If you know one thing about teachers, it's that they're underpaid. I'm not even sure if firefighters have a salary at all, and law enforcement officers seem to need to drive their work cars around, so they can't be paid enough to get their own cars.
If you know the salaries of firefighters and law enforcement officers, please post them below.
Okay, maybe I'm wrong about the car thing and they just think, 'why buy a car when I have one for free?' Understandable. But Congress members are definitely paid more.
Well, so what? They're keeping our country running.
Actually, no they're not. We're still running on the good Congresses from a long time ago to stay afloat, along with the selfless service of our law enforcement officers, firemen, and teachers.
Recap:
Decrease politician pay
Increase teacher, fireman, law enforcement pay.
That's all. I recommend 20% pay cuts in Congress. Usually I have something longer, but... yeah, that's all, today.
When people start commenting, I'll work up to the big issues.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Economic troubles.
You've probably heard a bunch of bad things about our economy. 17 trillion dollars in debt (unless it's 18 now), unemployment rates at their peak, teetering off the edge of a fiscal cliff, etcetera. Well, the debt isn't actually as big of an issue as it sounds. 17 trillion, that's a lot. But America is a $213 trillion income country, and 17 looks tiny compared to 213 no matter how much interest there is. Also, for every dollar we owe other countries (who buy our debt), other countries owe us about 89 cents. We could drop our buying of other countries' debt and use the funds to pay off our own and over time pay off 89% of it whenever Congress agrees on that sort of thing (so yeah, maybe a problem). That's a lot of the debt. However, unemployment is an issue, and the main thing keeping people unemployed is that the big businesses have a monopoly. Not a 'let Americans work for us' monopoly, either. More, 'let everything be made in China where we can pay people pennies when Americans would demand things like 'federal minimum wage.''
That's my main problem with big businesses.
Now, the economic problems small businesses face is that they can't afford to export their labor, but they can't afford to pay federal minimum wage to a lot of people, either. So, to be competitive, they have to have fewer people working for them, which makes it harder to compete with the big businesses getting this system just barely short of slavery overseas.
In case you didn't know this, the government spends a lot of money bailing out big businesses that do something stupid and start failing. The government spends billions clinging to the old system.
I say we take those funds and use them to give government help to small businesses, give them a chance to compete. Big businesses will have to lower their prices to stay competitive, which will help the common man. Small businesses will be able to hire more, which will help the common man. More people will get jobs and be able to pay income taxes and regressive taxes from, you know, being able to buy things. The government gets their money back without even demanding that the small businesses pay them back. Everyone wins.
Except for the big businesses, which have already had a good run as the most powerful system in America to date.
Now, I am not actually a big fan of Theodore Roosevelt. He pushed for an unnecessary war with Spain. He insulted President Taft, who was pretty much doing the things Roosevelt would have done anyway, and ran against him, deeply hurting the man who hadn't wanted to be president in the first place. But he broke the power of big businesses, and got Taft to do the same. This I want to replicate. This I want to continue.
So, to summarize:
Stop bailing out big businesses.
Start giving small businesses government help.
Break the power of big businesses in this fashion.
This is a movement I push for. It's not with the times. It's insane. It's radical.
And it's right.
That's my main problem with big businesses.
Now, the economic problems small businesses face is that they can't afford to export their labor, but they can't afford to pay federal minimum wage to a lot of people, either. So, to be competitive, they have to have fewer people working for them, which makes it harder to compete with the big businesses getting this system just barely short of slavery overseas.
In case you didn't know this, the government spends a lot of money bailing out big businesses that do something stupid and start failing. The government spends billions clinging to the old system.
I say we take those funds and use them to give government help to small businesses, give them a chance to compete. Big businesses will have to lower their prices to stay competitive, which will help the common man. Small businesses will be able to hire more, which will help the common man. More people will get jobs and be able to pay income taxes and regressive taxes from, you know, being able to buy things. The government gets their money back without even demanding that the small businesses pay them back. Everyone wins.
Except for the big businesses, which have already had a good run as the most powerful system in America to date.
Now, I am not actually a big fan of Theodore Roosevelt. He pushed for an unnecessary war with Spain. He insulted President Taft, who was pretty much doing the things Roosevelt would have done anyway, and ran against him, deeply hurting the man who hadn't wanted to be president in the first place. But he broke the power of big businesses, and got Taft to do the same. This I want to replicate. This I want to continue.
So, to summarize:
Stop bailing out big businesses.
Start giving small businesses government help.
Break the power of big businesses in this fashion.
This is a movement I push for. It's not with the times. It's insane. It's radical.
And it's right.
Friday, June 28, 2013
The Radicalist
Our country was once a radical country, jumping to seemingly insane actions to protest taxes, injustices. America was seen as a crazy country, not a lazy country. And there was a very simple reason for that. We started out as people with a pioneering spirit, people who were willing to travel across the Atlantic into an unknown world full of dangerous Natives for a better chance at life.
Now I'm not going to say that we should go back to being a 100% agricultural country, we'd fall apart in the face of the first warring country that came our way. But radical measures have to be taken, and that's not working because of one single thing:
Political parties.
Yes, I'm talking about the system that our country has been run on for over 200 years. My suggestion is that radical. And there's very simple evidence for that radicalism.
No nondemocratic or republican candidate has been elected president since Zachary Taylor, the Twelfth President of the United States of America. The Thirteenth, Millard Fillmore, was not elected, he was Taylor's Vice President when Taylor died.
