A quick proposal thought

I was reading that GE is going to sell their appliance business to a company from China. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it.

Got me to thinking since according to the article the actual business was going to stay at their current location and keep the same management team; why couldn’t we have created a plan and sold it to the current management team and maybe include the employees. This may be one way to help reduce the wealth gap in our country.

One of the reasons the wealth gap has been increasing is because so many businesses merge and consolidate. Wouldn’t diversifying some large corporations be one way to reduce this trend?

This may take some work to accomplish and the first few times something like this was completed there is going to see some scrutiny. And this scrutiny is good since we want this to succeed.

How all this would come to fruition would be interesting and beneficial. If this works, then many companies could be recreated here. The ownership stays here and this adds wealth to a larger group of people.

So why do we not do this more often? I know this is not an original idea because I have heard of it before. And yes getting started is difficult, but success always takes hard work. What this shows is a lack of leadership in encouraging this to happen more often.

If the Republican Party is the party of business and free enterprise why are they not fighting hard to make this happen? Sure would beat having Mr. Sanders redistribute wealth via the government and we wouldn’t need a ton of government agencies to do everything if policy is well written. This won’t solve all our problems, yet make it part of many ideas to turn this country around.

Just proves the Republicans are not true business oriented, not true conservatives, and not for the people of this country. They are more beholden to the beltway lobbyists and Wall Street than to us.

Proof is always in the pudding.   Ha ha ha 

Another ingredient in the pudding…. And a side note

There is the old saying “the proof is in the pudding” and the pudding is my continuation of why the Democrats and Republicans are failing us. And this one is about addressing a specific activity.

As you may have read somewhere or on occasion I talk much about how if the Democrats and Republicans were actually representing us then items like the wealth gap wouldn’t be so large, true wage and true spending power would be up over the last forty-fifty years instead of in a long decline.

Today though I want to talk about comparing how much time they spend on getting re elected rather than representing you. These are just quick thoughts.

I am not talking about the outsize number of times Congress is not in session even though that can be a problem. Tonight is more about developing policy vs elections.

So I ask you to compare for yourselves how much energy each party spends on collecting voter data, analyzing voter data, heck even stealing voter data amongst themselves, developing programs to pinpoint exactly who might vote down to the precinct level and more versus how much time the parties and the candidates develop policies that might help the greater good.

And you may say, I hear all the time their goals. The candidates spend millions on ads espousing campaign information. And yes they do, but it is mostly slogans and phrases and long standing ideological statements to prove to their base that they are on target.

They do not spend anywhere near the same amount of time analyzing what programs work in our government, which ones don’t, what could be improved, creating true priority lists of what we need as a country. The work that would actually be representing you in a Republic form of government.

Yep they do tons of work, but not one iota of it benefits you as a citizen of the United States and this includes federal, state and local level. But damn they sure know how to get you to vote. Takes much work to do that. So yes our politicians work hard…… for themselves

And on a second note, I wrote some general comments on a news story about Ms. Clinton and one of the replies I got back was the GOP was worse. And actually similar comments happen all the time to my posts since I make comments representing an independent point of view and sometimes rehashing different ways to continue to say how our two major parties are failing us.

I did take notice this time and I wanted to say this version of worse is you being subjective. You say the GOP is worse because you support the Democrats and so by your standards they are worse, but step back and analyze which party has succeeded in governing responsibly. And then both sides would say we do; the other side doesn’t. And again it is subjective.

I wish somehow some way I could get through to the general party members to step away from the kool aid and take a drink of fresh water and see what that tastes like. I know the paid party members, die hards, and the people that support them to receive the pork benefits would not step away, but it is the thousands if not millions of voters referred to as the rank and file of each party that I would want to taste the water. I wish I could find a way to walk them out of the box built up by generations to see that their interests are not aligned with what their parties are doing.  

The TEA party members did try, but they have been blinded (like everyone else) for so long and led astray to their principles that they were ready for anyone to take them by the hand and lead them somewhere else. And when you are already right wing it doesn’t take much to be led in a hard right direction when the blinders are never removed. So even though they are headed away from the box they are not being led in a direction that will ultimately benefit them.

A bit of tax policy to benefit the middle class and the whole of the economy

Some much of what our government does as public policy tries to create short term fixes for problems or panders to special interests. Using policy to affect positive behavior to benefit the country really is what our government should do.

Our two major parties also play a hand in policy that is not forward thinking because they are stuck in ideological ruts.

