TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE!

TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE!

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

What a hoot, how can us taxpayers in 2014 make common sense out of what we pay into the money pot(s) of government. You got your local taxes, your regional tax, township tax, county tax, state tax, federal tax, excise tax, sales tax, street tax, road tax, and then a tax on taxes (I swear they do). I haven’t kicked or been too vociferous about the tax that we all pay…..in varying degrees, depending on how much you earn or how good a tax lawyer you’ve retained.

I’ve usually only talked about the trillions that we spend on wars through the tax dollars that we pay, and how the money could be put to much better use right here in the United States. There are governmental agencies that report where taxes are going, there’s also private groups that’ll bend your ears right off your head with their static about what should be done to cut our tax payments to a bare minimum.

I call these outfits, whether government or private groups the clickety clackers, they’ll make some noise, but nothing usually happens. They seem to rise up, get on a soap box somewhere, say their piece and then…..nothing.

These people are like the guy that hates his job, what he’s done, is identify his problem, but never gets around to solving the problem that he’s identified by either switching jobs, or upgrading his abilities or education so he can move up the latter where he’s working.

There really is a TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE group which is based out of Washington D.C. and their aim is to attempt to make government work through their grass roots efforts. I wish them luck, cause their gonna need it, they’ve attempted to bite off a huge chunk of controversy with regards to the tax laws in the United States today.

Make absolutely no mistake about it, I know little about the ins and outs of the United States tax codes, hell, my wife has always done our taxes, and like I say, “if there’s a mistake, talk to my wife,” hell, she even looks guilty.  

One thing that I do know about our tax system is that there are all kinds of fraud, incorrect reporting, corporate subsidies, farm subsidies, and just plain non-reporting of income that runs into the billions. I read someplace a while back that around the turn of the 20^th century, the tax laws of the U.S. were like 5 or 10 pages in length…..today, in the 21^st century, the tax codes and laws are close to a hundred thousand pages long.

Just to let you know that I did do my homework on this issue, there is a statutory tax rate, a legally imposed rate, and can be made up of multiple statutory rates for different income levels. Then there’s the average tax rate, the ratio of the total amount of taxes paid to the total tax base, taxable income or spending, expressed as a percentage.

Ok, ok, I have little idea about what I just wrote…..with regards to what in hell it means…..and I’ll bet there’s a huge percentage just like me, they don’t have a clue, it’s why H. & R. Block are so popular right around the middle of January until April 15. There’s been talk for decades about rewriting the code on taxes, but nothing is getting done very fast, so somebody is making beaucoup bucks.

IT’S LIKE PEOPLE THAT ARE WELL OFF TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SOCIAL SECURITY

As you get older you seem to spend less, especially on frivolous stuff, it’s like we’ve suddenly figured out what a dollar bill is really worth, how touch they are to come by, plus the fact that you no longer work for a living, but you rather sit around on your duff and play bingo…..waiting for the middle of the month to collect that rocking chair pay check.

Since I’ve retired, I don’t get out as much, but when I do, I talk, and talk, anybody who knows me can’t be surprised by that admission. Universally whenever the conversation gets around to money, pensions, social security, and investments, nobody has ever turned down their monthly social security check…..even if they could afford to pass it up.

I’ve always found that admission disturbing, and of course I voice that opinion, and baby, you’d be shocked at some of the responses, like “I earned it, and I’m gonna collect up until the day that I die”, and I’m sure if he could get away with it, on the day he died as well. Collecting social security money, if you don’t need it is, should be criminal. Somebody else could use that money, they worked too, maybe they weren’t smart, maybe they had some bad luck, or maybe they were just one of those people that were destined to work a crap bag job.

It seems to me that if only those that needed their social security checks collected, or those that were smarter, more fortunate, or maybe even worked harder didn’t, just maybe the social security plan for retirees would work.

But that subject matter is for a different time, the issue with this blog is the tax codes that we find ourselves under collectively. There is fraud, honest mistakes, and then those people and organizations that lobby up and down the halls of our government in Washington D.C. promoting for themselves a bigger slice of the tax pie.

I THINK THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE CONNECTED AT THE HIP

Those people who take advantage of social security when they don’t need it, and the shocking numbers of industry who take advantage of what is called corporate welfare have gotta be related somehow. The list of corporate welfare recipients is long, and carry common names that everybody has heard of, and most have purchased utilized some of their products on a daily basis. Have you heard of these companies, and did you realize the size of their subsidies;

Boeing, $13.2 billion

Alcoa, $5.6 billion

Intel, $3.9 billion

General Motors, $3.5 billion

Ford Motor, $2.5 billion

Dow Chemical, $1.4 billion

Berkshire-Hathaway Holdings, $1.1 billion

This is little more than a microcosm of the figures that were compiled featuring cash only information, and come from federal, state and local government disclosures. There’s also subsidizes in the form of actual cash giveaways, building and land transfers, tax abatements, steep discounts on water and electric bills as well as city, county, or state infrastructure cost waivers.

