One of the headlines in the Dallas Morning News this past Sunday was Democrats and Republicans bereft of solutions rely on attitude.
Well I have been saying for a long time the Democrats and Republicans haven't had any answers nor solutions to our problems. I have even put it in writing now for over a year. Can it be so that the mainstream media is starting to wake up? Probably not, just another headline that passes in the night.
The answers are out there, it is the current players that can't see the writing on the wall.
Real change can come from very simple actions, but even with fancy words like bereft it doesn't help us until we as the people wake up and find our own solutions.
Okay its late and I am not that inspired, but I had to get the dig in.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Do people really hate the rich
Actually to answer this question I have a thought to put forward first.
You probably remember the famous announcement from LeBron James and the Heat, the big shindig that announced his signing with Chris and Dwayne. They stood up there and pretty much assured the world there wasn't enough fingers on their hands for the amount of championship rings they were going to win. This pretty much lead to their appearance in the Championship last year and lo and behold my little Mavericks became the country's favorite outside of Miami. A small fanfare developed for the Mavericks mainly because people were cheering for the working man, the old guys, the underdog, and the little Mavericks won the series and then for the rest of the country things went back to normal.
What would the world think if the Heat instead of doing a big production had come out and said, look we know many people see our talent and think this is an automatic, but we are here to say we know we have to work hard, cannot take things for granted, we want to prove to our fans that their investment in us will be worthwhile. Well the world would probably be loving the Heat, people love a winner especially one that accepts there is a role to being a winner, someone that says hey I did this, but I did it for you and I appreciate what we did for ourselves through our efforts. Heck the Mavericks would have been hated for spoiling the Heat party last year, they were never winners so why should they blow up this new favorite team. PERCEPTION is always very interesting.
Andy yes I know many people have made similar observations, but I think it applies to the question at hand. People don't hate the rich right now, people are upset that the people who can really do something about this economy aren't helping. Everyone is pretty smart and they know the government can do only so much. They understand that Wall Street in its obsession to get rid of Obama still could be doing something to help the economy. There is anger towards their selfishness, lack of concern for what everyone else is going through. Overall people want wealth and good things, but when they see others take away their opportunity they feel it.
And now to bring up another point before I give the obvious answer to the question.
It seems our 1%er brothers don't get some other problems affecting our country. Savings which should be a necessity, a pay yourself first mindset that all financial planners say you should do, is becoming more of a luxury item. Yes people haven't been saving for years, but we should be putting this on the front burner for everyone. (another aside, the problem with our current welfare system is that it doesn't encourage people getting on their own feet, the concept of getting ahead has been pyschologically taken away from them. Yes some will never make the effort, but for a few generations now we have taught welfare recipients not to do things like save because we just give them part of their necessities, not something to work from.) Now though it is becoming harder and harder for even the middle class to even attempt to save. Historically for people that lived paycheck to paycheck,they never did, (we still need them to), but even for many in the middle class savings is becoming out of reach.
Another problem affecting the lower middle class and creeping into the middle class are these payday loans. This is making matters even worse. Use to be usury was a bad word, now it is like it doesn't even exist. Sure they couch their loans with they are not charging interest just fees, really folks, they are robbing people blind. And you would think the leaders of Wal Mart, JC Penny and any company that relies on consumer sales to do well would be totally against these companies. Think about how much money is being paid in "fees" hundreds of dollars to borrow hundreds of dollars. If my main business was to have consumers buy from me I think I would be lobbying heavily against these practices, which is why I think the rich don't get it. Even when their markets are being stolen they don't do anything about it.
So to put the above in my idea of a progressive conservative agenda, usury or fees should be highly legislated against. And I don't think people who work for these companies would be out of work, you would be just changing the "fees" back to sales for other companies and they would pick up the employment, simplistic yes, but basically workable.
The other agenda item is to encourage savings by creating legislation and policy so people have an incentive to save again or even for the first time. And there are possible ways to do this, think of workplace retirement savings, that can be tweaked for retirement and for normal savings. Banks should be clamoring for this, but again their shortsightedness is hurting our country. Banks should go back to being banks and lobby to help the middle class get back on their feet to help banks be profitable as banks. Real money back in the system for us and them.
Anyway people don't hate the rich anymore than they did (envy)pre 2008, just like people don't hate Lebron or Dewayne as individuals, but when you stand up and show to the world your arrogrance, well you are asking to be hated as that entity.
You probably remember the famous announcement from LeBron James and the Heat, the big shindig that announced his signing with Chris and Dwayne. They stood up there and pretty much assured the world there wasn't enough fingers on their hands for the amount of championship rings they were going to win. This pretty much lead to their appearance in the Championship last year and lo and behold my little Mavericks became the country's favorite outside of Miami. A small fanfare developed for the Mavericks mainly because people were cheering for the working man, the old guys, the underdog, and the little Mavericks won the series and then for the rest of the country things went back to normal.
What would the world think if the Heat instead of doing a big production had come out and said, look we know many people see our talent and think this is an automatic, but we are here to say we know we have to work hard, cannot take things for granted, we want to prove to our fans that their investment in us will be worthwhile. Well the world would probably be loving the Heat, people love a winner especially one that accepts there is a role to being a winner, someone that says hey I did this, but I did it for you and I appreciate what we did for ourselves through our efforts. Heck the Mavericks would have been hated for spoiling the Heat party last year, they were never winners so why should they blow up this new favorite team. PERCEPTION is always very interesting.
