Income Problems or Spending Problems

I’ve heard several senators express the idea that the USA has an income problem. IE we have made commitments ([by senators] to spend money that we didn’t have [to buy votes]) that we cannot fail to meet. However I am quite old enough to recall the peanut man JECIII and remember that he too had a problem of encroaching inflation… the current administration has learned to cook the books and not report inflation (although anyone who has visited the grocery store or a gas station lately knows better) or worse yet stagflation (this is where normal investments such as houses go down in value while the necessities of life increase in price) which is happening. I would say that my personal misery index meter is beginning to show yellow and for a lot of people it is showing red! However this does not address the issue of whether or not the USA has an income problem it just indicates that we have a priority problem. The government has printed money to try to cover some of its obligations and this money has in essence driven up the price of survival.
So supposing we actually had an income problem (which we do not) the next question would be how should this problem be addressed? Many senators insist that taxes must be raised to increase the income of the USA yet in all of the world I know of no enterprise (including government) that can increase its prices and actually increase its income. In fact the most one of the most successful (profitable or highest income) businesses in the world is Wal-mart www.walmart.com/ and their motto is lower prices always.

Therefore the only reason to raise taxes that I can see is for the government to either punish activity that it believes is bad or reward activity that the powers that be regard as good.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Addiction is Insanity

I’ve been looking at addiction from the inside for many years. And while it would be possible to make the excuse that my addiction is fairly harmless I would be less than truthful in saying that it has caused me no harm nor pain.
One of my addictions is playing solitaire on the computer. Another is reading anything and everything with a concentration on fiction. Both of these are activities that I will do even when I could be doing something else (like writing) that has the potential to increase my income. I will also do them rather than go out to meet people. Even though that too has the potential to increase my income or open opportunities for me to share my writing with an even larger audience.

Thus I can see that even the mildest of addictions has many negative impacts on my life, yet I will not stop doing the things that I’m addicted to! This is insanity.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 37 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Money is simply the tool by which goods and services are exchanged. But if this tool were to disappear civilization would grind to a halt causing the death of great numbers of people by starvation.
Since money is the god of a great number of people I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to define what it is. The fact that it is a tool that enables people to trade a variety of goods without resorting to barter is one of the chief definitions of money. What money is made of is to some degree irrelevant as paper is as plentiful as sand in a lot of ways. It is our faith that someone else will accept that piece of paper in trade for goods or services that enables us to use paper as money.

Other wise we would be forced to go back to gold, silver or absolute trade (IE farmer Joe trades one bullock for one porker or the like) which would definitely limit the variety of goods that could be traded as well as limiting the distance they could be traded over.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Wondering

Wondering


What shall I say?

What shall I do?

What I’ve done in the past cannot be changed,

Am I brave enough to change the future?

To make the choice,

To pay the price,

To do the work,

To change myself,

And thus the world,

I know if I don’t,

The world will not change,

Because I’m the only one I can move,

To make any change,

Oh I tremble at the cost,

Howl at the pain,

Rattle the chains with which I so gladly bound myself,

Yet what is my other choice?

More pain for others?

Blaming them, not my actions for the messes that I make?

No longer will I do such.

No each day I choose to endure,

Because otherwise I’d be a coward,

And cowardice is not a legacy I’ll leave to anyone.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 36 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

All men are of equal moral value. But all men do not have equal talents. They definitely do not have equal abilities either. Therefore to expect all men to have or acquire the same amount of goods is foolish.
I will also add that not all men will apply themselves to the development of their skills with as much vigor as other men and that also makes a difference in the amount of goods a man can or will acquire. Life is not fair. In other words no matter how much we want it to be so, different people behave differently. If you don’t believe this consider identical twins. Even between two people so nearly alike, there is a difference in temperament and interests.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Budget Woes

P. Obama and his cronies in the senate have sent a budget to the people demanding that they be permitted to spend 20% more this year than they did last year. Then when the house which represents the people tells him that he can only spend 10% more than last year he throws a fit like a two year old denied a candy bar. I truly think both he and congress need a reality check. Let me explain a true budget cut. I have had a 20% reduction in actual income, not in projected income. This is a budget cut; not what P. Obama and Harry Reid are complaining about. Reality would demand that the government not spend more than 10% of the GDP and that they cease from taking money from those who earn it to give to those who refuse to work.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Liberty or slavery

Defunding Obama care is about liberty therefore I strongly support the effort to defund it one address for people involved in this effort is here: http://getlibertynow.org/alg/defundpetition2.aspx?pid=l1j I hope any of my readers will understand that you cannot demand something (whether goods or services) for free and maintian a free society.
(c) 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 35 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Some people will try to tell you that making a profit is evil; this is not true. What is evil is trying to take a man’s labor without compensating him. Taking labor or goods without compensation is what people who say making a profit is evil are trying to do.
In some ways this lesson is a reiteration of lesson 34. But it is well to remember that those who would steal by making you ashamed of making a profit will use most any method of beating you down so that they don’t get their heads handed to them when they break the laws of God about theft.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Further Thoughts on Education

