Small business is crucial to the American economy. These businesses have helped kick start our economy after the past several recessions. So why is this not taking place now? What has affected the make-up of our economic machine? It could be many reasons – the recent scandal in the mortgage industry with foreclosures is now leading the way to a apparent downfall, one that could send the whole economy reeling again to the likes of what we witnessed in 2008. Also contributing could be all the government tinkering over the past decade and a half. It is quite possible and very apparent that we simply broke it. We allowed greed to let the government make decisions that essentially broke our capitalistic economic machine. A machine that had run well for us over the past hundred years or so.
Several years ago when so many businesses – large and small – were making money like gangbusters, we all got greedy. Housing prices were skyrocketing, people were spending freely and everyone was buying things they really could not afford trading away a future. Credit was handed out like free candy at a record breaking pace. People were buying homes and getting loans on things they could not afford and should never have been able to obtain. Homes that really should have been worth about $200,000 were now selling for $350,000 or more. Interest rates were kept artificially low and so even more credit was handed out. Hell – money was being thrown around so much some people were really starting to believe that money was growing on trees. Everyone was getting credit, credit for everything they had dreamed about. If someone didn’t qualify, the banks created new ways for them to be able to get credit. We allowed our government and corporations to break the machine – we broke the machine!
Then when everything came crashing down – no one was spared. We all in some way contributed to the mess because we allowed our government and ourselves to fail. When the machine broke this time, there were not any spare parts to fix it. There was no way to put a band aid on this. People lost their homes – many who should have never owned them in the first place – people lost their possessions, businesses began to fail due to lost sales, mismanagement and bad loans and so many people lost their jobs – jobs that will take many years to recover. What were we all thinking? We listened to a government tell us things were fine, they said inflation was in check (that was minus food and gas, two items that skyrocketed in this timeframe). They said look – People can buy overpriced homes and cars and get credit for them.
Think about this now – how can family of four, making about $70,000 per year total income afford a $400,000 home, two car payments and all the other associated family expenses? This was happening all across America. Back in 1999, I bought a home in Las Vegas for $108,000m sold it in 2002 for $149,000 and as I followed is it sold again in 2005 for $350,000 – at one time the value had shot up to $400,000. Then what happens – the machine starts to make rumbling sounds and finally breaks down – crashes! That home now has a value of about $100,000 – 11 years later it is worth less than what is was brand new. It should have never been worth $350,000, Las Vegas’ economic make-up centered on tourism and the casinos, the city could not sustain that. But we let our government tell us different. We did not pay attention to what the politicians we elected were doing because we were greedy. We trusted the people we elected – yet we did not pay attention to what they were doing once they got in office.
So why is small business not pulling us out of this mess this time? It is because we broke the machine, we abused it, we did not take care of it, we allowed others to borrow it, tinker with it and they abused it. We messed it up pretty good. Now – we really need to face the facts – we can no longer fix it, we don’t have the right parts available. We need to build a new machine and learn to take care of it, put it on a maintenance schedule to keep it running smoothly.
There are so many people out of work, unemployment continues to hover around 10%. No one has cash to spend. We were all dependent on credit. People out of work, pay raises are slow to come or still non existent, hundreds of thousands lost their homes and jobs and businesses. Now we are also looking at a Mortgage Industry that has foreclosures on hold and many possible lawsuits lining up due to the crisis. Small businesses thrived on people being able to spend. Small business is now stuck in a rut along with many larger businesses.
President Obama has come up with many short term ideas but unfortunately his administration and the congress as a whole can not come up with the necessary solutions to get the economic machine back on track. They are unwilling to face the fact that we as a whole actually broke it. The government broke it, corporate America really broke it and we as Americans broke it. The bail out money given to all these companies did not help – the corporations used it to clear the red ink from their books and invest it in higher yielding shares and reaped the profits. With the profits, they did not invest it in hiring but are holding it within. Sure, now some of these corporations are paying back the money but we as Americans are the losers in this process. They borrowed our money, they made profits off it and they keep the rewards of those profits. Tell me – how did this help the economy? It didn’t not one bit, unemployment rose and is still hovering near 10%.
I still applaud Ford Motor Company. They did not take any bailout money, they went back and figure out what they needed to do and turned things around and made a profit at doing it the right way. Sure car sales went up at some of the other car manufacturers once the cash for clunkers was in place, but as soon as it expired, sales slowed again. The same happened in the housing industry, once the incentives were removed housing sales slumped. To top it off the government and the economist wondered why this happened – are you sure we have the right people running things?
The process is a simple one, the answer is not so simple. To keep business growing and to sustain that growth, people need to buy your product, your sales have to keep growing. At issue is the fact that so many people are out of work and so many people have less money that no one is spending. It used to be we spent more than we saved in this country – now we are saving more and there is less to spend. Credit is harder to come by and people are buying more with cash. All this contributes to lower sales. This all should be common sense to our government officials – we elected them in part because we believed they had some common sense. So to tackle this whole issue we all have to start with common sense. We first have to face the fact – We Broke the Machine.
Now – we faced that fact. Unfortunately so many of our elected officials have not. We have to face the fact that this will be a long process – not good news but it is a fact we need to face. So far our elected officials have not faced that fact. We also need to face the fact that we need to build a new economic machine – one we all agree we will take care of and nurture – many of our elected officials refuse to want to do this.
