Memories of the 28th Century

This morning, I saw a reference to Sir Winston Churchill, and that got me remembering him. He deserves a great deal of credit for bringing WW II to an end and some credit for building the postwar World and NATO. As we all recall, he replaces Neville Chamberlain as prime minister of the UK. Chamberlain had helped start the war by trying appease Hitler. Churchill spoke against appeasement, and that got him the PM job after the war had begun. Poland was invaded on October 5, 1939, and Churchill became PM in 1940.

I wasn't alive for that war, but I have seen and heard some of his speeches, and he was a very good speaker, and he gave to British people hope and encouragement. Together they made it through the Battle of Britain.
“We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!” —House of Commons, 4 June 1940, following the evacuation of British and French armies from Dunkirk as the German tide swept through France.
https://winstonchurchill.org/resourc...s-and-stories/

Churchill was great, but we are in a period that is similar to the period that preceded WW II. During that period, the countries of Western Europe, the UK, France, and others ignored the evil that was in power in Germany. Chamberlain and others allowed Hitler to get away with stealing Sudetenland, and there was no great outcry when Hitler took Austria. It took the invasion of Poland to get other countries to declare war and start to prepare for war.

Today a similar situation is going on with Russia. Putin isn't identical, but he has seized territory of another country claiming that it was Russia's. The war against Ukraine has been going on for more than two years. Putin thought it would be quick, but he is wrong. Other countries have been sending aid, but more is necessary. Putin has threatened nuclear war, and that might happen, but we can be sure that many millions will die, if he invades the rest of Europe. It might be the invasion of Poland that will get other countries to send enough help.

Putin's war has harmed Russia as much as Ukraine, and I am surprised that some of his allies have not done something about him. The richest Russians have been badly hurt by the embargo and the economic problems that Putin has caused.

Here in the U.S.A. we don't have Putin, but Trump and his allies in the Republican Party are trying to avoid helping Ukraine. Some aid has been approved, but a lot more could be provided, if Trump weren't in Putin's pocket. We have to make sure that Putin does not get a friend in the Oval Office.

The future of the world is at stake. We can't afford to let Putin succeed. There isn't a Winston Churchill available to elect president, but almost anyone would be better than Putin's friend. But that isn't the only problem that we have to take care of. The budget deficit and the accumulated debt are dangerously high. The government has to stop throwing money around. For the last two hundred years, inflation has averaged 2.35% per annum compounded. That mean that the dollar is worth less than one percent of what it was worth in the 1820's. Just in my life time, the dollar is worth less than one tenth of what it was worth 70 years ago. To some people, inflation looks good. It makes it look like real estate is valuable, but the dollars are just worth less. Pays keep going up, up they haven't been keeping up with living costs. It would be fairly easy to make the dollar worth something again, but it would hurt some people. All we have to do is have the government stop borrowing money. If the Feds just stopped throwing money at everything, then there would be no budget deficit. The federal government is involved in matters that are not among the powers that were granted to the federal government by the Constitution. The feds shouldn't be involved in the lives of individuals. Health, welfare, housing, and education are not among the powers of the feds. And they have no business. There have been periods of budget surplus and reducing debt, but that last one was almost a hundred years ago. Congress and the president buy votes by giving things to people, but those gifts should not exist.
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The other side is to make taxes fairer and collect enough, so that there will be a surplus for paying down debt. Eliminating special tax treatments for various people and kinds of income would make it more likely that people would pay taxes. There are simple ways to get more revenue without using tax rates that are very high, and it probably is desirable to not collection taxes from people who make little.

We don't have Churchill available, but we should look for people who would follow his lead.

http://www.online-literature.com/for...a-Dollar-again