You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded.
To the question, “Why me?” the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, “Why not?”
Atheist: Natural Morals, Real Meaning, Credible Truth

07 December, 2013

Twitter discussion about utopia...

I was in a Twitter conversation.  After I said good by, they kept talking about me, including me in the conversation...
You read from the bottom up...  but just skip to my reply below.



 My reply:

 @BertmcdRm @kpresley7 @EEElverhoy @FreedomFW @mantis8585 So, there seems to be some misconceptions about what my position is in your discussion about me. I am not looking for utopia. Per the original posts, I am looking for a level(er) playing field of opportunity. I don't want to take your money or anyone else's. Statistically, I probably make twice as much as you do anyway. I am not looking for someone to make my dreams come true, I want my kids to have a chance to make it happen. I want everyone to have a chance. Even you.

I think those who prosper from the society they live in must contribute to the society in a way that pays back for what that society provided them. If your business causes $1million in road damage to truck your goods to market and you only pay $1000 in road taxes, there is a deficit. But if you also pay your workers good wages, that can easily make up for it. If you pay crap wages and no benefits and whenever they have medical issues they have to depend on charity care, that is a big deficit. Their taxes aren't helping pay for the road damage and everyone else's health insurance and costs is impacted. When a business takes from society and doesn't pay back, then everyone else loses. Someone has to pay somewhere. And that is what is happening. The top 10% are raking it in and not paying the costs somehow, with taxes, wages, investment, charity. They are not.

Do you know that you probably have not had an effective raise, except for occasional promotions, for the last 10-12 years? Even though productivity of the American worker has improved by more than 25%?
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2013/01/13/opinion/13greenhousech.html?ref=sunday-review 
Do you have ANY sense to what the actual wealth disparity is in this country? Probably not. 
http://youtu.be/QPKKQnijnsM 
HOW can a vibrant economy with opportunity exist in this situation? It can't.

How does this change? Taxes and fees for those who use the system we provide them. Regulation for health care coverage. Fair wages commensurate to the work. I am an aerospace engineer and the companies do wage "market research" to set our wages. That is not a free wage market. That is the equivalent to price fixing and should be illegal. What does it do? It keeps wages flat. It happens everywhere, companies pay "per the market". If you happen to get a 10% better offer somewhere, good luck with raises the next three years. They will hold you to the market from then on. It is like working in a communist country, work your butt off, increase productivity, make profit, no raise. That IS what is happening. Wage fixing should be illegal in this country. The minimum wage must be raised. 

Those who need help should get it, because it gets them spending money in the economy instead of being outside it. The majority of those who get assistance don't like it, it isn't a good life, are working full time anyway, and don't stay on it any longer than they need to. For the very reasons you cite, making your own life is much better than living off someone else. Sure you can cite anecdotes about welfare queens but that isn't the rule or the data. Look it up somewhere other than Faux Noise. Giving help makes us better people, surely you know that... The Inuits didn't put their elders out when they became a burden, the elders left out of self sacrifice, service to their communities. Government helping those in need is our self sacrifice to them and is an investment for the society. The Inuits didn't have a choice about what happens, we do, we have wealth far beyond their imaginations, we don't need to cut the rope to the needy or ask them to walk away into the wilderness.

When our society decides to help the poor, sick, and disadvantaged with increased taxes or fees, that is a decision we made with our elected government. Like it or not. You don't get to live in this country and not participate. If you don't want to, leave. (I have no idea where, Russia maybe?) Or try to convince the rest of us that your way is better and change the decision. You are honestly welcome to try. But, if it is an imposition on you you don't like, basically, too fucking bad. You are here, benefitting from our society, if you want to stay and play, you pay. It is the price you pay for being where you are. The Libertarian utopia you seem to long for has never existed or lasted. Mainly because it can't.

Frankly, you people are ugly. Your destain for what I tried to say is ugly. Someday you may need some help and if the country is the way you want it, I hope you suffer. I have a lot of compassion for those in need. I have none for those who cause it.
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26 October, 2013

Test from iPhone

Test post from blogger app on my iPhone.
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05 October, 2013

Today's Economics

Some economics as I understand it. Jobs are created by companies when they think they need people. Only when they are forced to hire because they would lose business if they don't. Not one job is created because business is nice or feels a duty to. Regulation has little, if anything, to do with it. They need jobs when they have someone to buy the stuff they do or make or sell. That can be the public, the government, other people in the world, or other governments. If they don't have the money to buy anything, they don't. As a result, many companies sit on their cash waiting for opportunity. As a result of the crash, most people don't have the cash for anything but the basics or are saving because of uncertianty of the future. That is the case for most Americans today, evidenced by the slow GDP growth and the decline in personal debt (small silver lining). With the public not buying and other countries not buying, there is one way to give the economy a little kick. Break the cycle. Not drive the economy, just stimulate it in the right direction. Government spending. But with the loss of incomes comes the loss of tax revenue. Kind of a sick circle. We need government spending anyway and it was started when Obama came into office and the short time he had a fillibuster proof Senate. It did work if you look at actual data, there wasn't enough of it, but it made a difference. But that ended in the fall of 2009 with the death of Kennedy and the fillibuster proof Senate. From then on the GOP could block with fillibuster any legislation for stimulus the White House proposed, and did. The use of the fillibuster by the GOP has been many times more in the last 5 years than all combined previously. Why? Because of the debt fear. Austerity! Austerity! Cut government! Save money! And it happened, your "dictator" Obama made concessions left and right. Hundreds of thousands of government (local, state, AND federal) workers have been fired, their paychecks removed from the economy just when paychecks were needed. That is FACT. Look it up. And the economy? The austerity hasn't worked. Here or in Japan or in Europe. The Japanese have come to their senses after 20 years of stagnation, Europe shows the signs of coming out of the austerity delusion. But the recovery the GOP wants is happening, slow, painful, not one that makes Obama look good. The GOP is happy. They want Obama to fail, they said it the day he was elected and have worked endlessly since to make it happen. Constant lying about ACA, the economy, the budget battles, everything.

We have now a great opportunity to make our economy boom. Or maybe had. Money is cheap, interest rates low, and there are many things to go do with it. Construction all across the country. Energy independence (not fucking carbon). Research of all kinds. But no. The GOP would rather the economy gets crushed first. 

The GOP is going to die over this. A small radical far right faction will split off and wither away. I am not sure what the rest will do.  Today, I don't fucking care what the cowards do.

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