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Originally Posted by Finnster
Are you talking about China? lol
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Them among others.
It's like the parent constantly feeding the spoiled teenager, then when all hell breaks lose, trying to act tough and wash their hands the whole deal.
China has many issues most of the world is unaware of. Labor rates being probably one of the biggest factors. They have a compounding labor rate issue and their attempts at controls of many market factors are backfiring. You simply can't control a capitalist economy with communist governance.
I think more bad news will come, although I don't quite see the doom and gloom some are predicting.
The problem now is that we have to fix the issues and quit pointing fingers. It's irrelevant at this point for the most part.
I think in the US we need to have a constitutional convention and we as the public address these issues which our elected officials can't get hold of.
First off I believe we need to impose term limits along with making some solid rules and definitions of job responsibilities and powers. For people from isolated communities to hold the amount of power they do in congress is insane. We also have to push more responsibility and power back to the state level. No one can fully understand a communities needs better than that community. Being centralized is causing many of our issues today.
One major issue I would like addressed would be to restrict people from running for office while holding an elected office. No company would allow an employee to publicly seek other/better employment all the while giving them a full paycheck and allowing the to work less. All that while using company money and equipment to do it. I think one 6 year term is plenty for a Senator or Representative. If you want to run for another office you either resign or wait until your term is over. No pension other than what you put to your 401k or similar and you pay your own healthcare. They get a base allowance for travel, staff, and expenses and that is it. No government jets period. These costs will automatically be raised by 3% per year and anything over and beyond has to go to a public vote. I would allow the president to run for a second term only with a 2/3rds vote from Congress then it goes to the public vote. This means the Congressional vote only allows him/her to run again, it doesn't elect them.
I would also force a balanced budget amendment. It would hold a provisional clause for borrowing under emergency circumstances only with limits as to percentage of the annual budget and terms of interest and payments. I would also propose that all Foreign aid be the last part of any annual budget and that it not exceed 1% of the total annual budget. I would limit jobless benefits to 6 months and welfare to 1 year. All recipients of government moneys would be required to submit to prescreening random drug screening. I would also cut defense spending as to eliminate the many redundancies and add a reserve provision were a certain percentage of the annual budget is put in case of extra spending for military operations outside the general protection of the US and it's interests. This fund could be accessed under the direction of the President but any operations over a certain amount and scope would require Congressional approval.
Obviously much more is needed but those are my starting points.