There are a number of elected government officials that seem to care more about their pockets and those of their friends than the good of our nation.  This trend appears to have been going for many years now.  Government officials and large corporations seem to be running everything, at the cost of our nation they claim to support.

Let is take a snapshot of our country at the moment.  Once we were a nation of producers and now we have become a nation of consumers.  In the past we actually had a manufacturing sector and now we have an Import sector with huge trade deficits.  How did this come about?  Is it just a global society and we need to figure new technologies to stay in the game?

The answer is obvious, large corporations and elected officials have sold our nation down the river.  Their interests not based on the good for this nation.  We have large corporations such as Wal-Mart that side with businesses in other nations to attach and destroy companies in the USA all in the name of making a buck (one reason I have not stepped inside a Wal-mart store in over four years now).  I do not know if they are are just greedy to the point of turning stupid or if they really do not care which nation they are based in, this new world of International global friendly companies seem to live in the gray area.

Whenever you talk about our economy and the loss of jobs due to shipping those manufacturing companies or technologies out of our nation, there are those that raise their banners shouting “Protectionism”.  Well, yes, there should be protection for our jobs and our economy and that should come from the White House all the way down, anything else is putting out country up for sale to the lowest bidder.

Look at just energy over the last ten years.  We had Enron and their corruption that took good power plants off the grid for supposed maintenance only to drive the prices up with the word “Shortage”.  Some people had their electric bills double, triple and at times even go much higher.  It is fraud, but what do you think of the so called Oil shortage now, do you really think oil is three to four times more valuable now than four years ago?  No, it is yet another case of fraud.  We have huge energy resources in this country, but the public is duped into believing we should not touch them.   In another decade fossil fuels will have little market value and probably be going for $0.50-$1.00 per barrel as we no longer need it for transportation or electricity generation.

These are just a few examples of how our nation is being governed by a select few who do not have this nation’s interests at heart.  These elected officials and large corporations will sell out just about anyone for a buck.  They are beasts that have no ethics and only survive to feed on greed.

Another example is from the local area where I was born and raised out here in Oregon.  Many years ago, we were primarily supported by the timber industry.  In the early days they did not manage forest correctly and we have mountains with the ugly clear cutting scars to prove it.  But those days where long past when a group of people wanted to kill of the timber industry in our area and got the worthless spotted owl on the protection list and told everyone that we needed to leave the forests alone for those little worthless owls.  If they were really concerned they should have captured them all and threw them into a zoo.

Well, that little owl got enough people’s attention that our government sold out the timber industry in trade for regular payments from the Federal government to help make up the loss of timber revenue.  So much for the interests of the Timber industry and all those tens of thousands of employees, this little ugly owl was more important than all of them.

It has been many years since those days and now the Federal government is ending those payments and all these counties and scrambling for some way to even stay running.  Guess they should have not sold out the timber industry and force the closure of all those mills.  Wake up call – TIMBER is a renewable resource!

Back on Point to the Solution

One of the primary problems I see, is that the people in charge do not have an investment in what is good for an area or the nation.  It does not matter to them if times are good or bad, if good the claim it was because of them and if bad they claim it was due to everyone and everything else.  We need more accountability!

Here is a wild thought for a possible solution to this problem.  How about we make sure they have a vested interest in the success of the area they control?  We could start with salary.  How about making elected officials salary equal to the average salary for the area they control?  That could hurt their pocket books.

Even if their salary is in direct relationship to the local economy, they still have all their revenue from books, conferences, speaking fees, etc., not to mention they may already have a great wealth before they take office.  That could be easily fixed by requiring all their assets to be on hold for the term they are in office other than their salary.  In addition, they should be barred from speaking fees and the like, while they are in office.

I have heard people say that you would not have anyone wanting to run for office if they were paid the average salary.  I am not sure that is true, to me it seems like public offices should be more honor than money making.  It does not matter what the person would make in the public sector, let them “Server” the country or not run.

The main point here is that officials should have some concern about the area they control and we need a method that will keep them on track with accountability.