Cheap Stuff or Good Jobs

I'm back! And it's my cousin's fault.  He keeps sending me stuff from the Huffington Post which is a very liberal (even by journalistic standards) news source.  In any case, I love getting the information because it is important to view and understand the different perspectives of our economic strengths and weaknesses.   Take a look at the following article that talks about how our monetary policy has increased the fortunes of the Chinese while killing American jobs:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dylan-ratigan/the-fed-works-for-chinese_b_811777.html

Monetary policy is interesting and complex.  There are certainly two opposing forces that are impossible to ignore.  One is the need and desire to keep “things” affordable to all Americans and the other is to create and maintain high paying jobs for all Americans.  Unfortunately, it has been difficult to do both.  In our history, we have seen where the force to create and maintain high paying jobs has crushed industries and almost crushed industries – think Auto unions and Teacher unions and Government unions.  And now, we have seen where the push to keep things inexpensive has crushed jobs.  A pair of pants or a shirt costs the same amount now as it did 20-30 years ago.  That’s only possible because of the outsourcing of jobs.  Which evil is worse?  I really don't know.

What do you think?  Should we be protecting our jobs at the expense of a standard of living and global competitiveness or should we be letting the free market do its job?   Not so fast though.  I'm a big believer in the idea of a free market ONLY if we are indeed being treated fairly by our competitors globally.  Are we?

Cutting the deficit

Take a look at this video.  It really highlights how ridiculous it is to think that we are making progress when we cut $100 million of spending.  Come on!  It's time to get serious about cutting spending and we need to cut all spending -- from medicare to social security to defense to welfare to education to everything.  It needs to begin with downsizing government and getting government pay and benefits on par with the private sector.

This is a quick video that clearly illustrates how small a $100million cut is:

http://www.wimp.com/budgetcuts/

Education Problem

The following is a great article in the Washington Post.  It really points out the issues of our educational system.  This same article could be written about our government unions.  The time for unions has passed because they didn't stay relevant.  I believe that unions were one of the reasons that this country became so great, but they are now one of the reasons that we are in major trouble.  In Rockford, we have a huge deficit that our government officials are trying to tackle.  They went to the fire department and asked for wage concessions.  The fire union said no.  They then tried to reduce the number of fire personnel on a truck from 4 to 3 and the union managed to block the move in court. 

Now, the government has gone to the police union because we need their approval to change insurance providers and save $800,000 per year.  The police union isn't sure even though benefits and coverage doesn't change.  Come on!  If I had to get every decision approved in my business, I would have been forced out of business years ago.  This is what is happening to our government.

It's time that the unions in this country become relevant again by actively participating in the business of solving problems and keeping businesses (education or government) profitable and viable.  If they are not willing or able to become relevant, we the people (sound familiar) need to take our government back.

Do take the time to read this.  This is really a great ariticle written by educators:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/07/AR2010100705078.html

The War on Terror

OK -- let me say first that I am basically a wimp like most of our politicians who are afraid to say what they really think.  So, I would never write or say what was said by a British housewife in a letter to the editor that she sent...... but, I do think that she make some excellent points and that too often we are so concerned about saying something that won't offend anyone that we don't say anything.

If we are a society with no dissenting opinions or who only say things that won't offend anyone, will we become bland?   I don't know.

Read and judge for yourself -- please do add your positive and negative comments.

http://www.arguewitheveryone.com/war-iraq/141553-letter-british-housewife-newspaper.html

By the way, this article wasn't written by a British housewife, but she is the one who forwarded it to her nephew and it started circulating back in 2005. 

Tony Blair on Clinton, Bush and the American Character

Check out this article by Tony Blair. It is really interesting how he describes our leaders. He gives a short, but good perspective on our past three Presidents. I think it is easy for us to think that if the President is a Republican and we are a Republican, than he must be good. It would be just as easy for that same Republican to assume that the Democrat Presidents are not good. When I say good, I don't mean good Presidents. I mean that they are truly trying to do what is best for our country. I haven't read Mr. Blair's book, but I bet he makes a strong case that each of the Presidents he has known are good men and that they care about our country. Finally, he reminds us that we should carry our heads high and be proud of the country we have. It is often forgotten that people still risk their lives every day to get into the United States of America. Read the last paragraph in the article. We take our citizenship and the freedoms we have for granted.

