Perspective: What's IQ Got to Do With It?

We are told* that IQ is a better predictor of financial income, job performance, chance of unwanted pregnancy and involvement in crime. Roughly 60% of IQ is inherited and 40% is derived from the environment in which one is raised. Experts further believe that those with high IQ are becoming separated from those with average and below average intelligence causing us to become a divided society. If this is so, should we be concerned about how to maintain high average I Q in the United States.

First, do we note a divided society? Absolutely, that is all the politicians and media talk about! “The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer” is the mantra! Could it be that one of the causes is that the smart are getting smarter and those who are not as smart are falling further behind? This is no small question in light of the radical change in structure of the job market due to globalization and the digital revolution. Jobs requiring low education are being shifted overseas or are being replaced by machines while many jobs that require a higher education are starving for properly educated and trained workers. Since there will not be enough ordinary jobs for those with less education, those with less intelligence will surely end up near or below the so-called poverty level.

Culture is a major factor impacting poverty, and we all know it. But how to fix the culture is another matter. During the past fifty years, the pillars that supported our culture for generations, in fact centuries have been severely eroded. Fifty years ago, the norm for child raising was a husband and wife living in the same home supported by a neighbor and a school system who acted as surrogate parents. Then nearly everyone went to Sunday school. During that period, a child was expected to earn self esteem, and if punished for any misbehavior in school was told by the parent that “if you think that was bad, just wait until you get home”. A generation or so ago the idea of having a child out of wedlock was so repugnant, the person was shamed, shunned or forced into a shot-gun wedding. The marriage vow “to death do us part” was taken seriously. Today the 50-70 percent rate of out of wedlock births is accepted such that a pregnant high school girl may even stay in class with her off spring. Of course the sperm donor is no where in sight, so a shot gun wedding is out of the question.

The research shows what our predecessors knew all along. A child living with a father and mother in the same house has the highest chance of being smarter, better educated, wealthier, healthier and living longer. Any other system is inferior to one degree or another. It should be obvious to us that raising children out of wedlock with no father present is the worst scenario.

What we are talking about in this blog is that in virtually one generation we have gone from a preponderance of a father and mother living together to a paucity of that. Since single mom parenthood produces the poorest environment, would one be surprised if the IQ of such progeny might just possibly be lower than average? If it is true that poverty reduces IQ, and if we do nothing to eradicate let alone retard the growth of poverty, how well will the US be able to compete in the digital and global economy in the future?

The following chart demonstrates the impact of the inherited and the environmental parts of IQ. We have keyed the quality of the environment component to the percent of out of wedlock births. The actual environmental numbers are theoretical but reflect what one would believe that children born out of wedlock would have an inferior environment to those born with two parents living in the same home. In the chart zero percent of out of wedlock equates to a father and mother living in the same home.

IQ AS IMPACTED BY
PERCENT OF OUT-OF WEDLOCK
% Out of Wedlock 0 15 45 70
High IQ
% Inherited 50 50 50 50
% Environment 35 30 20 10
Total % IQ 85 80 75 60

Low IQ
% Inherited 30 30 30 30
% Environment 35 30 20 10
Total % IQ 65 60 50 40

In sum it shows that a child that inherits a high IQ might survive the poor environment, especially if there is a mentor along the way. On the other hand, the child that does not inherit a high IQ is going to have a very hard time climbing out of poverty unless they have a supporting father and mother. Moreover, IQ levels will probably get worse as those coming from poor environment have children.

If poverty is the cause of poor environment and if poor environment affects IQ negatively, and if reduced IQ makes it more difficult for those in poverty to rise to higher income levels, don’t you think that we all ought to be concerned and wonder what we can do about poverty? Instead we are paying people to stay home and not work. This runs counter to nature, and is wrong. Today, we have 15% or 50 million of the US population living below the poverty level and the number is growing. Meantime, our government is going broke spending a trillion dollars per year supporting programs that produce no positive results.

Now, imagine what the economic growth might look like if the government got out of the way of private enterprise and employers invested in job creating economic activity? We have such an opportunity! Because we have the lowest cost energy in the world, manufacturing and the jobs it can create can and would return to the United States.

But wait, Obama doesn’t want that. Unilaterally he plans to place a 30% surcharge on our energy which will wipe out that opportunity. Sadly, for all of their hand wringing about this problem, Obama and the progressives really don’t want to change anything because those getting government handouts tend to vote for them.




*From” The Bell Curve: “Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life” a book by Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein released in 1994.

