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My spouse tells me that I am a cynic. Well, that is true. However, I am also very pragmatic, a contrarian and a stoic. This possibly makes for an interesting personality.
I vote split tickets, although over the years I have been registered as a Democrat, as a Republican and as an Independent.
I have spent my entire life working in support of US manufacturing and heavy industry; things like electrical generation, steel mills, petrochemicals, cement and lime plants, etc. I was obviously perturbed when the politicians in the 1990’s began talking in earnest about “sunset” industries and promoted the “service” economy. I was skeptical. I had a lot of questions. If we are to replace manufacturing in this country, what will we replace it with and, who will benefit and who will not? Who is it that is promoting this to the politicians; that is, who has the “ear” of congress and of the President and will these people benefit as in profit from this change? How will we shift as an economy and a workforce and who will lose; that is, who will be left behind or be unable to adapt? Is our education system up to the task of preparing our children for this “new” economy and what is the evidence either way?
I wrote a few letters to the politicians and have had many energetic conversations with my fellow citizens. The results were not good. Overwhelmingly the politicians were convinced that this is the way to go and I was, as they say, marginalized. Similar concerns over energy, the insolvency of the social security system, etc. also fell on deaf ears. I understand. Oil at $20 per barrel was cheap and there was no will to do the things that were necessary to ensure our well being 20 or more years in the future.
So here we are in 2008 and many people are wondering “how did we get here”? As this is an election year I decided to begin posting my views which are subject to debate. At the very least, this provides a nice backup for this stuff on these servers.
