So, where do we go from here?

I posted my last blog about a month ago where I said in essence; pessimism will drag us down to unacceptable paralysis. For some of us, every where you look, read hear and sadly experience is how bad things are going. For me, the question is no longer whether times have been better or not – but how much of the current situation is of my own making due to my discouragement; and what part is due to the less than good and/or unfair circumstances?. I also said: There comes a time when a difficult situation becomes a normal existence and either you accept it or move on.

I am not immune to the current situation; I do admit to having problems associated with this economic downturn - more than I would like to talk about, or even think is fair. I have been affected just like the folks on the political left and the right. But that doesn’t matter, we’re still here. But then I had a fortuitous thing happen, during my lunch hour a couple days ago; I saw a PBS special: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/europe/jan-june09/eu_background_01-01.html . There were several things that became very clear to me:

1). Hegemony and preservation of the wide variety of races and cultures have been and are being observed and preserved by the union since its inception around 1993.

2). The process, makeup and lessons learned from the EU can be used by us in the US as object lessons to leave our current life robbing recession behind.

3). The formation of the Union has virtually guaranteed that another WWII type war in Europe is about impossible. In other words – war is obsolete; whether it is amongst themselves, Russia or Islam.

The partisan bickering had become a much smaller priority than the desire to move towards peace, prosperity and evolution of economic life. Just to quote a few numbers; the EU posted a GDP of around 12 trillion dollars compared to the just over the 11.8 trillion in the United States. The EU is comprised of 8 countries with a population of about 500 million people compared to our population of around 310 million.

I wrote a blog just before my anti-pessimism blog, in which I wondered if we’re becoming ‘2nd best’. In retrospect, the question was an apple versus orange situation. I was comparing the solitary nation of the US to all eight nations of the European Union. In truth, there is no one country that yields more economic might than the US, no one country that provides as much opportunity for small business, nor access to an advanced education that can be immediately applied to the building of a nation than the US.

Though, I might have failed to adequately verbalize this in my lasting writing, my optimism lies in the sheer opportunity and obvious need for the rebuilding of our infrastructure and the potential spin-off of new and existing small business to meet the coming demands. If we can stop our propensity to engage in wars of philosophy around the globe, we can put that money to use employing the 10’s of millions of workers out there trying to find the jobs. We have the opportunity to create and maintain the jobs that will feed families and provide the sort of post WWII stability that we’ve become accustom to and now miss in the wake of this downturn.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will consume about 600 billion dollars this year alone, and we are still on a record pace for home foreclosures. We officially have about 10-12 percent unemployment depending where in this country your reality has bit you in the butt. Worse, if we include all the various categories of people who have fallen on their versions of tough luck.

Rather than get into partisan battles over healthcare (because it’s coming anyway), get anxious over our involvements of other countries, you would better serve yourself and your nation over issues of rebuilding it – in every sense. How? Learn the lessons of ‘too big to fail’, unhealthy corporatism and special interest lobbying. Don’t vote for those politicians with a solid record of backing from the corporate machine.

Decide where you are politically and understand that there is no Utopia. Go to a ‘mom and pop’ store sometime rather than a conglomerate like Wal-Mart or Target. Pay attention to your community and shop in it. The people there understand you and your needs better than some faceless and huge corporation headquartered nowhere near you.

The EU has a bullet train – we haven’t even initiated the research to find out the details of how we will develop our own. Our banks hurt us with our own money and it needs to stop. In Europe this has been dealt with new regulatory legislation without the usual charges of socialism that we hear so much about hear from the right. In short, for the right – there are going to be some changes. For the left – there has to be a perception of fiscal responsibility, or you’ll find that you are no longer the majority. You may not get the ‘bicycle and the pony in the same year – get over it already…..

We have people in need for all kinds of reasons… a fifty year old, ex-breadwinner is not likely to become a freshman at an Ivy League school. But he/she can be ‘retooled’ into a worker we will need. Our lifestyle and expectation to ‘go it alone’ is a paradigm we can no longer hold up as an ideal. Wishing for better times will not solve the problems we currently face. But if the middle class wants to dig itself out there are some things that are just plain evident.

1). We, in the middle-class are not going to get any meaningful help from the mega-corporations nor the politicians.

2). We are going to have to tap into the same bravery that sent our service people overseas to promote and preserve our way of life. That includes moral courage. (for inspiration go to Youtube’s site: Eulogy for Robert Kennedy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JTYnMpRyg

3) Believe enough in ourselves to pull together and stop the worship of manufactured and packaged celebrities created for your convenience. Put more faith in your ability to bring ‘something to the game’ than the dream of ‘getting lucky’ with the unlikelihood of a stroke of luck – like winning the lottery.

