And Another Thought

I’ve been listening to my Republican brethren for the last week, since Paul Ryan was put on the national ticket as Vice-President. It’s got me so mad at the current administration that I think I’m losing weight, losing hair and losing my way. You won’t believe what I’m hearing.

Do you know that President Obama cut over 700 million dollars from the Medicare budget? Worse yet, do you know what he did with the money? It seems that the administration cut Medicare to give the money to Obamacare. Can you believe that? They moved money that was dedicated to helping people pay medical bills and redirected it to the healthcare system. What is the President thinking of and what kind of man is he?

This administration just doesn’t understand how to direct government funds for the benefit of Americans. Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, the budget guru, knows what America and Americans need. He knows that redirecting funds that were aimed at Medicare to some healthcare initiative is just preposterous. We need to redirect those funds to the job creators. We need to give tax breaks to folks earning a quarter of million dollars a year and more because they know what to do with the money. They know, like candidate Romney knows, that funding Swiss bank accounts and investing in other off shore accounts does not come cheap.

Do you know there are record amounts of cash on the balance sheets of American corporations? These corporations are holding all that cash while Average Joe Citizen (AJC) wants them to spend the money hiring people to do more work, with some obscure notion to make the corporations even more profitable. AJC doesn’t understand why the corporations won’t do that. Let me explain.

These corporations can’t spend all that money until they understand where it will be legal to hide it. They don’t want to break our laws. That’s why the tax system needs to be clarified. Once the administration makes it apparent how much taxes and what their commitment will be, the corporations will know how they can hide their money legally. Then they can take those record sums of money off the balance sheets, putting it to work making more money. If AJC understood economics, he would understand that.

Some of you, along with AJC, may not understand how the national economy works either. Let me try to use my BA in Economics to illuminate the subject. If we take the 150 million people in this country at the bottom half of the economic ladder, then charge them more in taxes, that won’t change their economic situation. They were poor before they were charged more taxes and they will be poor after they are charged more taxes. There will be no change.

Now consider the three million plus millionaires in the United States. If we hit them with new taxes, big taxes, then we affect the delicate economic balance of the economy. The nation would take the chance of adding more people to the already growing number of poor in this country. If we decrease the number of rich people by making some of them poor, we will change the demographics. There will be more poor in the bottom half than when we started. That’s why we can’t tax the millionaires more.

Let me give you a more concrete example. In all the years…well…in the two years of tax returns released by Candidate Romney, there is roughly 20 million dollars in income in each year. The taxes paid were about 14% which is about 2.8 million dollars. That leaves the Romney family just over 17 million dollars of income for their lifestyle expenses. Then Mitt Willard claimed he gave 10% of the income to charities, which was another 2 million dollars. That leaves them just over 15 million dollars for the family’s discretionary spending that year. Also realize that Candidate Romney has five children and 18 grandchildren whom I assume he supports with all that cash.

Now if we raise the taxes on the Romney family to 30%, that means they will have to pay six million dollars in taxes. Add that to the 2 million dollars they give to charity, that’s an eight million dollar bite out of their annual income. It will take Granpa Mitt another 52 weeks to make that much money again and it would only leave them a mere 12 million dollars to take care of themselves for that whole year. That’s only about $200,000 per week after taxes and charitable contributions.

However, when they only pay 14% in taxes, they make almost $300,000 per week. That gives them about $100,000 more per week to fund those 23 off spring, not to mention their Swiss bank account, their 100 million dollar IRA and whatever accounts they have in the Bahamas.

Realize also that the Romneys earned all that money. They had to fire a lot of people to accumulate that kind of wealth. We can’t expect the government to make the tax rate more level now; to what end? The Romney family shouldn’t be forced to pay the same percentage of taxes that the poor pay simply to make it fair.

That’s not the America I grew up in. The America I grew up in didn’t treat men and women the same. The America I grew up in didn’t treat the races the same. The America I grew up in didn’t level the playing field for some fairness fantasy. Now all of a sudden we want to be fair?

Fairness takes time. Fairness needs to be studied. We need to understand if there are other unintended consequences of fairness, such as fairness being unfair. If this country is going to go all crazy trying to be fair, then the fairness needs to be fair. And from my experience, the American standard of fairness isn’t intended to be fair at all. Why should it be? That wouldn’t be fair!

Wait a minute. Yes it would.

Nevermind.

What a World It Could Be

The United States is my country. I have spent about 10 hours outside of the borders in my 55 years. I did some research about my country which I thought was very interesting. These are the things I found out.

According to the Heritage Foundation, in partnership with the Wall Street Journal, two bastions of left wing thinking, since the break up of the Soviet Union, the United States is the third most populous nation, behind China and India.

The United States ranks 10^th in the world in economic freedom.

The United States ranks 19^th in the world in property rights.

The United States ranks 22^nd in the world in freedom from corruption.

The United States ranks 133^rd in the world in fiscal freedom.

The CIA Factbook, another bastion of liberal philosophy, found:

The United States ranks 7^th in the world in literacy.

The United States ranks 27^th in the world in mathematics.

The United States ranks 22^nd in the world in science.

The World Health Organization, those kooky main-stream doctors, found that:

The United States ranks 49^th in the world in infant mortality rate.

The United States ranks 50^th in life expectancy.

The United States ranks 1^st in healthcare spending.

I think the United States ranks near the top for viagra and cialis sales also. Many men suffer from low T and many women want their men to have more testosterone. Americans don’t want nature to take its course where testosterone is concerned. Nature is the purview of cancer and abortions, especially for the uninsured. Otherwise, if you pardon the metaphor, we’re not getting much bang for the buck with our healthcare spending.

Finally, the United States ranks 1^st in the known universe in prisoners per capita.

We have 20% more prisoners in this country than the 2^nd most country, which is Russia. We have more than double the amount of prisoners per citizen of Grenada, Poland or Costa Rica; over triple the prisoners in Jamaica, Israel or Brazil; over four times the prisoners in Spain, Australia or China; over six times the prisoners in Argentina, Germany or France; over ten times the prisoners in Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway or Japan; finally, over 20 times the number of prisoners in India, United Arab Emerites and Cuba. Why? To paraphrase Maude (Ruth Gordon), the United States so loves a cage; birds, cats, dogs, zoos, even humans. You got a problem with that?

The question I've pondered is, are we the greatest country on earth? In the sense that Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus is the greatest show on earth, I suppose the United States is the greatest country on earth. If you don’t allow facts to cloud the issue, it could be true. If you’re a citizen of the United States, and not in prison, enjoy the fantasy of world superiority.

I would love to live in the greatest country on earth. It’s not that I’m rooting against the United States. In baseball, I’m a Colorado Rockies fan. I love that team. I want them to be the best team. I would have to be absolutely delusional to believe the Colorado Rockies are the greatest baseball team. To a much lesser degree, the same is true for the United States.

