This was hardly a fair fight. It was good sport if you like massacres. It was encouraging to see a couple of libs going for the exposed jungular. Counterattack is the only logical proposition. As for entertainment, this is a ten.

However, where we're really coming up short is in using our heads. Substituting emotion for careful thought and objective analysis has us going off in all kinds of ridiculous directions. Our world is very complex. We need people who know how to put their emotions aside and use their heads, not the theatrical displays, lies and catering to the emotions of the uninformed and then calling that, very illogically, public support.

The adjective for the lowest common denominator which many of our lawmakers appeal to is 'stupid'. Adherence to stupid is what we've gotten.

We can let the dumbasses call the shots but then we can't complain when it doesn't work out. Our senators and congresspersons have to get some balls and make the proper choices in spite of what the dumbasses are calling for.

One of our biggest problems on the manufacturing side is China, the state, heavily subsidizes the cost of energy on a nationwide basis. I know it isn't possible for us to do that but core services such as energy, where it's a for profit service in some countries and where it's nationalized in others makes a plate of scrambled eggs for competition. In the U.S. energy is one of our biggest cost factors.

And you correctly point out healthcare cost is another that on a national basis hurts us a lot. We really need a single payer system to get those costs into single digits.

It is a bit crazy that we brag about our high productivty but have some notable segments which are anything but efficient in relative terms.

The other thing where we have a big differential is for those items where other nations have nationalized something it keeps the cost for them low and reduces wage pressure. In the U.S. our costs for many of those same things keeps going up. If workers have any hope of getting their kids a good education so we can compete, wages have to at least stay even. That hasn't been the case for going on three decades.

There is one more piece to this crazy pie worth mentioning. The U.S. has made it attractive for corporations to seek those places on a global basis which have the overall least cost of manufacturing. That is great for profits but in large measure on the tax side it's broken. For U.S. corporation they have the upside and mitigate the downside. This has also served to accelerate the shift of wealth up our economic ladder and made worse our issues with class struggles.

For far too long we have legislatively put profits before everything else and have effectively excluded other equally important outcomes. This imbalance now has us in a bind. This is true on the domestic and foreign side alike. There has to be an accommodation made to account for nations managing their various national cost centers differently. The mantra of free trade without effective mechanisms for achieving trade and currency equity to keep things in balance cannot work. That scheme has devastated our middle class and turned our socio-economic scheme on its head. Our particular economic unit has to provide an overall outcome that satisfies requirements for all contributing elements which then yields a self sustaining economic unit.

Exclude or short change one piece and you impact the overall unit. This means take all the revenue and distribute those to meet the needs of all contributing elements and then what is left is profit. Profit comes last. If there isn't any, so what? At least you will have guaranteed that the overall unit is sustained.

Having lived in Europe and Asia I am familiar with this. Both make it work out so in the end there is the appearance of not having made any money. But all the needs are in fact met. And there is a lot more money there than meets the eye. It's just allocated differently to meet a broader set of requirements with no negative influence on the overall national wealth.

We have one more thing that is horribly out of whack. On the public side we have states and municipalities that actually work a regular contractual 32 hour work week. Their labor productivity is in the toilet. In the private sector, especially in manufacturing, the norm is in excess of 50 hours. U.S. productivity numbers look great. But government isn't part of that equation. If you add all the people in government our numbers look very different. Government is just as much a part of our workforce and the productivity equation as any other.

Where this is coming to a head is nobody wants to tackle the issue of how we are going to pay for all of this. It means a huge investment over two or three decades and if it is going to happen at all it means profits will have to take a hit and be redirected to the effort. This has to be done. If we have any intent of staying in the game there is no choice. Frankly, nobody in government or the private sector even wants to talk about this.

I don't know. While purely anecdotal, it should draw our attention that people are out of work, their homes are at risk, bankrupticies are running very high, economic activity is low and all the other things we read about but Wall Street is making money like crazy. I don't quite see how that is possible. Wall Street doesn't make anything. Why doesn't Wall Street reflect the general economic condition. I can't help but have the sinking feeling there is some sleight of hand going on and it is happening and has been happening with the assistance of our government.

This suggests the product of our country, reflected in dollars, has nothing to do with people being at work and producing real goods and services. Common sense tells me that just isn't possible. So the only way the bankers can make money is by bidding stocks up even though the underlying structure that defines the value doesn't support the price escalation. This brings me directly to one of my favorite subjects. That is, this has the appearance of being a big old lie. And the only reason this is possible is because a few very large financial institutions control a major portion of the national wealth. Which means they are making a ton of money purely through manipulating the nations finances. I don't see another possibility. And if correct, this is fraud on a huge scale.