When I was a kid, we never worried about our food or the safety of the products that we used. Were these things safer in those days, or was it that we just didn't hear about things like salmonella and faulty dyes? All I can say is that, in my experience, I didn't know one person that ever got a serious illness and said it was from something that they ate or wore. Sure we didn't know that cigarettes were bad for you, or that the lead in paint was harmful, but science just hadn't progressed that far yet, but we did know about things like food poisoning and food contaminated by disease. Now I hear horror stories about food every once in a while. Its still not on a regular basis, but it is there. I actually knew of two people that died from mad cow disease. One was a friend of someone that I worked with, and the other was the wife of a fellow employee. That is one disease that is very sad to see in someone. When the Japanese don't want our beef, that has to tell you something. American beef used to be prized all over the world, now it is looked at very suspiciously by some of the countries that we are trying to export it to, and it is not only us that are having this problem, it is also the Canadians.

We are told that trade is good and in some ways it is very beneficial. An example of this can be seen all over this country. While many people are struggling to make ends meet, more than ever before in the history of this country, the goods that we are importing have gotten much cheaper, of course this has a down side also, as a matter of fact it has several. The first being that millions of jobs have been lost because we are told that we can't compete and the second is that some of, if not all, of the products entering our shores, are not checked sufficiently for disease and harmful effects. It is great to be able to go out and buy something for a dollar that might have cost you three, if it was manufactured domestically, but if it isn't safe, what good is it?. Another thing that I notice is that some of that cheap stuff has risen in quality. You can go out and buy a nice 40 inch flat screen tv for about $1,200 that would have cost far more if made here. Now these things are certainly pluses, but people that have no job because of the loss of our manufacturing ability are not going to be able to purchase these things, so what we have here is a double edged sword. Not only that, but is it fair when you are competing with a country that uses prisoners and slaves to manufacture items? This is not a misprint, slaves have been found in many Chinese factories. These people are forced to work 16 and 18 hours a day and live in deplorable conditions. Where is the UN when you need it?

I can't help but wonder if we are being told the truth about our manufacturing abilities, after all, what is stopping us from building an automated factory? Shouldn't running one of those plants cost the same, except for taxes of course, to run just about anywhere? Building a better robot would lower the cost even more. We used to be the world leader in building things that required advanced technology, what has happened to us? It seems that we are putting all our efforts into weapons production and that is something that just doesn't benefit us anymore. Everything should be proportional and weighed against the need, not contracted because some senator or representative has a weapons factory in his district or state. Well I guess that goes back to what I am always saying, the system of lobbyists has to go, because they are dictating to the government what we should be doing by virtue of spreading billions of dollars all around Washington. It has become a national disgrace. There is a lot of talk about this at election time, but it is all smoke and mirrors. No one really wants to kill the golden cow. Even foreign countries have their lobbyists spreading their big bucks around, so not only are we being led by rich multinational companies, but countries that are not looking out for our best interests and who only care about their own needs are getting us to do things that are not good for us to do and sometimes are just plain wrong.

America is a great country, there is certainly no doubt about that, but to remain great, it has to look out for itself and its people. Look what is happening to us. We have at least seven million illegal aliens that want to stay here. They don't necessarily want to be U.S. citizens, just reap the harvest of a higher standard of living. They want to keep speaking their native tongue and because of this, many resent have to learn english and just don't bother. They feel that they have the right to come here and get all sorts of freebies. Hey, you can't blame them, because this country is like paradise compared to where they came from, you have to blame us. Are we so weak kneed that we can't enforce our laws and deport these people, or is there some other motive at work here? It seems to me that the farming business needs migrant workers and we hear this all of the time and yet we see many of these illegal aliens in all sorts of industries and standing on our street corners waiting for people to come along and hire them for the day. If the government really wanted to enforce the immigration laws it could make a good start by sending officers around to the street corners of big cities and rounding up all those day workers. I feel sorry for those people, but our relatives worked hard to become citizens and were proud of their accomplishments. They didn't take the American flag and fly it upside down under another country's flag.

Sometimes you find companies that are their own worst enemies, where you least expect it. Look at the car industry in this country.If one was to look at General Motors 30 years ago, it would have seemed impossible for that company to have fallen to the point where it is now. Ford is hanging on by its fingernails and Chrysler, well you know what happened there, they were bought by Mercedes Benz. At the rate they are going, who can tell if there even will be any American cars made in another 40 years? I remember a General Motors executive laughing at a Toyota executive. He was ridiculing him because he said that Toyota was wasting a lot of money by painting areas of their cars that no one could see. Now American car companies are perceived as building inferior vehicles by many. They are trying to claw their way back by improving quality control, but indeed, it may be too late.

We are becoming a country of haves and have nots. Poverty has its bony grip on more people here than ever before. It used to be that you knew whatever happened to you, that at least you could go to the hospital and be taken care of, even if you had no money. They claim that this is still true, but the sad fact is that many hospitals will shuffle you around after extremely long waiting periods, because they don't want to treat people without getting paid. The problem is that most hospitals, that I know about, are a business. If they were to be treating people and not being paid, they would have to close down, so what is the answer to this problem? it might be a government subsidy for people with low incomes, that is graduated up to the zero point or it might be that we need government hospitals to help with this problem. Universal health insurance seemes to be the way to go, but I don't pretend to have the solution, but I do think that every citizen should be able to get food, if he or she is hungry and get medical attention, along with a roof over their head. I am not talking about developing a society of malingers. Everyone should be made to work, if they are able. There are plenty of things that they can do, such as keeping parks clean, cleaning streets and such. It is a sin to sit back and just watch people starving or dying from lack of medical attention, anywhere, but it is even worse when it happens in a country that has the resources to prevent this and has not allocated them properly.

I really hope that we will get our act together soon. We are even losing our place as a world leader. We have become a liability to partner with. To see an example of this, one has just to look at what countries were missing from the second Iraq coalition. It is time, that those that make the policies for this country wake up to the need of the many, not just of the prosperous. It is also time that we reassess our position in the world and try to have better relations with all countries. Lastly, we have no business pouring untold billions of dollars into the defense of other countries. I say lets strengthen out our own country first, then if we have no deficit and our citizens are taken care of and we have a sufficient military, we can began to help others, if we think that we should.