America's Top Ten Trout Fishing Streams

I'm going seriously out on a limb by naming the top 10 trout rivers in the country. I will doubtless leave out some rivers that are worthy of mention. But when it comes to a list like this, you have to eventually pick the streams, and I'll apologize in advance if I don't put you're favorite river down. I'm sure these aren't actually the ten very best streams around-there are dozens of backcountry Alaskan streams and private trout waters that are probably better than any of these. But these are all rivers that are easily accessible and provide awesome trout fishing. These are all well known streams, and they'll be crowded from time to time. Still, they're all long rivers and there is room to spread out. It's no coincidence that Montana is well represented in the list;it is full of long, beautiful trout rivers.

1. Gallatin River (Yellowstone National Park and Montana)

This will come as a bit of a surprise that I'm listing this as #1. It's one of those streams that everyone loves, but usually plays second fiddle to other famous rivers in the Yellowstone area. Most folks spend most of their trip on the really "classy" trout streams, like the Madison, Yellowstone, Firehole, or the Paradise valley spring creeks. The Gallatin is just that friendly little river that courses through gorgeous mountain territory and produces some small trout. The beautiful mountain meadow water in Yellowstone National Park, and for a few miles below holds several hundred small rainbows and cutthroat in it's plentiful riffles. You won't find the thousands of trout per mile that you'll find on the Madison, or the 20" browns, but it doesn't get any more beautiful and the fish usually aren't at all fussy. Access is easy and ample. Downstream, it gains power and roars through a whitewater canyon. It's no longer an easy going meadow stream, but the trout numbers, and size of the fish, get steadily better. Below the canyon, the stream spills out into a wide sagebrush valley populated by elk and moose. Especially below the mouth of the East Gallatin, big browns begin to show up in good numbers under the undercut banks. This is good float fishing water, although waders can do well also. Finally, the Gallitin finds it's way to Three Forks where the it helps form the mighty Missouri. The Missouri itself is an awesome trout stream, and it's the next stream on our list.

2. Missouri River (Montana)

The Missouri River begins as a high plains river at Three Forks, Montana. From the river's headwaters downstream to Holter dam, the river flows slowly, both as a free-flowing river and as reservoirs. This portion of the river has some excellent trout fishing during the spring and the fall. The fish here are almost all browns, although a few rainbows come up from the lakes that are located on the river. During the summer, whitefish form most of the action. Browns can still be caught, but they mostly become sluggish, or even move to the deep waters of the lakes.

Below Holter Dam, the Missouri becomes a tailwater stream. This is where most people go to fish the Missouri. The cold outflow from Holter Dam creates a habitat where trout can survive well throughout the year. Rainbows are much more common than further upstream, but browns are also present. The fishing remains excellent downstream to Cascade;it fishes decently all the way to Great Falls.

3. Madison River (Yellowstone National Park and Montana)

The Madison River begins as an odd spring creek in Yellowstone National Park. The reason it is so odd is that it is fed by both cold and hot springs that make their way into it's two feeder streams, the Firehole and Gibbon. It fishes best in this upper portion in the late spring, early summer, and fall. During the summer, the water often grows too warm to allow the trout to feed, because of the hot springs. Rainbows and browns in the 10-14" range are the primary residents,but in spring, large rainbows move up from Hebgen Lake. In the fall, large browns, also from Hebgen, do the same. Dry flies are standard fare for the residents. The migratory rainbows and browns prefer gaudy streamers and wet flies fished deep.

Below Hebgen Dam, there is a run of a few miles before the Madison slows back down into Quake Lake. There is a resident trout population in this stretch which is augmented by spawning runs from Quake Lake during the spring and fall. The summer fishery is somewhat better than the river above Hebgen, but the spring run of rainbows, and the fall run of browns are still the main event. Below Quake Lake, the Madison becomes a beautiful freestone trout river. It begins a run to Ennis Lake known as the 100 mile riffle. This is all fast water, but serious rapids are rare. Rainbows and browns hold in the slow water along the banks, as well as behind the many mid-stream boulders. The scenery is breathtaking, with the lush Madison valley in the foreground, and the towering mountains of Yellowstone in the background. This is the 100 most fabled miles of trout water in the country, and possibly in the world. It can be floated or waded.

Below Ennis Lake, the river drops into Beartrap Canyon. The canyon is full of big rainbows and browns, but it's a long hike to get to the river. Still, it's probably worth it, as this relatively unfished water provides nearly as good of fishing as the water above Ennis. Below the canyon, the river drops into an arid valley, where it meanders from one undercut bank to another. This is excellent brown trout water, but it gets too warm in the summer. Spring and fall are good times to target the good numbers of browns here.

4. Yellowstone River (Yellowstone National Park and Montana)

Yes, this is the fourth Montana stream on the list. The Yellowstone simply can't be left out of any list of top trout waters, as it provides 250 miles of some of the most beautiful and heartstopping trout fishing in the world. The fishing begins deep in the Thoroughfare region of Wyoming. There's no easy way to reach this water. It take's a long hike and a dedication of a week or so to fish this water the way it should be fished. This is cutthroat water, with both resident fish and migratory trout from Yellowstone Lake. This is as deep in the wildnerness as you can get in the lower 48, and you must be sure you can be totally self-sufficient. In the case of an accident, you'll be on you're own. Also, Grizzlies, black bear, moose, and other dangerous creatures are common. That can be a deterrent or an attraction. You decide for yourself.

The river is much more civilized below Yellowstone Lake. Although it flows through country that has been left in it's natural state by Yellowstone National Park, it's far from wild. The park water is heavily fished, especially in the popular Buffalo Ford area. Cutthroat trout fishing isn't as glorious as it used to be, but it's still quite good. The river drops into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and then the Black Canyon. Those stretches are essentially unfishable. When it enters Montana, it once again becomes a great trout stream. It is a very readable mountain stream just below the park, with many pools and riffles that hold both rainbows and cutthroat. Below, it enters yet another canyon, this one called Yankee Jim. The canyon is hard to hike into, but the pocket water holds some rainbows, and they aren't fished very often.

Below Yankee Jim canyon, the Yellowstone settles into the character it will hold for another hundred miles or so. It flows through a beautiful valley (although you can see the beautiful Absaroka Mountains most of the time), and the river has a steady, but not rapid current. This is rainbow and brown trout water in the main, although cutthroat are pretty common as well. The water around Livingston is most famous, but the fishing is very good for many miles up and downstream from that popular western trout town. The trout fishing holds up all the way downstream to Billings in Eastern Montana. Below there, it is a massive prairie river home to pike, smallmouth bass, and catfish, but few trout.

5. Green River (Wyoming and Utah)

The Green River is a stream with many faces. In it's upper reaches in Wyoming, it's a high plains river home to large brown trout. This is western ranchland country, and all through the summer trout hug the undercut banks in search of hoppers. That's where you should be casting, with a Letort Hopper and maybe a Hare's Ear dropper for good measure. The access isn't great here, but there are places where visiting anglers can get on productive water for free.

The upper Green finally flows into Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The reservoir is home to big rainbow, brown, and lake trout, but it's deep waters are hard to handle with conventional tackle, especially if you prefer to fly fish. The tailwater (which is actually in Utah), however, has some of the best trout populations on Earth. Some estimates show nearly 20,000 trout per mile in the first 7 miles below the dam. The tailwater is best known for it's cutthroats, but it also fishes well for rainbows and browns. This river flows through a beautiful desert canyon. The water is air-clear, and site fishing is very popular. Further down, there are a few less trout, but the browns and rainbows can grow much larger. If you don't have a boat, we recommend hiking in to some of the lesser known areas. You'll find wilderness fishing on one of the most productive trout streams in the country. Local fly and tackle shops will be able to point you in the right direction. Just watch out for Rattlesnakes! There are also formal accesses where you can fish, including one right below the dam. You can catch fish in these areas, but the wilderness experience is mostly lost. Most people who are new to the Green float it in a driftboat with a guide. The guide will safely bring you through the whitewater and put you over fish. Just don't expect it to be cheap.

6. White River-Bull Shoals Tailwater (Arkansas)

Arkansas's White River is the only Southern stream on our list, and it's also the only one that's mostly put and take. This tailwater flows out of Bull Shoals Dam high in the Ozark Hills. The cold plume from the bottom of Bull Shoals Lake, combined with the cold flows of the North Fork River allow trout to survive for nearly 100 miles below the dam. It's a tailwater with rapidly fluctuation flows, and it can be downright dangerous. It can be waded at low flows, but bank and boat fishing are the only options when there the dam is releasing a lot of water. Your first time floating, a guide will be helpful.

There are about 5000 trout per mile on the river, and the majority are rainbows. Rainbows are stocked by the millions by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Rainbows swarm almost all parts of the river, and they never seem to be difficult to catch. These trout average about 13 inches, so they're fun to catch. Still, the browns are what draw many anglers to the White. The browns are mostly wild, although their numbers are supplemented by stocking. A new 24" minimum insures larger browns, and there are also several catch and release areas on the river. A White River brown isn't considered large until it hits five pounds; it's not a trophy until it hits 10. To give you a frame of reference, on our last trip to the White, a fly shop owner showed us a picture of an honest, weighed and measured brown that he had just caught that weighed 29 pounds. He didn't seem all that excited about it.