And then there’s the heavy weight of them all, SUBSIDILY speaking, farm subsidies far outstrip every other governmental subsidy’s. Farm subsidies are payments made and other support, extended by the U.S. Federal Government to certain farmers and agribusinesses, and is also known as agricultural subsidies.

Original intent of the U.S. farm subsidies was to provide economic stability to farmers during the depression to ensure a steady domestic food supply for American citizens. In the 1930’s 25% of the country’s population lived on the nation’s 6,000,000 small farms. Today close to 160,000 large farms account for close to 80% of farm sales, with less than 3% of the nation’s population residing on the farms.

Each year, the farmers of America rake in approximately $20,000,000 in agricultural subsidies, and between 2004 and 2014 more than $280 billion dollars, a period of time that saw farm prices rise by about 20% to around $100 billion in 2012. Between 1995 and 2009 seven states received 42% of all farm subsidies;

Texas, 9.4%

Iowa, 8.5%

Illinois, 7.1%

Minnesota, 5.8%

Nebraska, 5.7%

Kansas, 5.5%

North Dakota, 4.7%

I find it hard to believe that neither Wisconsin nor California do not appear in this list when you consider the amount of farming these two states do. Maybe this is one reason, 90% of agriculture subsidies go to farms that produce the big 5 crops…..wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton. More than 900,000 farmers and landowners receive subsidies, but payments are heavily tilted towards the largest producers.

The largest and wealthiest of the farmers in the United States received an average total payment over the past 15 years of $445,127 per recipient, or an average of $29,675.51 dollars. The bottom 80% of farmers received on average total payment of $8,682, an average of just $578.80 per year.

The Agricultural Act of 2014, or the Farm Bill was signed into law by President Obama on February 7, and guarantees $100 billion dollars a year in federal funding for the United States Department of Agriculture projects. There were special interests galore in the bill, and to hear some talk, more human entitlements should have been cut in order to tack on another $15 to $20 billion a year unto the act. The act is in place for the next five years.

OK SO WHAT DID WE LEARN

I can’t speak for anybody but myself, but clearly the research information that I included in this blog shows an almost total imbalance in subsidiaries, who gets them, and the amount that they get. I realize that America big business was at the taxpayer’s trough like a bunch of hungry pigs, and I also had a suspicion that many in Washington D.C. were involved in an almost complicit act.

But I wasn’t aware of the size of subsidy payments to Major League Business, and the lucrative business that tugs at every American’s purse strings. And I didn’t realize that Corporate Welfare was brazenly included in the federal budget that are elected officials are supposed to read, and then understand what it is that they are voting on…..but obviously they ain’t got a clue…..just like most of us.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

CHUCK HAGEL, A HELL OF AN AMERICAN!

CHUCK HAGEL, A HELL OF AN AMERICAN!

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

Ok so maybe Chuck Hagel isn’t the best that American has to offer, but at least he’s (driving in the right direction.) Hagel is 67, was a U.S. Senator, (Republican) from Nebraska, and was appointed as the United States Secretary of Defense by President Obama a year ago this coming Thursday, February 27.

Why is he one of my new favorite bestest of Americans, he is the bearer of glad tidings, my reading buddies, he’s talking about cutting the defense budget and the size of our military. Don’t read me wrong here, I don’t think that Charles Timothy Hagel sat down in a corner of his office, or his apartment in Washington D.C. and figured out that the country is headed for military spending Armageddon, oh no, he had help on this project…..and much input from all of those people around him…..in his department as well as outside his offices.

What Hagel suggested was a new approach to military thinking going forward in the 21^st century…..notice I didn’t used the worn-out cliché POST 9/11. Hagel did talk about a nimble, smaller sized Army to better confront with a more nimble U.S. military, a more volatile and unpredictable enemy. The budget that President Obama submits to Congress next week will (according to Hagel) reflect the nation’s transition from 13 years of war.

Hagel goes from a glimpse of hope and sanity, given cutting back troops strengths, and budgets right back into the core of his plan, that the U.S. military will no longer be sized to conduct large and protracted ground wars. It will put more emphasis on versatile, agile forces that can project power over great distances, including Asia.

LET ME SEE

In exactly 299 words, Chuck Hagel went from a hell of an American to just one more of those war mongering Washington D.C. officials that really isn’t interested in any change. The toys, gadgets, and gizmos that are produced by industry here in the United States…..and the world will still be produced, will still need to be paid for, and will still be portrayed as spreading democracy, and protecting our freedom.

There are millions and millions of Americans that are employed by…..well, Americans, yea that’s right, we’re hiring ourselves to pay…..ourselves. (You’re gonna have to follow me here for a minute) it takes people working in manufacturing to produce the military equipment that is necessary for the U.S. to safeguard our freedom, and to spread our kind of government in foreign countries.  

These military manufacturing jobs pay good money; they afford employees a good set of benefits, and do offer a modicum of stability in job security, especially in today’s job market. These people work hard, do a proven great job, and are worth every penny that their paid.