Andy yes I know many people have made similar observations, but I think it applies to the question at hand. People don't hate the rich right now, people are upset that the people who can really do something about this economy aren't helping. Everyone is pretty smart and they know the government can do only so much. They understand that Wall Street in its obsession to get rid of Obama still could be doing something to help the economy. There is anger towards their selfishness, lack of concern for what everyone else is going through. Overall people want wealth and good things, but when they see others take away their opportunity they feel it.
And now to bring up another point before I give the obvious answer to the question.
It seems our 1%er brothers don't get some other problems affecting our country. Savings which should be a necessity, a pay yourself first mindset that all financial planners say you should do, is becoming more of a luxury item. Yes people haven't been saving for years, but we should be putting this on the front burner for everyone. (another aside, the problem with our current welfare system is that it doesn't encourage people getting on their own feet, the concept of getting ahead has been pyschologically taken away from them. Yes some will never make the effort, but for a few generations now we have taught welfare recipients not to do things like save because we just give them part of their necessities, not something to work from.) Now though it is becoming harder and harder for even the middle class to even attempt to save. Historically for people that lived paycheck to paycheck,they never did, (we still need them to), but even for many in the middle class savings is becoming out of reach.
Another problem affecting the lower middle class and creeping into the middle class are these payday loans. This is making matters even worse. Use to be usury was a bad word, now it is like it doesn't even exist. Sure they couch their loans with they are not charging interest just fees, really folks, they are robbing people blind. And you would think the leaders of Wal Mart, JC Penny and any company that relies on consumer sales to do well would be totally against these companies. Think about how much money is being paid in "fees" hundreds of dollars to borrow hundreds of dollars. If my main business was to have consumers buy from me I think I would be lobbying heavily against these practices, which is why I think the rich don't get it. Even when their markets are being stolen they don't do anything about it.
So to put the above in my idea of a progressive conservative agenda, usury or fees should be highly legislated against. And I don't think people who work for these companies would be out of work, you would be just changing the "fees" back to sales for other companies and they would pick up the employment, simplistic yes, but basically workable.
The other agenda item is to encourage savings by creating legislation and policy so people have an incentive to save again or even for the first time. And there are possible ways to do this, think of workplace retirement savings, that can be tweaked for retirement and for normal savings. Banks should be clamoring for this, but again their shortsightedness is hurting our country. Banks should go back to being banks and lobby to help the middle class get back on their feet to help banks be profitable as banks. Real money back in the system for us and them.
Anyway people don't hate the rich anymore than they did (envy)pre 2008, just like people don't hate Lebron or Dewayne as individuals, but when you stand up and show to the world your arrogrance, well you are asking to be hated as that entity.
Monday, May 21, 2012
scattered pieces, is it one puzzle
It is so hard to bring back the original thought 12 hours later, but will try.
I was reading around about the current JP Morgan Chase trading lost and the inevitable too big to fail phrase popped up in discussing the current situation. This always bugs me. We have got to put things back into perspective. I would love just to say hey lets break up the mega banks and all of a sudden we wouldn't have this problem. If life was this simple. The reality is these mega banks are proof that what was put into place in the 1930's wasn't such a bad idea. So another infamous phrase comes to mind if we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. So are we? Is this continued reliance on the mega bank going to doom our economy worse than the 30's? Let's hope not because right now it looks like they are here to stay.
Or are they? I have been toying with the notion on a progressive conservative party agenda. Well also today I was reading about the failure of third party development in this country. So this got me to thinking. I haven't found an active party in the US, but there is the historical example and even that was mentioned in the article about the failure of third parties and more specifically the America Elect example that recently folded. And the article tried to discuss why. What I was reading between the lines was that this endeavor tried to create a party from the top of the pyramid, basically find a leader and then hope people would come to be lead. Many months ago I also talked about the inevitable failure of America Elect, but for other reasons, but to be successful the original reasons sill hold some weight. And I get this confidence from a group I fear. That is the current tea party wing of the Republican party. First I find their claim to be a grass roots movement a bit much when you dig deep and find that most of their funding comes from a select group of very rich individuals. Yes they do get their grass root funding, but most of the direction is being led by a select group. So why do I find them to be an example to look at to describe success. It is because they are starting from the ground up in building their movement. After their first attempts at creating a national leader they have backed up and were very successful in building a base in the 2010 elections and getting a few Representatives elected. This gave them a base to work from in Washington. And with anything American success breeds success. They are now able to embolden others to follow their path that are disgruntled with Washington and hold similar viewpoints. This is how you build a third party. The author of the article didn't seem to pick up the potential for this group to splinter off of the Republican party and be a third party.Well actually the author didn't discuss the tea party. And I think because they are trying to control the Republican party not be something different this will not be a true third party. So what is happening is many conservatives fighting their own party against a very powerful subgroup. Of course the Richard Lugar situation is the obvious example of this happening. Yet their success of building a base first is the real recipe for a true third party to develop.
