QUESTION: Is America Headed In The Wrong Direction 205

Tracey..

Good list of questions..

I feel optimistic about America, the government, economy and neutral on society..

Government: US' strength is the 2 party system.. where in on a regular basis we have a constant churn of candidates and parties.. Presidential office is a prime example of the constant split between D & R parties.. Generally, free speech is also well respected and allowed in most circles. This prompts good debate leading to hopefully a better solution in most cases. I am a little concerned that the republicans, typically standing for small government, has created a bloated bureacracy, increased spending.. et al Also, I am concerned that Democrats don't have a strong united voice.. I say this without bias towards away from either party.. For America, we need 2 or more choices.. not both parties having very similar populist behavior rather than debating the actual issues..

For political debate, we could probably use more issue based political discussions rather than people based politics.. lets discuss the principles issues and beliefs.. not poke holes in each candidates' personality. No one is perfect.. so one can always find skeletons in everyone's closet.

Lobbying reform will be a great thing to have.. but realistically, I don't think this can be accomplished. This is unfortunate.. as a lot of good laws are being distorted with additions pork projects.. et al

Economy: This is the leading strength America has.. With its large land mbutt, it can take on more smart researchers, managers.. et al to create an efficient and effective Corporation, University,... organization. There is no other country our size that has such welcoming atbreastude towards accepting new people. This was and will remain our key strength and differentiator in staying on top of the world economically. US also has one of the lowest taxes (among the world's biggest markets) which makes it a business friendly atmosphere.. There is a lot of hoopla about outsourcing.. But lets not kid ourselves.. US' strength has been in envisioning, incubating and creating the next microsofts of the world, the next super efficient Wal-marts of the world, not in manning call centers. Intel, Cisco, IBM and all major corporations are all hiring people here (and also in developing countries). But the high end research work is and will always be done here in the USA. This is our strength. Why am I so sure?.. Every smart person wants the best place to live, work. American cannot be beat on the quality of life.. though other nations might be coming close.

side Note: the recent debate on immigration is good..We need to fix this broken system. if we believe that we are a nation of immigrants, then this life blood artery is in dire need of repair and fixing. hopefully, the congress and senate will work out a fair workable and future looking solution.. rather than a band aid solution

Society: I am neutral on this.. The biggest reason I am neutral is because the churn between upper clbutt and lower clbutt is at an all time low in the USA. Te elaborate, the probability, based upon broad trends, that a person born into the lower clbutt will climb up to the higher clbutt (and vice versa) is the lowest it has ever been since we started tracking this.. This means that rich people will tend to remain rich.. or get richer.. This is not a bad thing.. as long as poor people also get a fair shot in becoming rich.. which, data suggests, is not happening.. That has me concerned as it is reverting to dynastical hereditary richness..

(Makes one wonder why we are talking about repealing the "estate tax" "rest tax")

Having said all that, do I believe that America will remain compebreastive even if we don't fix anything?

I believe so.. I believe that the spiritual essence of America is the core of this idea called the USA. I believe that US will remain one of the only super powers for a long time. We have a chance to be a better leader if we fix problems.. but we will remain a leader neverthless..