Just Angry

My wife always said that travel lets you have perspective. That being said, until you step out of your community and talk to people of another populace you really do not understand what that means.

Sure I have travelled north of the US boarder time and time again.  Now that I live here and interact I am seeing a different side of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness previously unknowable to me.  People have a self image, that illusion of what one thinks others think of the one. This idea one has of one's abilities, appearance, and personality can be in stark contrast of reality or perception of same.

I saw a poll today that showed how disheartened people are with the ruling class of the USA. The people of the ruling class, by and large seem to think the solution to the problems of the world lay in having more say so over every aspect of the average human beings life.  I am afraid that most of the voting population agree that people need to be restricted as possible.  Of course they mean "other people" or "Not me, THEM!".  But that venn diagram is all inclusive.  In other words the USA wants less freedom for the population, at the same time they are disappointed with the mechanism set up to abscond with said freedoms.

The Federal Government really sucks at doing everything.  Truly it does. There are some things it must do.  The military is one thing and resolving disputes between states would be the other.

The State Government is really where you want your bulk of Government.  Even that should be limited down for the county level. or City level in some cases.   Some guy in rural Oklahoma is going to know more about what his community needs\wants then some guy in NYC.

I am angry that we the people have elected representatives that remove our freedom.  I am angry that we the people shrug as most of these freedoms go bye bye.  I am angry that our political system is so rife with lies, hatred, name calling, finger pointing, obfuscating puppets of whatever fiscal strings there are.

Most of all I am angry that I am relieved, not living in my own country.  What a mess it has become, and the world knows it and is grinning.

Minimum Wage is for suckers.

Lets say that Company A allocates 50% of its operating budget to labour. (I'm just picking a number.) It's not 55% one day and 44% the next day.  It's 50%.  It's budgeted. The company is locked into that percentage for viability.

Suddenly Obama comes along raising the cost of labour arbitrarily.

If a guy has 10 people making 50% of his budget, and the budget is arbitrarily raised, he's not changing income. He's not gonna raise what he's paying labour.  He can't and stay in business.

So somebody has to get fired with this arbitrary raise thrown in.  It's just the way it works, because businesses do not change their labour costs day to day, hour to hour, month to month.  They budget these things as much as they can in advance 'cause it's the highest cost of doing business, usually.

So when the CBO comes along and tells people.  Okay, minimum wage raising will cost jobs and hurt the poor, you should listen. Because, it makes sense to anyone who understands how business works.

Further when CBO Director Doug Elmendorf comes to defend the findings against politicians who are trying to lure voters in, Pay attention!

Personally I am not against a minimum wage per say, as I know there are those who prey upon the desperate. I do not think a minimum wage should be a living wage or any such nonsense.  Let the states figure out a minimum wage (being zero if they want) and then let the markets work.