7. Manistee River (Michigan)

Michigan's Manistee River is one of the best in the world. It starts deep in the lower Peninsula of Michigan as a small, spring-fed brook trout stream. This isn't the place to come for trophy trout, but the brookies are beautiful and jewel-like, always ready to provide a wonderful experience. A few browns do make their way into this section, and they can grow surprisingly large. While most people fly fishing, spin fishing is both legal and productive.

From the M-72 Bridge downstream to the CCC Bridge, the river is fly- fishing only. There are good numbers of both browns and brookies here, and trophies are much more common than further upstream. This is famous trout water, and the hatches, as well as the fish are plentiful. The restrictive regulations insure top quality fishing. The fishing remains good for a few miles downstream from the special regulation stretch (mostly for browns), before the river forms Tippy Pond.

Below Tippy Pond, the river is a mixed fishery. While smallmouth bass and pike are the main species during the summer, migratory trout, salmon, and steelhead form the cool-weather fishery. King Salmon and brown trout are present in good numbers during the fall. As a matter of fact, a brown trout caught in the lower Manistee last fall is the current world record. Steelhead are in the river mid-fall- mid-spring, and they are quite plentiful.

8. Connecticut River, (New Hampshire and Vermont)

The upper Connecticut River is an Eastern stream with a western feel. Coursing through the beautiful Appalachian country of Northern New England, the scenery will not be beat. The headwaters portion of the river flows through 3rd Connecticut Lake, 2nd Connecticut Lake, 1st Connecticut Lake, and Lake Francis. This portion of the river is full of eager brook trout, and in the spring and fall, Atlantic Salmon run upstream from all of these lakes, and provide excellent sport in the river. There is some water that is legal to fish with a spinning rod, but it's mostly fly fishing only.

Below Lake Francis, the river mostly becomes open to spin fisherman, although fly fishing is still most popular. The Connecticut provides excellent fishing for rainbow and brown trout for many miles downstream. You can wade, fish from the bank, or float this water. This area gives you your best shot to catch large trout. The fishing is good along the New Hampshire/Vermont border all the way down to Hanover, the home of Dartmouth College. It should be noted that there are several slow, dammed up sections of stream in this part of the river that are warm-water fisheries, but where you find good current, you'll find some trout.

9. Niagara River

Did you know that below Niagara Falls, this mighty river is an excellent trout and salmon stream? This is a totally migratory fishery with good numbers of steelhead, brown trout, and various species of salmon. As you may have guessed, this is not an easy river to fish. There are probably some areas that can be fished from the bank, but it would be safe to say that wading is out of the question. There are many guides in the area that will help you out on this beautiful, dangerous river, and we recommend their services to insure a safe trip. This isn't a summer fishery for the most part. Any time during the spring and fall, you'll find some sort of salmonid running up the river. In summer, switch your attention to smallmouth, which are abundant and large.

10. Beaverkill River

Is this one of the 10 best trout streams in the country? Well admittedly, it probably isn't. It's just that the tradition on this stream is so rich that it would seem a sin to leave it off. This famous Catskill River begins as beaver flowage high in the mountains. It's full of eager brook trout up there, and few folks fish it. This water is on public land, so if you'd like to hike in, you may be pleasantly surprised. The first place most people begin their fishing is at the Beaverkill Campground. Browns and brookies both reside in the beautiful fast water environment here, and it's always a pleasant place to fish. Also, it doesn't get nearly as warm in the summer as the lower reaches, so you can probably expect to catch a couple if you have to come in July or August.

The river is mostly private, and therefore off of our radar screen all the way down to Roscoe, New York (also known as Trout Town USA). At this point, the Willowomec (also a nice trout stream) flows in to form the Junction Pool. Many people come all the way out here just to fish that pool;it's synonymous with American dry fly fishing. After this pool, the river remains mostly accessible and has many other areas, such as Cairn's Pool, Horse Brook Run, Cook's Falls Pool, Horton Pool, and the Acid Factory that are legendary in the minds of fisherman. This is all famous trout water, and it fishes well whenever the water temperature is below 70 degree. Sometimes it will be in good, fishable shape all summer long, and at other times the water is so warm it is both irresponsible and unproductive to fish it.

There are only about 300 trout per mile on the Beaverkill, and given it's fairly large size, that's not a terribly high number. Neither is it much of a trophy stream, although admittedly some fine browns are caught from time to time. And therein lies the mystery to it's fame. It's real value lies in the fact that it was one of the streams where American dry fly fishing was pioneered. A trip here is more a lesson in history than an excursion to world class trout water.

These are just ten streams that for one reason or another, we think are worthy of mention. As we said earlier, it's highly debatable whether these are really the ten best. But it is true that these are ten fine trout streams, and they all have some aspects to them that are beautiful.

Davdison Manning is an avid outdoorsman spending over 100 days per year pursuing his passion for fishing, many of them in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas. He details many of his favorite spots on his website Family-Outdoors. His other pursuits include many days spent in the field camping and hunting. Davidson loves to share his knowledge of the outdoors in the hope of helping others to find their own connection to the outdoors.

Aftershock: The Next Economy And America's Future by Robert B Reich - Current Affairs Book Review

America's economic Crash of 2008 was directed almost universally at Wall Street. In his September release, entitled, Aftershock: The Next Economy And America's Future, Robert B. Reich argues differently. He believes the real problem is structural: There's an increasing concentration of wealth at the top, while middle class Americans struggle to maintain a decent standard of living.

Reich served in three national administrations, most recently as Secretary of Labor under President Clinton. He's written numerous books, and is a university professor of public policy.

Three stages of modern American capitalism substantiate Reich's message. The first stage (1870-1929) was one of increasing concentration of income and wealth. Stage two (1947-1975), featured more broadly shared prosperity; and stage three (1980-2010) is one of increasing wealth concentration. Reich says it's vital for our future to begin a fourth stage where broad-based prosperity reigns.

Reich profiles Marriner Eccles, a business tycoon during the Great Depression. Largely forgotten today, Reich believes Eccle's analysis of the underlying economic stresses of the Great Depression are relevant to the Crash of 2008. His assumption of a quick national recovery proved wrong, as we know today. President Roosevelt summoned him to Washington DC to share his financial acumen which was based on logic and experience.

Eccles chaired the Federal Reserve Board from 1934 to 1948 (the Eccles Building on Constitution Avenue in Washington DC is his memoriam). History repeats itself today, as there's a vast accumulation of income among the nation's wealthiest people. The result is everyone else experiences reduced purchasing power.

The basic bargain gave workers a proportionate share of the fruits of economic growth. Average workers had enough purchasing power to buy what they produced.

The Great Prosperity years (1947-1975), found America as a whole, implementing the basic bargain. Almost everyone who wanted a job could find one with good wages or at least wages that were trending upward. The US government created the conditions for the middle class to fully share in the nation's prosperity.

Americans developed three coping mechanisms Reich says, to combat the growing concentration of wealth, which today are ineffective. They are:

Women move into paid work. Starting in the late 1970's, women began working to supplement family incomes and offset stagnant or declining male- earned wages. Today, the point of diminishing returns exists, as the cost of hiring outside help or childcare exceeds the apparent benefits of the additional income.
Everyone works longer hours. A growing number of people took on two or three jobs, each demanding 20 or more hours. Now, even if they can find more work, they can find no more time.
We draw down savings and borrow to the hilt. During the Great Prosperity, the American middle class saved about 9 percent of their after-tax income. In 2008, it slid to 2.6 percent. By 2008, the typical American household owed 138 percent of its after-tax income. Middle class consumers took on huge amounts of debt as a last resort. Median wages had stopped growing and the proportion of total income going to the middle class shrank.

The Great Recession officially began in December 2007. The biggest difference between it and the Great Depression is what happened next after the bubbles burst. The Great Depression inspired government policies that led to new economic order. Social insurance, improvements in the nation's infrastructure, schools, public universities, and other initiatives, created a more secure, prosperous and productive America. The Great Recession has produced no new economic order.

"Technically, the Great Recession has ended," says Reich, "But its aftershock has only begun." Reich says jobs will return over time, however they'll provide lower wages than Americans are accustomed to.

Globalization and outsourcing of American jobs overseas are often blamed for the nation's high unemployment rate. But, Reich reminds us, those factors don't tell the whole story. Automation is key too, as many service jobs including bank tellers and telephone operators are now extinct.

Based on current national conditions, Reich forecasts Election 2020. The platform of the Independent Party could triumph, with its "clear and uncompromising message." Included are zero tolerance of illegal immigration, increased tariffs on all imports and abolishment of The Federal Reserve Board. Its extreme agenda would be detrimental to US interests home and abroad.

Americans will become increasingly outraged if the US economic system appears outrigged to favor the rich. Among their concerns are Wall Street bailouts, hefty political campaign contributions by the wealthy to protect their interests, and elite educational opportunities for privileged children.

