1910, One hundred years ago this country was at peace, had no income taxes, not until 1913, no Social Security, even later than income tax, no Medicare, no federal welfare, no Medicaid, no housing subsidies, no food stamps, no clunker car rebates, no stimulus packages, no bailouts, not much help for the poor and downtrodden. Doesn't sound like a nice place to live for the average poor family.
But during this terrible time to live in the United States people were immigrating by the hundreds of thousands anyway. People were pouring into Ellis Island, New York to start their new lives in America legally, and they paid to get here too. Were they promised anything like food stamps, Medicare, welfare, etc? No, yet they came anyway. Must have come from worse places than here, huh?
Immigration was at a peak, people were clamoring to get into this country from all over the world. They wanted opportunity to improve their lives over where they came from. They wanted religious freedom from persecution, they wanted a chance to have their children have a better life than they did. They wanted out from under stifling, corrupt governments that promised to perpetuate their dead end lives. Some were just tired of being hungry all the time.
Today, we have all the things that should make the lives of the poor and downtrodden much better than a hundred years ago but if you listen to the liberal point of view we haven't done near enough. Federal and state governments need to do more, spend more, tax more, and spread the wealth more to lift the poor and downtrodden up to live better lives. Federal and State liberal governments have invented programs and have had a hundred years to tax and spend to improve lives in this country. They have failed miserably. We spend more to educate our children than any country in the world and still rank near the bottom among developed countries. Fortunately, we still have old fashion 'pay as you go' medicine like a hundred years ago that is world wide respected, (for a few more years). Ask the leaders of most countries where they go for critical medical treatment, the US of course. Now, that too is nearing and end as a liberal government takes control of the medical field for the first time. They are forcing every American to buy health insurance or pay a fine. Not satisfied that every American will have health care, they want control of the health providers, and what, how, and to whom they provide care, and what they can charge for it. The health care system will go the way of education, down, down, and down.
Over these hundred years people still come to America, but we are no longer a pioneer, freedom loving country. We have become staid, stale, and even regressive. Among peoples of foreign countries we still have the luster of a new, exciting, opportunistic country but in reality, liberal minded voters and legislators have torn away at Uncle Sam and what he has stood for. The coat of stars and stripes (freedom and independence) is gone, replaced with hand outs,(dependency) of other peoples money. The spirit(self reliance) of the American people is being replaced with anger, insecurity, fear, apathy, and ignorance, all of which, by design, makes for the perfect liberal voter.
Undaunted, immigration is still going on by the millions in 2010. We had stable immigration for years, every one entering the US was registered and was legal, eventually becoming proud citizens. Today, immigrants are coming in the back door and our government is turning a hypocritical, blind eye. Immigrants of today want the same thing immigrants of a hundred years ago wanted so why do they not come in legally? We have laws that say they don't meet eligibility rules so they can't immigrate. Wow how hypocritical is that? If we don't enforce immigration laws why do we have eligibility laws on the books at all? Why not just announce we are open for any to immigrate? If government leaders don't respect and follow the law why should the people respect their elected leaders? Why are laws ignored so flagrantly? This country and especially it's leaders must respect the rule of law or be guilty of the US being truly known as a decadent society. One that fosters fear, frustration, and disgust.
Immigration to the US is like a funnel, at the top everyone wants in, at the bottom only the few make it with the current rules, fences, officers, troops, and gates. The government seems satisfied with the current flow.
I'm not satisfied with the government.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Angry, Apathitic, Ill Informed
The public is angry with the lack of jobs, government excessive spending, corruption and waste. Promises were made and high hopes were raised for people wanting something for nothing like health care. Or single issue voters who wanted immigration enforcement, or the troops to come home and the war to end or the hope and change crowd, who weren't sure what that meant but wanted something positive to happen. Angry voters wanted to punish banks and Wall Street. Instead, they got wild spending for no return. They got even higher unemployment, huge new government deficits and more confusion with business, banks and Wall Street resulting on current growth stagnation. And the war goes on.
