First of all two things. I am under a short leash time wise so hopefully I can get in most of my thoughts.
And think of this post more as a philosophical attempt to try and change thinking than actual practical solutions. I will try to get to some practical ideas somewhere down the line, but for now trying to set up a different type of approach to solving poverty. And since a philosophy there is going to be more holes than swiss cheese. Just think more of trying to redefine what can be done in reading this than trying to find all the holes.
And going back to the previous post and some of the democratic way of thinking, you just cannot keep throwing money at the problem of poverty. Money itself won't solve poverty, it has to be an attitude change. The democrats act like they have the found the original basket that was used to feed the multitudes in the Gospels. That there is this unlimited amount of fish and bread that can be poured out with the right amount of money thrown at the situation. Well that has only happened once in history so until that happens again we must find ways to change our thinking and behaviour.
So: I want to be rich, there is nothing wrong with being rich, having money, even much of it. You have to applaud the person who starts a business and makes a small or even large fortune. What Henry Ford did to create generational wealth with his company in of itself is not bad. Yes lets applaud Gates and Jobs. They developed whole new industries with what they created. And I have talked previously about how we need to look to new industries to help us out of our current economic situation. Let us continue to build and to build wealth.
The issue is what does wealth for wealth's sake do for us as a society. Is there a line that a person can cross where individual wealth becomes non productive for society. And in general there is a word for this: greed. The problem becomes in how to define greed and what can a society expect to accomplish be creating a social policy to fight greed. Well you probably cannot find that line or policy.
The next step then is to put in place a system where a person who is wealthy is rewarded for certain behaviors that go counter to the concept of greed and are productive for society. Now we have some in place like you get a tax break for charitable contributions. Nowadays though we need more. Much more, see issue of poverty. The war on poverty cannot be won with money, we seriously need to change attitudes across the board.
The rich are always complaining about being taxed too much. That they shouldn't be taxed because the contribute to society by creating jobs etc, well I agree if they actually put that and more into place. The issue becomes where does their wealth become productive vs counter productive and yes individual wealth can become counter productive to society. A person who makes hundreds of millions, but never really invests into the economy at large and basically is only making money to make money is in a whole different way a larger drag on society than a person who is on the government dole. Take some re rationalizing to digest that thought, but at this point in our history we need to make these steps.
I have mentioned before about using tax policy to change behavior. Basically think of tax policies that are flexible not embedded into the IRS code on a permanent basis that can be used to vary how people behave. Yes there are some serious constitutional issues with this thinking, so maybe behavior isn't the right word. You just have to rethink what we are trying to accomplish though. So take for example the charitable gift tax break, it is another way we throw money at a problem, but how much of it gets reinvested into getting people out of a problem or situation. Now some do, for example non profits that work to eradicate cancer etc. This is a working example of a productive charitable contribution. Money is invested into research that produces better health.
It is this thinking, but much more involved that is how we should approach dealing with poverty.
Going back to above (running out of time here) my example for this post then is that people who use their wealth productively should get the tax break. And this can be done in a variety of ways especiall since it takes more than money, but stronger attitude adjustment to win the war on poverty. So lets take the person who has generated large wealth for himself and can now start to live off the income from his wealth etc. The idea here would be for him not to be taxed heavily if he gives back to society, not just money, but his talents. A successful business man could go into underdeveloped areas and help them build businesses so the population of these areas build their own wealth. HIs income tax percentage would be lower than a wealthy person who only spent time increasing their wealth. THere are some more examples in my head that would help to illustrate this further, but my time is up for today. I will try to get back to more examples. The idea of a different tax rate not just on the traditional amount of income ( our graduated income tax rate) but on what you contribute to help others, including time and talents is something I didn't create, but something that can be part of the solution for many.
More to come.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Ounce of prevention, pound of cure part two
And this is more of because we didn't do the ounce of prevention years ago, we now are at the point where we need pounds of prevention and tons of cure. And yes there has been some attempt to do something, but the attempt was all in wrong vain and never really created a prevention aspect.
This problem is now so huge and so underdiscussed it is absolutely scary. This is the problem of poverty in this country. There is so much on the horizon with this problem that poverty is now one of the biggest threats to our democracy. I will come back to this point later. And I do promise some positive ideas eventually too.