Reich proffers nine primary solutions to help restore the basic bargain to middle class Americans. He admits that some of his proposals are initially costly, but, over time, the benefits outweigh financials. Three highlights include:

A reemployment system vs. an unemployment system. Today, most job losers never get their jobs back, and long-term unemployment is high. Implement wage insurance. Here, any job loser who accepts employment that pays less than his or her former position would be eligible for 90 percent of the difference for up to two years. By then, many workers would have acquired additional skills, rendering the reward of similar past pay.
Public goods. Sizably increase public goods such as public transportation, museums, libraries and recreational facilities. Keep them free vs. the trend in "user fees." Public goods improve quality of life and help partly compensate for stagnant or declining wages.
Money out of politics. As inequality has widened, large corporations, Wall Street, and their executives and traders have distorted political decisions with their hefty donations. Recent Supreme Court decisions protecting campaign contributions as forms of free speech need to be reversed. In the meantime, all political donations should go through a "blind trust," so that no candidate ever know who contributed what.

These are challenging times for our nation indeed, as we adjust to the growing pains of globalization. Despite housing foreclosures, continued high unemployment, lower earnings, less economic security, widening inequality and soaring pay on Wall Street, Reich concludes on a voice of optimism.

He emphasizes that America, when faced with a depression, an enveloping war and other moral urgencies, has always risen to the occasion. "We will choose reform, I believe, because we are a sensible nation, and reform is the only sensible option we have."

To learn more about Reich's perspective on restoring the basic bargain to save middle class America, visit his blog at http://robertreich.org.

Timothy Zaun is a blogger, speaker and freelance writer. Visit him online at http://timzaun.com.

NAFTA, The Good, The Best, and The Ugly For the Americas

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, has been getting a lot of not so favorable, and sometimes, controversial headlines in recent years. Some critics blame it for the current labor shortages in the United States, due to the fact that most U.S. companies have been and continue to outsource and ship jobs overseas. While its proponents have been hailing it as a great success in helping lowering national prices on certain manufactured goods and services and that it has caused to increase wages for certain jobs within the U.S.

In this document, we are going to explore the cons and pros of NAFTA. The author of the document has specifically selected this topic because of a familiar ground. Most of his families and friends have lost their jobs in recent years, and whenever the word 'NAFTA' is mentioned, the blame seems to be more placed on NAFTA and Bill Clinton, for causing it to happen, than on the current economic downturn cycle. Before we look deeper on the aforementioned issues, we must first look at what is NAFTA, its causes, advantages and disadvantages.

In 1989, Canada and the United States implemented a bilateral free trade agreement, and in 1993, they included Mexico. On December 8, 1993, the leaders of the governments of Canada, United States, and Mexico signed, then the most anticipated trilateral free trade agreement, known as, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and was implemented on January 1, 1994, for the sole purpose of helping to remove most of the trade and investment barriers, while boosting high economic growth between the tri-bloc neighboring countries.

The Agreement was signed by Bill Clinton, president of the United States, Brian Mulroney of Canada, and Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico. It was hailed as the highest achievement and largest trilateral agreement between the tri-bloc countries in decades. "Under the NAFTA, all non-tariff barriers to agricultural trade between the United States and Mexico were eliminated. In addition, many tariffs were eliminated immediately, with others being phased out over periods of 5 to 15 years. This allowed for an orderly adjustment to free trade with Mexico, with full implementation beginning January 1, 2008" (United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service).

Over the years, the partner countries have continued to make certain provisions, adding or removing some, according to economic conditions in order to improve the agreement. Certain provisions were not initially included such as the agricultural provision was not amended until in 1998. Such provisions are necessary as each country tries to improve its international trade relationship with other trade partners. "The agricultural provisions of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, in effect since 1989, were incorporated into the NAFTA. Under these provisions, all tariffs affecting agricultural trade between the United States and Canada, with a few exceptions for items covered by tariff-rate quotas, were removed by January 1, 1998. Mexico and Canada reached a separate bilateral NAFTA agreement on market access for agricultural products. The Mexican-Canadian agreement eliminated most tariffs either immediately or over 5, 10, or 15 years. Tariffs between the two countries affecting trade in dairy, poultry, eggs, and sugar are maintained" (United States Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service).

Since its implementation, some of the tri-bloc partners seem to have greatly benefited from the trade agreement, with the exception of the United States. According to NAFTAnow.org, its official web site, as of 2007's NAFTA's fiscal report indicate that NAFTA members have a combined population of over 439 million, with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $16.2 trillion, and the number of jobs created since 1993 are more than 39 million, with a national employment level of 205.8. "In terms of combined purchasing power parity GDP of its members, as of 2007 the trade block is the largest in the world and second largest by nominal GDP comparison. It also is one of the most powerful, wide-reaching treaties in the world" (NaftaNow.org).

On an individual member basis, Canada has a population of 33 million as of July 2007, and achieved a record GDP of $1,425 billion, while its trading with NAFTA partners reached $542.9 billion. Its inward Foreign Direct Investment among NAFTA countries for 2006 was $235.1 million, while the number of jobs created in the U.S. between 1993 and 2007 was 4.1. Its national employment level is 16.9 million. For the United States, its population, as of July 2007, is 301.6 million, with a GDP of $13,844 billion, and $870.2 billion in trade with NAFTA Partners. As of 2006, the United States achieved over $165.1 billion in inward Foreign Direct Investment among NAFTA countries, while the number of jobs created between 1993 and 2007 reached 25.8 millions, and its national level employment was 140.0 millions. For the third member country, Mexico, its population in July 2007, was 105.2 million, and it reached a record GDP of $886 billion, while its trade with NAFTA partner reached $375.4 billion. In 2006, Mexico reached an inward Foreign Direct Investment of $129.1 billion among NAFTA countries, and the numbers of jobs created in Mexico between 1993 and 2007 were 10.1 million, while its national employment level rose to a record 42.9 million (NAFTANow.org).

Each of the NAFTA's three-member countries seems to have amassed a great success as a result of international trade, with Mexico and Canada being the most beneficial nations. "Trade liberalization has transformed and modernized Mexico's vibrant economy by successfully boosting trade and investment flows. Within just a few years, Mexico's exports have diversified from primarily oil to include an array of manufactured products, making Mexico one of the largest exporters in the world. While, one in five jobs in Canada is linked to international trade, and Canada's prosperity is built on its openness to international trade and investment. As such, the North American continental partnership is without a doubt an important competitive advantage for Canada. Canada is using this continental platform as a way to help Canadian business embrace commercial opportunities around the world. As for the United States, the largest and most diversified economy in the world, its market economy whose businesses are world leaders in the manufacturing and high-tech sectors, especially computers, medical equipment, and aerospace, and in services, including financial services and telecommunications, and in agriculture, may have benefited equally" (NAFTANow.org).

The data and summation herein provided seem to indicate a huge success in partner trade between the NAFTA country-members, however, many critics are not so merry-and-jolly about the free trade agreement. Most blames the huge loss of jobs, as U.S. companies outsource and ship jobs to Mexico, Latin America and South East Asia as a result of this liberalized trade agreement. "Debate a decade ago over the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, drew loud warnings that liberalized trade with Mexico would lead to huge job losses in the U.S. Trade with Mexico has soared since NAFTA's debut in 1994, but recent studies have concluded that the U.S. did lose more jobs in various industries than it gained because of the pact" (Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2008).

In fact, the issue with NAFTA has been some of the main focus by both candidates during the 2008 U.S. presidential and primaries campaign. The presidential candidates, Obama, McCain, and Clinton, both agreed that NAFTA was a mistake. The main blame was that NAFTA has caused a huge loss of employment to many Americans, as most jobs were shipped overseas to countries who are offering cheap labor, while those who still hold on to their jobs in the U.S., have seen their wages shrinking to the lowest, coupled with huge pay cut, reduced benefits and most times, no medical insurance benefits, all as a result of an increase labor demand versus shortage in labor supply. "Campaigning in Ohio, a formerly industrial state that is rapidly becoming a postindustrial state, both Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama expressed reservations about the trade deal and suggested it might need to be revisited. Clinton tried to make a meal over a report that Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor and an occasional Slate contributor, told Canadians that Obama's anti-NAFTA rhetoric was just for show and that they should trust in Obama's free-trade credentials" (Newsweek).

Like the then presidential candidates, most people in the U.S., especially in certain states that have lost most jobs such Ohio, Michigan, and others, NAFTA is not that popular. It's seen as the devil that snapped away people's meals and well-being. "Mexico and Canada aren't really Ohio's main problems. The last time I visited the state, I went to a steel plant outside Cleveland where one of the furnaces was being dismantled and sent to ... China. The state, which has lost large numbers of manufacturing jobs, is currently experiencing the negative aftereffects of an economic boom (high unemployment and foreclosure rates), even though it never felt many of the boom's benefits. So what accounts for the state's visceral hostility to NAFTA? The Wall Street Journal yesterday published a poll showing that Democrats in Ohio disapprove of NAFTA by a 59-13 margin. (In Texas, only 40 percent of Democrats disapprove, while 33 percent approve.) As my NEWSWEEK colleague Keith Naughton notes, Mexico holds a special symbolic status for employees of automakers and similar smokestack industries, which used to be large presences in Ohio and which moved big chunks of their production south of the border in the 1980s and '90s" (Newsweek).

