helps shape how customers view the company. The success of the company depends on how well the code is followed. In our personal lives we also should also have a code to live by. So the question becomes, by what code will you live by?

You might say our legal codes and while they are very important and should be adhered to, they are far to complicated for any one individual to master. Many court cases require teams of lawyers because of the volumes of laws that need to be studied. No one man can cover it all adequately, there is just too much to know. This may be by their design to add to our confusion but that is another story. An individual’s code has to be simpler than this. We need something that we could read and study for ourselves. Our code needs to be smaller or more condensed in order for us to even have a chance of understanding it. Perhaps some code of ethics or morals that are confined to one book could work. If we use this book to write a statement for ourselves we might do better. That is, as long as we can follow the code.

Most cultures have their own version of rules both secular and religious, which not surprisingly, seem to be quite similar around the world. Humans have been here long enough to test many systems. To our consternation many of them we try over and over again, knowing that they failed in the past. We all too often fail to learn from history. Idi Amin, Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Robert Mugabe, Joseph Stalin, Charles Taylor, and Pol Pot are examples of men who changed the code to match their individual version of ethics. In the next seventy-five years how many more new names could be added to this list? When will civilization learn that these individual based systems do not work? While mainstream religious systems do a better job of it, they also have failed. This failure seems to occur when a few individuals have been allowed to rewrite the religious and secular codes. Today we have the religious terrorist groups, which are retesting an old failed system of the rules. This is a system, which encourages people to blow themselves and others up when someone disagrees with their leader’s view. Of course win or lose these leaders are establishing an acceptable way of handling future disagreements they might have amongst themselves. They might like to think about that for a while. The tactic is not new and has been used by some of the above named characters we so loathsomely despise today. These like-minded people also encouraged others to murder innocent bystanders for their own personal agenda. This is not a good CODE to live by. All and all where common cultural basic codes have been practiced the social systems tend to do better. When the personal goals of a few shallow individuals are imposed the main body of society does poorly.

Most civilizations already know the right way to behave. They generally seem to have a very similar set of guiding principles. Principles based on a central rule, which usually is something like this, “Treat others, as you would like to be treated.” Many believe that God gave us this code. It is where individuals have stepped in and added their own personal idea’s that problems occur. The basic code then somehow becomes lost and greed and/or hate begin to grow. Whether you believe God gave us the golden rule or not the fact is, it exists. It seems like it was incorporated into most of our DNA’s. Some say it is like the inbred instinct for survival which nature has given us. It has been around for a long time and without it one would have to question what civilization would be like today. Would it look more like the “out world” of the movie “Road Warrior”? Civilization seems to always do better in an atmosphere that allows the basic values of the Golden Rule. What code do you want to live by? Better yet what world do you want to live in? Each of us helps to create it or destroy it.

Hong Kong in Mexico
This idea is a possible alternative to NAFTA. Our goal should be to help Mexico improve its labor situation, too many laborers and not enough jobs, and to help stem the flow of illegal workers to the United States. Perhaps Mexico could be encouraged to adopt a plan to lease a section of Land to the United States so that companies would be more willing to invest knowing that their investment is backed by US laws and security. It has long been said that there are about thirteen elite families in Mexico and it appears they do not want to invest in Mexico so perhaps a plan like this might make sense. One working example of this idea appears to have been Hong Kong.

Immigration
Our immigration laws appear to be the most liberal in the world. One third of all immigrants in the world come to the United States. We legally admit 2 million people per year. Fourteen percent of these come from Mexico alone. In addition we allow 400,000 H-1B visas and another 900,000 other employment visas each year. Then we hand out 660,000 Student visa’s each year. If this were not enough we also allow an additional 455,000 temporary employment transfers each year. More then 6 million people apply for legal residence each year. We receive so many request that our immigration offices cannot keep up. They currently have a backlog in processing over 3.5 million applications.[8] With 3 billion people in the world living on two dollars or less a day and another 2 billion not much better off we can expect these numbers to grow if no change is forthcoming in these depressed countries. Of course when our economy looks like many of our neighbors to the south this flow would most likely stop. At this point the population flow would likely reverse itself and head south because it is better to live in a nice warm climate, if you’re poor, then to freeze up here. They, those responsible for these migrations, would prefer to push this problem around the world because there is money to be made in doing so.

