Tag: Politics

Another Person Advocating We Punish the Successful

There are always people out there who demand that we steal money from “the rich” and redistribute it to “the poor.” To many of these people “rich” simply means anybody making more than themselves and “poor” means themselves. What these people generally are is angry and jealous that somebody has been more successful in life than themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I recognize the difference between legitimate wealth and illegitimate wealth. If you’ve obtained your wealth through coercion or using the government’s monopoly on initiating force either rub out any competition or force people to buy your product then you should be forced to refund every dollar and face civil suits for their use of violence to rob innocent people.

Alas, most people don’t stop to make that distinction which leads to be read letters like this and shake my head:

At a time when the middle and working classes find it harder and harder to even tread water, while their bosses are becoming wealthier and wealthier by comparison, I found the July 8 article “Top earners cool to paying more” deeply depressing.

When through the benefits of their wealth those who hold the power and make the rules become more and more divorced from the struggles of those who depend on them, that’s a dangerous road for our country.

From both pragmatic and moral standpoints, the wealth needs to be shared. If businesses won’t do that through truly livable wages, then it should at least happen through taxing supersized salaries.

Greed has always been around, but it’s taken awhile for it to be cultivated into the open as a positive value. So now you have people who won’t be content with a half-million-dollar job at home when they can move elsewhere to take the same job but pay lower taxes.

Ouch! Part of political and business leadership is to continually cultivate a vision for community, shared responsibility and the sort of compassionate society in which we all thrive best.

JOEL WARNE, PLYMOUTH

Notice how this guy brings up “truly livable wage” without defining it? What exactly is a “truly livable wage?” The government already mandates that employers must pay employees a “living wage” (what we usually call minimum wage). Is that not enough? Why not? What is enough? People who throw around these terms without realizing how meaningless they are truly annoy me. What do I mean by truly annoy? Well when I read or talk to these people it increases my rage levels and decreases my intelligence.

Here’s the other thing I don’t get, the author is claiming that taxation should be used if employers aren’t willing to pay a “truly livable wage.” Increasing the amount of money the government forcefully steals from an arbitrary number of people (depending on who is defined as rich) doesn’t help those working for a living, it harms them.

Most people that are defined as “rich” by those advocating higher taxes on said “rich” are employers. By definition an employer is somebody who exchanges their money for the labor of others. When you take more money from employers it gives them less to pay to current employees and hire new employees. Not only that but it also increases the chances that these employers will simply throw up their hands in frustration and move to a friendlier state.

Punishing those who have been successful in life also sets a poor precedence. What motivation is there to succeed if that success will only be met by the government stealing more and more of your money?

Finally tax dollars have no guarantee that they’ll reach “the poor.” Government is great at mindlessly tossing money at stupid things. Look at the state budget and then look at the percentage of money that goes to “help the poor.” Hell 7% of Minnesota’s expenditures go to paying former state employees pensions. Then there is that nice 20% chunk that simply goes to a category labeled “remainder.” Increasing the amount of money the state confiscates from an arbitrary number of people isn’t guaranteed to reach people advocates intent it to reach.

If you want to help the working class then demand that government remove itself from economic issues entirely. Let’s rid ourselves of government regulations that exist to push competitors to their favored companies (those who can make the most campaign contributions) out of the market. We should strive to make every industry like the personal electronics industry which is free of many government regulations, producing products people want, and most of all successful. Allow people to be successful and stop punishing them for it.

Federal Government Rules Marijuana Has No Medicinal Purposes

Just in case all that research demonstrating the contrary confuses you into thinking that marijuana has medical purposes the federal government has made their ruling on the subject:

Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation’s capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision announced Friday the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin.

The decision comes almost nine years after medical marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify cannabis to take into account a growing body of worldwide research that shows its effectiveness in treating certain diseases, such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis.

I wish I could just take a pen and make something so regardless of scientific evidence. In case you believe the government’s rule is based off of any scientific research I turn you eyes towards the following:

In a June 21 letter to the organizations that filed the petition, DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said she rejected the request because marijuana “has a high potential for abuse,” “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States” and “lacks accepted safety for use under medical supervision.” The letter and 37 pages of supporting documents were published Friday in the Federal Register.

I find that last item truly ironic. The government claims that marijuana lacks safety under medical supervision but that’s because it’s been ruled an illegal substance. You can’t put it under medical supervision if mere possession will land your ass in prison for many years.

