Trade Deficit

These are my father's hands and they represent the United States. My father entered the Navy at age 17, served his country, learned a trade, was discharged from the service, and has worked for the same company as a field mechanic on heavy machinery for 36 years. Every single day, rain or shine, my father leaves around 5:00 am and goes to work. He never complains, serves his company well, and works hard for a living. Even when he was being treated for colon cancer, he would go to chemo or radiation in the morning and still make it to work on time...even put in overtime as needed.

My father represents a dying breed. In this country we don't know how to work and sweat, or use our God-given talent and able bodies. We have become a service industry country. We have ceased to use our hands. And it is because of this that we have a trade deficit. To put this term simply, we import more than we export. Now, this may not sound like a big deal, but financially, it is. Let's say that we export 8 billion dollars in goods and we import 16 billion dollars in goods, that creates a deficit of 8 billion dollars. And this needs to be paid. So, the American people pay it EVERY SINGLE DAY. In order to create an analogy, I will draw upon my experience in Papua New Guinea. Suppose I go to the market and I've made fresh pumpkin bread. The bread could yield me one dollar. Now, what I need is beef and the beef costs two dollars. Suppose I find someone who is willing to trade me the beef for the bread, but I am a dollar short. How will I pay that? Well if the beef merchant knows that I will bring pumpkin bread every week and the beef merchant knows that I am good for the money, he will probably continue trading with me until it is no longer financially feasible for him to do so. And the beef merchant also knows that although I may not have it now, I do have savings that I can rely upon to pay this deficit. So the trading continues. Let's bring it back to the trade deficit. The United States is an established country. We have great credit with the rest of the world. Although we really don't produce anything, (except scrap metal---which by the way is our third largest export), countries will trade with us because we are good for it. And they know that we have reserves in the social security funds and can use that to pay the deficit. And ladies and gentlemen, that is exactly what is being tapped to pay our debts to those with which we are trading. Eventually, the world is going to get tired of trading us "beef" for "pumpkin bread" and they are going to call our debts and we will be out of luck, money, and time.

The only thing that will change our country is to go back to being an industrial nation and actual "make" things again. We need to get our hands dirty again and start producing rather than servicing. It is sad that it is cheaper for us to import our cars than to make them ourselves. It is sad that our auto makers, (in the country where the auto was born), are asking the government for bail-out funds simply to pay the salaries of their employees. It's one of the last industries in which we actually work with our hands and make something worth exporting...and it's slowly dying.

How can we fix our country? Put our minds to good use and figure out ways to make things again. Create and build. Only through these two things will we build our economy and fix the daily trade deficit that is draining our social security and threatening the retirement of our baby boomers...people like my father who have truly worked their entire lives. If anyone deserves retirement it is the baby boomer generation...upon whose backs we experience the freedom and advancements in this country today.

My father's hands are cracked, scarred, and rough from work; but nothing makes me more proud then to see them and hold them and know that my life is possible because of them. He and his hands deserve retirement and if our generation does not heed the call and find ways to become industrial again, all that work will have been for nothing. And nothing makes me more sad than that thought.

After I wrote this post, my brother wanted to weigh in on the subject:

What happened? My Dad, who is close to retirement was greatly affected by this wall street mess. My dad has worked hard his whole life. Served in the Navy, learned a trade and has worked as a heavy equipment mechanic for the same company for over 34 years. He did what everyone told him to do, work hard, raise your family well, adore your spouse, save your money and put all you can into retirement. He followed all the rules that our country has told us to do. God, service, family and work hard. While all the fat cats are getting rich off of the wall street mess and all the congressman’s special interests groups are in line for the next bailout my dad is out working somewhere on a heavy piece of equipment at a strip mine, in the snow with 28 degree wind chills. My dad isn’t in line for any bailouts and he isn’t crying a river. He has accepted the fact that he has lost money in his 401K. You know what he is doing about it? He’s going to work and praying. My dad like many of us aren’t represented by anyone. We are the silent majority. Why are we silent? Probably because we would rather give of our time and God given skills to someone in need instead of organizing a “save the green lizard” fund raiser. We would rather spend time with our families instead of going to a seminar on how to get rich off the stock market. We would rather listen to our Pastors advice on how to best raise a good family instead of Dr. Phil. We would rather go camping with our kids instead of buying them the latest in video games and sticking them in front of the TV.

I’m convinced that the path my Dad has chosen is the right one. Here is why. He has been told by many Doctors he is healthy as an ox. Even thru colon cancer and a major back surgery he had last year he has fought thru what most people his age wouldn’t have. I saw his reunion picture, he was the only one that wasn’t 260 pounds with no hair. He has the joy of knowing that he does his job well and he can rest assured that he is one of the best in his trade. He adores my Mom, and oddly enough and contrary to the liberal patrons, I adore my wife as well, hmmmm wonder where I got that from. He has raised his children to love God, work hard, save your money, rely on no one but yourself and listen to your elders. I am truly blessed to have had such a wonderful father. He felt it more important to teach me about the value of the dollar than how to get one, he taught me that you should help people with your time and skills instead of just handing them money, he taught me to respect people and their opinions, even if you don’t agree with them, he taught me that winning the baseball game meant nothing if your weren’t humble and respectful in your victory and he taught me that no matter what comes my way I can always rely on God to help with my struggles.

I will leave with one question? What if every child had a Dad like mine?