Last night, the Grinder was whiling away the hours at a local drinking establishment, with the TV belting out something about "global crises" and "panic" and "meltdown" blah, blah blah, the world is ending. A friend, obviously equally intoxicated, made the mistake of asking our thoughts on the economy. The next two hours, the poor sap heard a much longer, much dirtier version of the economy theory espoused below. And why shouldn't we spout off? The Obama administration is calling for citizens to submit their ideas for better government.FREE(ER) TRADE
How dumb do you have to be to not support free trade agreements? Very. Any country that artificially protects obsolete jobs will lose in the long run. Besides, as mentioned here, free trade doesn't cost jobs. It creates them, because other countries have to drop their restrictions on importing American goods.
THE DRUG WAR IS OVER. DRUGS WON
The War on Drugs has been a monumentally costly failure. Think about it. How many people do you know personally that have been investigated for possible terrorist plots against the United States? Zero. And how many people do you know that have been busted for weed? Some. Exactly. The War on Drugs means jail time about a million Americans every year; about 225,000 just for pot.
This doesn't just mean we should decriminalize weed. Though we should. Yesterday. It also means that American society needs a radical rethinking of our approach to all addictions, legal or not. We need to address drug abuse in this country as a health problem, not a matter of law enforcement -- especially on the Federal level. Moreover, we should stop pretending the only two options in life are sobriety or abuse. Kids should be taught that drugs -- like alcohol-- are just one more of life's many risky bargains. Doing drugs and drinking is like driving too fast. Done occasionally, the right way, it can be a great part of life. Do it too often or go too far, you'll be dead in an instant. That's just how life works.
But we've gotten off topic. The drug prohibition costs billions upon billions every year but does precisely nothing to stop drug abuse.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING
One of Obama's most popular campaign promises was to help everyone who wants to go attend college find a way to pay for it. Bad, bad idea. It is a flat-out mistake to assume that every citizen in the United States needs a college degree. Much wiser would be supporting badly-needed vocational training; teaching people to work with computers, engines, heaters, air-conditioners and the thousands of other machines that keep our world moving. We need more Americans who can make stuff and do things, not another 100,000 English Lit professors and MBAs.
NO MORE BAILOUTS. EVER.
The government should do what government is supposed to do -- take care of people who can't care for themselves, not prop up failed companies. The Grinder would let any company that's about to fail go right ahead and do so. We could use the money we save to give people who lose their jobs extended unemployment benefits and health care. That way, we help people who need it, not failed managers and executives. We can create a strong safety net for people who truly need it, while finally dispensing with the idiotic notion that any company, ever, is "too big too fail."