Some things are starting to turn around, but not enough to help us out of this mess. Several banks are still failing, some have seen the errors of their ways and have cut back on issuing credit, making it much harder to qualify. This is making it harder on many small businesses who rely on short term loans to stay afloat and other loans to expand. So many of these businesses no longer can qualify. They no longer have the sales to generate enough capital to show the banks they are able to repay the loans.
A big key to this whole process is finding a solution that will lead to middle class Americans increasing their spending. A substantial part of the process will also involve spending with hard cash and much less credit. Doing it this way is a longer healing process, but it would be more sustained and much more credible. This will be one of the pains of rebuilding the Machine. With so many people out of work we must face the fact that this process will be long and tedious. Many people will need to be retrained for new jobs and roles in other fields – a situation for which we as a country are simply not prepared.
The big fact we need to face is that we do not have the right people in power to take care of this job. We need to quit looking at which party is at fault – both parties help mess this up and neither seems to have the answers. The leadership is poor. We do not have a winning team in place and now the draft is approaching (election) a chance to get valuable replacement players that are willing to take us to the next level, willing to put in the true work it is going to take to get a new Machine built. This all starts in your own communities, with your local poloticians all the way up to the national level. Many localities are still run by the same families that contributed to this mess in the first place. People who are descendents of people who have been in power in some instances for a few hundred years, they are elected just because of their name. Not a good deal – this is not any better than voting along party lines. This country was not meant to be a two party system but we have now made it that way.
Further bailout packages to corporations is not the answer. We need to find a way to get money into the hands of the people so they can spend again and get companies to start growing. If we don’t build this machine correctly and maintain it, we are going to end up in this mess again. We need to build the Machine the right way, make it work and take care of it. It will be a long process for everyone, but working together we can do this. America was built on the backs of hard working Americans – we can not forget this. Hard work is what made us, hard work is what will get the Machine built and hard work is what will sustain growth.
With the elections coming up – remember this. Now is your opportunity to make a change for the better. Get people in office that will work hard for us, for the belief in America! Ignore the party lines, look at what each candidate has to truly offer. IT is our time to make a change and let our voice be heard. We must all remember that our government is – “By the people and for the people” it should not dictate to us, we should dictate to it. _ Just My Explosion of Thought!
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government. Show all posts
Monday, October 18, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Get America Growing Again!
The only way to fix our economy and start creating jobs at a brisk pace is to get middle class American Taxpayers to start to spend again. It is a proven method and to do so you have to get the cash into these people hands so they feel confident to spend again. Many middle class Americans have not had pay raises in at least 2 years, I being one of those. If you can get this class of people to start spending again, companies will start increasing sales and profits, more workers will be needed to help with the increase and more tax income will be generated. It is a trickle down effect that helps sustain long term growth. It will be a little tougher this go round because companies in order to survive have had to figure out how to do more with less. The cost of doing business has increased over the past 3 years and companies can no longer absorb all the costs. They either have to start passing them along or find a way to cut costs elsewhere. The sales per employee figure with many companies had to increase drastically, profit margins experienced steep drops. So now what they may have done with 30 workers 5 years ago, they have learned to do with 25 workers now. So to start adding employees they have to see substantial growth at a sustained rate. A lot of spending needs to be done folks!
With the government pumping money into large corporations and states, no income is generated to assist the people who spend on a regular basis - middle class Americans. The corporations use the money to pay off debts and clear their books. It gives them no incentive to really change their ways. I have respect for Ford, they did not take any money; they went back, regrouped, came up with a plan and instituted that plan right away. They are now one of the top automakers in the world, way ahead of the rest of the crowd.
Why can't our government figure this out - as long as Americans don't spend, the economy will not grow. There have also been so many home foreclosures, that there are now hundreds of thousands of people who have become ineligible to obtain home loans for the next several years. Many of these people are now living with relatives because they can not even get a lease. This will slow down home buying down the line and we will see a plateau.
It is going to be long term rebuilding process, at least another 5 to 7 years, before we all can dig out of this one - BUT that is only if the government sees how to fix the economy - get the money into the hands of people who will spend it and things will start to improve much quicker. I am not talking about the measly $400 or $800 to everyone - that is a slap in the face and worthless. You know if instead of bailing out all these companies and states with the billions that the government spent, they could have given each American taxpayer $40,000 or more each and spent less than 1/2 of what they did - the economy would have been much further along by now because most of these people would have went out and spent at least 3/4 of that. The only proven way to get out of a recession is for Americans to spend their way out. Maybe the government can look at suspending taxes for people making $125,000 or less for the rest of the year, this would throw more money to the people who need it and the people who will spend it. Bailouts of corporations is not and should not have been the direction the government took.
