President Obama and the Democrats in Congress are running full steam ahead with their goal of turning the United States of America into a European socialist state. Some claim that this is all part of a conspiracy to take America down a peg in order to properly pigeonhole us into our place in the world government edicts of the New World Order. I've read all the conspiracy theory stuff online, as well as several books on the subject. I'm not going to completely discount those theories, because I am not totally convinced that they are hogwash. I'm also not totally convinced that Barack Obama and many of his minions, as well as many of the upper middle class liberals that supported him, are not closet Marxists. I am convinced, however, that with the signing of the Health Care Bill into law, that this country is about to change dramatically, and I'm not sure that the people in this country are going to go down the road to a European nanny socialist state without, at the minimum, a lot of complaining.
We now have a health care law that even ultra-liberal sites like Daily Kos are criticising. One writer there stated that now insurance companies will be able to charge whatever they want, because they will have a captive audience. Everyone must now purchase health insurance, or face fines or jail time. Despite the anti-capitalist slant to the writer's post, he's right on the mark. This is not going to make health care more affordable. It's going to become more costly, and there will be less of it. That's exactly what it's supposed to do. Make the cost of living for the working class and lower middle class expand, so that they will have to reduce their standard of living. At the same time, rationing of health care will lead to the deaths of more senior citizens. Why would the government want them to die? Because they have what is known as "corporate memory." They remember how this country used to be. Eventually, you can kill off everyone with corporate memory, and the only ones left will be the properly indoctrinated that the Left started brainwashing in full force starting in the 1960s. Once you have an entire country believing that Socialism is the only way, you now have a permanent ruling class of educated elites and the serfs that rely on them for mere survival.
The next big ticket item that the president and our congressional leaders are working on is immigration reform. Do we need another15 or 20 million unskilled "illegal citizens" using up more social services and taking jobs away from the unskilled labor pool that is made up of our least educated legal citizens? Most of the people that make up the working poor are not smart enough to go to college. That's a cold hard fact, no matter how cruel it sounds. These are the folks that if they go to college, they go there to clean the bathrooms. However, they still provide a very valuable function in our society. They are our working poor, but they are working, and after time, they may make enough money to have a little tiny place of their own. That American Dream will be denied them. In Europe, only the upper middle class and the wealthy are able to afford to own property. Force people into poverty and make them reliant on government social programs. That way they can be controlled, and if they make too much noise, there is always Euthanasia if they become too sick or "mentally defective."
All these social programs are going to cost a lot of money, and that money has to come from somewhere. There is talk about a Value Added Tax or VAT as it is commonly called. All the socialist European countries have a VAT, and I'm starting to believe that we are next. If we are going to have European levels of safety net, we are going to have to have European levels of taxation to pay for it. This is not going to sit well with the American people. The American lower middle class does not want its standard of living reduced to the standard of living level of the European lower middle class. A small business owner in this country wants to work hard and be able to live in a nice middle class neighborhood, not in a cramped appartment above his shop. In Europe, the working classes and lower middle classes have a standard of living that is slightly above the average welfare recipient here in the States. A VAT serves two purposes. It generates the necessary monies to fuel the nanny state. It also serves as a big DMZ to keep those that aspire to rise out of their social class from doing so. It keeps the working classes and lower middle classes in their place, which is just a notch above the poor. That way they can never achieve parity with the educated upper middle classes and the wealthy. It's a rationing of lifestyle that is put in place in order to satisfy the upper middle class' thirst for power and control. Socialism protects them from the masses that they despise. American liberals are no different. They have nothing but scorn and contempt for those that don't wear a tie to work in the morning.
Health care rationing, energy rationing, food rationing, "coercing" people out of their single family homes and cars...it's all coming, and the upper middle and upper class liberals are now drunk with power. The 100 year march to Socialism will take place unless the little people finally wise up and stop it in its tracks. The midterm elections in November are crucial. The upper class liberals need to be sent the message that those that work with their hands are not their servants.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Healthcare...they did it
Ok, it's done for now, but I have a feeling that it's not over. From what I hear the court challenges are going to begin before the ink is dry on the President's signature. Our Mandarin ruling class of Democrats has decided to ram health care reform up the butts of the American people. I have written to my congressman seeking clarification on some aspects of the health care plan, and I'm waiting for his response. He also happens to be the House Majority Leader. I will comment more on this once I get some concrete answers. However, there are questions I have right now about this: How can you possibly head in the direction of European style universal health care; its rationing, its long wait times, its supposed reduced cost, and have it provide coverage to more people and save money, without reining in the trial lawyers? What illnesses will be deemed politically correct enough to move you to the front of the line? What illnesses will be deemed politically incorrect enough to move you to the bottom of the line? Will you need to belong to the right political party and/or social class in order to have access to medical care unless you are one of the chosen victim class members?
Of course I hear people tell me that I shouldn't talk, because I have health care for life by being retired military. Yes I do. That's why I stayed in the military for 26 years. That's why I was as these Social Justice for all phonies say, "trapped" in a job that offered health care and couldn't leave. Well, yes I could have, but the idea of having an earned benefit down the road was too great of a temptation. Notice that I said earned benefit and not entitlement. I guarantee that a lot of people wanting universal health care believe that everything in life is an entitlement. They should be able to do whatever job suits their fancy and not have to make any sacrifices and/or compromises. Well guess what hippies, sometimes you have to do something that you don't like, in an industry that you don't like, in order to get a benefit that you do like. Even though I got to do what I wanted to do by doing it in the military, which was play music full-time, it was still the military. There was boot camp, short hair, uniforms, recall exercises at 4 AM and last minute TDYs followed by more last minute TDYs that could keep you away from home, with minimal preparation, for up to three months or so at a time. There were random drug tests, fitness tests, weight standards; being overweight was the quickest way to end one's career, and a top down totalitarian dictatorship social structure, that very few of the spoiled rotten upper middle class youth of today would tolerate. It's the Socialism that they so love, without them being the ones in charge. They would get to start as the lower classes, which is beyond pale in their minds. However, I think that the real reason they wouldn't tolerate it goes beyond their obvious contempt for the working and lower middle classes. They wouldn't survive one hour in boot camp and they know it. Forcing the American people into Socialism on their terms is is the goal.
This is what Obamacare is really all about. It's not about universal health care. It's about Socialism and transforming America into a Socialist society where the educated upper middle class and above become the ruling class. The black underclass will continue to be the pawns on the chessboard that the liberal upper middle class will use as a tool to enact their agenda. Very few of them will advance beyond the ghetto. Upper middle class whites ensconced in their protected suburban enclaves will make sure of that. Lower middle class, working class, and lower class whites will become the new slave class, just like they were when this country was first colonized. This is the master plan that is behind the entire "hope and change" that we are witnessing. The question is, will the lower classes go along with the program or will they revolt? You can only push people so far. Right now I think a lot of people are waiting to see what the results will be in the November elections. However if immigration reform gets fast tracked and signed into law as the next step, it will create millions more underclass voters voting for more socialism. If then you drive the cost of living through the roof with Cap and Trade environmental regulations forcing many small businesses to close their doors there may be hell to pay. If you start forcing people out of their homes, because they can no longer afford the taxes and utilities, and they are not members of a designated victim class so they can get government relief, I think all bets are off. We'll see.