If you have read any of my previous posts you know I am not a fan of either democrats or republicans. And the situation with poverty in our country is to me a glaring example of failed policies by both our political parties. The current situation in our country represents why the political process not the constitution needs to be changed.
Remember the phrase war on poverty. We were going to wipe out poverty, yes a grand and noble gesture, but never took into account we are a capitalist society so there is always going to be winners and losers. This is something we can work with, but you need to remember if you choose this path you still have to treat all with complete respect and never let them become losers on a permanent basis. Opportunity must always exist for all and this is something we have prided ourselves on as a country. We have failed to meet this contract with ourselves.
First lets look at the democrats way of thinking. Another well known phrase can be used to highlight the democratic failure. You can give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime. We have failed to teach. Yes there are some government programs out there, retraining etc, but so little is put into this you really cannot see what we are doing. Democratic policy has been an overabundance of feeding for the day. This leads to over spending, over reliance on the government, taxpayer angst, and engrained generational poverty. Also a sense of hopelessness grows out of this and this hopelessness is adding to the current disaster facing our country because of poverty.
Republican policy has been more of leave people in poverty to their own devices, if they want out they will find a way out. A man must pull himself up by his bootstraps. And there have been a few examples of people doing this. Way too few, and this thinking does not take into account that once poverty becomes generational it is hard to instill a sense of pride in oneself to actually do this. For a person to overcome less he needs more (not money)support to find his way.
Yes the two paragraphs above are somewhat simple discussions on what has gone on over the past fifty years since we declared war on poverty, but state the simple truth neither party has responded to really trying to win the war. Democrats have created a financial burden on the American taxpayer that the Republican party uses to rally its base to vote, but has no policy of its own to actually do something so the mantra we want less taxes wins votes but loses a war we need to win.
Any why is it so important to win. Well for many reasons, first we are a nation based on priniciples of treating people equally, we all have rights, a Nation of Christian ideaology that all people have dignity, terms like inalienable rights, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, etc is what we based our constitution. We added amendments that added even more value to this and continually as a nation find ways to make sure none are left out. Well that is what is on paper. An aside here, I find the current group of people calling themselves conservative severly lacking in the values we hold dear to our nation. Isn't the route word of conservative to conserve, so what is conservative in America, something that needs to be discussed, but will do at another time. Big difference between being conservative and being right wing.
Another reason to worry about the war on poverty is much more pressing to our nation. I am talking current way of life, long term of our nation, our constitution (it fails if we fail), and the future for our children. How you may ask. Have you ever noticed that social scientists are really good at coming up with a name for the problem, well I haven't seen one yet for the situation I am trying to describe, but sooner or later you might get a term. First a bit of history to try and put this in perspective.
Over a hundred years ago this country was under the European immigration wave. The different groups would tend to gather in the same neighborhoods, some of the assimilation we have today hadn't occurred yet. These neighborhoods were sometimes run by leaders that well had questionable intents, some even developed organized crime that ran the neighborhoods. These neighborhood leaders were then able to deliver votes etc to certain politicians and so a power structure developed. Over time assimaltion weakened this base and we grew into the 20th century with a much broader electorate. Nothing ever became perfect, but the political power of some the early immigration bosses dissapated. A larger electorate helped to develop a national government that could focus on national policy. Yes even the war on poverty initiative. Also better education possibility, more opportunity for all etc started to evovle.
So how does all this affect us now. Imagine a reversal of this effect that creates localized politics run by drug lords, crime lords, gang leaders, etc that now are much more sophisticated, the people that live in the areas have much less hope than the immigrants that came over in the 19th century and you can start to imagine where we might be headed. Large tracks of this country run by fuedal lords that hold nothing of our values in their thinking. People in poverty now run by gangs that control their very way of life. Our belief in education, religion, our constitution, our way of life, non existent.
