time to read and think
on 01/02/2014 at 12:25 PM
Excuse me, but isn’t it also 100 years since the Federal Government stuck it’s hand into our back pocket and stole a percentage of our income, via Congress (and yes history buffs, it was a Republican who started the bill rolling) and got the Supreme’s to spit out a blessing upon it? Especially since a mere 29 years prior - the Supreme’s had ruled against taxation on property (income)[see Pollock v Farmers’ Loan and Trust Co].I pick 100 years deliberately, because it was exactly 100 years ago that a gigantic anti-capitalist measure was put into effect: the Federal Reserve System.
I’d like a real economist - to actually cull through every single bill (as in personal bill they get) and do a real assessment of exactly what percentage of our incomes goes out in taxes each year (and yes, I know that doesn’t count what the state steals from you). As this is one ‘issue’ that affects every single person, in some way.
I have a simple solution: The 1st Ten Amendments (and Constitution) can never be changed as written. Notice that the 2nd - does not not stipulate either State or Federal in the shall not be infringed clause (as the 1st does). And every single regulation, bill, tax, fee, penalty, whatever word/phrase that those in power in DC chose to use - shall have an automatic 10 year sunset and all taxes must be stand alone bills. Let the corrupt thieves ‘defend’ their vaulted ideas every 10 years - and then we will see how long they can actually last in DC.
BTW, isn’t it ironic that Obama ‘claims’ that economic freedom was such a failure (from 1791 to 1913 - it did a hell of a good job bringing America from a wilderness to a thriving World power). Yet, he won’t point to any socialist/communist failure (like most Leftist - still clings to the - We are the ones who will do it right) at all.
Personally - I’d give my right arm - to be living in evil bushhitlerburtonco’s America (we were EMPLOYED) and I won’t even tell you what I’d give to be living in Reagan’s voodoo economics.
Well, you asked for my 2 cents, so I will give it.
I fully believe there will always be a need for some regulation on businesses. I believe in the necessity of agencies like OSHA, Workman’s Comp, and company oversight commitees that see to it that business do not take advantage of or harm their employees or consumers.
During the birth and boom of the industrial revolution (approx 1850-1900), the average worker had almost no say and was subjected to the whim of those who employed him. Some jobs were damn dangerous and some businesses valued the life of the worker much like that of third world countries today. If the worker refused to do something that might get him killed, he was fired. And if he did as he was told, he may be seriously injured or killed. No worker should be given this type of ultimatum. Workers were paid very little, conditions were horrible, and it was common to work 7 days a week, 15 hours a day, to earn barely enough to starve on. Then there was the customer/consumer of the business that could be harmed if the business was not forced to comply with certain minimum standards. If I buy groceries, I don’t want to ingest something that will kill me. If I buy a steak, it better not be dog meat. If I buy a toaster, it better be built so that my house will not burn down. Hence, the creation of regulations and safer workplaces, unions, to demand workers be treated like humans, and other agencies to make sure businesses ran fairly and that employees and consumers could rely on a certain amount of expectations and protection.
And at one pinpoint time in history, I would say that every agency had zenithed into perfection of exactly what they were supposed to do and served their purpose as hoped. But then, like everything does, these agencies went too far. These agencies were supposed to protect animals from being needlessly killed to the point of extinction, not shut down businesses and take land rights away from Americans for the remote and slight possibility of removing stress from a dozen tiny fish. These agencies were supposed to keep companies from dumping toxic sludge into my drinking water, not force companies to make tiny unsafe electric cars if they didn’t want to. Or help and encourage coal plants to run a clean as they can with the assistance of reasonable and existing technology, not shut them down. Or force us to put ethanol in our cars, that harm the engine, do not increase gas mileage, is more expensive, raises the price and decreases the availability of an important food staple, for almost no measureable benefit.
All of these agencies, in their ever increasing desire to become more powerful, and to grow even larger, became too burdensome, demanding and nitpicky. In order to justify and support their unchecked growth and financial needs, they went insane and would fine businessed for stupid things like the font size of a warning sign or if a trash container was 2 inches too far away. Basically, common sense and discretion went out the door, all in the name of protecting We The People, when what they were really doing is harming all of us.