However, in Mexico and Canada, the resentment on NAFTA is not as the same in the U.S. Most people in Mexico deem NAFTA as the blessing in the sky, because it has caused to create more and better paying jobs in most part of the country, in which for years most residents lived on scrapping farm produce for their daily consumption. And, as more and more U.S. companies open up large manufacturing plants in most areas in Mexico, more and more Mexicans found themselves plagued by a huge selection of, better paying employment , which even though most account for less than $2 an hour, still makes a big difference to them. "The fact that Mexican firms now export large quantities of goods to Canada and the United States means they are creating jobs-and incentives-for Mexicans to stay at home. In some ways, NAFTA has been a boon for activists. Just think how much higher the northward flow of work-seeking immigrants from Mexico would have been in the absence of NAFTA" (Newsweek).

Mexico seems to be the one that has most benefited than the other two partners. A lot has changed in Mexico since NAFTA was implemented to include it as part of the free trade partners. According to the report by Carlos Salas in the Economic Policy Institute: Although Mexico now has a large trade surplus with the U.S., Mexico has also developed a large and growing overall trade deficit with the rest of the world. In fact, Mexico's net imports from the rest of the world now substantially exceed its net exports to the United States. Official unemployment levels in Mexico are lower now than before NAFTA, but this decline in the official rate simply reflects the absence of unemployment insurance in Mexico. In fact, underemployment and work in low-pay, low-productivity jobs (e.g., unpaid work in family enterprises) actually has grown rapidly since the early 1990s. Furthermore, the normal process of rural-to-urban migration that is typical of developing economies has reversed since the adoption of NAFTA. The rural share of the population increased slightly between 1991 and 1997, as living and working conditions in the cities deteriorated.

As Mexico flourish, the opposite is happening in the US. Forbes magazine recently reported a list of the fastest dying cities in America, and in Ohio, Dayton, Cleveland, and Youngstown are some of many in the US that have been affected, not only by the current economic crisis, but by many of the manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas, while leaving most American jobless. The report indicates that Youngstown is on the blink of completely becoming a ghost town. Most retail stores have moved out, and the City of Youngstown has been on the buying spree, buying up abandoned properties, and dismantles them to clean them up and turn them in to parks instead. Whereas in Mexico, "total employment grew from 33.9 to 39.1 million jobs over the 1995-99 period (3.7% annually), according to officially reported data (INEGI 1995 and 1999). But these data must be used with some caution, because the sample used for the National Employment Survey changed in 1998. Comparing the 1998 and 1999 data provides a more realistic rate of employment growth. Total employment reported for 1998 was 38.6 million jobs, resulting in an actual rate of growth in 1999 of only 1.2%" (Economic Policy Institute).

As for Canada, all else equal, the tri-bloc member country has one specific pressing issue, losing its water to the U.S. as a result of NAFTA. According to Inter Press Service; under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada lost control over its energy resources. Now, with "NAFTA-plus", it could also lose control over its freshwater resources, say experts. Canada's water is on the trade negotiating table despite widespread public opposition and assurances by Canadian political leaders, said Adèle Hurley, director of the University of Toronto's Programme on Water Issues at the Munk Centre for International Studies. "A new report released Sep. 11 by the programme reveals that water transfers from Canada to the United States are emerging as an issue under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). The SPP -- sometimes called "NAFTA-plus" -- is a forum set up in 2005 in Cancún, by the three partners, Canada, United States and Mexico"( Inter Press Service).

In addition to Canada being a large supplier of fresh water to the United States, this may be a surprise to some that, Canada is also the largest supplier of crude oil to the United States. "Canada exports more crude oil to the United States than any other nation, including Saudi Arabia. All of that oil, along with a gusher of natural gas, comes free of any kind of export controls or tariffs, courtesy of NAFTA. In fact, the United States consumes almost 100 percent of Canada's energy exports" (Salon.com).

So, who actually benefits the most from the North American Free Trade Agreement? According to the Office of United State Office of Trade Representative, when NAFTA was implemented 10 years ago, it created the world's largest free trade area, which now links 426 million people in an area which produces more than $12 trillion worth of goods and services. During the past decade, NAFTA partners have been conducting business within a framework that is extremely open, governed by clear rules and accessible enforcement mechanisms, with the goal of greater economic integration and cooperation.

"In the first decade of NAFTA, U.S. manufacturing output soared, U.S. employment grew, and U.S. manufacturing wages increased dramatically. Income gains and tax cuts from NAFTA were worth up to $930 each year for the average US household of four. While, for Mexico, wages in export-related industries are 37% higher than the rest of its economy. Mexican wages and employment tend to be higher in states with higher foreign investment and trade, and migration from those states is lower. Wages are also higher in sectors with more exposure to imports or exports. Two-way agricultural trade between the United States and Mexico increased more than 125% since NAFTA went into effect, reaching $14.2 billion in 2003 compared to $6.2 billion in 1993. As for Canada, merchandise exports to the United States expanded by 250% since 1989 and account for 87.2% of Canada's total merchandise exports. Foreign Direct Investment in the finance and insurance industry accounted for 36% of Canadian FDI in Mexico in 2001, while not even registering in 1989" (Office of the U.S. Trade Representative).

All these numbers and reports are good and highly enticing, however, more and more people in the U.S. have lost their jobs. According to the United States Department of Labor, about 600,000 jobs were lost towards the end of January 2009 alone. One can easily blame NAFTA, India, China or other countries offering lower wages that in turn cause to attract many US companies to ship jobs to these countries. I am of the opinion that from a macro-employment perspective, on a long-term basis, NAFTA is not entirely the only cause of the current high rise of unemployment in the United States. It's actually true as reported that most U.S. companies have shipped and outsourced jobs overseas, as a result of NAFTA.

However, most of these jobs are low paying jobs that most Americans wouldn't have wanted in the first place. In a short run, it may be true that NAFTA has caused the high rise of unemployment in the U.S., but looking at the long term, as most companies choose to have their goods and services manufactured in countries with low paying wages, these companies then transfer the goods, as manufactured in foreign countries, and sell them in the United States, at a far cheaper price than if they were manufactured locally. Also, as these companies transfer these goods from their overseas plants to the United States, they are causing to the price labor to increase, meaning that people with more experience and or better education and training are now, in a long run, able to find better and high paying employment. In addition, overseas customers, even for the same low paid labors, are now able to afford to buy American goods and services, even prior to being shipped back to the U.S., and in return, the U.S. companies can then repatriate profits from their foreign operations and reinvest it back within the U.S.

Overall, in doing so, better paying jobs in the U.S. continue to rise, the U.S. GDP continues to grow, and the overall economy may be better off, in the long run. However, there seem to have an empty vacuum between classes of American people; the low income families versus middle income families. As a result of U.S. companies shipping low paying jobs overseas, those with less or no education and in this case, less productive, may end up not having jobs, and those with a college education, special training, expertise or specialization may continue to find better paying employment.

In the process, those who continue to find no better paying employment because of lack of education, special training or specialization, they may end up living on social welfare and in poverty. Whereas, who choose to upgrade themselves with current economic condition may continue to live a better and mostly fulfilled life, as a result of gaining better and high paying employment. "Contrary to what some say, Ohio is benefiting from trade and from NAFTA in extraordinary ways, and no one more than the state's manufacturers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a total of 777,000 Ohioans are employed in manufacturing. These workers produced $36.5 billion worth of exports in 2006. Exports to Canada and Mexico account for about $20 billion in Ohio's manufacturing output. Do the math. Ohio manufacturers are bringing in export revenue of $25,000 for every factory worker they employ. The average manufacturing worker brings home a salary of about $42,000. How could Ohio manufacturers make their payroll without their huge and growing sales to Canada and Mexico? The short answer is, they couldn't. Too often, arguments over trade miss the simple fact that "free trade" agreements like NAFTA are all about fair trade. The U.S. average duty on imports is about 2 percent. But countries such as Colombia and South Korea impose an average tariff on U.S. manufactured goods of 11 percent - just as Mexico did before NAFTA. For the nation as a whole, just 35 percent of exports go to our NAFTA partners. What this means is that Ohio depends more on exports to our NAFTA trading partners than other states. Ohio's exports to Canada and Mexico have more than doubled since 1994, when NAFTA came into force. Imagine how much more of the international market would have been open to Ohio manufacturers had our national leaders not demagogued free trade agreements with these countries as bad for America" (The Hillsboro Times-Gazette).

NAFTA is a subject with many supporters and opponents, each group with its own views. Until the economy starts to rebound from its current condition, this is a subject that may not be easily resolved. We will continue to debate and write about it, and neither one of us may ever come to an agreement on what is good or bad as a result of NAFTA.

Learn more about the author, Simon Kapenda, at his personal blog, at [http://www.simonkapenda.org].

Work Cited

Gross, Daniel (Mar 4, 2008). "Trade Talks: The NAFTA Debate is Shorthand for a Broader Policy Problem.". Newsweek.

Salas, Carlos (April 2001). NAFTA at Seven. Its Impact on Workers on Three nations. Economic Policy Institute.

Leahy, Stephen (September 22, 2008). "Trade-Canada: Losing Water Through NAFTA". Inter Press Service.

Salon.com (February 28, 2008).

Office of the United States Trade Representative.

The Hillsboro Times-Gazette.