Our country is famous, historically, not today, for rejecting the old system, ditching it to go a new way that might work better.
Becoming our own individual colonies.
Abolishing slavery (which wasn't very new, we were actually behind other countries, but it was radical).
Clinging to the old system is what I stand most firmly against. To illustrate, this test was conducted (by people I don't like because of the way they treat monkeys) on monkeys:
They put one of those shock collars on the monkey and put him/her in front of a lever. If the monkey doesn't pull the lever, a large shock will come in. If he does, a smaller shock will come in the place of the larger. As he/she continues to pull the lever, the charge builds and builds until it's worse than what he/she would have felt by not pulling it. He/she keeps pulling it because of how it worked before. The monkey clings to the old system, even though it doesn't work.
Now, I am not an evolutionist. I do not believe that we were once monkeys (or shared a common ancestor with monkeys). However, humans do the same thing. And people who challenge the old system (like congressmen who are running on the fact that they're "just like you guys") then get bought into it because that's where the power is, because the old system has been digging its trenches for years and the challenger is given a huge bribe. But the old system will tumble eventually. The Old World will lose its colonies on the New World. When we first broke off of Britain, we were as helpless as a newborn babe. If a bunch of radicals hadn't gone off and made a Constitution, Britain probably would have been able to get us back into their empire with a simple trade embargo.
Would we have permanently abolished slavery if not for Radicals? Not until machines rendered slavery obsolete. The group called the Radical Republicans pushed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments through Congress, ending slavery, giving African Americans the right to vote, and promising citizenship to all humans born in the US (except the people who were here before us, they had no claim to the continent at the time) respectively. A huge step towards perfection, which is what we should strive for at all times. And it was radical. Insane. The Thirteenth Amendment disabled the most profitable organization in the country. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth hurt the power of big businesses, since the common worker they were victimizing (usually immigrants or African Americans) suddenly got the vote next generation around (it was one generation later, under Teddy Roosevelt, that the big businesses really started to lose power before getting it again by having everything made in China).
Our government is run by big businesses, which is why radicalism is gone. Radicalism doesn't sit well with people who are profiting under the current system. In this instance, that's big businesses and our two biggest parties. Radicalism is for the common man who doesn't have a future if he sits still and clings to the old system. So if you're a common man, or stand for common men, or don't want someone who will just keep everything the way it is in office, vote third party next election. Maybe (s)he'll be defeated. Probably (s)he'll be defeated. But what's the point of electing or reelecting unless you stand for something?
Now I'm not going to say that we should go back to being a 100% agricultural country, we'd fall apart in the face of the first warring country that came our way. But radical measures have to be taken, and that's not working because of one single thing:
Political parties.
Yes, I'm talking about the system that our country has been run on for over 200 years. My suggestion is that radical. And there's very simple evidence for that radicalism.
No nondemocratic or republican candidate has been elected president since Zachary Taylor, the Twelfth President of the United States of America. The Thirteenth, Millard Fillmore, was not elected, he was Taylor's Vice President when Taylor died.
Our country is famous, historically, not today, for rejecting the old system, ditching it to go a new way that might work better.
Becoming our own individual colonies.
Abolishing slavery (which wasn't very new, we were actually behind other countries, but it was radical).
Clinging to the old system is what I stand most firmly against. To illustrate, this test was conducted (by people I don't like because of the way they treat monkeys) on monkeys:
They put one of those shock collars on the monkey and put him/her in front of a lever. If the monkey doesn't pull the lever, a large shock will come in. If he does, a smaller shock will come in the place of the larger. As he/she continues to pull the lever, the charge builds and builds until it's worse than what he/she would have felt by not pulling it. He/she keeps pulling it because of how it worked before. The monkey clings to the old system, even though it doesn't work.
Now, I am not an evolutionist. I do not believe that we were once monkeys (or shared a common ancestor with monkeys). However, humans do the same thing. And people who challenge the old system (like congressmen who are running on the fact that they're "just like you guys") then get bought into it because that's where the power is, because the old system has been digging its trenches for years and the challenger is given a huge bribe. But the old system will tumble eventually. The Old World will lose its colonies on the New World. When we first broke off of Britain, we were as helpless as a newborn babe. If a bunch of radicals hadn't gone off and made a Constitution, Britain probably would have been able to get us back into their empire with a simple trade embargo.
Would we have permanently abolished slavery if not for Radicals? Not until machines rendered slavery obsolete. The group called the Radical Republicans pushed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments through Congress, ending slavery, giving African Americans the right to vote, and promising citizenship to all humans born in the US (except the people who were here before us, they had no claim to the continent at the time) respectively. A huge step towards perfection, which is what we should strive for at all times. And it was radical. Insane. The Thirteenth Amendment disabled the most profitable organization in the country. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth hurt the power of big businesses, since the common worker they were victimizing (usually immigrants or African Americans) suddenly got the vote next generation around (it was one generation later, under Teddy Roosevelt, that the big businesses really started to lose power before getting it again by having everything made in China).
Our government is run by big businesses, which is why radicalism is gone. Radicalism doesn't sit well with people who are profiting under the current system. In this instance, that's big businesses and our two biggest parties. Radicalism is for the common man who doesn't have a future if he sits still and clings to the old system. So if you're a common man, or stand for common men, or don't want someone who will just keep everything the way it is in office, vote third party next election. Maybe (s)he'll be defeated. Probably (s)he'll be defeated. But what's the point of electing or reelecting unless you stand for something?
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