Perspective The Millennial Generation and Job Opportunities

Those born between 1980 and 2000 comprise the generation known
as the Millennials. That generation is faced with challenges much greater than
those their parents and grandparents had to face due to the rate of change of
the digital technology and its impact on virtually every job.The Millennials
are entering the market just as digital devices are replacing human labor in
scores of job types at an accelerating rate. This occurs in virtually all job
categories, but ordinary mid-pay jobs and starting jobs where a Millennial
might expect to begin a career are hit the hardest. The more routine and
repetitive the job, the easer it is replace it with a computer based machine.
In an economy that is not expanding, this shrinkage of jobs is serious, and is
virtually unnoticed by the media and our government. Perhaps it is not
surprising that the highest unemployment rate rests with the Millennials. The
irony is that the Millennial generation is the first generation to adapt with
ease to the new digital technology which they began to acquire in pre-school. 

The driving force behind this trend is that businesses
actually prefer machines to humans. Machines work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
and 365 days a year. They work faster and more accurately than humans. They
don’t get sick, take vacations, need maternity leave, go on strike, need health
care or be provided with annual raises, bonuses, IRAs or Social Security.
Experts predict that about 40 percent of such present jobs could be replaced
with current digital technology, and this includes most service jobs. On top of
this let’s not forget that jobs replaced by machines will never return! Furthermore,
machines pay no taxes and purchase no products. Millennials will have to deal
with this issue, as well.

The list of jobs that is vulnerable is shown in the Appendix
below. 

Ironically, the positions of the generations have been
reversed. Today, Millennials know more about the tools of the trade (digital
devices) than their bosses who are of their parent and grandparent generations,
so the mentoring that came from learning how to use the tools from the elders may
be lost.  Consider this! Historically,
while in an apprenticeship, the apprentice (Millennial) would have been taught
by the “master” (older generation) regarding how to use the tools, but the
apprentice was also mentored how the business worked, the importance of
culture, integrity and how to be a good neighbor when working side-by-side with
other worker. 

 Moreover, the
generations born from 1900 to 1980 held most culture concepts in common and
spoke a common cultural language. During this period Society had four pillars
to help youth to assimilate the culture and become responsible citizens. These
were: (1) a parent who understood and accepted the job of teaching the child,
(2) a neighbor who assumed the role of a partner with the parent, (3) the
school that became the surrogate parent with all the rights of the parent while
the child was under it’s supervision, and finally (4) the Sunday school where
the child learned about God and to love one’s neighbor. Unfortunately, for the Millennials
these pillars have been weakened if not completely destroyed. 

Consequently, the Millennial is expected to come to the job
ready to start work. This places the Millennial in a position of virtually
being on his or her own in this radically and rapidly changing time. Whereas it
was common for your parents and especially your grandparent’s generations to
spend an entire career in one business often with one company with many mentors
as the career progressed, that is mostly gone, also. Experts believe that
Millennials will have to change jobs multiple times during their career. So they
will have to find their own mentors. That will require creating a network of
sources for support. Parents and grandparents can and should be part of that
network. The older generations may not have the skills and facility with the
modern digital technology the Millennials have, but they have and amazing
amount of wisdom that is timeless. And if you did not know it, they would love
to share the wisdom with you at any time they are asked!!! 

Grandparents and even parents need not sit on the side
lines. One way for them to participate is to become less intimated with digital
technology. In other words, try to communicate with the Millennials on their
turf!  It is not that difficult to text, send
e-mails, and visit and comment on Facebook and other social media to keep up
with your Millennials. You can do this, and you will be amazed how they will
react to you!  Doing this is not just
important, it is essential. 

The message about the economy and the place of the
Millennial need not be one of doom and gloom. The United
States is poised for economic growth, based
on an abundance of low cost energy and the technical leadership to exploit it
in an environmentally sound manner. The Millennials can and will be able to engage
in this opportunity.  

The United States
is still great because it is still the best form of government that could be
devised by humans. It is based on the Constitution which is not out of date. It
is just as valid and modern as it was when it was created in 1781 by our
brilliant Founding Fathers. The Millennials, in partnership with the parent and
grandparent generations, can and will preserve it, and in doing so can mutually
enjoy the economic benefits that will logically flow.

ADDENDUM

“All Over the World, Technology
Is Replacing Employees”

AP Article Dated January 23, 2013

Key Findings:

 

• Technology
  is being adopted by every kind of organization that employees people.
• It’s
  replacing workers in large and small established companies, start-ups,
  schools, hospitals and the military.

 

• The
  most vulnerable workers are those doing repetitive tasks.
• For
  example, e.g. accountants and paralegals.

 

• Startups
  are launched with a third fewer employees than in the 1990’s.
• These
  account for most of the job growth today

 

• It’s
  becoming a self-serve world.
• Instead
  of relying on someone else to do the task, we use technology to do it
  ourselves. (Think ATM, and grocery checkouts) This trend will grow.
•  

This chart summarizes some of the pertinent features of the
generations living today.

