WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?

Problem: We're in debt up to our eyeballs!

LWNJ: Tax the $h!+ out of anything that breathes. BUT DON'T CUT SPENDING!1!1!!! WE NEEDZ IT TO LIVE! Government makes the sun shine and the grass grow, dontchaknow! Oh, and also, we're ok with preventive wars as long as a Democratic President is the one with his finger on the button (yay for war in Libya!!!)

Liberal: Well, we could always start by ending some of these silly and unnecessary wars (especially the Drug War!) Domestic spending and taxation of the wealthy should remain robust though. Nobody should have to want for common necessities in such a modern and wealthy industrial society.

Libertarian: I agree with my liberal friends that these wars are a sham, but why trust the same government that has botched social and defense policies to guide our economy and spend our money? Let states and localities take care of most of what the Federal government (mis)handles right now. People, on the whole, are smart enough to figure out how to run their own lives and communities. Washington isn't nearly as omniscient as it envisions itself to be.

Conservative: Maybe defense cuts should be on the table eventually, but our top priority should be cutting entitlements and wasteful domestic programs. Government's role is to maintain the social order, not to ensure equality of outcomes.

RWNJ: ZOMG, OBAMA's RUINING EVERYTHING!1!1! Nevermind that he's doing almost exactly what Bush did, both on the foreign policy front and on expanding domestic regulations. And yeah, we'll tax the $h1+ out of you too, but WE'LL use the money to kill people in foreign countries and to cage citizens who smoke plants we don't like; NOT to help poor people here. Actually, we believe in socialism too, if it helps arms manufacturers!

Problem: People need jobs.
Solution
LWNJ: Sings "Obama's our man, yes he can" while marching to the welfare office with their "kill all the greedy evil rich people" signs and patting each other on the back over how tolerant and loving they are.
Progressive: Has learned that robbing the corner 7-11 is stupid when you can put on a suit, get a degree, go into politics and do it "legally". Generally uses government bought and paid for egg-spurt studies to justify undermining individual wealth and freedoms and the chasing of more windmills, sunshine and free lollipops for all.
Liberal: Sees the private sector as a necessary evil and offers some favored people other peoples money to fund their small business ventures.
Moderate: Usually agrees with the libertarians and then writes it off as impractical and goes with what the liberals/RINO's want to do.
Libertarian: Slashes government regulation and taxes, simplifies the laws, stabilizes the currency and allows the private sector to keep it's property and money to do what it has always done best... Produce and grow more wealth.
Conservative: Promises lower taxes and smaller government then borrows, prints and or takes private sector public money to grow government more than ever, bombs some countries that aren't like them and arrests a bunch of gay dope head lib sinners to give the police, military and their favored crony corporations some work.
RWNJ: Raises their heads from the "I earned it" government trough long enough to thump their bibles and scream Obama's a socialist pig.

I design and create intellectual property, aka, computer software....I retired for a while but that wasn't the life for me. Besides I enjoy the work and America doesn't have enough people capable and qualified to do it. Without my work, other people do not know what to do and so would be unemployed. Bottom line, however, people were willing to pay me lots of money to do what I enjoy doing and accept my terms.

My statement, however, was not targeting your personal life. It was focused on the nature of American political discouse. Surely in your career you learned this problem solving hierarchy.
1. We have a problem. What are we going to do to fix it?
2. You have a problem. What are you going to do to fix it?
3. You are the problem....and that can't be fixed.
Disfunctional organizations are at level 3. If you wish to save the organization you move it up the hierarchy until everyone is working together to solve the organization's problems. In this case the organization is the USA and our politicians have used negative campaigning to the extent that many Americans believe the problem is "the other guy", i.e. liberals if you are a conservative, conservatives if you are a liberal. If we are to preserve the USA, we must move America up this hierarchy until all Americans are working together to solve the problems/opportunities we face.

When I hear Obama is a Marxist or Bush is an idiot, I know America is in trouble. Even though both statements may be true, neither statement addresses America's problem. Obama is not America's problem...neither was Bush. As for what America's problem is...well this is a target rich environment; pick a problem and help America solve it. Here are some to think about....

1) As Americans, we consume more than we produce. Two options; reduce consumption, increase production or both. This not the Federal Deficit is the problem and it is not isolated to the size of the Federal government because all sectors of our society have come to believe they are entitled to eat even though they are not working. As the baby boomers like us retire, American productivity is likely to decline making this problem worse.
2) America's health care system is too expensive and too inefficient for America to be competitive in the global economy. As the baby boomers, like us, retire, health care costs will increase and a larger percentage of these costs will go to keep people who are consuming but not producing, aka, retired, alive.

3) Productive age people are unable to afford the education needed to do produce the resources we wish to consume. While we have highly educated, baby boomers out perfecting their golfing skills rather than teaching and mentoring our youth.

4) America's military is taking our best and the brightest young people out of the private sector and putting them to work for the government; making them less productive than private sector employment. It is also consuming many of the resources produced by Americans crowding out private innovation. Obviously security is important so how we solve this is not easy.

Anyway those are just a few. I could go but really need to get back to work.