The world appears at times to enjoy seeing millions of people suffer. Suffer from droughts, food shortages, land shortages, and job shortages. Why? Because we seem to do everything we can to promote population growth. Without truly addressing the cause we feed starving and displaced peoples from overpopulated countries all in the name of being humanitarian. We are far too often just making matters worse. This is because the real reason for all of the above shortages is routinely not being talked about. I am not suggesting that we should not help but that we change the way we help. Our goal should be to create a future where children don’t grow up to face shortages of food, water, and housing and then be exploited for cheap labor.

The solution is for each of us to be able to have a job, housing, food, and water. If we set limits we can do this. First, on how fast we grow as a nation. Secondly, we should not accept the ‘anything goes’ attitudes on population. Countries who allow their population to have more children per family than their neighbors are more likely to be creating their own problems. However, I believe they should have the right to do this as long as they keep their populations within their own borders. Exporting their population excesses is not a good solution to their overpopulation problems. Of course these countries are the friends of those who want cheap labor. When countries encourage large populations they are not friends but enemies of mankind. Why, because they bring on more starvation, disease, and human torture. They are responsible for the miseries an over crowded labor market brings. These miseries start with the lack of employment opportunities and continue on to the lack of food, water, and shelter. And, if as this were not enough, the miseries of wars.
Immigration perhaps, should only occur between nations who have similar family size guidelines in place. And it should not be one way but balanced. Otherwise countries with large family sizes are merely exporting part of their problems to the host country that receives them. If one culture wants to carry high populations within their boarders then they have that right. However, they should not be spilling over into their neighbor’s country to begin causing their same desperate conditions to exist there as in their homeland. The ones who mainly want this are those who want cheap labor.

Welfare Principle
Welfare recipients in some states are expected to repay their welfare benefits if they come into say an inheritance, win the lottery, gain employment or other family members can start paying for their welfare.[9] If citizens are required to repay their debt than why shouldn’t the illegal workers? These illegal workers should be required to repay the “welfare like support this nation granted them.” This being the use of our school systems, highway systems, health systems, police, fire, etc. The average cost per citizen of each of these social programs can be determined. This cost multiplied by the number of years they were here illegally will determine their approximate welfare cost. They should be responsible for repayment of half of this debt. Their employer should be responsible for the other half of the debt. This debt would not be based not on the lower wage they received but on a living wage appropriate for the area of employment. If they cannot find the employer, than they will have to pay the employers share. If they agree to repay their welfare debt and square themselves of all cost the citizens of the United States absorbed for them while they where here illegally they should be allowed to apply to immigrate back in on an expedited status based on the greater number of years they were here. Of course as all potential citizens they should agree to give full allegiance to the United States. In other words they should put their loyalty for the United States over their country of origin. As this would require substantial cost on their part I do not believe many illegal workers will want to return, but if they do after all this they should be welcomed. Note this means no amnesty for business or private employers just as for illegal workers.

Illegal Worker
When a businessman hires an illegal worker for less than a living wage with little or no benefits he saves money. This means other ‘legal workers’ who make a living wage or better will have to pay the social cost that this ‘illegal worker’ imposes on society. Since, the businessman does not pay an adequate repayment to society for the drain he adds to it. These costs are in the nature of Hospitals, Roads, Waste disposal, Police, Parks, Water, Gasoline and much more. Because the illegal makes so little income even if taxes were paid they would get, much, if not most back. This is a winning situation for the businessman, but for the United States of America it is a loss. Soon social programs will not be able to continue. Next the infrastructure systems will begin to decay due to lack of funding. We already have to borrow billions of dollars to keeps basic services going. All while watching billions of US dollars leave the country in the form of cheap labor wages. This helps to weaken our country still further. It is time to stop giving a small percentage of citizens a break and start preserving the United States before our economics resembles that of Mexico.

Consider laws, which demand employers to pay workers at least a living wage for the location they are working in. This will allow citizens an opportunity to apply for these jobs and stop unscrupulous employers from taking advantage of both illegal workers and the citizens of the USA for their own selfish gains.