New, yet to be understood government regulations and threats of raising taxes along with still unknown health care costs have put the clamps on business borrowing and risk taking. This is killing job creation. Banks are unsure of yet to be determined government regulations to lend to business and home buyers. Government interference in the market place has created stagnation, fear and uncertainty.
Big business needs to show profit to shareholders and they currently are. Their top line has suffered while everything has been done to shore up the bottom line. But the old business adage of, Grow or Die is always in play and growth is hampered by high taxes and the unknown. Businesses have gotten lean and cautious while building reserves because they are leery of what the government might be up to next. Small business are not as flexible as large corporations, they sometimes operate like the average wage earner, month to month. They need to borrow in the lean times and when lending institutions find themselves in uncertain times like now, they say no to small business loans.
The uncertainty?
What is the government planing next? Are they going to raise taxes by letting the Bush tax cuts run out effecting many small businesses and jobs expire or lower corporate taxes to allow big businesses to be more competitive world wide? Good luck on both counts. Will the Pay Czar or another business Czar step in and cause the top people in banks and business to walk away? Is the current government pro business or not? Take a guess.
Our government is so out of touch with citizen and business needs that this November changes should be made in Congressional and Senate seats. There is hope that the current liberal-socialist trend in this country will be seen by the average voter as counter productive to job creation and economic growth. Changes in government will come because there is too much instability in our daily lives. Whether we own a business, work at a job, retired, or unemployed we don't feel comfortable now or about the future. Even the never-working voter is uncomfortable with and uncertain future. Our comfort level determines how we vote.
Tea party movements nationwide have been a reflection of that discomfort.
Set aside for a moment your political point of view and recognise that the reason so many diverse average citizens have grouped together at Tea Party rallies shows their frustration with government. These are not unruly one-issue-mobs burning flags or defying police lines, or making threats of any kind, they are you and me, unhappy with the way things are with our current administration and trying to tell the administration to change it's ways or be voted out of office. Is the administration listing? I don't think so.
Have you ever seen so many private political emails between friends and acquaintances for and against our current government? That's a Tea Party movement in hyperspace.
Still there are many out there that are angry, apathetic and ill informed and they are the ones that scare me the most. They are voters that vote their emotions rather than with informed minds. More the fifty percent of the public does not pay taxes. Voters that are poor, on welfare, disabled, retired, or rich feel guilty about it, are not likely to vote for candidates that espouse cutting government spending. If anything fifty percent want more goodies, like free health care, free education, guaranteed jobs, housing, food, energy, etc. There is no end to the things that people want for free. There will always be politicians out there making promises to give it to them. It's getting scarier, and scarier when so many are blindly willing to accept a free ride.
The remaining fifty percent has to convince the 'in love with government' public that free goodies are not in their best interest. Good luck with that.
Freedom isn't free.
New, yet to be understood government regulations and threats of raising taxes along with still unknown health care costs have put the clamps on business borrowing and risk taking. This is killing job creation. Banks are unsure of yet to be determined government regulations to lend to business and home buyers. Government interference in the market place has created stagnation, fear and uncertainty.
Big business needs to show profit to shareholders and they currently are. Their top line has suffered while everything has been done to shore up the bottom line. But the old business adage of, Grow or Die is always in play and growth is hampered by high taxes and the unknown. Businesses have gotten lean and cautious while building reserves because they are leery of what the government might be up to next. Small business are not as flexible as large corporations, they sometimes operate like the average wage earner, month to month. They need to borrow in the lean times and when lending institutions find themselves in uncertain times like now, they say no to small business loans.
The uncertainty?
What is the government planing next? Are they going to raise taxes by letting the Bush tax cuts run out effecting many small businesses and jobs expire or lower corporate taxes to allow big businesses to be more competitive world wide? Good luck on both counts. Will the Pay Czar or another business Czar step in and cause the top people in banks and business to walk away? Is the current government pro business or not? Take a guess.