To get things straight again, there will also need to be a balance of cutting spending and an increase in taxes. You can only cut so much before you start having to eliminate many essential services. With debts in the federal and state governments so high a likely tax hike of some sort will be a necessary evil. I thinks an increase in gasoline taxes is fair, it is a tax that can be applied evenly across all classes. Everyone who drives will be pitching in. There has not been an increase here in years. Maybe look at a .02 or .03 increase per gallon. This will not cause a great hardship to anyone and it is a fair tax. Use 50% for Highway improvements and 50% for paying down the debt. I once saw an article from the oil industry that said increasing the taxes on gasoline would put an undue financial hardship on oil companies and they would have to increase the price of gas. The example was if the government imposed a tax of .04 a gallon, they would have to charge at least .08 or more. What a bunch of hogwash. It is a tax, you collect it and pass it through to the government. IF you get it done early, the government even gives you a little discount. So if the tax was .03 a gallon, you should only see prices increase by .03 a gallon. This would generate at current consumption about $350,000,000 a year.
With the government pumping money into large corporations and states, no income is generated to assist the people who spend on a regular basis - middle class Americans. The corporations use the money to pay off debts and clear their books. It gives them no incentive to really change their ways. I have respect for Ford, they did not take any money; they went back, regrouped, came up with a plan and instituted that plan right away. They are now one of the top automakers in the world, way ahead of the rest of the crowd.
Why can't our government figure this out - as long as Americans don't spend, the economy will not grow. There have also been so many home foreclosures, that there are now hundreds of thousands of people who have become ineligible to obtain home loans for the next several years. Many of these people are now living with relatives because they can not even get a lease. This will slow down home buying down the line and we will see a plateau.
It is going to be long term rebuilding process, at least another 5 to 7 years, before we all can dig out of this one - BUT that is only if the government sees how to fix the economy - get the money into the hands of people who will spend it and things will start to improve much quicker. I am not talking about the measly $400 or $800 to everyone - that is a slap in the face and worthless. You know if instead of bailing out all these companies and states with the billions that the government spent, they could have given each American taxpayer $40,000 or more each and spent less than 1/2 of what they did - the economy would have been much further along by now because most of these people would have went out and spent at least 3/4 of that. The only proven way to get out of a recession is for Americans to spend their way out. Maybe the government can look at suspending taxes for people making $125,000 or less for the rest of the year, this would throw more money to the people who need it and the people who will spend it. Bailouts of corporations is not and should not have been the direction the government took.
To get things straight again, there will also need to be a balance of cutting spending and an increase in taxes. You can only cut so much before you start having to eliminate many essential services. With debts in the federal and state governments so high a likely tax hike of some sort will be a necessary evil. I thinks an increase in gasoline taxes is fair, it is a tax that can be applied evenly across all classes. Everyone who drives will be pitching in. There has not been an increase here in years. Maybe look at a .02 or .03 increase per gallon. This will not cause a great hardship to anyone and it is a fair tax. Use 50% for Highway improvements and 50% for paying down the debt. I once saw an article from the oil industry that said increasing the taxes on gasoline would put an undue financial hardship on oil companies and they would have to increase the price of gas. The example was if the government imposed a tax of .04 a gallon, they would have to charge at least .08 or more. What a bunch of hogwash. It is a tax, you collect it and pass it through to the government. IF you get it done early, the government even gives you a little discount. So if the tax was .03 a gallon, you should only see prices increase by .03 a gallon. This would generate at current consumption about $350,000,000 a year.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Oval Office Apology
The government is trying to focus all blame on the oil companies for not having plans in place to prevent/clean-up from an offshore oil spill. If you look back on history, there has never been a plan in place. Our government never required a plan be put in place and the government never had a plan of its own.
What about the government response to the spill? Why did the government fail the American public by not overseeing what the inspectors were doing, or in this case not doing. Why did our government wait so long to accept help from other countries? BP screwed up bad on this but only because the government allowed them to.
When aid was offered from Sweden with their large Oil Skimmers, we did not accept their assistance. The government has also refused help form at least 10 other countries including Canada, Mexico and Great Britain. The oil skimmers from Sweden which are some of the largest and most efficient in the world could have helped to clean up so much more of the oil spill. The ships are capable of collecting 50 tons of oil / hour, around 1000 tons/day. Currently the leak spews out 1000 – 1500 tons/day if current estimates are accurate. Just the other day the State Department issued a statement on behalf of the President: "While there is no need right now that the US cannot meet, the US Coast Guard is assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be something which we will need in the near future," it added. I am telling the government right now – we need the help damn it!
Democrats and Republicans have both aimed some of their criticism at Obama. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) complained about the "incompetent response to this disaster" and said that President Obama had given too much cleanup authority to BP and behaved like "a spectator in the stands." Our President is expected to be a leader and demand answers and solutions. He should be exploring and using any means available including foreign aid to help with this horrible situation.
So I say to our government – to out President - I expect to hear an apology from you to the American public during your Oval Office speech. Our government failed us just as bad as BP. We have plans in place for various other disasters, why not have one for off shore oil spills. I want to express my deepest gratitude to the rest of the world that has offered to help us – we appreciate the offer and we really can use all the help we can get, but our government does not seem to feel the same urgency. I hope when we do finally ask you for help, your offer still stands. – My explosion of thought!
What about the government response to the spill? Why did the government fail the American public by not overseeing what the inspectors were doing, or in this case not doing. Why did our government wait so long to accept help from other countries? BP screwed up bad on this but only because the government allowed them to.