Cheap Workers
We all learn in school basic supply and demand rules. The more immigrants we have, legal or illegal, the more workers we have. It follows businesses need more people to have more workers so that their cost for labor will be reduced. While this saves them money it cost the rest of our citizens more. One example is health; cheap labor cannot afford to purchase health care. Yet, immigrants get sick or injured just like all of us, but their costs are indirectly added to our health care bills. Their employers pay little or nothing. There are other ways the United State citizens get left holding the bill for these employers who want cheap labor as all social programs are affected. We can stop the invasion of our country by stopping businesses from taking advantage of both these immigrants and United States Citizens. This would be the least expense and easiest way to correct the problem.

Impact study on the General American Public
There should be an impact study just how many illegal people are here and how the additional people are actually affecting our country.[10] The estimate might take into account the culmination of the last 50 years of open borders and include previous amnesty recipients and anchor babies from possibly every country in the world. Look at the impact on the education, social programs, health care, roads, gasoline consumption, land fills, how are they affected? The preliminary studies seemed to indicate cheap labor may be cheap for business, but end up being more expensive for the common American citizen.

Illegal health care and boarder patrol Solutions
Solutions come from exploring ideas. Many solutions require “Tough Love” especially for those who do not know the meaning of the word illegal. One solution for illegal persons using our Emergency Care facilities might be to bill their homeland. The Hospital would submit a bill to the US Government for the care. They will provide the name of the country of origin for the patient and the country they entered the US from. The US Government would pay the hospital and reduce the AID appropriation from both countries for the amount of the hospital fees. For example if the hospital cost were $500 then country #1 and #2’s aid would also be reduced by $500 each to encourage those countries to reduce illegal crossings. Since these cost do not cover the total expenses our taxpayers incur other policies will have to be in-acted as well. I am not so keen on Foreign AID to begin with because in the past it has been used to support some corrupt governmental systems. However there may be legitimate purposes for it. If it ends up in our hospital systems coffers then perhaps our health care cost may come down.
For border control cost, the US Government would again reduce the AID appropriation from both countries equal to the cost of the capture and return fees. For example if the cost were $500 then country #1 and #2’s AID would also be reduced by $500 each to encourage those countries to reduce illegal crossings. $1000 if they were the same country. Since these cost do not cover the total expenses our taxpayers incur other policies will have to be in-acted as well.
For a completely different approach perhaps, impose trade fees on any country, which exceeds the legal limit of immigrants. When excessive amounts of people choose to leave a country the leadership of the country should be held responsible as the cause at least in part. Even NAFTA has ways to protest excessive dumping.


Citizenship by birth in the USA
This right should be reserved only for Parents that are Legal Citizens of the USA. Illegal persons should have no such right, as they are in essence criminals. Our founders never meant that we should provide these kinds of benefits to the entire world. They knew we would never be able to pay for that. What is more to reward criminal behavior is not something they would have approve of. Our founders were clearly for the rule of law. Why would anyone reward someone for breaking the law? Could anyone think our founders were that stupid? Unfortunately there will be some who will say they were and we know who they are. They not only want to permit Anchor Babies for illegal immigrants, but also want to allow the Visa holders to bring their family members here to have their children. By doing this they use us to help pay the hospital fees and as their bonus or reward for this their child becomes a citizen. This clearly does not benefit the United States Taxpayers, and beyond this it is clearly wrong, because they are taking advantage of others and this is a form of steeling.

Laws on aiding and abetting criminals
Illegal persons disobey our laws by crossing without legal papers. Enforce existing laws with fines on businesses who violate our laws. These fines should be large enough to make someone trying to save themselves a buck, at the expenses of the rest of the nation, to think twice.

On another note, if Communism is our enemy why are we aiding and abetting it. We participate in deficit trade with Communist China, but than we put limits on Cuba? Is Communism our enemy or is someone making a buck and placing us at risk? Because of our deficit trade China has billions of US dollars to help our enemies. Would you consider this Aiding and Abetting? Why is our government doing this? Is this part of the FED scheme to keep our economy afloat? Do we really want to undertake this kind of risk?