Some of you may think this is an extreme example, unfortunately I am telling you that this is already developing way too fast for our country's good. If you cannot see how much poverty has progressed in our country especially with the last economic disaster than you really need to get out more. Quite frankly your ignorance is appalling. And currently the democrats inability to figure out how to be productive with our tax dollars and the Elite Republican leadership who tell you; that if your 401k is good everything is good and you should just stick your head in the sand, is dividing this country not into a have vs have nots, but a much more chilling future of lawless sections run not by what we value, but indivudual fiefs run by ruthlessness and lawlessness.
If we continue on with a lack of productive fight with this problem we lose this war and that means the country. Poverty now is much more of a threat than terrorism (it will create a whole new type of domestic terrorism), Iran, North Korea, or even China. Yes these foreign policy problems are real, but poverty is the cancer within that is killing us. And the tumors are huge right now. You can say I am overplaying this, but really if you cannot see this by now you are severly ignorant, need to get out more, and really need to realize you are grossly mislead about what is going on in our country. You cannot sit back and have people tell you things are okay if you vote for me and buy this much longer without hearing how they are going to solve this problem. If you consider yourself patriotic, a true American then you need to press the President and Congress to address this problem with the zeal we say we put into everything else we do.
Now what can we do, well if you have read this far you are probably as tired of this subject as a person can be. I know just whining about a problem doesn't solve it. There are solutions out there. Along with everything else I know I am not bringing up anything new with this subject, but trying to get your attention. The crux now is that we have let this cancer grow for so long that curing it will be expensive, time consuming, even emotionally draining, and will become a political nightmare. Winning the war of all things though will actually help our economy, show the world that democracy is still the best form of government out there, reinstill within ourselves what it truly means to be an American, define correctly what conservative is, and redirect much of the world to find solutions to remove tyrants etc from other countries. Basically the benefits of winning the war on poverty grow exponentially for the whole world.
So solutions? I hope to be bringing some to you, but you can actually research yourself, it is a topic well written about. I do have some thoughts and like some of my other thoughts better taxation policy, better revenue creation, and better opportunity are some of the answer, but not all. There are some deeply ingrained problems that will need to be overcome with attitudes, both by the poor and the upper middle class to solve this problem. The middle class is slowly being eaten by the problem that is causing the destruction of values in areas of poverty. And we will have to fight fire with fire at times.
Look for future posts that talk about this and the next topic should be about taxation policy not necessarily on solving poverty but addressing an attitude that is causing poverty to being a much larger problem than poverty itself.
What I hate is that I am never near a computer when all these ideas come racing into my mind so I try later to recreate what I originally want to say and it never comes out they way I wanted or originally processed it. So the above is more scattered than I wanted, but holds the gist of it.
This problem is now so huge and so underdiscussed it is absolutely scary. This is the problem of poverty in this country. There is so much on the horizon with this problem that poverty is now one of the biggest threats to our democracy. I will come back to this point later. And I do promise some positive ideas eventually too.
If you have read any of my previous posts you know I am not a fan of either democrats or republicans. And the situation with poverty in our country is to me a glaring example of failed policies by both our political parties. The current situation in our country represents why the political process not the constitution needs to be changed.
Remember the phrase war on poverty. We were going to wipe out poverty, yes a grand and noble gesture, but never took into account we are a capitalist society so there is always going to be winners and losers. This is something we can work with, but you need to remember if you choose this path you still have to treat all with complete respect and never let them become losers on a permanent basis. Opportunity must always exist for all and this is something we have prided ourselves on as a country. We have failed to meet this contract with ourselves.
First lets look at the democrats way of thinking. Another well known phrase can be used to highlight the democratic failure. You can give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime. We have failed to teach. Yes there are some government programs out there, retraining etc, but so little is put into this you really cannot see what we are doing. Democratic policy has been an overabundance of feeding for the day. This leads to over spending, over reliance on the government, taxpayer angst, and engrained generational poverty. Also a sense of hopelessness grows out of this and this hopelessness is adding to the current disaster facing our country because of poverty.
Republican policy has been more of leave people in poverty to their own devices, if they want out they will find a way out. A man must pull himself up by his bootstraps. And there have been a few examples of people doing this. Way too few, and this thinking does not take into account that once poverty becomes generational it is hard to instill a sense of pride in oneself to actually do this. For a person to overcome less he needs more (not money)support to find his way.
