Something New

It is an unfortunate and inopportune time for many, but beginning to fix our economy has been a long time coming.

Some people of my age and older had an expectation of something that unfortunately never really existed. I also know that there is no Social Security account where money is deposited - we all, no matter what age - hold nothing but IOUs from a country that, if it were a business, would be declared insolvent.

I have never counted on SS for retirement, we have our house, our investments, and we have invested in property and hard assets like gold, but none of that will sustain us if everything goes tits up - and it could well do that – and also remember gold is useless if there is nothing to buy.

I have also long believed the criminal activity in government over the decades has finally created a debt condition that could plunge this country into a depression.

We also learned something about ourselves during the supply chain debacle that arose out of the Covid pandemic – we learned how much of what we need to maintain our standard of living and protect our nation, we no longer make here at home – not just drugs and equipment, but things as simple as surgical masks.

During my business career, I visited steel mills and manufacturing operations that no longer exist. A few years after I left it, the first company I worked for after college exported the equivalent of a full manufacturing plant to make 25mm steel cartridge cases to Turkey. My hands are not clean, I have set up global supply chains and have engaged in the hunt for lower prices in LCCs and LCRs – low-cost countries and low-cost regions.

We have all been seduced by low prices and easy money – and we now depend on other countries, some of them our enemies, for production of things necessary to the survival of our way of life.

Sean Davis, writing at the Federalist, sums it up:

“The reality is we cannot survive if we continue to remain addicted to cheap foreign crap. We cannot survive if we are unable to make our own food and medicine and vehicles and weapons and computers. A farmer who is wholly dependent upon his enemies to plow and seed and fertilize and harvest his land is a farmer who will starve. Likewise, a nation that depends entirely on its enemies to power its economy is a nation destined to become history rather than shape it."

We have been backed into a corner through the actions of our elected officials, and quite frankly, by our own lack of oversight and due diligence.

I feel the anger at the President’s tariff plans - I understand it, I do. Even I want to retire within the next four or five years - but the time is long past to pay the piper – there is never a suitable time to do it - but it must be done, or everything is going to crash.

Trump is trying something different – we know the result of pretending and doing nothing. That is why I have no patience with people who say they want change but then want to do that without changing anything significant. They want to continue the illusion until it collapses. I think we can endure some short-term pain to return critical manufacturing to the US and in turn, return purchasing power to people on a fixed income - imagine if we could reduce regulation, taxes and the root cost of products and services by 40%, effectively almost doubling our retirement checks - and we can do it. Trump's plan to eliminate tax on social security is a fantastic first step. If DOGE is successful and the tariffs work, it is even realistic to think income taxes and other taxes could also be eliminated.

It is unfortunate that it is happening now but that it is happening when it is, is less a function of Trump and more a function of a president trying to diffuse a bomb that has not only been passed on by former presidents, and each president since Reagan, Republicans included, has added a couple of sticks of dynamite to the pile.