bedrog

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 8:21 p.m.

Whether you are a far righty ( blaming ''socialist", "non citizen" barack ' hussein' obama for social and economic policies sent over the bridge by a previous republican administration) or a far lefty (decrying monies spent on conflicts initiated and continued by those clearly bent on our destruction) NOTHING will be solved by electing those who are so intellectually bankrupt as to disbelieve science ( evolution, climate change etc ) in favor of theocratic fairytales and to favor isolationism in an age of very real threats from abroad , be they of the jihadist or less flamboyant economic variety.. Some "teaparty '- style zealotry of the moderate sane ( of whom our president is one, say what you will to the contrary) is very much overdue.

Goober

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 8:10 p.m.

After reading all of these comments, it is very apparent that our politicians are doing exactly what we are doing. Until we put aside petty differences and collaborate for the best decisions for all US citizens, we will maintain this impossible approach to solving our debts issues, unemployment issues, etc. This applies to all, no matter if they are democrats, republicans, tea party, or other. We need to try harder to quit pointing fingers and put all of our energy and efforts into working together.

tim

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 4:36 p.m.

I firmly believe that government could do great things to help the average American (Universal health care etc). At the same time I don't think it's fair that so many don't contribute ( thru taxes) to that government. I like the ancient Israeli approach --- where leaders called for everyone to pay the same percent of there income (tithe or ten %). That percent would have to change for a modern world and so would the social safety net. The safety net would have to increase to accommodate the lose of cash of lower income households, but at least everyone would have the same stake in what Washington does.

sbbuilder

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 3:51 p.m.

"Buy Made in the USA" is a mantra sounded by many. Increasingly, however, it is becoming almost impossible. I can speak to the tools we use to build, because for the past thirty years, that has been my business. Black and Decker led the charge in the early-mid eighties to off-shore their production. Then they purchased companies like DeWalt, and all of their inventory went overseas. I have refused to purchase a single tool made in China. About as far as I go is to buy Hitachi, because their stuff is really good. And now, their tools are increasingly made in China. Japanese tools made in China? Nuts. The worst has happened recently. Porter Cable, which was the industry standard for decades, has abrubtly shifted their production to China, and now their stuff is junk. They took a company that had the gold plated standard for quality and threw it in the gutter. All in the matter of months. I buy and have serviced many of my tools from Electric Tool. Those tend to be the commercial version of similar tools found in the big block stores. Now, they don't know from one week to the next where their next supplier will come from. Companies are being bought out left and right, and as a result the parts pipelines are in a shambles. What's going on here? Henry Ford had it right a long time ago. Produce here, and pay your employees enough that they will buy the very products they make. It is self sustaining. Balance of trade is the silent killer of our economy. At some point our economy will be sucked dry unless we return "Made in the USA" a priority of our economic recovery.

5c0++ H4d13y

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 2:10 p.m.

Maybe if the government wouldn't put so many road blocks to starting a business people wouldn't find it so hard to get ahead. A License to Shampoo: Jobs Needing State Approval Rise <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703445904576118030935929752.html" rel='nofollow'>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703445904576118030935929752.html</a> A lot of these requirements are erected to protect special interest constituencies and not in the public interest.

Homeland Conspiracy

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 2:09 p.m.

Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 a.m. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine! (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in.....AMERICA! .....

Lamont Cranston

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 1:55 p.m.

More class warfare will not solve the problems that our country faces today. The blame the rich game in an attempt to justify the left's indignant demand that the rich are not paying enough, is quite frankly tiring. Nearly half (46%) of Americans are not paying any tax, and we are wondering why we have fiscal problems? The sad thing is that is going to be a political rant of the felt and democrats this next election cycle. It is not going to solve any problems, but it will fire up the left to donate more money for the Democrats. We have serious problems in this country and the &quot;make someone else pay&quot; demands of the left while refusing to make any cuts to their sacred cows will leave us in the same place... in a recession, with high unemployment and facing another debt crisis. We are facing unprecedented deficits with unprecedented debt levels. Countries across the globe are facing similar situations. What is the common thread...spending more than what you have. Maybe we start by trying to start by live with in our means (both personally and as a government). Do we really need the Thousands of redundant programs. Can we review them and pick the most successful programs and expand those and fund their expansion by cutting the inefficient, ineffective programs? Can we look at closing the revenue gap by looking at why half the Americans not paying any taxes? is this fair? As a country today with the fiscal problems that we face, we cannot afford having half of Americans not contributing to our government.

