America-Sequestration: the hogs are after our money

February 17, 2013

Don't you dare reduce our military budgets!

In response to the threatened sequester, I have been hearing the pro-military supporters expressing these exact words to express their profound concerns about potential reductions in military spending. They complain we have already stripped military budgets to the bone. The number of ships in the Navy have been cut in half over the past few decades. Our men and women in uniform will have smaller pay hikes, and will see their equipment and safety degraded.

Leon Panetta was seen several times in the past few days supporting the same dogma. He states: “we have been asked to do more with less. I'm here to say we will have to do less with less, and to the detriment of American's safety.” He further proclaims: “the military suppliers will have to cut thousands of jobs beginning almost immediately...can you imagine what putting all of these people out of work will do to our economy?”

I keep wondering in which parallel universe Mr. Panetta and the rest of the pro-military crowd lives? They know our nation must borrow nearly $700 billion a year for military spending. Remember, federal law requires tax revenues must first pay for mandated expenses such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, interest on debt, etc., before any discretionary items are funded. Spending for these mandated-by-law items utilizes all current revenues, and, as a result, discretionary spending must be funded by borrowing. They certainly understand we are winding down two extended wars which cost over a trillion dollars. Surely we don't have to keep spending at the levels needed to support those wars.

The pro-military folks also know the real reason for the reduction in the numbers of our naval ships is mostly due to technology making this form of warfare outdated and sea-going vessels less necessary. After all, today we can attack anyone, anywhere with the touch of a button. It certainly doesn't seem likely we will ever see WW II style naval battles again.

When any family, business owner, or even a country is deeply in debt with no visible way to pay off their loans...any rational and prudent financial adviser would tell them to make major reductions in their spending. No true expert would ever advise them to just keep on borrowing and spending, and hoping somehow the problem will solve itself later?

Then to top it all, our President spends obscene amounts of money to build up the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to levels planned to equal our military. Since, this spending is likely hidden within the military budget, is it possible part of the strong support for spending is a less transparent way of funding this incredible endeavor whose true purposes most Americans do not remotely understand.

America spends more for our military than the next 14 developed nations...combined! China, spends less than 20% of the U.S. levels, and Russia is next at around 10%. Common sense should make it abundantly clear we cannot continue to spend these outrageous sums of money because we can't afford it and we don't even really need to.

Ronald Reagan famously forced the Soviet Union to spend their nation into oblivion to keep up with our military. He must be spinning in his grave watching those who followed him lead our own nation down the exact same path toward internally caused destruction.

Would you be surprised if underlying all of this concern for reducing our nation's military spending are lobbyists for the armaments industry? Am I a just suspicious old man? You bet I am, and all of us should feel the same way. After all, this industry stands to lose the most from any changes to America's military spending levels. Their leaders know any reduction in available funding will reduce their financial performance and stock prices...they cannot and will not allow it to happen without a fight. IN fact, we would all be better off if every time we see a talking head on TV bemoaning military cuts...we would envision a capital letter “L” for lobbyist on their forehead.

Those who want to get their greedy hands on our tax dollars and add more debt don't give a tinker's damn about our nation's long term survival. It's all about the next quarter's sales and profits, and the next election cycle.

Mr. Panetta, why have you and your fellow pro-military supporters “somehow” been persuaded to support these industries wants instead of what's truly best for America's citizens?

Mr. President, don't you think the American people deserve to know exactly why the DHS is being so dramatically expanded, and what it's supposed to protect us from?

Of course, in the end, our leaders in D.C will end up doing whatever the armament's industry tell them to do. Our leaders supporting massive industries is exactly what's gotten us so deeply in trouble. Those we elect keep on doing what hasn't worked...and somehow convince us it will eventually work out OK. Our leaders continue to fail us, and too many of us don't even raise an eyebrow in protest. We know what motivates our leaders. The real question is what will it take to motivate us to do something about it?

These are my opinions. What do you think?

Mike Tower

Please also visit my good pal Lee Goldman's blog at:  Lee's Political Opinions

and the website for an organization we co-founded:  Citizens Against Politics As Usual

Automation job-killing expands in America

February 10, 2013

America's coming job-killing tsunami!