When aid was offered from Sweden with their large Oil Skimmers, we did not accept their assistance. The government has also refused help form at least 10 other countries including Canada, Mexico and Great Britain. The oil skimmers from Sweden which are some of the largest and most efficient in the world could have helped to clean up so much more of the oil spill. The ships are capable of collecting 50 tons of oil / hour, around 1000 tons/day. Currently the leak spews out 1000 – 1500 tons/day if current estimates are accurate. Just the other day the State Department issued a statement on behalf of the President: "While there is no need right now that the US cannot meet, the US Coast Guard is assessing these offers of assistance to see if there will be something which we will need in the near future," it added. I am telling the government right now – we need the help damn it!
Democrats and Republicans have both aimed some of their criticism at Obama. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) complained about the "incompetent response to this disaster" and said that President Obama had given too much cleanup authority to BP and behaved like "a spectator in the stands." Our President is expected to be a leader and demand answers and solutions. He should be exploring and using any means available including foreign aid to help with this horrible situation.
So I say to our government – to out President - I expect to hear an apology from you to the American public during your Oval Office speech. Our government failed us just as bad as BP. We have plans in place for various other disasters, why not have one for off shore oil spills. I want to express my deepest gratitude to the rest of the world that has offered to help us – we appreciate the offer and we really can use all the help we can get, but our government does not seem to feel the same urgency. I hope when we do finally ask you for help, your offer still stands. – My explosion of thought!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The BP Spill and Our Government's Failure
The bottom line on this is that the government - all of the government failed us in allowing the behavior of these oil companies to go on. Both republicans and democrats are responsible. The President is responsible on the clean-up end because he was not quick to respond. Louisiana has begged for federal assistance for weeks from the President and he ignored them. The barrier they requested was just approved - after billions of dollars in economic, ecologic and personal disaster has already taken place.
In addition the European Union, the United Nations and 14 individual countries, like Sweden, are offering to help the U.S. clean up the mess in the Gulf of Mexico. The President has been in talks with the United Nations. The President just visited the Gulf area to see first had the disaster that will take years if not a decade to clean up. His slow response is abhorrible.
The little country of Sweden, has been offering to send three ships with the ability to skim 50 tons of oil per hour from the water’s surface with a capacity of 1000 tons. It could take a few weeks for the ships to get here. Swedish officials say the offer has been made and they’re just waiting for a request from Washington. These are very large oil skimming vessels that should have been mobilized a few weeks ago. Once the oil reaches the shoal waters of the panhandle, these large vessels will be useless.
In a country like the USA, that drills, transports and uses more oil than any other country in the world, why doesn’t the U.S. have the largest oil skimmers in the world. The money we pay in taxes is supposed to be used to educate, protect and defend all of us. There are HAZMAT response vehicles in many of our fire departments and emergency response teams. We are equipped to handle oil spills on the road. How come we are not equipped to handle them out at sea? If Sweden can afford to have ships like this on standby, why can’t we? Why haven’t we demanded all along that oil companies, with their enormous profits, keep a fleet of such ships on standby in the Gulf and anywhere there are offshore oil platforms?
When it was time for the Coast Guard to procure new vessels, they didn't think large oil skimmers or multi-purpose vessels were needed or were necessary for their needs. An oil skimmer doesn’t quite have the appeal of a slick, fast cutter armed with multiple weaponry. When the Coast Guard became part of the Department of Homeland Security, its mission focused more on coastal defense, patrol and drug interdiction, the emergency response for rescue and environmental protection suffered.
This is not just the fault of BP but on our government - people who we elected to watch out for these things. They said they depended on what the oil companies said - took their word without asking the simple questions. One question that could have prevented all of this that I would have asked: Let's see Mr. Oil Company - we have never drilled a well like this have we. Weell no Mr. Investigator we have not. - Do you know what issues you may run into Mr. Oil Company.- Not really Mr. Investigator, we never drilled this deep in the ocean before. - Well Mr. Oil company, what if something happens, what will you do, what plans are in place, what equipment do you have that can stop or plug this thing at these depths that has been tested? - Well Mr. Inspector - we don't really have an answer for that. - I SEE Mr. Oil company, Then I can not allow this to go forward until you can present to me facts with answers to my questions and proof that you have the technology to prevent or stop anything that may go wrong.
None of this was done. Shame on our government! We need to get the whole bunch out and vote in people who will look out for the American citizens, not people who line their pockets.
“The rules on what plans must be filed by exploration companies before drilling a well were relaxed in early 2008 by the Bush administration. Thereafter there was reportedly some confusion over whether the BP well qualified to be exempted, but that appears to be precisely what happened. If so, lawmakers in Washington are likely to target the Interior Department for falling down on its responsibilities and becoming too cozy with the oil giants. “I’m of the opinion that boosterism breeds complacency and complacency breeds disaster,” said Congressman Edward Markey. “That, in my opinion, is what happened.”‘ -The Independent
A report in the Washington Post in April of 2009, pointed to the MMS (US Minerals Management Service) giving BP a “categorical exclusion” from filing reports on what exactly it would do in the event of a blowout at the Deepwater Horizon. According to the Post, the MMS, in its infinite wisdom, concluded any blowout that might occur wouldn’t be bad enough to threaten coastal ecosystems. So why worry? Now we have blobs of oil are reportedly washing up on the white sand beaches of Alabama and all along the Louisiana coastline, killing hundreds of birds and other wildlife, ruining the eco system, threatening the mouth of the Mississippi River, putting people out of work and causing billions of dollars in damage.
