Benefits

During Covid the Biden administration offered enhanced subsidies for Obamacare and this doubled the number of participants from 12 million to 24 million at a cost of $1,400 per person. These are set to expire at the end of 2025 and the democrats want to make them permanent. They will not agree to reopen the government until these subsidies are codified and this is the main hold up on the shutdown. Once benefits are given it is difficult to take them back. These benefits were enacted by congress and can only be extended by congress. The law allowed people with incomes higher than 400% of the poverty level to get subsidies. Lowered the premium free coverage up to 150% of poverty level. Income at 400% of poverty level for a family of four is $124,800.

NY mayor

There is an old joke about the eighth grader running for class president who promised longer recesses, no homework and free candy at lunch. He won. This exemplifies what socialism is all about. The candidate for mayor in NY City is promising free public transportation, free childcare, debt cancellation and $30 minimum wage. He plans to pay for these benefits by increasing taxes on the rich. No mention of expanding the economy or creating jobs.

Middle class

Throughout history the norm has been a few well off at the top and a large number of poor at the bottom. The most obvious example is the King along with his nobles and then a mass of worker bees. This was the case until the 1800 when the industrial revolution started. To begin with the old system remained with the robber barons, people like Rockefeller and Carnegie, but in time work rules were past and business was regulated and unions were formed and a middle class arose. The lesson is that the middle class is not something that comes about naturally but must be fought for. The only weapon the worker has is to organize. This is what happened after WW 2 in the US as the war machine turned into consumer products and companies formed partnerships with the workers and all profited. These years from post war up to the 1970’s represented the time when salaries increased each year a little more than inflation and workers were able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Over the next 50 years the US moved from a manufacturing economy to a financial economy and this was the downfall of the middle class. Today as the country begins its return to growing manufacturing it is time for the workers to unite as they did in the 1950’s and once again bring back the middle class. People say that automation will stop the working person but the same problem existed in the 1950’s. Automation was a hot topic in the 1950s and ’60s—a subject for congressional hearings, blue-ribbon panels, newspaper editorials, think-tank studies, scholarly symposia, documentary films, World’s Fair exhibits, even comic strips and protest songs.

Migrant criminals

Since President Biden took office in January 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recorded approximately 11 million migrant encounters nationwide through fiscal year (FY) 2024 not including 1.5 million known got a ways. Crossing the border into the United States without authorization is against the law. Entering the U.S. without being inspected and admitted by an immigration officer at a designated port of entry is a federal criminal offense, not just a civil violation. To better understand the options, these migrants should be divided into three groups. First group is comprised of 450,000 with criminal convictions on ICE’s non detained docket. Second group are 1.3 million migrants who have been adjudicated and found not eligible for asylum and remain in the country. The rest have not had their day in court and should be evaluated for work permits to allow them to remain in legal status. The got a ways must be found and their status determined and the 300,000 missing children must be found. ICE is experiencing difficulties in rounding up the migrants because local authorities are not cooperating. They allow criminals to go free into the community which leads to ICE rounding up those convicted criminals with some who have not been convicted.

Reshoring

The US plan to bring back manufacturing jobs is on a slow but steady course. US companies have committed to $1.2 trillion between January and September 2025. In the first half of 2025 foreign countries invested $150 billion in US manufacturing facilities with many times that projected for the future. Companies want to invest in the US because that is where the market is. The US with four percent of the world’s population produces 26% of the world’s GDP. The US also wants to bring home products for national defense reasons along with safety, like pharmaceuticals. This also minimizes the concerns about supply chains and with shorter supply chains companies can change directions to meet market demands more quickly and efficiently.

Chicago Blacks

For the past 30 months innocent civilians in Sudan have been killed because of civil unrest. This is not prominent in the news and a deep search must be done to find out what is happening. Here are a couple of reports. Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council, the UN’s top relief official Tom Fletcher said “women and girls are being raped, people being mutilated and killed – with utter impunity,” adding: “We cannot hear the screams, but – as we sit here today – the horror is continuing.” “Tens of thousands of terrified, starving civilians have fled or are on the move,” Mr. Fletcher said. “Those able to flee – the vast majority women, children, and the elderly – face extortion, rape and violence on the perilous journey.” Some have suggested that this is not considered worthwhile news because the people are black. Once again it is case of Black lives don’t matter. On a much smaller scale this is happening in US cities. In Chicago in 2024 438 Blacks and 111 Hispanics were murdered while during this same time period 23 Whites were murdered. These statistics are buried in the back pages of the news. Once again, the question arises, would reporting be different if 500 Whites had been murdered.