I’ve continued to listen to P. Obama talk about education and say that we cannot afford to not invest in education. I think that today’s column by Chuck Norris gives lie to everything that the president says about education. I suggest that you go here http://townhall.com/columnists/chucknorris/2011/03/01/stalin-style_us_public_education/page/full/ and read what Chuck Norris has to say. If we cannot pay the best teachers according to their achievements and rid ourselves of the bad teachers and pay the mediocre ones as they deserve according to their accomplishments then we have no real hope of educating our children to compete in the world. And if we spend money without hope of some return then we might as well set fire to it or pour it down a rat hole.
© 2011 Vic Jones

Students treated like prisoners in LA

Is Los Angeles taking the lead in treating children like prisoners? The reason I ask this is that I’m listening to a radio show Dennis Prager at http://www.krla870.com/ on the internet and they are reporting that in LA the schools want to fit their students with GPS devices to enforce attendance. My first reaction to this is that this is a horrid extension of government. First schools should be places children are enthusiastic about going. If they are not places where children want to go then there is something desperately wrong and there must be a change made in what is being done in schools so far as the instruction program.
© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 34 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

‘Social justice’ is the shibboleth used by those who envy achievers especially those achievers who have become rich. When someone says that they want ‘social justice’ they are looking for ways to hide their own envy and greed.
Justice is done when each person is able to direct his life as he wishes so long as he is not harming someone else. It is not justice at all to look at another person’s goods (or body) and say that if you can convince the government to give it to you that such is your right!

© 2011 Vic Jones

Unusual Weather

It has been snowing all day where I live. Right now there is about three inches of accumulation on the steps leading to my apartment.  To understand how unusual that is you must understand that I have neighbors with an orange tree from which they usually get oranges.

Rain at this time of year would not be unusual nor would warm weather in the mid sixties (degrees Fahrenheit) but snow? This will be a record I'm sure.

(c) 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 33 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Persistence is more important in the scheme of life than inspiration or brilliance.
This is one of the hardest lessons of life to learn. It therefore bears much repetition. In simple parlance practice (persistence) makes perfect. Thus the writer or artist who works at his craft every day is better than the brilliant genius who waits for inspiration to hit.

This also applies to other areas. The man who has many skills but who does not go out every day to find a job (or refuses to take a job) will not usually be as successful as the man who works every day.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Current events 2/14/11

There is no such thing as state capitalism. Capitalism that is true capitalism relies on the broadest number of people having access to the ability to gain and create capital. State control is the opposite of this idea. Therefore there can be no such thing as state capitalism. Whenever the government enters a market it is like the largest business in the world seeking to establish a monopoly. And it is well known that monopolies create inferior products and service. After all if you only have one choice for the product or service why does its provider have any incentive to provide superior products or services?
© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 32 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

A greedy man wants to be the only one making a profit.
Making a profit is not evil; indeed it (making a profit) is necessary to continued living. There are those who would say otherwise of course; but most of them can actually be counted as among the greedy. They want to be able to take the profit from those who invest their time and ingenuity to gain goods or make new ideas a reality.

It seems to me that often the most greedy person is the one who tries to convince the doers of society that their profits on their efforts are evil.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Struggling

I’m still struggling with the concept that there is anything that is necessary and at the same time evil. My conclusion is yes there is and the best example I can come up with is still a government or government generically.
I’m sure you are asking how this can be possible. In order to understand that government is evil and yet necessary you have to accept the position that mankind is evil. That in general and generically we all tend toward doing things that are evil. Once you accept that and accept that government (which is made up of people) is evil as well but necessary to curtail the tendency of people to be evil then you can begin to accept that government is a necessary evil.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 31 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Government is a necessary evil; therefore it behooves men who wish to be free to make sure that government stays as small and as weak as possible. T. Jefferson
I’m not sure if this is an actual quote or a paraphrase of Thomas Jefferson, but I am sure that it correctly reflects his sentiments with regard to government. Government is necessary to maintain civil order but the larger the government gets the less responsive it is to the needs of the people.

Indeed for a government to be ‘good’ it must be small, transparent, and essentially dependent on the people in order to carry out its legitimate functions of keeping the peace and guarding the borders.

I’m also fairly certain that all of the founding fathers of the USA would be aghast at giant corporations like GM, Google, GE, et al.

© 2011 Vic Jones

Lesson 30 from The Hard Knocks School of Life

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. -- Lord Acton.

I’ve been trying to come up with something to add to this and all I can think to say is that it means that the government is no more trust worthy than is Reynolds Tobacco, or Google, or Microsoft for that matter. Each of these organizations has worked to acquire money which translates into power. What is especially worry some though is when a large corporation like Walmart starts cooperating with the government…

© 2011 Vic Jones.

Author Interview

Vic Jones, the author of The Wordwright’s blog at Author Nation http://www.authornation.com/Thewordwright/    and Aethernotes_polyblog was interviewed by Lorelei Bell for http://loreleismuse-lorelei.blogspot.com/ about his life as an author and his upcoming book Castlebound.

The Viper

The Viper


A foolish young miss,

Nurtured a venomous viper,

At her breast,

When one day it did bite,

She exclaimed before she expired,

Why have you treated me so,

Did I not tenderly nourish you,

And protect you,

Indeed did I not hide you in my bosom,

All that is true said the viper,

But to my nature I too must be true,

And away he did slither,

To entice another foolish miss or mister!

© 2011 Vic Jones