We live in an interconnected world. Energy, cars, televisions, clothes and much more are traded among the countries. There are positives with global trade. If we can’t get a good price at home then we can shop elsewhere. Shopping is as easy today as clicking on a computer webpage.
Competition keeps everyone on his toes. I’ve noticed in the last few years that a lot of my shirts are coming from Mexico, Vietnam and any place except the United States it seems. Years ago we laughed when we looked at little transistor radios that said made in Hong Kong. We didn’t laugh very long as now it seems that everything electronic is made over “there” somewhere.
Competition grows as we import food, furniture, billions of dollars in oil and to be redundant, about everything.
As competition stiffens Americans must decide if we are going to compete. If we don’t work harder and smarter we won’t have anything in America that anybody else wants to buy. If we are buying everything from someplace else then who is buying our stuff made in America? If we are not selling our stuff made here then we will quit making or growing anything. Eventually we won’t have any money in this country and China or Japan will not pay our Social Security or medical bills.
We need to regain our independence in America. We need to use all of our energy including oil, coal, solar, wind and natural gas. We need to stop buying all foreign oil. We need to grow our own food and catch our own fish. We need to bring our jobs back to America. It’s time that we made that attractive to all the corporations that we’ve lost. It would benefit all of us for our jobs to come home.
We need to secure our borders. We can’t take care of all the illegals coming into this country because we are struggling to take care of ourselves. We need to get control of those who pilfer our government money. This includes public universities who charge exorbitant tuition rates because most of the tuition is either paid by taxpayers or student loans that bury young adults. Medical providers sock it to the system as they bill medical payers more than most Americans could ever pay.
We are spiraling out of control in America. In the meantime our Veterans are dying from poor medical care and our active soldiers worry if they’ll even have a retirement or medical care after serving our country.
While our country struggles, Congress can’t agree on anything except paying themselves more while too many Americans are drowning in the pond of “Me, My, Mine and I.”
America will make it but it will be on the backs of those who are willing to dream, work and compete. Those are the people that carved out this wonderful place of opportunity and liberty over 200 years ago. Those are the same people who will keep this country going.
Glenn Mollette is an American columnist and author. Contact him at GMollette@aol.com
Like his facebook page at www.facebook.com/glennmollette