That said…..exactly where do you think that the money comes from to pay these military manufacturers? There isn’t a magic money tree, or a pit where twenty dollar bills are stored…..no-sir-e my friends, that money comes from taxpayers…..which in some way, we all are. Even those people that work in defense contracted jobs, those people who are responsible to make the gadgets, and gizmos, so to a slight degree, these workers are paying themselves.

Does this make sense, or am I simply whistling in the wind here, I mean am I the only one who looks at this stuff from this prospective? To me the facts are irrefutable, we are hired by us, to make stuff for us, so that we can go to war (no matter what the reason), we than pay taxes so that we can pay ourselves…..it’s this kind of like a cruel joke that we’re playing on ourselves?

HERE’S SOME HARD COLD FACTS, CHOMP ON THESE FOR A WHILE

Nearly every government that goes to war does so underestimating the initial, or the long term costs to do so, underestimates the duration of hostilities, underestimates the harm to political objectives that can be attained through brute force, and overestimates their citizens approval of war in a foreign land that is thousands of miles away.

The war on terror has cost more than $4 trillion dollars, has taken more than 240,000 confirmed kills, another 365,000 physically wounded, and more than 8 million people displaced. As people said in the Bush administration, “this is the long war,” and I have a sneaky suspicion we’ve only seen the front end of a continuing military, religious, and political effort of conservative change throughout much of the world.

What the United States is going through is unlike any other period in human history, where an almost “perfect storm” of ideology, military might, political upheaval, and religious alignment is in place, and the powers that be have either recognized or implemented these conditions. It is a situation that if not dealt with…..and damned soon, could signal the end times!

All told, including military contractors, the United States has lost more than 6,000 U.S. soldiers and an additional 2,400 contractors killed. In addition some 25,000 deaths have occurred to coalition partners and Afghan and Iraqi military.

The estimates of what this war is going to cost aren’t a conversation that the Pentagon, the Congress, or Obama’s administration wants to address. However it was estimated that an additional $3 trillion would be needed…..back in 2010, and that figure has already been exceeded.

And at this juncture I’m not even going to get into environment or the cost to human health, suffice it to say that it’ll take decades for the earth to recover, and for man, the jury is still out on us. I remember Viet Nam, and the cancer that was caused by the crap that was used in the name of freedom, I’m sure that body parts are still falling off because of that war.

What has happened to the human aid, and the monitory affects that were meant for the war effort, and where did these trillions go…..that question my friends can’t be answered by me, and for that matter by anybody else…..nobody had a handle on that question.

YA RIGHT…..MAJOR BUDGET COSTS

Reduction and a reducing diet, it’s what fat people need, fat people also need an exercise program to help in the overall health. I gotta be honest, I don’t see it and I’ll tell you why…..Marinette Marine, 50 miles north of Green Bay, Wisconsin might be in danger of losing a $34 billion dollar boat contract, putting more than 1,400 people out of work…..which would devastate that community.

There are military contractors all over the country just like Marinette, Wisconsin, in fact there are more than 2,000 sites where somebody, somehow is building some sort of military gadget. There are millions of people that are employed by these companies…..all working towards the same goal, U.S. military might, they just don’t know that there actually brothers and sisters in the same industry.

They all make pretty decent wages, they all get pretty good benefits, all paid for by every citizen that pays a tax here in the United States. The reason that they work for the military industry is simple, like the rest of the employed of the United States, they got bills to pay. You can’t blame these people, just like you can’t blame the military soldier on the ground.

The blame lies with those people who are willing to wage war without a foreseeable end, without an exit plan of any kind. Politicians too wishy-washy on military, political, and religious issues and questions that are raised when one looks straight on at these people and their organizations. These people are to blame, and we also are to blame because we also seem to be too wishy-washy in our due diligence with regards to keeping this people involved, answerable for their actions.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

I WAS JUST WANDERING THE NET WHEN…..!

I WAS JUST WANDERING THE NET WHEN…..!

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

 

I missed it, I scan headlines from more than 30 newspapers every day, and somehow I missed one of my pet peeves, a shooting death…..this incident took place in northern California last Thursday, February 20, 2014. And the worst part, at least for me, was the fact that I found the article in the Russian Times. Alturas, California was the site of the latest mass shooting in the United States. I use the term mass shooting because most state, and all federal authorities do not use the term mass shootings until at least 5 people have died.

I guess the shooting attack didn’t merit a front page story in most of American newspapers because…..well, you pick-um; the victims were Native Americans, or the victims were Native Americans, or the death of an Indian (in this case four) wasn’t noteworthy enough to rate even a wire service story.

It was an afternoon shooting (about 3:30 P.M.) and the perpetrator was a 44-year-old, Cherie Lash, also known as Cherie Rhoades who lived in Cedarville, California. According to police, Lash/Rhoades was attending a tribal eviction meeting at the Cedarville Rancheria tribal office Thursday when the women stood and opened fire, killing four and wounding two others. The woman was armed with a hand gun and a butcher knife, and was apprehended as she ran from the building.