                                                                                                     Computer                          

Name                            Born             
Age            Population       Skills

                                                                       
                                  1-10

GI                                1900-1924       90 +               5 million          0-1

Greatest                       1925-1945       69-89 
         35 million          1-3

Baby Boomers             1946-1964       50-68           80 million          5-7

X                                 1965-1979       35-49           40 million           8-9

Millennial                    1980-2000       14-34           70 million           10+

Present                         2001-Present      0- 3

 

 

 

 

PERSPECTIVE: THE WAR ON POVERTY

My last blog examined how well government does at running businesses. Regarding public education, we found that a third of the products government produces (i.e. graduates) fail to meet specifications. We found the Post Office bankrupt, and the Affordable Care Act looks like a train wreck. Now, it seems only logical to see how the government’s 50 year “War on Poverty” is doing.

The goal of that program, started in 1964, was to eliminate poverty for the 15% of the US population that was considered to be living in poverty in that year. Today, 15% of the population, or fifty million persons, are still considered to be living in poverty. Moreover, the records show that during this 50 year period we have spent about 20 trillion dollars on these 50 million persons. My fifth grade math teacher said the long division should be set up like this:

20,000,000,000,000 dollars = 8,000 dollars/person per year
50,000,000 persons x 50 years

So, during this 50 year period we tax payers spent $8,000 per person per year, and we still have about 50 million persons living in poverty. And it is getting worse. Last year all government t programs combined (Federal and State) aimed at this group totaled just short of one trillion dollars. That is about $20,000 per person

It is worth noting that in the second term of Clinton’s administration; legislation was passed that mandated that persons on the poverty program must find work within a two-year period. They even claimed it was the end to poverty. However, that plan was quickly amended because it was claimed that there were no jobs. Actually only about 3% on poverty had gotten work.

The problem was that digital technology and globalization began to replace US unskilled labor during this period, and the pace is increasing. Further exacerbating the issue is that a third of our public school students who have dropped out will be unable to get a job that pays above the poverty level. Realistically, it is not likely that we will ever reduce, let alone eliminate, poverty in the United States!

Now, a family of four can live quite well on the funds and ancillary programs available from the government so there really is little incentive to get off the program. For example a visit to Google shows that these folk have all the appurtenances that you have. Moreover, this group is entitled to a negative income tax, which means that they get a tax refund while paying zero tax. So, should we be shocked to learn that few if any living on these government funds would want to try to find work? Actually I wonder why we all shouldn’t want to get in on this deal!

A short list jobs that government in partnership with the private sector, could create that most members of the group have the skills for right now might include building the infrastructure to convert all our automotive fleet to environmentally friendly compressed natural gas to replace gasoline and diesel fuels. There are also public service jobs out there that many of the under skilled workers could do such as assisting teachers and assisting the elderly. But can you imagine trying to get this 50 million person group to do public service work in return for the government hand-out? You can’t, can you! But we could require work such as described above for the government handout. But since this group doubtless will vote for the hand that feeds it, can you imagine such a program having a chance of being enacted into law? Probably not!

It is ironic that we have two US Government Departments that deal with animals. The Agricultural Department providesfree food to 50 million human animals. The Interior Department provides food and shelter for countless millions of wild animals. It is curious that the Interior Department places signs in the parks instructing visitors to: “Please don’t feed the animals”.

What’s wrong with our current war on poverty is that it runs counter to the laws of nature. Feeding human animals, just like the animals in the park, makes them unable to “fend for themselves”. Christ said something that is terribly pertinent here:” Give a man a fish, and he is fed for a day; teach a man how to fish, and he is fed forever”.

Obama campaigned and won his elections on his idea to “Transform America”. What we did not know was that he was too late. America was transformed 50 years ago. We might as well get accustomed to understanding that 85% of the US population that works and pays taxes will be expected to provide a living wage for 15% of the population who will be in the program into perpetuity and will probably never work a day!

Now, we will be expected to celebrate this 50 year old program!! Celebrate it?? Are we serious? We should be ashamed at the harm we have done to our fellow man!

Perspective: How well does Government run businesses?

This Christmas Santa sent us a letter (my December 24, 2013 blog) that recommended a way to make jobs for those who are unemployed or who are unemployable in the digital age. Santa’s idea was that the government should get out of the way of private enterprise and let them exploit our natural gas windfall by converting every internal combustion engine to compressed natural gas (CNG), and in addition convert every gas station in the Nation to supply CNG. Despite this obvious opportunity, our politicians continue to think that government is the best place to create jobs! Let’s examine some government run businesses and then imagine whether you, an investor, would want to invest in any of them.

