We Need To Do Better

"And all the news just repeats itself

Like some forgotten dream that we've both seen."

-John Prine

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- If you think you've heard enough silliness from the national media and our elected officials lately, think again. We're about to head into the height of a presidential electoral season, and believe me, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Offensive sums of money are being sprayed around in this political spectacle at a level that we've never seen before and is painful to contemplate, an estimated $6 billion for the presidential race alone, and much of it comes from anonymous donors.

Think for a moment about what that money is actually being used for, and then imagine what could be achieved with it if it was put to worthwhile purposes.

We can argue over policy and ideology all we want, but what should be crystal clear to everyone is that regardless of what our government does and what our politicians say, we need to do much better as a people than we are doing, particularly people that are in positions of influence and responsibility.

The United States is dealing with tough issues right now, as tough as I've ever seen, and it's no surprise that these are extremely politically charged times. The domestic economy is sputtering in the midst of a protracted malaise, while unsustainable public debts are skyrocketing and global economic conditions are deteriorating.

The average American has seen income shrink over an extended period of time, while savings and investments have lost value over the last decade. Blue-chip stocks like General Electric (GE), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Cisco (CSCO), DuPont (DD), Home Depot (HD) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) are trading well below where they were 10 years ago.

Poverty is on the rise and the great American middle class is shrinking, while incomes for top 1% of incomes in the country increased in 2010 at double-digits, according to data derived from tax returns by the French economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.

Sustainable? I think not.

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