So here we are today. How do we wind back the clock? The fact is, we can’t. No society has ever gone backwards. Like a snowball going downhill, it gets bigger, it gets faster, and eventually it will crash and crumble under its own weight.
If we WORK REALLY HARD, the BEST we can hope for is to slightly slow down the inevitable destruction of America. I do not think that our govt, or the majority of We The People are capable of making the changes needed to fix ourselves. Furthermore, these agencies that are a big part of the problem will not go quietly into the night. For example, I have read rumors that JFK was going to do away with the federal reserve, and he ended up dead shortly after. Now, I am not saying that this is true, nor that I believe the federal reserve had anything to do with the assassination of JFK. But I do believe that if anyone, no matter who powerful they thought they were, tried to shut down a large and powerful agency, that he or she would not face a heavy price, and no matter how hard they tried, would very likely be unsuccessful. Many of these no longer useful agencies have become so large and entrenched, nothing but an entire collapse of the system will make them go away. Imagine trying to remove the nazi regime from power in germany using any other method other than the use of force and violence. It would never have happened. Same goes for the EPA, IRS, federal reserve, NEA, or any number of alphabet soup agencies out there.
Anyway, to stay on topic, businesses need to be free to conduct business and make a profit. How making a profit became evil still baffles me. Especially when the like of matt damon or george clooney condemn CEO’s from getting a million dollar bonus, when they themselves make $20m a movie. As if somehow, their contribution to society is more beneficial than whatever product or service these companies provide. The irony in their logic is amazing.
Businesses need to have confidence in the future and know the rules will be consistent and more importantly fair. If we take that away, then why bother even having a company? Why would anyone Businesses do not enjoy firing people or making employees miserable. But when the rules are forced on them where they are given no choice, they are forced to. Businesses do not layoff employees, the economy does.
No one would form a business and take a risk if the reward is removed? Better to just get a job and do the minimum and collect your paycheck. The govt has throttled businesses so much, that they have removed the compassion from them. Loyalty in businesses have gone to the wayside. Businesses do what they have to, in order to remain in business. Hence the saying, it’s nothing personal, it’s just business.
A business has very little problem with conducting business according to laws put in place, But when these laws become one-sided against the business, or suck the incentive out of being the employer, and make the employer the bad guy no matter what, then what do we expect will happen? An “Us vs. Them” mentality is created between the employer and employee.
Finally, businesses need to be allowed to make a decent profit. If they are not allowed to do this, then what is the purpose? No one starts a business so employees can have a job. That is an ancillary benefit, but not the main objective. If one can not rely on this, then they will cease to grow, and maybe even just close up shop until the business world goes back to “normal”.
This anti-capital, anti-corporate attitude will kill America. These idiots that jump on the bandwagon of anti-business are in my opinion, just like cows cheering for the slaughterhouse. They don’t realize that as businesses fail, their quality of life is diminished adn may be ruined. That is is they that will suffer the consequence of every shutdown. They don’t realize that even if they are not in that line of work, their lives are still affected negatively.
Liberals are happy when a coal plant, due to over-regulation, is shut down and 100 jobs at the plant are gone. It is not just 100 jobs that no longer exist, it is thousands if not tens of thousands of jobs that are lost, from this one single plant closing. For every coal worker fired, there are less groceries bought, less vacations taken, less a car purchases made, less need for a mechanic, fewer homes bought or improved, less luxuries, and on and on. Expand out on this, and now we have less labor needed for the grocery store, fewer salesmen needed at the local car dealer, one more travel agency not needed, a mechanics garage shutdown, one less home builder or remodeling contractor needed, one less jewelry store that won’t sell that necklace the worker had planned to get his wife for Christmas, or the boat dealer who was going to sell a boat to the coal worker who had been wanting one, etc and on and on. I could extrapolate this out to infinity, the ramifications of a single job lost.
