I saw a post today on FOX news about teachers in Virgina who would have a “Blue Day” to support Obama.

Teacher unions are the problem in this country. Bad teachers keep their jobs if they survive the first few years. There is no accountability in most of the education system. If I do not do my job to the standards i get fired. Not true in education system.

Charter and Christian schools are seeing a huge increase in enrollment because they are not apart of the teachers union. Parents are seeing that they can get better education for their children by sending their kids to other schools. Another problem is these parents have to pay double for their education, the charter school and the public school they are not attending. These schools also have in the most cases the best test scores in their community. Know i am not going to assume that all those teachers wearing blue are bad teachers, there could be mostly good teachers. But for this country to be at the level it needs to be to support the jobs of the future which need huge reform in the education system. This problem in my opinion is worse than the economy.

Right now there is a divide happening with US citizens. Those who complete college and those with just a high school diploma. The low level jobs are going oversees and they are not coming back. Its cheaper and there are tons of high degree jobs that over the next twenty years will not have enough manpower to support the demand.

In this economic crisis my employer is looking for around 13 workers right now. 13 in this economic crisis, Yes high degree jobs are out there waiting for the future of this country. The baby boomers had those jobs and they will be the last to have those jobs. Americas future need to know Math and Science and finish college and we need a much better and accountable education system.

I know I am probably preaching to the wrong crowd since you all read most of the personal finance blogs.  You have emergency funds and savings for when times are bad. You make sacrifices to get past increased prices. You must plan for the bad times.

How do you plan for the bad times?   by saving in the great times. Do you remember the story in the bible with Joseph? He interpreted dreams for the Pharaoh and saw that there will be 7 years of abundance followed by 7 years of famine. Did he instruct the Pharaoh to eat all the extra grain now and enjoy the good times? Sorry No but they stored the extra in the warehouse and actually sold their grain to other people during the famine where others did not prepare. During the 1990’s when everyone was buying things like crazy and the economy was soaring, if they would have cut back 10-20% they would still be in a good situation with all these high prices.

To conclude this I want to say, debt is causing all the stress in these times. Stress that should not be here in this world. There are a lot of families who prepared and living happy lives right now because they had the savings to get through bad times. All the tax breaks, stimulus checks, and stress are not needed. In this election we should be worrying about the education system and values.

I hope you enjoyed this series about my opinion of the current times. I want to it again every once in a while when national issues pop up

The Last topic will cover in this mini series is US jobs heading oversees.

Why are jobs going overseas? It’s cheaper. Let me put it this way, if I told you could make this thing for 5 dollars in this country and you could make the very same thing for 1 dollar in this country what do you think a business man will do. There are plenty of jobs in the US but they are not factory jobs. They are intellectual jobs. Jobs that require a degree from a college. That is what the US is heading for. China and other Asian countries are coming up behind us taking those factory jobs because they can do it for cheaper since they have billions of people.

One thing I am worried about is the education in this country can not handle this change right now. Over 50% of the educational institutions are not preparing the future of this country for this change. Math and Science are keys things to a good job in the future. Just having a high school diploma will mean nothing in the next decade. It will mean nothing because those jobs are overseas and they should be. The problem is the educational system cheated you. The US should be in the top 3 in education worldwide, guess what we barley make the top 25.

And speaking of education, we need to teach financial education in high school. It will help people to prevent all the debt in today’s world.

Parents please please encourage and be there for your child’s educated. Education is not just the teachers of the US jobs. I would not be where i am today without my mom and dad being there helping me by going to muesums, projects, and questions i had. Education in this country would jump at least 10 spots if parents help with education.

That finishes today look at spefic topics in todays world. Tomorrow will be the conclusion.

As we talk about specific topics today of the union, next up is gas prices.

What is causing the gas crisis? I hate to say this but gas has probably been too cheap in the 1990’s. 1 gallon of a lot of other products is more expensive than a gallon of gas. But gas prices are out of our control since most of our oil comes from over seas. We really need to do more drilling in the US so we can better control the price.

But also we are behind the race to find the next fuel. Iran runs on natural gas so they can sell barrels for 120 dollars. The US has a huge basin of natural gas and is about 40% cheaper than oil and cleaner. We should switch to it while we figure out an even better way to run our cars.

Today we continue the State of the Union Series:

Like i said before times will be good and times will be bad no matter what happens in the White House. Times are bad right now, were you prepared?

What is causing the housing crisis? I say at least half of the foreclosures are people who bought houses they could not afford. Yeah the mortgage payment might be doable in good times how about bad times? I see television reports of people explaining their situation and I see a huge pool in the back yard and a small mansion with a salary comparable to mine. I do not feel sorry for your situation because it could have been prevented. And I bet they had thousands of dollars in credit card debt that did not help either.

People need to think about can they afford the house not the payments. In most cases payments are based on the current interest rate, which can chanage.

With the presidential election coming up in a few months all the countries problems are getting the spotlight. One of the main issues each candidate is focusing on is the state of the economy. I know things are not good right now, but the current administration need to be the blame? I do not think so. I am not going to say Bush was the best President ever but I really feel a lot of these problems were coming for a long time no matter who was in the White House.

Some facts:

- The average debt in 1956 was $693 for each person. Currently the average is $14,500

- 40% of Americans spend more than they earn

- The average American pays $1200 in credit card interest

- Right now Americans are making more money than ever before and saving the least in the history of this country.

These facts point to the problem it is not the White House or Congress it is us. Yes the people of this great country are making the problem worse than it should. I hate to say this to everyone, but times will not be good every day for the rest of our lives. Just like the stock market times will be good and times will be bad. The question is will you be prepared? Are you? If you are stressed out right now then you are not.

All the personal finance blogs say to save, save, and save. They also say get out of debt. These are the solution to managing the bad times. If you have savings and not spending over your income then you can survive this situation the country is in. The reason everyone is calling for change is that they can not afford to pay for small emergencies without going into debt. I bet over 50% of the country could not pay to fix a flat tire without going further into debt. Yes a small emergency that could happen to any one of us at any time will cause us to go further into debt. The fact remains as a nation we are not prepared? A simple flat tire should be in our savings.

Debt in this country is causing so many problems and people fail to see this. Not national debt, Consumer debt. Credit cards, spending more than we make, and not saving are making the small emergencies like gas going up 2 dollars a huge crisis in the country. Like I said before there will be good times ahead no matter who is in the White House, I just hope people in this great country learn from this and not let it happen again

Over the next week I am going to do a small series on the state of the union. Its about the topics you here all over the news channels and newspapers. And I will tell you that most of these should be non issues. There are more pressing issues than the economy in this election year. I know you are thinking I am crazy but it is true. When we choose a candidate to vote for we should choose one of values not tax plans. There are soo many people to get through to pass a tax plan that I really do not care what his is. I want a president that has the same values as me and has the will to do what is best for me.

SO throughout the day I will be talking about various issues facing Americans today with the first being debt.