Simon Kapenda Blog at [http://www.simonkapenda.org]

America's Advances & Problems

We live in a great country? When gas prices continue to skyrocket and prices of crude oil drop, The gas companies claim the price of gasoline is rising due to slow manufacturing of refineries. The cost goes up because they have to switch the refineries over to fuel oil. Every little incident causes the prices to rise. Oil companies claim that the majority of our oil comes from other countries and that it is the stress from the economy forcing companies to produce more gasoline. If They could see this coming, why didn't they do anything about it then? Where were all these problems when gas prices were at 79 cents to 1.20 a gallon? They were there, but they didn't effect the cost of gasoline at that time. Blame on the rise of gas prices was put on hurricane Katrina, why didn't those same prices go up when a hurricane hit the gulf in 1981? Gas prices were not terribly effected during the gulf war, at least not that anyone noticed. When the price of crude oil was 30 dollars a barrel the average price of gas was 70 to 80 cents a gallon, the average price of a barrel of crude is 60 dollars today.

So explain to me why the price at the pump is nearly triple what it should be. Because then, there was no extreme lust for more money. It is all new profit for gas companies shrinking the nations' pockets to nothing. You have to ask yourself what they are doing with 40 billion dollars in additional profit every quarter, in the last three years and still don't have any money to build a new refinery. They use some of that money to quiet the politicians that give Americans every excuse for the rising costs. It doesn't matter how much anyone knows or complains, the government and politicians won't do anything because they are all being paid with some of that profit to keep it quiet. 160 billion dollars in profit on top of their normal profit, yet they say it would be futile to build a new refinery in fear of the extreme length of time to build it. All the while, Americans have to struggle to make ends meet just so they can get to and from work. and the CEO of one of those oil companies receives a 400 million dollar bonus. But it's not just the price of gasoline. It is a chain reaction. The prices of everything from food and normal necessities to entertainment, also go up, and there seems to be no end in sight. We fight and struggle everyday deciding what we need to buy just so we can survive, and we continue to wonder Why minimum wage stayed where it was, specifically for the last ten years. Are companies afraid to pay people to work? you wonder why people don't want to work minimum wage jobs, because you cant live on 5.15 an hour, much less fill your tank with 4 hours worth of work.

Our constitution seems to be of no importance to this country anymore either. The supreme court and our government violate it everyday, ignoring laws passed that govern our way of life, yet violate it to allow certain groups of people certain freedoms they should not be entitled to, creating laws that cannot and should not be governed under laws already in existence. But they violate them everyday and no one does anything about it. Politicians will never understand. There has never been anyone in power that didn't come from a wealthy background, so they don't know the meaning of poverty or what it means to live paycheck to paycheck. We continue to elect a group of People, hoping that somewhere inside them is a sense of good conscience. Politicians need to Stop making blank promises and stop talking about fixing something and fix it, especially with the top three, health care, immigration and fuel. Stop fighting everyone else's wars and start doing something helpful for this country instead of useless promises and statements. We would get better results if we elected people that had worked a real job, who had to pay bills and feed their families and didn't fabricate their military history to make themselves look good to voters.

we continue to pass laws that govern and contradict laws already in existence, everything from taxes to race and religion, freedom of this and freedom of that, but when we speak our minds we are branded as traitors or racists. But those with a certain cause to prove are listened to and then, things that have been around for years are changed just because one small group of people are "all of a sudden" offended. These things are instantly changed only because we are so worried about the potential problems that these groups of people can cause. And it's only been going on for a few years, maybe a flag or a symbol. It wasn't until recently that commercials became offensive and required an apology for advertisement. Grow up people, those who lobby for such apologies have already to proven that you are beneath those of us who have lived with these things for years and paid no attention. There are those of us who see things as they are and those who see them as they want them to be and those who feel the need to change everything that they don't agree with or find offensive no matter if it's been around before any of us were born. if you have nothing better to do with your time, claim you are a homosexual and get attention for being different.

Immigration, health care, education, our overall economy, the fact remains that we all continue to walk around blind as a bat with no regards to our future and what the rising cost of everything does to us.

We work with people and we see people everyday that we know are here illegally yet we do nothing. Our own police officers trying to protect our borders from illegal immigration are incarcerated for protecting themselves against armed illegal immigrants. They are granted money for damages for doing something illegal, and they are set free, justice? Are we now at a point where we punish and imprison our own countrymen fighting for our rights and freedoms, unacceptable America. wake up! There are people who look the other way at illegal immigration, the fact is that it destroys our economy with each and every step across the lines, we eventually have to pay more taxes to take care of them, and the cost of everything we pay for, rises. If you did call to report illegal immigrants, (you may have to press 1 for English), you would be branded as a racist, and maybe no one would do anything about it in fear of disturbing the natural course of destroying America, yet those illegals would still get everything that, you, the American, born here, can't or won't get.

We can't go to the hospital for treatment or exams, they make us call our doctor, or practitioner, who we may not even have, who in most cases can't or won't tell you anything and does not have the means to check you at that clinic, but charges you three hundred dollars to tell you he doesn't know what is wrong, and helps the hospitals rack up bills to examine you. Health care needs to be subsidized, as it is in other countries instead of the average family paying 400 dollars a month for health insurance. When one of those family members gets seriously ill, they may find out later that treatment or cures are not covered by their insurance company from a premium that the family can barley afford to pay and it has to come out of their own pocket. How do we justify this treatment of people in our own country, treatment of people who pay their taxes and obey the laws and then get sued by someone who broke into their home and injured themselves trying to rob, rape or kill you. Evaluation is the process of completion yet health care finds a way around all of it just to get more money from taxpayers. All in the land of the free. "When millions of inhabitants of a planet can't get sufficient health care then you know it's too expensive." (Deforest Kelly)

Where did restless leg syndrome come from, and overactive bladders and a growing population of people with high blood pressure. You see it every time you sit down to watch television, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, restless leg syndrome, overactive bladder, insomnia. Then they offer a product that will get rid of that problem, but may give you five others, then tell you the side affects are so bad they could possibly kill you. you receive just enough information about the product being advertised to scare the hell out of you, so you may continually live in fear of having that disorder. so what do they say? "ask your doctor", and in such a dignifying way that assumes we all have a doctor stuffed in our pocket. Not to mention that most products are set up to help someone with a problem they could clearly take care of without medication. Medicine these days, they say, are advanced, but personally I wouldn't want a medicine that helps one thing but gives me five other problems. Maybe these medical problems existed years ago but society learned how to deal with them and lived normal lives. There are all these fantastic ways to help you quit smoking, sleep, lower cholesterol, because we believe we can't do it on our own, so we become dependent on someone or something to get rid of the problem. We rely on drugs and medicines in this country to treat our problems.

We have thrown self treatment right out the window and wonder why health insurance is so expensive. It's expensive because the health care industry wants it to be, mostly because people have abused the right to have health insurance and health care in the past and have made it worse on those who really need it, and sometimes makes it impossible for someone to get help when really needed. there are no real cures, only treatment, and that is what the medical industry wants us to believe and that everything we do and eat is bad for us and later, tell us that things that were once bad are now good and things once good are now bad. They lead us to think there is no real cure except in medicine and turn the entire population of American culture into mindless zombies addicted to the survival package of pointless pharmaceuticals In the field of American advertising by selling us drugs to fix our every little ailment. Medicines and treatment have become such commonplace for advertising as macaroni and Mr. Clean.

Any and all advertisements are out there to make us believe we need everything we see. Some advertising will go so far as to make the public believe they have a problem showing dozens of different symptoms that some people have and convince the public that they need to have treatment, making the public more dependent on drugs.

Your job, is it safe? No matter how secure you think your job is, someone is always looking for a reason to cut back or get someone better, and in some cases you may have been the better one, but don't worry they are already looking to replace you. A good percentage of Americans are not getting the pay they deserve, not so much the pay they want, but it's how they are paid and how they react to their own job description. "that's not my job". If companies pay the minimum amount they will get the minimum work. They want more for less. but yet how does society handle that? They can't because companies control the economy and the wages and we all know you can't live without a paycheck ,so we have no choice. We continue to try, and when we deserve a raise, it's the minimum amount possible just keep the employee quiet for a little longer. Then comes the turnover rate which in this country is extraordinarily high. Why? Because no one wants to pay anyone, and if they do, they have to have an outlandish amount of experience that the applicant does not have and can not get unless they have had that job.

Don't hire someone for two years and teach them the things they need to know and then have the nerve to get rid of them by explaining that they need more experience. This does not bother the employer, they don't care about you, no matter how important you think you are. We are all expendable. The only way to stop this is to show an employee how valuable they are to the company no matter the experience. If someone is willing to do the job pay them in accordance to what they are worth and not what is acceptable by law and perhaps people would show up to work more often and not have such an attitude towards an employer.

When you have tax laws that outweigh the amount of words in the bible you have serious problems with government. A straight tax would do the job. No filing, no deductions, no more waiting for the check in the mail, but I think the IRS enjoys going after people who can't defend themselves. It's the way of our country these days. Destroy those around you, make someone suffer. The IRS will go after someone who made a mistake on their taxes or can't pay on time due to legitimate circumstances, other than going after those who evade taxes for years and never get caught. when the cost of living goes up, They claim the value of your home rises so they can raise the property tax and no one has any choice but to pay it, but when you turn around and try to sell your home, you don't receive the amount of money the taxes say your home is worth. State tax, luxury tax, vehicle tax, sales tax. Step back and see how much of your money goes to taxes and why, they take your paycheck and the money you earn from that is taxed and when you go to the store you are taxed on things you buy, how much more money do they need and why. Since we all pay these taxes I think every one of us is entitled to see exactly where that money goes dollar for dollar, if we are paying for it we need to know who and where it is going to and why.