Price adjustments on goods brought in from other counties
Explore living wage cost adjustments, to be calculated as part of the trade agreements, to offset the wrongful loss of our standard of living. Look into the savings that business has from wages and goods brought into our country. Perhaps these savings should go toward the elimination of taxes on private citizens and public improvement projects. As now it goes solely into the pockets of Corporations or Businesses. The benefit here is that this will help to a degree offset the lost USA jobs, which would have paid taxes. The down side to this is that it takes us closer to being a country like Mexico were fewer people can afford to pay taxes.

Crop Core
Consider establishing an organization, which will help provide an opportunity for USA citizens to pick crops. The benefits of this are three fold. One this would help provide the citizen work force needed to harvest the crops. Two it will help allow farmers the means to pay a living wage through this governmental assistance. And three the money earned by US citizens would be mostly spent in the USA. The farmer would be expected to provide their crops at a fair market price to the US citizens in return.

Fraud in Government Handouts
Or little known government handouts
These handouts should not be available to only the few who know how to navigate the government archives. If these handouts cannot pass the common knowledge test, and than be easily accessible by calling a central help line, they should not be offered. The citizen should not have to be a detective to discover programs that will assist them. While many programs might have merit the benefit system they are provided under is questionable. It is questionable, because it allows other not so appropriate handouts to exist. If we enlist the help of people like Matthew Lesko, the person who sells the secrets to government handouts, we could eliminate the programs that are questionable.[11] We don’t need secret programs. Hiring a person like him is kind of like hiring a hacker to close the security leak. If the program cannot pass our national code test it shouldn't exist.

Population Growth as the “Economic Solution”-Not so fast
If we create 1million jobs a year how does it help our citizens if we allow 3 million illegal and legal people a year to enter our country? If many of the jobs are in the building sector and fewer in the other sectors, what will happen went the building stops? This may be how third world nations are born. Larger populations create the need for more resources. That is, more food, more dumps, more roads, more gas, more schools, more power, and more jobs. Slowing population growth to a level below resource growth should improve conditions in the world. If we do not slow population growth than based on economic laws we face consequences. These being higher prices for food, water, land and building materials, waste disposal, roads, gasoline, education, electricity, and taxes. The only thing that should be cheaper should be labor cost. This isn’t good if you’re the labor.

Based on the above we have to ask ourselves who are the big winners in this “Population Growth Policy”? First, big business and or wealthy individuals to a very large degree, because they hire the most people. These employees include, factory workers, farm workers, domestic servants, maids, yard workers, nannies, etc. Secondly the small business to a lesser degree benefit, because they also hire people as well. Finally we have the ordinary citizens who feel they are winners in this, but in reality they are the biggest losers. While some occasionally employ workers directly this is not normally the case, but they might enjoy some of the second hand savings of the work forces from the first and second place winners, however these trickle down savings are minor.

Basically the system above is a kind of “Chain Letter Scheme” where the people already in trenched at the top are the recipients of the bulk of the rewards. Of course these people will do all that they can to keep this system going. It is a system that works off Cheap Labor and a disregard for the environment. Many of these people have a very different view of the world. It is a view that the world is very large and can handle anything we can dish out. The stresses they impose on the world are more than most people are comfortable with. For them the nature of the environment in your local area is not important. The dump, the nuclear plant, the shopping mall, or the chemical plant is going in your neighborhood and you have little to say about it, if business plans dictate. After all you need a job, right. These people seem to believe that the “Mother Nature” we know, at least in our neighborhood, isn't that nice anyway. So indirectly they are saying, ‘your idea of Nature is not important,’ they are in charge and they know better.

Granted these people are not stupid, however they seem to suffer from a common problem called Greed. It often, when excessive, seems to make us do things, which are detrimental to others. I truly believe that if the Gene for greed was discovered and a therapy was developed these ‘they live individuals’ would be sure to have everyone but themselves cured.