The Cedarville Rancheria is a small Federally Recognized Tribe comprised of 35 members.  It is headquartered in Alturas, California and is governed by a democratically elected tribal council who serve three-year terms, and the alleged February 20 shooter, Lash/Rhoades, was the tribal chairperson during 2012.

There is something here in this shooting incident that initially isn’t understood, the victims of the Lash/Rhoades shootings were the shooters brother, 50 year old, Rurik Davis; her niece, 19 year old, Angel Penn; and her nephew 30-year old Glenn Calonicco. The fourth person killed was 47-year old Sheila Lynn Russo, a tribal administrator who managed evictions.

Should a shooting spree like this surprise, or even give pause for people to take stock in what is important, and maybe how we possibly should alter our priority thinking? Alturas, California is small, like 2,827 small, and gun ownership isn’t guaranteed, a valid I.D. proof of citizenship, and a clear record (you can’t be a criminal).

You can’t walk down the streets of Alturas packing a side arm, with an itchy trigger-finger, and you can’t carry a rifle slung over your shoulder…..kind of like Robin Hood did with his bow and arrow. Northern California, where Alturas and Cedarville are located….. is on the border of Oregon and Nevada. People works, get married, have children, make a family, and they fish, hunt and play sports…..but they don’t usually shoot people. The population of this high plains area are a hardy lot of native Americans and some rugged pioneer types who are quick with a joke, and usually quicker to taking care of their own troubles…..that is until a shooting occurs for little or no reason…..an eviction notice is not a reason to gun four people down in cold blood, that’s when law enforcement comes into their lives, and much like the rest of the country, the laws of the land govern the outcome of a situation.

CHERIE LASH/RHOADES

To say the least, Cherie Lash/Rhoades is a robust women, she appears to be a good 250 pound person, and nobody to take lightly in a physical altercation. And it’s graphically apparent that the women can handle a firearm. There’s a picture of this lady included with the story, and as they say…..”a picture is worth a thousand words.” This woman looks frustrated with life, with herself, and probably figures that she ought to be in a different place.

Practically everyone in this tiny high desert town in northeastern California’s Surprise Valley knew Cherie Lash/Rhodes. She was a leader of the small Paiute Tribe and according to a village business owner, Lash/Rhodes bullied her way through life…..but there was surprise when the woman had shot to death four people.

Surprise is a pretty strong word in this case, if Lash/Rhodes bullied people, and she apparently got away with it, when she was confronted by her own family who figured that the bullying was over, who’s to say that the killing spree wasn’t predictable? I’m not a shrink, have little experience with a bully (as an adult) but because her family members were putting Lash/Rhodes and her son out of their house, maybe the reaction was predictable.

According to the business owner, Lash/Rhodes was always ready for a good joke, but people didn’t want to get on her bad side. The women was always pushing, pushing to get her way…..no matter the circumstances, she was “right” all of the time, always loud, plowing straight ahead to gain her own end.

MY POINT IS SIMPLE

Why Cheri Lash/Rhodes decided to kill her brother (whom she got along with most of the time), a niece and nephew is anybody’s guess. The other fatality, a tribe administrator was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time, tragically.

I have a couple of points with regards to this blog, I’m wondering why, in the 21^st century, being one of the reputed leaders of the free world, do we put so little stock in mass murder. What Cheri Lash/Rhodes did was to take a loaded weapon to a meeting, and when she didn’t like what she was hearing, she pulled out her pistol and shot lethal holes in four people, and wounded two others.

There are approximately 20 U.S. kids a day that are hospitalized for gunshot wounds, that figures out to more than 7,000 kids a year being shot in the United States of America. Is that figure unacceptable, you better believe it. This is a disturbing figure, but read on there’s more of these statistics for your information, that’ll startle you.

Depending on which source a person uses, between 25,000 and 30,000 people die every year in the United States as a result of being shot accidently, or suicide…..or on purpose. We’re in a war here people, it’s just not declared, and not all are armed.

Defective tires have killed more than 200 people over the past 40 years, while defective guns or ammunition have claimed around 500 people over the same period. We can’t stop driving cars, and to drive those cars, we gotta have tires, so defective tire deaths will continue.

However…..my second point, can anybody tell me how many people would die from gunshots if there weren’t any firearms…..no of course not. We simply aren’t going to get rid of our pistols and rifles, there kind of a phallic symbol, you know, the mines bigger than yours thing.

So if we’re not getting rid of our weapons, we’d better come up with some solid ideas on how to keep guns out of hands of people like Cheri Lash/Rhodes. Oh sure the gun owner advocates come out of the wood-work with the “a well-regulated militia, or no free man shall be debarred the use of arms, or how about, to disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”  

Look we aren’t dependent on hunting our food, the Native American has been defeated, and we’re spending billions on security and law enforcement domestically, so we don’t need a militia, and nobody needs an A-K 47.

