Just a quick thought on a more lighter subject. The wife and I were trying to decide what to do for Valentine's. Plans were quickly becoming pretty traditional, go to a restaurant that we eat at regularly etc,,, just to go out. So got off my back end and started searching around,,, nothing fancy, but we did step out of our comfort zone. Always a good thing to do, just wanted to touch on the simple pleasures of life, remember trying something new is always worthwhile. Even if you don't like it, it makes you appreciate what you do like.
We went to a restaurant that served Tapas style. This is pretty popular. And we really enjoyed it. Some new tastes, a new way to enjoy a traditional event. Anyway nothing mind blowing, just enjoyed life for the evening and again the reminder to ourselves to enjoy all the world has to offer you. I forget who it was and I should probably look it up, but they said if you don't travel it is like reading the same page of the same book over and over again. So another reason to love a city like Dallas, we do get enough of what the world has to offer that the wife and I got to do a bit of traveling without leaving the city.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
An example of some better policy thinking
I was reading an article on Yahoo the other day and then some of the many posts that always follow. At last look there were over 5000 posts. Some had general thoughts, some wanted us to overthrow the system, most were from a few people posting the same old hatred or general lack of consideration of others.
It got me to thinking and I cannot remember my original thought, but the example I had to discuss my thoughts did stick in my head. I do remember thinking about how ineffective current policy is and still blaming the two political parties and their lack of foresight on most issues. Also I was thinking about how they really do not represent the country anymore. A common theme of mine, but I wanted to put together something that draws a picture of why they don't represent the people of the country anymore. My beef is that both political parties are extremely tied to pleasing wall street. And even most businesses are too tied to pleasing wall street, Current business thinking is they must meet wall street expectations or they failed. This really bothers me because companies cannot plan ahead nor can they consider long term strategic thinking, however, for now this is an aside to my original point for this post.
This is a real simplistic example, but I think it shows how the use of public policy can still benefit the country and show how you can change policy to affect better behavior. What people tend to forget is public policy can and should be changed to reflect the times or the current needs of the country or populace. Laws get enacted and then they stay and build bureacracies or continue policies that become outdated. So good public policy would be flexible and so at times it can direct policy, actions or change behavior, but if the circumstances change the laws can be changed accordingly. A really effective government does not have to be large rather it has to be responsive, flexible, and also be able to think ahead.
So here is my example, again very simplistic, but I hope I work out the picture for you. So taking the current economic situation, the loss of the middle class, the need to rebuild the economic infrastructure, build industries that can export so we can build wealth, the growing gap between the haves and the haves nots ( another aside wall street needs to realize that concentrating wealth does not benefit them in the long run. This will do more damage even to their interests than they seem to realize.) And a host of other issues affecting our economy should cause our government and our " representatives" ( remember our government is based on the idea of representative government especially from the legislative branch) to address the current needs which is the need to rebuild our middle class, however, they tend to ignore the middle class and of course a strong middle class is needed for a strong democracy. So if our government was truly representing the majority of the people we would be seeing much different public policy.
So the example is a taxation example. It is not an end all problem solving example, but a snapshot or one line item of what should be broader policy that truly benefits the majority of Americans ( read Middle Class).
So lets keep capitalism, democracy and make it work better. First item. And again this is policy that can change as the times change,, nothing should ever be in stone in a democracy. Also I know there are some holes in this example, but look more at the philosophical idea than the specifics.
First example,,,, person buys a 1000 shares of stock,,, average person doing the right thing and buying stockor a mutual fund with the intention of building up savings. Done the research and the company has some good prospects. Now whether it be 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years, if the stock has gone up a couple of bucks a share, sells takes the profit, the taxes on this should be very very minimal. Right now we need our middle class to build savings. Pretty straight forward.
Now lets take large investment banking firms taking millions investing in the market,but investing in such large amounts that any change in the price of the investment they can take a quick profit and do. This is an investment banking firm that is just making millions on a daily basis and not really investing in the economy, just in the market. Some people think this is good capitalism and they should be able to do this, okay so they can, however, these banks are not investing in the future of our country and only a few people benefit from this and now we need these millions being played with invested in our future. So create policy that taxes the large short term trading incomes at very high rates. What good is this doing our country when no jobs are being created, no companies can expand, or invest in research and development. Instead reduce tax rates to the investment banks that actually invest the money in the economy as a whole. You are not picking on the investment banks by making them invest more beneficially to the whole. Sure they may lose some out size profits in the short term, but realistically wall street needs to go back to the basics of investing in main street, etc.
So if an investment bank or whatever invests in a new industry, or established companies creating new products then those profits over the long term would be taxed at much lower rates. This isn't original thinking, there are many articles espousing similar ideas. What is important for most Americans to realize is that if our Congress was truly representing the people, they would be enacting these types of public policies.