Democrats (mainly) try to solve problems by creating programs and agencies to address the issue. This is partly why our government is so large. Many of these agencies become institutionalized and instead of solving the original problem they look to expand their scope for their own survival. And on top of that new agencies and departments come along that tackle something similar since the original problem was never resolved. Now we have redundancy.

Republicans ideologically say we need to let the markets be the driver of success in our country. If we let the people who are business leaders lead our country then everything else will fall into place, hence the now infamous trickle-down theory. First the markets, read business leaders, will never do what is in the best interest of the country. This goes against their own survival. Second this really isn’t public policy since public policy is to manage competing interests to find the best overall solution for the country going forward.

And these are just some of the reasons I continue to blog that the two major parties are failing our country so much so that in 2012 I wrote a platform for my fictitious revival of a previous party in our past. I am going to touch on some of my previous ideas with a bit of an update on one aspect of how we can make a positive move forward economically with some temporary changes in tax policy.

Basically our economy needs major overhaul. I do not think trickle down or whatever version of that the Establishment Republicans are espousing nowadays will work. I haven’t seen anything from Ms. Clinton except campaign slogans and Mr. Sanders is going to try and use the government to solve problems that any government can never solve.  At least he is actually trying to create something. I feel they are highly ineffective, but he is trying so he is gaining popularity with some youth.

What I propose though is changes that can be instituted, but as things progress can evolve. The issue I want to move forward is reestablishing a stronger middle class and re investment back into our country. These changes by themselves are not enough, but they can show you, the reader, it is possible to put together policy that if properly acted upon will have a positive effect.

First we need to lower capital gains taxes on long term investments and raise them significantly on short term trading profits and activity. And when I mean raise I am talking about 90% for certain types of short term trading.

And there is some detail to this such as individual investors would get the greatest benefit for long term capital gains almost to the point if held for a certain time like years the tax rate would be nominally zero or close. The next group that would see benefits from long term trading or sometimes known as buy and hold trading would be mutual funds. For many years mutual funds when managed well are a great way for people in the middle class to save long term. Not too many people can spend the time researching companies to make long term stock decisions except for professional money managers. They would not receive the same benefits as the individual investor, but see significant reductions to encourage their long term planning.

The first goal here is to get people to reinvest in companies that reinvest back in our country. Long term investing strategy means investing in companies that have long term growth prospects. If companies know their stock price is not going to be based on one quarter’s profit/loss then they can invest more in their future to adapt to changing markets and new products. Well managed companies can grow. This type of investing leads to job and wage growth for workers.

The second half of the equation is to significantly raise taxes on short term trading. The philosophy behind this is to get Wall Street to go back to being investment bankers and planning for the long term.  There is a culture of billionaires making more money for themselves that has no benefit to anyone or anything else. Money is invested with the sole purpose of enlarging balances, not earning money.  The Sanders philosophy is we need to go after Wall Street. We do not need to attack Wall Street, we need to move them into activity that benefits the whole of our country and economy. The last thirty years of ever increasing trade activity for the sheer goal of extravagance for a few set individuals is exponentially more dangerous to our economy than people want to admit. Well people not in the Sanders camp.

We cannot as a society force wealth redistribution; that does not create jobs or grow our economy. We can reward positive and punish negative behavior as part of public policy. Our criminal justice system is one example of punishing negative behavior. The government has no right to tell people what to do, but it can set policy that benefits the greater good. Basically the same billionaires have to change their investment behavior, no one is saying they still can’t make billions. To grow economically, someone needs to grow it. They change is they won’t be pulling money out of real capital investments to manipulate markets for their own good. If they want to continue to make money, they have to make money for everyone.

And this is a temporary tax law. Tax law is one of the few policy opportunities a government has in changing large scale behavior. And of course it needs to benefit the country as a whole or it can be very destructive. And it is easier to change tax law than to rid our government of oversized bureaucracies. For example changing behavior means the SEC is reduced or at least focuses on the basics of investing and regulation from its original intent. It can spend more time on investment fraud, insider trading, and making sure new issues are introduced to the markets correctly. We do not need to add a whole new set of responsibilities or whatever Mr. Sanders may add to it or have another department added to reform Wall Street.