So now these companies have to lay off employees, and on and on and on. The ripple affect is exponential and has an effect on everyone in every line of work. And to go from there, that one job lost that results in hundreds of other jobs gone, all add up to that many less people paying money to the govt in the form of income tax, sales tax, luxury tax, etc. to the govt. The govt, who we all know, is unable to cut back, layoff employees, or reduce their spending and always requires more money, respond by increasing taxes on those who are still lucky enough to remain employed. So now, currently employed people have to work harder for less reward.
That is the price of over-regualtion. One shut down coal plant, or farm, or manufacturing plant, etc. and all of these idiots cheer for the loss of jobs and annouce how progress is made, the seas will no longer rise and mother earth is saved and we are all the better for it.
It used to be when businesses opened up, the townspeople were excited and thrilled. The jobs it would bring, the product or service it would provide, the money it would bring in, the status their town would gain. But now, we hear about how this business will exploit its workers, pollute the envirnment, fill in wetlands, cut down trees, put needless strain resources, remove the beauty mother gaia gave us and so on. It’s a wonder how businesses even get started these days. Instead of looking at all the great benefits, they look at all the negatives. So, who are the pessimists, the glass is half empty crowd here? Then when businesses don’t build, or close up shop, everyone complains about no jobs available and the cost of goods and services are too high. Well, that’s what happens when you do not support businesses and growth.
Sorry to go on and on, and expand way past what the question asked. But the question provoked great thought by me, and I wanted to put down in writing what ramifications I pondered on what exactly govt regualtion does to businesses, employees and employers, and overall, We The People.
Hey Barry, I deserve to be free, but you don’t deserve to be President. PS, I will be free in spite of you and every progressive homo douche from LA to NYC. Kiss my grits!
sdker - What I disagree with - is the liberal/progressive/whatever - control (i.e. tyrannical) ‘punish everyone for the crime of the one’ legislation/belief system from which they ‘begin’ to eventually take over everything. Which if you think it through, is exactly what O’care is. Talk about stereotyping, clumping everyone together and being intolerant to the extreme of what their ‘words’ claim that they are doing/believing.
Once they get the toe in the door - ‘It’s for the children’; ‘It’s for public safety’; ‘It’s the right thing to do’ - they expand it and literally destroy any kind of freedom. Cite, try, jail and/or shut down the criminal, the corrupt, the ‘evildoers’ - as I said a 10 year sunset, control the legislation to address the most grievous of problems. The limits on government must be used to protect citizens from an overzealous, over tyrannical gov/Administration from taking ‘public safety’ to the extremes of listening in on every conversation, data-mining every piece (see the Medical Records Online mandate that went into effect on 1/1/2014 and Common Core - in or going into public schools near you) of personal information on every citizen and of course our favorite unproductive over-reach - the TSA.
This is NOT what America was and NOT what it was meant to be. And it is very scary to those of us who desire the Freedom and Independence that America was founded upon.
I find it amazing that you have the sunset deadline of all laws as I have thought the same exact thing. This way, they have to constantly fight for the real laws they believe in. Kind like how we have to constantly defend ourselves from bad laws. As it is now, they are like football players with the law, they push and push and continue to try until the winds are just right and a bad law passes and we are stuck with it. A law that would have never passed before or since, but at the one snapshot in time, they were able to get it through. Then, like locusts, they move on to the next bad law. Eventually, as we all see, bad laws are scattered everywhere.
I like term limits and think they should apply to ALL politicians. Well, how about term limits for laws too? This way, whoever started the law, has to REALLY believe in it and that it is a law that will stay voted on say 5 years later, when a bunch of new lawmakers are now in charge. Make it so every law has a “term limit”, and any law that remains passed for say, 5 terms, and are easy to pass laws, such as murder, rape robbery, etc., well, they can stay on the books.
And if we are dreaming, I also like the sunset limits on all agencies. The EPA was created to clean up the place. Well, once their primary goal was done, they certainly didn’t want to shut down and go home....no no no, it was too cushy of a gig. So, they looked for other areas that needed their help. Eventually, they ran out of real work to do, so they made up BS nonsense, and reguated that, which justified their ever increasing need for more people, more budget, and more power. Governments sole and primary purpose it seems is to continue to grow. No agency ever stays small. The lust for money and power and to be honest, human nature, says that they must grow larger and almost always to the point of beyond their usefulness.
