Visualizing America

Editor@TheIndependentDaily.com

All is well with America…

We are divided into two camps: Those who think too much about what’s wrong with the country today, including most of us here at TID, and, Those who don’t think at all (i.e. apparently the majority of Americans).

I’m wondering if it’s possible to lift us out of this economic and social funk by merely thinking otherwise. Frankly I’ve had it with the depressed markets – Stocks and Real Estate – and I am fatigued from swimming against the on-rushing current of apathy. How about you?

Let’s try looking at our country from a different perspective: One of improving economics and societal cohesiveness. Let’s visualize America as a place not much different than it was forty, fifty years ago where every man and woman had the inalienable right to do or to become whatever he or she wished: Opportunity always knocks for us.

Let’s set aside the crushing thought of debt that exceeds our annual GDP by trillions of dollars and the fact that much of our country has been sold-off to China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico, and focus instead on the opportunities ahead: We have nowhere to go but up, really.

Take for example, Education. We’re about 40th globally nowadays so there’s much room for improvement at all levels from K-12 through Undergraduate and beyond. We can do so much that we otherwise could not do before when we ranked first in the world.

Given that we have all but lost our Middle Class with a substantial portion of our population sinking into poverty we have thus leveled the wage field globally where America’s workforce – the 50% of who aren’t on permanent Disability, anyway – are an attractive proposition to international manufacturers given our cheap wages and loose safety constraints, like in Texas today.

Perhaps some of China’s clothing manufacturers, who push vast amounts of product through Walmart et al., would consider relocating facilities here where the savings associated with not transporting product would far outweigh any wage differential. And once again we can proudly wear clothing Made in the USA.

Housing opportunities also abound here now, where previously they were few. HUD foreclosures still glut the market and cheap prices continue to plague recovery, but have attracted foreign investment, giving us the chance to sell off more of America to others within our Global Village, as Hillary quaintly termed it – a Neoliberal phrase coined to mean that eventually, everyone will fall under the control of those few corporations who will dominate this part of our Solar System. Coincidentally, they are the same corporations who support many of our Congressional members and the President.

Once some of China’s premier manufacturers relocate facilities here there will be a surplus of shipping containers which, in other countries such as Bolivia and Mexico, have been found to make excellent semi-permanent housing particularly when accented with a window or two and a traditional front entry rather than double-swing loading doors. In South America they are very often wired for both electricity and telephone.

Global Warming isn’t as bad as it seems, either, and will tend to trim up our country geographically as Washington, Oregon, and California loose landmass in the next few years and inland drinking water is contaminated with salt-water intrusion. This in turn will open a market for at-home desalination facilities so that we may use up all that surplus ocean water permeating the landmass, casting it off as inoffensive urine – a wonderful fertilizer.

As an added bonus, Memsys, a German and Singapore company, has developed a fairly portable Desal plant that resides inside a shipping container, further utilizing waste shipping containers and building a seller’s market for those wishing to sell their shipping container home, boosting the Refrigerator Box market even further.

Those who speculate in the Dow have taken great comfort in participating in its rise to record territory without realizing that an investment in the DOW in April 2007 has not kept pace with simple inflation as of today: in fact it has a few hundred dollars more to go, proving that those who are intimately involved with our economic well-being are somewhat sketchy in basic financial principles.

This means that once the Fed and America’s major investors come to better understand that One Dollar in 2007 ought to be worth at least One Dollar today, the markets will open up seeking newer highs rather than celebrating recovery of Eighty-Cents for their former One Dollar bet.

Obamacare will prove to be worthwhile, too, for America because once Stephen Hemsley, CEO for UnitedHealth Group, begins to exceed his present $48 million per year salary, he will begin to contribute more than old clothing to Goodwill and the Salvation Army, establishing shipping container-based offices from which we may more easily enroll in one of Obamacare’s programs, selecting either Platinum, Gold or Silver level enrollment because that will be the closest we will ever again come to Platinum, Gold or Silver.

Gosh, I’m doing so well at this positive-thinking thing. It’s easy once you set your mind to it. Try it yourself and see: within months we’ll be back on top.