I am not against unions, and I can support workers who band together to ask for a fair share of company profit. But Governments do NOT have profits to share. The only source of income for a government is taking money from people in the form of taxes. Governments have slowly evolved into the best place to work, with the best wages and benefits. It does not make sense to take money from those who earn less (private sector employees) and give it to those who earn more (government employees). The tail is wagging the dog. It is time to bring government worker compensation in line with the private sector. It will not be easy, it will take a lot of effort to stop the gravy train and drag them, kicking and screaming, into the real world with the rest of us.
I recently heard someone say it is good to pay government workers, even if they are useless, because they spend money to stimulate the economy. I guess this person did not realize that taking money from someone in the form of taxes and giving it to someone else does not create any more money. The person who originally earned the money would be more than happy to spend it themselves, had it not been taken from them. Either way, the money gets spent and goes into the economy, there is no benefit to redistributing the money before it is spent, and in fact, that causes great harm. We have been punishing the producers and rewarding the non-producers in our society, and the results speak for themselves, we now have fewer producers.
Written by Jim Shures
Monday, February 28, 2011
Who will save us?
Our government does a lot of things to protect us. They have increased security at airports, they regulate drugs, alcohol and firearms, they make sure we do not drive fast, and they require us to wear seat belts. However, the single largest danger to America today was created by government, and that is the economic consequences of unsustainable debt.
We cannot blame a slow economy, we cannot blame corporate greed, we cannot even blame the federal reserve. There is only ONE way to get the nation into massive debt, and that is for all members of government, and all political parties, to act together and create the problem. It really does not matter if the reason is incompetence or ignorance or some grand conspiracy, we must remember who is accountable, and we must remember all budgets were approved by our leaders.
The American people sent a clear message in the mid-term elections, for many people the single most important issue was wasteful government spending. A new TEA party movement even swept the nation, suggesting the budget gap should be closed by reducing spending, not increasing taxes. Obama himself said the last elections were a "shellacking", but did he get the message?
In his State of the Union address, Obama suggested we "freeze" spending at current levels. Perhaps he needs to review our current levels of spending. Our current spending level has increased our national debt about 1.5 trillion dollars per year, over the last 3 years. That is 1.4 billion dollars per day, or 171 million dollars per hour, or 2.9 million dollars per minute. How can anyone think we should "settle in" at this spending level, when we desperately need spending cuts.
In the spirit of the new "bipartisanship" attitude, let me be the first to find some common ground we can all agree on, regardless of party or political views: Nothing good can come from increasing our national debt at a rate of 171 million dollars every hour. If we cannot agree on that, we will never agree on anything.
Now for a few disclaimers: Please do not try to tell me that one party is good and the others are bad, I do not want to hear it, they all take their share of the blame. And yes, I realize Obama inherited a lot of debt and I certainly do not blame him for all of it. Lastly, I am not promoting the TEA party movement, although I like the fact that more people are getting active in politics.
Written by Jim Shures
We cannot blame a slow economy, we cannot blame corporate greed, we cannot even blame the federal reserve. There is only ONE way to get the nation into massive debt, and that is for all members of government, and all political parties, to act together and create the problem. It really does not matter if the reason is incompetence or ignorance or some grand conspiracy, we must remember who is accountable, and we must remember all budgets were approved by our leaders.
The American people sent a clear message in the mid-term elections, for many people the single most important issue was wasteful government spending. A new TEA party movement even swept the nation, suggesting the budget gap should be closed by reducing spending, not increasing taxes. Obama himself said the last elections were a "shellacking", but did he get the message?
In his State of the Union address, Obama suggested we "freeze" spending at current levels. Perhaps he needs to review our current levels of spending. Our current spending level has increased our national debt about 1.5 trillion dollars per year, over the last 3 years. That is 1.4 billion dollars per day, or 171 million dollars per hour, or 2.9 million dollars per minute. How can anyone think we should "settle in" at this spending level, when we desperately need spending cuts.
In the spirit of the new "bipartisanship" attitude, let me be the first to find some common ground we can all agree on, regardless of party or political views: Nothing good can come from increasing our national debt at a rate of 171 million dollars every hour. If we cannot agree on that, we will never agree on anything.
Now for a few disclaimers: Please do not try to tell me that one party is good and the others are bad, I do not want to hear it, they all take their share of the blame. And yes, I realize Obama inherited a lot of debt and I certainly do not blame him for all of it. Lastly, I am not promoting the TEA party movement, although I like the fact that more people are getting active in politics.
Written by Jim Shures
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