Excerpt From America In Decline

America is in decline and has been for over six decades, of that that there can be little doubt. The reasons for our countries' economic and moral decay are detailed in part I of this book. In part 11, I will suggest steps, short of a second revolution, that should be taken to rescue our floundering ship of state. Finally, in Part 111, I predict what is likely to occur if we do not have the courage to institute the changes required to restore the nation's economy and put its citizens back to work. I believe, as will become clear after reading the first few paragraphs of America In Decline, that the decreasing cognitive ability of our citizens over the past half century has played a major role in the America's fall from greatness. Our failure to recognize the importance of intellect, especially the concept of inherited cognitive ability, is largely responsible for most of Americas social and economic woes. Throughout the book I rely heavily on statistics gleamed from Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray's masterpiece The Bell Curve to support the common sense observations made during my lifetime with respect to intelligence, illegitimacy, race and a host of other social and economic issues that plague today's American society. The Bell Curve is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand the reasons for our countries declining economic prospects and moral decay. In this respect, I consider The Bell Curve to be the single most important book of the last 150 years, possibly of all time. The reader may be surprised by some of my suggestions for improving our economy, especially those that come squeaky close to unadulterated socialism. Nonetheless, for reasons that will be made clear in the pages of this book, we will have to accept the fact that social policy, at least in the near term, will have to include some measures to redistribute the country's wealth from the haves to the have-nots. The redistribution need not be as large as it is presently and certainly must not be allowed to grow, but, for the nation to function in something other than utter chaos, those who wash our floors, pick our fruit and care for our children must be paid a living wage. To do otherwise is amoral, uncivilized and, most importantly, from a nationalistic point of view, self-destructive. For example, if our nation is to survive as a viable economic force, we must rebuild the manufacturing base in America. This goal can only be met if we place stiff tariffs on goods that are made in faraway countries where humans work for a few dollars a day under near slave labor conditions. The price of the goods we buy at the local retail store should reflect their cost of manufacture in the USA where workers receive a decent living wage and not what they would cost if produced by slave labor in a third world country like Indonesia. Not to recognize that we must pay intellectually challenged members of our society a living wage for making, for example, a pair of tennis shoes, will only lead to further economic unrest and a proliferation of the antisocial behavior that is undermining the moral fiber of the nation. The most important of the changes championed herein include the elimination of illegal immigration; steps to reduce the rate of illegitimacy; measures to curtail welfare; and, most importantly, a major effort to restore the work ethic in the American worker. Many of the bitter pills and unpleasant remedies suggested will be hard for the politicians on both sides of the isle to swallow, but they will not be able to refute any of the suggested remedies with any reasonable argument. For example, you cannot expect people to work if there are no jobs and you cannot expect people to get married and start a family if they are paid to remain single and have their children out of wedlock. The results of the liberal policies which have been instituted over the past 60 years have been a disaster for all but a privileged few of our citizens, primarily those who were lucky enough to have been born smart or very smart. Because of the misguided social policies of the liberal establishment, to many of those who were less lucky in life's genetic role of the dice, now lead meaningless unfulfilling lives as ward's of the state. To rob a person of the dignity that can be achieved by having a job and working, is about as un-American as it gets! To resolve the socioeconomic mess in which we find ourselves, the nation will have to abandon the failed strategies of the liberal social engineers and return to the capitalist policies that made the United States the economic powerhouse it was in the early 1900s, before the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson. Roosevelt may have been the most destructive of our presidents because he took us off the gold standard and by so doing make unlimited deficit spending possible; but, one could argue that the social policies of Johnson's great society were equally damaging because they led to the breakup of the black family and turned millions of potential black husbands and fathers into homeless vagabonds and career criminals. To restore America's greatness, we must take steps to curtail the welfare state that has evolved over the past sixty years. To achieve this goal the government should initiate policies that will create private sector jobs for those who wish to work and insist that able bodied males take those jobs when they become available. Females who chose to work outside the home must be provided the same opportunity as their male counterparts; however, tax policies should be enacted that encourage mothers to stay at home during their children's formative years rather than forcing them to work to support their families, as is now to often the case. No one can reasonably argue that many of the social problems we are facing today are not the result of the fact that it now takes two paychecks to support most families whereas when I was growing up in the 1940s it took only one. If we have learned one thing over the past 60 years it is that children do better when they are raised by their mothers and not by a nanny or, worse yet, members of a federal or state bureaucracy. It also is becoming increasingly apparent that they do better if they are home schooled, but that is subject matter for a future book. Finally in Part 111, I discuss the predictable consequences of inaction. If we, the people, do not rise up and take our country back, America will become, at best, a third world socialist country like Greece or, at worst, a puppet state of China. Unlike Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, who seem to believe that Americans ultimately will wake up and throw the bums out, I do not think the necessary changes in public policy can be accomplished at the polling booth. No, it will take something more than a change of heart by the voters to cast out the entrenched liberals and rhino republicans who gave us the socialistic policies which have turned our country into an amoral debtor nation. When all is said and done, like it or not, we are facing the prospects of a second American revolution. Hopefully, it will not be as bloody as the first one.