The difference is if wall street wants to sit on their money and play games with the market, ( and these games have enormous impact on long term savings and the long term gains of the market which has affect on wealth building by the upper midldle class and middle class)then public policy should be created that says okay you can do this, but it is going to cost you as much as it costs other interests in the country. IE if the middle class has no jobs because you are hoarding money then you pay for all the extra services the government has to provide to keep people afloat. So if you don't like large intrusive government, then you need to think about having Congress tax the excess and reward with taxation policies that create a new economy.
Is that happening right now, unfortunately not because Congress represents 1% of Anericans not the large majority.. so my other thought is pretty simple keep our constitution just throw out every democrat and republican in office till they realize it hurts to be unemployed like the rest of us.
Capitalism can be beneficial, but it cannot be the driver of public policy. Our government is suppose to be by the people for the people, that means our government is charged with protecting the interests of the country both externally and internally. So we don't need to march in the streets like Egypt or Libya, we just need to do what has already been given to us. Talk to our government, their jobs and our country's livelihood depend on it
It got me to thinking and I cannot remember my original thought, but the example I had to discuss my thoughts did stick in my head. I do remember thinking about how ineffective current policy is and still blaming the two political parties and their lack of foresight on most issues. Also I was thinking about how they really do not represent the country anymore. A common theme of mine, but I wanted to put together something that draws a picture of why they don't represent the people of the country anymore. My beef is that both political parties are extremely tied to pleasing wall street. And even most businesses are too tied to pleasing wall street, Current business thinking is they must meet wall street expectations or they failed. This really bothers me because companies cannot plan ahead nor can they consider long term strategic thinking, however, for now this is an aside to my original point for this post.
This is a real simplistic example, but I think it shows how the use of public policy can still benefit the country and show how you can change policy to affect better behavior. What people tend to forget is public policy can and should be changed to reflect the times or the current needs of the country or populace. Laws get enacted and then they stay and build bureacracies or continue policies that become outdated. So good public policy would be flexible and so at times it can direct policy, actions or change behavior, but if the circumstances change the laws can be changed accordingly. A really effective government does not have to be large rather it has to be responsive, flexible, and also be able to think ahead.
So here is my example, again very simplistic, but I hope I work out the picture for you. So taking the current economic situation, the loss of the middle class, the need to rebuild the economic infrastructure, build industries that can export so we can build wealth, the growing gap between the haves and the haves nots ( another aside wall street needs to realize that concentrating wealth does not benefit them in the long run. This will do more damage even to their interests than they seem to realize.) And a host of other issues affecting our economy should cause our government and our " representatives" ( remember our government is based on the idea of representative government especially from the legislative branch) to address the current needs which is the need to rebuild our middle class, however, they tend to ignore the middle class and of course a strong middle class is needed for a strong democracy. So if our government was truly representing the majority of the people we would be seeing much different public policy.
So the example is a taxation example. It is not an end all problem solving example, but a snapshot or one line item of what should be broader policy that truly benefits the majority of Americans ( read Middle Class).
So lets keep capitalism, democracy and make it work better. First item. And again this is policy that can change as the times change,, nothing should ever be in stone in a democracy. Also I know there are some holes in this example, but look more at the philosophical idea than the specifics.
First example,,,, person buys a 1000 shares of stock,,, average person doing the right thing and buying stockor a mutual fund with the intention of building up savings. Done the research and the company has some good prospects. Now whether it be 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years, if the stock has gone up a couple of bucks a share, sells takes the profit, the taxes on this should be very very minimal. Right now we need our middle class to build savings. Pretty straight forward.
Now lets take large investment banking firms taking millions investing in the market,but investing in such large amounts that any change in the price of the investment they can take a quick profit and do. This is an investment banking firm that is just making millions on a daily basis and not really investing in the economy, just in the market. Some people think this is good capitalism and they should be able to do this, okay so they can, however, these banks are not investing in the future of our country and only a few people benefit from this and now we need these millions being played with invested in our future. So create policy that taxes the large short term trading incomes at very high rates. What good is this doing our country when no jobs are being created, no companies can expand, or invest in research and development. Instead reduce tax rates to the investment banks that actually invest the money in the economy as a whole. You are not picking on the investment banks by making them invest more beneficially to the whole. Sure they may lose some out size profits in the short term, but realistically wall street needs to go back to the basics of investing in main street, etc.
So if an investment bank or whatever invests in a new industry, or established companies creating new products then those profits over the long term would be taxed at much lower rates. This isn't original thinking, there are many articles espousing similar ideas. What is important for most Americans to realize is that if our Congress was truly representing the people, they would be enacting these types of public policies.