New jobs

As the dawn of AI begins to react with jobs some changes will be necessary in how society works. The early effects can already be seen in education, in particular for entry level jobs. Instead of highly specialized AI development roles, entry-level AI factory jobs for high school graduates will focus on the operational and maintenance needs of these facilities. These roles often require hands-on technical skills over a traditional college degree. Companies are not looking for college graduates with degrees in humanities but those who major in STEM. If you are a young person looking for work in the age of AI, then start training in high school, by taking industrial arts and computer classes. Follow this up with a year or two at a tech college and industry will be coming looking for you. Also consider tech college to learn trades like plumbing and electrician. Above all make sure you have good reading comprehension skills as much of your on-the-job training will require you to read and understand new processes and procedures. As the economy expands there will be millions of new jobs in manufacturing and the country is entering the next industrial revolution. Get ready the world is changing.

National health insurance

As the US moves away from paying for most of the defense for Europe, Canada and Japan this is good time to visit national healthcare again. It is estimated that if the US closed down all healthcare and started one plan, something like Medicare for all, it would cost $4.9 trillion per year. In 2024 the government spent $1.9 trillion on healthcare. US companies spent $1.3 trillion US consumers spent $165 billion out of pocket (company insurance plans) Medicare recipients paid $133 billion in part B cost Medicaid and Obamacare recipients paid $270 billion These total $3.8 trillion. This means the consumers would no longer pay for their existing coverage but would have to come up with the $1,100 billion shortage. For the 150 working families that would be $7,300 per year or $610 per month. Based on todays rates the average employee pays $500 per month for family plan health insurance through the company. This would standardize treatment across the country much like Medicare does today. It would end the private insurance business which employs 600,000 people.

Education

A common question is why universities tend to be liberal and one explanation is jealousy based on disbelief. There are 1.4 million college professors and they averaged eight years of school beyond high school at a cost of $150,000. The salaries of those in the humanities are lower than those in business and engineering. Most of the political talk comes from the humanities. These people find it difficult to understand why the rest of the country doesn’t realize that their superior education makes them more qualified to determine what is best for the country. When they see people with far less formal education making more money and having more influence they are dismayed. How could some middle manager or some plumber understand the complexities of the world. In the classroom the teacher is the expert and often corrects students. This has a tendency to carry over into private life.

France

France is on the leading edge of what is happening to most European countries and that is simply they’re going broke. After 50 years of public assistance programs, they are unable to meet their commitments to the people and the people are upset. They have been through four Prime Ministers in one year as each tried to rein in spending and then got the boot. Once people receive a benefit, it is very difficult to take it back. Europeans not only work less than Americans they no longer innovate. They are being left behind. Over the past 10 years Europe has gone from producing 20% of the worlds GDP to 13%. Many public officials in the US would like to add more public programs but Europe should be an early warning.

Rent control

The NY mayoral candidate is promising rent control to stabilize the cost of apartments. St Paul implemented rent controls three years ago. Rent control in St. Paul led to a decrease in new apartment construction, with building permits dropping significantly after the ordinance was passed. Multiple sources point to a sharp decline in new housing permits, with one report showing an 80% drop in the months following the ordinance's implementation. The decrease is attributed to developer disincentives caused by rent control, as it impacted the financial viability of new projects and made it harder to secure financing. When builders are told they cannot increase the rent they stop building. People in rent-controlled apartments don’t want to leave and so there is no room for growth. The latest trend is to carve out exceptions to the rules based on approval which opens the door to misadventure by governments colluding with builders.

Germany

The fall of Germany is evident by two years of recession and no sign of relief in sight. Germany is a manufacturing economy and depends heavily on trade which results in a favorable balance of trade with a high in 2017 of $261 billion. This allowed the country to avoid going into debt with the average debt being about $70 billion. This compares to $37 trillion in the US. Germany was so sure of its plans that in 2009 the constitution was changed saying the government could never borrow more that .35% of GDP vs the US which routinely borrows ten times that much. Germany’s problems began in 2000 with Covid which shut down trade and cut deeply into Germanys GDP. Next came the Ukraine War where Germany quit buying cheap Russian gas. This was followed by the US placing tariffs on German imports and most recently the US telling European countries that they would have to start paying for their own defense. The result is that Germany once again changed its constitution and now allows the government to borrow what ever is needed. They recently approved $500 billion to rebuild infrastructure and to help struggling steel, chemical and auto companies.

Obamacare for 2026

Obama care has been around for 15 years and it is time for an update. First off in order to pass the law it was deemed necessary to keep the first ten-year cost below one trillion dollars and they succeeded by coming in at $940 billion. What most people are not aware of that this was accomplished by collecting premiums starting in 2010 but withholding most benefits until 2014. Thus, the ten-year cost was spread over ten years but the coverage over six. Second most people who qualified for free coverage signed up but many young people who were faced with small premiums chose not to sign up. This prompted the government to instigate the individual mandate which was a penalty for not having the insurance. In 2019 the Trump administration eliminated the mandate. Many young people chose not to sign up deciding instead to just use emergency rooms much like illegal migrants were doing. As the cost for Obamacare rose more and more people, in particular, young people started dropping out. This creates, what is called in the insurance business, a death spiral. As more people drop out the cost for the remaining group goes higher which causes more to drop out and so on. Third. This year the cost for the Silver plan under Obamacare will rise 18% but the real cost is in the annual deductible. For those living below the poverty level the monthly cost is zero and the average annual deductible is $700. Most of these people will keep their coverage. The poverty level for 2026 is $15,650 per family. For each additional person the level rises by $5,500. This means a family of four can get free insurance with incomes up to $25,000. For those families earning between $23,475 and $31,300 their annual deductible increased to $3,600. The income limits still allow $5,500 per child. Thus, a family of four earning over $42,300 will pay $500 per month and have a $5,000 annual deductible. That means the annual cost would be $11,000 before insurance kicks in. Many families will drop out. Interesting enough, 5 million who are eligible for free care fail to sign up mostly because they are now aware or find it to much trouble.