Of course I hear people tell me that I shouldn't talk, because I have health care for life by being retired military. Yes I do. That's why I stayed in the military for 26 years. That's why I was as these Social Justice for all phonies say, "trapped" in a job that offered health care and couldn't leave. Well, yes I could have, but the idea of having an earned benefit down the road was too great of a temptation. Notice that I said earned benefit and not entitlement. I guarantee that a lot of people wanting universal health care believe that everything in life is an entitlement. They should be able to do whatever job suits their fancy and not have to make any sacrifices and/or compromises. Well guess what hippies, sometimes you have to do something that you don't like, in an industry that you don't like, in order to get a benefit that you do like. Even though I got to do what I wanted to do by doing it in the military, which was play music full-time, it was still the military. There was boot camp, short hair, uniforms, recall exercises at 4 AM and last minute TDYs followed by more last minute TDYs that could keep you away from home, with minimal preparation, for up to three months or so at a time. There were random drug tests, fitness tests, weight standards; being overweight was the quickest way to end one's career, and a top down totalitarian dictatorship social structure, that very few of the spoiled rotten upper middle class youth of today would tolerate. It's the Socialism that they so love, without them being the ones in charge. They would get to start as the lower classes, which is beyond pale in their minds. However, I think that the real reason they wouldn't tolerate it goes beyond their obvious contempt for the working and lower middle classes. They wouldn't survive one hour in boot camp and they know it. Forcing the American people into Socialism on their terms is is the goal.
This is what Obamacare is really all about. It's not about universal health care. It's about Socialism and transforming America into a Socialist society where the educated upper middle class and above become the ruling class. The black underclass will continue to be the pawns on the chessboard that the liberal upper middle class will use as a tool to enact their agenda. Very few of them will advance beyond the ghetto. Upper middle class whites ensconced in their protected suburban enclaves will make sure of that. Lower middle class, working class, and lower class whites will become the new slave class, just like they were when this country was first colonized. This is the master plan that is behind the entire "hope and change" that we are witnessing. The question is, will the lower classes go along with the program or will they revolt? You can only push people so far. Right now I think a lot of people are waiting to see what the results will be in the November elections. However if immigration reform gets fast tracked and signed into law as the next step, it will create millions more underclass voters voting for more socialism. If then you drive the cost of living through the roof with Cap and Trade environmental regulations forcing many small businesses to close their doors there may be hell to pay. If you start forcing people out of their homes, because they can no longer afford the taxes and utilities, and they are not members of a designated victim class so they can get government relief, I think all bets are off. We'll see.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Remaking Of America
There are a lot of forces at play that are trying to turn this country into something other than the great "experiment" that our founders envisioned, and has worked so well for over 230 years. It has worked so well that many people throughout the world give up everything they have in order to move to this country and build new lives. Many of them become prosperous, and for those that don't, a lot of times prosperity ends up in the hands of their children and grandchildren. There is a dark side to the equation too. It is the side of envy, and this is what is driving the political agenda of the Leftists who are now in charge of running this country. For some, it is the envy of material things. For a lot of others, however, is the far more dangerous envy of power and control.
The Tools Of Power
The linchpin of the march to power and control over the masses is Health Care Reform. If you control access to health care, you control all other aspects of peoples' lives. Why do you think Stalin and Hitler gave socialized medicine to their citizens? That way they could control who received health care and who didn't, both in access and in quality. Do you think that the Democrats and President Obama don't know this? Do you want to see a doctor? You better belong to the appropriate political party and have the right beliefs, or you are going to have a very long wait for health care. Since you are a dissenter, hopefully you will die while you are waiting. That way there will be one less voice complaining about the new American Communist government. Of course, dissent will no longer be the highest form of patriotism, but will be considered a form of mental illness. Does anyone hear the term Euthanasia?
There will be a two tiered health care system. Cuba has a system for the ruling class and tourists, and a system for everyone else. Guess who gets quality health care? Canada has a similar thing, except that it's supposedly illegal. There is national health care, and then there is very discrete, very expensive private cash only health care. Guess who gets what? It's the same thing in Britain. You have national health care for the masses, and then you have very discrete, private, cash only quality health care for the ruling class—and that's not just the queen who has her own private doctors.
Back when the British Government passed National Health Care in the 1960s, a member of the House Of Commons, Barbara Castle, also knows as Britain's "Red Queen," because of her Marxist beliefs, thundered, "No one should be allowed to pay for health care with a checkbook." However when her son needed surgery, she checked him into one of the discrete under the table, cash only, exclusive, private hospitals under an assumed name. Was she ever held accountable for that? Hell no. All the other politicians and the other "important people" were doing the same thing. It wasn't even reported in the press.
Oleg Atbashian, a graphic artist who lives in New York, and is originally from the Ukraine when it was still part of the Communist Soviet Union sums up the reason in a nutshell of why the two tiered system exists when it is supposed to be illegal:
[because of] "...the unconditional love of the parents for their children and the desire to do the best for them. The truth is, even the most hard-nosed Soviet ideologues still cheated the system when it came to their offspring. Having risked life and limb fighting for universal equality, they all ended up inventing creative workarounds to make their own children “more equal” than others. Who can blame them? They were human, even if they denied humanity to everyone else."
Do you think that our Leftist politicians, their friends and their supporters among the meritocratic, educated elite, upper classes are going to stand in line for sub-standard health care? No, the unwashed masses will stand in line. The Bobos and the politicians that the Bobos support will have their own system separate and unequal from the rest of us. The Left is fully aware of this. Rationing will mean rationing for us, but not for them.
Next on the list is the tool of Environmentalism. The purpose of this tool is multi fold. It has a tremendous trickle down effect. The environmental movement and its supporters want to see energy prices skyrocket. For the hardcore activists, man is the enemy. The goal is to eliminate as many people from the planet as possible. Of course, that doesn't mean them. Lack of access to modern technology, which requires energy, is the key to the development of the Third World. They do not want this to happen. If people don't have electricity, clean water, sewage treatment, and quality shelter, they will die from disease and starvation. That's the goal. Disease and starvation are the most efficient ways of killing people. Plus, that way the Leftist Environmental Extremists don't have to get their hands dirty in the process. They don't have to shoot anybody. Paul Erlich, who wrote the book, The Population Bomb, called for the elimination of 75% of the world's population, or that there would be massive food shortages in the Western World in the 1980s. That didn't happen. Rachel Carson, who wrote the book, Silent Spring, was influential enough to get the pesticide DDT banned. Consequently, you've had over 30 million children die of malaria in the Third World. When this was mentioned to a Far Left environmental activist, his comment was, "Well, that's a good start." The extremists don't want to eliminate all the little people. They still need a certain amount of "lesser beings" to mow their lawns, scrub their floors, serve their food, wipe their kids asses, and fix their hybrids. Anything over that certain amount are excesses, and it's the excesses that will need to be eliminated.
