I think there are a few major things that need fixing in America that our presidential candidates should be focusing on:
Schools
We still have one of the best, if not the best, university systems in the world. People from all over the world come here to study. But it’s expensive as hell compared to the system in other nations. Some excellent technical schools are now in India and China, and this trend will continue. In future decades, brilliant Africans may well go to China rather than to the U.S. to study.
Where we sorely lack is at the level of high school and below. While our best and brightest (and richest) can definitely bubble to the top and succeed, the vast majority of Americans are getting a watered-down education. I know first-hand. My secondary education was in Germany and it runs circles around U.S. high schools, then and now. Schools need fixing.
Unions
Unions hurt efficiency at the workplace and competitive wages (and with competitive I mean competitive with China and India). They do a disservice to our economy and our country. I am not saying that unions need to disappear. I am saying that I think they have way too much influence over our industry, our workers, and as a result to our competitiveness with the rest of the world. Unions need fixing.
Roads / Infrastructure
There was a time when our road and freeway system was the best in the world, certainly the largest. Today, our roads and bridges crumble. Just a couple of days ago I drove through New York City on I-678, I-95 and I-87. The roads are terrible. The bridges rusty. Road capacity seems still the same it was in 1975. Why is there no decent and convenient train connection from JFK to Manhattan? Why can’t you get on a train at LAX to go to downtown LA? LAX is one of the major airports in the world and there is no train to it. Inconceivable. In many European cities you can get out of an airplane, go down to levels to baggage claim, pick up your luggage and go down two more levels on the escalator and you are in the middle of a major train station with connections to all major cities in Europe. Our infrastructure needs fixing.
Health Care System
We have our politicians squawk about the health care system. Romney wants to repeal “Obamacare.” Ok – like that is a plan! He proposes nothing as an alternative, which leads me to assume that he wants to go back to Bush’s environment, where my company’s insurance premiums for health insurance rose between 20 and 35% every year for the last 10 years. And while that went on, the only way we could cope with it was to raise our deductibles. We now pay more than ever before, but I don’t think we’re any healthier than the British or the Israelis, both with socialist systems.
I am not saying that we have a great system. I am not saying that Obama’s plan is the best it could be. But just repealing Obamacare solves nothing but it puts us back to where we were before – in a lousy position. That is not a plan. That’s an inane soundbite.
We pay more than anyone else in the world for healthcare, and we’re not healthier. Our health care system needs fixing.
Immigration System
Our entire immigration policy is out of a different century and completely inadequate for the world as it is today. Our economy needs foreign workers, particularly in agriculture and low-end services. The Guatemalan picking strawberries in the fields in California is not taking away the job of the guy just laid off from Blackberry (Research in Motion), even though both deal with berries.
Criminalizing illegal aliens hurts the aliens, and it hurts our economy. We need these people. We should have a proper guest-worker program, so they can live and work legally and with dignity, and pay taxes like all of us. Their children are born as citizens anyway, so what’s the point?
And further, we don’t have anywhere near enough visa for the tech sector. There are people all over the world who want to work in the United States that we’re not letting in due to our quota. This is an insanely narrow-minded policy. It kills industry, innovation and throttles what we as Americans do best: Create and build new stuff and lead the world with it. We don’t just have a brain-drain. We’re forcing the best and brightest in the world to go to China for their careers. And go they do.
Our immigration policies need fixing.
Stop Messing with other Countries
After spending a trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our jingoists are getting ready to hassle the next country: Iran. Haven’t they figured out that wars don’t work, but cost a fortune in dollars and dearly in people. I think of the thousands of Americans that died overseas, tens of thousands that lost limbs and health, hundreds of thousands affected by losing loved ones. All for what? I do not for a minute believe that I am today safer because of what happened in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I am not drinking the Kool-Aid.
We need to stop messing around with other counties.
Tax System
Our tax system is unfair, not conducive to stimulating business, Byzantine. Our tax system needs fixing.
….
Instead:
Our politicians talk about religion, same-sex marriage, abortion, homophobic chicken sandwiches, gun control or lack thereof and creating jobs, as if politicians had any way to create jobs.
They should instead work on fixing the stuff that needs fixing, tell us about that, and the rest of the country will fall in place – and they’ll continue to get elected.
It’s all backwards.