National Energy Plan
A National Energy Plan with a very modest goal of reaching a 90% reduction in foreign oil consumption over the next 10 years.
First we need to agree on some reasons to do so; here is a partial list:
1. A good part of oil money ends up in terrorist hands. It is then used to kill and maim our soldiers and innocent bystanders around the world.
2. The flow of money out of the United States has an economically damaging effect on our country. Less money flowing around in our economy lowers the standard of living for the majority of Americans. This is one reason labor wages have had to come down.
3. Oil products tend to pollute and efforts to find clean sources of energy will help our environment. This then will tend to help us lead healthier lives hopefully lowering our medical cost.
4. Storage facilities for oil products are potential terrorist targets.
5. Our countries economic security is in the hands of foreign governments and this causes unrest in our markets. In other words our dependency on foreign oil puts us in a position where our economy can suffer and cause wars.

These are just a few reasons, which should inspire us to achieve our goal. John F. Kennedy set a goal of landing a man on the moon within a decade. This should inspire us to believe that our goals with oil are possible. I believe that even the powers in control of oil money most likely have now laid plans to reduce their oil trade at some point and may be supportive of this plan. I have hope because we will need their redirection of effort.

Here are the Goals obtainable through research and hard work:
Expand and improve each of the following systems by a minimum of growth plus ½ of 1% per yr. for 10 years:
1. Wind power.
2. Coal power.
3. Bio-diesel.
4. Solar power.
5. Battery technology.
6. Geothermal technology.
7. Hydroelectric generators at dams. This can be achieved by upgrading the older generators to newer improved generators. We can also increase research on generators and waterpower generating systems. We can expand the use of hydroelectric power by developing systems that work on smaller rivers with low profile designs.
8. Rail systems to reduce truck traffic. Develop newer types of trains using alternate technologies. Expand rapid transit systems between urban centers; fares could include use of economical one or two passenger shuttle cars at the Destination City. Encourage use by making trains convenient, fast, easy to use, and productive.
9. The development of lighting systems, which require less power. LED seems promising.
10. The use of insulating material and new building codes to reduce consumption.
11. Research to develop power from the oceans such as wave, tidal, electrical variance, or other concepts, which I can’t imagine at this time.
12. Research into finding alternate products, other the oil, to make plastics.
13. The use and efficiency of gasohol via improvements to automobile engines.
14. Improve performance of hybrid cars.
Here are four points we need to return to:
15. Initiate a consumption goal on each individual to lower their use of energy though the use of newer light bulbs employing programmable thermostats or just by wearing warmer cloths at home and dialing down.
16. Manage our country’s growth so as to optimize its value. Today our growth means importing workers (work visas). This condition has negative effects on the majority of the country while only benefiting a small number of our citizens. These actions cause a need for more oil consumption and burden our social systems. That is, our schools, hospitals, penal systems, highway systems, and distribution systems, waste and pollution systems, and energy systems. This lowers our standards of life and is detrimental to the country as a whole over the long run. However if we managed our growth properly our oil needs would most certainly be reduced. Improving our own educational system would be a start to deceasing foreign workers.
17. We can lower our need for oil simply by reducing the influx of illegal people into our country. This will also help us because the illegal workers will not be sending US dollars out of our country. This will help support our middle class wage structure by keeping more money in our monitory system. As the living wage earner’s wealth declines our life style declines throughout the USA. I cannot believe that the wealthier business people who are currently benefiting by cheap labor want to create the economy of Mexico here in the land they have to live in.
18. Expand and improve our own oil production in the short run with a goal to limit its use in the future via use of other systems mentioned above.

These 18 points are not new ideas; we don’t lack ideas, however we lack a leader to champion a national energy plan, which will benefit not just a few but everyone.

At a modest growth plus .005% improvement each year in each of these 18 categories we would net a total reduction in foreign oil by 90% over the next 10 years. While some of these categories may be troublesome to achieve others could be easier. We should also know that this list of ideas is not all-inclusive and that others will be able to contribute ingenuity well beyond these points. Overall this improvement rate to me is a very modest goal. I believe that many of us have experienced at their place of employment similar request for improvement. Usually those requests are much higher. I seem to recall several years where I was asked to improve by 10%. Difficult as some may try to make this we must all remember going to the Moon wasn’t easy either.
Note that these improvements are all based on growth plus ½ of one percent. We can have a great deal of control on growth. So the better we do here the faster we will become self sufficient in energy.