The goal of the non-extremist Environmentalist are not eliminating people, but keeping the poor and lower classes under collective control. How dare those people without college degrees think that they are entitled to own property, drive a car, or have air conditioning. They need to be herded into high rise, climate controlled, human habitat areas with no parking, so that they can all be herded onto a crowded bus in order to get to work. Most of the non-extremist Environmentalists adhere to the typical belief system of most of those in the Liberal upper middle classes: "We know what's better for you than you, so shut up and do as you are told. You are too stupid to think for yourself." For them, it's about Marx's "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." The "little people" have less need, because they are not as important. It's not right that someone with a high school education who goes into business for himself, and due to hard work (ability) is able to make more money than they do with their PhDs. The playing field needs to be "levelled." When you drive the price of energy sky high, many small businesses will fold. Many people won't be able to afford fuel for their cars. Many people won't be able to afford the electricity needed to cool their homes. As long as it doesn't affect too many of the Bobo class of "entitled" Americans, it's fine. The goal is to reduce the standard of living of everyone but them. That way the lower classes will know their place.
Another tool of power that the Left uses is food. Stalin and Mao came right out and starved to death millions of their own citizens. Who knows how many have starved to death in North Korea, but it's a known fact that people there eat tree bark and grass in order to stay alive. The "little people" in Cuba have food rationing. You are limited to three ounces of meat per person per week. The rest of your diet consists of beans and rice. This, of course, does not apply to the ruling class. When Liberals claim that more food should be organically grown, because it's healthier, they are blowing smoke out of their patoot. It's nothing but support for a $20 billion dollar a year agricultural "big business" (while they rail on about evil big businesses), that allows them to put themselves in a class above the rest of us. It's about snob appeal. A research project by Great Britain's London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, that put together the results of 50 years of research conducted by many scientist throughout the world, concluded that there is absolutely no difference in the nutritional quality of organic food vs conventional food. Organic may taste different due to it's growing methods, but it is no better for you.
Organic farming produces less food than conventional farming, and there is more loss to disease and blights, hence the price difference. If more food was grown organically, there would be less food at a much higher price. That's another way of controlling the masses. Just think, we could get more Americans to eat less hamburger and more beans and rice like they do in Cuba. Now please pass me a second helping of that $30 per pound grass fed, organically grown beef.
Having to spend more on food, means less money to spend on other things too. The Bobos love that idea. Why should the stupid people in flyover country be able to afford anything anyway. After all, all they want is a pickup truck and a 72 inch wide screen TV, so they can watch ESPN. Why can't they watch PBS and listen to the elitist Marxists on NPR? Instead those stupid average Americans are listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching Glenn Beck.
For the extremists, less food means more starvation, which means more people will die. Starvation is also a great motivational tool to "encourage" you to shut up and do as you are told. Remember this the next time some hippie rails on about supporting some Social Justice cause about starvation in the Third World. What they really want is more starvation here in the United States.
These are the tools that the Left plans on using to remake this country into a Socialist and eventual Communist dictatorship. Who benefits from this? If you look at any Socialist and/or Communist country, there is a ruling class of highly educated bureaucrats and those in the information professions, like law and education that live quite well. That is as long as they adhere to the party line. We have the potential to go down that same road ourselves if we don't derail the Socialist Express that President Obama and his Marxist cronies, are running full speed ahead down the tracks, that is designed to take down the American system of government that our founders developed over 230 years ago and establish a permanent Socialist dictatorship. Let's hope that the average American wakes up in time.
The Tools Of Power
The linchpin of the march to power and control over the masses is Health Care Reform. If you control access to health care, you control all other aspects of peoples' lives. Why do you think Stalin and Hitler gave socialized medicine to their citizens? That way they could control who received health care and who didn't, both in access and in quality. Do you think that the Democrats and President Obama don't know this? Do you want to see a doctor? You better belong to the appropriate political party and have the right beliefs, or you are going to have a very long wait for health care. Since you are a dissenter, hopefully you will die while you are waiting. That way there will be one less voice complaining about the new American Communist government. Of course, dissent will no longer be the highest form of patriotism, but will be considered a form of mental illness. Does anyone hear the term Euthanasia?
There will be a two tiered health care system. Cuba has a system for the ruling class and tourists, and a system for everyone else. Guess who gets quality health care? Canada has a similar thing, except that it's supposedly illegal. There is national health care, and then there is very discrete, very expensive private cash only health care. Guess who gets what? It's the same thing in Britain. You have national health care for the masses, and then you have very discrete, private, cash only quality health care for the ruling class—and that's not just the queen who has her own private doctors.
Back when the British Government passed National Health Care in the 1960s, a member of the House Of Commons, Barbara Castle, also knows as Britain's "Red Queen," because of her Marxist beliefs, thundered, "No one should be allowed to pay for health care with a checkbook." However when her son needed surgery, she checked him into one of the discrete under the table, cash only, exclusive, private hospitals under an assumed name. Was she ever held accountable for that? Hell no. All the other politicians and the other "important people" were doing the same thing. It wasn't even reported in the press.
Oleg Atbashian, a graphic artist who lives in New York, and is originally from the Ukraine when it was still part of the Communist Soviet Union sums up the reason in a nutshell of why the two tiered system exists when it is supposed to be illegal:
[because of] "...the unconditional love of the parents for their children and the desire to do the best for them. The truth is, even the most hard-nosed Soviet ideologues still cheated the system when it came to their offspring. Having risked life and limb fighting for universal equality, they all ended up inventing creative workarounds to make their own children “more equal” than others. Who can blame them? They were human, even if they denied humanity to everyone else."
Do you think that our Leftist politicians, their friends and their supporters among the meritocratic, educated elite, upper classes are going to stand in line for sub-standard health care? No, the unwashed masses will stand in line. The Bobos and the politicians that the Bobos support will have their own system separate and unequal from the rest of us. The Left is fully aware of this. Rationing will mean rationing for us, but not for them.
Next on the list is the tool of Environmentalism. The purpose of this tool is multi fold. It has a tremendous trickle down effect. The environmental movement and its supporters want to see energy prices skyrocket. For the hardcore activists, man is the enemy. The goal is to eliminate as many people from the planet as possible. Of course, that doesn't mean them. Lack of access to modern technology, which requires energy, is the key to the development of the Third World. They do not want this to happen. If people don't have electricity, clean water, sewage treatment, and quality shelter, they will die from disease and starvation. That's the goal. Disease and starvation are the most efficient ways of killing people. Plus, that way the Leftist Environmental Extremists don't have to get their hands dirty in the process. They don't have to shoot anybody. Paul Erlich, who wrote the book, The Population Bomb, called for the elimination of 75% of the world's population, or that there would be massive food shortages in the Western World in the 1980s. That didn't happen. Rachel Carson, who wrote the book, Silent Spring, was influential enough to get the pesticide DDT banned. Consequently, you've had over 30 million children die of malaria in the Third World. When this was mentioned to a Far Left environmental activist, his comment was, "Well, that's a good start." The extremists don't want to eliminate all the little people. They still need a certain amount of "lesser beings" to mow their lawns, scrub their floors, serve their food, wipe their kids asses, and fix their hybrids. Anything over that certain amount are excesses, and it's the excesses that will need to be eliminated.