So why can’t we sit down around a round table, and get this thing settled…..get rid of the gun manufacturing and ammo makers lobbyists, and let’s have some quality one on one to get things done…..”can I get a witness?”

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

DOUBLING DOWN, DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT IT WOULD WORK!

DOUBLING DOWN, DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT IT WOULD WORK!

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(ALL THE NEWS THAT NOBODY ELSE WILL PRINT)

 

I can remember when casino gambling was first proposed when I was just a shaver of 21 or 22, and the proposal met with stiff opposition, probably because of the time, early to middle 60’s. In examining the history of gaming or gambling here in North America, there seemed to be suggestions that when states or the federal government needed a quick infusion of cash, issues were sometime tabled for what could only be termed for the greater good.

 

The early colonies had different attitudes towards gambling, historians have classified the early settlers into loose groups, the English who brought along the English traditions and beliefs, and the puritans. Although the Puritans came from England, they came to the new world to create a better society, and discard the values of their mother country. To say the least, Puritans and gambling did not go good together and large swaths of New England, where attitudes and in fact laws towards gambling were adopted, in addition to cards, dice and gaming tables (even in the privacy of one’s home) were outlawed. So, too, was dancing as well as singing in public, I’m not sure how these people felt about dancing, or singing in the privacy of their own homes.

 

As the country grew, attitudes changed, governmental services were desired, and financial burdens became a heavy burden to these hardy pioneers. Even before the establishment of the 13 colonies and the Revolutionary War, both colony and business conducted state approved lotteries to help bail these early people out of their financial maladies.

 

These early lotteries were relatively sophisticated, included instant winners, were well received by most of the citizenry, and helped these early settlers achieve their goals for many worthy causes. Eventually the Crown (England) banned the lotteries because of complaints that they were robbing England of their share of the proceeds; in short order the lotteries were dissolved.

 

There were different eras of gambling here in the United States, just like any other enterprising ideas that’ll come and go as the country grew. Of course after the Puritan attitude of unsavory and sinful was probably the crime element that seemed to co-exist with the very essence of what gambling seems to stand for…..the easy buck, and an unhealthy atmosphere that seemed to permeate gambling houses in the early history of gaming.

 

CRACKDOWN ON ORGANIZED CRIME PUSHED THE MOBSTERS WESTWARD

Pressured by law enforcement agencies in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago left organized crime little choice but to move their operations towards the west coast, with a stopover in an area that was nothing more than desert property in 1905, and helped the area grow to more than half a million people by 2014.

 

The infamous Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel moved to the west, expanding the role that gaming and bookmaking would play in the evolution of the city of Las Vegas into one of the premiere tourist locations in the world today.  

 

Gambling became so pervasive in Nevada that most forms were legalized by 1931, the states Legislature motivated by the tremendous amount of money that was brought into the desert community…..even during the depression years.

Gambling in Nevada, even though it was legalized struggled from its 1930’s inception until after World War II, when the prosperity of post-war America started a boom in the fledgling industry. Nevada seemed to be a natural for gambling pretty much because the state already had a flourishing illegal gaming industry that was rife with the usual corruption by law enforcement and key political figures.

 

GAMING/GAMBLING AND INDIANS IN THE 21^ST. CENTURY

This morning in my local newspaper, the Green Bay Press Gazette, Green Bay, Wisconsin, which was authored by Kathleen Foody. The piece is entitled Humble Beginnings, and she talks about the squalid and poverty that the Wisconsin Indians have lived in.

 

Not everybody that is Indian, living on the reservations has shared in the windfall of cash from the state’s 26 different gaming sites. All told Wisconsin has more than 16,000 slot machines, and numerous gaming tables. Different tribes had different areas to work into their gambling sites, and some are more successful than others, it’s the same as any other people traffic driven business, (location, location, location.) Those tribes with the locations are doing the best; hence there tribal membership enjoys the success.

 

Of course there are pros and cons with Native American gambling establishments, some worry about the corruption that seems to be waiting in the wings of any gaming type enterprise. After a time, I believe that initial goals can become blurry and discarded. Without exception these gambling dens were created for a dual role, (1) to help financially the Indian tribes involved, and (2) to afford employment to the tribesmen.

 

Tribes can realize a lion’s share of the revenue, but the state of Wisconsin has their boney fingers out there, ready to reap their perceived share. And to a degree there’s a competition between the tribes and their gaming houses.

 

Indian gaming in the United States counts more than fifteen hundred facilities that include horse tracks, dog tracks, and cruise ships, and is responsible for billions and billions of dollars in revenue to the tribes and the states that they operate in.

 

Nevada, (379) and California, (178) count the most gambling establishments, and few are connected with any native American Indian Tribes. Montana, (143,) Washington State, (141,) Florida, (133,) and Oklahoma, (122) round out those states in triple digits.

 

The criminal element cannot be ignored, not from the operators, although I’m sure that there is a concern there, but organized crime. There are areas in the United States where there was already a pre-existing crime problem. I have often thought that casinos’ might serve as a rallying point for crime elements, but can find little data on the subject.