Let me illuminate some of the problems we have as a country. I am not suggesting any solutions. It's my prerogative as a Republican not to discuss solutions. I have suggested and will continue to suggest solutions in other blogs, other discussions and other dimensions. 

There may have been a time when the United States was the greatest on earth, sometime in the 20^th Century. Now, in the 21^st Century, with our problems in education, healthcare and the economy, we’d struggle to break into the top 10. We are wealthy. Does wealthy translate to great? Is it possible to be wealthy and not great? I think so.

Great starts with free. There are many countries as free as the United States including Japan, Canada, England, France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway and Australia, to name a few. By one estimate over 90% of the people on earth live in a free society. Freedom is not a big problem for the masses.

To be certain, the United States of America is a great country, but not the greatest and certainly not the freest. We have great things about us as citizens and great resources as a nation, however we are wasting them. We are not capitalizing on all the wonderful things we have. The blame can be put on Congress, both parties, which is one of the only things in Congress that is bipartisan.

We need to work on solutions for infant mortality, not just pay insurance companies. These companies have no incentive to minimize infant mortality, cancer, diabetes or any of the ills of our country. Their incentive is to not pay for these problems because the bottom line for insurance companies is the bottom line. Health insurance companies need to be extinct because there are much better ways to solve health issues, and cheaper.

We need to work on solutions for education, not just allow the government, local or national, to cut funds. We need more and better teachers; more and better schools; not less of either. We need to be spending the last of our trillions of dollars on educating ourselves. Otherwise, those trillions will not grow because education is the root of economic growth. There is an unquestionable and explicit correlation between education and economic growth.

We need to work on solutions for the poor, not just allow them to be jobless, homeless and malnourished. We need to employ, house and feed our populace. The citizens of a nation is its greatest resource and should be the focus of its investments. A great country employs, houses and feeds its citizens. Everyone that wants these should have them. Not just 91.9% but everyone.

The United States is a great country; just not the greatest country. If we stop being a country of politicians, if we stop being a country of bi-polar political parties, maybe we can sit down to talk to each other. Then maybe we can come to some small agreements; then larger and larger agreements. Then maybe we can finally, once again, become the greatest country on earth.

Christian Right.....or Wrong

I don't believe the Christian Right knows or understands Jesus Christ at all. They don’t practice what he preached. They don’t do what he did. They most certainly aren’t willing to suffer as he suffered. Here in the twenty-first century, Christian is simply a moniker that has no relationship with the person or preachings with which it is synonymous.

My grandmother was a big fan of all things Catholic. She believed in God, Christ, the Bible, saying the Rosary, the whole shebang. If she were more mobile, I think she would have made pilgrimages to the Promised Land. I would often come home to see her praying the rosary at the dining room table or in her bedroom. We would have conversations about who Jesus was, what he preached and mostly why he died. It still makes no sense to me why he couldn’t have simply died of old age after a long and successful life of preaching the word, but that’s another blog entirely. Concerning this one, I understand what he said and what he meant, at least according to my dearly departed grandmother.

My grandmother believed in Catholicism so much, that the priest that eulogized her said one of the most amazing things I had ever heard a Catholic priest say. He told the listeners that if my grandmother was not in heaven right then, with Jesus Christ himself, then he and everyone in attendance had no chance of going to heaven. That’s how much a Catholic priest who couldn’t even speak Italian – my grandmother only spoke Italian – understood what Jesus meant to my grandmother. 

The Christian Right, particularly the Tea Party, aren’t interested in knowing the Jesus my grandmother knew. They don't believe the things my grandmother believed. They can't. Are you hungry? Get a job. Are you sick? See a doctor. Are you poor? Get a better job. It’s all so simple, these solutions should have occurred to me. I guess they didn't occur to me because I'm Christian in a non-Christian way.

What ever happened to feeding the hungry and comforting the sick. I don’t remember anywhere in the New Testament where Jesus said feed the hungry unless they refused to get a job. I’m also guessing that Jesus would have found the very idea of the Healthcare Industry being for profit to be the most unchristian thought in the universe.

Another thing; ninety-nine percent of the people I have ever met would rather work and support themselves than ask for a handout. Does the Christian Right actually think people are unemployed because they would rather monitor Drew Carey and Vanna White’s career than go to work?

Most people don’t understand the teachings in the New Testament. When Jesus talked about the Good Samaritan, that was a person from Samaria. Samaritans were heathens; people not respected in Christ’s day by the holy rollers to whom he was preaching. It was shocking in those times in the Middle East that a Samaritan would stop to help a stranger. You might as well believe an atheist would help you out in this day and age.

My understanding is that Jesus didn’t ask for health insurance when he comforted the sick. He didn’t ask people for work cards when he gave them fish and bread to eat. While he said the meek shall inherit the earth, he had more than a few choice words about the rich. In the New Testament, Jesus is supposed to have said it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. If you believe in heaven, that's pretty powerful stuff.

My question is, does the Christian right read the New Testament? Do they know the stories of Jesus, what he did in his last three years and what he actually believed? I’m not so sure they do. As a matter of fact, I doubt that most Christians have read the New Testament and actually know what Jesus preached according to it. But if they do know, I say Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Civil Civil Rights

I am not a violent person. I have never hit either of my children for anything during their 26 plus years of life. I have never hit any of the gaggle of people who called themselves my wife. It has been over two decades since I hit the dog that lived with me. Even then it was only because I couldn't make him see reason when it came to soiling my floors and the base of my furniture. I try not to be violent.

Yesterday I came home and almost kicked the cat. What saved the cat was that it didn't do anything wrong. However, I was angry and I needed a release, so I yelled at the television newscasters at the top of my lungs. The neighbors probably thought it’s just the hippy next door acting out again. The cat cowered under the bed wondering what it had done to get the fat guy so mad.

So what got me seething? Yesterday the President of the United States gave Robin Roberts an interview where he told the country that his position on gays and lesbians had evolved to the point where he is in favor of enabling them to marry.

Wow. Isn’t that great? He’s finally come around to seeing who people love and how they love them has nothing to do with anyone other than the people they are loving. President Obama has finally evolved to the point where he believes gays and lesbians should have the same rights and freedoms of the heterosexual community. And I’m supposed to fawn over that epiphany like I would a child who just made potty in the porta?  Do you think all that education is finally paying off?

Let me be unequivocally clear about this. Prejudice, chauvinism and bigotry are wrong in all cases. There is never a time when it is permissible to discriminate for the sex of a person, for the color of their skin or for who they love; never. Not once a year. Not once since the time of Christ. Not once in a million years. There are no rights that heterosexuals should have that homosexuals don’t have.

