Sense of the Midwest

Madame M:

Capital idea!  “Connections and ‘stuff we didn’t know how to label.’” :)

Your post had quite the sheen on it.  Minting the platinum I see!  Every person that gets better than the person they were the day/week/month/year/decade before creates the good synergy and good acceleration, at least to some degree.  Excellent!

“Most nations have adjusted their national security strategies to focus on economic security, but less so the United States. Washington still principally thinks of its security in traditional military terms and responds to threats with military means.”  It does this while the (real) “basic must-do list is lengthy, unforgiving, and depressingly obvious: improve public schools to sustain democracy and restore global competitiveness; upgrade the physical infrastructure critical to economic efficiency and homeland security; reduce public debt, the interest on which is devouring revenue; stimulate the economy to create jobs; and promote new sources of energy and freer trade to increase jobs, lower foreign debt, and reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil.”

Leslie Gelb, Nov/Dec 2010, Foreign Affairs.

Our problems are not insurmountable.  We just have a resource misallocation problem.  The things which will remove problems and create synergy—things like energy independence; societal-benefit jobs; environmental cleanup and preservation; infrastructure reform, repair, enhancement, and construction—are being starved.

We instead feed the already exorbitantly rich even more exorbitant advantages and evasions of responsibility.  And we continue Cold War acquisitions—high dollar items at that—amid ramped up/continuous overall “defense” spending the Republic had not seen up until the aftermath of WW2, and in blatant disregard for Eisenhower’s warning in his Farewell Address.

Gelb again: “Truman and Eisenhower carried out their reforms while holding military spending in check -- Pentagon budgets came last, not first. Both presidents allocated defense outlays using the ‘remainder method,’ whereby they subtracted necessary domestic spending from tax revenues and gave the leftovers (the "residual," as Eisenhower called it) to defense.   Eisenhower and Truman were particularly conscious of the ill effects of being a debtor nation. As such, they both essentially balanced the federal budget.”

Isn’t it interesting that the last three presidents to essentially balance budgets came from Midwestern states that adjoin each other—Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas.  Perhaps the less frenzied pace of the middle of the country back then (not sure about now!) permitted more rational thought—and common sense.