Wednesday, April 17, 2019

What Americans Want, What They (Probably) Need

What Do Americans Need?
For anybody to attempt to answer this would have sounded arrogant a few years ago.  Today, though, because of the way various sub-groups have rejected the aspirations of other sub-groups, we have to thread our way carefully, and each Need has to be tagged to the groups that would need it most.  (Added later: I haven't done this, unfortunately.  Some of that is implicit in the item.)
Employment.  Because of the way Business has dealt with the problem of (at least, at one time,) rising wages by sending the work overseas, this has become a problem that is getting worse.  We have an unplanned economy, (the technical word for an economy where each citizen / family is essentially on his own, the way Capitalists like it) which means that it's up to each kid getting out of high school (and his family--pardon the gender non-neutrality) to find work.  Low-level, easy (in the sense of preparation for it) jobs are few, because of the outsourcing factor, and do not pay well.  High-level, more difficult (in the sense of preparation, again) jobs are even fewer, because you either need to have connections, or the Chinese do it better, and for less money.
Clean Air and Water.  Everyone needs these things, and there isn't any way for each citizen or family to go out and find this for themselves; it has to be a community action.  That Flint fiasco should never have happened.  (That looks like a case of Political Engineering gone wrong.)
Public Education.  Each family trying to educate their own kids on their own dollar is wasteful of effort.  This is not the place for people to compete with each other for educational resources.  As I have said, each child is a resource for the entire nation.  To some that may sound like some sort of communist idea, but if you have been a teacher you look at some young genius in your class, and you don't immediately think: oh, he's going to make a lot of money someday!  You should think: I hope he's going to find a cure for cancer for all of us!  (Of course, some of you are probably thinking: Just like a liberal: telling people what to think.  Hey, this is the sort of Blog where all I do is tell you what to think.  Love it, or leave it!)  All education should be community sponsored, and by community I mean the entire nation.  This doesn't mean the classrooms should be clogged with unmotivated kids throwing paper airplanes at each other.
Housing.  I don't say that everyone has to be given a mansion on top of a hill, or a penthouse suite.  I mean that basic housing should be available to everyone.  Fancy housing will be your own problem.
Public Transportation.  Public transport is in everyone's future.  The poor need this, because personal transport is going to become more expensive, and the maintenance of unsafe legacy automobiles is going to become even more expensive, because as wages go up, there won't be fly-by-night repair shop who will fix and certify your junker for peanuts.  Old cars are fine, but they must satisfy high anti-pollution and mechanical standards.
Clean Energy that--at least presently, and probably for ever--does not aggravate Warming.  Again, this has to be a communal effort; it is inefficient for each family to go out and scrounge their own energy for themselves.  And we should minimize all energy-wasteful activities.  Minimize, maybe not eliminate entirely.
Control of Extortionary Business Practices.  Not everyone is a financial genius, and as we age, even the most brilliant among us will tend to succumb to predatory insurance offers, or loans and similar shifty things that come in the mail.  Abruptly rising credit-card interest rates, unexpected rent increases, crooked lawyers, all these things must be carefully looked at.
Law Enforcement and Security.  It could be years before there will be a comfortable relationship between Law Enforcement and citizens, especially minorities, but that day has to come soon.
US Businesses that Process Plastic Waste.  Most communities across the nation do extract plastic from household 'recycling', and separate it from metal and paper.  Much, if not all, the plastic has been exported to China, which recycled the plastic.  But since late last year, China has refused to do this, for political reasons.  But why outsource plastic recycling?  The US can probably do it better and more cleanly than the Chinese can, except, of course, we're going to have to pay the workers US wages, which is fine.
Mandatory Recycling At All Levels.  This already exists, to some degree, for businesses: they must recycle Flat White paper--that is, paper from photocopiers or printers, possibly shredded--and certain very specific classes of other waste.  I don't see why they shouldn't be made to recycle everything.  Personal recycling, too, should be encouraged strongly.  Clothing, books, household implements, electronics, etc, should be diverted away from landfills, and put back into use at the highest level.  By 'highest level', I mean that for instance a cast-iron skillet should recycled into a skillet (carefully cleaned and refinished), rather than recycled as scrap iron.  I encouraged my students to use the blank backs of discarded printer paper to do their homework on; of course the government cannot enforce anything as peculiar as that.
[Added later, also see here: America has a recycling problem. Here's how to solve it.]