The goal of the non-extremist Environmentalist are not eliminating people, but keeping the poor and lower classes under collective control. How dare those people without college degrees think that they are entitled to own property, drive a car, or have air conditioning. They need to be herded into high rise, climate controlled, human habitat areas with no parking, so that they can all be herded onto a crowded bus in order to get to work. Most of the non-extremist Environmentalists adhere to the typical belief system of most of those in the Liberal upper middle classes: "We know what's better for you than you, so shut up and do as you are told. You are too stupid to think for yourself." For them, it's about Marx's "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." The "little people" have less need, because they are not as important. It's not right that someone with a high school education who goes into business for himself, and due to hard work (ability) is able to make more money than they do with their PhDs. The playing field needs to be "levelled." When you drive the price of energy sky high, many small businesses will fold. Many people won't be able to afford fuel for their cars. Many people won't be able to afford the electricity needed to cool their homes. As long as it doesn't affect too many of the Bobo class of "entitled" Americans, it's fine. The goal is to reduce the standard of living of everyone but them. That way the lower classes will know their place.
Another tool of power that the Left uses is food. Stalin and Mao came right out and starved to death millions of their own citizens. Who knows how many have starved to death in North Korea, but it's a known fact that people there eat tree bark and grass in order to stay alive. The "little people" in Cuba have food rationing. You are limited to three ounces of meat per person per week. The rest of your diet consists of beans and rice. This, of course, does not apply to the ruling class. When Liberals claim that more food should be organically grown, because it's healthier, they are blowing smoke out of their patoot. It's nothing but support for a $20 billion dollar a year agricultural "big business" (while they rail on about evil big businesses), that allows them to put themselves in a class above the rest of us. It's about snob appeal. A research project by Great Britain's London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, that put together the results of 50 years of research conducted by many scientist throughout the world, concluded that there is absolutely no difference in the nutritional quality of organic food vs conventional food. Organic may taste different due to it's growing methods, but it is no better for you.
Organic farming produces less food than conventional farming, and there is more loss to disease and blights, hence the price difference. If more food was grown organically, there would be less food at a much higher price. That's another way of controlling the masses. Just think, we could get more Americans to eat less hamburger and more beans and rice like they do in Cuba. Now please pass me a second helping of that $30 per pound grass fed, organically grown beef.
Having to spend more on food, means less money to spend on other things too. The Bobos love that idea. Why should the stupid people in flyover country be able to afford anything anyway. After all, all they want is a pickup truck and a 72 inch wide screen TV, so they can watch ESPN. Why can't they watch PBS and listen to the elitist Marxists on NPR? Instead those stupid average Americans are listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching Glenn Beck.
For the extremists, less food means more starvation, which means more people will die. Starvation is also a great motivational tool to "encourage" you to shut up and do as you are told. Remember this the next time some hippie rails on about supporting some Social Justice cause about starvation in the Third World. What they really want is more starvation here in the United States.
These are the tools that the Left plans on using to remake this country into a Socialist and eventual Communist dictatorship. Who benefits from this? If you look at any Socialist and/or Communist country, there is a ruling class of highly educated bureaucrats and those in the information professions, like law and education that live quite well. That is as long as they adhere to the party line. We have the potential to go down that same road ourselves if we don't derail the Socialist Express that President Obama and his Marxist cronies, are running full speed ahead down the tracks, that is designed to take down the American system of government that our founders developed over 230 years ago and establish a permanent Socialist dictatorship. Let's hope that the average American wakes up in time.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
College For Everyone Is Just Plain Wrong
President Obama has stated that more people need to attend and finish college. I don't agree. Having more people attending college will lead to the further "dumbing down" of college curricula, so that more people can finish a four year degree within six years. This is the rationing of quality when it comes to higher education. Then, a college degree becomes nothing of value. It's just a worthless piece of paper. This approach makes absolutely no sense. Education in the United States has been too "dumbed down" over the past fifty years, and the further lowering of the standards from what they are now for a college degree so more people can graduate is stupid. However, I guess it will make all those poor people at the bottom of the labor pool with college degrees feel good about themselves. Everyone will have a college degree, but only the best and brightest who graduate from the top colleges will get the higher paying jobs anyway. There will be a lot of college degreed janitors. It's nothing but a vote getting smoke screen.
Because of our "dumbed down" education system, the Associates Degree from a community college is the new high school diploma. Soon, the Bachelors Degree will be the new high school diploma, and the Masters Degree will be the new Bachelors Degree. Education should never have been allowed to become that "dumbed down," but then again, education is a business like anything else, and when you look at public education, it's not just big business, but a huge unionized big business that rewards and protects incompetence. It's a huge government run monopoly that fails in its mission. It needs to be fixed and fixed fast. There are several things that need to be done.
First of all, we need to make school harder. Our schools are way too easy compared to education in the rest of the Western World. No more social promotions. No more "feel good" curricula that promotes self-esteem over real world knowledge. It's time to enact tough standards and stick to them. We need to get back to basics in the elementary level, and then in the middle school and high school levels start revamping the curricula to bring them in line with the requirements of our current and projected future employment markets.
We need to restore discipline back in the classroom. The main obstacle against learning in the inner city schools today, is not effectively dealing with the bad behavior that is inherent to the ghetto culture. There are similar problems in the suburban schools too. School districts are scared to death of lawsuits brought by parents when a teacher or administrator deems it necessary to use harsh discipline to bring a recalcitrant student back in line. Teachers and principals need to grow some spine, but that is not going to happen until the current crop of "feel good" educators gets replaced with some good old fashioned hard asses. Bring back the paddle and the strap. We didn't have that many discipline problems in the old days, because adults had some backbone, and teachers and principals were assumed to have in loco parentis authority. If you got hit in school, because you got into trouble, you got it again when you got home.
Today, it's not just the students that have no respect for the teachers and administrators, it's the parents too. Parents today are products of the Dr. Spock movement of the 1960s. They will sue a school district in a heartbeat, if their little angel who can do no wrong gets some well deserved discipline. If a parent decides to sue because their child got a well deserved ass whoopin' in school, fight fire with fire. Have the school system's attorney, who should be on retainer at a minimum, or preferably an employee of the school district, bring every bad aspect of the parent's life out in the open during the suit's discovery process. If a child is a rotten child because of rotten parenting, get it out in the open for everyone in the community to see. I guarantee there will be a lot less lawsuits if those parents are subject to a high level of microscopic scrutiny if they decide to sue. The trickle down effect will be a lot more traditional parenting and a lot less Dr. Spock. The parents will realize that the schools will not put up with their kid's bullshit, and will hold them accountable as well.