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Fixing America
August 3, 2012 by Norbert Haupt
I think there are a few major things that need fixing in America that our presidential candidates should be focusing on:
Schools
We still have one of the best, if not the best, university systems in the world. People from all over the world come here to study. But it’s expensive as hell compared to the system in other nations. Some excellent technical schools are now in India and China, and this trend will continue. In future decades, brilliant Africans may well go to China rather than to the U.S. to study.
Where we sorely lack is at the level of high school and below. While our best and brightest (and richest) can definitely bubble to the top and succeed, the vast majority of Americans are getting a watered-down education. I know first-hand. My secondary education was in Germany and it runs circles around U.S. high schools, then and now. Schools need fixing.
Unions
Unions hurt efficiency at the workplace and competitive wages (and with competitive I mean competitive with China and India). They do a disservice to our economy and our country. I am not saying that unions need to disappear. I am saying that I think they have way too much influence over our industry, our workers, and as a result to our competitiveness with the rest of the world. Unions need fixing.
Roads / Infrastructure
There was a time when our road and freeway system was the best in the world, certainly the largest. Today, our roads and bridges crumble. Just a couple of days ago I drove through New York City on I-678, I-95 and I-87. The roads are terrible. The bridges rusty. Road capacity seems still the same it was in 1975. Why is there no decent and convenient train connection from JFK to Manhattan? Why can’t you get on a train at LAX to go to downtown LA? LAX is one of the major airports in the world and there is no train to it. Inconceivable. In many European cities you can get out of an airplane, go down to levels to baggage claim, pick up your luggage and go down two more levels on the escalator and you are in the middle of a major train station with connections to all major cities in Europe. Our infrastructure needs fixing.
Health Care System
We have our politicians squawk about the health care system. Romney wants to repeal “Obamacare.” Ok – like that is a plan! He proposes nothing as an alternative, which leads me to assume that he wants to go back to Bush’s environment, where my company’s insurance premiums for health insurance rose between 20 and 35% every year for the last 10 years. And while that went on, the only way we could cope with it was to raise our deductibles. We now pay more than ever before, but I don’t think we’re any healthier than the British or the Israelis, both with socialist systems.
I am not saying that we have a great system. I am not saying that Obama’s plan is the best it could be. But just repealing Obamacare solves nothing but it puts us back to where we were before – in a lousy position. That is not a plan. That’s an inane soundbite.
We pay more than anyone else in the world for healthcare, and we’re not healthier. Our health care system needs fixing.
Immigration System
Our entire immigration policy is out of a different century and completely inadequate for the world as it is today. Our economy needs foreign workers, particularly in agriculture and low-end services. The Guatemalan picking strawberries in the fields in California is not taking away the job of the guy just laid off from Blackberry (Research in Motion), even though both deal with berries.
Criminalizing illegal aliens hurts the aliens, and it hurts our economy. We need these people. We should have a proper guest-worker program, so they can live and work legally and with dignity, and pay taxes like all of us. Their children are born as citizens anyway, so what’s the point?
And further, we don’t have anywhere near enough visa for the tech sector. There are people all over the world who want to work in the United States that we’re not letting in due to our quota. This is an insanely narrow-minded policy. It kills industry, innovation and throttles what we as Americans do best: Create and build new stuff and lead the world with it. We don’t just have a brain-drain. We’re forcing the best and brightest in the world to go to China for their careers. And go they do.
Our immigration policies need fixing.
Stop Messing with other Countries
After spending a trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our jingoists are getting ready to hassle the next country: Iran. Haven’t they figured out that wars don’t work, but cost a fortune in dollars and dearly in people. I think of the thousands of Americans that died overseas, tens of thousands that lost limbs and health, hundreds of thousands affected by losing loved ones. All for what? I do not for a minute believe that I am today safer because of what happened in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I am not drinking the Kool-Aid.
We need to stop messing around with other counties.
Tax System
Our tax system is unfair, not conducive to stimulating business, Byzantine. Our tax system needs fixing.
….
Instead:
Our politicians talk about religion, same-sex marriage, abortion, homophobic chicken sandwiches, gun control or lack thereof and creating jobs, as if politicians had any way to create jobs.
They should instead work on fixing the stuff that needs fixing, tell us about that, and the rest of the country will fall in place – and they’ll continue to get elected.
It’s all backwards.
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