Everyone should know this by now. It's really not such a difficult concept. When I hear the "Leader of the Free World" say publicly, only yesterday, that his opinion evolved to the point where gays and lesbians should be allowed to get married, it makes me wonder why I ever voted for this hockey puck in the first place. Then I remember that my other choice was a rock, so I was stuck between the figurative rock and a hard place. 

If heterosexuals can marry or be united in civil unions or whatever it may be called, so can homosexuals. If two people want to share their lives so that they give each other the rights of property, medical benefits, inheritance and all that goes along with the concept of marriage, the only restriction should be that the two people be human beings. I’m still not comfortable with bestiality but a that's a conversation for another day. My opinion is still evolving.

Why isn’t the religious right yelling about the separation of church and state now? My god was talking to me the other day - between tossing quasars across a nebula - and told me specifically that he thought that all love was good. Imagine that. God told me that love can’t be bad and so, if woman want to love women or men want to love men, or transgenders want to love eunuchs or hermaphrodites, that is great. Love is the most wonderful thing in the universe and nothing should get in the way of love.

Liberal newscasters were grateful to the President for his evolved opinion. They still don’t get it. Chris Matthews, one of the great liberal minds of our time, told his audience that we shouldn't legislate against different kinds of love. ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!

There are not "different kinds of love". Love is love. It’s all the same! It is the degree that you love that makes the difference. It's like saying there are different kinds of height or mass. Distance is distance. Love is love. There are not different kinds of mass just like there are not different kinds of love. There are only things we do differently with the people we love. We take different actions but love is love!

Actions and emotions are two different things. They should not be confused or related because they are not contingent on each other. The emotion of love is the same regardless of who the object of your love is. What a person does to, and for, those they loves is different for everyone. The emotion is the same. People are all different.

Then it gets down to the legalities. If you want to own a business in my country, you have to be fair. You have to hire the person you believe is the most qualified and you can’t fire that person unless they show you that you misjudged their qualifications. You can only lay them off for fiscal reasons.

The cat has made it through another day. Unfortunately, tomorrow I could come home yelling and screaming again. Who knows how the opinion of the leader of the free world will evolve tomorrow.

What a Liberal

I am about to upset the “America: Love It or Leave It” crowd; sorry in advance. However, the Constitution gives me the right to freedom of speech, so suck it up. I realize there are a limited number of readers for this blog so maybe there won’t be any hardcore patriots, but if there are, this blog might light your hair on fire. The further to the right you are, the more combustible you will be. If the blog were printed in the Huffington Post, I might have to live under an assumed name. People are going to tell me I should just leave this country if I see that many problems. It’s a thought; but I’m not going anywhere.

I might leave if I could. Sometimes I would love to leave. Two things are stopping me though. First, being that I was born in this country, most of my friends are citizens. All the people I love are right here in this country. I have become very attached to a few of them, especially my progeny. It would be hard enough for me to move to a different state from them, let alone to a whole ‘nother country.

The second reason is that all the good countries have the same ignorant laws and restrictions our beloved country has. They all would throw me out. They would tell me to go back to where I came from. No country is perfect. Some are far less perfect than others. Regardless, the countries I would move to, won’t take me. I’m a real life Hyman Roth.

America is a decent country to live in. Many of the laws are fabulous. We try to promote equality and harmony among our citizens. We try to be generous, though we have a long way to go in that respect. We are trying, sometimes very. However, we confuse wealth with talent and natural resources with ideas and solutions. We also have a collective hubris that dwarfs my waistline. We do try to be fair, especially to the citizens that are white and male. We give them every opportunity, allowing them to control most every institution. White guys would probably be in charge of the NAACP and NOW had they realized how these groups would impact our country a few decades ago.

Compliment time is over. I hope you didn’t miss it. Now it is time for the incendiary part.

Our country likes to think of ourselves as generous. I like to think of myself as thin. Both are about the same distance from the truth. I believe most of the people in this country are generous - as individuals. I also believe most human beings are generous – as individuals. The problems appear when we form groups. We draw lines on maps, call them cities, states and countries and then we get frugal, cheap, and downright stingy.

Bill Gates has given billions to charity. Wow! That’s incredible! Go Bill Gates! That was my first reaction. Then I realized that as a percentage of the wealth he has accumulated, I probably have five neighbors who have donated more than Bill Gates. I’m not big on quoting the bible, but I believe JC once asked his disciples who gave more; the rich man who gave a large sum of money but had an even larger sum left over; or the poor woman who was giving her last few dollars; poignant.

I can’t expect the people who earn thousands of dollars to donate millions and billions. The math wouldn’t support people earning thousands to donate millions and billions. Million and billionaires won’t even donate millions and billions. Mostly they’re saving for a rainy day; and another Cadillac or two; maybe a NASCAR or NFL team, right Mr. Romney?

The people we need to be generous, who can afford to pay more taxes, won’t. I’m sure, among their claims are that government would be wasteful and corrupt with more tax revenues. I have to trust them since I’m sure most million and billionaires have an inside look at corruption. They must know what they’re talking about. A starving person might be thin but I wouldn’t go to them for nutritional advice. Corruption is a purview of the rich.

It is regretful that so many people with so much money won’t go into government and make it more honest. I’m sure what we need to make our government more honest is to have more participation from the one percent of the wealthiest Americans. I googled Congress to determine the percentage of millionaires within the halls. I found that only 47% of the members of Congress are millionaires. The other 53% may be well on their way, but they fall short right now. Maybe when the participation of the wealthy is over 50%, government will be less corrupt, less wasteful. Then maybe we can take care of our citizens that are old or sick or handicapped; teach our children better, pave our roads, make our streets safe and put out all the fires. Until then, I guess the rich need to get richer before they run for Congress. Right Mitt?

Our beloved country also likes to think of itself as champions of equality. If you’re a white guy of average intelligence, a decent physical condition and don’t talk with a lisp, there may not be a better country to live in for equality. I’ve never heard of any country clubs banning white guys. But Tiger Woods, arguably the best golfer ever, has country clubs he can’t join even now; right here in this country; in the year 2012. He doesn’t have the right kind of pigment.

Here is a fact that is amazing to me. In the year 2012, in this glorious land of ours, we’ve finally wiped out prejudice and bigotry; except for the group of CEOs that comprise the Fortune 500 Companies. Of those 500 companies, there are seven Asian, seven Hispanic and five Black CEOs. That’s 19 minorities among the 500 CEOs. Add that to the whopping number of women who are CEOs, twelve, and we get a grand total of 31 CEOs out of 500 that are not white guys. That’s leaves only 469 CEOs, or 94%, that are white. See?