Our government is so out of touch with citizen and business needs that this November changes should be made in Congressional and Senate seats. There is hope that the current liberal-socialist trend in this country will be seen by the average voter as counter productive to job creation and economic growth. Changes in government will come because there is too much instability in our daily lives. Whether we own a business, work at a job, retired, or unemployed we don't feel comfortable now or about the future. Even the never-working voter is uncomfortable with and uncertain future. Our comfort level determines how we vote.
Tea party movements nationwide have been a reflection of that discomfort.
Set aside for a moment your political point of view and recognise that the reason so many diverse average citizens have grouped together at Tea Party rallies shows their frustration with government. These are not unruly one-issue-mobs burning flags or defying police lines, or making threats of any kind, they are you and me, unhappy with the way things are with our current administration and trying to tell the administration to change it's ways or be voted out of office. Is the administration listing? I don't think so.
Have you ever seen so many private political emails between friends and acquaintances for and against our current government? That's a Tea Party movement in hyperspace.
Still there are many out there that are angry, apathetic and ill informed and they are the ones that scare me the most. They are voters that vote their emotions rather than with informed minds. More the fifty percent of the public does not pay taxes. Voters that are poor, on welfare, disabled, retired, or rich feel guilty about it, are not likely to vote for candidates that espouse cutting government spending. If anything fifty percent want more goodies, like free health care, free education, guaranteed jobs, housing, food, energy, etc. There is no end to the things that people want for free. There will always be politicians out there making promises to give it to them. It's getting scarier, and scarier when so many are blindly willing to accept a free ride.
The remaining fifty percent has to convince the 'in love with government' public that free goodies are not in their best interest. Good luck with that.
Freedom isn't free.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Our Future and Government
We know where we are or do we? Economically we are headed towards a European style of Socialist country. The only difference is national health care and our current government is certainly pushing us in that direction. People who know how we should live, progressives, have ushered us in a socialist direction for decades. Starting with F.D.R., we have been putting reigns on our economic growth for the sake of the ‘less fortunate’. As Sarah Palin would say, ‘How is that working out you?’
There is, after eighty years, a sizeable portion of the population still living in poverty. So all the years of scaling the economy to give entitlements to help the poor folks hasn’t worked so well, has it. Those entitlement promises are crushing us today. The number of poor and less educated is actually growing daily in this country.
By holding back sucessful people and businesses with more and more regulation and taxes, you not only don’t accomplish helping the less fortunate you actually put more out of work. The job creators are being penalized for creating. The more they create the more regulation and taxes they are burdened with. Are we moving towards being a country of pizza shops and beauty salons? I’m all for small business supplying job creation but I’d like to see the USA be the leader in vibrant big business as well. They are not the enemy as progressives would like us to believe. They don’t deserve to pay the highest taxes of any nation in the world. They don’t deserve to be as constrained by government regulation as they are. Big businesses are composed of stockholders, Americans that have invested their savings and futures in the success of big corporations.
Governments are either for business or against them. That seems to be the simple logic to determine the success or failure of a country. Currently, the most successful growth countries are China, and India. Their central governments have created an environment for a successful business climate with favorable taxes, shackles on unions, and minimal regulation. Sounds too simple doesn’t it. That was the formula for America’s unprecedented growth in the early late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Unfettered capitalism works. Some regulation is, of course, warranted to control the unscrupulous and reckless but in moderation.
So why do governments push for so much control and socialism? I think it’s not so much because they are compassionate or benevolent by nature, I think it’s due to the power trip of high office. Corporations don’t vote, rich are in the minority so it's the rest of the folks who determine who is in government to serve the people. Conservatives selling the idea of less services or entitlements is a tough sell, always has been. In the old days, I’m talking early England in the 1700’s, politicians would bribe and pay voters to get elected. In the thirties elections Chicago started the idea of rigging elections. More recently, organizers were responsible for ‘getting out the vote’ to help their candidates get elected. Rich candidates spend millions of their own money to get elected. Mayor Bloomberg of New York spent untold millions to get elected a job that pays so little compared to what he made in the private sector? Why do he and many others do it?