So you got a bunch of pieces lying around. What does all this mean? Well for me today it is just another way to try and add to a Progressive Conservative Party modern agenda. Trying to go in and split up the mega banks like a Standard Oil monopoly bust probably will fail. The better way would be to start creating new policy that makes it more economically feasible to have regional smaller banks. Or at least national banks that focus truly on banking and let investment companies be investment companies, heck even borrowing from banks (to an extent) to build capital. We just don't need a few banks having most of America's capital tied up in non banking business. Again the regulations from the 30's. Yes any regulation almost a hundred years old definitely needs change, but don't lose the why it was written in the first place. Another Progressive Conservative party idea, write flexible and adaptable legislation. Something I have discussed before. Also as a proponent of not being Robin Hood and stealing wealth, but developing wealth for larger groups of people like having the banks more regional creates a stronger democracy and economy for the whole country. And this comes from.... a new party
Continued reliance on the large banks to shape our economy is asking for disaster. Having the same groups control the election process only hastens this disaster. And as said before the current Republicans (even with the Tea Party wing) and the Democrats are not able to save this country because they are too tied to this money (and even worse with the super pacs). The political process doesn't exist as our constitutional founders envisioned it.
Another aside: So who are the conservatives now? Is it modern mega rich who claim to be conservatives or the scattered few in this country trying hard to find a way back to a strong democracy and free market based on the government shaping policy not dictating it? I ask this because the tea party doesn't seem to get they are being used.
The puzzle exists, the pieces are scattered. Can we find the people that know how to bring them all back to the same table to recreate the picture we all see from the constitution?
And another aside; another article I read was about the Euro zone debacle going on and the statement was made what country is too big to fail. That causes some serious pause in the thinking process.
And the final aside. And from the infamous Monty Python "now for something completely different" and this one is obvious yet sticks a thorn in the side. And I know you have noticed this. News stations tend to pander to the issue and the audience. If it is a story on the NAACP, boom there is an African American reporting on it. Or if it is about young people, even if its education, a young reporter is sent, all trying to get audience hook up with the topic. Well today Fox really pandered to this thinking. I was walking by a TV and didn't hear the sound, but there was a blurb on a op ed opinion piece that Obama's election was not something or other connecting with women. Fox always have their headline at the bottom of the screen for the topic at hand so here was this written piece and on the screen were not one, but three women's faces talking about the issue. And you know every good 60 year old white male republican was just nodding along thinking to themselves you tell him honey. I just had to laugh.
I was reading around about the current JP Morgan Chase trading lost and the inevitable too big to fail phrase popped up in discussing the current situation. This always bugs me. We have got to put things back into perspective. I would love just to say hey lets break up the mega banks and all of a sudden we wouldn't have this problem. If life was this simple. The reality is these mega banks are proof that what was put into place in the 1930's wasn't such a bad idea. So another infamous phrase comes to mind if we don't learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. So are we? Is this continued reliance on the mega bank going to doom our economy worse than the 30's? Let's hope not because right now it looks like they are here to stay.
Or are they? I have been toying with the notion on a progressive conservative party agenda. Well also today I was reading about the failure of third party development in this country. So this got me to thinking. I haven't found an active party in the US, but there is the historical example and even that was mentioned in the article about the failure of third parties and more specifically the America Elect example that recently folded. And the article tried to discuss why. What I was reading between the lines was that this endeavor tried to create a party from the top of the pyramid, basically find a leader and then hope people would come to be lead. Many months ago I also talked about the inevitable failure of America Elect, but for other reasons, but to be successful the original reasons sill hold some weight. And I get this confidence from a group I fear. That is the current tea party wing of the Republican party. First I find their claim to be a grass roots movement a bit much when you dig deep and find that most of their funding comes from a select group of very rich individuals. Yes they do get their grass root funding, but most of the direction is being led by a select group. So why do I find them to be an example to look at to describe success. It is because they are starting from the ground up in building their movement. After their first attempts at creating a national leader they have backed up and were very successful in building a base in the 2010 elections and getting a few Representatives elected. This gave them a base to work from in Washington. And with anything American success breeds success. They are now able to embolden others to follow their path that are disgruntled with Washington and hold similar viewpoints. This is how you build a third party. The author of the article didn't seem to pick up the potential for this group to splinter off of the Republican party and be a third party.Well actually the author didn't discuss the tea party. And I think because they are trying to control the Republican party not be something different this will not be a true third party. So what is happening is many conservatives fighting their own party against a very powerful subgroup. Of course the Richard Lugar situation is the obvious example of this happening. Yet their success of building a base first is the real recipe for a true third party to develop.
So you got a bunch of pieces lying around. What does all this mean? Well for me today it is just another way to try and add to a Progressive Conservative Party modern agenda. Trying to go in and split up the mega banks like a Standard Oil monopoly bust probably will fail. The better way would be to start creating new policy that makes it more economically feasible to have regional smaller banks. Or at least national banks that focus truly on banking and let investment companies be investment companies, heck even borrowing from banks (to an extent) to build capital. We just don't need a few banks having most of America's capital tied up in non banking business. Again the regulations from the 30's. Yes any regulation almost a hundred years old definitely needs change, but don't lose the why it was written in the first place. Another Progressive Conservative party idea, write flexible and adaptable legislation. Something I have discussed before. Also as a proponent of not being Robin Hood and stealing wealth, but developing wealth for larger groups of people like having the banks more regional creates a stronger democracy and economy for the whole country. And this comes from.... a new party
Continued reliance on the large banks to shape our economy is asking for disaster. Having the same groups control the election process only hastens this disaster. And as said before the current Republicans (even with the Tea Party wing) and the Democrats are not able to save this country because they are too tied to this money (and even worse with the super pacs). The political process doesn't exist as our constitutional founders envisioned it.
