What's Wrong With America's Economy?

The cover of The Economist magazine asks that question.  The answers [sic - plural] are staring everyone in the face; all that is required is the courage to recognize them.  Here are six primary problems.

1.  The US overtaxes jobs via the Social Security tax, Medicare tax and numerous state & local employment taxes.

2.  All levels of government puts innumerable layers of red tape and requirements on businesses that employ people, particularly ones that employ more than 50 people, both at creation and in ongoing operations.

3.  Trillions of dollars of the rich is invested in hedge funds that prefer to trade paper securities rather than make long term investments in businesses.

4.  Foreign production and services provided to US corporations pay nothing to support American society; consumers of foreign goods and services pay nothing, either.

5.  Employer-based "benefits" systems both raise the cost of good jobs and lock people into jobs they would prefer to leave; the system is a form of tax and red tape combined.

6.  The Ruling Class uses corruption of all kinds and levels of severity to extract benefits for itself and hurt the common man and woman:  this is done both via the Federal and state & local governments and via the legal system.

Bin Laden

Kudos to Barry for taking off the handcuffs and getting Osama bin Laden.  He was being sheltered in Pakistan for nearly a decade and protected by its ISI spy agency.  Barry, NOT BUSH, started the huge increase in drone attacks and putting more CIA people into Pakistan who were not disclosed to ISI.  That CIA guy who was subject of the deportation dispute shows what was being done.

Bush lied to the people right after 9/11 saying no country could provide a sanctuary.  Pakistan did that and Bush & Rumsfeld refused to push the matter.  Bush & Rumsfeld let him escape Afghanistan.  Barry got him.  Good job!

Now what?  Look, the US did not declare war on Afghanistan.  Time to move out and let them wallow in their own 11th century values or fight for their own freedom.

Word of the Day

"Peripeteia" - noun [$10] a Big Al word
Peripeteia means a sudden change of fortune in a drama or in life.
Sentence:  The War on Terrorism takes a peripeteia on the killing of Osama bin Laden.  Time to re-assess what's been going on and what will be done in the future.