Sunday, August 7, 2011

In Praise of American Youth

There are many who decry the current state of American youth. They see these young people as self-absorbed, lacking in “social graces” and totally unaware or uncaring of the larger world around them. I do not see this attitude to be true or, in the least bit, representative of the youth I have been privileged to be associated with as an educator within my history classes. I have found them to be inquisitive, insightful and very caring. Nearly all are truly looking for their place in the world, for a fuller understanding of their talents and the “clues” that will give them insight as to how they might make a difference in the world. My “proof” for my comments is contained in the following YouTube file that was the top place submission for a class project during the fourth marking period of the 2010-2011 academic year. The students had been tasked with selecting a theme of history and the development of a multimedia presentation that would show the patterns and trends over time from 1945 to the present day. They were graded by their fellow students and by a select group of school faculty in addition to my assessment.
The top submission focused upon the impact of humans upon their environment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqHBsN_noxQ
When the classes held project review sessions at the end of the project, it was revealed that the top submission took over 60 hours to create and the average time for all of the 10 separate group submissions was 30 hours. Personally, I was humbled by what had taken place. All of the submissions showed quality development, pride in individual accomplishment and deep caring for the world they lived within. From my personal experience, I believe the future looks very bright with the capabilities of youth on such positive display.

Friday, August 5, 2011

The "King" Wears No Clothes!

It should come as no surprise to Americans that our economic recovery is waffling; yet, we continue to listen to the drivel that daily ushers forth from the financial houses of our once great republic. “The economy is getting better.” “Consumers are starting to spend again and consumers represent 70% of the financial growth of America.” “The unemployment numbers are going down” (thank God that so many have given up looking for work, have expended their 99 weeks or have used their college degrees to secure a job in the local McDonald’stm, Burger Kingtm or WalMarttm). And the granddaddy of all of the lies: “All we have to do is raise the debt ceiling and our economy can get back to paying its debts and creating jobs” (doesn’t anybody recognize that “expanding the debt ceiling” is “expanding the debt”? and that, eventually, [this comment is not “G rated”] someone is going to have to pay the larger debt.). In spite of all of the happy talk of the beginning of good times to come and “surviving the “great Recession”, the stock market continues to flounder, the value of American homes continues to erode, the cost of basic necessities (i.e. Groceries, gas and health care) continues to skyrocket and the average American business or family finds itself unable to keep up; so, they are reduced to cutting back on “expansion plans”.
But wait! Don’t many of the American businesses and families have good credit ratings? Why don’t they borrow money, invest and expand? Wouldn’t that help the economy to grow? I’m sure that there are enough families and business that need or would like to have new buildings, new transportation, and new infrastructure items. A check with one of the major lending agencies reveals just why expansion is not taking place. A good credit rating is nice but the real driver these days in the minds of the banks is the “debt to equity ratio”. You see, it really no longer matters if you have a record of good on-time payments (aka: “credit rating”) for the “credit rating” of today is a whole amalgam of financial data of which the debt to equity ratio is the most important. Seems like the only lesson the banks learned from the recent financial debacle of 2008 is that “if you never lend the money, you never have to worry about getting it back”. So, by setting up Draconian litmus tests for granting credit, the banks never have to worry about the chance that a tipping point will be reached in market sector over speculation. Home loan rates are low but few loans are approved. Credit on credit cards is available but rates are over 20% (what we used to refer to as “loan shark rates”). Unfortunately, all of the new rules and regulations are terribly unfair to three important sectors of the economy: the young college graduate, the middle-income worker and the retiree within the society. All three of these sectors have reduced their expenditures dramatically to the point where expansion is not an option and just maintaining a personal financial balance is the only choice.
Who is to blame for this mess? While it seems to be the recent American passion to bash the president, the president is not the source of our troubles. And, while I would love to point the finger at the banks, I have to be sensitive to the fact that they have been given conflicting messages by the Congress as to how they are to help America to recover from the Great recession of 2008. No, the “King” in this kingdom is the Congress that has it within its power to force the banks to eliminate their Draconian user requirements and rates, change the tax code of the country in ways that would stimulate business, help middle-income families to afford either the new home or the new refrigerator, etc they would like for their older home, make the necessary adjustments to our aged entitlement programs that more accurately reflect modern living standards and employment environments, provide for greater educational access for more Americans and approve the massive peacetime projects that would further stimulate the national economy and reduce the unemployment rolls. It’s about time that the “King” stop talking and start enacting the legislation that is necessary to insure national success in recovery from the Great Recession of 2008. Eventually, it will not matter the political party of “the King” One “king” without clothes looks pretty much like any other!