Another aside: So who are the conservatives now? Is it modern mega rich who claim to be conservatives or the scattered few in this country trying hard to find a way back to a strong democracy and free market based on the government shaping policy not dictating it? I ask this because the tea party doesn't seem to get they are being used.
The puzzle exists, the pieces are scattered. Can we find the people that know how to bring them all back to the same table to recreate the picture we all see from the constitution?
And another aside; another article I read was about the Euro zone debacle going on and the statement was made what country is too big to fail. That causes some serious pause in the thinking process.
And the final aside. And from the infamous Monty Python "now for something completely different" and this one is obvious yet sticks a thorn in the side. And I know you have noticed this. News stations tend to pander to the issue and the audience. If it is a story on the NAACP, boom there is an African American reporting on it. Or if it is about young people, even if its education, a young reporter is sent, all trying to get audience hook up with the topic. Well today Fox really pandered to this thinking. I was walking by a TV and didn't hear the sound, but there was a blurb on a op ed opinion piece that Obama's election was not something or other connecting with women. Fox always have their headline at the bottom of the screen for the topic at hand so here was this written piece and on the screen were not one, but three women's faces talking about the issue. And you know every good 60 year old white male republican was just nodding along thinking to themselves you tell him honey. I just had to laugh.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Republicans, Tea Party, and the Occupy Movement
It can be pretty amazing what one doesn't see.
It may just be me, but I worry about the policies of the Tea Party and the Republican elitists bringing about what they worry about the most and that is a socialist movement in this country.
Right now the Occupy movement still seems pretty disconnected, no real leadership, no real agenda, but the lack of forethought in how the Republican leadership and the tea party groups are acting may bring about an organized movement. The total lack of concern for what is going on outside of their particular agenda and not realizing how bad the economy truly is for many people could start to create a counter movement and that counter movement would have a serious socialist agenda. We don't need socialism, but if leadership of a country is seriously disconnected from reality the people will eventually fight back. And socialism isn't the answer, but from the bit I have been reading about the occupy movement there is some noise around these types of ideas starting to develop.
This goes back to some of my previous posts and that is a strong democracy needs a strong and educated middle class. Wealth doesn't have to be perfectly evenly distributed, but it has to be attainable for the large majority. Once people are deprived of the ability to grow and achieve more they tend to hold grudges. These grudges can manifest itself in many ways.
Two problems developing in this country are poverty being a cancer upon our society as a whole and the possibility that competing groups will try to use democracy to create a true socialist state. If Fox news etc think Obama is the reincarnation of socialism, well they got another thing coming when a true socialist movement emerges because of their continued lack of understanding of what is going on in this country. The problem is the leadership that relies on Fox news to try and create a false sense of who we are as a nation will have this backfire if they are overly reliant on their own sense of self.
I think most Americans still believe in a sense that prosperity is a good thing, but as time goes on this can become used as a tool to ignite passions against the leadership if people feel this has been taken away from them. The Tea party groups and the Republican leadership seem to be making mistakes that can cause this to happen. They are so bent on trying to stop Obama at all costs, exclaiming that the fabric of our country is in danger because of him, but never really addressing the true problems facing our country and economy.
We need answers quickly and the two largest conservative groups are failing in this regard. The unbending or uncompromising attitude only leads to more discontent from the fringes. What they don't seem to realize is that thinking that the fringe doesn't matter is exactly where they will fall and drag this country along with them. People in this country all probably have heard that life isn't fair and most accept that you won't always get what you want, but if the general populace feels that aren't given an opportunity to be successful with one system; they will start to look for other means to feel successful. Or to find justice and make things right again.
This is why the current Occupy movement is so dangerous. Again not strong now, but a continued lack of policy to truly fix problems and work with the people will create fuel for a group like certain people in the Occupy movement to be able to develop a working opposition with policies that will become popular that the Republicans etc don't want. If they think the current administration policies are detrimental to their goals, what are they going to do when their worst fears become reality.
So if you want capitalism to continue, democracy to be strong, our rights developed by our constitution to remain, we need to find conservative leadership that understands that we don't need a large government to solve our problems, just one that creates policies etc to keep all of the above viable in our society. Large government has failed with such things as institutionalized welfare and poverty, an education system that is getting worse with each generation, regulations with bloated bureaucracies that are ineffective, and a drain on productivity and the free market. The problem is the elite in this country have manipulated this system, but still whine they are being mistreated and yet no real solutions come from these people to truly maintain what this country can become.
So it goes back to the problem that the Republican Leadership and Tea Party groups the so called strength of conservatism in this country by their lack of being true conservatives they are opening the window to let in exactly what they don't want.