Nearly 25 million workers are either terribly under-employed or completely without jobs. Nearly four million jobs were lost in the aftermath of the housing bubble crash. Another several million jobs were lost to lower wage nations over the past couple of decades. Since the recession began our private sector has struggled to add new jobs...but has barely kept up with population expansion. We end up today with the smallest percentage of work-age Americans in the workforce since the early 80s. I wish we could look forward to some realistic good news regarding employment in our nation. We hear many business leaders and politicians telling us we have always come back from recessions and we'll do it again. What if they're wrong? Surely neither group has ever lied to us before?

We watched in horror in 2004 when the tsunami came crashing ashore in Thailand. The damage it caused was incredible. However, it wasn't long before the damage was repaired and tourists were once again back to enjoy this paradise.

The job-killing tsunami coming toward America will be much more destructive as it relentlessly unfolds at a steadily increasing pace. I am referring to the expected massive replacement of human labor by automation which is now in it's infancy, but is projected to expand at rates our leaders can't seem to understand and plan for.

Most companies naturally pursue cost-cutting in order to boost profitability and maintain competitiveness. One of the costliest items...human labor is always on the carving block, and is why millions of jobs left our shores. Experts say the explosive expansion of automation caused by robotics and software will replace human labor in even greater numbers in the future.

A segment shown on the CBS network's 60 Minutes on January 13, 2013 provided the chilling details. (www.60minutes.com) It was hosted by Steve Kroft, and featured interviews with two MIT professors, and other robotics experts. The professors shared their views of the changing future of employment in America, and throughout the world, as the forces of robotics and software increasingly and relentlessly replace human workers.

One professor said the U.S. economy has mostly recovered from the bursting housing bubble by every measure...except for new job creation. He said historically new technology has always destroyed old jobs while simultaneously creating new ones...but he predicts future automation will replace so much human labor, replacement jobs won't be able to keep pace.

Anyone middle aged or older can easily see the many different jobs now replaced by technology. Bank tellers replaced by ATM’s, airport ticket counter clerks by automated kiosks, and jobs formerly held by receptionists, telephone operators, and secretaries by voice-recognition software. Robots in hospitals are delivering mail, picking up soiled laundry, filling and delivering drug orders, even helping surgeons perform complicated surgeries. Hospital administrators hasten to add these robots are only supplemental to their staffs, not to replace them. Hmm....sounds like what most chain grocers tell their check-out clerks as they install self-check out systems!

The robotic application which most impressed these experts is happening in huge distribution centers now operating with very little human labor...instead relying on robots.

One robot-maker said his machine would replace one and a half humans. Another said his simple machine can be quickly programmed to perform repetitive tasks formerly done by humans, but at a cost of only $3.40 per hour. Kroft asked if this low cost could bring a job back from China...the answer was yes. However, while the work might come back, the resulting jobs here would be largely filled by robots.

The program showed super-computers now self-improving the automation processes. In other words, computers are teaching themselves how to be more efficient...and replace even more human labor!

One professor said we are only at the very earliest stages of this new era in which machines/software will do almost all work now being done by humans. In fact, he said, “we haven't seen anything yet”. When Kroft asked him the implication for future human jobs, his answer: “That's the 64 thousand dollar question.”

America may well continue to have a healthy economy in terms of every financial measure. However, if this growth is driven increasingly by automation, where will jobs come from? How will average citizens earn money needed to buy goods?

Should the government intervene? Shall we just trust the markets to decide? What will the growing numbers of jobless say? Will they calmly accept others telling them to just suck it up and pull themselves up by their bootstraps...especially when boots are increasingly worn by robots? How will our nation, already facing a mountain of debt, find the means to provide the social programs needed?

This coming tsunami of automation-caused job losses will likely make the housing bubble aftermath seem like the good old days!

Meanwhile our leaders prepare for the next round of debt-ceiling battles. We know how it will turn out...because we could write the script. Their failure to unite in making job creation their top priority is unforgivable. As I finished writing the last sentence, a foreboding chill ran through me... because it's never going to happen!

These are my opinions. What do you think?