So what do we have to say about all of this. Sure BP is at fault – they have taken the blame for this mess. But we can’t put this all on them, our government has failed us. In comparison to Katrina which was caused by nature – this is far bigger. We are not even sure if anyone can stop this leak right now. What if it can not be stopped? Will this be the end of us all, all our water contaminated a huge upset of the eco system? All because some simple questions were not asked or maybe even the answers ignored. This is serious people, we should all be worried and we should all be questioning all the people we have in office right now. Who is managing this mess – not the mess in the gulf – but the mess we have in government. This government is supposed to be Of the people and For the people. We as citizens need to get a grip on government. We need to get people who truly care about this country and the people who are citizens into office. The people we have in now both Democrats and Republicans including the office of the President have no clue and are all guilty of this mess. We as American citizens were dependent of the people in office to protect us from situations like this. Voice your opinion and vote for new people to replace all of them.
See the live feed here: BP Oil Leak Live
This is MY EXPLOSION OF THOUGHT!
In addition the European Union, the United Nations and 14 individual countries, like Sweden, are offering to help the U.S. clean up the mess in the Gulf of Mexico. The President has been in talks with the United Nations. The President just visited the Gulf area to see first had the disaster that will take years if not a decade to clean up. His slow response is abhorrible.
The little country of Sweden, has been offering to send three ships with the ability to skim 50 tons of oil per hour from the water’s surface with a capacity of 1000 tons. It could take a few weeks for the ships to get here. Swedish officials say the offer has been made and they’re just waiting for a request from Washington. These are very large oil skimming vessels that should have been mobilized a few weeks ago. Once the oil reaches the shoal waters of the panhandle, these large vessels will be useless.
In a country like the USA, that drills, transports and uses more oil than any other country in the world, why doesn’t the U.S. have the largest oil skimmers in the world. The money we pay in taxes is supposed to be used to educate, protect and defend all of us. There are HAZMAT response vehicles in many of our fire departments and emergency response teams. We are equipped to handle oil spills on the road. How come we are not equipped to handle them out at sea? If Sweden can afford to have ships like this on standby, why can’t we? Why haven’t we demanded all along that oil companies, with their enormous profits, keep a fleet of such ships on standby in the Gulf and anywhere there are offshore oil platforms?
When it was time for the Coast Guard to procure new vessels, they didn't think large oil skimmers or multi-purpose vessels were needed or were necessary for their needs. An oil skimmer doesn’t quite have the appeal of a slick, fast cutter armed with multiple weaponry. When the Coast Guard became part of the Department of Homeland Security, its mission focused more on coastal defense, patrol and drug interdiction, the emergency response for rescue and environmental protection suffered.
This is not just the fault of BP but on our government - people who we elected to watch out for these things. They said they depended on what the oil companies said - took their word without asking the simple questions. One question that could have prevented all of this that I would have asked: Let's see Mr. Oil Company - we have never drilled a well like this have we. Weell no Mr. Investigator we have not. - Do you know what issues you may run into Mr. Oil Company.- Not really Mr. Investigator, we never drilled this deep in the ocean before. - Well Mr. Oil company, what if something happens, what will you do, what plans are in place, what equipment do you have that can stop or plug this thing at these depths that has been tested? - Well Mr. Inspector - we don't really have an answer for that. - I SEE Mr. Oil company, Then I can not allow this to go forward until you can present to me facts with answers to my questions and proof that you have the technology to prevent or stop anything that may go wrong.
None of this was done. Shame on our government! We need to get the whole bunch out and vote in people who will look out for the American citizens, not people who line their pockets.
“The rules on what plans must be filed by exploration companies before drilling a well were relaxed in early 2008 by the Bush administration. Thereafter there was reportedly some confusion over whether the BP well qualified to be exempted, but that appears to be precisely what happened. If so, lawmakers in Washington are likely to target the Interior Department for falling down on its responsibilities and becoming too cozy with the oil giants. “I’m of the opinion that boosterism breeds complacency and complacency breeds disaster,” said Congressman Edward Markey. “That, in my opinion, is what happened.”‘ -The Independent
A report in the Washington Post in April of 2009, pointed to the MMS (US Minerals Management Service) giving BP a “categorical exclusion” from filing reports on what exactly it would do in the event of a blowout at the Deepwater Horizon. According to the Post, the MMS, in its infinite wisdom, concluded any blowout that might occur wouldn’t be bad enough to threaten coastal ecosystems. So why worry? Now we have blobs of oil are reportedly washing up on the white sand beaches of Alabama and all along the Louisiana coastline, killing hundreds of birds and other wildlife, ruining the eco system, threatening the mouth of the Mississippi River, putting people out of work and causing billions of dollars in damage.
