The preamble to the Constitution states:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In a just society, which the Constitution guarantees, all citizens should have equal access to adequate training and wages. Without that access, desperate people resort to desperate measures to survive. Crime increases during every recession, and crime destroys domestic tranquility. A good education would increase access to good wages, promote equality, and increase our ability to communicate with people different from us, which would decrease conflict and gives us a more secure and free country to leave our children.

Good wages would also promote general welfare, which includes the ability to afford an adequate diet that would help prevent disease. Access to health care for all would ensure healthy workers who can compete in a global economy.

How can we continue to compete against countries that provide education and health care for all? The people of Denmark are willing to have less personal wealth and pay higher taxes so their fellow citizens can have access to education and health care.

For those who use Christianity to defend looking the other way as people suffer, I share the model of the early Christians in Acts 4:32-35:

³² All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. ³³ The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. ³⁴ There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them ³⁵ and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.

Let’s remember that example as we choose new leaders for this country.

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Jacqueline L. Jones is author of Unmasking a Diagnosis: How to get Help for a Confusing Chronic Illness Without Filing for Bankruptcy. The book is available through Lulu.com and will be available early next year through Amazon.com and other online book retailers.

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The week before, a spokesman for Intel wondered aloud why the company’s stock fell 15 percent as investors responded to the company missing it’s sales target for the last quarter. An economic slowdown in the U.S. is no big deal, the spokesman said, because the U.S. represents only 25 percent of the computer market worldwide.

What the experts failed to realize is that the global economy is indeed global. Capitalists from other countries have invested heavily in our economy in recent years. Many of the goods that both American and foreign companies produce and sell here are not necessities. If Americans stop buying, a sustained slowdown in sales will decrease the value of those investments and lead to a loss of jobs around the world. How many of us could take a 25 percent reduction in income without having to make serious adjustments?

Middle-class Americans, which experts say include 45 percent to 49 percent of U.S. households, have been facing that same struggle for years. According to the Economic Policy Institute, despite the fact that the employment rate here remains low at present, it does not include the number of people who are earning much less since their jobs were sent overseas. Public Citizen reports that the average worker’s hourly wage went up only a nickel from 1973 to 2006. Without calculating the average inflation rate for the same period, I think you can see that a nickel won’t meet the rising costs of fuel, health care, and food. These workers have been living on credit and home equity to stay afloat. Now credit is tightening, and housing values are falling because of the subprime mortgage crisis.

Stimulus programs designed by the White House and Congress to meet the current crisis will have only a temporary impact. Our leaders also need to develop long-term plans. These plans must address the following issues:

• No company should receive tax breaks for moving U.S. jobs overseas. Years of callous indifference toward the needs of U. S. workers have resulted in a weaker overall economy.
• The health care industry must be encouraged to adopt lost-cost preventive and natural care policies. Some physicians are beginning to embrace these practices through their own personal research.
• Utilities should again be regulated. Escalating costs are affecting businesses and consumers alike.
• Congress should increase tax breaks for companies who invest in “green” technology and energy sources. Our dependence on foreign oil repeatedly leads us to war, and war is expensive.
• Americans who don’t have enough money to live on don’t have enough money to pay for retraining programs. Preparing displaced workers for higher paying technical jobs will have a long-term positive impact on the economy.
• The government can hire displaced workers to repair our aging infrastructure. A similar program worked for Franklin Roosevelt, and it can work in our time.

Now is the time for American voters to demand leadership that responds to the realities, not the fantasies, of life. Support the candidate who is best equipped to take us in the right direction.

© 2008 – 2010, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.

Where were these people in June of last year when the foreclosure rate reached its highest in more than 50 years? Why weren’t they concerned that one to two million additional homeowners are facing foreclosure this year because of the subprime mortgage crisis? What about the subsequent decline in construction projects and sales of home products, which will decrease the ability of people in those industries to meet their obligations?

Have reporters forgotten that U.S.-based companies still depend on American consumers for a large portion of their profits? We have a service-based economy since many of the manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to other countries. Most service sector workers don’t make enough money to keep the financial engines of this country running at the speed to which we’ve become accustomed.

And what about rising gasoline prices? During the price increases in 2006, I heard one man say that he needed a second job to pay for gas to get to the first. With gasoline and heating prices on the rise past last year’s still higher records, the cost of other necessities rising with them, and housing equity dropping like a rock, there’s not much money left to finance frivolous things. Lenders have reported that even people who had good credit are falling behind on their mortgages and credit card payments.

At some point all this bad news had to affect employment. Last week the Labor Department announced that unemployment rose to a two-year high in December and job growth has almost stopped.

Forgive me for sounding a little sarcastic. I’m outraged that the mainstream media wasn’t concerned until upper income people started cutting back on high-priced coffee. Thank God for the journalists on PBS, who have been reporting the truth for months. I even alluded to it in an earlier post.

Now that major institutions are feeling the winds, it’s too late to avoid the storm. Our economy is in for some serious turbulence. Hold on for a bumpy landing.

© 2007 – 2010, Unmasked Communications™. All rights reserved.