As a last resort, school districts need to establish public boarding boot camp schools for the worst offenders. Have special senior administrators that are empowered with a limited amount of judicial authority. These administrators should be able to order these habitual worst behaved students into these "motivational" institutions. If the parents don't like it, too bad. Next time do your job as a parent so the schools don't have to take that kind of drastic action. Boot camp works. I was in the military for 26 years, and I can definitely say that boot camp was a real eye opener as far as life was concerned. It's amazing how people change when they are subject that that level of discipline. They grow up real fast.
Also, we need to change the way of thinking of most industries when it comes to education. It's not going to be easy, but industry needs to stop using a college degree as a screening tool for jobs that don't require a college degree. Yes, you need college degrees and advanced degrees for many jobs. Doctors need years of training. So do lawyers and CPAs. Economists and business administrators need years of schooling. However, you don't need a college degree in order to be a web designer. You need specialized technical training in web design. You don't need a college degree to be a computer systems administrator. You need specialized technical training in network administration. You do need a college degree in order to be a software engineer. Stop blurring the lines. Once this takes place, we can revamp our education system to prepare students for real world jobs in a real world workplace. Sorry President Obama, not everyone in this country should, or needs to go to college.
Because of our "dumbed down" education system, the Associates Degree from a community college is the new high school diploma. Soon, the Bachelors Degree will be the new high school diploma, and the Masters Degree will be the new Bachelors Degree. Education should never have been allowed to become that "dumbed down," but then again, education is a business like anything else, and when you look at public education, it's not just big business, but a huge unionized big business that rewards and protects incompetence. It's a huge government run monopoly that fails in its mission. It needs to be fixed and fixed fast. There are several things that need to be done.
First of all, we need to make school harder. Our schools are way too easy compared to education in the rest of the Western World. No more social promotions. No more "feel good" curricula that promotes self-esteem over real world knowledge. It's time to enact tough standards and stick to them. We need to get back to basics in the elementary level, and then in the middle school and high school levels start revamping the curricula to bring them in line with the requirements of our current and projected future employment markets.
We need to restore discipline back in the classroom. The main obstacle against learning in the inner city schools today, is not effectively dealing with the bad behavior that is inherent to the ghetto culture. There are similar problems in the suburban schools too. School districts are scared to death of lawsuits brought by parents when a teacher or administrator deems it necessary to use harsh discipline to bring a recalcitrant student back in line. Teachers and principals need to grow some spine, but that is not going to happen until the current crop of "feel good" educators gets replaced with some good old fashioned hard asses. Bring back the paddle and the strap. We didn't have that many discipline problems in the old days, because adults had some backbone, and teachers and principals were assumed to have in loco parentis authority. If you got hit in school, because you got into trouble, you got it again when you got home.
Today, it's not just the students that have no respect for the teachers and administrators, it's the parents too. Parents today are products of the Dr. Spock movement of the 1960s. They will sue a school district in a heartbeat, if their little angel who can do no wrong gets some well deserved discipline. If a parent decides to sue because their child got a well deserved ass whoopin' in school, fight fire with fire. Have the school system's attorney, who should be on retainer at a minimum, or preferably an employee of the school district, bring every bad aspect of the parent's life out in the open during the suit's discovery process. If a child is a rotten child because of rotten parenting, get it out in the open for everyone in the community to see. I guarantee there will be a lot less lawsuits if those parents are subject to a high level of microscopic scrutiny if they decide to sue. The trickle down effect will be a lot more traditional parenting and a lot less Dr. Spock. The parents will realize that the schools will not put up with their kid's bullshit, and will hold them accountable as well.
As a last resort, school districts need to establish public boarding boot camp schools for the worst offenders. Have special senior administrators that are empowered with a limited amount of judicial authority. These administrators should be able to order these habitual worst behaved students into these "motivational" institutions. If the parents don't like it, too bad. Next time do your job as a parent so the schools don't have to take that kind of drastic action. Boot camp works. I was in the military for 26 years, and I can definitely say that boot camp was a real eye opener as far as life was concerned. It's amazing how people change when they are subject that that level of discipline. They grow up real fast.
Also, we need to change the way of thinking of most industries when it comes to education. It's not going to be easy, but industry needs to stop using a college degree as a screening tool for jobs that don't require a college degree. Yes, you need college degrees and advanced degrees for many jobs. Doctors need years of training. So do lawyers and CPAs. Economists and business administrators need years of schooling. However, you don't need a college degree in order to be a web designer. You need specialized technical training in web design. You don't need a college degree to be a computer systems administrator. You need specialized technical training in network administration. You do need a college degree in order to be a software engineer. Stop blurring the lines. Once this takes place, we can revamp our education system to prepare students for real world jobs in a real world workplace. Sorry President Obama, not everyone in this country should, or needs to go to college.
Friday, March 12, 2010
College Protests
Recently there were stories on the news about students demonstrating, and in some places, rioting over the increase in the cost of a college education throughout the country. The largest ones and the most violent ones were in California. Ok, I will concede that the cost of a college education has become very expensive. Not everyone has rich parents. Student loans take years to pay back, and there are just so many grants and scholarships to go around. That being said, I'm not sure that the students have looked at the big picture when it comes to higher education and access to it. For them at the moment, it's only about them and their access to higher education. It's another example of the entitlement mentality of spoiled rotten Socialisticly indoctrinated liberals. Everyone one of the students interviewed had their own version of the same thesis: "me, me, me, me..."
The looming threat of not being able to get a college degree is scary for these young people. I can understand why. We have become a society where credentials outweigh real world knowledge through hands on experience and practical training of how to do something. The real world knowledge comes later if at all. Today businesses are reluctant to administer pre-employment tests to potential hirees on the skills that they actually need to do a job. There have been too many lawsuits brought by various "victim industry" groups. So what else is new? The few exceptions to the rule are medical boards for doctors, bar exams for lawyers, exams for real estate agents and brokers, and CPA exams for public accountants. The trades have their own exams for tradesmen working their way up from apprentice to journeyman to master, but that's a different story. It's ok, because those trades are heavily unionized. Because of the lawsuits against practical knowledge of subject exams for people applying for a lot of white collar jobs, businesses use a Bachelors Degree as a screening tool to weed out applicants for positions that really don't require a college degree in the first place. It's a way of maintaining and perpetuating a caste system in a country where there isn't supposed to be a caste system. It's the caste system of the Bobos, and the hierarchy based on what degree you have; Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate. If you are going to wear a tie to work, you have to have a college degree even if the degree is in the proverbial subject, "Underwater Basket Weaving." If you don't, you are going to have to get your hands dirty and be part of the unwashed masses that the Elite Bobo Liberals despise. Ironically, many of those "get your hands dirty" trades jobs pay a lot more than some low level flunky white collar job. The Bobos despise that too. It goes against their sense of self-importance. In this new age of a society based on meritocratic hierarchy those with less education should never be the "haves."