So what do we have to say about all of this. Sure BP is at fault – they have taken the blame for this mess. But we can’t put this all on them, our government has failed us. In comparison to Katrina which was caused by nature – this is far bigger. We are not even sure if anyone can stop this leak right now. What if it can not be stopped? Will this be the end of us all, all our water contaminated a huge upset of the eco system? All because some simple questions were not asked or maybe even the answers ignored. This is serious people, we should all be worried and we should all be questioning all the people we have in office right now. Who is managing this mess – not the mess in the gulf – but the mess we have in government. This government is supposed to be Of the people and For the people. We as citizens need to get a grip on government. We need to get people who truly care about this country and the people who are citizens into office. The people we have in now both Democrats and Republicans including the office of the President have no clue and are all guilty of this mess. We as American citizens were dependent of the people in office to protect us from situations like this. Voice your opinion and vote for new people to replace all of them.
See the live feed here: BP Oil Leak Live
This is MY EXPLOSION OF THOUGHT!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Illegal Immigrants(Aliens) and Arizona
Robert Sarver owner of the Phoenix Suns suggested the team wear their Noche Latina alternates for their game today against San Antonio. He stated that frustration with the federal government's failure to deal with the illegal immigration issue led to the passage of what he called "a flawed state law." He went on to say: "However intended, the result of passing the law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question," he said, "and Arizona's already struggling economy will suffer even further setbacks at a time when the state can ill-afford them."
I think the very first thing that we must remember here is that this law is to target “ILLEGAL” aliens – meaning people that broke into our Country without authorization.
That means that they did not come into this country legally, they used illegal means to gain entry. Illegal - prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules; not according to or authorized by law; unlawful. So we have a law that they are supposed to follow and people are actually arguing that these people have rights – Sarver's comments above even go as far as saying they are protected by equal rights under the law. How stupid can that be. The equal rights he is referring to are equal rights that are afforded to AMERICAN CITIZENS. An alien who is present in a country (which is foreign to him/her) unlawfully or without the country's authorization is known as an illegal alien of that country. An illegal alien commonly refers to a foreign national who resides in another country unlawfully, either by entering that country at a place other than a designated port-of-entry or as result of the expiration of a non-immigrant visa.
Also, Sarver is disrespectful to Latin Americans by wearing a Jersey that is not Latin. He is using a jersey that says “Los Suns”, if he wanted to truly respect them he would make the phrase correct “Los Sōlis”. I am guessing that he only wants to half respect them.
Did you know not long after a Collier County Sheriff’s Office program in Arizona to deport troublesome illegal aliens concluded back in December that Mauricio Escalante, 33, an Immokalee farm worker, and illegal alien stabbed a teenage farm worker, Charlie Guzman, to death for speaking English instead of Spanish. There are hardships to be borne by turning a blind eye toward illegal immigrants among us. Ask the family of Charlie Guzman. Not all illegal immigrants are bad, but statistics point to many among them that are.
Many countries around the world have tough immigration laws and high punishments for those that enter their country illegally. Last year Italy made their laws tougher on illegal immigrants and impose a $14,000 fine on each individual and they can also hold them in a jail for up to 6 months before deporting them. Some places in Latin America will throw you in a dirt floor cell and may even forget you are there for quite some time. In Mexico, the one country that is pleading with the US to back off on illegal immigrants, they have some of the toughest illegal immigrant laws: A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally." (Article 123). A Mexican who marries a foreigner with the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in the country is subject to up to five years in prison. (Article 127). Also if you are a Mexican and help illegals gain entry into Mexico, you commit a felony. The EU Union countries can hold you in a cell for up to 18 months before deporting you.
The law in Arizona is one the people of the state support with a wide majority. Over 70% of people in the state support the law. 65% of Americans support the law. It is not racial profiling, it is not racist. If you are in this country illegally you are committing a crime. Should we start ignoring all the rest of our laws also, murders you can go free about your business, drug dealers – go ahead and go about your business as well, anyone want to go rob a few stores – no problem let’s all support them. Many people who support illegal aliens do so because they are cheap labor, they can pay them under the table and can pay them less than minimum wages. These people are the ones who are really insulting them and these people are also breaking the law. The federal government needs to take action and start enforcing the law. This is not a racist issue like so many people are making it to be. Are many of these people another nationality – you can bet the bank that they are, but ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS are from foreign countries, they are all foreign nationalities. There is now estimated up to 12 million illegal aliens in this country, about 95% of them are employed getting paid substandard wages for jobs that American Citizens should have.
So if you believe that illegal aliens have full rights of American Citizens and you support them being here you should be supporting every single person in the US that breaks any laws, if not you are a hypocrite to your beliefs. If one group of people is allowed to break our laws and they are not even citizens of our country, then shouldn’t we grant this same right to our own citizens? Become a land of no laws, total mayhem, pillage, steal, rape, kill and do as you please because that is exactly what you are promoting – breaking the law is ok. Now I don’t believe in treating illegal aliens with disrespect, we should make sure they are treated with respect and made to understand that we have rules for entering our country. They need to abide by those rules, just like all the people who emigrate here legally every year. Let’s find a middle ground and enforce the laws we make that are fair for entering into this country. – my explosion of thought!
I think the very first thing that we must remember here is that this law is to target “ILLEGAL” aliens – meaning people that broke into our Country without authorization.