I have been toying with the concept of a progressive conservative party for this country so I actually did a bit of research and couldn't find an active party with this name now, but as mentioned in earlier posts we have had one historically. I also read a bit about the Canadian, (yes Canadian) progressive conservative party. Found an interesting quote from the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains: " The name of this party will strike many as an oxymoron. Yet it unintentionally catches something of the party's essence. It has been a coalition of ardent supporters of the free market system and minimal government, and of those (the so-called Red Tories) who have an organic view of society and believe that the state has an obligation to preserve social harmony and to take care of those who cannot easily fend for themselves."
Bringing this definition down to American Politics may seem a bit of a stretch, but we need to find a conservative group who understands that if you have a free market system there are going to be winners and losers, it is how you treat the losers that define you as a society. Or the more popular phrase "you are only as strong as your weakest link". We don't need institutionalized programs that drain us as a society, but we do need to keep our ability to grow not just economically, but as a people at the forefront of everything from our government.
It may just be me, but I worry about the policies of the Tea Party and the Republican elitists bringing about what they worry about the most and that is a socialist movement in this country.
Right now the Occupy movement still seems pretty disconnected, no real leadership, no real agenda, but the lack of forethought in how the Republican leadership and the tea party groups are acting may bring about an organized movement. The total lack of concern for what is going on outside of their particular agenda and not realizing how bad the economy truly is for many people could start to create a counter movement and that counter movement would have a serious socialist agenda. We don't need socialism, but if leadership of a country is seriously disconnected from reality the people will eventually fight back. And socialism isn't the answer, but from the bit I have been reading about the occupy movement there is some noise around these types of ideas starting to develop.
This goes back to some of my previous posts and that is a strong democracy needs a strong and educated middle class. Wealth doesn't have to be perfectly evenly distributed, but it has to be attainable for the large majority. Once people are deprived of the ability to grow and achieve more they tend to hold grudges. These grudges can manifest itself in many ways.
Two problems developing in this country are poverty being a cancer upon our society as a whole and the possibility that competing groups will try to use democracy to create a true socialist state. If Fox news etc think Obama is the reincarnation of socialism, well they got another thing coming when a true socialist movement emerges because of their continued lack of understanding of what is going on in this country. The problem is the leadership that relies on Fox news to try and create a false sense of who we are as a nation will have this backfire if they are overly reliant on their own sense of self.
I think most Americans still believe in a sense that prosperity is a good thing, but as time goes on this can become used as a tool to ignite passions against the leadership if people feel this has been taken away from them. The Tea party groups and the Republican leadership seem to be making mistakes that can cause this to happen. They are so bent on trying to stop Obama at all costs, exclaiming that the fabric of our country is in danger because of him, but never really addressing the true problems facing our country and economy.
We need answers quickly and the two largest conservative groups are failing in this regard. The unbending or uncompromising attitude only leads to more discontent from the fringes. What they don't seem to realize is that thinking that the fringe doesn't matter is exactly where they will fall and drag this country along with them. People in this country all probably have heard that life isn't fair and most accept that you won't always get what you want, but if the general populace feels that aren't given an opportunity to be successful with one system; they will start to look for other means to feel successful. Or to find justice and make things right again.
This is why the current Occupy movement is so dangerous. Again not strong now, but a continued lack of policy to truly fix problems and work with the people will create fuel for a group like certain people in the Occupy movement to be able to develop a working opposition with policies that will become popular that the Republicans etc don't want. If they think the current administration policies are detrimental to their goals, what are they going to do when their worst fears become reality.
So if you want capitalism to continue, democracy to be strong, our rights developed by our constitution to remain, we need to find conservative leadership that understands that we don't need a large government to solve our problems, just one that creates policies etc to keep all of the above viable in our society. Large government has failed with such things as institutionalized welfare and poverty, an education system that is getting worse with each generation, regulations with bloated bureaucracies that are ineffective, and a drain on productivity and the free market. The problem is the elite in this country have manipulated this system, but still whine they are being mistreated and yet no real solutions come from these people to truly maintain what this country can become.
So it goes back to the problem that the Republican Leadership and Tea Party groups the so called strength of conservatism in this country by their lack of being true conservatives they are opening the window to let in exactly what they don't want.
I have been toying with the concept of a progressive conservative party for this country so I actually did a bit of research and couldn't find an active party with this name now, but as mentioned in earlier posts we have had one historically. I also read a bit about the Canadian, (yes Canadian) progressive conservative party. Found an interesting quote from the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains: " The name of this party will strike many as an oxymoron. Yet it unintentionally catches something of the party's essence. It has been a coalition of ardent supporters of the free market system and minimal government, and of those (the so-called Red Tories) who have an organic view of society and believe that the state has an obligation to preserve social harmony and to take care of those who cannot easily fend for themselves."
Bringing this definition down to American Politics may seem a bit of a stretch, but we need to find a conservative group who understands that if you have a free market system there are going to be winners and losers, it is how you treat the losers that define you as a society. Or the more popular phrase "you are only as strong as your weakest link". We don't need institutionalized programs that drain us as a society, but we do need to keep our ability to grow not just economically, but as a people at the forefront of everything from our government.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
a ban on bake sales...
....more proof democrats and republicans don't have a clue how to solve this nation's problems. See previous, it is more complicated than bake sale bans.