If social security is for your retirement why is it being handed out to people who don't deserve it even before they have retired? I have seen children as young as 5 years of age reportedly receiving social security. That money is for people who have worked for a living their whole life and just to see someone else get it because of someone else's negligence is appalling. To top it off it is illegal to tax social security a second time, you paid tax on it when it was deducted from your pay, they can't tax it again when you retire, but they do anyway, they never get enough. And why does no one say or do anything about it. We are all too afraid to stand up as a whole and question why. One straight tax, everyone pays 10 percent no more no less, no sales tax, no deductions and no special privileges, and eliminate the IRS, it would save billions of dollars in paperwork and postal alone, not to mention the useless salaries of tax writers and auditors, people who go to school to learn how to take people's money for a living, need to be unemployed for a little while and then see what it means to earn an honest days pay. Don't you just love the USA.

Seventy percent of our population walks around with two dollars in their pockets, and act like they are carrying two hundred. Not to mention that a lot of us are living our life like that of a favorite motion picture character, and have no life of our own. But what it really comes down to is our society's continuing embellishment to be better than our neighbor, of course I assume that's how it's always been. We go and buy the biggest SUV with all the options and frills we can get, then complain about the cost of gas. we buy fancy cars we can't afford and then buy accessories for that car that may make it more dangerous and expensive to drive, huge houses we can only afford to pay the interest on and then can't afford to buy even the most mediocre of furniture to put in that house. We buy cellular phones with so much use, we have no use for them. Good invention or a burden on those to society who want them but cant stand being called, flip that over and you have those who want to be called so they can be seen. And when did it become so important to call someone when you are driving your car, now those are some dangerous people, But you see people talking on them all the time like they have been doing it since they were born and then have to pay a hefty bill each month for useless conversation.

Why do we continually put ourselves in the wake of these insufferable dilemmas of debt, so someone cant take a quick glance and say "look what you have?". We all want the bigger better deal no matter how much it costs or how much debt it puts us in, just so others can see we have it, who cares if we need it or not.

Worried about your children's education? you can be assured they are not learning what they need to learn, and at this rate, probably never will, unless it is done for them. "no child shall be left behind." That's nice to hear in a specified context, but not for our nation's purpose . if the child fails, they don't have to repeat the grade, "it's alright, they'll eventually learn so pass them." Wrong answer. They implement the standards of learning and expect that children will catch on and it'll be fine, but most children can't or won't pass these tests because they can't pass them or won't pass them due to a growing epidemic called laziness, yet we do nothing to change this. children are not learning or retaining the education they need to succeed, when they don't, the blame is placed on the teacher, and the school board does nothing to protect or defend the teachers for the students own failure. So now we have the scapegoat and the continuing problem by placing blame on someone else.

It wasn't until recently that a very good number of children developed problems such as Attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, hyperactivity disorders, slow learning disorders or aggressive behavior. Most likely these are all the biggest excuses as to why the average parent has no time to spend with their children, so they call it a disorder and pawn it off on the education system and turn them into babysitters. When I was growing up no one I knew of had these problems and I wasn't that young to not know the difference. They are all excuses for the idiocy this country has fallen into and follows a continuous list of excuses that is everyone else's fault. Yet we allow our children to play video and computer games, get fat sitting in front of the television, burning brain cells from doing drugs because there is no parental guidance.

College education is no different. We live in a society that is so bent on college education that it makes it nearly impossible for the average student to attend college much less pay for it. Employers rely on hiring college graduates that in some cases are still not fully trained to do the job. A degree doesn't really mean anything anymore, but, where you go to college is what counts, and not so much as what you learned. College tuition is overly expensive and no where near as cost effective as it should be, so you don't get the education you should be getting for the money you spend, unless your only goal in college was to drink and party, and then you graduate not having learned anything useful.

I've seen many people go to college for years, and graduate no smarter than when they started, but now they have a big debt, and no job. But they will get the job before someone that has been in the working world struggling to make a living because they couldn't afford college. And no matter how you say it, its still discrimination when advertisements say that a college graduate earns more than a non graduate. now we have the pedestal.

Some people did not go to college, but over the years they have read many books and gained a lot of knowledge in many areas of study, economy, history, math and English. It is all how you apply yourself to what it is you are interested in and not what is required of you to graduate from college and get a job that you are not really interested in but makes a lot of money so you can have a big house and nice cars, a wife and children. You can now come home and yell at your wife and children because your day was horrible at a job you didn't really want, but hey the money is good. What if you get laid off? Should I go on?

Computers, wonderful invention, you can do so much with them, the internet is great, but does it help our children learn? You can download music you can look up the answers to questions you wanted to know the answers to, you can buy things that you can't buy in the stores, and you can even write papers, book reports and other things without knowing how to write, spell or even indent. Dictionary's and thesaurus' are obsolete as well as the average book, because all you need to do now is look it up online and you have everything you need. That's not learning, thats someone else doing it for you at the click of a button.

We have tried to make everything simpler to do yet it's more difficult to keep track of. We don't write letters anymore, we e-mail, not a bad idea, but when you sit down and put your own hand on paper and someone reads it later, it is much more appreciated. But when is enough enough, it never is, because we are a society of "i want more" .

credit card usage is at an all time high and society continues to put themselves in jeopardy by using them irresponsibly. Yet with no thought of consequence, it's continued in a chain of products and businesses designed to help you get out of debt from credit cards, yet we continue to use credit cards day by day, putting ourselves in more debt. Your credit score? Where did that come from, if not from just the last couple of years, yes there was a credit score years ago, but not a lot of people paid attention to it because they didn't have to worry about it. Many years ago there was no need to understand it. yet they talk of it as if it's been used for years. It has nothing to do with anything, your credit is either good or bad, there is no in between. You have to use a credit card online to get access to use the online credit score feature, convenient, but for who, It's just another long line of subliminal B.S. To make us all feel warm and cozy By knowing how bad our credit is.

Face it, Americans hate Americans, we are always trying take away from people, even if it's someone close to us, we don't care, and no matter how much we love someone we are always trying to show them how better we are than they. so... "it's all about me and me only i am the only one on the planet anyone should care about, so let me go first in line, get out of my way when i am driving 65 miles per hour in a 35 mile an hour zone, so i can get to church and worship god and Jesus, afterwards I will get together with my friends and criticize and insult other people behind their backs then go to Wal Mart and complain because the price was 2 cents cheaper yesterday. While my son or daughter is causing trouble in school, i can blame it on the teacher and school board, I will run the red light and nearly cause an accident that could have hurt someone just so i can get there 14.6 seconds before you. And don't yell at me while i am speeding in my SUV with road rage, and not paying attention to the road, I am trying to talk to my sister on my cell phone because i can and that's my right, and I'll take you to court and sue you for looking at me cross eyed, and all five of my credit cards can't be over the limit i used them yesterday, and yes for your information i am educated i do know my A,B,D's, and don't tell me i don't know where Mount Vernon is, it's the mountain with the president's faces on it in California ,i know my history."

WAKE UP AMERICA. That is you! deny it all you want but if I could spend one day with just half of you, I would show you that 90 percent of you do 90 percent of those things day in and day out. You never accept responsibility for your actions, you act like your the only ones on the planet that are important and everyone else is wrong but you.Go ahead blame the government, they have a big piece of pie for many reasons Americans act the way they do and do the things they do. We are all angry and sometimes we are not even sure why, but we know it's not because of the guy who cut us off in traffic but you blame him anyway. We all need to grow up.

For now, I would like for society to just take a few steps back and look at our world years ago, when all these problems and inventions did not exist, when it didn't take weeks to build a house, when it took only 8 months to build an aircraft carrier, not 12 years( sure you feed me all the petty reasons about the differences between then and now but it won't change the fact that everyone still thinks this country is moving forward.) lets go back a few years, when we didn't feel high and mighty, and we didn't have all the answers, when things were new and interesting, and we didn't have all these extra useless things to run our lives, when we didn't go into a blind rage because we couldn't get on the internet, or get so angry when your cell phone has no signal when you just wanted to call your friend to tell them your day sucked.... those who now rely on these things will tell you its all an improvement and progress, but take all these things from society all at one time and you could guarantee a number of mass suicides. We call this progress and moving forward? I call it personal burden , there was a time when we all couldn't believe we had to put security devices in our homes and cars because of the selfishness and greed of others. we all got along just fine before we had all these things, but when people started using cell phones and computers to enhance communication and friendship because the rest of their life sucked, and when people started murdering others for a pair of shoes, car jacking people and committing identity theft and relying on their race, religion or financial situations to get them out of trouble, and more Americans caused auto accidents by talking on the cell phones, progress shot itself in the foot. Tell me why it is that we need all these things to make for a better world and that nothing is wrong in this country and things shouldn't be changed, I promise, someone can prove you wrong. So welcome to the human race.