The young people protesting are right about fairness. It's not fair. Life isn't fair. What they mean is that it isn't fair to them, and the hell with everyone else...free college for me, but I don't give a rat's ass about thee. These are the same young people that on a whole embrace the top down dictatorship of Socialism, because it's about "fairness." Did anyone say meritocratic hierarchy? "Why can't the evil United States be more like enlightened Europe?" I've got a great idea. Let's look at how this so called European style "fairness" will pan out. Let's look at access to higher education in other countries where the governments either provide for, or heavily subsidise the cost of a college education and see whether or not this is what these young people really want for this country. They could be in for a rude awakening. A large percentage of them wouldn't be able to attend college at all. They would move down a notch or two or three, in the meritocratic hierarchy food chain.
What the young people in this country don't quite comprehend is the fact that any time the government provides anything, there is rationing. You can't provide a quality product to everyone. That includes education. There is either rationing of the product or service itself, or rationing of the quality of the product or service, or both. The same thing will happen if the government decides to provide free college education to the masses.
Most countries that provide higher education to their citizens, have very strict requirements as far as who gets to benefit from the education entitlement. A college education is an earned benefit regulated by the state. There are very stringent exams that are taken in high school, and only the best and brightest (i.e. those that score highest on the exams) are allowed to attend college by law. If you don't "test well," tough shit. You lose. I guess they don't have to worry about Affirmative Action lawsuits.
Let's say the United States decided to go this route. Let's create a hypothetical situation: The government sets aside a certain number of dollars for funding of higher education each year. It's part of the federal budget that Congress drafts and approves, and the President signs into law. A real world scenario is that there is enough funding so that 10% of our high school graduates would be allowed to attend college at any given time. That's rationing. It's based on cost benefit analysis; those that score the highest on the exams are the most likely to finish college, so you limit the benefit to those most likely to succeed. If you are not part of that top 10% based on very difficult comprehensive examinations, you are not going to college. You are going to trade school at best, if it is determined by other exams that you are bright enough and mechanically adept enough, to learn a trade. If not, you are going into the workforce in some low paying menial job for the rest of your life. Most people in this country will become part of this mass cheap labor pool at the bottom of the social hierarchy—the serfs. Hey liberals, do you believe that in enlightened Europe there is no such thing as the working poor? If you do, you need to get your heads out of your asses. Social Engineering is built into their laws. If your parents have enough money, they can send you to college overseas, but if they don't, you are screwed. Is this what you want in this country? I know what the next question is: Won't private colleges be an option for those that can afford them? Partially. Most private colleges receive federal grant money for various research projects. In order for the government to enforce its social engineering plan, they could force the private colleges to only accept those that the government has determined are entitled to a college education under threat of witholding federal grant money whether or not private grant money and/or endowments are being used for financial aid.
Fortunately, we are still a free society and higher education is not rationed by the government. If you can get accepted into college and can find the way to fund it, you can attend. Graduation is a different matter. Today in the United States, aproximately 40% of our high school graduates go on to college. However, about 40% of college attendees never graduate for a variety of reasons. A small percentage of that 40% run out of money. It's not fair, but that's the way things are sometimes. Many of those in that predicament never explore various financial aid programs offered through the college or university financial aid office. Some get offered a once in a lifetime career opportunity that "they can't refuse." Some decide that college is not for them, and they chose a different career path. Some just can't handle the course work when you get into the higher level courses. For those for whom cost becomes a barrier, however, there are ways to get money.
Currently, there are ways to reduce the cost of a college education, but most of the spoiled youth wouldn't be caught dead exploring some of the options. Yes there are scholarships, but you are going to have to study your ass off in high school, get involved in community or church projects, and be the ultimate model citizen. 99% won't even be considered for a full scholarship. There are partial scholarships too, but you are going to still have to be exceptional for consideration. Another thing you can do is get the first two years out of the way at a community college and live home with your parents. That will save a lot of money. Oops, that means that you won't be able to spend every night getting drunk and getting laid in the dorms. There are even more vile options—vile for the lefties and hippies that is. There are heaven forbid, ROTC scholarships. The trade off is you have to look GI and wear a uniform to classes on certain days of the week. You also have to spend some time after graduation as a commissioned officer in one of the military reserves being a weekend warrior one weekend a month and serving two weeks active duty during the summer. You are required to do this for a given number of years until you accumulate enough points to meet your obligation. Yes kiddies, that means you have to give something for something. You want something for nothing.
You can even go one step further and actually join the active duty military. Have you ever heard of the Tuition Assistance Program? I used it when I was in the Air Force to pay for college classes. Depending on the education budget for the year, the services will pay anywhere from 75% to 100% of your college tuition costs as long as you receive at least a C in the course. Here's another option. Currently, the Army has a program where they will pay off your student loans if you join up. The other branches are considering similar proposals at this time too. Think about it. You come out of college with a nice big fat student loan debt, and the Army will make it go away. Plus, you have a degree, so you can sign up as a commissioned officer rather than an enlisted person. You get to be junior executive management right out of the shoot. For this, you owe them something like five years commissioned service followed by several years in the inactive reserves. Inactive reserve means you can be recalled back to active duty in the event of a national emergency or during time of war. If you go the enlisted route, you do four years active duty and then eight years in the inactive reserves. I'm sure that another thing you brainwashed brats probably don't know is that only 10% of the jobs in the military are combat related. The rest are support positions ranging from mechanics, to photographers, to graphic artists, to musicians, to lawyers, to doctors, to computer programmers and software engineers, and even to physical trainers in the base gyms. What's the down side? You have to wear a uniform, cut your hair, and...and...and...drumroll please...you are subject to random drug testing and you have to submit to authority! Yes I know, you all have a "problem with authority." That, and the military is a top down dictatorship. Wait a minute. Isn't Socialism? You would get along just fine once you realized that you were not going to be the ones in charge for several years. You would have to start as a peon just like everyone else...it breaks my cold conservative heart just thinking about it.
There is also the option of working your way through college. I know several people that took years to finish a degree that way. They would work for a couple of years and save their money. Then they would take courses part-time while they continued to work. Then they would work for a couple of years saving their money, and repeat the cycle. One of my old family doctors worked his way through medical school that way. He financed his college and medical school educations by working in the coal mines of western Pennsylvania. If you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to do it.