Monday, May 7, 2012
some cases bigger isn't always better
This one is going to be a bit all over the place. Trying to collect all the thoughts in my head. I was thinking about obesity in our country the other day. And then today I was watching the news feed coming across the bottom of the screen for Fox news and there were some "alarming" facts about obesity running across the screen; basically stating that by 2030 we were going to be a seriously fat nation.
This is one of those situations where the problem also begets many other problems, mainly of course health which in turn raises the cost of health care which in turn causes more economic headaches etc etc etc
The other day I was thinking about causes of obesity in our country and really you can name many of them. And I do mean many when you think about it. And which are the main drivers of the problem are hard to say. I think each contributes heavily. Some examples are education about good eating, poverty, eating out too much or lack of planned family meals, meal schedules, processed foods over fresh foods, eating healthy is actually expensive, and lack of active lifestyles to name a few. This has been something that has developed over decades.
Some things that I would like to focus on are also in my wheel house about the economy. And the title of this post describes one of them. To start though lets talk about an indirect cause and that is meal planning. This goes for upper middle class to families in poverty being affected. With two parents working or single family parents much of the time there is little to none meal planning. Everyone is busy, time is short breakfast never gets eaten and dinner is sometimes after 8 at night. Ask any nutritionist and this is a recipe by itself for disaster. There are many reasons why this problem exists, but mainly a combination of trying to cram in more activities further from home and the middle class losing spending power so the need for both parents to work causes later dinners and non healthy dinners either by processed foods or restaurant eating. Think back a couple of generations, going out to eat was not just a treat, but something that was only for weekends and even then the choices were limited. Now between fast food and chain restaurants our highways are littered with eatery choices. And yes our society has recognized that eating out is a problem think about menu choices now, almost all have some type of heart healthy choices or some other label for so called healthier choices. Now is this the main problem, no the lack of meal planning is just a cause among many, but not the most immediate topic I want to discuss, but I wanted to include it because the solution will need to address this as well.
The topic I want to focus on and address for this post is the concept of processed foods or that we get most of our at home meals through prefixed meals. Highly processed foods that have very low nutritional value, except fortified with vitamins, (we need vitamins from the actual food). This is where bigger is not better. Think about this for a second, we now have large corporations making money off what we eat and by becoming large they have put what is the most important element of eating to the side and that is it is for our bodies, our health, and our nourishment. Now it is just filler so we can think we have eaten something, yes we have something in our stomachs, but what good is it doing for us as humans. So maybe the solution falls into my economic thinking and that is maybe we should break back down the food distribution system. bring back smaller industries built on local markets so we get fresh food on our tables again. We to eat we well we will need to add education and time back into the process, but relying on fast food or frozen foods for most of our daily meals is putting ourselves on the back burner of our own lives. And yes we hear this every day from government health bureaucrats, nutritionists, and even the media, however, there is no plan to put good food back into our systems. I think as part of a new economy bringing the food process back locally has a few benefits. One we eat better, two local economies are enhanced ( and yes goes with diversified wealth),three because of planning families might get more time together eating a real meal, four new industries developed, but instead of new fake food, we get new ways to get food to the market, yes it is harder for some areas to have fresh food than others, but we work on solving that issue not trying to feed everyone from one source (large corporations) and again I am not trying to play Robin Hood and steal from one group to give to another, but who does the best job for us right now should be rewarded so if the large corporations can diversify and bring this home so to speak more power to them, but we got to bring back eating real food to us.
Again I am all over the board with this and there is so much more, but I wanted to get some ideas started on paper. And even though it sounds like much, most of the distribution system is there, it is just the philosophy and freshness that becomes important, and there are other ways to help like expanding hydroponics, rebuilding farms in certain areas and having cities that are sprawled out, replan to allow growth around the farms and allowing tax breaks etc to make farming affordable next to and inside cities. Just some quick ideas.
Obesity is another issue like poverty that will take work, but the benefits from doing the right thing are worth much more than the investments needed to start fixing the problems. Not only are the monetary benefits, but the whole big picture is improved giving us the country we truly want.
This is one of those situations where the problem also begets many other problems, mainly of course health which in turn raises the cost of health care which in turn causes more economic headaches etc etc etc
The other day I was thinking about causes of obesity in our country and really you can name many of them. And I do mean many when you think about it. And which are the main drivers of the problem are hard to say. I think each contributes heavily. Some examples are education about good eating, poverty, eating out too much or lack of planned family meals, meal schedules, processed foods over fresh foods, eating healthy is actually expensive, and lack of active lifestyles to name a few. This has been something that has developed over decades.
Some things that I would like to focus on are also in my wheel house about the economy. And the title of this post describes one of them. To start though lets talk about an indirect cause and that is meal planning. This goes for upper middle class to families in poverty being affected. With two parents working or single family parents much of the time there is little to none meal planning. Everyone is busy, time is short breakfast never gets eaten and dinner is sometimes after 8 at night. Ask any nutritionist and this is a recipe by itself for disaster. There are many reasons why this problem exists, but mainly a combination of trying to cram in more activities further from home and the middle class losing spending power so the need for both parents to work causes later dinners and non healthy dinners either by processed foods or restaurant eating. Think back a couple of generations, going out to eat was not just a treat, but something that was only for weekends and even then the choices were limited. Now between fast food and chain restaurants our highways are littered with eatery choices. And yes our society has recognized that eating out is a problem think about menu choices now, almost all have some type of heart healthy choices or some other label for so called healthier choices. Now is this the main problem, no the lack of meal planning is just a cause among many, but not the most immediate topic I want to discuss, but I wanted to include it because the solution will need to address this as well.
