I’m also a search engine optimization consultant from Seattle and I just ventured out on my own after years of working for companies with a “churn and burn” mentality.

Already my schedule is filling up quite nicely, so there are still some of the good ones are almost fully booked. :)

You have a great article here. I’m very familiar with the education problem, and you should look into charter schools in your follow-up to this post.

America does need to be more competitive, and don’t forget it’s corporations that have a heavy influence on our politicians. In my opinion what we need is to throw away both of our current political parties. We are a new generation.

Let’s take a look at our military for example. Our military is focusing on faster mobility, and I believe our government needs to do the same. We need a smaller government. Charter schools, make the Post Office a private company. Stop bailing out big corporations, as it just encourages them to take huge gambles, while knowing that they won’t be taking much risk.

The baby boomer generation was the richest generation in history. They are probably the most selfish generation (as a whole). Much of their policy is not forward thinking. We can’t survive on the “band-aid” approach to solving our problems. In fact, we will probably have to make sacrifices to make things better for the generation after us. Our county’s policies need to always reflect that for our society to progress!

I encourage you to take a look at a political party that Abraham Lincoln was a part of, called the Whig party. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_Party_(United_States). People like us have the know how to spread the word. Let me know if I can help you get the conversation started.

I really look forward to your next post.

John replied: Well, I’m not a fan of ” political parties” these days, especially ones that claim to be “grass roots”. We live in an age of propaganda, and while it might be convenient for these party promoters to brand me a “cynic”, they have earned the attention of cynical people (like myself). That Whig party is reportedly started by military people (supporters of increased military investment) and claims to be “middle road” on many issues.. which means it’s full of conflict. As a conflicted political party, it can have little meaningful use beyond rallying uncommitted voters behind a label, in order to re-assign them to one of the major parties at the last minute (when it is obvious and accepted that a middle-road party with no chance of winning will llkely cause more harm at the polls than not). It’s a classic strategy, employed by the conservatives most recently. I’d rather support a “don’t vote” campaign than a misdirection campaign. A difference can be made in the real world, without a political party. Until that is  recognized by enough people, we suffer at the hands of deceptive politicians and their promoters.