Leap of Faith

Representative Paul Ryan has made a plan to cut spending over the next 10 years by $4 trillion. This is by far a major increase in spending cuts compared to the plans proposed by the Obama administration. The question the bears in mind most is whether this will pass at all.

Some of the criticisms that have been coming forth from other lawmakers such as Representative Chris Van Hollen include statements such as “It is not courageous to protect tax breaks for millionaires… while slashing our investment in education… and denying health care coverage to tens of millions of Americans”. Van Hollen does have a point that these steps to require a considerable amount of sacrifice and at first glance it may seem unjust that the wealthy may end up getting a tax break while the rest of America suffers.

While it is important to think of the little guy when a lawmaker, it is also important to recognize where all the jobs come from in the first place. Small businesses and large wealthy millionaires are the ones who make risks and all sorts of investments with their money that brings in many opportunities to Americans from all over the economic spectrum. It is a false assertion also to presume that government makes jobs.

John Stossel put it nicely when he described how government subsidies are really acts of robbery against those Americans who have money. In his example, he describes how the government breaks a certain individual’s window. He then goes on saying that by employing someone who can fix the window, the government is able to spur the growth of jobs. The problem with this point of view, as Stossel mentions, is that the person who’s window broke could have used his money instead on what he thought was best instead of what the government would have wanted. In that way, waste disappears.

Crack in Democracy

The recent outbreaks in Madison Wisconsin and other state capitols throughout the country are escalating fast. What Teacher Unions are calling unfair is the scraping of bargaining rights. Republicans who control the legislature and the Governorship are calling for fiscal responsibility. Though the proposed cuts do run deep into the pockets of many of the teachers in our nation, it is important to call into question, with the failure of American Schools to compete with students all over the world, whether the rise in per capita spending per students and gracious health and pension plans for teachers are worth tax payer money.

The democrats who do participate in the legislature have left Wisconsin for Illinois in order to avoid the vote. Republicans, therefore, or stuck in the mud. With their absence, it does call into question whether our democracy is actually working or not. Sure, a large segment of the state, mostly represented by teachers, are calling foul play, however, a large segment of wisconsin citizens did indeed vote for their state representatives to rein in the debt in whatever way possible for strict fiscal responsibility. Let's face the truth, if taxes do increase, the incentives for people in the state to further invest capital into small businesses will EVENTUALLY dry up. And when politicians eventually see less revenue coming into state coffers, they will be done for. You can't force someone to come back and thats a fact.

To get to the point, or may I dare say the question, is whether democracy is in a free fall because of the union machine. I hope to God it is not the case. But as many Americans are gripping with a recession, I believe that the teacher unions are over reacting. If the unions win, then we have submitted our once highly regarded democracy to mob rule. Let's try not to keep that way.

Regulation of the BP MIlk Spill

Milk is known obviously to contain fat, which can immediately be translated in being considered as containing a percentage of oil. Now for most people, this might not be seen as a problem at all, however, for the EPA, its a completely different story. Along being tasked by the President to regulate the use of petroleum in our nation after the disastrous events that unfurled after the BP oil spill in the Gulf, this savior of an agency is prepared to takle, with an onslaught of regulations, "emergency management" of milk spills due to their oil like properties. Now to some people this may not seem like such a big deal. The fact of the matter is, according to economist Thomas Sowell, that the costs to dairy farmers in making and maintaining these "management" procedures, along with the need to hire new regulators on the federal side, will cost consumers and producers both more money. In these difficult times, these events really do call to mind whether there are really good regulations for the most part to justify the existence of most of our nation's bureaucracy. I do believe that they are really important types of regulations that our nation should honor such as the food we eat and the water we drink. As for these regulations concerning milk spills, i think this is stupid. Just ask yourself, when will you ever see people fighting for their livelihoods in the wake of a milk spill? Come on America, its time to stop worrying about spilled milk stupid.

The Protest

The Protest

The protest in Egypt has turned into a phenomenon that cannot be grasped at fully in relation to any world wide trend. Some reports say that the United States is backing the uprising but at the same time the same protestors who are supposedly being backed by the united states are being said to have pictured the present government their have hopes in toppling as being in league with the USA. As for the ramifications for the rest of the muslim world and whether this movement will manifest itself rapidly is still in question.

NY's Dumbest; NYC sanitation workers destroy a Ford Expediton

Thoughts on the Christmas Snowstorm

We all know about the snow storm that hit the great city of New York in the christmas season and everyone seems to be putting all the blame on the poor mayor Bloomberg. My question to all of you is whether this series of events should be seen, possibly, as a sign that the city is simply not prepared for all types of emergencies. Why then should the city be expecting quality service 100% of the time?

Unfortunately people tend to forget that certain services cannot handle all situations well. Is it possible that instead there should be a focus on what resources the city uses to prepare for such disasters. This helps me recall the time when i visited my family in Argentina and noticed how my Grandmother and most of my relatives did not rely at all on the services of the police department in their area and province. Instead, they contracted several individuals to keep watch on the neighborhood, and he was paid fairly. Without having to worry about caring for too many streets and families respectively, he could focus his attention and maximize the security for the community that lived in that area. Should this same lesson be taught and administered to the populace of New York?

What simply seems to be the answer to this problem is to simply allocate resources on a community level, allowing the community itself to divert whatever resources they have to needs they think are most appropriate. This appears to make a lot of sense versus the notion that the city itself should be mobilizing the effort itself to tackle cleaning up the streets after the snow. At least the problem is not that simple, but at least it is another way of thinking of such subjects such as self governance.