Yes, I am very aware of all these things and why folks vote Democratic, dislike corporations and want to lash out at what they feel has been a big rip off.

The difference is, unlike those who just seek some retribution in the form of higher corporate taxes or voting out those perceived to be servants of the rich - I understand wealth generation and its role in saving or damning working folks.

Wealth generation is the solution to any recovery.

I can tell you right now that it's the carrot, not the stick that needs to be employed to guide business to good business practices. Anything else will fail and only further hurt the folks that are already hurting.

The largest ECONOMIC issue is illegal immigration.

USA Today just had a front page story about the fact that Mexican illegals reproduce so quickly in America that now there are more births per year from the existing hordes than there are border crossers - tens of MILLIONS new births per year. 4 kids and up per family is the norm.

That single statistic is the Sword of Damocles over America.

These millions of new "Americans" are born into TOTAL poverty. They need healthcare, education and are draining resources of same in every neighborhood they reside. Schools simply can't keep up with these folks because their illegal parents don't speak English and so schools lower standards and just push the hordes through. The crime rate goes up and no state is immune to these lightspeed changing demographics.

It's not OIL prices and it's not just real estate values. All of it is linked and the dynamo that is powering the huge economic decline in America is illegal immigration and their offspring.

1 big meal can't feed 100 men and women.

The US economy can't support 80,000,000 Mexicans here illegally and their "legal" descendants (which will soon equal 1/3 of the US legal population) and not dive down towards 3rd world living standards itself.

Instead of generating wealth all these folks are merely consuming it. That's the problem. They are not like any other immigrants we have ever absorbed because they have no loyalty to America, don't even try to learn English and send the money back "home" to Mexico. They are a burden upon America - not a blessing like previous diversity has been.

So to get back to the point...wealth generation is needed. In 1950, or even 1980, technology didn't provide for outsourcing the way it does now. There weren't millions upon millions of folks here illegally for companies to use as de facto slaves.

We now have almost 100,000,000 more mouths to feed and bodies to care for. It's an economic doomsday we can't avert unless we almost DOUBLE our GNP and wealth to compensate.

Taxing the companies will not fix it.
Taxing the rich will not fix it.
Pulling out of Iraq will not fix it.
Implementing socialized healthcare will definitely not fix it.
Granting amnesty to illegals will not fix it.

Creating the wealth needed is no easy feat. But that is the GOAL of an intelligent administration and would be the goal of a more intelligent and capital savvy electorate. I'm not worried about the Berkeley crowd or the progressives - they will soon be as obsolete as conservatives.

So all we see now is selling out to the new voting bloc. Each party wants power to preside over the decline of America into Amexico.