Mike Tower

Please visit the blog of my good friend LeRoy Goldman:  Lee's Political Opinions

and the website for an organization we co-founded:  Citizens Against Politics As Usual

Are Americans happy?

February 3, 2013

Happiness is?

Are you happy? Do you think most Americans are? Is happiness a gift? Can it be acquired when you don't have it? We all know the Declaration of Independence contains the famous promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Since happiness is a feeling, how do we know when we or others have enough of it? Can someone else give you happiness?

A compelling 2011 documentary, appropriately called “Happy,” by Oscar-nominated Director Roko Belic, examines the topic in detail via experts' opinions and revealing human story vignettes.

A narrator begins by asking a few twenty-something Americans what they want out of life. They all said they wanted to be happy, and identified acquiring money as the key. Does that sound familiar?

The story switches to the slums of Calcutta at a tiny home with plastic sheeting for a roof, and no doors or windows. A very thin man in his thirties arises from bed, already dressed in soiled thin cotton pants and a red and white t-shirt he will wear to work that day. He slips on flip-flops and goes outside to wash himself from a bucket of water. He then returns to his home to have a bite to eat before getting on an old bicycle. As he peddles off to work, having shown no prior emotion, his preteen son calls out ,“baba, baba”. The man turns and they wave to each other with shared smiles of love and affection.

The man is next shown pulling a rickshaw on a trash-littered, crowded, muddy street. His face shows the strain of his efforts as he struggles to transport a large man and his young child, but he endures his labor silently.

The video then moves to end of the day as the tired rickshaw puller returns home. His expression shows his weariness, but his face lights up with pleasure as his son runs out to greet him with a joyful smile, while again calling out “baba, baba”. The man says, “when I hear my son call out baba...I am filled with joy”. He looks at his home with pride and says, because we have no windows we have a nice breeze, and the plastic sheeting over the roof keeps us dry when it rains...except when Monsoons come. He then points to his many, also smiling, neighbors sitting in front of similar slum homes, and says, “I have good neighbors and we look out for each other”. He concludes: “I am not poor, I am rich”! From the looks on their faces...it would be difficult to argue otherwise.

Happiness experts say genetics determine about half of an individual's propensity to be happy, 40% results from intentional behavior (I interpreted this to mean working at having a positive attitude actually results in happiness), and only 10% results from social circumstances. They added evidence shows those who endeavor to put forth a positive and happy attitude are indeed both happier and more successful in life. Studies also prove those who describe themselves as wealth-driven are less happy than those driven to do good deeds for purely intrinsic reasons. They pose this question: if only 10% of our propensity for happiness is determined by our social circumstance, why do so many work so hard pursuing materialism and perceived improved circumstances?

They also said many studies show moving from absolute poverty to approximately $50,000 in income definitely increases happiness. However, as incomes went to even the highest levels, happiness levels don't increase much at all. In fact, steadily increasing one's income often results in increased unhappiness as the achiever realizes repeatedly they are not really happier.

According to these experts, the main happiness ingredients are:

1. Maintaining close family and friend connections. 2. Appreciating nature. 3. Valuing small pleasures. 4. Striving to master new skills for the pure sake of mastery. 5. Helping the needy.

The narrator then visits a large extended Cajun family living in the swamps of Louisiana. These folks, live very close together, willingly help each other, and share meals often. Watching them interact, you had to conclude they were either great actors...or genuinely happy with their lives. Even with little in the way of material wealth, simply being together seemed to bring them much happiness.

The experts said people living in developed nations today have much more material wealth compared to generations past, but most measures of happiness have not improved. Maybe this is why we often hear older folks wishing for the good old days??

I wish all of us could take the many lessons from this documentary to heart and stop looking for personal happiness in material things. It reminds me of looking for love in all the wrong places. This documentary can be found on DVD and Netflix. I highly recommend it for you and your younger family members. Might even make a nice gift??

In previous articles I have often written of my concerns our future generations will likely have to learn to do with much less material wealth. This documentary has helped me see a potential bright side to that future; perhaps our descendants will find focusing less on material wealth will actually make them happier.

These are my opinions. What do you think?

Mike Tower