Optimist or Pessimist?

I have had a number of people comment that I must be a very pessimistic person to worry about such things as financial collapses, hyper-inflation, earthquakes, fires, floods, terrorist attacks, nuclear meltdowns and other Armageddon scenarios…

The truth is that I am a very optimistic person. I just believe in preparation, and in dealing with reality as I see it.

I remember the 1973 oil embargo and how a bunch of sheiks in the Gulf cause gas shortages– long lines and high prices.

I was a teenager during the Carter years. I watched his pathetic leadership over a terrible economy with massive unemployment, high interest rates and stagflation… I watched this perfect storm destroy my father’s business startup due not to lack of orders but to lack of operating capital. I remember the Iranian hostages and feeling anger that our inept leaders couldn’t deal with these revolutionary terrorists…

Those were dark days for America, every bit as dark as it seems now, but I was always optimistic about my future and America’s future. I enrolled at Georgia Tech in 1980 to become a Helluva an Engineer!

In my first Quarter of college, Ronald Reagan was elected to the Presidency, and it really was like Morning in America… people were optimistic again starting with the release of the hostages coincident with his Inauguration (the first to face West towards the Mall and the country of America)…

It took some time to come to fruition, but Reagan’s conservative ideas led an economic recovery that lasted 20 years, based on lower taxes and less dependence on Federal Government… based on self-reliance and “Peace through Strength”…

Fast forward twenty years… the towers fall on 9/11… our economy briefly falters and recovers…

We have had massive fraud and government incompetence that led to the credit (and housing) bubble that is now crippling the world’s economies.

We have elected a Socialist as the President and given him a press full of myrmidons, and a liberal Congress eager to lick his boots…

But I remain optimistic about our future. Because we value freedom and self-reliance.

Most Americans know that there is no such thing as a Free Lunch. There is no free healthcare just like there is no Santa Claus. And the government can’t run anything efficiently. There is always long waits, incompetent service and piss poor attitudes, and it always costs twice as much as the private sector. Since we are so used to decent service and short waits, any attempt to nationalize vital services will end up in failure– sooner rather than later.

We just need a leader like Ronald Reagan to tell the truth to us, and lead us in the necessary direction. We will find this leader. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be tough times to get through– our past binges almost guarantee some level of pain. And unraveling all the promises made by past leaders will be hard.

But I believe in the ultimate resourcefulness of Man, and in our productive capacity. We just need the government to provide us national security, a justice system, and a transportation infrastructure and otherwise stay out of our way. This make take a while but there are still good days ahead. But we need to survive till they get here…