What Do Americans Want?
To the extent that we want the things listed above, that's fine.  But there are some things that have been traditionally desired, which are not possible to supply, given the enormous deficit that has been incurred by forgiving some of the most lucrative Businesses and individuals their taxes, and the hostile relationship that exists between the US and our trading partners.
Strongest Possible Military.  We have historically--at least since 1941--had this, but it has only got us into trouble.  Furthermore, many of the vendors of our military equipment, if not all, are US companies, that do not hesitate to charge premium prices.  At the moment, more than half the US budget is spent on the Military.  This must make someone rich, but whom?
Best Possible Education System In The World.  This is a laudable goal, but education achievement requires two things: Interest, and Industry.  There is a large population of teachers in the US that could deliver an excellent education to students in, say, third world countries.  But US students expect better efforts on the part of teachers, which means that they're sort of 'Insulin-Resistant', to borrow the language of diabetes.  The Industry requirement is also a problem, because a lot of the young people out there consider the thinking involved in doing homework to be drudgery.  Finally, since businesses and other employers try to extract the last iota of intellectual effort from their employees, there's little mental energy left for them to give judicious help to their kids: give a little help, a little explanation, but not to do the homework for the kids.
Drive around in flashy, gas-guzzling personal transport.  This reflects a pet peeve of mine.  What's worse is that these vehicles are often noisy, and for some reason automobile noise is tacitly considered by some as part of their First Amendment rights.  Finally, there are a few youths who drive in a way intended to intimidate those in smaller, lighter vehicles, so that the whole thing is an expression of a sort of entitlement to bully.
Own a mansion on top of a hill.  This is fine, as long as it already exists.  I don't think we can afford to continue lopping off hills and sticking homes on them.  That disrupts the water absorption patters of the area, encourages small-scale flooding, makes it difficult for firefighters and police to get up there in case of an emergency, and puts an additional burden on local government to provide access.
Pay little or no tax.  This may be possible eventually, if community needs are deducted from revenue in a mechanical way before they get into the hands of individuals.  Quite honestly, the belief that society exists for the benefit of the most wealthy has a lot of truth in it.  Society builds the roads, society buys the merchandise, society staffs the small businesses that enable the wealthy to maintain their style: dry cleaners, restaurants, jet planes, airports, sewage treatment plants, schools, gasoline stations, bookstores.  So the most wealthy should pay for them.  The wealthy teach their kids that part of the privileges of the wealthy are just to pay the tag price of commodities.  No, to the extent that society makes it possible for these ordinary people to live, the wealthy must subsidize that expense.
Banks must be allowed to charge any interest rate they want for College Loans.  In most cases, I suppose in a free society, anyone should be able to charge anything they want.  But in the case of education, banks tend to charge higher rates and impose unfair conditions on students simply because there exists a sort of de-facto collusion among banks to do so.  If free education becomes a reality, this problem mostly goes away; students who want an expensive private education will have to deal with the banks, but for most students, at present, college loans are an unfair burden, especially since employment cannot be guaranteed.
Industry should be permitted to manufacture plastic goods as they please.  This is no longer feasible.  The right to manufacture goods out of plastic ends where the right of people to live in a world free of plastic waste begins.  Even importing inessential plastic goods must be stopped, or discouraged with heavy tariffs.  Some things, such as plastic tubing for medical needs, etc, will be difficult to replace with substitutes, but it is probably not impossible.  Bear in mind that the dwindling energy needs that are satisfied with petroleum will not allow channeling of some of it to be made into plastic; allowing The Market to decide whether petroleum is used to make plastic or gasoline is insane.
Litter At Will.  This is something that saddens me.  One way to address this problem, is to hire a cadre of people who simply roam about policing people's littering offenses.  People hate Meter Readers with a passion, but endure them.  Well, it seems to me (and I'm no expert,) that littering falls under the same general class of offense.  Well then, there we go.  The workers could be paid at least partly based on fines, and could be required to take video of the offense taking place!  Alternatively, people could be hired to clean up litter. (Unfortunately, this might actually encourage young people to litter, simply as a game they play, to bait litter-cleanup workers.)
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