The topic I want to focus on and address for this post is the concept of processed foods or that we get most of our at home meals through prefixed meals. Highly processed foods that have very low nutritional value, except fortified with vitamins, (we need vitamins from the actual food). This is where bigger is not better. Think about this for a second, we now have large corporations making money off what we eat and by becoming large they have put what is the most important element of eating to the side and that is it is for our bodies, our health, and our nourishment. Now it is just filler so we can think we have eaten something, yes we have something in our stomachs, but what good is it doing for us as humans. So maybe the solution falls into my economic thinking and that is maybe we should break back down the food distribution system. bring back smaller industries built on local markets so we get fresh food on our tables again. We to eat we well we will need to add education and time back into the process, but relying on fast food or frozen foods for most of our daily meals is putting ourselves on the back burner of our own lives. And yes we hear this every day from government health bureaucrats, nutritionists, and even the media, however, there is no plan to put good food back into our systems. I think as part of a new economy bringing the food process back locally has a few benefits. One we eat better, two local economies are enhanced ( and yes goes with diversified wealth),three because of planning families might get more time together eating a real meal, four new industries developed, but instead of new fake food, we get new ways to get food to the market, yes it is harder for some areas to have fresh food than others, but we work on solving that issue not trying to feed everyone from one source (large corporations) and again I am not trying to play Robin Hood and steal from one group to give to another, but who does the best job for us right now should be rewarded so if the large corporations can diversify and bring this home so to speak more power to them, but we got to bring back eating real food to us.
Again I am all over the board with this and there is so much more, but I wanted to get some ideas started on paper. And even though it sounds like much, most of the distribution system is there, it is just the philosophy and freshness that becomes important, and there are other ways to help like expanding hydroponics, rebuilding farms in certain areas and having cities that are sprawled out, replan to allow growth around the farms and allowing tax breaks etc to make farming affordable next to and inside cities. Just some quick ideas.
Obesity is another issue like poverty that will take work, but the benefits from doing the right thing are worth much more than the investments needed to start fixing the problems. Not only are the monetary benefits, but the whole big picture is improved giving us the country we truly want.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Another quick analogy
Imagine the infinity pool, something that looks wonderful, look across it and imagine the infinite end of the pool going on and on over the edge. Then get to the edge and realize that you are going over the edge and instead of ongoing water to float in, you find yourself dropping into a horrible abyss with no way to get back.
Well it looks like the Presidential race is in full swing now. This is the picture we will have if we keep hoping that with either Democrats or Republicans will be able to produce the wonderful floating picture of the infinity pool.
Both sides will eventually start pandering to the middle to try and swing the election their way, promising all sorts of manure to win votes, only to produce nothing productive come next January.
I wish there was a way to wake up moderates to conservatives to realize in the middle class that neither Republicans, Democrats, Occupy Wall Street or the Tea Party has any of their best interests. No one group is truly representing who needs to be represented which is the vast majority of this country. And what really irks me about the new silent majority is their inability to see they have no voice anymore. We don't need protests like the Occupy movement, or extreme rightism of the tea party, the over indulgence of promises by democrats and republicans, we need the majority of this country to sit down and honestly look at themselves and realize we are still a great country, but need to rethink who we choose to lead us. It is constitutional to find new parties, new identities, new policies and to stand up and fight against the rights being taken away from us, against the charade that money can buy free speech, tea party activists supported by a small group of elitists, protests movements with no punch, nor a cohesive direction.
Free Speech is also action, action to produce policy that truly benefits, not just the majority, but the whole prospects of a nation. There will always be winners and losers, but we need leaders who understand that both make up the country.
Take for example the homeless situation that is growing in San Francisco. They are being overwhelmed by the problem. And in reality some of the homeless will never try to change, but nowadays that is not all. A successful policy will find a way to reengage the ones that want to be engaged and find the most Christian, but realistic policy (affordable) to deal with the ones that are either so far disenfranchised from society or are mentally ill and cannot engage with society at all. We cannot save everyone, but we can create policies that let people who care continue to have a chance to pick themselves back up. Not by giving welfare away, but by bringing people back with dignity, jobs, pathway to finding a roof over their head again. This takes enterprise, new business in areas that cater to the homeless. Some imagination. It can be done without forfeiting local governments' budgets. It does take people that realize there are solutions out there, not doing the same ole thing over and over again. Poverty is winning because we haven't changed the battle plan and we haven't improved the economy.
Remember the phrase all politics is local. We may need to start local before we can change nationally, but something needs to be done soon. The political advertising machine for President and Congress is getting ready to kick into full gear. How does the audience rewrite the scripts before the final act is played out?
Some solutions to the homeless problem. One create tax opportunities to businesses that build new locations and employ the homeless that do care. The governments role is to mainly help determine who does care, and connect with the businesses. We could also use some new types of businesses including light industrial or manufacturing of simple products. Yes we won't be paying high wages, but begin with affordable wage range and encourage the new workers to shop the fellow businesses that support the rebuilding effort with their wages. For example shop at the grocery stores that retrain and employ, economists always talk about once new money enters an environment it circulates so the impact is greater than the initial influx. One reason many economies benefit from tourism. For this example, recirculate among themselves their wages and hopefully this will move into the larger local economy making even more businesses survive.