The thing I never understood was the simple fact that most research indicates that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. To me it would only be logical if a substance less dangerous than another currently legal substance were also legal. Of course I realize I’m talking about the government so logic can just take a flying fuck and a rolling doughnut.

The State’s Definition of Critical Services

We’re in day eight of Minnesota’s government “shutdown” but really the word shutdown is a misnomer. I think it would be more appropriate to call this a reduce government operating capacity. Services that have been deemed critical by the state are still running. So what’s critical? Well the collection of taxes for instance:

The Minnesota Department of Revenue said Friday it will continue to process tax payments during the shutdown. All tax laws and deadlines are still in effect.

But with no authorized funding in place, agency functions not deemed critical by the courts are suspended. That means no tax refunds will be processed or issued at this time. And the Revenue Department will have no one to help taxpayers by phone or email until normal operations resume.

According to the state, who get to make the rules, processing the payment of taxes is critical but returning excess money is not. Although people are required to pay their taxes on the appropriate deadlines the state sees no need to ensure help is available to those not sure if they’re filling out the right forms correctly (after all if people don’t know if they’re doing something correctly they’ll likely screw up and the state can fine them for more revenue).

This further demonstrates that this entire “shutdown” is nothing more than a political game. Only services that will noticeably impact the lives of Minnesotans negatively have been shutdown. The parks were shutdown which was noticed on Independence Day, tax refunds aren’t being sent out which will noticeably impact the finances of many Minnesotans, etc. This “shutdown” is simply an attempt to gain political influence next election cycle. The Republican are blaming the Democrats and the Democrats are blaming the Republicans. Both parties are pointing to the other and saying, “Look! The other party make sure you wouldn’t get your tax refunds on time!”

Personally I hope the “shutdown” continues indefinitely. People who are dependent on the state need to rid themselves of that yoke and those not dependent on the state need to realize it. We don’t need the state to run our lives, we’re more than capable of doing that ourselves.

United States Job “Creation” Stalled Last Month

It seems all of that stimulus money has done a great job of… doing nothing while costing a fortune. In the month of June only 18,000 jobs were “created” which was below the estimated 90,000. Oh, unemployment increased a bit to boot, no surprise there:

Only 18,000 new jobs were created in the month, way below expectations of a 90,000 rise, which had been raised by strong private sector hiring figures released on Thursday.

The unemployment rate also rose, to 9.2% from 9.1% a month earlier.

Data for April and May was also revised down by a total of 44,000 jobs.

The poor result was driven by continuing layoffs by the public sector – where 39,000 jobs were lost – and a much weaker-than-expected 57,000 jobs created in the private sector.

First of all the term jobs created is a complete fallacy when those jobs are products of government interference in the market. Any idiot can tell you that jobs are not created by dumping money into a few favored industries but by employers who are doing well and need an increased labor force. When times are good people do business and that business creates a need for more laborers whom are then hired by employers.

The government seems to believe that simply throwing money into the banking system will somehow magically lead to increased business and thus more employment. That doesn’t work of course because employers are not likely to take loans to increase the number of employees if they have no need for more employees. The government is also doing its damnedest to prop up failing businesses in the hopes of keeping people employed at those businesses, well, employed. This doesn’t work though because people aren’t buying goods from those businesses which is what lead to their failure. You can dump as much money into a failing business as you want but it won’t make consumers want their products.

If the government wants to help the economy recover they’ll stop interfering. Of course that being the logical solution the government is likely to take a different route entirely:

The weak data has raised expectations that the US Federal Reserve may ultimately have to adopt a third programme of “quantitative easing” – buying up debts in order to pump cash into the economy – just as its second such programme has come to an end.

Ah yes, the classic government solution of, “If it doesn’t work just try again, only harder!”

Day Seven of The Minnesota Government Shutdown

We’re now in day seven of the Minnesota Government shutdown. Chaos is spreading through the streets as rioters set cars ablaze, women can’t walk the streets because they will get viciously raped, fire and brimstone are raining down, all hope is lost!

Seriously though, it’s been a week and nobody besides a few campers last weekend have even noticed the government went into shutdown mode. I think this indicates how crucial government isn’t.

Wisconsin to Get Legal Concealed Carry in Soon

It seems Governor Walker is set to sign Wisconsin’s carry bill in two days:

Gov. Scott Walker plans to sign a bill allowing Wisconsin residents to carry concealed weapons next week. Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie says Walker will sign the measure at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, July 8, at the Grand Lodge Hotel in Wausau. The bill would take effect on Nov. 1.