Mr Blue

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 1:52 p.m.

To put &quot;starve the beats in perspective a commenter on Bloomberg posted this which I thought was insightful: &quot;Starve The Beast was the brainchild of the Confederacy. They rejected the vision of Clay's American System of industrialization and mass production, which called for both protective tariffs (a revenue generating import tax that protected manufactures) and public infrastructure spending that enabled distribution. The Confederate Constitution rejected centralized (big) government control, industrialization, public expenditures and taxes on the aristocratic few, enabled by the capture of state government by vote rigging. Based on their economic worldview of slavery, agricultural exports, and finished goods imports, it made sense to the few that benefited. It was not sound economic policy for the majority and impaired the growth of the South, who's economic worldview was ridiculed even in those days.&quot; KInd of sounds like today's Tea Party failed philosophy.

David Wallner

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 1:18 p.m.

The opinion piece looks like an attack aimed at those of us who would promote the Constitution over the Gates Foundation. The &quot;Starve the Beast&quot; reference sounds like an inflammatory rhetorical attack to me. How about let's just take those tasks and put them back in the control of the states where they belong, with the possible exception of interstate infrastructure. I cannot think of very many things the Federal is really good at, other than promoting waste and abuse. Let's get rid of all the special interests and let the free market and the will of the people run the country

snoopdog

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 1:14 p.m.

&quot;Andrew Heller's opâ€ed piece of Aug. 14 asks, "Has the fabled American dream become a nightmare?" It is becoming one. &quot; President Obama is doing his level best to single-handedly destroy our economy and throw us into another recession. Billions of dollars of wealth for middle class and upper middle class income earners has been wiped away. &quot;The absurd growth over the last 30 years of income inequality &quot; Absurb growth of the Federal government has driven jobs and wealth overseas. &quot;As long as each of us manages to get along by thinking "at least I've got mine," we will continue this descent until enough of us finally recognize that too many of us do not "have theirs" and an even higher percentage of our kids will not "have theirs." Sounds like a &quot;socialists&quot; rant to me. &quot;and the (political) right's "starve the beast" approach to supporting education, infrastructure, research, and universal health insurance place us on a collision coarse with hard times.&quot; Since when was universal healthcare part of the American dream ? The top 5% of all income earners in the USA pay 58.72% of the taxes, the bottom 50% pay less than 3% . Your class warfare boat doesn't float ! Good Day

David Briegel

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 1:14 p.m.

Bob, It is amazing that you can blame the middle class and govt workers and let the &quot;500 percent top income growth&quot; off the hook. All the benefits of our civil society have been greedily snatched up by those at the top while completely ignoring the rest of society. Labels like makers and takers as though all those at the top are somehow different or better than the rest are destroying the fabric of our society. And you mention health care that we can barely remember but you don't think all are worthy. Just some? Health care for all would have taken that issue off the table for American business and allowed them to concentrate on their primary mission. The primary cause of trade deficits is that while trade is supposedly free, there is nothing fair about our trade policies. Why should we lower our standards to China's non-existent standards instead of demanding standards out of the Chinese? Do we have to compromise every aspect of our civil society to compete with Communist China? And what will we do when China Spring comes between the Chinese people and Wall St greed?

Gorc

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 1:06 p.m.

I can't wait to read all the posted comments for this opinion piece. The left will blame the right...the right will blame the the left. It will be like our politicians in Washington D.C. wasting time and accomplishing nothing.

Basic Bob

Sun, Aug 21, 2011 : 12:56 p.m.

The primary cause of trade deficits is the short-sighted bargain hunting practiced by consumers, buying Japanese autos, Chinese televisions, Indonesian textiles. We may all have really nice stuff in our homes, but this has put many Americans out of jobs. We can ask the government to solve this problem, or we can take it on ourselves to be part of the solution. &quot;Buy American&quot; is not a bad thing, as it creates jobs for our fellow citizens. Just saying, no one would be complaining about the 500 percent growth in top incomes if the rest of us got the same. Public sectors workers are equally to blame. Their reticence to accept short-term reductions in benefits in order to achieve long-term goals is despicable. In the mean time, they create cuts to the number of teaching positions, short the government money to fix the roads, and force the government to pay for health care coverage that the rest of us can barely remember. They may keep themselves firmly in the middle class, but only by pushing the rest of us down. Sadly, neither political party has the guts to do what the author desires.