America, unfortunately, will fail under the competition of other countries

I was reading George Rebane's latest,  http://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2012/08/singularity-scattershots-5aug12.html  and I found there might be more information then even Mr. Rebane has written about regarding employment numbers and the future of jobs here in America.  I admit that I am just a simple middle class fellow who is really happy to be here.  I am really glad I have been alive during the period of my life.  I love the car, the SUV, motors in general and American inventions.  It has been a great ride even for a nobody like me.  But I have seen a lot of the problems coming and voiced those concerns over many years as a individual, a elected official and a CABPRO creator/advocate.

I noticed early on in my life that our country was starting to push everyone towards a college degree and back in the 60's I thought, wow, $4,000 a year to attend college is a lot of money.  How can everyone go?  Besides, if everyone did that, who the heck would build the houses, dig the trench's, clean the houses and take care of the old farts?  If all were too smart to do the menial tasks how would the place even work?

Well, we have seen the results of that cultural policy in America and it has made the place a real mess.  Since we decided to spend a gazillion dollars to get everyone a college degree, we saw the traditional jobs go adios to other countries.  Sure, we ended up with a lot of book smart people but we don't have a labor force to do the crappy stuff like say, maintenance of our sewer plants, water plants, or fixing the "P" trap under the sink.  No, we have a lot of people who do a lot of "thinking" and who write a lot of "papers".  We have a whole generation of people working in fields that spend all their time trying to figure out why Americans are goofy!  We have a department of "self esteem"!

We have decided to shift our employment to a bunch of alphabet agencies that have a bunch of dogooders telling us all how to live our lives (trans fats, popcorn oil, child rearing, etc.).  And if we don't listen to them they have a additional alphabet police force to enforce their will on all of us.  We see this in Obamacare where another 16,000 IRS policeman will be hired to ensure we comply,  or else!  California has a passel of agencies to police hair cutting and back cracking by chiropractors.  They send their policeman to watch you in the forests and on the highways.  They knock down the doors of suspects who may be selling raw milk.  What is all this?

It seems we have lost our way about utilizing "common sense".  I work for a small local company sometimes to help them when they are busy.  I see the owners wringing their hands trying to comply with the daily rules and regulations spewed into their mailbox by the EEOC, IRS, EDD, Labor Departments (state and Federal), HHS and Workman's Comp, among many.  There is no way our country can survive all this stuff and be competitive.  Every employer has to collect the taxes for the government from every employees check and those agencies don't even say thank you.  In fact, those agencies don't pay the employers to do all that paperwork!  And they keep piling it on, daily!

America is becoming paralyzed because the businesses and employers are becoming so weary they have lost interest.  It used to so exciting to take your ideas and your money into the business world and make it work.  Now people say screw that!  If I hire even one employee, I will become a serf, under the thumb of government so what do they do?  They don't hire.  We see this more and more as the rules and regulations pour forth every day.  California passes a thousand laws every year and the Feds probably the same.  Each law (and there are thousands of new regulations too, read the Federal Register) is another "something" you cannot do with your own land, money, body or time.  This has destroyed the fun and excitement of our "free" country.  People want to be happy, government and do-gooders have sucked the fun out of them.

America is at a crossroads but maybe we are actually past the point of no return.  When I listen to small businesspeople, their employees  and even a lot of larger ones, they  say they are waiting to hire folks  and I now can see why.  For instance, When the banks started hiring temporary people 30 years ago, I saw then these regulations becoming the problem.  The banks did not have to worry about benefits if they hired someone for less than full time.  Why has the government injected itself into the contract between a employer and a employee?  And if the business did not hire more than say, 50 people, the rules were different and less onerous.  How did we allow this kind of stuff to become law? Because we stayed quiet?

When I  purchase a shirt or a pair of socks, a TV or a computer, I read the whereabouts it was made.  It ain't here in America!  We cannot compete because the rest of the world does not follow the same kind of rules we have foisted upon our own people and businesses.  Therefore, there is no way to survive over time when China builds a product for 1/3 the price we do.  It is simple economics and I don't care how smart we have become in book knowledge, we will fail if we don't change some things.  Unfortunately, we elect those really smart people to govern us and we see first hand how wonderful they have mad our country.

My dad lived until 1982 and was a WW2 veteran.  He fought to deny totalitarian rule.  Many millions died to keep us free and it appears it did not work.  We are less and less free and more and more unemployed because of our self imposed rules and regulations.  Something has got to change.