A sad situation

I was talking to someone this weekend who made a comment that was entirely consistent with his lifetime of political positioning, but it disappointed me none the less. My concern is not so much that his opinion differed from mine, but it was obvious that he had not studied the subject and had no basis for his conclusion other than political knee-jerkiness. That got me to thinking about how dismal our future is in this country. The basic problem as I have so often said is the education system which guarantees that our young people will not be equipped to discern solutions to problems which arise. To take two examples, we can start with global warming. Few of the citizens in this country have the understanding of science that is required to separate out the drivel in the press from the scientific layers which must be examined to evaluate the phenomenon correctly. This leaves our citizens open to the manipulation of the liberals who will take advantage of this sad fact.

Another example is the so-called Fair Tax. If you want to really understand this proposal, you need to seriously consider a number of factors and the implications of each on the whole. It is not easy to do. After considerable reading on the subject, I have concluded that it has several problems which our politicians will never address, but the system on the whole would be better than the income tax fiasco we have now. The very first and most basic problem our voters and politicians would have to come to grips with is the concept of imbedded taxes. As a nation, we are simply not smart enough to comprehend this simple economic fact. So, the demagogues (established politicians) will prevail.

I know one is supposed to accept the collective wisdom of the American electorate and the concept that we should encourage everyone to vote, but I don't. The average voter is not wise and the more people who vote the less likely we are to elect people who deserve election. That is called an elitist opinion and I plead guilty.