TN #1. A NEW BLOG FOCUSED ON THE U.S. ECONOMY--AND WHY IT IS NOT WORKING AS WELL AS IT SHOULD AND NEEDS TO

English: American Way of life (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Generally speaking, when I write my main blog VICTOR O'REILLY - LETTERS FROM AN AUTHOR, I like to keep a fairly light tone; and to steer clear of politics and economics as much as possible. I haven't been entirely successful in that regard--I do write about such serious issues every so often--but they tend to be more the exceptions than the rule.

I now think, in the interests of avoiding confusion, that the time has come to give politics and economics its own blog--so here it is at titanicnation.blogspot.com 

It is called after my book, TITANIC NATION: How To Avoid Icebergs which covers most of the threats to the American Way of Life which we face today--and proposes solutions as well.

Solutions! Good grief! What a novel idea!

Truly difficult problems certainly do exist in life--some call them "Wicked problems"--a description I rather like--but most of our economic problems don't come into that category. In fact, in many cases, not only have they been solved already, but the solutions have been put into practice and are well proven to be working.

Unfortunately, it is not the American way to look abroad for solutions. The notion that the American way has to be the best is an integral part of the national psyche, and evidence in profusion does not seem to affect that situation.

Beyond that, our political system is currently near paralyzed by ideology--once again regardless of the evidence.

As a consequence, although the solutions are out there--both in this country and overseas--we seem remarkably reluctant to seek them out.

This blog has no party affiliation. I am only interested in what works. I just think it is a great pity that a marvelous country like this should be doing so badly under a wide variety of headings. True, the stock market is currently doing well--it can crash, as we know--but that primarily benefits the rich and is of scant advantage to the majority of the U.S. population.

The following are some of the principle areas of concern:

• GROWTH RATE
• EMPLOYMENT
• LOW & FALLING PAY
• INADEQUATE INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE
• LOW SAVINGS
• AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM BIASED HEAVILY TOWARDS THE RICH
• A POLITICAL SYSTEM DOMINATED BY THE RICH
• AN INADEQUATE MANUFACTURING BASE
• A GROSSLY INEQUITABLE TAX SYSTEM
• AN INADEQUATE K-12 EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
• AN UNEVEN THIRD  LEVEL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
• AN UNSUSTAINABLE LEVEL OF STUDENT DEBT
• A COLLAPSING PENSION STRUCTURE
• RISING POVERTY
• AN EXCESSIVELY COSTLY AND WASTEFUL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
• A SUSPECT FOOD CHAIN BASED UPON MONOCULTURE, FACTORY FARMING & INDUSTRIAL FOOD
• A SERIOUSLY POLLUTED ENVIRONMENT WHICH IS HAVING NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON OUR HEALTH
• A SERIOUS BALANCE OF PAYMENTS PROBLEM
• A FEDERAL BUDGET PROBLEM
• A NATIONAL DEBT PROBLEM

To borrow the title of a recent book: The way we are working isn't working. 

In my view, the time has come to re-build this mighty nation and to do away with a long list of statistics of which every American should be ashamed.