Migrants in Europe

Angela Merkel was Chancellor of Germany for 16 years and made two crucial mistakes, which came back later to haunt the government. After the accident at Fukushima, Japan, she decided to shut down all 17 of Germany’s nuclear power plants and that was completed by 2023. When Russia invaded the Ukraine, Germany stopped buying oil and natural gas from Russia and must now restart their old coal plants and buy natural gas from the US at a higher cost. Next in 2015 she opened the doors to migrants from mostly Eastern European and Muslim countries. In the first year 1 million came in, which based on population, would be like 6 million in the US. Two years ago, Germany began to deport many if not most of these migrants. They first closed the border, by allowing the police to use stop and search methods to turn back people at the border. Fast tracked the process and used private planes to deport people to two countries who agreed to take them. Then they changed the immigration laws to accept people based on merit meaning what could they bring to help the economy. These procedures are being followed by other European countries who have been experiencing problems with migrants.

Police

Some cities show their appreciation for the police by offering good benefits including salary. The police in Hastings have life and disability insurance, holiday and personal time pay, health insurance and pension. The average salary is $98,000 and an officer can retire at 90% of pay with 30 years of service at age 55. After retirement they no longer pay into the retirement or social security so they can retire with more net pay than while they were working.

Harvard

Each year more than 50,000 student apply to get into Harvard. Only 2,000 are accepted and 25% of those are foreign students. Harvard accepts around 1,900 to 2,000 undergraduate students each year. For the 2024-2025 academic year, nearly 7,000 international students were enrolled, making up over 25% of the total student body. Why are US students turned down to make room for foreign students? Since 40% of US students accepted are Asian Americans is this discriminating against Asians. Students are admitted based on merit and studies and court cases have indicated that Asian American applicant often have very high academic ratings.

Trade

Prior to 1970 the US ran a positive balance of trade but since then things have turned around. It has now reached one trillion-dollar deficit. This is primarily the result of tariffs. US price due to factors like higher import taxes, VAT, shipping costs, and market demand. For example, a US-market Chevy Tahoe that starts at around $59,000 in the US can cost over $100,000 in Europe, once taxes and other fees are included. A Jeep Grand Cherokee starts at $38,490 in the U.S. but $64,830 in France and $61,990 in Germany. In Japan and China it would cost around $61,990. In 2024, approximately 165,000 American vehicles were imported into Europe. This number is significantly smaller than the number of vehicles the US imports from Europe, which was around 750,000 in the same year Trump’s plan is to have reciprocal tariffs meaning that if a country charges the US a tariff the US will charge the same tariff. If this succeeds then most countries will remove tariffs which will lead to free and fair trade. Free trade is best for all but they must be fair

Race

Since the majority of migrants being picked up by ICE are people with brown skins the government is being accused of racial profiling but the majority of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. come from Mexico, but the population is increasingly diversified, with significant numbers also coming from Central America (especially El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras), South America, and Asia. Some say this is racist but the real racism is in the big cities in the US. In 2024 there were 573 people murdered in Chicago and 26 were White. If these racial figures were reversed more would be done to solve the problem. Scholars have found that journalists are more likely to put in extra effort for victims whose cases are perceived as more "newsworthy." This disproportionately benefits white victims and those in more affluent neighborhoods. This is racism but it doesn’t seem to matter to the officials who are mostly Black. Chicago has a Black mayor a Black deputy mayor and forty percent of the city council members are Black including the chairman and vice chairmen.

Egos

Often times marriages break up because neither side will subjugate their egos for the good of the partnership. The government is currently shut down because the two parties refused to get their egos under control. The war in Ukraine continues because each side is protecting their egos. When a person views all of these situations from thirty thousand feet it looks kind of sad.

Game

The world should be thankful for the United States. One way to understand this is to play a simple mind game. Suppose that some other country had the military force that the US now has. How would things change ff China had this great force. How about Russia or North Korea or even Europe. The US does not have territorial designs like most others would have. After WW 2 the US was in a position to take over the world but it chose not to. The US does place economic pressure on other countries and for a while a rogue CIA interfered internally with other countries but there is no attempt to directly take over another country using military force. Picture Kim Jung Un with the US military in his pocket.