I’m glad that the bill will take effect shortly after being passed. This means, given proper reciprocity recognition, I should be able to carry my firearm for the Christmas get togethers I attend in La Crosse.

I’m Amused

As I read headlines today I’m very amused. Just as I expected both political parties are blaming the other for the shutdown and their respective followers are joining the fray. The Republicans and their followers are blaming Dayton and the Democrats for the shutdown because he walked out during the debate. On the other side of the arena the Democrats and their followers are blaming the Republicans because they refused to negotiate with Dayton on increases taxes.

Since I’m just glad the shutdown is happening I have nobody to blame so don’t mind me as I’m kicking back and sipping on a beer later this evening with a little smirk on my face.

The State Shutdown

I doubt you noticed this morning but negotiations broke down between the parties last night and Minnesota’s government went into shutdown mode:

Talks imploded Thursday between DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders in the final hours before a midnight deadline, and Minnesota began a historic government shutdown.

“This is a night of deep sorrow for me,” Dayton said in an address at 10 p.m. that was punctuated by jeers and hisses from Republicans, including some lawmakers.

Personally I’m glad the state went into shutdown mode. There are some valuable lessons that people need to learn and the only way to learn them is through experience. One of those lessons is the centralizing services is a bad thing because when the monopoly entity falters and stops providing those services everybody is negatively affected. If there were competition on all markets any single private entity failing would only affect that entity’s customers whom would then be able to go to a competing service.

I firmly believe that this entire shutdown is nothing more than a pissing contest to get votes during the next election. Both parties are blaming each other for the shutdown which has lead to parks and rest stops being closed on the 4th of July, a travel heavy holiday. Having parks and rest stops closed on this holiday ensures the maximum number of people will be negatively impacted in a way that they’ll easily notice (honestly the schools shutting down during the summer doesn’t affect too many people). People will remember the 4th of July where they had to go somewhere besides a state park and take that into consideration come voting time.

Either way the state shut down and all is still well. No riots are occurring in the streets, nobody is being murdered that wouldn’t have been had the state been running, water and electricity still work, and the highways still function.

Obama’s Comments in Regard to the ATF’s Smuggling of Firearms into Mexico

Obama finally made a public comment about the Gunwalker scandal and, following his usual tradition in speeches, didn’t actually say anything of substance:

My attorney general has made clear that he certainly would not have ordered gun running to be able to pass through into Mexico. … I’m not going to comment on — a on a current investigation. I’ve made very clear my views that that would not be an appropriate step by the ATF, and we’ve got to find out how that happened.

So he’s comment is really that he has no comment. I will say one thing about Obama, he certainly makes an ideal politician. He does nothing, says nothing of substance, and then claims credit for everything that goes well during his term in office. Hell he’s the exact same type of person as every president we’ve had since… well I have no idea but it’s a long time.

The government is doing everything they can to cover up the Gunwalker scandal. They don’t want the fact that they broke the law they’re supposedly upholding by ensuring guns were smuggled into Mexico. Not only were they breaking their own laws but their actions can also be linked directly to two murders. This is why the government shouldn’t be allowed to do anything, everything they touch turns instantly to shit.

If the result of this investigation is anything other than the complete abolition of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) it will be a complete waste of time.

Sometimes You Have to Love Steve Jobs

Although Steve Jobs often comes off as an asshole and he’s a complete control freak there are times you just have to hand it to him fro doing awesome things. Recently Apple had to go to the Cupertino city council to get permission to build a gigantic new headquarters. Why permission needs to be sought out from city councils to construct a building on your own land is beyond me but like most government agents the council are a bunch of looters and saw this as an opportunity to extort something extra from Apple. Unfortunately for them Jobs would have none of that as demonstrated in this video:

For those of you who didn’t want to watch the video a member of the city council asked “What’s in it for us?” The question was a hope that the city could extort free Wi-Fi from Apple but Jobs did a beautiful job of pointing out what the city would get:

You see, I’m a simpleton. I’ve always had this view that we pay taxes and the city should do those things. Now if we can get out of paying taxes, I’d be glad to put up Wi Fi.

Check and mate. I love of Jobs was willing to simply say, “Fuck you you looting bastards, we likely pay you more money each year than anybody else in the forsaken city.” As companies are fleeing California in droves members of city councils should be doing everything they can to attract businesses to help keep their unemployment down. Instead, as demonstrated in this case, many city councils seem to believe they need to extort as much as possible from business owners.

I applaud Jobs for denying the city council’s attempt at extortion. More people should be willing to stand up to government bureaucrats and tell them where to shove their attempts at looting.