Sacrifice (advance apologies for the virtual soapboxing)

Camilo made me watch all the keynote speakers from the DNC, even though political speeches always make me wince. While I am excited at the prospect of living in DC with Obama/Biden in the White House, I have been thoroughly disappointed by the political rhetoric used by both parties this past year. From Clinton and McCain's support of the stupid gas-tax holiday to all the anti-trade talk about manufacturers having to ship their jobs and materials off to China, I'm just getting a little fed up.

Last night I heard Obama reference the fact that virtually all Americans think the economy and government are on the wrong track. While this may be true, it's not going to be impossible to fix - it's just going to take some sacrifice. What ever happened to "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country?" Yes, I am in the Peace Corps and just quoted JFK. You can feel free to defriend me on facebook...

A falling dollar and expensive gas is a big deal, but anyone in America is still part of the luckiest group of people on Earth. To put $4 gas into perspective, just remember that there are over 6 BILLION people worse off than the average American. Here in Guinea the per capita income is $500 and gas costs over $6 a gallon.

We've been at war now for 5 years and our government has never asked any of us, except our military, to sacrifice anything. Nothing. We increased our dependency on foreign oil and kept buying bigger cars and now we complain about the cost of running those cars. We complain that our jobs are being moved to China and India, but that's the cost of doing business in a global economy. As we move almost entirely to a service-based economy we need to make sure that all Americans have a specific skill set so the jobs that get moved are replaced by better-paying, higher tech jobs.

In Thomas Friedman's book The World is Flat he writes that due to globalization there are currently 300 million educated and qualified Indian and Chinese people who are ready to take our jobs. The geographical benefits that we once enjoyed in the US don't matter nearly as much as they did even a decade or two ago. What should we do? Close our economy so they can't compete with us? Even an amateur economist will tell you that everyone loses in the long run under protectionist We can still be competitive, though. We just have to make sacrifices - paying our teachers more, studying harder and being smarter about the subjects we study.

Even in Guinea, which has a very low level of education, I see that jobs once entirely left to Americans or Westerners, like low-level NGO or Embassy positions, are now almost entirely filled by Guineans. While this doesn't help me as I set foot in the working world again, I know that in order to be competitive I need to get back to the States and get a graduate degree so that I have something to offer prospective employers.

I haven't really had a car since college, so I can't completely grasp the impact gas prices have on the average American (besides my parents, who should unload a vehicle or two anyway!) But I do know that we created this mess and dependency. Here's the speech I'd like to hear about gas prices..."I'm sorry that your government failed you when we chose to ignore the dangers inherent in dependency on foreign oil. The next few years are going to be tough as we make the transition from oil to clean fuels. It will not be easy, but in the long run it will improve our nation's economic health and security." I'd like to see the gas prices continue until we have fully invested in new technology - otherwise we are going to forget about it and go back to our old habits until the next crisis hits.

We have many things to pay for during my lifetime - the messes in Afghanistan and Iraq, Social Security, universal health insurance (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it finally happens), investments in new, clean technology, educations that will keep us competitive in a global marketplace. But that money has to come from somewhere and I wish politicians would just be up front about the costs and what we need to do as a country to make it happen.

So we have our work cut out for us. But we are still the most creative nation of people in the world and will have no long-term problems adjusting to global competition. Trust me - after teaching in Guinea, I know what the French left behind in the schools - nice penmanship, zero creativity. Americans are committed to solving the nation's and world's problems and know that it's going to take time, money, energy - and leadership. I sincerely hope the next president doesn't let us down the way GWB did.