Census

The number of illegal migrants living in California has been lowered from 2.6 million to 1.8 million and 14 million live in the US and this is down 2 million since the start of Trump’s term. Most people are not aware of the fact that illegals vote indirectly for the president of the US. According to the 2020 census there were 331 million people living in the US and dividing that by 535 means that each 618,000 people equates to one electoral vote. This means that the illegals give California 3 additional electoral votes. There are seven states that have only one representative in congress and California has three just from illegals. Illegals across the country equates to 23 electoral votes and this can determine who is president. Right now, the republicans only have a 6-vote advantage in the house. This house majority could easily be determined by illegal migrants. In addition, most experts feel the number of illegals is undercounted. Trump is pushing that only citizens be counted in the next census.

US vs EU

NATO past and future. There are 32 countries in NATO and in the past, they have used 1.5% of their GDP for their own defense while the US has spent 3.75% of its GDP on defense. The reason for the discrepancy is that NATO relies heavily on the US to help defend against potential enemies. Under pressure from Trump the NATO countries have committed to spending 5% of their GDP on defense. This switch is already underway as over the past three years the US has spent $120 billion on military aid sent to fight the war in Ukraine and now the EU is buying military equipment from the US to defend Ukraine. Canada is in much the same position as the EU. These are countries who have national health care. Some have suggested if they had to pay for their own defense they couldn’t afford such care.

Lives

Most Americans agree that there should be no discrimination based on race but in the real world that is not what is happening. People are seemingly unaware of why Blacks are treated as second class citizens. A Black male at age 62 who starts social security will collect on average eight years while a White female starting at age 62 will collect for 18 years. Black families are headed by single moms 70% of the time while White moms are only 25%. Poverty rates for Black families is higher. Black students have lower test scores, more discipline problems and higher dropout rates. Black youths are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated and Blacks are disproportionately represented in prisons. Black males represent 6% of the population and 38% of prisoners. Black males between ages 15 and 50 represent 3% of the population but commit 50% of the murders and 90% of those are Blacks killing Blacks. Black females of child bearing age represent 4% of the population but have 40% of the abortions. Medium household income for Black families is $56,000 and $85,000 for Whites. Home ownership among Whites is 74% and 46% for Blacks. Many of these problems are the result of problems in school and many of those are the result of problems at home. These statistics are readily available but mostly ignored. In 2024 murders in Chicago were 438 Blacks, 111 Hispanics and 23 Whites. This was a typical year. Many feel that if these numbers were reversed more would be done to cut the murder rate. It is almost as if minority lives don’t matter.

Charity

Should rich people donate to charity. The answer is, depends. Sam Waltons children own 3.6 billion shares of Walmart stock that pays 88 cents per share so their annual income is $3.2 billion. They give $500 million to charity and invest the rest in other businesses. Elon Musk invested $100 million dollars of his own money in Space X in 2002. Today the company employees 13,000 mostly high paid tech people. The economic impact is in the tens of billions and projected to be trillions by 2030. To answer the question, yes people like the Waltons should donate to charity but people like Musk should innovate. The Waltons are giving a man a fish but Musk is teaching him how to fish. People like Musk and Steve Jobs should use their abilities and their money to create new industries. Of course, most rich people do both innovate and donate. 31 years ago, Jeff Bezos borrowed $300,000 from his parents and started Amazon in a garage with the idea of selling books on line. For the first ten years all profits were reinvested in the company and then over the next 20 years it grew into a trillion-dollar company employing 1.5 million people. He could have given the early profits to charity and kept the company just selling books.

Unions

The democratic economic plan is today the same as it was yesterday and the day before. It is to redistribute income and wealth. They will take money from those who have a lot and give it to those who have less. In the process they will decide who gets what, when and how. The objective is to offer benefits in the hope of getting votes but in the process, they gain the power of the purse. This then leads to control of policy which means power over the people. Both parties use this but the democrats have perfected the art. Republicans besides offering goodies will strive to ease regulations on business to create jobs which leads to economic growth which leads to expanding the opportunities for innovation. It is the private sector that has the incentive to come up with new ideas and these lead to new industries. The public sector can also create jobs through innovation in NASA and other areas of research and development like the CDC. These areas provide the ground work for private groups like Space X and pharma companies to grow. The democratic party now has an opportunity to right one of the most serious wrongs in the country and that is the large discrepancy called the income and wealth gap. As the country brings home the manufacturing jobs it lost over the past 50 years the door is open for unions to gain more power. Most economist say that if wages go up then prices will follow but that doesn’t take into account the increased buying power of the consumers whose wages increased. When Henry Ford started paying $5 per day it allowed his workers to buy the cars they were producing. This led to increased consumption and the country profited. When ordinary people earn more money, they spend more money and since the economy is based on consumer spending the economy will grow producing more jobs. Add to that the fact that new facilities will be more efficient further adding to productivity and everyone wins. The government can broaden collective bargaining rights and simplify the unionization process. Under the present system people are not paid based on their ability to produce but rather on their ability to bargain. It is ridiculous to think that the CEO is more productive than a thousand workers yet that is how they are paid. Unions will provide more bargaining power to the workers. In 1950 35% of workers were unionized and today that figure is only 6%.

