Dave Letterman uses a top ten list.  Today I’m presenting my “top seven” list of major problems in the United States, along with my ideas on solving them.  I’m not claiming to go into detail, but am just scratching the surface. My solutions are sound, but are not politically acceptable due to the fact that powerful interest groups can be counted on protecting their turf.  Thus it is difficult to have meaningful political reform.  The top seven problems are:

1.    Protection of the United States from Islamic extremists and crackpot dictators.  This is a huge priority that must take precedence over all others.  What good does it do to solve the social security problem if our enemies blow up a nuke plant in the northeast corridor rendering New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island uninhabitable for the next 10,000 years?  This is why we are in Iraq.  This is why we should strongly consider a pre-emptive strike on North Korea disabling Kim Jong Il’s missile attack capability.

2.    The abysmal failure of our Government (Public) Education system, especially in urban centers.  The educational quality of the vast majority of K-12 students in the United States is being sacrificed at the alter of the Teacher’s Union (The National Education Association).  The time is long overdue for the establishment of a voucher system, more charter schools, and any other measures that increase competition in education.  Our inner city children are being cheated the most and they can least afford to enter the world of work without basic skills.

3.    Energy dependence and affordability.  The United States needs a “Manhattan Project” where the world’s top scientists invest huge amounts of dollars to create a workable and economic alternative to fossil fuels.  Lessening of our dependence on oil would do a lot to choke off the supply of funds for Islamic extremists.  Lowering of energy costs would expand the US economy by freeing up cash in family budgets, which they would spend on goods and services other than gasoline.

4.    Federal Government Fiscal Irresponsibility.  There was a day when Republicans were the guardians of fiscal responsibility at the capitol.  Now Democrats look like the fiscal conservatives!  Neither party has been able to stop the burgeoning public deficits caused mainly by excessive government spending.  Deficits of recent magnitudes will ultimately put pressure on interest rates, choking economic growth.  Neither party in congress can be trusted with spending.  A balanced budget amendment to the constitution needs to be passed, without loopholes, allowing deficits only in times of war.

5.    Immigration Policy.  We’ve been messing up on this one for years.  On the one hand, we need to secure our borders at the lowest cost possible, whether we use a fence or other technological gadgets.  Once secured we need to discourage people without skills and encourage people with skills.  Recent tightening of visas requirements has reduced the number of foreign students entering the United States.  This is problematic because we need the skills of those students, especially the ones who choose to remain here and become productive citizens.  Europe is now benefiting because students not being able to receive US visas are going there instead.

6.    Skyrocketing healthcare costs.  It would be a mistake to nationalize health care, but our costs are way out of line.  Selective deregulation of the medical care industry (allowing more nurses to diagnose and write prescriptions, reducing some occupational licensing requirements and allowing the mainstreaming of  alternative forms of medical care) would bring down costs.  In addition we need tort reform to cap medical liability lawsuits so that clinics and hospitals don’t have to spend unnecessary money for test after test in case there is a lawsuit.  Ironically, if the American Medical Association (the Doctor’s Union) and the Trial Lawyers don’t give up some of their power in this regard we will end up with socialized medicine some day and both will be the ultimate losers.

7.    Eventual Collapse of Medicare and Social Security.  Both of these programs were designed without any regard to actuarial soundness.  As a result, both will eventually go broke unless billions of additional taxpayer dollars are injected.  The amounts are staggering.  Medicare benefits need to be trimmed and the premiums increased.  Young people should be able to opt out of Social Security, setting up their own (mandatory if need be) IRA plans.

Employers spend a lot of money screening potential job applicants to see if they are ambitious and have a sense of purpose, but these qualities are difficult to quantify.  If the employer does not personally know the applicant there is a lot of room for error.  As a parent you want your children to choose friends who are forward-looking and have a bright future.  You don’t want them hanging around with kids who are going nowhere.  Adults also need to be careful in choosing friends.  Having positive, encouraging friends can make a big difference in life.  It doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend your time with people who “drag you down.”

How to we determine which people are the “good” ones and which are the “bad” ones?  I’ve found that there is an unbelievably simple way to distinguish forward-looking people with a bright future from those who are just “getting by” in life.  I call it the “walking” test.

