What is wrong with America?

wrong with America?

  Daily we hear about the critical problems America is facing such as high unemployment rate, national debt, budget crisis, health care, outsourcing, and many more. At times it is fashionable to talk about these issues while other times we mention these problems to make ourselves realize that the problems we face as individual are not as bad as what the nation as a whole faces.

  We all know the issues and we all want to get things functioning well, the way they were before, so why are we not getting to that point? Who is to blame? Obviously the easy target is the current or past administration in the Oval office, political games played by major parties in their quest to control the senate and corporate greed. To a lesser extent we can blame outsourcing, global competition and even terrorism. These and many other factors definitely play a very important role but I think the majority of blame is on us. This ‘Us’ includes every single man and woman who are part of the labor force.

  Let us examine the other factors in detail, we can start off by looking at the current President and his administration. Any and all Presidential candidate has to promise everything, I am not calling them liars but let us face it no one can become the President by not promising things. The President, whether a Republican or Democrat has the best intentions for the country, he loves this country and if for no other reason, he wants to do well so that he leaves a legacy behind him. What the candidates fail to talk about during their speeches, debates and meetings is the challenges they will face in making changes. How will they handle the challenge? The job of the President is a powerful one on paper, but in reality he cannot pass bills as he pleases without the Senate’s approval, forget bill changes, without the approval of his security he cannot even go to McDonald’s to buy burger and fries. He does not talk about the problems he will encounter and when it comes time to make changes he or his administration blames the other party for not passing the bill. Whether fair or not, this is a discussion for another day, my bottom line is we cannot hold one person or a group of individuals responsible for all the problems in any country.

  After the stock market crash, after the Dot.com and housing bubble crash hundreds and thousands of American’s were adversely affected and some are still feeling the effects. Let us look at the housing market crashing. I am sure Mortgage companies did some unethical and illegal things that hurt home owners, I am sure Realtor’s indulged in scare tactics to make a quick sale but here I put majority of the blame on individual buyers. I would be the first one to admit that I was among them to make foolish mistakes. I bought my house for $300,000 - the same house that the previous owner had bought for $140,000 ten years ago. I foolishly calculated a $16,000 a year appreciation on my property and silently made plans to flip the property in 5 years for a nice gain. I was smart enough to not get the interest only loan but I did get the adjustable rate mortgage thinking that I would have made enough by the time the loan rate went to prime.

  Six months after buying that house the market collapsed and houses in the neighborhood were selling for as low as $240,000. My wife and I were fortunate enough to have decent jobs so that we could continue to make payments but if I went in default and had to foreclose on the property could I have blame the realtor, Mortgage Company or some other entity? The answer is a big NO. As somebody making one of the biggest investments of my life I needed to educate myself, understand the market, research historical data on the housing market and do much more. Anyone who took an interest only loan on property has no one but himself or herself to blame. If we have time to look at videos online of animals talking, to poke friends on Facebook, to tweet on Twitter, we ought to have some time to make rational decisions.

  So what can we do different individually and collectively to make things better for our country? The short and simple answer is change our mindset and take a positive approach to work, take pride in whatever it is that we do. These things are easier said than done, most of us work longer hours for less pay while dealing the impending threat of layoffs.

  No matter what our industry is, we all have been affected by jobs duties being outsourced to other countries like China, India and South American countries. For corporations it makes sense to take this step as the wages are significantly lower in other countries, labor rules are not very strict and technology has helped us connect irrespective of time zones or geographical boundaries. However, are these the only reasons jobs are being shifted? I think it is deeper than that, employers are constantly worried about lawsuits; employees require benefits, time off without increasing productivity. I have not traveled the world but have been fortunate enough to see some countries in Europe and Asia, and the level of service you get in Asia is significantly better than what we get here.

  Take any hospitality industry; the service you get on an economy seat on an international airline is equal at best to the service you get on a business seat domestically. The friendliness you get at Hyatt Regency or Hilton here is less than what you get at a local non-branded hotel in Asia. Granted labor is cheap there, there is poverty and thus their motivation to perform is higher, they have millions to compete against. Why can’t we provide that level of customer satisfaction at hotels, car rental places, airplanes, banks and other retail establishments?

  Another issue is we are getting to a point where we are manufacturing less and less, our whole economy is based on things that do not amount to much when it comes to necessities. Look at the big performers at the stock market, Google and Apple, how are they making our lives better? I personally do not understand what Google is all about, to me it is a search engine. They do things like affiliate marketing, emails, groups and much more and apparently whatever it is they do, they do it right based on their financials. Apple, of course has revolutionized how we listen to and share music and they have innovative products but still none of their products make housing, food or healthcare items that are so essential. I am as hopelessly addicted to Facebook as any other person but at the same time I feel shame when Facebook or Twitter is mentioned or considered as a big player in the financial market.

  Google and Apple are just two examples, there are hundreds of companies like these and many jobs that they have created that do not contribute much to the economy as a whole. Social Media Analyst is one such title that appears unnecessary or aWe need to hire and pay one or more person just so he or she could manipulate our company’s web presence? In this day and age food establishments, hotels, Doctor’s and even Attorneys are so worried about the online reviews about their business that they either need to stop doing what they do best and answer to those negative reviews or hire someone to do all that. Surely the budget allocated to these positions or departments take away from funds appropriated to more important jobs such as product development, advertising, community involvement and employee hiring to do the daily chores.