Student loans

There are currently 42 million college students past and present who have outstanding student loans that average $40.000. Of these about 2 million have been paying on these loans for more than 20 years. Under the new rule signed yesterday these 2 million will have their remaining loan balances forgiven at cost of $80 billion to the government. This still leaves $1.5 trillion in outstanding loans.

net zero

A misguided way to transfer wealth in the US was spearheaded by climate change. The idea that replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar was a social program to transfer wealth at its heart with a cover story of saving the earth from climate change. This did not take hold in the US but in Canada it did. In the early 2000’s articles began to appear showing how increased carbon dioxide was warming the earth. By 2004 the UN got on board with climate activist to change laws to encourage the development of non-fossil fuels. In 2015, 130 countries met in Paris to sign a climate agreement to go to zero carbon by the year 2100. Next in 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change changed the zero-carbon date to 2050. When people challenged these proposals, they were called climate deniers and accused of not caring about the earth. Somewhere along the way the whole process moved from science to politics and the first signs that this was a way to move money from one group to another with government agencies deciding who got what, where and how. What happened in the US was now exposed on a world-wide basis. There were early clues that something was amiss but they were ignored and the momentum of net zero won the day. When leading scientist said that the science was settled, good scientist recognized that science is never settled and always subject to change based on new information. While Biden signed on to the Paris Agreement, it was not confirmed by congress so one of the first things Trump did was rescind Bidens executive order. Canada, on the other hand, stayed with agreement and took further steps toward zero carbon. When Canada signed then PM Justin Trudeau said proudly, Canada is back and will save our grandchildren from climate change. How this was to be done was not discussed. For a country whose whole economy centered around natural gas and oil this seemed unlikely to happen. There followed a series of new laws demanding carbon taxes, emission controls and increased regulations on fossil fuels. In 2021 Canada passed into law the zero carbon rules. This led to legislation requiring all cars to be EV by 2035. The new PM in Canada Mark Carney has pledged to carry on the goals of net zero. This has led to threats by Western Provinces whose economies depend on oil and gas to object to the new laws. Alberta is currently signing a petition to separate from Canada.

City bathrooms

Bureaucracy has run amok. The purpose of government regulations are to protect the people and the environment, both worthy goals, but in practice things have moved to the extreme. President Obama spoke eloquently about shovel ready jobs but when it came time to implement, he ran into some snags. Despite the promise of a rapid economic boost, many projects took months or even years to get off the ground. Complex planning, permitting, and environmental review processes caused delays, meaning funding could not be deployed as quickly as anticipated. One simple example can illustrate the whole point. San Fransico decided to build one public toilet and the estimated cost was $1.7 million. Most of the cost went for permitting fees of various sorts. Two private companies agreed to donate the materials and labor to build the toilet which they proceeded to do. The final cost was $300,000 mostly for permitting. The toilet is a 10 by 15-foot structure about the size of the master bath in most new homes.

Deportations

Some sanctuary cities have adopted the strategy used by Hamas and it is effective. Hamas mixes in their fighters with the general population and when they are killed many innocent citizens are killed and then these victims are published in the press showing how the Israelis are killing Palestinians. The sanctuary cities instead of handing over criminals in the jails to ICE are releasing them into the general population and when ICE captures them, they also arrest migrants who have not been convicted of committing a crime. Then these cases are showcased on TV. A better solution would be for the local authorities to turn over the convicted migrants to ICE who could then arrest and deport. Next ICE could help find the 300,000 missing children and this could lead to a road to citizenship for those migrants whose only crime is being here illegally. These people could help fill the many jobs that will be created when the US brings manufacturing back home. Instead, the cities are doubling down and permitting local police to help protect the criminals from ICE. This is the old story of a house divided.

EV's

Sales of electric cars hit a record in the third quarter of this year. The reason was this quarter ended the $7,500 subsidy. As people realize that the grid cannot handle the needed charging stations and cold weather continues to limit the milage, EV’s are losing popularity. More people are coming to understand the harm caused to the environment by the mining, processing and disposal of the elements needed for car batteries and this also hurts sales. The need for electric power will double in the next five years to supply the new data centers being built around the country. This will lower the demand for EV’s and perhaps they will be replaced by hydrogen when small nuclear reactors come on line.