Education:

All public schools are organized and managed by government and funded via taxes, with the objective of producing a high school graduate in 13 years. The United States spends about $10,000 to $15,000 per student per year which is more money per K-12 pupil than any other industrial nation. But look at the results! Our students rank lower than our competitor nations in the basics of language, math and science, and on top of that the high school drop out rate exceeds 30%. Now, as an investor would you put $100,000 to $150,000 into a company whose only product fails 30% of the time? Worse, the management of the company has not the slightest clue how to fix the problem. How long would you tolerate such incompetent management? Would you ask them to walk down the production line to see where the problem begins? OMG, if they did that they might learn that the boys, who represent 60% of the dropouts, fall behind the girls as early as 3rd grade and decide to drop out by 9th grade. Oh, I forgot to mention that management might find a dozen books that spell our exactly why the boys drop out. But no, they just ask you, the investor (read taxpayer), to invest more money in the failing plant.

It is even worse than that. The new digital work place requires graduates who have education at least 1-2 years beyond high school, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math. The government’s failing education system is not producing the needed number of graduates that qualify for the advanced training the high tech jobs require and that the Country absolutely must have to compete in the vibrant global economy.

On top of that, the government the owner and operation of the education business makes you the investor responsible for what to do with the 30% of the product that has no market value. Since there are no jobs to support the high school drop outs, you, the investor (read tax payer) has to subsidize food, shelter, utilities and other amenities for the discarded product, i.e. the dropouts. Many of these will be on the dole for as far out as you can see. But the dropout can vote, which means in effect, that the dropout is your BOSS!!

When you recover from the shock of this failed business, we will continue to the next one!

Roads and Bridges:

We are constantly told that these are in serious disrepair, yet these are government owned and government maintained. The revenue to pay for the work comes from government taxes and tolls, already in place which government can increase nearly at will. The 800 billion dollar stimulus program was intended to fund “shovel ready jobs” presumably for the unemployed and unemployable.. Today’s road and bridge jobs involve highly sophisticated machinery which requires well trained and experienced operators. There are no shovel jobs anymore!

A much more pertinent question is why is this problem? Roads and bridges are always in need of repair, and the money needed for that is being raised constantly from taxes and tolls. Oh, no, don’t tell me the money designated for this infrastructure repair was used for something else!

The Post Office:

The government owns and operates the Post Office which sells a service and in some cases a product, but it looses billions of dollars year after year doing it. Worse, FedEx and UPS beat it every day on services where the Post Office might make money if they knew how to manage a business. As an investor, you would want to sell this one as soon as possible.

Medicare:

Medicare like Social Security is like a ponzi scheme. It is based on the premise that more people pay in at the bottom than take out at the top. That was a fine plan when the number at the bottom (paying in) equaled or exceeded those at the top (taking out). But that was when the average age of death was 65 years. However, in the current real world, the pyramid is turned upside down. We do not die at 65 as was factored in actuarially 50-75 years ago. Today, the average age of death is 79, but if you check the obits, you will find that most lives will end in the 80’s and 90’s. The extra years can be traced to our modern medical technology including our ability to replace virtually any body part that has worn out. Meanwhile, another factor that inexorably exacerbates the issue is that the “boomers” are reaching 65 years of age. This group which totals 80 million is beginning to participate in both Medicare and Social Security while the group putting money into these programs totals only 40 million. Oh, by the way, someone took the funds from the Social Security “Lock Box”, so it is already bankrupt. Do you want to invest in either of these businesses?

Affordable Care Act:

So, now the government wants to get into the insurance business! Insurance is a business that is based on the actuarial bet that you are not sick in the case of health or in the case of your home that you are not an arsonist or in the case of the automobile that you have passed all of the tests indicating that you know how to drive safely. However, under the ACA the government is willing to insure you even if you are deathly ill and require millions of dollars of medical treatment to permit you to live just one more year. This is analogous to going to your insurance agent to get insurance because your house just caught fire!

If you want to become more cynical consider this. The government might set up a committee to decide who might be permitted to get treatment. Oh, wait, that idea is expressed in the ACA bill, and Sarah Palin had the unmitigated gall to call such a committee a “Death Panel”. Knowing what you now know about the NSA data collection and the IRS interference with non-profits that are of the wrong political affiliation, do you question whether the “Death Panel” might check your voting record before authorizing the treatment you need?

In short, it will only be a matter of time until the ACA insurance idea collapses and goes bankrupt, and the government will have to bail out or take over the insurance industry. Oh, that’s right; the bail out provision is in the ACA bill. It is just as Nancy Pelosi said “You have to pass the bill to find out what is in it” .Let’s get real, does anyone really believe that government can manage the health industry which represents one sixth of the US economy? So, do you want to invest in such a mismanaged operation?