 

Personally I hope the gambling system that the Indian tribes have established do work so that tribesmen receive the benefits that they so richly deserve. But those officials that are leading these 2014 tribes into a more prosperous time had better be aware of the pitfalls that they might encounter.

 

Doubling down can be a ubiquitous and dangerous situation, these people are, after all, representing their tribesmen.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

WHY LISTEN TO THE EXPERTS ABOUT ALMOST ANYTHING?

WHY LISTEN TO THE EXPERTS ABOUT ALMOST ANYTHING?

(CNSNews, Susan Jones, Jeff Chapman, Employment Law Guide)

(Bill Gates, CNBC, Bud Konheim, Nicole Miller, Fox News, Charles Krauthammer)

(Department of Labor Wage Hour Division, Mark Arsten, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

(Steve Contorno, Louis Jacbobson, Karen Herzog, William P. Quigley, Frazer Chronicle)

 

I’ve come to the conclusion that experts are like weathermen, their right about 50% of the time, if they say it’ll be dry, bring an umbrella. This must be the silly season, how else could you explain all of the misgivings, and the positives that are thrown around with the minimum wage debate. First you’ve got Bill Gates talking about the minimum wage, a topic he knows nothing about…..proving my point with his opening line, “Well, jobs are a great thing.” He further states on the MSNBC Morning Joe show “so you have to be careful: if you raise the minimum wage, your encouraging labor substitution, and you’re going to buy machines and automate things…..or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction.” HUH!

Ok, ok, I get it, what Gates is saying is that jobs are a great thing, jobs put people to work so that they earn money, spend it, and make the economy, and the American way of life can go on, but, “boy it sure seems like everybody’s got that great big butt somewhere in their conversation whenever you talk about raising anything.” In this case, Bill Gates (big but) with regards to what he calls labor substitution is when labor is moved elsewhere, usually off shore where labor is cheap…..and the American worker takes one right up the canister, in this case, so that Bill Gates can maintain his bottom line. Whether jobs are moved to other jurisdictions, or machines and automation go into effect, the American working man looses.

This isn’t even a veiled threat, it’s an “in your face” Mr. American working man, or women, “if you push me for a higher wage, I’ll take my ball and bat…..and go home”. Gates further unloaded his annual letter which states three myths that block progress for the poor ;

Poor countries are doomed to stay poor

Foreign aid is a big waste

Saving lives leads to overpopulation

Microsoft worldwide headquarters is located in Redmond, Washington, a suburb of Seattle  and is ultra-modern, I know, I’ve been there, I delivered 1,200 theater seats for the facility’s auditorium..,…no expense was spared, the chicks were beautiful, all the guys were tanned, in shape, and little eager beavers.

Microsoft is about as far from minimum wage as you can get, oh sure, some of the employee force worked for minimum wage, as teenagers, or college students, but that was awhile ago, and they’ve probably forgotten the real value of a buck. And when you’ve got some maxed out talking head like Bill Gates, who’s so obviously full of himself spinning almost everything conservative…..it doesn’t help to remember where you’ve came from.

Asked about income inequality, Gates told MSNBC “that the poor are not getting poorer,” he said “life is better for more people around the world, including many in China, than it has ever been.” ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FRICKIN MIND, number one, I could care less about China, and the plight of that race, there on their own. Number two, people are getting poorer, right here in the good old U.S. of A, I really have little idea where Bill Gates is coming from with this one…..maybe out of his butt!

AND THEN THERE’S CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

There is a premise here that some people just can’t seem to understand, Fox News contributors are one of them. Simply what these people don’t seem to understand is that in one corner you have company A, who makes 1,000 screw-drivers a day, to run the company smoothly, and economically, you need 50 employees doing all manner of duties. If one employee is absent, the smooth and economical way the production runs is disrupted…..that happens…..it’s the rule of that particular screw-driver company.

If the employer is paying his 50 employees $10 per person, per hour (benefits included), his hourly labor overhead is $500 an hour. After all of the overhead involved is figured into the operation, a screw-driver costs the manufacturer $6 each, or $6,000.

The screw-driver manufacture puts a price of $10 per each driver, for a total of $10,000 per hour gross income. If the employees get a governmental mandated raise to, oh, let’s say $10.10 an hour, that means that that handy-dandy screw-driver will cost the consumer an additional $1 to cover the additional wage hike, and just for good measure, the manufacturer kicks the price up another 50 cents (just in case.)

According to Charles Krauthammer, “a child can tell you; if you raise the minimum wage by a third, you’re going to lose jobs. Krauthammer used the Congressional Budget Office’s, (CBO) report that the wage hike could eliminate 500,000 jobs. If the CBO is right, then my analogy of the 1,000 screw-drivers of full of hot air. There’s only one problem here, Chucky, the screw-driver manufacturer isn’t going to shutter his doors, and he won’t be eliminating jobs, he needs 50 employees  to get his job done. Like I said, he’ll simply pass on the additional cost to…..you and me…..in simple terms, it’s called an increase in price, it happens all the time.