Yes the two paragraphs above are somewhat simple discussions on what has gone on over the past fifty years since we declared war on poverty, but state the simple truth neither party has responded to really trying to win the war. Democrats have created a financial burden on the American taxpayer that the Republican party uses to rally its base to vote, but has no policy of its own to actually do something so the mantra we want less taxes wins votes but loses a war we need to win.
Any why is it so important to win. Well for many reasons, first we are a nation based on priniciples of treating people equally, we all have rights, a Nation of Christian ideaology that all people have dignity, terms like inalienable rights, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, etc is what we based our constitution. We added amendments that added even more value to this and continually as a nation find ways to make sure none are left out. Well that is what is on paper. An aside here, I find the current group of people calling themselves conservative severly lacking in the values we hold dear to our nation. Isn't the route word of conservative to conserve, so what is conservative in America, something that needs to be discussed, but will do at another time. Big difference between being conservative and being right wing.
Another reason to worry about the war on poverty is much more pressing to our nation. I am talking current way of life, long term of our nation, our constitution (it fails if we fail), and the future for our children. How you may ask. Have you ever noticed that social scientists are really good at coming up with a name for the problem, well I haven't seen one yet for the situation I am trying to describe, but sooner or later you might get a term. First a bit of history to try and put this in perspective.
Over a hundred years ago this country was under the European immigration wave. The different groups would tend to gather in the same neighborhoods, some of the assimilation we have today hadn't occurred yet. These neighborhoods were sometimes run by leaders that well had questionable intents, some even developed organized crime that ran the neighborhoods. These neighborhood leaders were then able to deliver votes etc to certain politicians and so a power structure developed. Over time assimaltion weakened this base and we grew into the 20th century with a much broader electorate. Nothing ever became perfect, but the political power of some the early immigration bosses dissapated. A larger electorate helped to develop a national government that could focus on national policy. Yes even the war on poverty initiative. Also better education possibility, more opportunity for all etc started to evovle.
So how does all this affect us now. Imagine a reversal of this effect that creates localized politics run by drug lords, crime lords, gang leaders, etc that now are much more sophisticated, the people that live in the areas have much less hope than the immigrants that came over in the 19th century and you can start to imagine where we might be headed. Large tracks of this country run by fuedal lords that hold nothing of our values in their thinking. People in poverty now run by gangs that control their very way of life. Our belief in education, religion, our constitution, our way of life, non existent.
Some of you may think this is an extreme example, unfortunately I am telling you that this is already developing way too fast for our country's good. If you cannot see how much poverty has progressed in our country especially with the last economic disaster than you really need to get out more. Quite frankly your ignorance is appalling. And currently the democrats inability to figure out how to be productive with our tax dollars and the Elite Republican leadership who tell you; that if your 401k is good everything is good and you should just stick your head in the sand, is dividing this country not into a have vs have nots, but a much more chilling future of lawless sections run not by what we value, but indivudual fiefs run by ruthlessness and lawlessness.
If we continue on with a lack of productive fight with this problem we lose this war and that means the country. Poverty now is much more of a threat than terrorism (it will create a whole new type of domestic terrorism), Iran, North Korea, or even China. Yes these foreign policy problems are real, but poverty is the cancer within that is killing us. And the tumors are huge right now. You can say I am overplaying this, but really if you cannot see this by now you are severly ignorant, need to get out more, and really need to realize you are grossly mislead about what is going on in our country. You cannot sit back and have people tell you things are okay if you vote for me and buy this much longer without hearing how they are going to solve this problem. If you consider yourself patriotic, a true American then you need to press the President and Congress to address this problem with the zeal we say we put into everything else we do.
Now what can we do, well if you have read this far you are probably as tired of this subject as a person can be. I know just whining about a problem doesn't solve it. There are solutions out there. Along with everything else I know I am not bringing up anything new with this subject, but trying to get your attention. The crux now is that we have let this cancer grow for so long that curing it will be expensive, time consuming, even emotionally draining, and will become a political nightmare. Winning the war of all things though will actually help our economy, show the world that democracy is still the best form of government out there, reinstill within ourselves what it truly means to be an American, define correctly what conservative is, and redirect much of the world to find solutions to remove tyrants etc from other countries. Basically the benefits of winning the war on poverty grow exponentially for the whole world.