This is just one idea to a much larger puzzle of improving the economy for all of us. Some other aspects of this potential tax change are giving tax breaks to corporations for improving exports and new technology development. Ford and GM selling more electric cars to us and places like South America and India is a boast to our economy so their tax rates on the income from these changes reflect this benefit. This is companies moving forward in the world economy, yet making their growth come from inside the country. This is different from the Republicans saying give breaks now expect results later. You hold the reductions till the growth is realized. They may argue they have no incentive to invest, but if they say that they shouldn’t be in business in the first place. The goal of a successful business is to make a product, sell it, and evolve. Tax breaks create extra rewards for the hard work.  And if it generates an improved economy for the whole, then the need for large scale welfare and other social programs is reduced, plus there are more people paying taxes so a reduction, credit etc is an acceptable way for public policy to evolve and this reduces the overall size of government which reduces the need for taxes from everyone.

This is not a stop gap measure, it has to be calculated and flexible. At some point we could lower short term rates once overall changes are made. And nothing is ever perfect, there will be events forcing short term adjustments in the policy, but if you make long term planning the first step, it is easier to react to short term issues.

Some food for thought as we head into this wild and crazy political season that is now upon us. 

some random comments

I was going to say Donald Trump's new ad sounds like a greatest hit collection, but Vox.com beat me to it.

I am not a fan of Cruz, but his latest ad does make an interesting point.

I have tried to stay away from the immigration issue because I haven't thought of a possible solution and I am not a fan of either extreme of either banning completely to legalizing all here. There is a solution, but no one seems to have figured it out or at least one I may like. It is an issue we need long term solutions.

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The Mavs are confusing. Hope they figure themselves out soon.

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There will be no eulogy on the Cowboy season except to say I got a t shirt for Christmas that says Jerry causes me to drink. Now it is the whole organization.

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Christmas season ends tomorrow. Merry 11th day of Christmas

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And the Huffington Post is just as bad as Fox when it comes to partitionship.

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And we certainly need to stay away from anymore Sunni Shi ite explosions. Time we sid some real hard discussion on what should be U.S. interest in the Middle East. You would think after decades of dealing with the Middle East we would have learned something by now.

Maybe if we put oil in perspective things might become clearer for us. Energy independence shouldn't be a pipe dream.

Another two for the price of one

Two topics are racing around inside my head these last couple of days so I thought I would try to be succinct on both of them and combine them into one post. The second portion of this post will be about the Press and Donald Trump and the Press.

The first post is about the open carry law here in Texas that starts January 1, 2016. I have to admit in my past I have gone skeet shooting, duck hunting, and some other general back forty shooting so I understand wanting to have the ability to own guns. What I do not understand is the need to display guns in public.

And maybe I should have spoken up sooner or actually written a letter to a legislator or something because I fear this is going to be a real problem. And my fear is somewhat rational for most people I think.

First of all recent headlines show how dangerous this could be such as from the terrorist shootings in California to the police accidentally killing a third person while trying to apprehend and then shooting two suspects in Chicago. Imagine people with guns at hand being involved in these situations.

There is so much talk if people had guns then the shooters in California could have been stopped, uh a big maybe at best and how fast could others shoot them. And obviously now you have multiple people potentially shooting at each other and the probability of more innocent victims getting hit goes up. Or people who see police shooting deciding they need to “defend” themselves and a full fledge gun battle breaks out. How many innocent victims will there be now?

And then there is the usual road rage scenarios, people getting into an argument, public fights, etc and the easier a gun is to access the shorter amount of time you have to think about what you are about to do. Or just seeing someone else with a gun may make you think you have to have yours.

I hate to think or even mention, but sooner or later some real serious disasters are going to happen. It doesn’t take much for some idiot who really cannot shoot a gun to go crazy in public trying to stop a robbery or something and a whole bunch of people get shot

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And like I mentioned I should have spoken up sooner and I will throw others under the bus, such as anyone else who perceives how dangerous this could be, and didn’t speak to our elected officials to stop this law from happening. This is one problem of people not voting. State Legislatures are not well attended elections hence a small group of people can have an undue influence on the outcome of legislation so this looks like the legislatures made all their hunting buddies and a few crazy groups happy with this dangerous law. If we had larger turnouts of people voting then maybe more common sense could have ruled when this came up for a vote.

I hope I am very wrong about my predictions, but if something does happen I hope every legislative person and the Governor have to answer for allowing this to come into play. There has to be some accountability for not governing for the betterment of the whole of society instead of the advantage or liking of a few.

So what is my beef with the press and my beef with the press and Donald Trump.  I have previously posted about the failure of the fourth estate so this isn’t new.