That’s not merely prejudiced and chauvinistic, it’s appalling. I suppose that Asians, Latinos, Blacks and women don’t have the skill sets to lead a Fortune 500 company. If so, who among us has the time to teach those sloths to manage Fortune 500 companies? Or maybe the problem is that minorities and women are not born with the abilities needed to learn the skills. I suppose white guys are going to have to carry that burden too, for the good of our country. Thank you white guys!

Speaking of all those women CEOs – you remember; the twelve out of 500 – do you know that white guys are legislating laws and by-laws and rules and all kinds of things for the benefit of the fairer sex? You must’ve recently seen the white guys Congressional committee who were very interested in furthering women’s issues. There wasn’t a woman on the committee. There wasn’t a woman scheduled to testify. That’s how much the white guys thought of women. Those nice white guys gave women the entire day off to go shopping or do their hair or whatever they wanted, just so long as they didn’t interfere in those hearings. They couldn’t stop to listen to what women had to say because they were too busy concerning themselves with getting the best legislation for them. Those white guys really have women’s best interests at heart. It’s just you can’t tell their motives by their actions.

How about our country’s war policies? We can argue about the merits of going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan but let’s not. Iraq wasn’t about 9/11. Saddam Hussein couldn’t sneak up on the World Trade Center if it was abandoned. Maybe Afghanistan was involved, but not Iraq. Afghanistan is where Osama Bin Laden was living. He was being protected by their government. I understand, but don’t agree, with the rationale for fighting Afghanistan; but not for over a decade.

Here is a news flash. Bin Laden is dead. He’s buried at sea. Obama, that wimpy, Mulatto Muslim without a birth certificate that we elected President in 2008, gave the orders to take him out. Most of the top leadership of Al Qaeda are dead or locked up in Guantanamo. So what are we still doing in Afghanistan? What is the delay in bringing our troops home and proclaiming “Mission Accomplished!”? We are not going to change Afghanistan if we stay another year, ten years or make them our 51st state. We need to get the troops home. Now. Not by 2014; not by 2013; by April. Yesterday would have been even better.

Speaking of the troops, our glorious country sent them off to avenge 9/11; kept sending them back on two, three and four tours because we didn’t have enough people who would volunteer to fight. So how did we thank our troops when they finished their tours of duty? Negligent and despicable comes to mind. Instead of thanking the troops, throwing them a party and asking what we can do for them, we loosed the lions on them. Thousands of troops are homeless as you read this.

War mutilates a psyche and devastates a soul. Our country allows the troops to come home to no jobs, foreclosed homes and broken families. Sure, we sew up their physical wounds but what about their mental health? Doesn’t America have a responsibility to our troops beyond mending their bodies? If your answer is yes, then what has been done to the troops is equally despicable as what we do to minorities and women. Let’s not even get into the despicableness of our treatment of gay people or the Native Americans. To quote Mr. Saturday Night, “Don’t get me started!”

Maybe we can have a war surcharge. The more wealth you have, the more assets that you own, the more you are taxed because of the war. After all, America is what made millions for the millionaires and billions for the billionaires. Each war should be financed out of their pockets since they’re aren’t sending a representative amount of their children. Perhaps the troops wouldn’t have to suffer nearly as much if we financed wars on the backs of the people who can afford it most. Even better, maybe we would go to war less. Maybe we would begin to discuss our problems with other countries, trying to find solutions that would be mutually acceptable. What a novel approach to conflicts, don’t you think?

The United States is a wonderful place to live. If you’re lucky enough to be part of the four percent of the planet’s population to have been born in this country, you have a chance to have a great life; sort of. It’s best if you’re also born a white guy, but even that won’t guarantee a great life. Being born a white guy and having lots of money would be even better. However, there are no guarantees of a great life; no matter what, where or how you’re born. Life can suck if your rich and be wonderful if you’re poor. That’s just the way it is. Life has no guarantees except that it will end; at least so far.

The sooner we start caring and sharing, the sooner more people can be part of a wonderful life on planet earth. We have plenty of resources to feed every human being alive. We have plenty of wealth so that every human being can have at least a minimally decent existence. We have the medicine and technology so that no human being has to suffer needlessly because they can’t afford to get help. We have everything we need to supply all seven billion of us on this rock an ample subsistence and a satisfying life. It’s just a matter of the rich among us being willing to share. I’m willing to share forty or fifty percent or more of all my wealth to include more humans in the good life. I wonder if Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or any of the other million and billionaires are willing to make the same pledge. Do you think so? If you do, I’ve got some prime ocean front property in Arizona I’d like to show you!

Taxing and Parents

I consider myself a fairly average parent. I love my kids. I’m sure there are things I do that will leave them mumbling to the shrink during their midlife crisis sessions. I also think there are things they learn from me that are good, useful lessons they will take to their adult life. I’m not sure what they are but I’m hoping there are some. I can’t be the worst parent and I’m sure not the best. I’ll settle for average.

When other children came to our home to visit, I tried to encourage my children to share the things they had. Most parents understand the negotiations that need to take place between a parent and a child in order to get a visiting six year old to play with your child’s toys. My strategy was always to tell my kids that if the toy breaks while our guest is playing with it, I would buy them a brand new one. The idea of having a brand new favorite toy worked well for all except my son’s favorite toy that he had since he was three. It’s a Curious George monkey that he calls Diddy, after the little chimp from one of the Donkey Kong games. Fortunately it wasn’t very popular with the other children so I didn’t have a terrible time getting my children to share their toys. Sharing is always a good thing.

When it came to mealtime with guests, there was hardly a problem. Maybe on Thanksgiving there was a small conversation if three of more children wanted a Turkey leg, but to be honest, I don’t remember that ever happening. The assurance that there were two turkey legs satisfied everyone and peace was always quickly restored. Sharing vegetables or salad was even easier because my children became the most magnanimous people on the planet when it came to sharing peas and broccoli. Even sharing peas and broccoli is a good thing.

Giving money or gifts to visitors was even easier. I could just ask the kids to get this or that gift and give it to this or that person and they were very happy to do it. I think it was mostly the surprise of seeing the gift unwrapped that led my children to give the gifts so easily. It was never too difficult to get my kids to share gifts with other children and adults, and sharing gifts is always a good thing.

Giving and sharing is one of the things that are on the top of the parental to do lists for their children. Some children are more difficult than others, since everyone has their own individual personalities. However, virtually all the parents who believe they have been good parents, agree that kids need to learn to share and care about other people. Sharing and caring about others is a very good thing.

So what happens when people get older? Do people lose the sharing skills they were taught as children? Or am I delusional when I believe that parents teach sharing skills to their children? I understand the argument that I am delusional, but that’s a different conversation. I don’t think I’m delusional for believing parents teach their children to share.

