Going Viral

A new dynamic is spreading fast in the form of accelerating video to the masses via the internet. Pictures taken at various rallies across the country and the globe are being broadcast at an extremely fast rate showing injustices made by law enforcement at relatively peaceful demonstrations. Students and others are being pepper sprayed and submitted by baton wielding riot police for such offences as disobeying an order to leave the area. These individuals are expressing their rights to the constitutional act of free speech and dissent. The most recent use of chemical weapons on U.C. Davis students has caused an uproar nationwide, and the demand for the resignation of the schools Chancellor Linda Katehi. This ability will undoubtedly foster a larger and increasingly disgruntled movement nationwide, just as it has done across the globe of late. Social networking will become the new nightmare scenario for governments trying to stem the tide of change. The transparency of greed has caused many an empire to fall, and technology is now its accelerant.

Dead Weight

Unfunded pension liabilities should become an even larger issue in the next few years, surpassing such problems as debt levels, unemployment, gross domestic product, and manufacturing. A massive number of boomers are on the cusp of retirement, and want the lions share of benefits. They believe that their responsibility as working taxpayers has come to an end, and a future of world travel and golfing is in the cards for themselves. Leave the problems of the world to the children and grandchildren to deal with. I find this ironic as they reaped huge financial rewards as active participants in unscrupulous hedge fund activity bolstering their portfolios. There is no way that you could convince even one retiree, that these lavish retirement lifestyles were achieved through any unethical business practices, and its just smart investing they would reply. Ask yourself why truly wealthy individuals like Warren Buffet and others find it necessary to continue to work well into their 80s and contribute when they could easily afford to retire, could it be that they realize that tax revenue from working is essential to a healthy an vibrant economy?. The fact is that if you have more takers than givers the numbers wont jive, and you are left with a depleted economic carcass of an economy.

China Syndrome

U.C. Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi's recently outlined a plan to bolster the foreign student population studying at the University, saying it is essential in developing new revenue to stave off future cuts, help hire 300 new professors, and make other improvements to the campus. According to a recent article in the Sacramento Bee Chinese students now make up the largest percentage of foreign students at U.C. Davis at 560 students with a total of 1,662 students from around the globe altogether. They pay as much as 22,878 a year more than resident students, and the foreign student population attending university's throughout the U.S. has increased ten fold since 2007. At this rate a huge disparity between American and foreign students being received by American University's should happen very quickly. I find this strategy of economic discrimination of American students that pay less, nothing more than pure greed, and it must stop. I can only see this change come as the result of litigation thus mitigating this unfair practice. This reminds me of the onslaught of outsourcing that has plagued the manufacturing sector in the last decade with the decimation of our job base as the net result. How much longer can this country continue to cannibalize its greatest assets in the name of profits?.