We could go on and on examining businesses our government tries to run and that would certainly include Solyndra and a myriad of illogical clean energy fiascos that have already gone bankrupt. Or consider the investment to save Chrysler. We spent billions of dollars to rescue Chrysler only to have it purchased by Fiat at 50 cents on the dollar. Would you sell an asset you just repaired for half of what it cost you to repair it?

In short, businesses owned and operated by our government are bankrupt or are edging their way into bankruptcy of a financial order never before seen or even imagined. Thus when we question whether government can run businesses, we can use the President’s way to punctuate his thought …. It can’t… PERIOD!!!

When the government doesn’t run the enterprise, they feel that they should regulate it. Now, if government does such a lousy job running a business, why should we believe that they would be intelligent enough or have the needed business experience to regulate one? Actually, it is the government’s over regulation of nearly every step that businesses have to take that is precisely why private enterprise is not creating new jobs. This is easy to understand. Would you enter a poker game where the rules were unknown or likely to change in mid-game like Obamacare? Of course not! But that is what the private investor faces vis a vis government regulations.

As a consequence companies with no place to safely invest are hording capital by the bushel. This has resulted in the gigantic rise in stock prices, and the huge amount of cash on corporate books. So, why should we be surprised if companies, who are struggling in the highly competitive global markets made infinitely more complex by the digital revolution and massive and ever-changing government regulations, are willing to pay top dollar to acquire and keep the top CEOs. Oh, in case you haven’t noticed, these top managers are running their businesses quite well for their stockholders, thank you.

By the way, with all the complaints about CEO pay scales, why does no one mention the humongous salaries of our Hollywood stars and our star athletes? Since TV expanded the cash flow produced from the increased number of viewers, our star athletes are being paid massively more, on a constant dollar basis, than Babe Ruth was paid in his time. Moreover, these stars are certainly paid much more than the venders who sell peanuts and other items to those who attend the games. The fact is that in a free market, consumers (stock owners, movie goers and sports enthusiasts alike) will pay high prices for the best products and services.

Now, we can begin to understand why we feel the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Machines have replaced the equivalent of “shovel” jobs in just about every endeavor. Any worker from those who operates today’s machines to those who are in management needs higher skills and continuous training than ever before. Now, we can grasp the nub of why the middle class is falling behind. Highly skilled workers are getting paid significantly more proportionately than those with low or no skills. The problem is that we have a huge shortage of those with the skills needed, and there are no significant jobs for dropouts.

“Santa caught the essence of the problem and told us in his Christmas letter that “Government is the problem not the solution”. Wasn’t there a Santa of the 80ies saying that very same thing? He was also called the Gipper, as I recall. Where is the Republican Gipper today?

When are the Republicans going to have the courage to say it out loud and in clear unequivocal language?

• Government cannot run businesses viably, PERIOD!!

• Private Industry cannot create jobs with government’s over regulation and without a sufficient supply of skilled workers, PERIOD!!

Perspective: Maybe Santa Can Help Find Jobs

Dear Santa,


We Frustrated Citizens are told endlessly that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; that CEOs make infinitely more than ordinary labor, and about 15% of our labor force either is unemployed or underemployed. Oh, you hear politicians from both parties give lip service to the idea that our most important priority is to create jobs, but neither comes up with a specific plan. Worse, the government’s focus is on infrastructure. They tell us that the roads and bridges are falling apart, that we are not spending enough on education and that health care should be provided virtually gratis to the poor and to those suffering with preconditions. But most of these would be government jobs, and the government has no money to support such programs. Moreover, the need for such new programs is dubious, as best.

So, Santa you can see our frustration, and why we are asking your help this Christmas.


Signed
Frustrated Citizens



Found in our Christmas Stocking



Listen politicians that you may hear

How you can make lots of jobs appear.

In case you haven’t heard, I won’t be crass.

But you are up to your butts in natural gas.

And it is not in any way profane

To say it is climate-friendly methane.


To use it, though, how shall I express it?

It’s that one simply has to compress it.

Again while trying not to be profane,

You can run trucks cars and even a train.

But you must convert every truck and car

And every gas station, both near and far.



Now, you think that high tech is the path,

And the workers must know science and math!

You’re shocked as though hit with a lightening bolt;

All one needs do is attach nut to bolt!

Not keyed to digital revolution,

These jobs don’t need skills in evolution!



Actually, jobs lost to robots and China

Will be found in gas, and couldn’t be finer .

These are the folk on unemployment checks

Who without work, become absolute wrecks!

The good news is workers don’t have to roam;

For the jobs will be nearby, close to home.



So what does a politician need to do?

Get out of the way, try something brand new!

