Corn.

Well so far no one has asked me to tell you all how Big Business, Banks and Wall Street stole at least $30,000 from every man, woman and child in the US over the last few years. Is it because you already know how they did it? Or you don't want to know, have plenty of money so you don't care, are scared or what? (Don't forget the $30,000 per person is an average, if you had more they might have got you for more!) Or maybe you are one of THEM!

So, I'm going to move onto another subject - Corn. You have a bag of corn, you can plant it, or eat it. Eat it and you save maybe $10. Plant it and I'm guessing one seed or kernel of corn will return about 500 kernels, at 3 or 4 ears per plant and what 100 or 200 kernels per ear? So you would have 500 bags of corn from your original one bag.

Years ago we planted our kernels of corn by investing in Schools and Universities. We had a phenomenal return from our education system. America led the world in most everything. Other countries even sent their kids to school here, that's how good the US education system was.

Fast forward to 2011.

Asians, Saudis, Indians, Chinese and others are investing huge sums in education, research and development. Astounding numbers of students are graduating with advanced degrees in Science and Engineering. China's economy is now the world's number two. Their rate of growth far outpaces ours. We invested in education in the 19th and 20th Century's.

So what do we do now? Reinvest? Reinvent ourselves? Redouble our efforts? No, none of these things, we start a new race - I call it "The Race to the Bottom."

Here is our plan, cut Pell Grants, they help the poorest of our students earn college degrees (Many of our greatest thinkers, business builders, educators, doctors, scientists, and so on came up from poverty.). Next, cut funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, drop grants from Congress to Universities, cut budgets to Higher Education in all states across America, this has the added advantage of shrinking the research they can do, and makes it necessary to raise rates to students. Oh, and lets start the interest building on the students loans as soon as they get them instead of when they graduate.

Well that sounds like a good start doesn't it? We have already dropped from the number one country in the world for student graduation rate to number 12. This should push us way down on the charts.

Our new GOP Congress is determined to cut spending. And this is how they plan on doing it. Don't touch the military, even though a tiny cut would make every other cut unnecessary, don't cut Soc Sec - even though making Soc Sec deductions on ALL earnings, not just on the lowest earners, and maybe raising the age to collect S.S.(at age 65 you were close to death when S.S started, it NEEDS to be raised to save it for what it was intended, a safety net for those who needed it.) Our Health Care system could use an overhaul, why don't we look at every other civilized country in the world who have equal or superior care (they ALL live longer lives than us!) and see how they do it for HALF of our cost - some for a quarter of what we spend!!

But no, lets cut money from those who can least afford it, those who can't fight back, and from our future. (After all, those politicians won't be there when the s**t hits the fan years from now.) They will all be rich, collecting from the Big Businessess, Big Banks and Wall Street that they helped to suck us dry. Why would they even think of doing the right thing and helping the people that elected them - after all we could vote them out and where would they be then, with only a lousy full salary pension for life and the best health insurance available for them and their family. No they need to get into bed with the money people, Banks, Wall Street, Business where they will be taken well care of in their 'old age'.