Time to Reboot America By <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/tho maslfriedman/index.html?inline=nyt-per> THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
I had a bad day last Friday, but it was an all-too-typical day for America. It actually started well, on Kau Sai Chau, an island off Hong Kong, where I stood on a rocky hilltop overlooking the South China Sea and talked to my wife back in Maryland, static-free, using a friend's Chinese cellphone. A few hours later, I took off from Hong Kong's ultramodern airport after riding out there from downtown on a sleek high-speed train - with wireless connectivity that was so good I was able to surf the Web the whole way on my laptop. Landing at Kennedy Airport from Hong Kong was, as I've argued before, like going from the Jetsons to the Flintstones. The ugly, low-ceilinged arrival hall was cramped, and using a luggage cart cost $3. (Couldn't we at least supply foreign visitors with a free luggage cart, like other major airports in the world?) As I looked around at this dingy room, it reminded of somewhere I had been before. Then I remembered: It was the luggage hall in the old Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport. It closed in 1998. The next day I went to Penn Station, where the escalators down to the tracks are so narrow that they seem to have been designed before suitcases were invented. The disgusting track-side platforms apparently have not been cleaned since World War II. I took the Acela, America's sorry excuse for a bullet train, from New York to Washington. Along the way, I tried to use my cellphone to conduct an interview and my conversation was interrupted by three dropped calls within one 15-minute span. All I could think to myself was: If we're so smart, why are other people living so much better than us? What has become of our infrastructure, which is so crucial to productivity? Back home, I was greeted by the news that General Motors was being bailed out - that's the G.M. that Fortune magazine just noted "lost more than $72 billion in the past four years, and yet you can count on one hand the number of executives who have been reassigned or lost their job." My fellow Americans, we can't continue in this mode of "Dumb as we wanna be." We've indulged ourselves for too long with tax cuts that we can't afford, bailouts of auto companies that have become giant wealth-destruction machines, energy prices that do not encourage investment in 21st-century renewable power systems or efficient cars, public schools with no national standards to prevent illiterates from graduating and immigration policies that have our colleges educating the world's best scientists and engineers and then, when these foreigners graduate, instead of stapling green cards to their diplomas, we order them to go home and start companies to compete against ours. To top it off, we've fallen into a trend of diverting and rewarding the best of our collective I.Q. to people doing financial engineering rather than real engineering. These rocket scientists and engineers were designing complex financial instruments to make money out of money - rather than designing cars, phones, computers, teaching tools, Internet programs and medical equipment that could improve the lives and productivity of millions. For all these reasons, our present crisis is not just a financial meltdown crying out for a cash injection. We are in much deeper trouble. In fact, we as a country have become General Motors - as a result of our national drift. Look in the mirror: G.M. is us. That's why we don't just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the next few months are among the most important in U.S. history. Because of the financial crisis, Barack Obama has the bipartisan support to spend $1 trillion in stimulus. But we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we're borrowing from our kids' future, is spent wisely. It has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure - without building white elephants. Generally, I'd like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us. America still has the right stuff to thrive. We still have the most creative, diverse, innovative culture and open society - in a world where the ability to imagine and generate new ideas with speed and to implement them through global collaboration is the most important competitive advantage. China may have great airports, but last week it went back to censoring The New York Times and other Western news sites. Censorship restricts your people's imaginations. That's really, really dumb. And that's why for all our missteps, the 21st century is still up for grabs. John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard. Merry Christmas! Check out our shop video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-n2AznLA8o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCP7PaO-2tk <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCP7PaO-2tk&feature=related> &feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fojAZcbvL7E <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fojAZcbvL7E&feature=related> &feature=related <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xPL8Ik037s> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xPL8Ik037s> jim episale Unshredded Nostalgia 323 South main St. Route 9 Barnegat, N.J. 08005 800-872-9990 609-660-2626 Money back if not satisfied MasterCard Visa Discover American Express _____ From: MoPo List [mailto:mop...@sol03.american.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Halegua Comic Art Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2008 2:43 PM To: mop...