America's Advances & Problems

We live in a great country? When gas prices continue to skyrocket and prices of crude oil drop, The gas companies claim the price of gasoline is rising due to slow manufacturing of refineries. The cost goes up because they have to switch the refineries over to fuel oil. Every little incident causes the prices to rise. Oil companies claim that the majority of our oil comes from other countries and that it is the stress from the economy forcing companies to produce more gasoline. If They could see this coming, why didn't they do anything about it then? Where were all these problems when gas prices were at 79 cents to 1.20 a gallon? They were there, but they didn't effect the cost of gasoline at that time. Blame on the rise of gas prices was put on hurricane Katrina, why didn't those same prices go up when a hurricane hit the gulf in 1981? Gas prices were not terribly effected during the gulf war, at least not that anyone noticed. When the price of crude oil was 30 dollars a barrel the average price of gas was 70 to 80 cents a gallon, the average price of a barrel of crude is 60 dollars today.

So explain to me why the price at the pump is nearly triple what it should be. Because then, there was no extreme lust for more money. It is all new profit for gas companies shrinking the nations' pockets to nothing. You have to ask yourself what they are doing with 40 billion dollars in additional profit every quarter, in the last three years and still don't have any money to build a new refinery. They use some of that money to quiet the politicians that give Americans every excuse for the rising costs. It doesn't matter how much anyone knows or complains, the government and politicians won't do anything because they are all being paid with some of that profit to keep it quiet. 160 billion dollars in profit on top of their normal profit, yet they say it would be futile to build a new refinery in fear of the extreme length of time to build it. All the while, Americans have to struggle to make ends meet just so they can get to and from work. and the CEO of one of those oil companies receives a 400 million dollar bonus. But it's not just the price of gasoline. It is a chain reaction. The prices of everything from food and normal necessities to entertainment, also go up, and there seems to be no end in sight. We fight and struggle everyday deciding what we need to buy just so we can survive, and we continue to wonder Why minimum wage stayed where it was, specifically for the last ten years. Are companies afraid to pay people to work? you wonder why people don't want to work minimum wage jobs, because you cant live on 5.15 an hour, much less fill your tank with 4 hours worth of work.

Our constitution seems to be of no importance to this country anymore either. The supreme court and our government violate it everyday, ignoring laws passed that govern our way of life, yet violate it to allow certain groups of people certain freedoms they should not be entitled to, creating laws that cannot and should not be governed under laws already in existence. But they violate them everyday and no one does anything about it. Politicians will never understand. There has never been anyone in power that didn't come from a wealthy background, so they don't know the meaning of poverty or what it means to live paycheck to paycheck. We continue to elect a group of People, hoping that somewhere inside them is a sense of good conscience. Politicians need to Stop making blank promises and stop talking about fixing something and fix it, especially with the top three, health care, immigration and fuel. Stop fighting everyone else's wars and start doing something helpful for this country instead of useless promises and statements. We would get better results if we elected people that had worked a real job, who had to pay bills and feed their families and didn't fabricate their military history to make themselves look good to voters.

we continue to pass laws that govern and contradict laws already in existence, everything from taxes to race and religion, freedom of this and freedom of that, but when we speak our minds we are branded as traitors or racists. But those with a certain cause to prove are listened to and then, things that have been around for years are changed just because one small group of people are "all of a sudden" offended. These things are instantly changed only because we are so worried about the potential problems that these groups of people can cause. And it's only been going on for a few years, maybe a flag or a symbol. It wasn't until recently that commercials became offensive and required an apology for advertisement. Grow up people, those who lobby for such apologies have already to proven that you are beneath those of us who have lived with these things for years and payed no attention. There are those of us who see things as they are and those who see them as they want them to be and those who feel the need to change everything that they don't agree with or find offensive no matter if it's been around before any of us were born. if you have nothing better to do with your time, claim you are a homosexual and get attention for being different.

Immigration, health care, education, our overall economy, the fact remains that we all continue to walk around blind as a bat with no regards to our future and what the rising cost of everything does to us.

We work with people and we see people everyday that we know are here illegally yet we do nothing. Our own police officers trying to protect our borders from illegal immigration are incarcerated for protecting themselves against armed illegal immigrants. They are granted money for damages for doing something illegal, and they are set free, justice? Are we now at a point where we punish and imprison our own countrymen fighting for our rights and freedoms, unacceptable America. wake up! There are people who look the other way at illegal immigration, the fact is that it destroys our economy with each and every step across the lines, we eventually have to pay more taxes to take care of them, and the cost of everything we pay for, rises. If you did call to report illegal immigrants, (you may have to press 1 for English), you would be branded as a racist, and maybe no one would do anything about it in fear of disturbing the natural course of destroying America, yet those illegals would still get everything that, you, the American, born here, can't or won't get.

We can't go to the hospital for treatment or exams, they make us call our doctor, or practitioner, who we may not even have, who in most cases can't or won't tell you anything and does not have the means to check you at that clinic, but charges you three hundred dollars to tell you he doesn't know what is wrong, and helps the hospitals rack up bills to examine you. Health care needs to be subsidized, as it is in other countries instead of the average family paying 400 dollars a month for health insurance. When one of those family members gets seriously ill, they may find out later that treatment or cures are not covered by their insurance company from a premium that the family can barley afford to pay and it has to come out of their own pocket. How do we justify this treatment of people in our own country, treatment of people who pay their taxes and obey the laws and then get sued by someone who broke into their home and injured themselves trying to rob, rape or kill you. Evaluation is the process of completion yet health care finds a way around all of it just to get more money from taxpayers. All in the land of the free. "When millions of inhabitants of a planet can't get sufficient health care then you know it's too expensive." (Deforest Kelly)

Where did restless leg syndrome come from, and overactive bladders and a growing population of people with high blood pressure. You see it every time you sit down to watch television, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, restless leg syndrome, overactive bladder, insomnia. Then they offer a product that will get rid of that problem, but may give you five others, then tell you the side affects are so bad they could possibly kill you. you receive just enough information about the product being advertised to scare the hell out of you, so you may continually live in fear of having that disorder. so what do they say? "ask your doctor", and in such a dignifying way that assumes we all have a doctor stuffed in our pocket. Not to mention that most products are set up to help someone with a problem they could clearly take care of without medication. Medicine these days, they say, are advanced, but personally I wouldn't want a medicine that helps one thing but gives me five other problems. Maybe these medical problems existed years ago but society learned how to deal with them and lived normal lives. There are all these fantastic ways to help you quit smoking, sleep, lower cholesterol, because we believe we can't do it on our own, so we become dependent on someone or something to get rid of the problem. We rely on drugs and medicines in this country to treat our problems.

We have thrown self treatment right out the window and wonder why health insurance is so expensive. It's expensive because the health care industry wants it to be, mostly because people have abused the right to have health insurance and health care in the past and have made it worse on those who really need it, and sometimes makes it impossible for someone to get help when really needed. there are no real cures, only treatment, and that is what the medical industry wants us to believe and that everything we do and eat is bad for us and later, tell us that things that were once bad are now good and things once good are now bad. They lead us to think there is no real cure except in medicine and turn the entire population of American culture into mindless zombies addicted to the survival package of pointless pharmaceuticals In the field of American advertising by selling us drugs to fix our every little ailment. Medicines and treatment have become such commonplace for advertising as macaroni and Mr. Clean.

Any and all advertisements are out there to make us believe we need everything we see. Some advertising will go so far as to make the public believe they have a problem showing dozens of different symptoms that some people have and convince the public that they need to have treatment, making the public more dependent on drugs.

Your job, is it safe? No matter how secure you think your job is, someone is always looking for a reason to cut back or get someone better, and in some cases you may have been the better one, but don't worry they are already looking to replace you. A good percentage of Americans are not getting the pay they deserve, not so much the pay they want, but it's how they are paid and how they react to their own job description. "that's not my job". If companies pay the minimum amount they will get the minimum work. They want more for less. but yet how does society handle that? They can't because companies control the economy and the wages and we all know you can't live without a paycheck ,so we have no choice. We continue to try, and when we deserve a raise, it's the minimum amount possible just keep the employee quiet for a little longer. Then comes the turnover rate which in this country is extraordinarily high. Why? Because no one wants to pay anyone, and if they do, they have to have an outlandish amount of experience that the applicant does not have and can not get unless they have had that job.

Don't hire someone for two years and teach them the things they need to know and then have the nerve to get rid of them by explaining that they need more experience. This does not bother the employer, they don't care about you, no matter how important you think you are. We are all expendable. The only way to stop this is to show an employee how valuable they are to the company no matter the experience. If someone is willing to do the job pay them in accordance to what they are worth and not what is acceptable by law and perhaps people would show up to work more often and not have such an attitude towards an employer.

When you have tax laws that outweigh the amount of words in the bible you have serious problems with government. A straight tax would do the job. No filing, no deductions, no more waiting for the check in the mail, but I think the IRS enjoys going after people who can't defend themselves. It's the way of our country these days. Destroy those around you, make someone suffer. The IRS will go after someone who made a mistake on their taxes or can't pay on time due to legitimate circumstances, other than going after those who evade taxes for years and never get caught. when the cost of living goes up, They claim the value of your home rises so they can raise the property tax and no one has any choice but to pay it, but when you turn around and try to sell your home, you don't receive the amount of money the taxes say your home is worth. State tax, luxury tax, vehicle tax, sales tax. Step back and see how much of your money goes to taxes and why, they take your paycheck and the money you earn from that is taxed and when you go to the store you are taxed on things you buy, how much more money do they need and why. Since we all pay these taxes I think every one of us is entitled to see exactly where that money goes dollar for dollar, if we are paying for it we need to know who and where it is going to and why.