Power!
Power to push agendas. More than half the voting public thought that Obama’s agenda was their agenda.
‘And how’s that working out for you?’
Most of Europe is going down the toilet from overspending, over regulating, and over growing government with unions dictating benefits and wages. Sound familiar? The only correct thing Europe is doing is holding down the per cent of taxes on big business. This helps growth and generates more tax revenue to keep the governments oversized. They have learned that much.
Who will deliver what the people want? Sarah Palin, Scott Brown or Obama? What do the people want? Smaller government, less spending...living within our means, resonable benovelence and security? Like I said, who will deliver that and not let power corupt?
We know where we are or do we? Economically we are headed towards a European style of Socialist country. The only difference is national health care and our current government is certainly pushing us in that direction. People who know how we should live, progressives, have ushered us in a socialist direction for decades. Starting with F.D.R., we have been putting reigns on our economic growth for the sake of the ‘less fortunate’. As Sarah Palin would say, ‘How is that working out you?’
There is, after eighty years, a sizeable portion of the population still living in poverty. So all the years of scaling the economy to give entitlements to help the poor folks hasn’t worked so well, has it. Those entitlement promises are crushing us today. The number of poor and less educated is actually growing daily in this country.
By holding back sucessful people and businesses with more and more regulation and taxes, you not only don’t accomplish helping the less fortunate you actually put more out of work. The job creators are being penalized for creating. The more they create the more regulation and taxes they are burdened with. Are we moving towards being a country of pizza shops and beauty salons? I’m all for small business supplying job creation but I’d like to see the USA be the leader in vibrant big business as well. They are not the enemy as progressives would like us to believe. They don’t deserve to pay the highest taxes of any nation in the world. They don’t deserve to be as constrained by government regulation as they are. Big businesses are composed of stockholders, Americans that have invested their savings and futures in the success of big corporations.
Governments are either for business or against them. That seems to be the simple logic to determine the success or failure of a country. Currently, the most successful growth countries are China, and India. Their central governments have created an environment for a successful business climate with favorable taxes, shackles on unions, and minimal regulation. Sounds too simple doesn’t it. That was the formula for America’s unprecedented growth in the early late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Unfettered capitalism works. Some regulation is, of course, warranted to control the unscrupulous and reckless but in moderation.
So why do governments push for so much control and socialism? I think it’s not so much because they are compassionate or benevolent by nature, I think it’s due to the power trip of high office. Corporations don’t vote, rich are in the minority so it's the rest of the folks who determine who is in government to serve the people. Conservatives selling the idea of less services or entitlements is a tough sell, always has been. In the old days, I’m talking early England in the 1700’s, politicians would bribe and pay voters to get elected. In the thirties elections Chicago started the idea of rigging elections. More recently, organizers were responsible for ‘getting out the vote’ to help their candidates get elected. Rich candidates spend millions of their own money to get elected. Mayor Bloomberg of New York spent untold millions to get elected a job that pays so little compared to what he made in the private sector? Why do he and many others do it?
Power!
Power to push agendas. More than half the voting public thought that Obama’s agenda was their agenda.
‘And how’s that working out for you?’
Most of Europe is going down the toilet from overspending, over regulating, and over growing government with unions dictating benefits and wages. Sound familiar? The only correct thing Europe is doing is holding down the per cent of taxes on big business. This helps growth and generates more tax revenue to keep the governments oversized. They have learned that much.
Who will deliver what the people want? Sarah Palin, Scott Brown or Obama? What do the people want? Smaller government, less spending...living within our means, resonable benovelence and security? Like I said, who will deliver that and not let power corupt?
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