That means that they did not come into this country legally, they used illegal means to gain entry. Illegal - prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules; not according to or authorized by law; unlawful. So we have a law that they are supposed to follow and people are actually arguing that these people have rights – Sarver's comments above even go as far as saying they are protected by equal rights under the law. How stupid can that be. The equal rights he is referring to are equal rights that are afforded to AMERICAN CITIZENS. An alien who is present in a country (which is foreign to him/her) unlawfully or without the country's authorization is known as an illegal alien of that country. An illegal alien commonly refers to a foreign national who resides in another country unlawfully, either by entering that country at a place other than a designated port-of-entry or as result of the expiration of a non-immigrant visa.
Also, Sarver is disrespectful to Latin Americans by wearing a Jersey that is not Latin. He is using a jersey that says “Los Suns”, if he wanted to truly respect them he would make the phrase correct “Los Sōlis”. I am guessing that he only wants to half respect them.
Did you know not long after a Collier County Sheriff’s Office program in Arizona to deport troublesome illegal aliens concluded back in December that Mauricio Escalante, 33, an Immokalee farm worker, and illegal alien stabbed a teenage farm worker, Charlie Guzman, to death for speaking English instead of Spanish. There are hardships to be borne by turning a blind eye toward illegal immigrants among us. Ask the family of Charlie Guzman. Not all illegal immigrants are bad, but statistics point to many among them that are.
Many countries around the world have tough immigration laws and high punishments for those that enter their country illegally. Last year Italy made their laws tougher on illegal immigrants and impose a $14,000 fine on each individual and they can also hold them in a jail for up to 6 months before deporting them. Some places in Latin America will throw you in a dirt floor cell and may even forget you are there for quite some time. In Mexico, the one country that is pleading with the US to back off on illegal immigrants, they have some of the toughest illegal immigrant laws: A penalty of up to two years in prison and a fine of three hundred to five thousand pesos will be imposed on the foreigner who enters the country illegally." (Article 123). A Mexican who marries a foreigner with the sole objective of helping the foreigner live in the country is subject to up to five years in prison. (Article 127). Also if you are a Mexican and help illegals gain entry into Mexico, you commit a felony. The EU Union countries can hold you in a cell for up to 18 months before deporting you.
The law in Arizona is one the people of the state support with a wide majority. Over 70% of people in the state support the law. 65% of Americans support the law. It is not racial profiling, it is not racist. If you are in this country illegally you are committing a crime. Should we start ignoring all the rest of our laws also, murders you can go free about your business, drug dealers – go ahead and go about your business as well, anyone want to go rob a few stores – no problem let’s all support them. Many people who support illegal aliens do so because they are cheap labor, they can pay them under the table and can pay them less than minimum wages. These people are the ones who are really insulting them and these people are also breaking the law. The federal government needs to take action and start enforcing the law. This is not a racist issue like so many people are making it to be. Are many of these people another nationality – you can bet the bank that they are, but ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS are from foreign countries, they are all foreign nationalities. There is now estimated up to 12 million illegal aliens in this country, about 95% of them are employed getting paid substandard wages for jobs that American Citizens should have.
So if you believe that illegal aliens have full rights of American Citizens and you support them being here you should be supporting every single person in the US that breaks any laws, if not you are a hypocrite to your beliefs. If one group of people is allowed to break our laws and they are not even citizens of our country, then shouldn’t we grant this same right to our own citizens? Become a land of no laws, total mayhem, pillage, steal, rape, kill and do as you please because that is exactly what you are promoting – breaking the law is ok. Now I don’t believe in treating illegal aliens with disrespect, we should make sure they are treated with respect and made to understand that we have rules for entering our country. They need to abide by those rules, just like all the people who emigrate here legally every year. Let’s find a middle ground and enforce the laws we make that are fair for entering into this country. – my explosion of thought!
Friday, April 2, 2010
State of the Economy
I have yet to publish my outlook for 2010. I have been trying to look for signs that we will see some light at the end of the tunnel. I have been trying to look for signs that our Government and the President get it. I have yet to see those signs. Don’t these people ever study their history; don’t they learn from the past mistakes we have made?
Today the US Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate in March remained unchanged at 9.7 percent. My prediction is that we will be very lucky if this figure dips below 9.5% any time this year. Only 162,000 new jobs were created on non-farm payrolls, this is well below than what was expected. I am not sure how anyone expected much more; all you have to do is look around to see what the economy is like.
To top this off is that 48,000 of those were temporary workers hired for the Census, another 40,000 temporary workers were hired health service workers. In the government’s future figures they plan on counting about another 550,000 additional temporary Census workers. In several months, these workers will be out of work again. Over 6.5 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or longer, that is a record!
The President and his staff do not think that unemployment will fall to 5% or below until about 2017. That is almost 7 years away. They believe this because they do not have the answers and do not want to follow what has proven to work in the past. That is because they want change for changes sake and currently are only doing things that history has shown does not work well. We live in a capitalistic society, in this society there will always be ups and downs. The proven way to get out of a recession is to spend your way out. Until this government figures that out, the economy will not move.