Also, it is way easier to make a law than get rid of it. So, when bad laws are passed, good hearted politicians have to fight to get rid of them or change them, but in the mean time, the idiots who have passed that bad law are on to bigger and badder laws, which now has to be fought against as well. All we can do is go on defense, but with nothing but defense, all you do is lose slowly. You can never gain any ground. And that is part of their plan.
I have often thought of two very important things I would change if we could that I think would go a very long way in solving many of our problems with government. One, your idea of sunset term limits on all laws and on politicians. And two, no lawmaker can make a law that affects all Americans, that does not also affect themselves...and they can pass no law that benefits themselves, that does not benefit all of us. In other words, they remain one of us. they serve 8 years maximum, and rejoin society. Politics is not a lifetime career. And they can’t get stinking rich by being a politician. A politician should SERVE the public...not the other way around.
I think it amazing that politicians go into office and come out millionaires, with lifetime benefit packages and golden parachute like retirement plans, even if they serve one single term.
America was not supposed to be a monarchy, but that seems to be what we have now. The president is now king, and rules by decree and all of congress are lords and dukes, who only pay homage to the king, and rule as they see fit in their little feifdom. They no longer work under the rule of the people, and instead, think they are our betters, and do what THEY want, not what those that put them in office wanted.
And I know why politicians do this...because they can. There is no longer any fear. They have a compliant media running cover for them. But most of all, the masses in general are stupid, have a short memory, and can be manipulated.
Right now, if obama went on live national television, obama said he was running for a third term in office, then smoked crack, had sex with a white woman, and a donkey, stabbed the pope, came out of the closet, admitted he was a racist, a communist, and a muslim, started waving a hammer and sickle flag, and shouted admiral ackbar (or whatever the proper saying is), and declared his sole intention was the destruction of America, he would still get 30% of the total vote and 98% of the black vote.
The reason is simple, we have way too many ignorant voters. Way too many voters who benefit from the destruction of our country, whose hands are constantly held out. And way too many people here who really do want to see the collapse of capitalism and freedom in our country. This is what happens when you let just anyone in the country, don’t stop those from getting in that should not be here, and created a class if useful idiots whose only purpose is to vote democrat.
I used to laugh at the antics of Joseph McCarthy, but I now see we need someone like him again. We need an agency that is committed to investigating all un-American activities. There was a time that many people, especially those in power or the public eye, that no one would admit to being a commie. Now, they are no longer embarrassed or afraid. They proudly admit it. We are getting to the point where they don’t even try to hide behind their code words. They don’t hide the fact that they hate capitalism, a republic form of govt, and their desire to destroy America as we know it. In fact, they get cheered for when they tell the masses they hate America and that America is not special, that America is a mean country, and they have never been proud of this great land of ours. In the past, anyone who said these things would have been taken out back and dealt with. Today, they can become president.
If a person can get the vote of those that hate this country, hate capitalism, or are just plain ignorant or racist, you have 45% of the vote right there. So, all you really need to do is convince the few remaining idiots that are too stupid to commit to an ideal, and have no idea what conservative or liberal means, that they should vote democrat...and you are in power.
I know I said all would be lost if obama was elected, and he was. I had renewed hope during the mid-term elections, but dropped my jaw in my lap when obama was elected for a second term. But if we do not win this November, obamacare and many other socialist policies, will be forever ingrained in America. obamacare is like a wine spill on the carpet, you have only so much time to lift the stain out or it will be permanent. That window is next November and if republicans don’t get this sh*t in one sock, we will be in trouble. And finally, in 2016, if we don’t take back the whitehouse, I fear America will be placed on an irreversible course to destruction.
But I have hope…
And just think Kiddies, after Hillary wins in 2016, after the Stupid party nominates some total loser Rino like FatBoy there in Jersey, we will get Four More Years of Commy government courtesy of the Witch from Springfield.
I’m SO HAPPY..
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