April 27th -- I don't know how it started exactly but tonight at dinner, we all were talking about the export deficit in the United States. It kind of started when Brian and I talked about the tornadoes in April -- more than any on record for the month. From there we went to Arizona's recent tornado disaster. And that got me thinking about how it always seems like the United States does more to help other countries than our own. That is, the other countries who produce our lifeblood -- oil.
From there, the conversation turned to the United States' isolationist period. I don't know why, but lately I have been thinking about that period in history a lot. I just think that the concept of turning inward and working out the kinks, giving ourselves oxygen so to speak, is so important. We spend so much on wars -- in other countries -- but we spend nothing in comparison on helping ourselves become healthier. In fact, for the last several years, our number one export is debt.
How stupid is that?
From there, the dinner conversation turned to examining what our exports were...and Riley and Brian soon had their iphones/ipods booted up to the internet. Take China for example. Last year we exported around 8 billion in goods to China. (Our two top items? Trash - paper waste, and scrap metal. The Chinese took the paper wasted and created paper which they, in turn, sold back to us.) The Chinese exported 50 billion dollars in goods to the United States. Helloooooo. Do the math. They own us. They really do.
Tiger Mom has the right idea. Prepare her kids to be excellent. To survive the takeover. Because it's coming. How could it not?
I try to raise my kids to be kind to others. Does that mean that we have to go into debt to be kind? I don't think so. The problem is, I am not sure how to get off of the team. Or, more importantly, if we even can. Kind of scary...
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