Krauthammer also talks about the Democrats liking to redistribute income, and how it’s from the rich to the poor. Actually here, Chuck has it right, with little exception, when a wage increase is mandated by whoever…..the economical movement isn’t upwards, it’s side to side. Here again “C” leaves out one plain fact, if a poor guy gets a raise, he won’t put it in the bank, hell no, he’s out in the economy, buying that 36” color television, or that C.D. player…..things that he’d been dreaming about for a year or two…..but now he can actually get some of what he wants, what he figures he deserves.

Chucky baby, there’s no damage, it’s all good, fella, the lower strata of America have say…..$50 bucks a week, $400 in a month, and $4,800 in six months in additional income. The working stiff won’t let that $4,800 burn a hole in his savings account for very long…..he wants, and by God, he’s gonna have it. No Charles, a raise of the minimum wage in the United States would be a hell-of-a stimulus…..and you can take that to the bank.

According to Krauthammer, a raise in wage damage those who are the most economically vulnerable, there are going to be about half a million people who go from $7 an hour to zero, they’re going to be destitute. Krauthammer also said that raising the minimum wage would, in fact, have the reverse effect of its intention.  

This is not a question of John Q. Public depending on the federal government; this is not an effort by anybody to rob the people it says it really wants to help. It’s an accusation that is leveled by Republicans against the Democrats, and it just doesn’t work. When is raising wages cause for a reduction in what people with the raise can do with this additional cash…..huh!

A CLEAR CUT CASE OF THE SPINS

Ok, this is how it’s working today…..the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and many of the conservative persuasion actually think that what comes out of their collective mouths is righteous, and THE WAY!  I’m not kidding, these people listen to each other, and they listen to their leaders, and they figure that they’ve got it all figured out.

These people figure; that if a person isn’t making enough at his current job, he needs to double his efforts, and get a second one. These people also figure that you should pray, get your life right, and trust in the Lord. These people also do not believe that more than 2.5 million people in the most developed country in the world…..today, are making a minimum wage, and another 1.5 to 2.0 million are making  less than minimum wage. Together this group represents about 5% of the U.S. work force of all hourly paid workers.

The spin doctors would have us believe that raising the minimum wage would drive many small businesses out of business. Of course they forget to mention the fact that these same endangered businesses would first pass on the extra hourly wage to their customers.

THE FACTS OF THE MATTER ARE

This issue of a higher minimum hourly wage isn’t complicated, it isn’t scary, and it won’t put hundreds of thousands out of work, and cause millions of other American workers to be put on reduced work schedules. I always view a company announcing that they’ll be cutting a number of employees in an effort to save money, to survive…..what a joke.

Here in Wisconsin, Marquette University is cutting 25 high level positions in order to balance their budget, what does that mean. Well to me, it means that 25 people that had been employed for years were filling unnecessary positions…..because there being eliminated…..right. That must mean that, one, whatever the service was that the position was offering will cease, and wasn’t a necessity, or two, if the same service will be offered, existing people will be doubling up on their work responsibilities, then the position wasn’t necessary anyways.

In summation, raising wages does not cost jobs, it in fact cultivates the labor pool, the detractors of raising the minimum wage are operating on decades old information, very little harm is done by raising the minimum wages…..it’s the facts of the 21^st century. A service, or a product is going to go up to help cover the increase in cost of producing that widget  that you’re going to buy, but the increase won’t be much more than a few pennies, for the good of the country’s work force…..I can absorb that much. I guess I’d look at that as my part to help make America’s workers strong and vibrant.  The only question that I have for you is…..can you?

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

THE PLIGHT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS

          THE PLIGHT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

  (Al Jazeera, Diana Reese, Pay Scale, Paul Monroe)

(Buzzle, Ningthoujam Sandyyarani, Graham Mumm, Sherman Dorn)

(United States Department of Education, James D. Anderson, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Did you know that it costs $8,626 to educate a kid in the United States public schools…..per year; hell I’m not even sure that my granddaughters are worth that…..they are cute though. I wonder what it cost to educate me, was I worth half that amount, would more money have given me a better education? To my way of thinking…..all pertinent questions now that I’ve entered my twilight years.

According to the information that I’ve gleaned through researching for this blog, the United States ranks right up there with the most expensive countries in the world to educate their kids…..could it be any other way! Switzerland, $9,748, and Austria at $8,863 are the only two countries that rank ahead of the U.S. What are we getting for our young people, are we, and they, getting that elusive BANG for our buck?

You know you read, you watch, and you listen, you try and unravel that big string ball that life seems to be, and at the end of the line you end up with little useable information to formulate an educated opinion on a subject. Public education is paramount to the strength of our society. Knowledge obtained through education and experience is not the same as wealth, or stature, or position, a large segment of a society must have an education in order for the country to prosper.