John Ellis, who is the President of the the California Association of Scholars and is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz has an article in the online publication mindingthecampus.com where he explores the reasons for the huge cost increase in higher education. You can not have affordable public higher education unless you have a strong business community that is paying for it through tax revenues. If you make the climate for businesses oppressive, like California has done, businesses "vote with their feet." They leave. Once they leave, they don't pay taxes to the state.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
The looming threat of not being able to get a college degree is scary for these young people. I can understand why. We have become a society where credentials outweigh real world knowledge through hands on experience and practical training of how to do something. The real world knowledge comes later if at all. Today businesses are reluctant to administer pre-employment tests to potential hirees on the skills that they actually need to do a job. There have been too many lawsuits brought by various "victim industry" groups. So what else is new? The few exceptions to the rule are medical boards for doctors, bar exams for lawyers, exams for real estate agents and brokers, and CPA exams for public accountants. The trades have their own exams for tradesmen working their way up from apprentice to journeyman to master, but that's a different story. It's ok, because those trades are heavily unionized. Because of the lawsuits against practical knowledge of subject exams for people applying for a lot of white collar jobs, businesses use a Bachelors Degree as a screening tool to weed out applicants for positions that really don't require a college degree in the first place. It's a way of maintaining and perpetuating a caste system in a country where there isn't supposed to be a caste system. It's the caste system of the Bobos, and the hierarchy based on what degree you have; Bachelors, Masters or Doctorate. If you are going to wear a tie to work, you have to have a college degree even if the degree is in the proverbial subject, "Underwater Basket Weaving." If you don't, you are going to have to get your hands dirty and be part of the unwashed masses that the Elite Bobo Liberals despise. Ironically, many of those "get your hands dirty" trades jobs pay a lot more than some low level flunky white collar job. The Bobos despise that too. It goes against their sense of self-importance. In this new age of a society based on meritocratic hierarchy those with less education should never be the "haves."
The young people protesting are right about fairness. It's not fair. Life isn't fair. What they mean is that it isn't fair to them, and the hell with everyone else...free college for me, but I don't give a rat's ass about thee. These are the same young people that on a whole embrace the top down dictatorship of Socialism, because it's about "fairness." Did anyone say meritocratic hierarchy? "Why can't the evil United States be more like enlightened Europe?" I've got a great idea. Let's look at how this so called European style "fairness" will pan out. Let's look at access to higher education in other countries where the governments either provide for, or heavily subsidise the cost of a college education and see whether or not this is what these young people really want for this country. They could be in for a rude awakening. A large percentage of them wouldn't be able to attend college at all. They would move down a notch or two or three, in the meritocratic hierarchy food chain.
What the young people in this country don't quite comprehend is the fact that any time the government provides anything, there is rationing. You can't provide a quality product to everyone. That includes education. There is either rationing of the product or service itself, or rationing of the quality of the product or service, or both. The same thing will happen if the government decides to provide free college education to the masses.
Most countries that provide higher education to their citizens, have very strict requirements as far as who gets to benefit from the education entitlement. A college education is an earned benefit regulated by the state. There are very stringent exams that are taken in high school, and only the best and brightest (i.e. those that score highest on the exams) are allowed to attend college by law. If you don't "test well," tough shit. You lose. I guess they don't have to worry about Affirmative Action lawsuits.
Let's say the United States decided to go this route. Let's create a hypothetical situation: The government sets aside a certain number of dollars for funding of higher education each year. It's part of the federal budget that Congress drafts and approves, and the President signs into law. A real world scenario is that there is enough funding so that 10% of our high school graduates would be allowed to attend college at any given time. That's rationing. It's based on cost benefit analysis; those that score the highest on the exams are the most likely to finish college, so you limit the benefit to those most likely to succeed. If you are not part of that top 10% based on very difficult comprehensive examinations, you are not going to college. You are going to trade school at best, if it is determined by other exams that you are bright enough and mechanically adept enough, to learn a trade. If not, you are going into the workforce in some low paying menial job for the rest of your life. Most people in this country will become part of this mass cheap labor pool at the bottom of the social hierarchy—the serfs. Hey liberals, do you believe that in enlightened Europe there is no such thing as the working poor? If you do, you need to get your heads out of your asses. Social Engineering is built into their laws. If your parents have enough money, they can send you to college overseas, but if they don't, you are screwed. Is this what you want in this country? I know what the next question is: Won't private colleges be an option for those that can afford them? Partially. Most private colleges receive federal grant money for various research projects. In order for the government to enforce its social engineering plan, they could force the private colleges to only accept those that the government has determined are entitled to a college education under threat of witholding federal grant money whether or not private grant money and/or endowments are being used for financial aid.
Fortunately, we are still a free society and higher education is not rationed by the government. If you can get accepted into college and can find the way to fund it, you can attend. Graduation is a different matter. Today in the United States, aproximately 40% of our high school graduates go on to college. However, about 40% of college attendees never graduate for a variety of reasons. A small percentage of that 40% run out of money. It's not fair, but that's the way things are sometimes. Many of those in that predicament never explore various financial aid programs offered through the college or university financial aid office. Some get offered a once in a lifetime career opportunity that "they can't refuse." Some decide that college is not for them, and they chose a different career path. Some just can't handle the course work when you get into the higher level courses. For those for whom cost becomes a barrier, however, there are ways to get money.
Currently, there are ways to reduce the cost of a college education, but most of the spoiled youth wouldn't be caught dead exploring some of the options. Yes there are scholarships, but you are going to have to study your ass off in high school, get involved in community or church projects, and be the ultimate model citizen. 99% won't even be considered for a full scholarship. There are partial scholarships too, but you are going to still have to be exceptional for consideration. Another thing you can do is get the first two years out of the way at a community college and live home with your parents. That will save a lot of money. Oops, that means that you won't be able to spend every night getting drunk and getting laid in the dorms. There are even more vile options—vile for the lefties and hippies that is. There are heaven forbid, ROTC scholarships. The trade off is you have to look GI and wear a uniform to classes on certain days of the week. You also have to spend some time after graduation as a commissioned officer in one of the military reserves being a weekend warrior one weekend a month and serving two weeks active duty during the summer. You are required to do this for a given number of years until you accumulate enough points to meet your obligation. Yes kiddies, that means you have to give something for something. You want something for nothing.
You can even go one step further and actually join the active duty military. Have you ever heard of the Tuition Assistance Program? I used it when I was in the Air Force to pay for college classes. Depending on the education budget for the year, the services will pay anywhere from 75% to 100% of your college tuition costs as long as you receive at least a C in the course. Here's another option. Currently, the Army has a program where they will pay off your student loans if you join up. The other branches are considering similar proposals at this time too. Think about it. You come out of college with a nice big fat student loan debt, and the Army will make it go away. Plus, you have a degree, so you can sign up as a commissioned officer rather than an enlisted person. You get to be junior executive management right out of the shoot. For this, you owe them something like five years commissioned service followed by several years in the inactive reserves. Inactive reserve means you can be recalled back to active duty in the event of a national emergency or during time of war. If you go the enlisted route, you do four years active duty and then eight years in the inactive reserves. I'm sure that another thing you brainwashed brats probably don't know is that only 10% of the jobs in the military are combat related. The rest are support positions ranging from mechanics, to photographers, to graphic artists, to musicians, to lawyers, to doctors, to computer programmers and software engineers, and even to physical trainers in the base gyms. What's the down side? You have to wear a uniform, cut your hair, and...and...and...drumroll please...you are subject to random drug testing and you have to submit to authority! Yes I know, you all have a "problem with authority." That, and the military is a top down dictatorship. Wait a minute. Isn't Socialism? You would get along just fine once you realized that you were not going to be the ones in charge for several years. You would have to start as a peon just like everyone else...it breaks my cold conservative heart just thinking about it.