So where do the sharing skills go when the 12 year old kid becomes a 20, 30 or 40 year old adult? I hear well educated people saying that homeless folks need to get jobs so they can feed their families. Don’t they think most of these homeless people have thought of that? I guess that’s the value of education. Maybe Santorum was on to something when he accused President Obama of being a snob for wanting more education for people.

Houses are being foreclosed by the millions; unemployment is over 8 percent while the structural unemployment is over 15 percent and minority unemployment is over 20 percent. Veterans are coming home from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, suffering the psychological problems of war; the problems that develop in any normal human being when they see people they’ve known and loved killed right in front of them. Yet we don’t have jobs for the Vets or even the medical help they need. There are millions of homeless veterans in the United States who are suffering untold psychological problems. It is beyond a shame how our country has used and abused our Veterans. If there are such things as sins, then what America has done to its veterans is a surely a sin.

My son once told me an adult actually said that the street person he had seen should get a job instead of holding the sign begging for money. Did that fairly clueless and totally heartless adult think the person was holding the sign because he thought that was the way to riches? Maybe the person holding the sign didn't really want a job because they’d chosen to have that leisurely lifestyle street people have known to love.

Maybe I’m being delusional again. It seems to me that in these difficult times, it’s tough enough to get a job when you have an address, transportation and the support of your family and friends. Imagine not having an address because you’ve been thrown out of your foreclosed home, only public transportation, and no one that cares enough to take you in as you face one of the most difficult times in your life; find a job under those circumstances, even at McDonald’s.

People aren’t begging on the side of the road or sleeping in homeless shelters because they’re too lazy to get jobs. Sure, there are people who wouldn’t work under any circumstances. But that is the vast minority of people. Those people are not most of the people who have had their homes foreclosed or can’t even get a sandwich for lunch. Yet, America is not sharing or caring about the vast majority of the people who need us most.

We have millionaires and billionaires who don’t want to go from 15% income taxes to 28% income taxes. That is just amazing to me. For every million dollars earned by a person, the 28% tax bracket would mean they only take home $720,000.00. That’s just shy of $14,000 a week - take home pay - with a million dollar salary. How much is enough?

In 2009 there were 235,000 folks who “earned” salaries over one million dollars. That is according to IRS statistics. I’m thinking there were even more, but those 235,000 folks “earned” in excess of 750 billion dollars; again, these are IRS statistics, not some fly by night marketing company.

Just as an aside, which, by the way, lights my shorts on fire, over 1400 of those 235,000 folks did not pay anything in income taxes. I don’t even want to know how that could be. I don’t care what hardships they’ve had to endure, how miserable their lives had been up until they earned a million dollars, once they’ve earned a million dollars, fairness and justice demand they pay at least the 15% in taxes! I’m losing weight just thinking about people earning a million dollars that don’t pay any income taxes. I'm not interested in some bogus rational of why they didn’t have to cough up even five cents in income tax.

Back to those who actually pay taxes, at only a 30% tax rate, our country would benefit by over 225 Billion dollars. We would be able to hire over four million teachers and pay them 50 thousand dollars per year. Or maybe policemen or firemen or something that benefits society as a whole. And that’s just a 30% tax rate. If we ratchet it up, and tax multimillionaires like they should be taxed, our country would benefit even more. And those poor multimillionaires would only have multimillions of dollars left to drown their sorrows in. I’m almost feeling sorry for the greedy rich. 

As far as I can figure, the truly wealthy in this country need to pony up in these tough times. If you’re earning an average salary, you can’t make a big difference when you pay your taxes. But if you’re making over a million dollars, you can make a huge difference. One millionaire can fund several above average paying jobs. A million millionaires can fund several million above average paying jobs. This isn’t an economics argument. It’s a mathematical one. And the millionaires will have hundreds of thousands even millions of dollars left after we take these large sums of taxes from them.

What it comes down to is sharing. Most of us were taught to share when we were kids. Many of us, unfortunately, forget those lessons when we become adults and actually enter the work force. There is enough wealth in the United States of America to support every single citizen in a comfortable lifestyle. That comfortable lifestyle can be accomplished while the millionaires still keep their second homes, fifth cars and the usual three week vacations to Europe. Multimillionaires will still have all their goodies but they’ll have a little less in the bank. Breaks my heart; but it comes down to sharing. The top earners need to give up more money in taxes to make everyone else better off. We are not asking them to give up their toys. We just want them to share the toys with us so we can all play more. It would seem it is the least these mega rich can do for the country that made it possible for them to be mega rich. Or am I being delusional again?

Mishugina

My political affiliation, my Grand Old Party, has gone mishugina. Every candidate for the Presidency is tipping the insanity scale on some level. Sarah Palin is sounding more and more normal and that’s an instant sign of insanity. Even the level headed Olympia Snowe has given up and gone home.

Like most anyone who is being honest, there are positions every candidate has I can agree with. Ron Paul wants to legalize marijuana, prostitution and gambling.  I’d bet that if these three were legalized and taxed by the IRS, President Obama would have a budget surplus during his last year in office. By the way, yes, Obama is going to win reelection because the Republican candidates are going to be confused with patients of Nurse Ratchet when we go to polls in November.

Getting back to Ron Paul, his suggestion for improving the education of our children is to eliminate the Department of Education. That’s like trying to improve voter turnout by eliminating elections. The only thing concerning education that was nuttier from this group of Republicans was when Rick Santorum said that public education was not present when our founding fathers wrote the Constitution. While Rick has personally said nuttier things, this one ranks right up there with the nuttiest of the election season. Mr. Santorum needs to pick up a history book that actually has history in it, not the writings of Mark Twain. The first “public” schools, where the community built a schoolhouse and hired a teacher to teach the kids in the town was created about 1700. Most of our founding fathers weren’t even born yet. By the time we declared our independence, public schoolhouses were ubiquitous.

What are some things Rick has said that are even nuttier? It is Rick Santorum who says we can’t separate our faith from our politics then turns around to tell President Obama he should. Santorum says the President is wrong for apologizing that we mistakenly burned several copies of the Koran. I wonder what the big Rick would think if the Afghans were burning a US flag. He tells us he wants public opinion to be tolerant of his religious issues with abortion, birth control and homosexuality while he is intolerant of the Muslim religion and atheists. Must be because his religion is the right religion, the correct religion, which even god has a laugh at. I know because mine is the one true religion. I talk to god regularly.

Then we come to Nuke Gingrich. Isn’t this the guy who thinks he’s on the Tea Party side of the sanctity of marriage but has left two wives - one on a sick bed - to marry other women?  Talk about “do as I say, not as I do”. Nuke….ummm….Newt, is the only Republican who has flip-flopped on the issues nearly as much as Mitt Romney. Gingrich claims to be a Reagan Republican which, like the big Gipper, must mean that he believes that trees pollute and that catsup is a vegetable. The only way I would vote for Nuke is if the remaining candidates were named Berkowitz, Manson and Koresh.