Europe

An old adage says that if you want to dance you have to pay the fiddler. The day of payment is fast approaching in Europe. Most EU countries have prided themselves on their vast social programs. National healthcare, generous retirement plans, weeks of vacations and up to a year of full pay for having a baby in addition to time off for fathers. For years these programs have been paid for by exports and low expenditures for national defense. In recent years exports have declined as the US demands equivalent tariffs and that the EU countries begin to pay for their own defense instead of relying on the US. These countries have also allowed millions of refugees to enter the country which is placing stress on public assistance plans. Politicians in Brussels are trying to instigate austerity programs to cover the new cost but the people are objecting to any reductions in their government benefits and this is leading to rioting. One suggested solution is to institute a wealth tax. This has been tried in the past but failed in more countries like France, Italy, Belgian and Netherlands but remains in Norway, Spain and Switzerland. In Norway the tax is one percent for all net income over $3 million for married couples. Even if a workable system could be developed where the money would be taken from the rich and given to those who are not rich it would be only a temporary solution because in time the rich would run out of money. It is like Margaret Thatcher said, socialism is a great idea until you run out of the other guy’s money. The best solution is to have an economy that is growing and creating new jobs. The per capita income in Europe is $34,800 and in the US $86,000 or more than double. One of the main differences in these numbers is the fact that Americans work 1,811 hours per year while the Europeans work 1,511 and in Germany and France the number is 1,341.

Fair

One of the things that has hurt the democratic party is called in the current vernacular, identity politics. This concept centers around the word fair. It says that certain things in the past were unfair and so the solution is to make new things unfair to try and equalize the playing field. The way to measure the success of this approach is to strive for equal results. When minorities achieve at the same level as Whites then we have reached equity. The impetus for this is the fact that not everyone is at the same starting point because of past injustices. In order to make up for this the rules are changed to give an advantage to one group. This is not for all things. For example, in sports only the best qualified get to play but in applying for a job as a firefighter the test is race adjusted.

Antisemitism

Many pro-Palestinian groups who were quite vocal in their demands to free Palestine are suddenly quiet as Palestine is freed. This leads some to believe that the real intent of these people was not to free Palestine but to destroy Israel. This idea is promoted by the recent revelations regarding the teacher’s union emailing three million of their members information about Palestine. The nation’s largest teachers' union sent a mass email to its members containing a map that erased the state of Israel and labeled the area "Palestine," along with materials supporting Hamas’ barbaric Oct. 7 attacks. The emails continued trying to justify the holocaust saying: Another page on the Palestine Remembered website also contains a page that claimed "the last thing Hitler wanted to do was genocide" and praised Hitler and claimed that "the majority of German and Austrian Jewry" were saved because of his policies. Add to this the fact that many major universities in the US allowed Jewish students to be threatened by pro-Palestinian protestors who shouted “from the river to the sea” which was promoting the end of Israel and a picture emerges prompting the end of Israel. The FBI reports that 70% of all Religion-Based hate crimes were against Jews.

Gaza War

A brief history of the Middle East war and why it ended. It begins with the major achievement of Trump’s first term, the Abraham Accords. This was an agreement between Israel and four Arab countries, UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco to normalize relations with Israel. In the fall of 2020 Saudi Arabia was considering the possibilities of these Accords as a force united against Iran. As relations warmed with the Saudis, Iran became increasing concerned. Many feel this was the reason that Iran gave the go ahead to Hamas to attack Israel. In October of 2023 Hamas attacked Israel and this led to a series of events that ended in the destruction of Hamas. In Sept 2024 Hezbollah was destroyed by bombs in telephones. On December 2024 the Syrian government collapsed cutting off the access road to both Hezbollah and Hamas. In June of 2025 the US bombed the nuclear sites in Iran and along with the sanctions left Iran in disarray. At this point Israel went all in on destroying Hamas. Last week 30 countries, including nine Arab countries, met in Egypt to set up plans to bring peace to the Middle East. The plan is to rebuild Palestine.

Gaza today

The rebuilding of Gaza will mean high rise apartments since the population density is so high. The ideal situation is to use money from the rich oil countries along with Israeli construction companies and Palestinian labor to first remove the rubble and then set up communities with housing and commercial development. The beach front is 25 miles long and half would be for public beaches and half for commercial development. This would mean 12 miles of resorts to attract visitors and provide jobs. For example, Miami Beach is a mile wide and nine miles long. They get 28 million visitors per year and that supports 200,000 jobs. The weather is similar to Miami as is the water temperature. Palestinians are known to be good businessmen. With some start up loans from the World Bank many new enterprises will develop and grow. Before the recent war hundreds of thousands of Palestinians worked in Israel and that can resume. These are ambitious hard-working people and given the opportunity

Test gap

Back in the 1970’s and 80’s the schools began to deemphasize the importance of using phonics to teach reading in favor of something called the whole language method. Mississippi, a state that ranked last in reading skills went back to phonics in 2013. They had a special two-year training program for K-3 teachers and passed legislation that students who could not pass the reading test given to third graders would be held back. They would then be giving one on one training by specially trained teachers. The result is that Mississippi students now rank number three. Should this system be tried in other states? Should some states use AI for individual one on one teaching. The income gap and the test score gaps are two of the biggest problems facing the country. The test gap is particularly harmful since it impacts minority students the most.

