Stretched Way Too Thin

America’s reach is now extended way beyond its grasp. Its ability to deal with what it reaches/grasps is now exceeded and, in several cases, extended way beyond its capabilities and resources. This situation will produce more and more failures and unintended consequences.

To wit:

Immigration. Blame what/whom and why as you please. America has massive unemployment – almost 10% of its citizen labor force and massive underemployment – almost 8% of its citizen labor force. Included in the combined 18% are large numbers of urban youth. And yet, with that un and under employment reality, America is inundated with undocumented persons, many of whom enter from Mexico. And the principal argument offered by those who seek a “comprehensive” immigration solution is that they came here for work. Well, so what? We don’t need them. We have many unemployed citizens. And, no, we just can’t keep taking care of anyone who seeks a better life in America. We are stretched way beyond our capabilities in employment, education, health care and law enforcement. It is time to send the non citizens home and time to stop the citizen unemployment benefits and time to get citizens working and paying income taxes.

Military. Which other country has tens of thousands of its military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, Europe, Japan and Korea. Hundreds of thousands in total. Each of these deployments requires thousands of support personnel, support activities, equipment and health care and overhead. Lots of money. There is no single cause in history that destroys empires and countries quite like the cost of wars and the cost of military adventures. America is stretched beyond our military capability; way beyond the support of the American citizenry and way beyond our financial capability to support these deployments.

Law, Rules and Litigation. America now protects millions of its citizens with lengthy laws and bureaucratic rules all providing for some form of penalty via either bureaucracy or court action. In many cases there is no recourse. The cost to fight is simply too high. The hidden cost of all these protective activities is immeasurable except by one simple fact – the rapid and almost complete decline in manufacturing employment in the country. Just look at the source of most products which you purchase. Be it furniture, electronics, tools, automobiles, clothing and food. If it can be made elsewhere, it is. America has stretched its desire to legislate something for everyone with a particular concern for special interest groups and, in the process, has disregarded its wealth creation ethos, its economic growth need and the plain requirement that we must compete. Without wealth creation, without economic growth, without competition, the job machine breaks down. It has broken down. We have stretched burdens on growth and job creation to a higher level than the simple societal need for jobs and growth. It is absolutely crazy to behave this way.

Taxes, Government Costs and Debts.  Taxpaying citizens cannot afford the taxes that the taxpayers among them are paying. Mostly this is because almost 50% of the population does not pay income taxes. So, the burden falls on a decreasing portion of the employed population. Tax revenues have fallen through the floor. And government's answer – spend more. Consequently, deficits have reached unheard of levels. Debt is now thirteen trillion dollars. The current administration projects it to reach 20 trillion dollars in several years. Debt will end it all. Everyone knows that when any entity - a person, a household, a business, a government becomes so stretched with debt that it will fail. It will not be able to meet its obligations. It becomes subservient to its creditors. It will become insolvent and it will fail. The casual answer being provided by some opinion makers that the US can print currency is nonsense. Without an economic event, rising currency in circulation will destroy the nation.

Reliance on government. Who ever conceived the idea that government was an answer to any problem? It does not matter to which issue/problem/concern that one may address – failed urban public schools; out of control borders and undocumented people within the borders; 23 million government employees in our towns, counties, cities, states and nation; legislation that is incomprehensible to the legislators because of its length and complexity and now, environmental disasters within our pristine natural resources because of businesses stretched way beyond their technical knowledge and no regulatory authority with any knowledge of what they are doing. In each case, the fingerprints of government are either completely or significantly involved in the creation of these issues/problems/concerns. Government can create the problem but they cannot solve the problem.  They are the problem; not the solution.

Boasting, arrogance and chutzpah. There is one sure way to get a read on where you really are and that is to see yourself through the eyes of others. Only problem is that those who need this skill seldom develop it. America finds itself with high profile diplomats and government agents operating in every country that will issue documents or accept our largesse. We always show up with an agenda and a checkbook. Without the latter you can forget the former. If you have to pay for your friends support, don’t read too much into the process. It would be a far better thing for America to retrench its activities and only consider entanglements when there is no reasonable strategic and tactful alternative and the invitation is unforced. If that means some unattractive situations so be it. In case you haven’t noticed some situations do resolve themselves without our involvement.

America is simply stretched way too thin.  We really have no one to blame but ourselves.