I am going to be a tad more blunt this time.

First the rise of Donald Trump is because the press is showing how and lazy and profit driven they have become. It is easy to write stories about him. And he gets readers.

Forget trying to write and compare how all the candidates compare on the issues. This takes work and it seems no one read these stories in mass compared to the name calling Mr. Trump does to excite the masses. Yes I know there are a few articles attempting to try to get an audience for a better discussion etc of the election and candidates, but the vast majority of what you read and see is what Trump said and what people are saying about Trump. Not too many stories on what does Mr. Trump mean and how he actually proposes to accomplish his rhetoric.

And it is partly the Press’ fault for this madness. They have been headed in this direction for a very long time. Yes you can say it is because the Press is owned by billionaires only looking out for their profits and this is one aspect of the problem. In some ways our friend Rupert is receiving some comeuppance now. There is no need to write anything people do not want to read because it does not make money. So we read about the Kardashians, or stories of corruption or sexual scandals in politics or sports figures gone bad as lead stories because this is what “we” want. Reading about others’ misfortune is fun.

Another fault is what our politicians did to education; or did not do for education. No one wants more because we are taught not to expect more. Or that we are unable to understand that the shallowness of modern news is unhealthy and reflects and unhealthy society overall. Our politicians want this because other than them getting caught with their pants down most people do not pay too much attention to them. Or at least until election time, then we vote in the people we know because we do not spend the time getting to know them better. ( I think someone else said something similar before).

And then the Press does not want to push any buttons on these people or help us understand our problems because they benefit from the status quo. It is easier to fact check a debate than dive in and look at what they are saying in depth. Keeping the Democrat’s and Republican’s institutions means they have the news hand to them from people they know. They aren’t forced to actually gather information. They can sit in their office and write opinions based on their own bias instead of examining whether what elected officials are doing is what is best overall.

Historically the Press has always been influenced by their opinions, but there is a difference between what some of the Founding Fathers wrote in the Federalist Papers and other publications trying to sway opinion vs. what modern writers do with trying to tell us who we should vote for and why we should hate so and so.

And the Press has been a profit driven business over the course of our history; so how different is it nowadays? To me, quite a bit. Yes, in the past there would be sensationalist stories, coverage of scandals, even gossip, but the press would go out and work to get their stories, they would dig, and even opinion pieces were based on long standing work. There was much more original work.  Today you still get some of that, but overall people write quick hit articles for the internet, many stories are reprints of something from the associated press. Sometimes you get the same article four or five times just with a different headline. Looks like there is four different stories, but nope. Everyone is trying to capitalize on what someone else did and this leads to shallow coverage. The less depth we have, the less we expect and over time we, the readers, become accustomed to this drivel.

And I could go on. The Press has never been perfect and you may remember terms like yellow journalism and muckraking, but what is going on nowadays is different, but just as bad. The Press is shirking their responsibility to a healthy democracy. They were given great freedoms by our Founding Fathers and are now completely abandoning why they were given the freedoms and powers that fall upon the press of a free democracy and republic.

One result is Donald Trump dominating the headlines because he gets readers and only because he gets readers. Look at the amount of coverage he receives versus Bernie Sanders. Mr. Sanders is taping into another group of dissatisfied voters as Mr. Trump, but receives nowhere near the same amount of coverage. Why? Mr. Sanders tries to do what he is suppose to do and tell the people his goals and how he would like to achieve them. Mr. Trump just tries to stay in the headlines with bombast and ridicule. And yet the weaker message is the dominant message.

Remember the phrase: you get what you pay for? Nowadays we are going to pay for what we are not getting.

Oops forgot something important

Well, it is important for my political bent and the people in Spain.  

Anyway how could I be so remiss as to forget to talk about the elections last weekend in Spain. I talk so much about wanting new parties here and Spain just had two new parties make a significant showing. I do not know how much I would agree with the actual party philosophy and platform, but from the little I read I might have some affinity to one, yet I want to say congratulations to both parties.

Spain was primarily a two party system till last weekend so this is great news for independents like me to hear. Again congratulations to all the people in Spain who worked hard to make that happen. And to all the people who voted in Spain to make this a reality.

We are so stuck with our two parties and no one seems to have an interest to actually move forward from them. This is exciting news and gives one hope.  So if you read my blog regularly I hope you see it can be done and we can work to make positive changes here.

Traveling quips, tips, and musings

Just got back from a fast trip to El Paso. Saw some friends close as family and some other people I met for the first time.