GDP

The trade imbalance effects the GDP. The GDP combines the personal consumption, private domestic investment, government expenditures and net exports. Net exports are imports minus exports. For 2024 the situation looks like: Personal consumption $19.9 trillion Private domestic investments $5.3 trillion Government expenditures $6.8 trillion Exports $2.0 trillion Imports $4.1 trillion Total $19.9 plus $5.3 plus $6.8 plus $2.0 minus $4.1 equals $29.9 trillion. This shows how the negative balance of trade effects the GDP. If exports equal imports the GDP would be 19.9 plus $5.3 plus $6.8 equals $32 trillion. The US GDP per capita in 2024 was $85.810. If exports and imports were equal the GDP per capita would be $91.515. This is why the government is using tariffs to equalize imports and exports. US manufacturing is increasing in all areas. For example, GE appliances invested a historic $3 billion and Samsung and LG have expanded their US based plants in items like washing machines and refrigerators. This is all part of bringing manufacturing jobs back home.

AI teacher

Ask Google does smaller class size improve learning and you get Yes, fewer students per class generally leads to improved student learning and achievement, with the most significant benefits seen when class sizes are reduced substantially in the earliest grades and for disadvantaged students. Smaller classes allow for more individualized attention, increased student engagement, improved academic performance, and reduced achievement gaps. However, benefits are most pronounced with large reductions in class size (e.g., fewer than 20 students), and the effectiveness depends on maintaining teacher quality. This opens the door to AI teacher. All students have individual computers and the powers to be get together and taking the best parts from the best teachers devise the AI teacher. It will be designed to teach students how to thing not what to think. Every class, every lesson can be immediately analyzed with feed back and grading. Parents can be kept abreast on a daily basis. It will be two-way communication from student to the AI teacher. It is one on one education. There will still be a need for the classroom teacher especially in the lower grades but the teacher will have time to spend on things other than the fundamentals.

New jobs

In the recent past the US trade deficits have increased dramatically and today stands at $1.2 trillion. Up until the 1960 the US normally had a trade surplus but this changed as globalization became the new world economic system. The result was the decline in manufacturing and the rise of the financial industry. This meant stagnant wages for working people and high profits for big business and the executives that worked in these businesses. The income gap soared based not on productivity but on favoring the financial sector and this was not based on merit. While a specific average CEO salary for 1950 is not readily available, the average CEO's pay was about 20 times the salary of the average worker during that era. This was a period of lower income disparity between CEOs and employees, with CEO compensation increasing to more than 600 times the average worker's pay by 2020. It is not reasonable to assume that today’s CEOs are 30 times more productive than those in the 1950’s. The country and indeed the Western world is now reversing this trend and the US will once again become a manufacturing power house. A recent poll said that 25% of respondents feel they would be better off working in a factory. This would be a three-fold increase over the 8% who now are factory workers. These new factories will be using the latest technology and AI to increase productivity which means higher wages and benefits. High schools and tech colleges along with on-the-job training will increase the value of the employees and add to the efficiency of the operation.

Type of racism

The origin of modern eugenics (late 19th century) Francis Galton coined the term meaning good birth. Galton believed that human society was hindering natural selection by protecting the weak. He argued that selective breeding should be applied to humans to improve the race. Historical eugenicists used a range of methods to eliminate "undesirables," primarily by curtailing reproduction and, in the most extreme cases, through extermination. These practices, which were based on the pseudoscientific belief that complex human traits could be bred in or out of the population, disproportionately targeted marginalized groups, such as people with disabilities, immigrants, and racial minorities. Less than 4% of the population is represented by Black females of child bearing age and they have 40% of all abortions. Some might consider this a type of eugenics.

Murders

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was elected on April 2023. In 2024, Black Chicagoans were disproportionately affected by homicides, making up 78% of the victims despite being 29% of the population and 22 times more likely to be killed than White residents. Hispanic residents were also disproportionately impacted, making up 18% of homicide victims and being about 5 times more likely to be killed than White residents. White victims were the smallest group, representing the baseline for these disparities. This means that less than 4% of murder victims were White. This doesn’t seem to alarm anyone and could or should be considered racism.

Catch 22

Over-policing vs. Under-policing: North Minneapolis faces the paradox of historical over-policing, which can inflate crime data, alongside a reality of being under-protected and underserved by adequate police resources, notes the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and the Department of Justice. Here is the dilemma. A new police chief is hired because crime is out of control. He finds out that 80% of the crime happens in 20% of the city so he assigns more police in that area. Over time crime decreases and the citizens are satisfied. A few years later some enterprising report does and in debt study which shows that disproportionate number of minorities are being arrested and convicted. This awakens groups like the ACLU and demands that changes be made so the police are moved to other parts of the city. In time crime increases in the minority areas and citizens demand that the police do something. It’s a catch 22.