There is also the option of working your way through college. I know several people that took years to finish a degree that way. They would work for a couple of years and save their money. Then they would take courses part-time while they continued to work. Then they would work for a couple of years saving their money, and repeat the cycle. One of my old family doctors worked his way through medical school that way. He financed his college and medical school educations by working in the coal mines of western Pennsylvania. If you want it bad enough, you'll find a way to do it.
John Ellis, who is the President of the the California Association of Scholars and is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz has an article in the online publication mindingthecampus.com where he explores the reasons for the huge cost increase in higher education. You can not have affordable public higher education unless you have a strong business community that is paying for it through tax revenues. If you make the climate for businesses oppressive, like California has done, businesses "vote with their feet." They leave. Once they leave, they don't pay taxes to the state.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
"Unemployment in California is still rising. It just went up from 12.3 to 12.5%, nearly three points above an already bad national average. This horrendous figure is the source of California's budget problem. The huge loss of tax revenue is compounded by greatly increased unemployment outlays. If we look at the few other states that have unemployment figures well above the national average, there are obvious explanations. Michigan is at 14.6 because employment in its major industry (automobiles) has collapsed. Nevada, at 13.0, is dependent on discretionary cash at a time when there isn't any. But California is too big to be dominated by one industry, and its plight can only be explained by the state's having grossly mismanaged its affairs.
In 2007 Raymond Keating formulated a Small Business Survival Index, which is a composite of various aspects of the climate for business in a particular state: business and personal taxes, regulations, mandates, and so on. In that index California ranked 49 among the 50 states. Rhode Island ranked just above California, and its unemployment rate is 12.7. At the bottom of the Index is D.C., and its unemployment rate is 12.1.
In the component parts of the SBSI index, California ranks worst of 51 (including D.C.) on top personal tax rates, worst on top capital gains tax rates, 42 on corporate taxes, 43 on health insurance mandates, 46 on electric utility costs, 47 on workman's compensation costs, rock bottom again on state gas taxes, 45 on state and local government five year spending trends, and 47 on state and local per capita government spending. It also ranks 49 among the states on the US Economic freedom index, and it has the highest state sales tax rate too: where some states have an income tax but no sales tax, and others have a sales tax but no income tax, California has both, AND it has the highest rates in both.
In short, California is a disaster for business. The state has piled up so many taxes, regulations and mandates that businesses are leaving the state. Just this week I learned that a spare part order for my Lennox fireplace is delayed because Lennox is moving this division of its business to Tennessee. Wealthy individuals are also fleeing the state to avoid the country's highest tax bracket. When both wealth and wealth creation leave the state, tax revenues leave with them.
How has this happened? As everyone knows by now, California has a dysfunctional legislature. Already in 2003---well before the current national crisis, and when the national unemployment rate was only 5.9%---California was bankrupt, and spending was so out of control that a Governor was recalled. The legislature enacts every politically correct whim that comes into its head, loading on one mandate and regulation after another. Cap and Trade could not pass nationally, but the California legislature proudly passed its job-killing global warming bill.
That is why the state now has a budget crisis of staggering proportions, and why university students are seeing those large fee hikes. But why is the California legislature so irresponsible, not to say goofy? Well, California is extremely rich in state university campuses: the UC and CSUC systems alone amount to 33 campuses, about a third of them mega-campuses of 30-35 thousand students, with another 10 around 20,000. The mega-campuses completely dominate the Assembly districts they are in, and their large concentrations of students and faculty skew the district electorate not just to the left, but to the devoutly politically correct but hopelessly unrealistic left. Virtually all of them routinely send Democrats to Sacramento. College towns with more modest sized campuses play their part too, but mega-campuses make their districts so one-sided that in the last election UC Berkeley's Assembly seat had no election even though it was vacant: the Democratic nominee still ran unopposed. Where there is real competition between the parties the two sides keep each other honest and realistic, but when Assembly seats are so inevitably left that there is no contest, there is nothing to stop the side that has automatic electability from sliding into fantasy. Those districts provide the margin that allows an immature leftism that has lost contact with reality to control the state legislature and ruin the business climate of the state."
Hey Hippies, it's your beloved Liberals, Progressives, Marxists and Communists that are advancing the Socialism that is killing your chance of getting a college education. You are the perfect "Useful Idiots." Grow up, get a life and get your heads out of your asses. Stop supporting the people and the policies that are going to make your lives harder while advancing more power to the controlling elite class of Liberals that have taken over American society. You are suffering the effects, like the rest of us, of the slow march through the culture that was implemented by the International Communist movement over the past 100 years. The problem is, you are too brainwashed to see it. Wake up idiots. Yes I know, it's all George Bush's fault. Go back to your classes that have the word "studies" attached to their title.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Al The Whiner
There have been several articles on the Internet talking about former Vice President Al Gore's whiny editorial in the New York Times about the crisis of global warming, and how the skeptics are out to get him. Awwwwwww......Poor little Al. What's the matter? Do you see your cash cow based on fabrications and lies going down the toilet? Does Generational Investment Management, the London based carbon trading scam operation you founded stand to lose money? Does this mean that you won't become the world's first carbon offset billionaire while you destroy the American middle class as part of the plan? GIM doesn't mean anything to me anyway. I don't have the million dollar minimum investment required to get in on the plan, or is it scam? You know Al, my heart goes out to you. Why don't you just move your butt down to Cuba or Venezuela where you can wallow in your sloth and greed with like minded Communists.
It's nice to see the American people finally waking up and realizing that the Progressive Left, which has been working slowly behind the scenes since the early part of the 20th century to mold the United States into a Socialist dictatorship. We are not going to be ruled by Progressive Elites. We will make this country great again, and this time you sanctimonious Progressives are going to get what is coming to you. The average American, most of whom are just a touch right of center, have had enough. We don't mind when politics is fought between the 45 yard lines. We can accept a slight move to the left on occasion. However, when you try to move the fight to the 20 yard line, there is going to be an opposite reaction when the right moves the play to THEIR 20 yard line. Things will be brought back to the center. And Al, I hope that you end up broke.
It's nice to see the American people finally waking up and realizing that the Progressive Left, which has been working slowly behind the scenes since the early part of the 20th century to mold the United States into a Socialist dictatorship. We are not going to be ruled by Progressive Elites. We will make this country great again, and this time you sanctimonious Progressives are going to get what is coming to you. The average American, most of whom are just a touch right of center, have had enough. We don't mind when politics is fought between the 45 yard lines. We can accept a slight move to the left on occasion. However, when you try to move the fight to the 20 yard line, there is going to be an opposite reaction when the right moves the play to THEIR 20 yard line. Things will be brought back to the center. And Al, I hope that you end up broke.
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