Finally, we get to the original two headed coin, Willard “Mitt” Romney. This guy is really amazing. He’s going to connect with the middle class of America by telling us that he’s been unemployed for years now. Also, that he likes being able to fire people that are servicing him. And that he drives two American made cars; his wife even drives a couple of Cadillacs. I’m sure the middle class will see their savior as a guy who thinks the average middle class income is only a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year. Romney bring a whole new meaning to oblivious.

I’m not happy with Obama either. I hope we hasten our exit from Afghanistan now that we're sorry for burning the Korans. I’m not sure what we have accomplished in that country, but after more than a decade, we’re not going to accomplish much more. Let’s not tell the Afghan government so they don’t tell ­Al-Qaeda, but let’s high tail it out of that country and go somewhere friendlier, like New Jersey. There is no good solution to choosing sides when comes to countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and Syria. That’s like choosing which side of a baseball is your favorite.

At least Obama has made some decisions I agree with as President. He’s gotten rid of the silly Every Child Left Behind program. That's a program that being disastrous would have been an improvement. Truth be told, I think it was conceived by a committee of illiterates. Also, Obama was got rid of DADT only a couple of years into his first term. I suppose with the Congress he’s had to deal with, that is fast.  I know the Republican perception is that Obama is a flaming liberal socialist who wants to bring down the American way of life, but I don’t think he’ll be giving gay folks the rights married people have even during his second term. Let’s not confuse Obama with LBJ.

This election season, the Republican primaries have become an election caricature. How unreal can they get? Romney prepares to stand on top of the mountain of disbelief, but then some Not Romney comes along to find an even higher mountain. Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Herman Cain (insert a 3 stooges joke here) all took their turns being the Not Romney. There are three Not Romney’s left named Nuke Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum. Romney or Not Romney? Wow….should I cut my lego off or blow up my arm? There are never enough hours in the day.

I feel so alone. Sometimes I think I’m the only liberal Republican on the planet. Maybe I am, but I won’t give up. If I’m the last one standing, so be it. I won’t abandon my Republican Party. The nuttier they get, the more they need me!

We're a Democracy....Most of the Time

I am so tired of the 2012 race for the Presidency. Next week I hear they’re holding the Purina Underdog debate to discuss the economic policies of Bongo-Bongo. We are down to the final four Republicans and the Bongo-Bongo situation is a key factor for elect-ability. 

But who cares? This is about as exciting as watching a glacier race. I've learned nothing valuable. I already knew that Mitt Romney is rich beyond my wildest dream; that Nuke Gingrich just likes to go nuclear when he feels threatened; that Rick Santorum would be a great scout leader but I hope he stays away from elected office; and that Ron Paul would be great for the hookers, bookies and dealers - three of my biggest aspirations in my younger days - but his kind of less government means more headaches.

Obama and the Democrats have a definite advantage this election. Four years ago, both the Democrats and Republicans had primaries. Neither party had an advantage. Former President Junior was universally deplored by Republicans and Democrats alike. His policies led to two wars, an economic catastrophe of epic proportions, and a healthcare crisis unmatched since the black plague. Not to mention, Bush Jr. took a vacation every time it rained in the tropics and his VP shot a guy in the face. Apparently Dick Cheney mistook a guy's kisser for a quail. I remember when I used to mistake people for birds too, but to be honest, I quit the hard stuff a long time ago.

In 2004 we only had Democratic primaries. Bush Jr. was the president, going for re-election like Obama is today. The Democrats did a fairly awful job of nominating a person to head the top of their ticket then too, but to be honest, I can’t remember who it was. Was that Mondale, or maybe Dole? Right, Dole was a Republican. Oh well; it's not important.

I also remember the last time we had primaries in both parties in the same election season. That was during the Y2K Presidential Election. You remember that one. It was the one where the guy with the most votes didn't win.

I still don’t understand how the guy with the most votes doesn’t win the election. But it’s right there in the history books. The 2000 election was the fourth time the guy with the most votes wasn't awarded the big prize and made the President. I can understand the first three times. The first time, in 1824, the United States still had slavery; talk about a backward nation. The second time was in 1876,  shortly after the Civil War. The United States, for the most part, still didn't recognize black men, not to mention the entire Indian race, nor the contributions of women who were still not allowed to vote. The third time was in 1888, more than 30 years before women received the right to vote. Then all was right in democracyland until the Presidential Election of 2000. In that election women were allowed to vote. Progress is a beautiful thing.

Then, for the fourth time in our short 224 year history, the guy with the most votes didn't win the presidency. I'm trying to imagine how folks who believe they live in the greatest country on earth tell their children about the 2000 Presidential election. 

"Well, yes, Gore got more votes, by over half a million, but Bush Jr. won the election. That's what makes this nation great! Having the most votes doesn't necessarily mean you win." 

So the guy with the most votes doesn't win and no one says a word? It’s the 21^st Century, we have technology beyond our grandparents wildest dreams and still the guy with the most votes didn't get to live in the White House. I was hollering and screaming that the electoral thing needed to be changed but all I got was ho-hum; maybe next time. We've got other things to do. We can't be bothered with changing an elections process to make it fair. Who knows what's fair anyway. Do you think the guy with the most votes should win every time? Is that your idea of fair?

Yes! Every time! Just shows to go you.

George W. Bush Jr came in second but he got to live in the White House with his wife and the twins. We had the wisdom to have an 18^th Century electoral system still in place in the 21^st century; lucky us. On top of that, Bush Jr. was such a good president, a decade later we just finished with a war he created, we’re still fighting in a second war he created, struggling to come out of the recession that he created, and changing some of the more deplorable social policies that he created. Boy, that Obama sure screwed things up while Bush Jr. was president, didn’t he?

To be clear, I’m not a big Obama fan either. I’m not even a Democrat. I think Obama could have done a lot more during his first three years as President. Unfortunately, he was too busy trying to be nice to other side of the aisle. The Republicans were also too busy trying to figure out whether they should throw Obama out of office for not having a valid birth certificate, or for being a Muslim – as if that suddenly became a crime – or for being one of those edumacated Harvard types who can’t relate to the common moron. After all, we don’t want someone to be the President who is too smart. The educated elite have no place in politics and the Founding Father would have wanted no part of that. 

So why am I disappointed in Obama? To start with, he should have taken the Oath of Office that John Roberts was administering incorrectly, then immediately signed an executive order outlawing DADT. I understand he was planning for a full day. What with lunch, special Inaugural Dinners and all those  Inaugural Balls, his day was certainly full. But then he should have signed it right after breakfast the next day. That’s just the beginning of why I'm POed with Obama.