I was in Chicago the other day and was waiting for a bus.  It was an opportune time to do some “people-watching.”  On one side of the street there was a young man, about twenty years old.  He was walking briskly in a straight line, clearly going from A to B.  You could tell by the way he walked that he knew exactly where he was going.  On the other side of the street were a couple of other guys, about the same age.  They were meandering slowly, from side to side, sloppily making their way down the street.  Watching them I got the impression that they didn’t know where the heck they were heading and were in no hurry to get there.  The “walk” told it all.  One guy had a mission; he was walking with purpose.  He was the kind of guy that I would like to hire or have as my friend.  The other two had no such direction or purpose; they were people who should be avoided.

Age must be considered, as most seventy-year old persons aren’t going to walk as fast as a twenty-year old.  However, the speed of the walk is not so important as the “straight line” direction of the walk.  The straight-line direction, coupled with a steady pace, indicates purposefulness.  Posture is also part of the equation and often indicates a person’s mental state.  Unless it is the result of a physical impairment, slumping is a sign of a defeated (perhaps depressed) person.  It is as if life has beaten them down.  They are having a hard time “standing up”, both physically and mentally.

In my hometown of Winona, Minnesota my wife and I went to a fast-food restaurant yesterday.  It is an establishment where you place your order at the desk and they bring the food to your table.  The young guy who brought the food was walking so slow that I thought the wind was blowing him around!  Furthermore, his face had a solemn, expressionless look.  We got our meal, but this is a kid that didn’t want to be at work and everyone at the restaurant knew it.  I wanted to take him aside and say, “Hey, man.  I know you’re not particularly excited about this job, but make the best of it.  You’re going to be judged all of your days by the attitude you bring to your job, your friends, and your life.  You’re starting out on the wrong track.”

If you really care about your spouse, your children, your parents, or your grandchildren, watch their “walk”.  It is an extremely simple, but important tool.

Like a cat with nine lives, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the mastermind behind hundreds of kidnappings, bombings, and beheadings in Iraq, has narrowly escaped capture or death many times over the past two years.  Last Wednesday he ran out of lives as two 500-pound bombs finally did him in.   Al-Zarqawi has stirred up bloody strife between his own Sunni Muslims and Iraqi Shiites over the past several months.  No man, woman or child was exempt from his wrath, including fellow Muslims.  Even Osama Bin Laden considered al-Zarqawi’s actions excessive.

Few in the West will be disappointed with al-Zarqawi’s death.  Most Jordanians are happy to have their native born high-school dropout gone, as he took credit for killing 60 souls in coordinated bomb attacks on three Amman hotels in November of 1995.  Hatred is a terrible thing and rats like al-Zarqawi represent the worst of the human race.   Rest in peace, al-Zarqawi?  No.  Not on your life.  How about burn in hell for eternity, just for starters.

After giving Al-Zarqawi his last bit of publicity, one might ponder, “What is good in the world?”  “Is there anything out there that is pure, clean, redeeming and joyful?  Is there anything that promotes unity and brings people together in these troubled times?”  Yes, thankfully.  It is the 2006 FIFA World Cup, now being held in Germany!  Thirty-two teams, representing six continents will play in this month-long tournament that has most of the world re-adjusting their schedules to watch their favorite teams.

Soccer or football, as it is known in the rest of the world, is undoubtedly the planet’s most popular sport.  I doubt that soccer will ever catch on here in the U.S. as it has in most other countries.  Even if the U.S. won the world cup this year (very doubtful) the publicity would last about a week, after which it would be eclipsed by NFL training camp news or the final drive toward baseball’s world series.  Our sports traditions in the U.S. are so established and so deep that it will take at least another generation for soccer to establish itself as a major sport, even on par with ice hockey.  Of all the professional sports in the U.S. the NFL is undoubtedly the most popular.  Last year eight NFL games had higher viewer numbers than the last episode of American Idol, which far eclipsed all other TV shows.

Never mind the U.S.  It is more important that we focus positively on the World Cup.  Perhaps even more than the Olympics, the World Cup brings citizens of the planet closer together for a singular purpose than any other event.  Asians play Europeans, who play Africans, who play Hispanics, who play Arabs.  Imagine, citizens of six continents (only Antarctica isn’t represented) glued to their television sets watching not just the team of their country, but games played by other nations.