ACCREDITATION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS IS A TRICKY THING

Accreditation for secondary education is the bomb, you can’t operate without it, oh sure a school can, but I wouldn’t send my kids there, nor yours. Being accredited is important for a whole bunch of reasons, with one aspect of accreditation standing out from all the rest…..curriculum! The first years of a child’s education lays the groundwork and foundation for a student’s entire learning experience, and the last four readies him for the extended period that a higher education will need.

The federal government does not establish, or dictate criteria for secondary schools accreditation, that job is left to the individual states. There are regional territories that do set a loose set of accreditation rules, but the final sit-up is left to the states, it seems to be a question of state rights, and their sovereignty, unfortunately the last concern seems to be the elementary, or high school kids.

Historically the U.S. has had a demand for general skills rather than specific training/apprenticeships, thus there seems to be an increasing number of pupils that are opting to attend Charter Schools, or are home schooled. There also is a small number of high school aged students attending University-preparatory schools, all as alternative to public school systems.

In 1892, in response to the many competing academic philosophies being promoted at the time, a working group of educators, known as the Committee of Ten was established by the National Education Association. This committee recommended twelve years of instruction, consisting of eight years of elementary education followed by four years of high school.

At the start of the 20^th century it was common for high schools to have entrance examinations which restricted entrance to fewer than 5% of the population in preparation for college. Most youngsters were expected to be ready for a job or a family after junior high school. The first public secondary schools started around 1910, and were the wealthier areas of similar income levels.

Between 1910 and 1940 there was a high school movement in the United States resulting in rapidly increasing high school enrollment and graduation, mainly due to the building of new high schools, and the practical curriculum based on gaining skills for life rather than for college. During this same time there was a shift towards local decision making by established school districts, and a policy of easy and open enrollment.

This forward thinking resulted in an education boom, and by the 1950’s the comprehensive high school became common, which were designed to give a free education to any student who chose to stay in school for 12 years to get a diploma with a minimal grade point average, and in 1954 the Supreme Court made desegregation of elementary and high schools mandatory.

The compulsory education was established in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1852, and spread throughout the U.S. until Mississippi in 1917 became the last state to embrace the idea. Compulsory education was not a new idea, and had been in place for two hundred years in Europe.

EVERYTHINGS A SCHEME WITH THE UNITED STATES

It didn’t start out that way, people have to work their way into a situation, have to understand that every situation devised by man has imperfections that can be taken advantage of. I live in Wisconsin, where our educational system is proclaimed to be second to none. However the speaker of this proclamation is a school employee…..always.

There are only two countries where a per capita costs to educate their kids is higher, Switzerland and Austria. There are four basic areas where high school kids need to have before they are capable of going out into the world, and have the abilities necessary to compete in the 21^st century, they are, and where the United States ranks;

World Problem Solving, Korea is number one, and the United States is 29^th.

World Science Performance, Finland is number one, the United States ranks 22^nd.

World Reading Performance, Finland again is number one, the United States is 18^th.

World Math Performance, Finland is number one, the U.S. ranks 28^th.

So you ask “what’s the scheme,” well, let me see, the average High School teacher can make as much as $45,160, an Elementary School teacher, $41,071, a Middle School teacher, $42,678, a Special Ed teacher, $41,860, Special Education teacher, (secondary) $46,341.

Of course there’s the cost per capita of our kids for to educate them, as I mentioned, the cost is $8,626 and only Switzerland and Austria are costlier. The average (weighted average) to educate those cute little chumlies of ours, world-wide is $5,963.67, and this information comes from Nation Master. I don’t usually refer to my sources, but in this case, I thought it was germane.

We are, as a nation, as a species, entering troubled times; the problem is that we need to…..once again get our collective butts involved with what’s going on in our society. If the statistics that make up the facts that I’ve used for this blog are correct, and I have no reason to question them, we’ll be needing an overhaul in our educational system…..right away.

There are high schools in American right now that are working under sanctions from their state school systems because they’ve lost their accreditation…..that’s serious, it means they are teaching at a sub-standard level…..and have either lost some of, or all of their state and federal financial aid.

To my way of thinking, home school isn’t the way to combat the problem that we, as citizens of the country face, it’s more a cop-out. Charter Schools, private schools seem to be for the well to do, and Parochial, although they’ve been around for centuries have always left me thinking that their curriculum was narrow minded, and didn’t embrace the life that most of us are destined to live.

There is still time, the stakes are super high, are we going to…..as a nation, going to maintain our past lofty position in the world of play.  When I refer to the world of play I’m talking about industry, manufacturing, and jobs in the 21^st century. Our ranking in the big four basics (problem solving, reading, math, and the sciences) are each based on a world-wide poll. This poll has nothing to hide, and nothing to gain…..it just spits out findings for its readers to contemplate.

Are we entering into a new era in our evolution, where we recede backwards to an earlier time, a kind of regression…..God I hope not, I wouldn’t want to live in a world where I was one of the intellects.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!