Think tanks analyzing the results of the 2016 election have
come to the conclusion that the overriding factor was the nation’s economy,
which was interesting to me considering the theme of one of my recent books, The Pendulum Files.
If you are unfamiliar with The Pendulum Effect, it is a
concept in which the pendulum swings so far to one side that it must swing
equally far to the opposite side. The plot in The Pendulum Files revolves around a presidential election in which
one of the candidates is adamant about bringing jobs back home that in the past
two decades have increasingly gone overseas.
I also remember all too well how George H.W. Bush described
Ronald Reagan’s plan of giving tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% as “voodoo
economics”.
The theory was known as trickle-down economics and the way
it was intended to work was to provide the wealthiest—those who owned stock in
the largest corporations—the largest tax cuts so they would have more money to
invest in their companies. It was thought that with much more disposable
income, they would hire more people and expand their business enterprises. But
economists have proven that it didn’t work. Those who received huge tax cuts
simply kept more money for themselves. Perhaps they bought more houses or more
lavish houses, expensive boats or automobiles or consumables, but what they
didn’t do was hire more people. In fact, the wealthiest among us have become increasingly
wealthier not only with the Reagan-era tax cuts but also by moving their
operations to countries where there is no minimum wage, there are little or no
environmental controls, no healthcare or benefits provided, and sometimes even
utilize child labor.
Writing a book involving presidential politics while
intentionally remaining out of a party line is like walking a tightrope. In The Pendulum Files, the reader doesn’t
know if the candidate leans Republican or Democrat and often when I write about
politics, I intentionally create a candidate that is Independent—one who
essentially believes in some of the principles of one party while staying
closer to other principles in the opposite party.
And when ships carrying cargo from China to the United
States are blown up on the high seas, it brings in Dylan Maguire and Vicki Boyd
to investigate. Vicki’s character was inspired by the United States’ use of
psychic spies—which the government refers to as remote viewers. When Vicki’s Key, the first book featuring
Vicki was released, several readers mentioned to me that I had crossed over
into science fiction. However, in the past fifty years and most notably in the
past twenty, real life has begun to look more and more like science fiction.
This morning I read a fascinating account by Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds in science, regarding the need to populate other planets with human beings. Only one hundred years ago, that statement would have been preposterous. And yet plans are in place for placing people on Mars with the intention of making that planet into a future home for human beings.
Novelists have helped to propel science as many scientists,
engineers and astrophysicists have openly spoken of inspiration obtained from
reading books by Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C.
Clarke, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and many others. Tablets, smartphones, robotics,
space flight, wireless transmission, video calls and much, much more sprang
from the minds of novelists and screenwriters long before they became reality.