If social security is for your retirement why is it being handed out to people who don't deserve it even before they have retired? I have seen children as young as 5 years of age reportedly receiving social security. That money is for people who have worked for a living their whole life and just to see someone else get it because of someone else's negligence is appalling. To top it off it is illegal to tax social security a second time, you paid tax on it when it was deducted from your pay, they can't tax it again when you retire, but they do anyway, they never get enough. And why does no one say or do anything about it. We are all too afraid to stand up as a whole and question why. One straight tax, everyone pays 10 percent no more no less, no sales tax, no deductions and no special privileges, and eliminate the IRS, it would save billions of dollars in paperwork and postal alone, not to mention the useless salaries of tax writers and auditors, people who go to school to learn how to take people's money for a living, need to be unemployed for a little while and then see what it means to earn an honest days pay. Don't you just love the USA.

Seventy percent of our population walks around with two dollars in their pockets, and act like they are carrying two hundred. Not to mention that a lot of us are living our life like that of a favorite motion picture character, and have no life of our own. But what it really comes down to is our society's continuing embellishment to be better than our neighbor, of course I assume that's how it's always been. We go and buy the biggest SUV with all the options and frills we can get, then complain about the cost of gas. we buy fancy cars we can't afford and then buy accessories for that car that may make it more dangerous and expensive to drive, huge houses we can only afford to pay the interest on and then can't afford to buy even the most mediocre of furniture to put in that house. We buy cellular phones with so much use, we have no use for them. Good invention or a burden on those to society who want them but cant stand being called, flip that over and you have those who want to be called so they can be seen. And when did it become so important to call someone when you are driving your car, now those are some dangerous people, But you see people talking on them all the time like they have been doing it since they were born and then have to pay a hefty bill each month for useless conversation.

Why do we continually put ourselves in the wake of these insufferable dilemmas of debt, so someone cant take a quick glance and say "look what you have?". We all want the bigger better deal no matter how much it costs or how much debt it puts us in, just so others can see we have it, who cares if we need it or not.

Worried about your children's education? you can be assured they are not learning what they need to learn, and at this rate, probably never will, unless it is done for them. "no child shall be left behind." That's nice to hear in a specified context, but not for our nation's purpose . if the child fails, they don't have to repeat the grade, "it's alright, they'll eventually learn so pass them." Wrong answer. They implement the standards of learning and expect that children will catch on and it'll be fine, but most children can't or won't pass these tests because they can't pass them or won't pass them due to a growing epidemic called laziness, yet we do nothing to change this. children are not learning or retaining the education they need to succeed, when they don't, the blame is placed on the teacher, and the school board does nothing to protect or defend the teachers for the students own failure. So now we have the scapegoat and the continuing problem by placing blame on someone else.

It wasn't until recently that a very good number of children developed problems such as Attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, hyperactivity disorders, slow learning disorders or aggressive behavior. Most likely these are all the biggest excuses as to why the average parent has no time to spend with their children, so they call it a disorder and pawn it off on the education system and turn them into babysitters. When I was growing up no one I knew of had these problems and I wasn't that young to not know the difference. They are all excuses for the idiocy this country has fallen into and follows a continuous list of excuses that is everyone else's fault. Yet we allow our children to play video and computer games, get fat sitting in front of the television, burning brain cells from doing drugs because there is no parental guidance.

College education is no different. We live in a society that is so bent on college education that it makes it nearly impossible for the average student to attend college much less pay for it. Employers rely on hiring college graduates that in some cases are still not fully trained to do the job. A degree doesn't really mean anything anymore, but, where you go to college is what counts, and not so much as what you learned. College tuition is overly expensive and no where near as cost effective as it should be, so you don't get the education you should be getting for the money you spend, unless your only goal in college was to drink and party, and then you graduate not having learned anything useful.

I've seen many people go to college for years, and graduate no smarter than when they started, but now they have a big debt, and no job. But they will get the job before someone that has been in the working world struggling to make a living because they couldn't afford college. And no matter how you say it, its still discrimination when advertisements say that a college graduate earns more than a non graduate. now we have the pedestal.

Some people did not go to college, but over the years they have read many books and gained a lot of knowledge in many areas of study, economy, history, math and English. It is all how you apply yourself to what it is you are interested in and not what is required of you to graduate from college and get a job that you are not really interested in but makes a lot of money so you can have a big house and nice cars, a wife and children. You can now come home and yell at your wife and children because your day was horrible at a job you didn't really want, but hey the money is good. What if you get laid off? Should I go on?

Computers, wonderful invention, you can do so much with them, the internet is great, but does it help our children learn? You can download music you can look up the answers to questions you wanted to know the answers to, you can buy things that you can't buy in the stores, and you can even write papers, book reports and other things without knowing how to write, spell or even indent. Dictionary's and thesaurus' are obsolete as well as the average book, because all you need to do now is look it up online and you have everything you need. That's not learning, thats someone else doing it for you at the click of a button.

We have tried to make everything simpler to do yet it's more difficult to keep track of. We don't write letters anymore, we e-mail, not a bad idea, but when you sit down and put your own hand on paper and someone reads it later, it is much more appreciated. But when is enough enough, it never is, because we are a society of "i want more" .

credit card usage is at an all time high and society continues to put themselves in jeopardy by using them irresponsibly. Yet with no thought of consequence, it's continued in a chain of products and businesses designed to help you get out of debt from credit cards, yet we continue to use credit cards day by day, putting ourselves in more debt. Your credit score? Where did that come from, if not from just the last couple of years, yes there was a credit score years ago, but not a lot of people payed attention to it because they didn't have to worry about it. Many years ago there was no need to understand it. yet they talk of it as if it's been used for years. It has nothing to do with anything, your credit is either good or bad, there is no in between. You have to use a credit card online to get access to use the online credit score feature, convenient, but for who, It's just another long line of subliminal B.S. To make us all feel warm and cozy By knowing how bad our credit is.

Face it, Americans hate Americans, we are always trying take away from people, even if it's someone close to us, we don't care, and no matter how much we love someone we are always trying to show them how better we are than they. so... "it's all about me and me only i am the only one on the planet anyone should care about, so let me go first in line, get out of my way when i am driving 65 miles per hour in a 35 mile an hour zone, so i can get to church and worship god and Jesus, afterwards I will get together with my friends and criticize and insult other people behind their backs then go to Wal Mart and complain because the price was 2 cents cheaper yesterday. While my son or daughter is causing trouble in school, i can blame it on the teacher and school board, I will run the red light and nearly cause an accident that could have hurt someone just so i can get there 14.6 seconds before you. And don't yell at me while i am speeding in my SUV with road rage, and not paying attention to the road, I am trying to talk to my sister on my cell phone because i can and that's my right, and I'll take you to court and sue you for looking at me cross eyed, and all five of my credit cards can't be over the limit i used them yesterday, and yes for your information i am educated i do know my A,B,D's, and don't tell me i don't know where Mount Vernon is, it's the mountain with the president's faces on it in California ,i know my history."

WAKE UP AMERICA. That is you! deny it all you want but if I could spend one day with just half of you, I would show you that 90 percent of you do 90 percent of those things day in and day out. You never accept responsibility for your actions, you act like your the only ones on the planet that are important and everyone else is wrong but you.Go ahead blame the government, they have a big piece of pie for many reasons Americans act the way they do and do the things they do. We are all angry and sometimes we are not even sure why, but we know it's not because of the guy who cut us off in traffic but you blame him anyway. We all need to grow up.

For now, I would like for society to just take a few steps back and look at our world years ago, when all these problems and inventions did not exist, when it didn't take weeks to build a house, when it took only 8 months to build an aircraft carrier, not 12 years( sure you feed me all the petty reasons about the differences between then and now but it won't change the fact that everyone still thinks this country is moving forward.) lets go back a few years, when we didn't feel high and mighty, and we didn't have all the answers, when things were new and interesting, and we didn't have all these extra useless things to run our lives, when we didn't go into a blind rage because we couldn't get on the internet, or get so angry when your cell phone has no signal when you just wanted to call your friend to tell them your day sucked.... those who now rely on these things will tell you its all an improvement and progress, but take all these things from society all at one time and you could guarantee a number of mass suicides. We call this progress and moving forward? I call it personal burden , there was a time when we all couldn't believe we had to put security devices in our homes and cars because of the selfishness and greed of others. we all got along just fine before we had all these things, but when people started using cell phones and computers to enhance communication and friendship because the rest of their life sucked, and when people started murdering others for a pair of shoes, car jacking people and committing identity theft and relying on their race, religion or financial situations to get them out of trouble, and more Americans caused auto accidents by talking on the cell phones, progress shot itself in the foot. Tell me why it is that we need all these things to make for a better world and that nothing is wrong in this country and things shouldn't be changed, I promise, someone can prove you wrong. So welcome to the human race.