Reply: The Election, my final reflections

The thing that makes me more calm are the statistics for voter turnout.  This time America really did come out and speak their voice, with over 110 million votes and over 66% voter turnout.  I believe in the democratic-republic system so geniusly prescribed by Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington, and the other founding fathers, and if that system elected Barack Obama in the end, then I believe as all of you do that we can only rally behind our new president in patriotism, supporting him where we agree and opposing him where we differ in ideals.

Something else I realized last night.  I really can't complain about my life so far, most everything has been good.  There are a few notable catastrophic events that took place such as the Gulf War, the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, and Columbine, but overall the economies have always been good, there has never been a draft, and the information revolution occurred while I was still young, so I have been able to be a participant in practically the whole of it.

Interestingly, I was born during the Regan administration which totaled the first 5 years of my life.  Then we had Bush senior, making 9 years of my life under a Republican president.  Then we had Clinton for 8 years, and then Bush for another 8 years, totaling 17 of my 25 years under a Republican.  With this in mind I am interested to see what 4 added years to the democrat side of the equation will bring.  I will be 29 when the next election for president is held.  What am I going to accomplish for myself, my family, and my country in those 4 years?

It will be interesting to see if other Americans are asking the same questions about themselves ("ask what you can do for your country") or if they will be asking what their new president and government will do for them ("ask what your country can do for you").  While I am excited to see that Americans on both sides became more involved this time, they have yet to prove that they will stand up and take action for themselves to improve their lives and their situation.  I guess time will tell.

Tijs

--
Tijs Limburg

The Election, my final reflections

A letter I received in regards to the election last night.

Dear Friends,

You know that I was quite passionate about the presidential elections.  Today, the day after, I am quite mellow about it, and at peace.  I listened well to both speeches last night following John McCain's concession to Barack Obama.  I want to follow what McCain said that we should all do as Americans, and that is work together to solve our problems.  I believe McCain delivered the most dignified, classy, generous, respectful, and positive concession speech that I have ever heard from a candidate.  I also believe that President-Elect Obama's speech was truly inspirational and that he positively reached out to all Americans, and I want him to succeed in what he said.  He absolutely must come more to the center of the political arena to accomplish what he promised, and I will remain a conservative with the values that I have to help in my small way to be a voice to bring about a greater America.  I invite all of you to join me in that, or to just do what your own desires dictate to contribute to the cause of a more righteous behavior in our government and across this great land of the free.

Your friend,

Nevin

Ron Paul - A Disaster for America

Ron Paul's Ideas Illogical

It was when I first heard of Ron Paul rejecting the idea of international trade and wanting to block trucks coming north from Mexico from entering the country, which is now allowed, that I wondered why he would attempt to run for president.

I then heard him say that the Federal Reserve was unconstitutional, unnecessary, and the cause for the "worthless" dollar.  I say worthless because his statistic of the dollar being worth 4 cents for every 1920s dollar would make everyone think just that.

However, consider this.  We have all heard our grandparents tell of a bottle of coke costing $0.05 in 1920.  This is confirmed by most recorded accounts. (see http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq5.html#cocacola)  

Sounds pretty cheap, eh?  Especially compared to the price of a similar bottle of Coke at $1 today.  However, further analysis proves sightly different.  Many analysts estimate the average wage in 1920 to have been somewhere around $30 a month.  So lets estimate that to $1 a day in 1920s dollars.  To buy a Coke, it took 5% of your gross daily income.  

In today's terms, let's use the minimum wage of $5.85 in today's dollars to compare to the daily wage of $1.  Working a full time job at minimum wage, you would earn $46.8 gross.  (It should also be noted that many workers in 1920 probably worked longer than 8 hours a day.)  So in those terms, the cost of a $1 Coke of today takes just over 2% of your daily gross income to buy.  In effect, the cost of a Coke today is 238% less than it was previously.

Which would you rather have?  A Coke for $0.05 costing 5% of your daily wage, or a $1 Coke costing 2%?

Another argument that Ron Paul brings to his campaign is the idea of doing away with the Federal Reserve.  Such a move would be ridiculous.  Since its formation in the post 1929 crash era, the Federal Reserve has insured that we have not suffered  a depression as the one experienced at that time.  This is even more important considering the 1987 Crash -Of which this current month is the 20th anniversary. 

The 1987 Crash was the worst in US history.  The Dow fell a whopping 23% in one day, out-shadowing the 1929 Crash.  However, the Federal Reserve was in large part responsible for keeping the economy from going into a depression.  In fact, if you were to have bought shares after the 1987 crash, you would likely be up ten fold today -A much different result than in 1929, when by July of 1932, the Dow had lost 89%, and did not close above the peak level in 1929 until nearly 25 years later in 1954.

How can someone who is running for president justify his stance on dissolving institutions such as the Federal Reserve?  And more disturbingly, how can even 1% of the Republican voters be following him? (according to the latest Fox News poll.)

I think the economy will develop into a very important issue for 2008.  I just hope that the rest of the 99% of voters, republican or democrat, will be more informed of the workings of economics.