  On an individual level as far as work is concerned we need to start taking pride in our jobs, we need to deliver exceptional service regardless of whether our efforts are being recognized and appreciated by management. We need to ask for less and do more. We need to stop using the threat of going to court for small issues. The negative publicity that is associated with outsourcing is a big deterrent to shifting jobs to many corporations and if we can show the management that our workers are not only equally but more productive to our counterparts in other countries we will see a fall in this practice.

  As far as benefits goes, there is no shame in collecting unemployment, food stamps or other federal and state assistance but we need to take it only if necessary, only when no other resources are available. I have met many individuals who claim to have understood the ins and outs of laws and who know loopholes to continue getting assistance.

 
On a personal level when it comes to other thing evaluate the situation and then make decisions and learn to let go. Anyone who has been in a car accident knows that within days of the accident your mailbox is flooded with letters from Attorney’s asking you to hire them so that they can get a settlement. Let us not get influenced by claims of big settlement and make decisions based on the severity of the situation. There are many accidents caused due to negligence, many under the influence of alcohol and drugs and recently more common cause of talking on the phone or texting while driving. However, if an accident is caused due to the Driver’s wrong decision, give him or her the benefit of doubt, maybe they had a bad day, maybe they meant well, maybe weather was a factor.

  Health industry is another example, Doctors are so scared of being sued that they are playing it safe and that if affecting our relationships with Doctor’s. Doctors are highly trained and educated and we expect much more from them but at the end of the day they are humans as well and like the rest of us they are prone to making mistakes. For the fear of being sued the Doctor’s stay thorough, and they should stay that way but at times it results in them ordering unnecessary tests which in turn puts the burden on Insurance companies which results in higher premium for individuals and their families.

  On a corporate level the management needs to retain, train and motivate workers to work productively. No employee will feel like performing if there is a threat of job loss, be more open and share information, encourage sharing of ideas. Profit is not a dirty word, companies are in business to make money, and employees work to make money so corporations should never shy away from an opportunity to make money but they need to do this ethically and legally.

  Corporations need to give the American working population another chance of making and manufacturing things here. There are jokes of products made in China that are easily breakable but cheap, we need to make reliable and affordable products locally and in fact make it so good that our products are wanted globally.

  The federal and state government needs to make rules less stringent as far as employment laws are concerned. I have worked for 18 years in 5 different companies, all of them were small to mid-size and the biggest complaint I heard from employers were they were either wasting time taking care of local and state rules and regulations or hiring employees to take care of just that. I understand that there needs to be a fair balance, employers cannot be allowed to run their businesses as they please since that might result in taking advantage of the employee.

  Foreign policy and assistance has been a pet peeve of mine. America has stood for justice and equality globally and has fought for and helped nations that were in distress. However, right now America is in a financial distress and we need to fix what is wrong locally before we try and solve the problems globally. In helping other countries out we are not only losing financially but we are also losing brave men and women in uniform, we are giving rise to hatred for America in some extremist countries. If one group or country attacks America, by all means defend our freedom and destroy them with a vengeance but at the same time do not worry too much about other countries. They are in distress due to the attitude of the citizens and their elected officials, let them sort the mess out. I find Canada a prime example of this, they spend so little on Military, and they use the remaining in investing in the education of their children and helping local businesses.

  On the highest level the current and future President need to be more open and speak their minds and we need to listen to what they have to say rather than what they meant to say or how they said it. After every Presidential Candidate Debate or speech there are hundreds of so called experts breaking down what was said and how it was said, the analysis is polar extreme on different network with different political affiliation. Why do we need to listen to these pundits? The Debate itself is staged, the questions are known and approved by both candidates, in real life the situations coming up will not come with prior approval or knowledge. It would be refreshing to see a candidate lay down his policy and how he plans to achieve that. Most important thing would be if he explained the challenges he and his administration would face and how he would require all of us to rise to the occasion. Right now people in Office are promising us and we have become complacent to a certain extent and counting on them to deliver without much effort on our part.

  America was, is and will remain a great country, in other countries there is a big line outside the American consulate of people wanting to get visa to come here to brighten their future, so why are people who are born and brought up in this country giving up on the American dream?

  This article sounds very preachy and a bit idealistic but I firmly believe that the future of America is in the hands of individuals like you and me, the ones that fight traffic to reach work on time, the business owners who open their shop daily regardless of how they are feeling, the men and women in police uniform who keep us safe, the teachers who train our young minds and countless other professions who are not as coveted but very important in running the day to day business of the country. Recently the President had his State of Affairs speech and after the speech the poll indicated that the President is not in touch with or understand the problems faced by a common man. Well he is not a common man living a common life, just like CEO of a big corporation, I don't expect him to understand our problems. As hard working citizens we need another chance from Corporate America, once given the chance we need to capitalize on that. We also need not to wait for a chance, we need to work hard so that we are sought after.