Interstate 20, probably as with all interstates, is heavy with Police. Some 10 mile stretches had four or more cars giving out tickets. And yes in Texas there are areas with 80 MPH speed limits and people were still getting tickets. Be careful out there if you are going to be traveling over the next two weeks.

I hate to say it, but I was very unimpressed with Motel 6. We left late so went ahead and spent the night on the road instead of going straight through. We stayed at a Motel 6 and was seriously under impressed by the customer service, attitude, room itself (the bedspread was covered in grease so we slept with our clothes on), beds were weak, and cannot say much more. We didn’t even stay in the morning. We just got up and left. And in today’s world amenities are important and they had none. No ironing board, no breakfast or continental breakfast, no shampoos etc… Maybe Motel 6 was significantly cheaper in the past than other chains or maybe times have caught up with them, but they were almost as expensive as the hotel we stayed at in El Paso and we felt we got a good deal there and paid about $10 more for the night. And it included breakfast which since there was four of us is well worth the extra ten by itself. It was an older La Quinta and you could tell, but it was clean, customer service was great, people were nice. Strange how big of a difference.  Anyway I am frugal, (kids say cheap) so I watch out for things like this and usually we plan ahead, but the Motel 6 experience should not have been as bad as it was.

I will be posting a very few set of pictures on my facebook page from one El Paso Christmas scenario as soon as I find the cord I can run from my phone to the computer.

And boy there is a difference in where you are located on planet Earth nowadays. We went to a full restaurant for dinner Saturday night with friends and the prices were impressive to me especially since full meal. It was mainly Mexican (Tex-Mex), and tasted fairly well, but the prices compared to Dallas were about ten to twenty percent less. Spent with tip $18 for two meals and one beer. Place called Ventanas Bar and Grill at the Racetrack Casino in Sunland Park. I won’t say great food, but definitely worth going for the price. The chips weren’t that great, but the chili had a fair kick to it.  I hadn’t been out there since they built the Casino and added all the restaurants and Night club. I did go to the Race track many many years ago so was pleasantly surprised, not overwhelmed.  We left for other endeavors right after eating.

El Paso always seems to be in need of renovation. I lived there for 6 or 7 years once upon a time and it still seems the same. Well larger, but it looks the same. I mean certain areas of town haven’t changed a bit. And when I say renovation I mean it looks like someone needs to come along and fix up something. And this is the way it always looks. I like El Paso and have many friends there, but somehow or another that city just grows within a time bubble. New businesses or developments come, but they quickly fit right into this scenario of someone needs to come along and fix something that seems to be falling down. There are some real nice places and there is definitely great food if you know where to look, but it just has this “if someone would come along and do that and that” then it would be great feel to it.

I have been all along the US Mexico border my whole life off and on and El Paso-Juarez is definitely its own world. And I want to quit mentioning a certain person running for President’s name, but you can tell this person has no idea the wonder of the Southwest. For people who have lived in this area for generations there was no border for the longest time. Yeah there were signs and bridges, etc, but border, no. As kids we use to follow the migrant farm workers out into the fields to gather what was left and no one thought twice about it. Now all the modern retirees that moved out here have no idea the history nor la familia (even with all the wars and skirmishes over three centuries) of how people, the real people that is, have gotten along. I wish people would concentrate on the real problems and unfortunately there are some serious ones instead of demonizing what was once a very calm and peaceful place to live. Honestly it wasn’t perfect, but what this one person is saying about one issue is discounting what is a wonderful, vast, beautiful place to live and play. If you get the chance you need to visit the American Southwest. I have crossed the deserts many times and enjoy it every time.  (just make sure you are prepared before you go out)

Anyway enjoy your holidays, be safe, if you travel take the extra moment to make sure you are ready, and I hope you have great times with family and friends these next two plus weeks. Remember Christmas doesn’t end till Epiphany, not three o’clock in the afternoon on the 25^th.  Take the time to make the most out of all your days throughout the year, but it never hurts to spend some extra time enjoying the Joy of the season.  It helps if you don’t spend the whole time in the stores, but with people you love and I hope you get/make the opportunity.

And no matter what you do, do not go the bathroom and start remembering old Ghostbuster lines. Embarrassing as hell to start smirking at that time.   “Don’t cross the streams”   oh &^%$ my brain is losing it. Yeah some ole fart unable to spend two minutes in a restroom. sheesh