So solutions? I hope to be bringing some to you, but you can actually research yourself, it is a topic well written about. I do have some thoughts and like some of my other thoughts better taxation policy, better revenue creation, and better opportunity are some of the answer, but not all. There are some deeply ingrained problems that will need to be overcome with attitudes, both by the poor and the upper middle class to solve this problem. The middle class is slowly being eaten by the problem that is causing the destruction of values in areas of poverty. And we will have to fight fire with fire at times.
Look for future posts that talk about this and the next topic should be about taxation policy not necessarily on solving poverty but addressing an attitude that is causing poverty to being a much larger problem than poverty itself.
What I hate is that I am never near a computer when all these ideas come racing into my mind so I try later to recreate what I originally want to say and it never comes out they way I wanted or originally processed it. So the above is more scattered than I wanted, but holds the gist of it.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Ounce of prevention, pound of cure part one
Been a busy week or so . Thought of this the other day and hope I can remember.
This is really two topics under same heading
I haven't read any of Obama's health care plan,so I don't have much comment on it. The issue for me is we don't use much common sense or practical thinking. We really should focus more on preventive care than our current spend a fortune to fix the problem. Our current way is just like everything else in the country. It is dominated by people who benefit, however, we should change to benefit the people. I am about to pick on the wrong side of the coin but we have to change thinking for everyone involved. And this example talks to saving taxpayer money. Think about the large number of people who receive medicare for many health problems that are preventable with just taking care of yourself that hadn't. Yes you could end up creating another large bureaucracy to track who did and didn't go to the Dr regularly and exercise etc,so you have to be careful, but there should be some accountability to how we spend taxpayers dollars for medicare including making them pay more of their own money for healthcare. And yes I do believe the larger problem is the healthcare industry. They are profit motivated and spend a fortune lobbying Congress. Again another reason to reign in the lobbying industry. The point for today is we must take some personal responsibility too. And the overall notion of ounce of prevention is worth pound of cure.
Next up thoughts on crime and poverty where we really fail with the idea an ounce of prevention etc. lunch has ended and using cell phone to do this so cannot check editing till later. Again the 2nd topic.is my real drivrr.
This is really two topics under same heading
I haven't read any of Obama's health care plan,so I don't have much comment on it. The issue for me is we don't use much common sense or practical thinking. We really should focus more on preventive care than our current spend a fortune to fix the problem. Our current way is just like everything else in the country. It is dominated by people who benefit, however, we should change to benefit the people. I am about to pick on the wrong side of the coin but we have to change thinking for everyone involved. And this example talks to saving taxpayer money. Think about the large number of people who receive medicare for many health problems that are preventable with just taking care of yourself that hadn't. Yes you could end up creating another large bureaucracy to track who did and didn't go to the Dr regularly and exercise etc,so you have to be careful, but there should be some accountability to how we spend taxpayers dollars for medicare including making them pay more of their own money for healthcare. And yes I do believe the larger problem is the healthcare industry. They are profit motivated and spend a fortune lobbying Congress. Again another reason to reign in the lobbying industry. The point for today is we must take some personal responsibility too. And the overall notion of ounce of prevention is worth pound of cure.
Next up thoughts on crime and poverty where we really fail with the idea an ounce of prevention etc. lunch has ended and using cell phone to do this so cannot check editing till later. Again the 2nd topic.is my real drivrr.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
buzz word of the day; then another observation
Have you ever noticed or is it me that no politicians seem to answer the how question. Maybe they do, but I don't see it. I have become disenfranchised over the years in watching politicians speak and listening to questions from the press. For what I do see and hear the "how question and answers just don't seem to come up.
They always seem to have answers, "ways" to solve problems, but truly does anyone see or hear the how?
Just a late night thought on a chilly weekend evening.