Tony Blair on Clinton, Bush and the American Character

More Mosque Thoughts

I have not been able to confirm the "facts" in the following statements from Newt Gingrich.  I don't think I agree that we should wait to have a Mosque here until we have a Christian or Jewish Church in Saudi Arabia.  We are a country that is PROUD of our Freedom of Religion rights that we give all citizens.  This is just one of the many things that make America so much better than Saudi Arabia and other countries where they don't practice the basic freedoms we enjoy.

Please note that this is Newt's take and I don't necessarily agree with everything he has said in here.  I do agree that naming it something like Cordoba is an insult and I believe it is insulting to build it so close to the 9/11 attacks. 

Newt Gingrich


"July 21, 2010 6pm

There should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia . The time for double standards that allow Islamists to behave aggressively toward us while they demand our weakness and submission is over.

The proposed "Cordoba House" overlooking the World Trade Center site –where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks - is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba , Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.

Today, some of the Mosque’s backers insist this term is being used to "symbolize interfaith cooperation" when, in fact, every Islamist in the world recognizes Cordoba as a symbol of Islamic conquest. It is a sign of their contempt for Americans and their confidence in our historic ignorance that they would deliberately insult us this way.

Those Islamists and their apologists who argue for "religious toleration" are arrogantly dishonest. They ignore the fact that more than 100 mosques already exist in New York City . Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia . In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca . And they lecture us about tolerance.

If the people behind the Cordoba House were serious about religious toleration, they would be imploring the Saudis, as fellow Muslims, to immediately open up Mecca to all and immediately announce their intention to allow non-Muslim houses of worship in the Kingdom. They should be asked by the news media if they would be willing to lead such a campaign.

We have not been able to rebuild the World Trade Center in nine years. Now we are being told a 13 story, $100 million megamosque will be built within a year overlooking the site of the most devastating surprise attack in American history.

Finally where is the money coming from? The people behind the Cordoba House refuse to reveal all their funding sources.  America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization. Sadly, too many of our elites are the willing apologists for those who would destroy them if they could.

No mosque.
No self deception.
No surrender.

The time to take a stand is now - at this site on this issue.
"

Profiling

The major argument against the Arizona law is that it will encourage racial profiling.  In other words, a Latino would be much more likely to be asked for proof of citizenship than a white male or female.

Granted, I truly can never understand how it would feel to be a minority because I am a white male.  However, profiling is used in every part of what we do except to fight crime seemingly and I don't get it.  I remember when I got my driver's license at 16 and my insurance was more expensive than a girl's simply because I was a guy.  Is that fair?  No.  Is it profiling?  Absolutely.  Is it necessary in order for the insurance company to successfully underwrite the business and return a fair profit?  YES

When someone sees me, they prejudge me based on my appearance all of the time.  If I am a bit overweight and short, I will be assumed to be a non-athlete.  While if I was 6'8", everyone would assume I was a basketball player and assume I was good.  If I wear a suit and tie, I am assumed to be a business person.  If I wear have dirty finger nails, one may think I am a laborer.  My point is that we are profiled all of the time.

I don't think any of it is fair.  I don't think it is fair that I pay more insurance because I am a guy.  I don't think it is fair that someone isn't hired because they are a certain color.  I don't think it is fair that someone may get asked for proof of citizenship because they are profiled to be a likely illegal immigrant. 

But, what is the alternative?  This small right that people are screaming about giving up is absolutely nothing compared to the rights we will be giving up in the coming years as our baby boomers and their pensions and health care cost more and we are saddled with a debt load that is incomprehensible.  Get ready.