Once upon a time, these ideas were being developed by business incubators, cities economic development councils, (again all politics are local) so we need to bring this back to our communities. I have a previous post about Martin Luther King day event that has a bit more of this idea near the end.
Now for something sort of different
And yes it would be a good idea to bring back rail travel. Especially with fuel costs going to continue to be high. And I am not a robin hood, we don't need to rob from the rich, we just need them to reinvest to benefit the country so if the airlines want to build the railroads so they don't lose market share, so be it. But Trips like Dallas to Austin or Boston to DC, New York etc, must really be encouraged because there is much that can be gained by rebuilding short train trips and leaving long trips to the airlines. Two wins happen here, less fuel used, new manufacturing developed. And if you build solar or electric trains, well even more gain.
Energy policy in the future just has to be diversified, we cannot live on fossil fuels alone. Develop the diversification and we develop our economy.
Okay now going off on too many tangents, so shutting down, but some food for thought so we don't fall into the abyss.
And quite frankly I haven't given up on the Mavericks yet, but tonight's game is a must.
Well it looks like the Presidential race is in full swing now. This is the picture we will have if we keep hoping that with either Democrats or Republicans will be able to produce the wonderful floating picture of the infinity pool.
Both sides will eventually start pandering to the middle to try and swing the election their way, promising all sorts of manure to win votes, only to produce nothing productive come next January.
I wish there was a way to wake up moderates to conservatives to realize in the middle class that neither Republicans, Democrats, Occupy Wall Street or the Tea Party has any of their best interests. No one group is truly representing who needs to be represented which is the vast majority of this country. And what really irks me about the new silent majority is their inability to see they have no voice anymore. We don't need protests like the Occupy movement, or extreme rightism of the tea party, the over indulgence of promises by democrats and republicans, we need the majority of this country to sit down and honestly look at themselves and realize we are still a great country, but need to rethink who we choose to lead us. It is constitutional to find new parties, new identities, new policies and to stand up and fight against the rights being taken away from us, against the charade that money can buy free speech, tea party activists supported by a small group of elitists, protests movements with no punch, nor a cohesive direction.
Free Speech is also action, action to produce policy that truly benefits, not just the majority, but the whole prospects of a nation. There will always be winners and losers, but we need leaders who understand that both make up the country.
Take for example the homeless situation that is growing in San Francisco. They are being overwhelmed by the problem. And in reality some of the homeless will never try to change, but nowadays that is not all. A successful policy will find a way to reengage the ones that want to be engaged and find the most Christian, but realistic policy (affordable) to deal with the ones that are either so far disenfranchised from society or are mentally ill and cannot engage with society at all. We cannot save everyone, but we can create policies that let people who care continue to have a chance to pick themselves back up. Not by giving welfare away, but by bringing people back with dignity, jobs, pathway to finding a roof over their head again. This takes enterprise, new business in areas that cater to the homeless. Some imagination. It can be done without forfeiting local governments' budgets. It does take people that realize there are solutions out there, not doing the same ole thing over and over again. Poverty is winning because we haven't changed the battle plan and we haven't improved the economy.
Remember the phrase all politics is local. We may need to start local before we can change nationally, but something needs to be done soon. The political advertising machine for President and Congress is getting ready to kick into full gear. How does the audience rewrite the scripts before the final act is played out?
Some solutions to the homeless problem. One create tax opportunities to businesses that build new locations and employ the homeless that do care. The governments role is to mainly help determine who does care, and connect with the businesses. We could also use some new types of businesses including light industrial or manufacturing of simple products. Yes we won't be paying high wages, but begin with affordable wage range and encourage the new workers to shop the fellow businesses that support the rebuilding effort with their wages. For example shop at the grocery stores that retrain and employ, economists always talk about once new money enters an environment it circulates so the impact is greater than the initial influx. One reason many economies benefit from tourism. For this example, recirculate among themselves their wages and hopefully this will move into the larger local economy making even more businesses survive.
Once upon a time, these ideas were being developed by business incubators, cities economic development councils, (again all politics are local) so we need to bring this back to our communities. I have a previous post about Martin Luther King day event that has a bit more of this idea near the end.
Now for something sort of different
And yes it would be a good idea to bring back rail travel. Especially with fuel costs going to continue to be high. And I am not a robin hood, we don't need to rob from the rich, we just need them to reinvest to benefit the country so if the airlines want to build the railroads so they don't lose market share, so be it. But Trips like Dallas to Austin or Boston to DC, New York etc, must really be encouraged because there is much that can be gained by rebuilding short train trips and leaving long trips to the airlines. Two wins happen here, less fuel used, new manufacturing developed. And if you build solar or electric trains, well even more gain.
Energy policy in the future just has to be diversified, we cannot live on fossil fuels alone. Develop the diversification and we develop our economy.
Okay now going off on too many tangents, so shutting down, but some food for thought so we don't fall into the abyss.
And quite frankly I haven't given up on the Mavericks yet, but tonight's game is a must.
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