Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, that is the crux of the matter. It seems that people keep harping on the state of our economy, that corporations are making money but not hiring Americans. Giving tax breaks to corporations that outsource American jobs is almost treasonous. Are we going to emulate the Roman Empire, giving our citizens welfare and depriving them of honest labor? We all know that it was a significant part of the eventual failure of that once prosperous and powerful empire.

Americans are suffering from nearsightedness, allowing party loyalties to make our political system almost powerless to be able to act positively and proactively. When bills pass Congress they are usually watered down and not nearly as effective as needed.

The answers to our economy have been echoed by our experts for some time, but our politicians refuse to respond. Clean tech, biotech and green tech need to be a national priority. China is passing us in these revolutionary fields, when the world should be flocking to us for these essential new industries; we fight and argue over the very merits of these technologies.

If America wants to provide technology and manufactures to the world, we need to continue to be the innovators and create these new technologies. Watering down our educational system, stopping the brightest minds from third world countries from working here, are the dumbest moves we could have made.

If we continue to create a two-tier educational system, we will pay the piper. Every American should have a good education, thus we can harvest the finest minds to power our corporations, and think tanks, not waste them in barrios, ghettos, in gangs and prisons.

 

Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.