Katrina
Suppose I told you that we knew a way to help prevent another human disaster in New Orleans from happening in the future. But before I give you the solution, which I think you already know, let us explore some of the reasons why this disaster happened.

l The area where these people are living has been known to be a flood zone.
l It appears most of the people who remained may not have had the money to leave.
l A small number of the people there should have been in mental health hospitals. Clearly they didn’t understand the danger in staying. Unfortunately our system of mental health care allows for these people to wander the streets.
l The rich and poor in this country have adopted a cultural acceptance of some behaviors that we know to be wrong or immoral. We know they are wrong but we look the other way when they occur. These negative behaviors help create some of the people who live off our social programs. The behaviors of drugs and inappropriate sex, which are not healthy for the person physically or emotionally. A small segment of those caught up here were part of this culture.

We need to ask ourselves and our leaders how did we as a nation, allow this to happen? Cheap labor advocates have called for the increase in size of our population. They know that by increasing the supply of human workers the cost of wages will continue to go down. They also know that more people mean more customers for their products. They do not care about what happens to others. Their actions create more and more low wage people and this causes the cost of social programs to grow. The expense of these social programs has grown faster as new people arrive. But tax revenue from low paying jobs is not enough to support these programs. If any city has a large number of people living on minimum wages then they have a problem. Minimum wages means minimum taxes, if any at all, and this is not enough to provide the social programs. Programs needed to supplement their lives at an acceptable level. Because of their income levels they have to live in areas such as flood zones. When social programs such as mental health are reduced, patients which should be supervised, are allowed to walk about as if they where as normal as healthy people. The very wealthy people might accept this cultural slip because it makes them money. The very poor might accept this culture slip because they feel this is their culture. Increasingly the poor, and most all of us, have become too tolerant of poor social morals. Thus we exasperate the problem and it loops back to affect all of us. Rich and poor we all have to mend our ways. If we continue our tolerance without change, we will get no change, and disasters like this will go on an on. While we cannot stop weather disasters from happening we can minimize human disaster by controlling overpopulation. Bringing in excess populations for low paying jobs is not a valid solution for our economic situation. In other parts of the world we call this condition a “Third World Nation.” Is this what we really want? If we control our greed we can control our population growth, as this is part of the answer to preventing human disasters.
Disaster Victims and Aid to Central & South America
Would it be possible and is it a good idea to offer the following option? For disaster victims only, should we offer any qualified low-income pension recipient a chance to relocate to any friendly South or Central American country with location and transportation assistance from the US government? In return income from these immigrants would raise the economic wealth for the host country. This could possibly better the standard of living on both sides. And if our citizens relocated near US facilities they might be able to use these services at reduced cost. This could all be verified via fingerprints or retinal scans or whatever method is appropriate.

Problems with similar solutions
Rolling Blackouts and high gasoline prices are caused because too many people are trying to use a limited amount of energy. Overcrowding on the highways, bridge repairs, damage to roads and pollution is tied to overpopulation problems. Loss of natural habitats and environmental pollution are again all growth problems. The cheap labor issue is also a population issue. Economics 101 teaches that supply and demand dictates price. For the average US citizen this means they have to work for less. For the businesses this means they can charge a higher price and lower employee wages. For example gasoline cost more because more people are trying to purchase it and thus the supply is reduced leading to higher prices. All of these problems can be addressed in the following way. Control the illegal population growth, remove incentives for having lots of children, and develop a new national energy policy based on our national code. Limit growth to actual available resources within our country. Prosecute and penalize parents who continue to produce children beyond a reasonable limit, a limit which the majority of citizens can agree on. I know this sounds harsh but it may have to come to this if the current corrupt growth scheme continues. This limit would be better than having them starve to death in the future. We have been conditioned to support full blown growth so this is going to be hard for most of us to except. We should run it through the national guiding principles that we establish to see that we do not take excessive advantage of our citizens both current and future. We will need to address limits to our immigration laws and work them into our own population growth planning guidelines. The goal is to avoid having to resort to a Chinese plan of one child per couple in the distance future, a worse case scenario.