Pessimism: I’m done – it’s time; time to move on

There comes a time when a difficult situation becomes a normal existence and either you accept it or move on. The country is in a financial crisis the likes of which, I have not seen before in my lifetime. I may be too out front on this issue – but I think that’s better than the knee-jerk, come from behind alternative.

Of course, the political discourse always involves various levels of approval or disapproval from the party that lost the last major election. Criticism is constant and praise is at a severe deficit. No matter what happens, they could have done it better.

The losing party is motivated by the scenario of causing ineffective government, anger and discouragement in the hopes that they will be swept into office – just to find out that they will do no better job than the party they passive/aggressively sabotaged. In the end, the American people are the losers in this constant political war. We’re better than this.

It’s time this country understands and accepts that a legal, constitutionally conducted election took place and the rightful winner of that event is now legally sworn into the job, generally needing our support. This pessimism can not continue for the next 3 years – it will stifle initiative, creativity and motivation. The most economically depressed areas of the country have already experienced this. I am deep into the creation of a new business – but a major obstacle is that the service I intend to provide is elective and sales are slow due to fear of what the future is going to bring.

This country is in real trouble but not in the way that the fear mongers may have you think… The country is not turning socialist, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will end someday, there will be healthcare reform and the banks will lend again. The economic indicators are there – but these statistics are tainted by the low jobs creation thus far; the last and most painful sector expected to see improvement.

But there is no cure for a massive loss of confidence or belief in yourself when the chips are down. We are carefully and expertly ensuring self-fulfilling prophecies come true and making ourselves 2nd best by not doing the things that made this country great. The phrase I heard recently that best sums up the problem goes like this: we performed socialized risk for privatized gain. The big banks, insurance companies and Wall St. speculators took money we really couldn’t spare and gambled it away for losses we can’t sustain and shared none of the wins. This is the best example that clearly shows trickle down economics fail to meet the promise of stimulating the economy. It makes no sense to cut revenue – your source of income, and increase spending as in the action to start 2 wars and excuse the windfall profits of the major corporations. The bailouts are the proof that corporate welfare does not work.

Our government officials put our futures in the hands of people who have no incentive to stop taking our corporate welfare. We have $5,000/hour CEO’s, propping up their companies with the tax revenue generated by people receiving unemployment checks and others bearing the burden of their miscalculation and flat-out malfeasance. The problem with this is that individual benefits run out while corporate welfare remains constant.

Witness the unashamed handing out billions of dollars in self-congratulatory orgies. We committed corporate welfare for companies ‘too big to fail’ at the expense of the largest jobs generator – small business.

But jobs generation means revenue and good health of the nation. Instead, according to a study of 2009, we are now 2nd to the European Union in GDP at approximately 12 trillion dollars, 10.2% unemployment estimated and about 17% actual job loss. Nearly 1 in 6 Americans are out of a job.

We have the most inefficient healthcare system of all the industrialized nations – with job loss, this is a bad combination. I thank my lucky stars that I am a 20 year veteran, because when I lost my own job – there went my employer based healthcare of 10 years. I am fully covered, but this could have gone so differently.

Others are not so lucky. But my personal experience in this also indicates we are on the right side of history in reforming healthcare. Regardless of the mechanics, reform is the right thing to do. And so is strong small business support. The wheels are moving slowly on a train that is already late leaving the station - but it’s leaving nonetheless. You can jump onboard or get left behind.

Currently, my days are spent trying to create my own small business of collecting aerial images. More specifically, elevated photography. Pessimism and lack of confidence will not help.

While similar, aerial photography and elevated imaging differ slightly due to the mechanics of how both are collected. However, the issue is really completing a task that solves a wide range of issues at a reasonable cost to the user. An image biased toward an overhead view is the goal.

There are advantages to both methods; best of all – they do not have to be mutually exclusive but instead compliment each other. The utility of such a service is only limited by imagination. Of course I’d wish you’d stop by my website at: www.beltair.org or take the shortcut to my Youtube ™ video by putting ‘beltair industries’ in the site’s search bar.

So, you can wallow in conspiracies theories, ‘gotcha’ politics, character assassination, scary rumors, and general discontent or you and jump on board and help your local businesses. Skip the national franchises – they’ll be fine. But ‘mom and pop’ bakeries, tire shops, cleaners, clothiers, eateries need you… I need you… There is work to be done – we are in charge of our own destinies by pitching in and helping each other out. There is no leader or political party that ‘gets it all right, all the time’. And it’s high time we take a greater role in doing that for ourselves.

In fact, I’ll lay out this challenge to the local San Diego business community; call me… I promise to honor each call to support local business within reason. But you never know; my business does well – I would want to reflect it at some point. I’m not going buy a house or car every week. But I have to eat, I have to buy clothes, I need tax help each and every year. I have to consume things as a small business like business cards, printed flyers and the like – you get the idea… Call me and I’ll be there – preaching what I already practice.