Looking back at the prosperity of the Clinton years of the 1990’s I’d say we’ve lost a lot of ground in this country.

Are our best days behind us? They don’t have to be but given the current circumstances they might well be. If we cannot put aside our hatred of other political persuasions and creeds we may have peaked. The “us” vs. “them” mentality  that is so pervasive today is a very destructive thing and as a result it just might be all down hill from here. If we can’t get past these things then even I might live to see our collapse. Most of us think that these sort of things take years or maybe even decades to work out but that is not necessarily the case. Given the right circumstance a “Perfect Storm” can occur and things would happen on a very accelerated time scale.

Some are calling this the era of “Post Hope”.  I pray that is not the case but the evidence does seem to bear out that statement. Most middle class jobs that don’t require a lot of schooling have already left the country for China and India. The U.S. auto industry which has been the source for these types of jobs have been drastically downsized as a result of bankruptcies. What happens to those who seem unable to learn beyond the high school basics? Are they stuck with having to have two or three minimum wage jobs just to provide the basics for their families? Are they beyond hope?

We can only pray that eventually we will see that our current mentalities are more destructive than helpful. We can only pray that when that occurs that the best people to implement a new U.S. strategy are willing to step forward and take the reigns. The U.S. has been a nation that is known for going to the “brink” before stepping back and changing paths. Will we be able to do that again in our current world.  Just because we have managed that in the past doesn’t mean that we can always do it.

We are all so concerned about our personal situations that it seems almost impossible to step back and look at the nation as a whole and what would be the most beneficial for that view. Those of us who have lost our middle class jobs and don’t have any hope of ever having one again are struggling day to day.  Those of us who have managed to keep hold of our middle class job are constantly looking over our shoulders for when the hammer will come down on us too. There are what many once thought of as un-exportable jobs  just a few years ago that are now being moved off shore. It is even becoming more common to see people who require expensive surgeries to have them in other countries instead of here. Where will this end?

The disparity of incomes is becoming so extreme that something tragic may occur if nothing is done. In the last ten years those who have an annual income of $1million have seen their income increase more than 200% while the rest of us have seen a mere 20% increase over the same time. And of course this was a period of ever increasing costs especially in the healthcare area.

All of this certainly leads to the belief that we are now in the “Post Hope” era….