The difference is if wall street wants to sit on their money and play games with the market, ( and these games have enormous impact on long term savings and the long term gains of the market which has affect on wealth building by the upper midldle class and middle class)then public policy should be created that says okay you can do this, but it is going to cost you as much as it costs other interests in the country. IE if the middle class has no jobs because you are hoarding money then you pay for all the extra services the government has to provide to keep people afloat. So if you don't like large intrusive government, then you need to think about having Congress tax the excess and reward with taxation policies that create a new economy.
Is that happening right now, unfortunately not because Congress represents 1% of Anericans not the large majority.. so my other thought is pretty simple keep our constitution just throw out every democrat and republican in office till they realize it hurts to be unemployed like the rest of us.
Capitalism can be beneficial, but it cannot be the driver of public policy. Our government is suppose to be by the people for the people, that means our government is charged with protecting the interests of the country both externally and internally. So we don't need to march in the streets like Egypt or Libya, we just need to do what has already been given to us. Talk to our government, their jobs and our country's livelihood depend on it
Friday, February 11, 2011
Yeah they had that "big game" here
I have been staying away from talking about the end of the football season. I am a rabid Cowboy fan so having Green Bay and Pittsburgh playing in Cowboy Stadium has kind of sucked. Anyway went off with a bunch of well known hitches. I just cannot accept Jerry Jones doing what he does and even though I technically am not suppose to believe in karma, looks like Jerry got a bit of it.
Anyway we have had real winter in Dallas, TX going on close to two full weeks. Full winter for this long of a stretch is pretty rare around here so it has been interesting. Usually it is in burts that last at most 3 days, but when we go two weeks and the high doesn't get above 50 and the average morning temp is in the teens well we pretty much lose it around here.Great news is that it is suppose to get better this weekend and then last at least for a few days. And this is our problem, warm weather comes and poof we forget about what just happened and then we are spoiled again. I love it.
For all those people who have had a worse winter, then had to come here and get socked for the week, don't know what to say, especially since we probably won't get another big game for quite awhile. Come back in August and thaw out.
And if anybody is interested I got a couple of good movie or book ideas, been playing around with them in my head, both have full stories based on current situations going on in our country. We will see what happens.
Anyway we have had real winter in Dallas, TX going on close to two full weeks. Full winter for this long of a stretch is pretty rare around here so it has been interesting. Usually it is in burts that last at most 3 days, but when we go two weeks and the high doesn't get above 50 and the average morning temp is in the teens well we pretty much lose it around here.Great news is that it is suppose to get better this weekend and then last at least for a few days. And this is our problem, warm weather comes and poof we forget about what just happened and then we are spoiled again. I love it.
For all those people who have had a worse winter, then had to come here and get socked for the week, don't know what to say, especially since we probably won't get another big game for quite awhile. Come back in August and thaw out.
And if anybody is interested I got a couple of good movie or book ideas, been playing around with them in my head, both have full stories based on current situations going on in our country. We will see what happens.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
What's this I am hearing about oil
Two separate reports today have got me wondering. First Wikileaks has a report out that well who knows about the credibility of wikileaks, but they are questioning the validity of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves. Also the radio states gas may reach $5 a gallon late this year or early next year. Either way for all of us who plug along, go to work daily etc the news doesn't sound that good.
Still amazes me to this day that we are still working with oil as our main source of energy/means of transportation. It is high time we got over this obsession with oil. I am trying to figure out what is it going to have to cost before we realize oil isn't the answer anymore.
Oil companies are very willing to spend super fortunes to drill in remote places. It is just time to quit spending the money, effort, and resources to chase this dying resource.
If the US would become the leader in alternative energy production our whole economy will turn around. Just like oil in the first half of the 20th century helped drive our independence and economic growth, new energy will do the same for the 21st century. It is time the moneyed people in our country stopped the madness and started investing in this country's future.
I could go on forever and ever about this, but I am afraid only continued economic disaster will get us off oil. We can prevent more problems by being proactive about our future. Lets hope we make the decision before we fall off the cliff.
Still amazes me to this day that we are still working with oil as our main source of energy/means of transportation. It is high time we got over this obsession with oil. I am trying to figure out what is it going to have to cost before we realize oil isn't the answer anymore.
Oil companies are very willing to spend super fortunes to drill in remote places. It is just time to quit spending the money, effort, and resources to chase this dying resource.
If the US would become the leader in alternative energy production our whole economy will turn around. Just like oil in the first half of the 20th century helped drive our independence and economic growth, new energy will do the same for the 21st century. It is time the moneyed people in our country stopped the madness and started investing in this country's future.
I could go on forever and ever about this, but I am afraid only continued economic disaster will get us off oil. We can prevent more problems by being proactive about our future. Lets hope we make the decision before we fall off the cliff.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)