Enough Complaining, What's the Solution?

The last four or more posts on my page has consisted mainly of addressing and assessing the problems, but very little has been said about a solution. In fact, that seems to be an inescapable trend lately. Partially, I'm sure because we just don't know what a probable solution might entail. I would love to boil it down to "First, a revolution, then rebuild" but not only is that overly simplistic, as things stand even thinking it could get me on a domestic terrorist list somewhere in someone's basement office. So lets forget I even mentioned it.

We have the superb problems of "Iraq quagmires", "economic quagmires", "health-care quagmires
", "World War three SNAFU quagmires"....honestly, the list goes on. First and foremost it should be mentioned that the new president, whether elected or selected isn't going to change much, we will have to do it ourselves.

Thats a tall order, but I think we can do it. Well, some of it anyway. We will, of course be required to convince otherwise unwilling politicians to go along with our scheme. Maybe we could first convince someone with a lot of money to get on board, and then bribe them. Alright, thats a long shot, but a shot worth three seconds of your time, no?

Let's talk about the economic problems for a moment, because I fully believe it is the one issue we really can affect on our own level. First, unionizing workers would be a great start. Now I know what some of you are thinking, unions will damage "free trade" and all that, but would it really? What if we could unionize in a way that brought back real, sustainable wealth to this country? What if we could do it in a manner that brought back production in tangible terms? As it stands, unions are scattered, and have to constantly fight to get anywhere. Union leaders have to trudge through bureaucratic battlegrounds to make any kind of progress. Unionizing has been the bane of corporate moguls throughout our history, and the folks at the top intend to squash it every which way they can.

If we were all unionized, they would have no other option than to go along with it, and create real progress, and sustainable wealth, with actual upward mobility, and fewer class divisions. Of course, this requires quite a bit of work. We would have to beat the pavement and really create a support system, and convince people that this will work. We'll have to change perceptions, one at a time, until we can gain some real momentum . Many of us are already trying to do this, but collectively, and after a serious recession, I think people will be more apt to listen.


Another aspect of changing the scene of the economy is to change our spending habits. This is something we can do right now. The first thing we need to do is jump of the conformity train. Why? What does conformity require other than conforming? It requires that we, the consumers, keep purchasing items we don't need, didn't realize that we wanted, and will throw away as soon as the new conformity guru decides it's time to change. It's "keeping up with the Jones'" and it's killing us. It requires that we buy items from huge corporate entities that barely employ citizens of this country, doesn't give much back economically, and often engage in less than ethical practices anyway.

Buying locally however, gives small businesses (ie, your neighbors) a chance to thrive in a business world now designed to ensure they fail. It also allows unknown creative entrepreneurs a chance to shine. Not only will we get a chance to save our economies locally, keep our neighbors in business, but we can all finally look different or find new, unusual items that we actually want to buy.

We also need to ween ourselves from our credit cards. Easy money and instant gratification has created a rather huge economic gap that is part in parcel with the failure of our country. If you read Bogle's "Battle for the Soul of Capitalism" what you will see is that not only is the change from a product driven market to a finance market caused a major problems with modern day economy, you'll also understand that trade, in and of itself has become the staple, yet the very poison that is causing our problems. It's a good book, go get it.

OK, so thats economic solution, the abridged version.

Now on to health care. First and foremost we must unload the word socialist. We have to make people understand that the cold war propaganda was geared towards maintaining the capitalistic caste system we now live in - so long as ultimate power is kept in check, socialistic programs are not going to kill our children, control our minds, or poison our water. It's OK, and moreover, it works superbly because everyone gets health care! Ask one person who complains bitterly about the notion of it why it isn't a good idea, ask them to make a case against it. They can't without admitting that they have either fallen prey to stereotypes, rhetoric, or really are so cold hearted that they want people to be sick, or lack the ability to get health care. Use it against them, it's alright. You won't hurt anything but their pride. We also have to start refusing over medication. Thats right, we have to stop taking all these meds. Medicine is a great tool when you really need it. Medicine that does nothing but cover up symptoms, with no offer of a cure, will create a dependent state, thus a load of profit for everyone but the patient - that must stop. Not only will be be walking around like zombies, but zombies with empty pockets as insurance rates skyrocket. Insurance companies are estimating the cost of all these life long drug treatments, and it really adds up, therefore, we pay more all around. Until of course, companies will simply stop insuring us altogether.

Now, what we have here is a start to economic change. Once economic change takes place, the political sphere will change with it. It should bend to the will of the people, and if the people have the economic mess under control, and in fact control more of the economy, it must change. Which is how we work our way into changing the Big Politics that need so much of our time.

That however, is in the next post...