Campus

In today’s world many people wonder why colleges and universities have changed and there are number of reason but one rarely discussed is the increase in women in academia. In the past 50 years the number of female professors has doubled from 25% to 54%. In 2020, 85,230 male and 104,950 female students earned a doctoral degree in the US. In a nut shell women have become the majority of teachers in universities. If you agree there are differences between men and women you would expect some changes when the percentage of women in a position increases rapidly. In 2020 women earned 74% of the PhD’s in psychology and 20% of the PhD’s in physics. In some ways these two careers require similar skills like critical thinking but in other ways the skills are quite different. A physicist needs a strong background in math whereas a psychologist needs a strong understanding of human nature. How do these differences change the culture on campus?

Medical abortions

The abortion pill came out in 2000, a year in which there were 1.3 million abortions. By 2023 that number had decreased to 900,000 even though the population had increased by 50 million. During that time the number of medical abortions (using the pill) increased to 63% and many of these are not recorded so it is assumed that the number of abortions is not decreasing only the reporting. Many medicated abortions go unreported, especially self-managed abortions conducted outside of the formal healthcare system. This is a well-documented issue that affects the accuracy of abortion statistics in the United States and other parts of the world. Some states offer legal access to these pills without a prescription from a doctor and as those spread to other states it will become more difficult to count abortions because many will occur in the privacy of a woman’s home with no doctor involved. Many suggest, that in the future it will be a common practice for women to have amniotic fluid tested early on and medical abortions to be used to discard any fetus with potential problems.

Courts

People are often concerned about the court system becoming political. This has been in the news since the Supreme Court now has 6 six judges who are considered more conservative. Since Trump 2.0 the lower courts have been active in blocking presidential executive orders but they too have been somewhat political Of the 30 judges who partially or fully blocked a Trump administration's executive actions in 38 cases, 26 were appointed by Democratic presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. The result is that liberals are complaining about the Supreme Court and conservatives are complaining about the lower courts.

European migrants

Mismanagement of immigration policy can lead to a quick decline in a country. A good recent example is Sweden. This was a country that industrialized, had natural resources and high levels of professionalism in its workforce pushed forward by exports. It was a high-tech capitalist country with a solid welfare system providing good education that enabled entrepreneurship an innovation. The Swedish people were compassionate and welcomed Muslim immigrants from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000’s. These were people fleeing war torn countries and the Swedes open their doors. The Muslim population increased to 12% but the new immigrants failed to assimilate and this led to neighborhoods where police were not welcomed. In these areas there is poverty and gangs leading to unrest. Sweden is now changing its immigration policies to become more restrictive, shifting focus from asylum-based to mandating that migrants adhere to honest living to avoid deportation. The rationale is to address issues such as crime, fraud, and the rise of undocumented migrants. Similar situations are happening in other European countries like France and Germany. Migrants with criminal records are being deported across Europe with Germany deporting 20,000 in 2024.

Data centers

The genius of Elon Musk is on display in Memphis, TN. He took 100 acres that was formally an Electrolux appliance factory and in 122 days converted it to the largest data center in the world. Then in three weeks he installed the computers and the entire one-gigawatt plant will be operational by early 2026. These plants use so much electricity that the power source must be set up before the plant can operate. Memphis could not supply that much power so Musk purchased a nearby abandoned power plant. He brought in gas turbines from closed plants in Europe and installed them at the old power plant site. The future of data centers depends on adequate power supplies and this means providing a private power source for each new plant. They will start with natural gas turbines but in the near future small nuclear reactors will take over.

SMR's

As many of the dire predictions regarding climate change have failed to materialize it is time to take a closer look at renewable energy and at wind and solar in particular. First off wind and solar are intermittent since the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow which means a backup source of energy is needed. Some feel this can be batteries but current technology is inadequate. Second both wind and solar take up lots of space. A one-gigawatt solar field requires 4,500 acres, a one-gigawatt wind farm 8,000 acres and a one-gigawatt natural gas power plant about 8 acres. Third since the solar fields and wind farms are installed many miles from the use points, they require long cross-country transmission lines. Forth the mining, processing and disposal of the materials needed for wind and solar is detrimental to the environment and thus most of these materials currently come from China. Fifth, batteries cannot be used for airplanes, ocean liners, heavy construction and farm equipment and rail trains which means there will still be a need for the diesel and jet fuel. The only realistic solution to climate change is nuclear power. Small modular reactors (SMR’s) cam be produced on and assembly line and shipped to the use point on semis. This removes the need for long transmission line and they operate 24/7 and need no backup. Using the latest gas turbines both uranium pellets or thorium can produce both electricity and heat. The reactors can be used to produce hydrogen by electrolysis of water and diesel and jet fuel can be produced by using hydrogen and carbon dioxide taken from the atmosphere and returned to the atmosphere when burned for a carbon neutral cycle. Cars and small trucks can use hydrogen for fuel and the only biproduct is water. The reactors have walk away safety meaning no meltdowns and the government is fast tracking the approval process which was the main reason for high building cost.