Is Google becoming big brother? I know I am not the only one thinking this, but can we stop them before it gets any crazier?I know they have all this legalize in place so they can keep all my info now, but really. I don't care about all their so called making my life easier. I would rather do my own thing and what I want public I put public. I do not want to have every interaction in my life stored in some data base. Please, can we get some rationale put back into what Google thinks we want. I saw an article on CNN where the author said he looked for the delete my stuff button (okay simplistic version) and couldn't find it. I think we need to find a way to get that on. Google and Facebook, but really with Facebook you are kind of asking for it. They give you the latitude to shoot yourself in the foot. They do need to let you delete permanently though.
And yes I did hear about the Dad who shot up the laptop because he was pissed at his daughter's post. Dad one thought for you. What caused her to get so off track in the first place? Maybe you and her need to spend more time together, hopefully you can do it without dragging in a Dr Phil type and really save your relationship. Kids want their parents attention and if they only get it when they get into trouble, well guess what, they are going to cause more trouble. Believe it or not, kids need structure, not presents, not freedom, not pistol whippings, just plain good old attention and direction from their parents. And they need it from the beginning.
Stay warm everyone.
They always seem to have answers, "ways" to solve problems, but truly does anyone see or hear the how?
Just a late night thought on a chilly weekend evening.
Is Google becoming big brother? I know I am not the only one thinking this, but can we stop them before it gets any crazier?I know they have all this legalize in place so they can keep all my info now, but really. I don't care about all their so called making my life easier. I would rather do my own thing and what I want public I put public. I do not want to have every interaction in my life stored in some data base. Please, can we get some rationale put back into what Google thinks we want. I saw an article on CNN where the author said he looked for the delete my stuff button (okay simplistic version) and couldn't find it. I think we need to find a way to get that on. Google and Facebook, but really with Facebook you are kind of asking for it. They give you the latitude to shoot yourself in the foot. They do need to let you delete permanently though.
And yes I did hear about the Dad who shot up the laptop because he was pissed at his daughter's post. Dad one thought for you. What caused her to get so off track in the first place? Maybe you and her need to spend more time together, hopefully you can do it without dragging in a Dr Phil type and really save your relationship. Kids want their parents attention and if they only get it when they get into trouble, well guess what, they are going to cause more trouble. Believe it or not, kids need structure, not presents, not freedom, not pistol whippings, just plain good old attention and direction from their parents. And they need it from the beginning.
Stay warm everyone.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
you got to be kidding me
Is Tom Coughlin the luckiest coach in the world or a genius? How can you have two mediocre regular seasons then win two super bowls?
yes this one is born of frustration
It is tiring that corporations spend more time worrying about Wall Steet and not their customers. If they would work on making quality products that worked and lasted it would be better for everyone including themselves than trying to manipulate numbers etc to keep trying to please wall street numbers then corporations would have better long term prospects than short term profits.
Basically what happened to having a business, making and selling a quality product, and making sure your customers were happy. Remember when a refrigerator or washing machine would last 10-15 years, even the basic models. Yes that use to happen because I have owned appliances that worked that well. Nowadays a frig doesn't last 5-7 years and shoot our washing machine just went out and it hasn't been four years since we bought it. And forget service calls, they charge an arm and a leg to come out and tell you that the cost will be almost the same as a new one.
It would be great if American companies thought about making products that last again. This obsession with profits above all else is one of the reasons our eonomy is in the tubes.
We need a consumer revolution that lets corporations know we want something better from them. So instead of occupying wall street, lets find a way to forget wall street.
More and more time is showing bigger corporations aren't better.
Basically what happened to having a business, making and selling a quality product, and making sure your customers were happy. Remember when a refrigerator or washing machine would last 10-15 years, even the basic models. Yes that use to happen because I have owned appliances that worked that well. Nowadays a frig doesn't last 5-7 years and shoot our washing machine just went out and it hasn't been four years since we bought it. And forget service calls, they charge an arm and a leg to come out and tell you that the cost will be almost the same as a new one.
It would be great if American companies thought about making products that last again. This obsession with profits above all else is one of the reasons our eonomy is in the tubes.
We need a consumer revolution that lets corporations know we want something better from them. So instead of occupying wall street, lets find a way to forget wall street.
More and more time is showing bigger corporations aren't better.
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