The spending has to come from the American people, not the government. Stimulate the middle class people to spend again and the economy will start to grow. It is a ripple effect. If you would have found a way to get all that money into the hands American taxpayers instead of bailing out all these companies where only the top executives have really benefited, the economy would have already been growing. If people had more money to spend - they would be more confident. Then they would go out and buy things, the more they buy the more products will need to be produced. The more products that are produced, the more workers will be needed to produce them. It really is a simple cycle, it is a proven cycle. But the current government wants to do things different, they want to bring down capitalism and become more socialist by controlling more and more of the corporate world. I have yet to see my benefit of the government owning part of GM. Since we the American people pay for the bailout with our tax money – where is my free car – we all deserve that for what was given to them. Ford did not take any money and they fixed things on their own – the capitalist way.
The high unemployment rate is becoming an Achilles heel for the Democratic Party, who is currently in control of the White House and Congress. The party is facing pressure to create new jobs. Why should government create the jobs, they need to stimulate business to create more jobs. How do you do this? Hmm – we if you stimulate the American taxpayer to go out and spend – guess what happens – Bingo!
There was a little movement that showed a slight increase on economic expansion of about 5.6%. But – much of this resulted from inventory adjustments by many businesses. Businesses greatly decreased inventories for most of last year, but slowed the decrease quite a bit in the fourth quarter of last year. Businesses are estimated to have shed their inventories by about $138 billion in the third quarter and about $160 billion in the second quarter. In the fourth quarter this amount was slowed, as inventories decreased only about $19 billion. This change in the fourth quarter added 3.75% to the fourth-quarter GDP rise. Now some of those inventories need to be replenished, so we may see a little uptick of maybe 3% or so a month for the next few months.
My final prediction this year is again based on the price of razor blades. You know the price is getting up there when you see all the stores start to lock up their supply of razor blades. Inflation will start to tick up slightly, the Fed will need to inch up the interest rate at least a quarter of a point in the next quarter and maybe another quarter point before the end of the year to keep things in check. It should all be a system of checks and balances, which is the only control our government should have. As far as owning businesses, they are out of their league. I believe we will not start seeing any sustainable growth until about the second quarter next year, the only thing that might speed this up is if American taxpayers, especially the middle class are somehow stimulated to spend again. This again is my explosion of thought!
Today the US Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate in March remained unchanged at 9.7 percent. My prediction is that we will be very lucky if this figure dips below 9.5% any time this year. Only 162,000 new jobs were created on non-farm payrolls, this is well below than what was expected. I am not sure how anyone expected much more; all you have to do is look around to see what the economy is like.
To top this off is that 48,000 of those were temporary workers hired for the Census, another 40,000 temporary workers were hired health service workers. In the government’s future figures they plan on counting about another 550,000 additional temporary Census workers. In several months, these workers will be out of work again. Over 6.5 million Americans have been unemployed for six months or longer, that is a record!
The President and his staff do not think that unemployment will fall to 5% or below until about 2017. That is almost 7 years away. They believe this because they do not have the answers and do not want to follow what has proven to work in the past. That is because they want change for changes sake and currently are only doing things that history has shown does not work well. We live in a capitalistic society, in this society there will always be ups and downs. The proven way to get out of a recession is to spend your way out. Until this government figures that out, the economy will not move.
The spending has to come from the American people, not the government. Stimulate the middle class people to spend again and the economy will start to grow. It is a ripple effect. If you would have found a way to get all that money into the hands American taxpayers instead of bailing out all these companies where only the top executives have really benefited, the economy would have already been growing. If people had more money to spend - they would be more confident. Then they would go out and buy things, the more they buy the more products will need to be produced. The more products that are produced, the more workers will be needed to produce them. It really is a simple cycle, it is a proven cycle. But the current government wants to do things different, they want to bring down capitalism and become more socialist by controlling more and more of the corporate world. I have yet to see my benefit of the government owning part of GM. Since we the American people pay for the bailout with our tax money – where is my free car – we all deserve that for what was given to them. Ford did not take any money and they fixed things on their own – the capitalist way.
The high unemployment rate is becoming an Achilles heel for the Democratic Party, who is currently in control of the White House and Congress. The party is facing pressure to create new jobs. Why should government create the jobs, they need to stimulate business to create more jobs. How do you do this? Hmm – we if you stimulate the American taxpayer to go out and spend – guess what happens – Bingo!
There was a little movement that showed a slight increase on economic expansion of about 5.6%. But – much of this resulted from inventory adjustments by many businesses. Businesses greatly decreased inventories for most of last year, but slowed the decrease quite a bit in the fourth quarter of last year. Businesses are estimated to have shed their inventories by about $138 billion in the third quarter and about $160 billion in the second quarter. In the fourth quarter this amount was slowed, as inventories decreased only about $19 billion. This change in the fourth quarter added 3.75% to the fourth-quarter GDP rise. Now some of those inventories need to be replenished, so we may see a little uptick of maybe 3% or so a month for the next few months.
My final prediction this year is again based on the price of razor blades. You know the price is getting up there when you see all the stores start to lock up their supply of razor blades. Inflation will start to tick up slightly, the Fed will need to inch up the interest rate at least a quarter of a point in the next quarter and maybe another quarter point before the end of the year to keep things in check. It should all be a system of checks and balances, which is the only control our government should have. As far as owning businesses, they are out of their league. I believe we will not start seeing any sustainable growth until about the second quarter next year, the only thing that might speed this up is if American taxpayers, especially the middle class are somehow stimulated to spend again. This again is my explosion of thought!
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