I love that term "going forward" so many consultants use that, as if clients actually want to go backwards. It's hilarious everytime I hear it, I mock it without remorse, but I digress.....
As the election nears, and the excitement builds to a crescendo, I thought I would put together a list of the top things that concern me regarding our (not my, but our…as in all of us…together) future as Americans.
Education: I definitely would like to see our pols at the local, state and national level make a concerted effort to encourage a stronger educational structure from K through university. We are not producing enough mathematicians and scientist, period. This is important because math and science nerds (jk) create and invent combustible engines, computers, algorithms, processors and a lot of other good things that move our society forward. America competitiveness on the world stage is directly related to us being able to invent and EXPORT technology that keeps us ahead of the curve…we can be a major producer again, but we can’t keep looking backwards and trying to support sagging industries.
Security: I don’t like the term Defense, because it’s myopic in that it reduces our National Security to war and intelligence, which are very important but should also be tied closely to diplomacy and not the perfunctory kind. I know there is a small subset of our populous that has been marketed to over the last 8 years and thus likens diplomacy to being a sissy. I actually disagree and like the tone of former Undersecretary for Defense Dick Armitage when it comes to security. He essentially said that we should do everything in our power to avoid using force, but when it is needed it is going to be strong, decisive and quick. This is done so that your enemy, and everyone else watching, never makes the mistake of thinking they can challenge you.
Taxes: I was lucky enough to go to a pretty good university and then catch on with a Top Tier consultancy. I was trained well, had exposure to top flight executives and directors and learned a lot very quickly. This allowed for me to draw a pretty decent salary starting at a relatively young age. Couple that with my investments and I’ve done pretty well, I’ve undoubtedly been blessed. The easy thing for me to do would be to complain about paying more in taxes. Or how I’m gonna get soaked on new cap gains or how we should just have a flat tax so I can keep more of my money. IMO those arguments are bull. Very few people “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” in a vacuum, there is always help whether you know it or not, direct or indirect. And most of the time that help comes from the taxpayers.
Energy (Technology): This kinda sorta goes hand in hand with Education, but I isolate it because I think there is an opportunity (and now impetus) for us to focus private and public dollars on developing technology that will lessen our dependence on foreign oil. As a part wonk, one of my biggest concerns is that oil producing nations have the ability to literally bring our nation and other developed nations to a screeching halt by simply deciding to withhold oil; I want to lessen the upside of that card, should it ever be played.
Immigration: For the life of me I cannot figure out how Mexican or other Latino immigration should be viewed any differently than that of western Europeans during the past 200 years. NO immigrant group ever comes over educated, wealthy and nationalized. All immigrants typically come over poor, clinging to old mores and undereducated, but they all have one trait I like they’re hungry…metaphorically speaking. They are hungry for education, hungry to make a contribution and while the earlier generations usually cling to familiar cultural customs the American born generations desperately want to acclimate and like Europeans see themselves as AMERICANS with foreign roots. I think illegal immigration as the law is written should be enforced, but I think we should think revisit policy that deals with Mexican immigration apart from that. I have heard forward thinking counter arguments that parts of the southwest US could become too highly populated legitimately putting secession on the table, and that this wasn’t a problem with Europeans vis-à-vis the Atlantic. We would need to THINK CRITICALLY about this, but theories (dressed up as xenophobia) aren’t a good enough reason to not address it.