Give private enterprise the leading task.

Remove regulators, strip off their mask,

Allow fast write offs of investment cash,

Require work for pay. This plan’s not too brash



Assigning those on dole to this project

Provides a real job, regains self respect.

To convert each car, gas station and truck

Will take about ten years, with any luck.

By that time the oldest of the group will retire

While the younger gain skills new jobs require.



When 80 million boomers leave work behind

The 40 million followers will find

It’s easier to have full employment

To each and everyone’s full enjoyment.

Then, Santa smiling, said with full delight,

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

Perspective: What Can Be Done When the CEO Fails to Perform His/Her Duties?

If the top officer of a profit or a non-profit organization were derelict of duty or caused the corporate interests, goals or mission to be in jeopardy, that person would surely be replaced as soon as possible. When the top officer is the President of the United States it is more difficult to take such action. In that case the People can make a replacement at the next election cycle, but if the issue is severe, and the next election is in the distant future, the elected representatives of the People might consider Impeachment of and Conviction for “High crimes and misdemeanors”.



The Founders anticipated such a need and placed in the Constitution. Article II Section 4 “ The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on Impeachment for and Conviction of Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors”. Those who have researched the Framer’s intentions believe that the Framers used the word “High” to mean a person in a high place, not that the crime be high. In other words, the Framers believed the President of the United States is under a special obligation not applicable to the ordinary person, and by this the Framers meant that the President is legally responsible for everything that he and everyone in the executive branch is doing, and moreover, the President is not protected by “plausible deniability”



I deliberately highlighted  the last sentence because this President states that he only knows something if he reads it in the newspaper. If you watch him on TV you will see him say that over and over.



Consider these catastrophes involving the Executive Branch of our Government about which he deigns to know nothing. Is this dereliction of duty?

• Benghazi

• Fast and Furious

• The IRS

• Monitoring Media phones, etc.



Or consider how he unilaterally takes action where Congress has decided not to pass a law. Is this overreaching beyond his Constitutional authority?

• Cap and Trade to achieve his stated goal of destroying the coal industry



Or he avoids performing his duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed by his office. Isn’t he Constitutionally bound to uphold the entire law dully passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate?

• Selective enforcement of Obamacare

• Selective enforcement of the Immigration laws



Lying to the Voters! Doesn’t the oath of office cover truth telling to the citizens at all times?

• Telling the citizens over and over (33+ times) via TV that under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), their health insurance and doctor would not change, when he knew that they would



Actually the problem may be worse than the misdemeanors listed above. Obama ran and came into office vowing to “Transform America” to achieve “Social Justice”! Moreover, we know that Obama was a Saul Alinski protégé and a friend of Bill Ayers. Both men believed that an institution should be destroyed and then re-built. Alinsky actually wrote a book that is the bible for transforming institutions by destroying them. Its title is: “Rules For Radicals”. If Obama’s intention is to destroy America , and one could make a case for that considering the way he regards the Constitution, that would be Treasonable Act.



The Framers would certainly consider such performance to qualify as Impeachable. But the “Convict of” part would have to be implemented by the democrat controlled Senate



You will recall that a democrat controlled Senate refused to Convict President Clinton who was Impeached for lying to a grand jury about sexually harassing a female intern in our sacred Oval Office! That that democrat party would protect one of their own regardless of what the person did and regardless what the party could gain from his removal is amazing.



I am amazed to this day that the public has never received a proper explanation for the Senate’s behavior. In President Clinton’s case, the democrat controlled Senate could have replaced Clinton with Gore for the last two years of Clinton’s term, and then Gore would doubtless have won the Presidency on his own for the next eight years. In short they could have held the presidency for ten years while they did the honorable thing, namely, supporting women employees who are sexually assaulted by their CEO bosses. No, they were willing to let Clinton escape for violating the very law legislation the democrats promulgated and got passed into law that punished the crime of sexual harassment of an employee. And then, having been found guilty Clinton lied about it before a Grand Jury.



Oh, I forgot! Clinton did tell the truth when he said that “I have not had sexual relations with that woman”. You see the proper word for what he did is so repugnant that God had to destroy a city that had the same name (Sodom) for the same reason. And by the way, had the Senators been there at that destruction and looked back, they would be pillars of salt today. Come to think of it maybe that would not be too bad!



If Impeachment for, Conviction of and thus removal from office is not viable, what is left? There are two alternates, (1) do nothing and hope for the best or (2) elect members of the House of Representatives and Senate in 2014 that will do what they can to minimize the impending disaster.



Doing nothing is not an option, period. Therefore, we must do all we can to elect members of the House and Senate who will do what needs to be done to keep the President and his subordinates from doing more harm. But the problem is a tough one because Obama’s strategy is to use every tool he can to destroy the Republican control of the House in 2014.