Effects of Advertising
The obvious point of any commercial is to TEMPT you. Temptation is one reason for there existence, its one of there purposes. I know this makes them all sound evil but of course they are not all bad. Anyway they have other purposes and some are actually very good. However we need to understand we have a large responsibility in viewing them so that we do not become overwhelmed by them. As I mentioned earlier the tremendous effects that advertising has to influence people is often taken too lightly. We tend to think we have a handle on it and we don’t let it over take us. We are in charge not them. Well if this were so why do they continue to spend an enormous amount of money on advertising? Answer, it pays to advertise. Now know that you are influenced greatly regardless of what you say. It seems ironic that on the negative side, of advertising, THEY use all their power to get people to put themselves in debt than turn around and criticize the citizens for not putting money in saving accounts. They then use this as an excuse to borrow from other countries so that we can pay them interest, and they can affect conditions world wide.

Democrats and Republicans will spend hundreds of millions of dollars electing their candidate for president in November 2008.[12] I can tell you right now that the party leaders will not select the candidate that most of us would choose. Sure some might be amongst the early field of candidates but it is highly unlikely they will make it to the convention. At least if you are one of those people who think there are only two parties. Of course those other parties do not have millions of dollars of corporate money backing them so they will make it seem like they shouldn’t be counted as legitimate candidates. But take your favorite candidate and place him or her in this boat. Say he or she was in this third party, chances are that candidate in your eyes now would become illegitimate. What I am trying to say is just because your candidate does not have money to run doesn’t make him or her any less of a person. The fact they don’t have corporate backing might even be viewed as a plus in selecting him or her as your candidate. If corporate America doesn’t like this candidate than he or she most likely would be a candidate that will work for our country not just corporate America. I would really enjoy seeing America vote for one of these outside candidates. To see the duopoly spend all that money and loose would serve them right. They created the system that cost millions to enter so that they couldn’t lose. Wouldn’t it be a kick to see that happen? All we would have to do is simply not vote for them. That’s a pretty simple solution. It is their game but you can chose not to participate under their rules, which are vote for party A or party B only. Even if your candidate loses you win because as long as he or she would have been a champion for the Common America citizen you were doing the right thing. They would want you to choose between the worst of two evils. Of course they own them both.

What can be done to change THEM?
For whatever time we have left to us, we should all make an effort to live our lives appropriately. This requires running our country under the moral codes that our forefathers set in motion a long time ago. They sought the wisdom of God and so should we; this wisdom is simply a way of life which champions good over evil. One goal of this book is to try to strengthen your resolve not to participate in their schemes. Another goal is to give them an opportunity, should they happen to read this, to reconsider what they are doing. The bible does explain that even they have a chance. As far as most of us are concerned being aware of them is helpful as we can avoid their spin. Being aware of their nature and plans can help you to not get hurt by them. You in turn might help others from getting hurt. This book touched on some of the issues that I have run across in my life. I am sure you might have other useful ideas. Keeping the Golden Rule is a good place to start. Search out news sources that actually do research on what they report. Avoid news sources who simply read information off the wire. At school run your instructors through a prism of life to find out where they are coming from. Know where you should be coming from. What is it that you want? Don’t easily accept that what “THEY” are telling you, is for the good of us all. Be a skeptic.

Solutions
What normally happens these days when we try to resolve our issues is that we get a multitude of solutions. Each one represents an individual’s point of view. Because of all these views we have a difficult time agreeing on a solution, so we fail. One way to ease this problem is to focus on a central goal. Remember the national code I spoke of earlier; one of its bullet points was that our solutions should focus on benefiting the largest number of citizens. This is because the more citizens that benefit the more prosperous and stronger the entire nation becomes. Sharing in success is a great incentive to self-improvement. Not just in material wealth but in social wealth. If we have more unity our chances for success improve. Solutions with standards require families, friends, and neighbors to agree on them. They become our code of conduct in a sense, which fosters good. We tend to make decisions by asking ourselves “what’s in this for me?” I hope you now know that there is more to gain from choosing the high road then from choosing THEM. You could even say it this way. It is better for the nation, future generations, and even them that YOU LIVE.
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