There’s only so much you can take

It’s been months now since our trip. I’m glad I took so many pictures. The time went by so quickly and there was so much to see and do – not enough time. But thankfully I have the photographs to look back on and reflect. China was an amazing place – so rich in history and culture. The infrastructure which is being put into place over there makes the US seem like a third world country. In the 12 days I was in China and the three major cities I visited in that time – I was overwhelmed in trying to take in so much in such a short period of time. It’s similar to what’s going on today which the Fiscal Crisis – there is so much trying to be done is such a short period of time, it’s hard to absorb it all .
It’s frustrating to see what’s going on in our country today. The blame game in Washington hinders the governments ability to get to the business at hand. Personally I don’t think they should have been as involved as they are now. They have enough problems running things as it was. The stimulus package everyone is keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for the best. The entire country is overwhelmed at trying to comprehend what the hell mess were all in and there certainly is enough blame to go around, but no one seems really to be admitting to it.
I’m concerned for the infrastructure of our relatively young nation. The priorities of some of the earmarks which were ultimately added to the stimulus are questionable when you look at the cost vs. the numbers of jobs that they create. I’m not saying that some of these projects shouldn’t get done – it’s just a matter of doing them later. After all wouldn’t it be better to start with the projects which would create jobs and are important infrastructure strengthening projects?
I have noticed that the politicians when they talk about the stimulus use the phrase “save or create jobs”. To me there’s a big difference between creating and saving. Saving jobs wouldn’t add more jobs to the overall number of jobs in the marketplace – it really means that they want to stop the further downsizing of already existing companies. But this is the best and most effective way for companies to cutback and for the most part all of these companies got too ridiculously big in the first place. Seriously, does Starbucks need to be every other block in Manhattan? I don’t think so and the market has proven so.
Creating jobs would obviously add jobs to the existing marketplace – that is once the existing marketplace has weeded out all excess which has been building up during the bubble years. It’s like your lawn every so often you need to aerate it/poke a few holes in it to allow for the better absorption of water and nutrients. Downsizing has a similar effect of companies – trimming the excess fat from the overall workforce can make a company leaner and meaner, allowing the flow of productivity to unclog.