By Ron Scheevel
Vietnam Vet
Preston, MN
As Labor Day is behind us, the “Old Soldier” has a number of concerns relating to the problems facing our great nation. Most of my opinions are based on what I read and hear on the news channels. I’ve previously talked about the border, the Afghanistan disaster, and our dismal record on curbing crime in our major cities.
What a shame, we’re paying our leaders big bucks, with very few meaningful results.
Let’s discuss the economy. In my opinion, the upswing in inflation is a direct result of increased energy costs. In our family’s construction business, virtually everything we do requires fuel. Also, almost everyone that supplies us, or gives us service, has increased rates and prices as a result of higher fuel costs. The construction industry has made considerable progress with more efficient engines in recent years. Our newer machines are much cleaner running than the old D-6 I started with over 30 years ago. As a result, less fuel is used with much fewer emissions.
While I am fully aware there is not an endless supply of fossil fuel, I think we’ve errored greatly in reducing our domestic energy supply. The proof is in the price at the pump. While wind and solar are becoming more common as energy sources, there are other alternatives as well. A few I have been following are compressed natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells and of course, bio-fuels. There will be other forms of energy developed in the future.
As fossil fuels continue to dwindle, we must continue to research and develop all power sources. Also, we need to address the disposal or recycle of the components of these energy sources. We need to find ways to re-use or recycle old windmill blades, solar panels and such. In addition, the issue of child-slave labor in South Africa should be addressed. A huge amount of the cobalt used in our popular lithium-ion batteries is produced by children in that country.
One thing we don’t need are more government mandates. I think some monetary incentives are okay, but we should focus our efforts on solving the problems before us, not just ignoring them.
Instead of our leaders trying to take their opponents to court or trial, they should buckle down, and get to work on common sense ideas to get this country back on track.
A couple of ideas would be to balance the budget, spend within their means and to stop giving away money that they don’t have.
How can we continue to accumulate debt that our grandchildren will have to repay?
Thanks for reading.
The “Old Soldier”
Greg Rendahl says
Inflation and gasoline prices are on the way down unless the current Middle East conflict causes too much chaos. US crude oil production and exports have been record high during the Trump and Biden Administrations. This year crude oil production is on track to set an all-time record. Our economy is doing very well. Biden economic policy has given us consistently low unemployment and a massive 336,000 new jobs in September. A big problem with our national debt is that Republicans always raise the debt more than Democrats. Republicans cut taxes but continue spending. For a number of reasons “balancing the budget” is unimportant. We do need to slow the growth of our national debt. Extra spending is important if dealing with a recession or if fighting against an evil monster like Putin. If you are paying any attention, you must realize that the Republican House has no interest in “common sense ideas.”