I.O.U.S.A.

I recently watched a video about the financial future of the Federal Government. It is called I.O.U.S.A. and is well worth the 30 minutes it takes to watch it. I like it because it is non-partisan, talks to intelligent people, puts things in historical perspective, and encourages a plan of action at the end. In short, it has it all.
The film focuses on four topics-

1)how the federal government needs to reign in entitlement spending,

2) we need to become a saver nation again,

3)the trade deficit matters, and

4)we need leadership.

I would highly recommend it to everyone. It takes complex ideas and presents them in an easy-to-understand format. At the end of watching it, I felt smarter. And I also felt vindicated by the video because I have been an advocate of social security reform for a while. This is what I said in March of 2005 on my previous blog- antityranny.blogspot

The attitude of the younger generation provides an opportunity to phase out social security. This will free up money and shift responsibility for retirement from the government to individuals and families. The 6% that workers now contribute will create a giant pool of money. That money could go to a variety of purposes. Maybe that money will become a new source of investment capital. Maybe people will go out and spend it on worthless consumer electronics. Maybe people will store it under the couch. I don't know. But I do know that right now I don't believe that social security will be around for me and if I can get that 6% of my paycheck right now, I am more than happy to take care of my own retirement, thank you.

Rules in times of Crisis

You don't have to look far to see trials and troubles in our nation. The troubles range from financial crisis to unemployement to people losing their homes. And according to the cycles of history, as discussed in the book- The Fourth Turning, this is only the runup to an upcoming severe crisis on the order of WWII or the Civil War. So I was happy to listen to a great and optimistic talk given by a man named Oliver DeMille. He was one of the keynote speakers at an education convention that I attended. He listed some rules for making it through and thriving through this next rough patch of history.

Here are the main points of the talk. If you want to listen to it in its entirety, you may purchase it here for $4.00. Dr. DeMille summarized his points from a book, Our Home by C.E. Sargent. (Available on google books for free) Evidently, Sargent was a civil war veteran and summarized what he learned from life in that book.

1. Embrace the new and now.
2. Spend evenings and Sundays with family.
3. Don't try to fit in with what others deem to be cool. Do your own thing.
4. Write out and follow your individual rules for life.
5. Raise your children to be adults, not bigger children.
6. Find meaning in trials and struggles. Be grateful.
7. Focus on the widows, orphans, grandparents, children, sick, unhappy.
8. Marriage is the central focus of life.
9. Initiative education and (10)entrepreneurship thinking is what is needed, not job skills or get rich quick schemes. Be willing to do the hard work of building an organization or business from scratch.
11. Produce wealth because there is a need for it.
12. Creativity and Inventiveness
13. Resilency-never give up, stay optimistic
14. Ambition in making sure that the right ideas win out.