Last week I talked to a friend of mine who emigrated here from Mexico about twenty years ago.  He is a consummate career person who is working all the time and seldom takes a vacation.  I called him during the middle of the day and he told me that he was heading home to watch a soccer game.  Knowing he was from Mexico I asked him if he was watching the Mexican team play.   “No!” he said.  “I’m going home to watch Germany play Costa Rica!”  “Wow”, I thought.  This guy just likes soccer, period.  He doesn’t care who’s playing!  Yeah, well, wake up Don Salyards from the USA.  The whole world is watching soccer for the next month, whether you are or not.  Sharing their common respect for sport and humanity, in the next month many good times will be shared by the citizens of this earth, which will do far more to unite them than to divide them.  That’s a good thing.  Long live soccer, the most popular of world sports!

The summer has been a busy one for Jose Gonzales. Total employment at Gonzales Construction has surged from 38 to 55 people, largely due to a contract to build a new apartment complex west of Hubbard. Jose came up the hard way (Episode 2, 8/7/05), crossing the US border illegally from Mexico. He and his wife Angela are now US citizens and have built a solid life in Hubbard. The Caucasian folks who hang out at the Hubbard country club have no idea that this once “illegal alien” has a net worth that exceeds that of most of them. After all, Jose never had time to learn how to play golf. He drives around in old cars and his home, while well maintained, is reasonably modest. Probably the only guy at the country club who knows Jose’s financial status is his banker, and Jose has long ago told him to keep his mouth shut.

Ironically, Jose could hire even more workers, if he could find them. “What happened to the kids who want to work hard with their hands and learn how to do construction?” he wonders. When Jose was eighteen he started pushing a wheelbarrow and doing landscaping, eventually learning how to do carpentry and more advanced construction. He worked sixteen-hour days to the point of utter exhaustion, often for weeks at a time. It kept food on the table and had a few moments each evening with his self-described “knock-out gorgeous” wife, Angela. There wasn’t much time for leisure, but Jose learned quickly. If he observed someone doing a new task in the construction process, he never forgot the methodology. He learned the tricks of the trade. Jose’s mind is now a virtual encyclopedia of construction knowledge, all gained from “learning by doing.”

Now when he hires new kids, some of them don’t even stick around for lunch on the first day. The work is hard, but Jose starts them at $12 an hour, with a wage of $15 per hour if they make it 90 days. Jose expects them to be moving all the time, with no wasted effort. They are costing him time, and time is money. However, Jose is patient with them, if they show promise. If they make a costly mistake, he seldom scolds them. Instead, he shows them what they did wrong, how to correct it, and admonishes them, “Just don’t do that again.” Jose hired 20 entry-level workers this summer. As of June 4th, only five of them are still working for him, and two of those are “on the edge.” “No one wants to work anymore,” says Jose.

The labor shortage is critical. Jose’s projects would be behind schedule if his existing workers didn’t work overtime, but he knows that his loyal employees can work only so many weekends before they will quit. There is a young guy, Renaldo, east of town, that runs a roofing company with a virtual 100% Hispanic labor force. Jose has hired Renaldo for a few small jobs and he’s noticed how hard those guys work. Renaldo has hinted that he can get more of these workers from Mexico if Jose wants to hire them. In fact, a couple of Renaldo’s men have applied to work for Jose, but they don’t have the proper paperwork. This pains Jose, because those guys remind him of a young man named Jose Gonzales, many years ago. They work hard, but more important, they want to learn.

Last night Jose and Angela had a quiet dinner on the patio. They talked about the early years when they had nothing but dreams. They didn’t want to imagine what their lives would have been like if they had stayed in Mexico. They thought about the bright futures their children have, now that they are attending college and working in the family business. Now they find their own business threatened, not because they can’t find cheap labor, but because they can’t find anybody that wants to work hard, even at a good wage. They look at the illegal aliens that have recently applied for work at Gonzales Construction and see in their faces the desire for the American dream. “All they want is an opportunity,” says Jose to Angela.

They struggle with their dilemma. They are law abiding American citizens who run a private business and pay boatloads of taxes. Their employees pay taxes. They are loyal to the United States and love this country very much. They have a company to run and customers to please, but they can’t find legal workers to do the job. Right on their doorstep are young men who will do the work, at a decent wage, without shirking or complaining. They are not robots; they are human beings who seek a better life. Angela and Jose sit for hours on the patio, debating their options. Finally the decision is made.

“I’ll call Renaldo tomorrow morning,” says Jose.