So, the battle lines are clear, and we have our work cut out for us!

Perspective: Where Did the Boys Go?

An earlier blog pointed out that we have a 25% shortfall in the number of graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), which is keyed to the reduction of the number of men going to college. It turns out that the ratio of men to women college graduates has reversed in the last 40 years from 60 men to 40 women in the seventies to 40 men to 60 women today. Men still favor majors in STEM, but less than ten percent of women major in and graduate with STEM degrees. As a consequence, we have a shortfall. In that blog I focused on what we could do to promote and encourage more females to major in STEM and stick with it so that we would at least have a few more mechanical, chemical, electric, electronic and civil engineers and persons skilled in information technology (IT).But I left unaddressed the question about why the boys have dropped out.



It turns out to be worse than we thought! The boys have not just dropped out of school; they have dropped out of marriage, fatherhood and the American Dream, as well. What is surprising is that boys are also dropping out of school and marriage in Australia, Canada and Europe. Because men are opting out of school, marriage and parenting, women cannot find suitable mates and therefore remain single. Today, the number of single mothers who never married is 44%. For perspective, in 1960 single mothers who had never married were just 4% of the total of all single moms. Of further concern is the fact that out of wedlock births in the United States is reaching 50% and among the blacks that figure rises to nearly 75%. Yes, the men are still having children, but they are not becoming parents, so they are contributing little if anything to the essential job of producing responsible morally-compassed citizens. If we have this large a problem after a mere generation of men not performing as fathers, we can predict that the drop out rate of the next generation of males will be reaching tidal proportions right in front of our eyes. That should scare us to death!!



It is clear that the United States, indeed Western Civilization, does not know exactly why the boys have opted out. But what is really shocking is that Society does not seem to even care enough to find out why or how solve it. When a society has a problem this gigantic and so fundamental to its ability to sustain itself, and no one seems to notice it, or care enough to do anything about it, that society is in deep trouble. To phrase the question more bluntly: Are we witnessing the beginning of the end of Western Civilization?



So, what is different today versus forty years ago? Here are a few key items to consider:



• Boys want to continue to imitate their fathers and grow up to be like them, but today many boys have no fathers living with them

• Boys learn best when learning is “hands on”, i.e. touching, moving, climbing on, and building things. Today schools focus on reading and writing. Boys are not wired for such early exposure to something as abstract as reading and writing. In the 1970’s we did not teach reading in Kindergarten; today we do

• Boys are much more active than girls. Many schools have reduced or even eliminated recess time to make time for reading and writing.

Here are some theories regarding the cause.



The Education System

“Why Boys Fail”, by Richard Whitmire a journalist, written in 2010 does an excellent job of analyzing the problem. Interestingly, he and others believe that the emphasis placed on reading and writing in elementary school benefits girls more than the boys because girls are “wired” to read, grasp and use words at an earlier age than boys. Thus, the sub-title of his book is “Saving our Sons from an educational system that’s leaving them behind”. Here are some of his findings.



• Boys start to fall behind girls as early as third grade, and by ninth grade many boys have given up on school altogether.



• Boys who give up drop out of high school, don’t go to college, and if they do go to college often do not graduate from college



Whitmire explains that the problem shows up in boys from affluent husband/wife families as well as those who come from poor single mother families. However, because the data are lumped together for all the boys, white, black and Hispanic, the impact on Caucasian. boys is masked.



Since the early nineties numerous studies and books have been written that statistically confirm that the boys have dropped out of school. Joseph Torbin, Author of Good Guys Don’t Wear Hats, a Professor of Early Childhood Education at Arizona State University, asks the question “Is it boys or is it School?”, and points to the feminization of our schools and the emphasis on reading and writing at too early an age for boys. Tobin also points to the fact that boys are more active than girls and thus have trouble sitting still. The reduction of and often elimination of recess exacerbates this problem which leads to teacher’s feeling boys have problems that need to be treated. The treatment includes medication via Ritalin.

When Did Feminism Begin?

The 19th Annendment to the US Constitution was the first phase, but the surprise popularity of Betty Friedan's 1963 book The Feminine Mystique triggred the second phase. This wave of feminism was largely concerned with gender inequality in laws and culture and the end to discrimination and spanned roughly from 1960-1980. During this time, feminists campaigned against cultural and political inequalities, which they saw as inextricably linked. The movement encouraged women to understand aspects of their own personal lives as deeply politicized, and reflective of a sexist structure of power.

Subsequent to the 1960-1980 period and beginning about 1990 numerous writers have explored the feminist movement to determine its impact on men. Some of their works are listed in the Sources of Information section of this Blog.