@sol03.american.edu Subject: Re: [MOPO] WAY OT: What drove Bernie Madoff on Jan 20th, we're going to see a party like we haven't seen since 1776 At 11:23 AM 12/27/2008, you wrote: Bruce, I agree with you about bonuses but also about HOW hey spend the bailout money should be regulated. Banks that didn't need the bailout are getting hundreds of millions and they aren't using it to free up credit practices. Wall Street companies are giving bonuses and paying dividends to Stockholders which means the Americans who just lost their job will be payingoff those investors' dividends making it tougher to send their kids to college, etc. This is a bunch of b.s. and these guys are crooks in suits. I don't care what 'party' you're for, unless we regulate this tax bailout, the 'party' is over for the middle class and a Feudal system of Lords and Serfs and no middle class will be ushered in quickly. And if History serves, revolution follows. We have targeted tax breaks all throughout our system in order to stimulate and encourage development of necessary resources for the good of our country. And we regulate so much that it actually has become starkly obvious that there's something amiss about the push to enact this handout before it could be 'conditioned' and Paulson has no business in his position unless we want a puppet to distribute as this administration sees fit. This was at it's heart, a money grab, this administration has never been truly a Republican conservative administration but it has had a cynical cronyism which has had nothing to do with what's best for our bottom line. At least we've seen fit to mandatorily 'fire' our President automatically after 2 terms, now it appears as if there needs to be term limits at these Wall Street Companies and Detroit as well. So I don't care that there were no strings attached to the first 'infusion' of the bailout. It's not like these companies have a lot of options so I say fire the bums who got them into this with poor business practices, we can change the 'deal' at any time because it's OUR ball and we can leave the playground at any time we like and not bail out any of them. IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO REGULATE! If, as the saying goes, 'What's best for business is best for America' then just how's that workin' out for us? Happy New Year! Patrick ps: as for your 'best and brightest' comment, I suppose you were being sarcastic as no one has ever accused Bush or his folks of being either, much less both. On Dec 27, 2008, at 10:05 AM, Bruce Hershenson wrote: Remember when all our best and brightest politicians were screaming for the Social Security money to be invested in the stock market so that our retirees could enjoy those sensational returns Wall Street investors were receiving? Funny how no one is recommending that anymore. The funny part is that it isn't a bad idea right NOW (with the market at the levels it is at). They could set up a government fund called "Social Security Investments" and buy chunks of the down and out giant companies that have been dragged down by the credit crisis (like GE, GM, etc) and negotiate insanely good deals (like the ones Warren Buffet always demands and gets) and then they should leave those investments alone, and never sell them. Sure, some would work out poorly, but overall, they would do quite well, as long as our country eventually gets out of this mess. I see this as a win/win, because the companies would get much needed cash infusions, and our future retirees would have tangible investments instead of an IOU from the government. Incidentally, all government bailouts should come with the proviso that no bonuses be paid to executives until and unless the loans are repaid in full. If the current execs don't like that, they should leave, and be replaced (and it is hard to believe their replacements could do a worse job than they did). Bruce On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 11:46 AM, Patrick Michael Tupy <tellta...@mac.com> wrote: Am I the only one who thinks the 'bailout' was an end-around move to get massive no strings attached tax-payer money into Wall Street after Bush failed to get the huge pool of Social Security money 'privatized' and into the coffers of Wall Street? Patrick On Dec 27, 2008, at 9:38 AM, Susan Heim wrote: I agree with you Bruce. What drove Bernie Madoff was greed. As for his "investors", greed played a part there also, but there is nothing wrong with making a profit. The fact that the promises made to these investors was so great, that should have been their red flag. We would all be naive to believe that there are not hundreds of Bernie Madoff's out there manipulating at one level or another. Look at these companys that have been and are being "bailed out" by our representatives who deemed they deserved it. What happened to representing your constituents. I haven't spoken to one person that would have approved these bailouts. In fact, most people I have spoken to were and are adamantly against the bailouts.....and the bonuses just keep on coming!! Some of these defense attorneys....blah, blah, blah, all the way to the bank!! As for the SEC being asleep at the wheel, I think it was way more than that and wonder how many pockets go padded to look the other way. As for tying this to movie posters, that's where most of my investment is. I know it, I can count on it, I have it insured and I trust most of the people involved in it. So, that combination works for me. Happy holidays everyone and I hope a better year coming for all. Sue www.hollywoodposterframes.com <http://www.hollywoodposterframes.com/> _____ Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 10:19:42 -0600 From: brucehershen...@gmail.com Subject: [MOPO] WAY OT: What drove Bernie Madoff To: mop...@sol03.american.edu I looked at the cnn site just now and they have an article entitled, "What drove Bernie Madoff". It tells about what a brilliant man he is, and it concludes "Several people who know Madoff say his saga reminds them of a Greek tragedy. Just like Icarus who tried to fly too close to the sun, Bernie Madoff destroyed himself in his unending quest for success and respect. Says Madoff's defense attorney, 'this is a tragedy.'" This really offends me. He was a crook who has done untold damage to tens of thousands of people's lives (counting the many charitable groups he ruined) and he did so in the worst possible way, by being a confidence man who won their trust and then betraying it. The people who were swindled have some responsibility, because they forgot the old adage "if something seems too good to be true, it probably is", but their doubts were overcome by their basic greed in wanting those great returns, and in their belief that no one could be dishonest and operate on that scale. But this crook is the lowest of the low, and deserves no sympathy and is not "tragic" by any measure. What do YOU think? Bruce P.S. If one thinks this has nothing to do with movie posters, it seems an absolute certainty there will be one or more movies made about this fraud, and that opens the question of what title they will choose (maybe "The Death of Icarus"?) and who will be chosen to play the lead role! 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