How about Guantanamo? Are they still torturing people out there? No? Really? And I'm supposed to believe that? So why isn't it closed already? Why don’t they put those folks on trial and throw the book at them? Why not keep them with the other murderers, rapists and child abusers we have in our prisons? How do we justify keeping people imprisoned when we can’t prove they have done anything wrong?

If we can’t convict the people we’re keeping in Guantanamo, we should let them go. We've already killed Bin Laden, Kaddafi, Saddam Hussein, and nine Somali Pirates, not to mention a few hundred thousand Iraqi and Afghan citizens. We need to let the Guantanamo prisoners go or charge them with crimes. There is no justification to keep them longer.

Why else am I disappointed in Obama? Well, how did the bank bailout work for you? Those banks got hundreds of billions of dollars - that billions with a B, which is nine zeros - along with General Motors and other companies, so they could remain solvent. And solvent they remained, so much so that within months they were giving many of their people bonuses. The same people who dug a big hole and flushed billions of dollars of middle class home equity into it, were getting bonuses. Where was the bailout for the millions of Americans who lost their jobs? Congress was kind enough to grudgingly extend their unemployment benefits.while the banks were foreclosing on their homes. What a great bailout for the middle class. Take that Willard Mitt Romney!

What is Obama doing about the war criminals in the former administration? No prosecution for war criminals but they’re still locking up people for having the audacity to grow marijuana. I guess we know where our priorities are.

Yeah, I’m already tired of the 2012 Presidential elections. We’re still months away from having the Republican nominee and Obama will be the Democrat. Also, candidates are still threatening to run independently. It’s all making my hair hurt and my teeth itch. I’ll vote. I vote in every election. But I  already know, it won’t make me feel good, especially if the guy with the most votes loses again!

Capitalists Capitalize On Capital...What a Concept

I majored in economics and now have a BA from the University of Colorado. One of my favorite econ jokes in college asks why god created economists; to make weather forecasters look good. The truth hurts but it’s often funny.

If you get any two economists to answer a question, inevitably you will get at least three answers. Economics is very much like psychology. Answers to the problems are more opinions than anything else. I guess that’s why they call it a Bachelor of Arts. Economics is an Art, not a Science.

Economists often deal with the problem of allocating resources. Economists see resources as scarce. I don’t see where the scarcity is. We have enough land in this country to build more than enough houses for everyone to live. There is more than enough food in this country for all three hundred million of us to eat well. Beyond a home and food, everything else is a luxury. Do you think they mean there is a scarcity of luxuries?

There is a scarcity of money. There is not enough money to go around for many people because a very few of us have horded ridiculous amounts of money. Bill Gates, for example, has horded an incredible amount of money. If he was paid for every hour that he has been alive – he was born on October 28, 1955 – he would have to be paid $100,000 per hour to get his current wealth. That is not only ludicrous, ridiculous and absurd, it’s wrong. No one should be paid that much money for that long even if they have cured cancer, aids, and written more quality novels than Isaac Asimov. No one should have that much money, but it’s just one example of why capitalism is wrong. Capitalism believes in and promotes the accumulation of that much wealth.

There are four hundred families who have accumulated money in the billions of dollars in the United States. They are just a part of the problem. The bigger problem is the 100 million people fighting for the capitalist system to rule the land. These people include moderately wealthy folks all the way down to outright homeless people. They all believe that capitalism is the right way, the only way, because they believe freedom is intertwined with capitalism. It is not.

These people also believe there is a chance they can accumulate that kind of wealth, so they want to preserve the system just in case they do. Good luck with that. There is an infinitesimally small chance of actually accumulating a billion dollars.

To give you some perspective, if you were able to hit Powerball, and the prize was 100 million dollars, you’d still need to hit it ten times to come up with billion dollars. Actually, that would be the gross prize. You’d need to hit Powerball thirteen times if you want one billion dollars after taxes. To have Bill Gates money, you have to hit a 100 million dollar Powerball five hundred (500) times. So if Powerball was worth 100 million dollars on every drawing, you’d have to be the winner every time, twice a week, for the next five years. Can you understand these kinds of numbers, the odds and the impossibility of this occurring? Even winning the lotto’s top prize 500 times would not give you the wealth that Bill Gates has.

Essentially, three hundred million of us are allowing the 400 wealthiest families to accumulate that kind of wealth so that we can also have it if we get that lucky. What a ridiculous concept. We could all have so much more if we distributed the wealth we have now. We don’t even have to create more wealth. Just spread what we already have around to everyone. I’m not saying we should spread it evenly. I’m not a communist. But capitalism is not good for the masses. It is good for only the very few; only about 400 of us.

As to freedom and the American way, let’s not confuse capitalism with democracy. Capitalism is an economic system. Capitalism is a way to divide all the stuff we have among the people we have. Democracy is a form of government. It is a way of putting people in charge of the collective goods of our society.

You can have a capitalistic democracy. You can also have a communistic democracy or a socialistic democracy. Democracy makes sure that everyone has the ability to be heard, to vote and have an equal voice in the society’s decisions. Capitalism is simply an economic system in which the rich have an advantage. If you don’t think so, give me a hundred million dollars and I’ll get a person with an IQ of 80 accepted to Yale. The United States is more of a Plutocracy than it is a Democracy.

History books like to say this country was founded on democratic principles. Hardy har har! Tell that to 750,000 blacks who lived in America when it was founded; or to the two million women who lived in this country when it was founded; or the estimated 10 to 15 million Native Americans who lived in this country when it was founded, not to mention they were here first by hundreds of years. I guess seniority didn’t count back then; maybe the Indians should’ve unionized.

Our founders were a group of upper class white male Europeans who believed in democracy as long as you weren’t a woman, or black, or Native American. Our forefathers controlled our county, the United States, with approximately 1.2 million other white males while the entire population of the land was about 15 million adult people. That’s the democracy the country was founded under. If that’s real democracy, I can be the next Mr. Universe.

The democracy in this country has improved over the centuries. Blacks grudgingly gained their freedom, then the right to vote. Jim Crow is not dead but he is living under a different name. Maybe, if Newt Gingrich becomes President, black children can have more janitor jobs to learn the value of working. Good old Newt; always thinking of the poor and disadvantaged and ways he can take advantage of their situation.

It has also gotten better for women over the centuries. White guys got real magnanimous, giving the gals the right to vote a mere century and a half after the founding of this country. Some day women will even have the glass ceiling removed from their careers which most males don’t even know exists; but probably not during my lifetime.

Alas, it’ll never go back to the way it was for the Native Americans. The United States has eliminated their culture entirely. We spent the 19^th Century breaking enough treaties to push them off the continent completely. The last the Native American culture was seen was in the movies.