Testosterone Level

One other factor that might be relevant is what is happening to testosterone levels in men. The following is summarized from two authors: Malcolm Carruthers, MD. And Eugene Shippen, M.D. Studies in the 1940's showed the average testosterone level to be at 700 ng/dl, 300 ng/dl higher than for men today. In the past, a drop in testosterone levels to 250 ng/dl was rarely reported before men were 80 years of age. Yet today, it is not an uncommon value for middle aged men, and the decrease in testosterone levels is now occurring at an even earlier age. Up to 50% of all men at 40 now have testosterone levels below what was considered the normal range.



What Can be Done to Reverse the Male Drop Out?



Now, consider this irony!



Man-made climate change began to get Societies serious attention at about the same time that the male drop out began to be observed. And we have been told endlessly about the deleterious affect on human life from man-made climate change. But what huge catastrophic consequence of global warming has been observed with just our human senses of sight, sound, touch, smell and taste? None, only multi-million dollar extremely complex computer models can tell us about the catastrophic events that might occur at some distant future date. Nevertheless, the government spends millions of dollars and adds hundreds of regulations aimed at preventing man-made climate change.



Now, we don’t need a complex computer model to tell us what is happening or what might happen with the boys dropping out. We can observe what is happening with out own eyes. If high school records show that 30% of our males are already dropping out of school and half of our children are born out of wedlock, all of which has happened in the last generation or so, how difficult is it to imagine what the drop out and out of wedlock rates will be in the next generation! One would think that such an event might be catastrophic enough to scare us to want to take some corrective action



Unfortunately today’s politically correct atmosphere makes it difficult if not impossible to discuss the male drop out problem let alone to define it in such a way that you can come to grips with it and do anything about it. Actually, what our government is doing is wrong. Obamacare permits the 26 year-old male to stay home with Mom and Dad to get health care, but it fails to understand that today’s 26 year old “teen-ager” wants to stay at home with Mom and Dad where he can continue to play video games, be engrossed in the toxic culture available via the Internet, not get an education, not get a job, and in no way will he be thinking of becoming a married parent.



Obviously, because of political correctness, government and society at large will unable or unwilling to search for or to correct whatever the root cause of the problem. So the individual parent or perhaps groups of parents will need to learn how to deal with the problem by themselves.





While nevertheless understanding the difficulty of parents doing that, here are some ideas put forth by Dan Kindion, PhD and Michael Thompson, PhD. in a book entitled “ Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of boys” about what parents might be able to focus upon to help their sons.



• Boys want to grow up to be like their male role models, which is principally their father. Boys who grow up in homes with absent fathers have to try hardest to figure out how to become a responsible male. Single mothers, whether divorced, widowed or never married, should try to find male role models for the boy to emulate.



• Recognize and accept the high activity level boys require, and help them learn how to manage their physicality but not be shamed for exuberance. Become involved with the son’s school, particularly the elementary school to determine what physical exercise can be included in the curriculum. Such exercise will also help daughters. If it is not available in the school, work it into the home with some simple physical tasks that occur daily before and after school.



• Face the fact that your young son’s brain may not be wired for the exposure to reading and writing at such an early age as kindergarten. Find out what your son’s reading level is, and get early help without treating it as an ailment. Get him books with action stories so he learns how much fun reading can be. Get him a Kindle, or equivalent, so books can be easy to get, easy to read and easy to carry around.



• Above all do not let his teachers or especially the child himself think there is something wrong with him just because he is a boy. The bottom line is that boys are not girls and visa versa, thank God!!



Imagine some future historian writing that, “In the 21st century the United States was sitting in the “cat bird’s seat” regarding its newly found supply of fossil fuels and its cutting edge digital technology but could not capitalize on these assets due to a shortage of engineers and technicians caused by their males dropping out of school, marriage, parenting and worse of all, dropping out of the American Dream!!”

























Souces of Information:



Warren Farrell’s various books on the subject from Why Men are the Way They are (1988) to Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men (2007);Helen Smith’s: Men on Strike , Why Men are Boycotting Marriage , Fatherhood, and the American Dream and Why It Matters; Kay Hymowitz’s Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys; Kathleen Parker’s Save the Males: Why Men Matter and Women Should Care; Leonard Sax’s The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Under Motivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men; Christina Hoff Sommer’s The War Against Boys; Hanna Rosin’s The End of Men and the Rise of Women



Male Menopause: Restoring Vitality and Virility. HarperCollins Publishing. London, England. 1996, p.132 and Eugene Shippen, M.D. Testosterone Syndrome: The Critical Factor for Energy, Health, & Sexuality-- Reversing the Male Menopause. M. Evans & Co., New York, 1998. Their findings are summarized here