The Long Road Home

A personal opinion of

Robert T Hayes


As our nation moves closer to a deepening recession and at the same time closer to the ending of a major economic melt down, the question that remains is: Will our nation and people ever regain it once proud and prosperous status we once had? What will our nation look like? What kind of jobs will our children do? Will our middle class survive?


I have given this question much thought, and tried to put all the factors in some kind of order to evaluate just what our future holds for us as a people and a nation. In previous essays I have discussed what I believe to have been the major contributions to this current economic crisis. Just for review I have listed some of the major events below:

1. The passage of the “Federal Reserve System”

2. The passage of Erisa

3. The move to fiat money

4. The repeal of the Glass Segal Act

5. The passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act

6. The passage of Free Trade agreements (not fair trade)

7. The lack of oversight and failure of the SEC.


All of these actions or inactions contributed to our current crisis and many more could be added to the list. However, the question remains, “What will our nation look like in the future?” and can we recover our once proud status as an industrial leader?


I remember visiting my grandparents, when I was a kid. They had chickens, a cow, and a garden. They got eggs and meat from the chickens, milk and butter from the cow. And raised potatoes, corn, okra, tomatoes, and a variety of other items. The point is they were as self sufficient as possible. They had all this and they lived in town, not on a farm. Now I do not believe our current generations of Americans are ready to put a cow and some chickens in their backyard like the depression era Americans did, or people of the third world countries have to do.


I am beginning to believe that we are again making short term decisions to try to fix a long term problem. Decisions that may give us a lift in the current financial crisis facing our citizens but failing to address the long term causes of this crisis.. It is like the type 2 diabetic that takes medication for his condition, but fails to change his eating habits to correct the cause. It is the path of least resistance. He knows the cause of his illness, but lacks the self discipline to correct his problem.


We know the cause, of our present crisis, but lack the guts to face the hard solutions necessary to fix the problem. And there can be no doubt that it would be a very hard dose of medicine to swallow. Imagine if we repealed the repeal of the Glass Segal Act. And forced the commercial banks and investment banks to again separate, how could Bank of America get rid of Merrill Lynch, or CitiGroup get rid of their brokerage companies. Maybe we could trade them to China and get some of our trade deficit covered. After all, the United States Government owns most of them anyway.


Imagine how difficult it would be to get Fair Trade agreements rather than Free Trade agreements with the nations that we call trading partners. Trying to renegotiate trade agreements with all the counties that we have sent our citizens jobs to would set off a trade war greater than we could imagine.


I could go on and on about the consequences of correcting all the bad decisions of the past, but the fact is they been made, and we must deal with the current reality as it exist today.


The nation’s trade deficit is out of control, we import far more than we export. But the real story is not that we export less than we import. The real problem is what we export. That is the real disaster. We are not exporting much in the way of manufactured goods. We have already exported the jobs that manufactured our industrial and technical achievements. No we are exporting commodities, the things that go into making those goods for sale. We export metals, coal, timber, corn, wheat, etc. The very goods that we used to import from third world countries. And believe it or not we even export crude oil. (According to Lou Dobbs on CNN). It is just so hard for me to believe, that in this day of importing millions of barrels of foreign oil, we would actually see companies exporting our dwindling supply of crude oil.


It’s hard to accept that we have put ourselves on the path to becoming a third world nation. But, that is the path we seem to be heading down. And not at a slow walk, but rather a gallop down a path of self destruction. The slow walk to becoming a third world country began when we started giving our jobs and technology to the rest of the world. And we removed all the regulations protecting the financial security of our citizens. Now, the chickens have come home to roost.


The Long Way Home


Is there a way back? Of course there is. Do we have the stuff it takes to get there? Of course we do. But will we? That I can not answer.


When I was in business I learned to make a list of things to do. Numbering each item on my list, by order of importance. One thru ten, never more than ten items at a time, so as not to overwhelm myself with more than it was possible for me to handle. Thus discouraging myself from even attempting to solve my problems. Then attacking number 1 first. As it was the most important item on the list. Never going on to number two until number one was completed. If the most important item took more time for some other input that required waiting for a response in order to complete. I could then set it aside and start on number two while I waited for a response, then it was back to number one until completed. It was a simple rule used by the most successful businesses and CEO’s.


It is the same for our nation. First things first then move on to number two, three, four, etc. We need jobs first, and then we can move on to number two. My number two item is: We need good long term jobs, jobs that can pay a living wage and withstand the urge to ship off shore. I see that kind of job more that fixing pot holes in the asphalt road, but rather by building a completely new way of transportation. Hi Speed, rail systems, new electric grid that can distribute wind power all over our nations. New and clean sources of energy. Green homes that are not only energy efficient, but energy independent with solar cells on there roof tops and rain water collection systems and gray water irrigation systems,


Then we need to call a derivative exactly what it is: Insurance, and regulate it accordingly. With reserves requirements. And reinstate the Glass-Steagall act. If we could develop alternative energy and could cut or consumption of foreign oil by half, $300 billion would remain in the United States, repaying our $780 billion stimulus package in less that three years.


We need to make the dollar worth something again. But since it is not backed by gold but rather by what you can purchase with it. We need to be able to manufacture goods here for the rest of the world to buy, rather than sell them our natural resources till we no longer have any left.


I am not sure how we are going to do all these things, or which item should be 3,4,5, etc. And for sure it will be painful medicine, but we need not to lose sight of the cause while we treat the symptoms.






Feb. 20,2009