Is capitalism really an economic system of fairness? Is it fair that the 400 richest families in the United States have the total wealth of the bottom 150 million Americans? That is the America we live in today. Four hundred families have the same wealth as half of the population of the country. I would never expect that to be possible in an economic system of fairness.

We need the tax system to be incremental. As a person accumulates wealth, more taxes should be collected. Is that fair? I say yes and have no problem with the tax rate being 90% at some point. If you’ve got a billion dollars, I want the government to get 90 cents of every dollar you earn beyond that. If a billion dollars isn’t going to keep you satisfied, you may be insatiable.

My party, the Republicans, came up with trickledown economics. When they said trickledown, they really meant trickledown! However, that is the exact opposite of what is good for the masses. I don’t say everyone should get paid the same. I do say that everyone should have a job that wants one. If there is not a job for everyone, the jobless should be supported by the government. If all the poorest folks in this country have money, they will spend it. They will be buying necessities such as food, drinks and housing. Then better jobs will be created so that people can get the luxuries they want since their bellies are already full. The more luxuries people have, the more they will want. Then the capital will trickleup to the business owners. Trickleup economics would work for the masses but it will never be allowed by the rich. They have the power to prevent such a system; just ask any lobbyist.

The only way a person can accumulate a billion dollars is to either under pay your employees or overcharged your customers. With a billion dollars of accumulated wealth, you would have probably had to do both things. Is that fair?

I suppose I could go on all day about what I think about money and how it should be used. Suffice it to say I believe that people who have vast amounts of wealth should use most of that wealth to pay back the country that made it possible for them to accumulate the wealth. If the money went back to the people, then no one would need to pay when they got sick. No one would need to pay for education. No one would have to be homeless. The roads could be paved, the police could be well paid and teachers would be more respected and wealthier. The total happiness of the country would increase because people would no longer have to worry about their next meal or simple warmth.

We have the money to do these things. It’s really all a matter of who we trust – or elect – to be in charge of the distribution of our money. Do we need the rich to get richer or do we need the rich to share more? I know which side I’m rooting for, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for it to happen. That’s the shame of capitalism.

Love It or Leave It

Welcome to the New Year – 2012. We have new hopes, new aspirations, New Jersey, New Hampshire and New Delhi. I’ll have a roast beef on rye. Unfortunately, as a country, though we have lots of new stuff, we still have a lot of the same old problems.

I’m a bit uncomfortable thinking of myself as a citizen of the United States. I like much better to think of myself as a citizen of the world. I live on planet earth. I am a citizen of earth. Interestingly enough, some people would argue that point. Not me. I was born right here in the good old USofA, at St. Vincent’s hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I have the birth certificate to prove it. Not to worry about my candidacy for the Presidency. I’ve got plenty of other skeletons in my closet and choose not to be vetted. The question I have is, does it really matter which plot of land the building was occupying when my mother gave birth to me?

I guess it does matter but no one consulted me. No one has a choice of their country of citizenship, which strikes me as unfair. I’m a citizen of the United States of America totally by accident; a matter of the luck of the draw of birth; lucky me.

I’ve checked it out. Would you believe that most countries have very similar policies concerning birth and citizenship? It seems that for most countries, if you were born there, you can stay. If you’re not born there, well, you can visit, but you can’t work and you have to leave after a short period of time. They won’t let you stay or live or work there but you can shop all you want. That attitude is pretty universal.

Not being allowed to emigrate is very puzzling to me. People live their lives and at some point may decide they want to live somewhere else. They choose not just a different neighborhood but an entirely different country. They choose to work and set up a life in this other country. Choosing to live in a country would seem to me to count for more than being born in a country. Immigrants become illegal aliens who need to be thrown out of the country even though they’re working and paying taxes and adding to our society. Really? That’s the rule? Isn’t there something wrong with this equation? And it’s universal?

Okay, so if I can’t leave my country, why are some people with carmine napes telling me, “America; Love it or leave it?” Isn’t one of my rights in this country a freedom of expression? I think they call it “Freedom of Speech”. So why would anyone want to throw me out of the country for saying the United States should change? I’m not yelling “Movie!” in a crowded firehouse. I’m just trying to tell others about the things I’m not very fond of – like NIMBY.

Ahhhh…..NIMBY you ask. It’s the acronym for “Not In My Back Yard”. What are some of the things that qualify for NIMBY? Homeless shelters, rehabilitation clinics, and prisons to name a few; for prisons to be in the NIMBY category is really confusing to me. I would love to have a prison built in my back yard. I would think that prison neighborhoods would be among the safest in the country. When a prisoner escapes, I don’t think they’re going to be hanging out in the neighborhood. Even prisoners have the common sense to get as far away from that prison as possible.

Maybe every state should just have a NIMBY neighborhood. We can build all the homeless shelters, rehabilitation clinics and prisons in the same neighborhood and let them do their work.

Back to the illusion of freedom of speech; a lot of folks want the government to get out of the way. Government should not tell us where to build things or how to build things or basically how to live our lives at all - accept for some things. People like rules that say don’t murder or steal at the risk of incarceration. I do too. They also like the government having regulations on things like airlines. They don’t want airplanes falling out of the sky because they didn’t have enough lug nuts or something. And cigarettes too; regulate where people can smoke because I don’t want to smell other people’s smoke in public. I want to be with people but I don’t want to have to smell them. There are probably a few more laws and regulations people want but you get the idea.

Oh yeah, there are other things people agree that government should do besides laws and regulations. The government should supply the police force, fire department and military. Those are must haves for any society. Let’s not forget an infrastructure. Roads are pretty important to commerce so we really need that too; then there’s the post office so we get our mail; and a Motor Vehicle department; and a justice system along with prisons; and an immigration system…..and maybe some education too.

Our education system seems a little bizarre to me. We make it so that kids have to stay in school until they’re 16 years old, all for free, but as they start to get smart, we begin to charge them for more education. It really makes no sense. The socialists are fine to run the schools until high school but we tell the capitalist to take over when the kids reach their late teens. Forget about the benefits we derive from having a better educated population. It’s more important to make a buck than to educate our future workers. Why would we want to invest in the future when we can make a few bucks right now?

Speaking of money to be made, we let capitalism run the healthcare system too. Why not make a few bucks on the sick. They’re sick! They can’t do anything. The sicker you get, the more we charge. If you can’t pay, we throw you out of your home. After all, there’s money to be made in them there hospital rooms. How long before we give the prisons to capitalists? I’d like to see the brothels run by the capitalists but that’s a different screed.

Wow….where does it stop? We need a government for all these things and we’re supposed to agree on how to get them too? When I disagree I’m told, “America, love or leave it!” Really? Well I’ve got sayings too. Some of them say what to do with and where to put that type of attitude. One of the cleaner ones is, Americans, can’t live with them and can’t live without them!