The philosophy of the Bible, which governs how one conducts himself or herself is responsible for ensuring that the parties cooperating in a legal contract execute that contract in a manner that is fair for the involved parties: I.E. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you....However, the Bible never dictated what types of contracts a government should choose to allow others to execute. A contract is a legal agreement in which two or more parties set-forth conditions in which the parties will operate to achieve an ends.
If two persons desires to enter into a legal contract, wherein they permit one another share their wealth, share their resources, and share in the decision making process regarding life's challenges with one another...where in the Bible does it say they can't engage in that legal status? And where in the Bible does it say that Government can't call it Marriage? And further...where in scripture does it say that government has to enforce a Biblical standard on both believer and non-believer alike? Deep questions that I expect someone might try to answer. I challenge you to do so too...
Monday, November 26, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Recent Events
Hello Everyone,
I apologize to anyone who was visiting my blog, but found it mired in an advertising bot. My blog was recently a victim of a rogue application in Chrome which hijacked my Blogger account and created 50 advertising blogs which literally gummed up my entire forum for writing. It took me about two hours to clean out the blogs the app created. Then Google flagged my account for suspicous activity after the fact. Anyway, everything's fixed and cleaned out, and I again, apologize to anyone affected. by it.
With Regards
Gabe
I apologize to anyone who was visiting my blog, but found it mired in an advertising bot. My blog was recently a victim of a rogue application in Chrome which hijacked my Blogger account and created 50 advertising blogs which literally gummed up my entire forum for writing. It took me about two hours to clean out the blogs the app created. Then Google flagged my account for suspicous activity after the fact. Anyway, everything's fixed and cleaned out, and I again, apologize to anyone affected. by it.
With Regards
Gabe
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The Free Market Fallacy
Many conservatives contend that the free market can give people everything they need for a price. That price is this mystical arbiter as to who gains what access to what resources. And while that sounds all find and good on paper, it's never the case in the real world.
Now, with that in mind, let's look at jobs. The job is the centerpiece of our society. Without a job, you're condemned to a menial existence of public assistance, favors, handouts, and charity. And to be clear, I'm not denigrating people who are on public assistance, as I have been myself...but it's no way to live as a life's ambition. Anyone who's on assistance will tell you it kinda leaves you feeling worthless because you're not working for what you want or have. At least, that's how I felt personally.
Because the job is the centerpiece of our society, this means that all the benefits and access is derived from that job. For example...in a well-paying middle class job, you have health benefits, paid time off, a pension with employer matching your contributions, and other societal benefits. Steadily, however...those benefits are disappearing for several reasons. Companies in the United States are becoming less profitable because of outsourcing and extremely one-sided wage competition from abroad. With new trade agreements in effect with nations like China, the ability of domestic manufacturing to compete with electronic and appliance manufacturing has diminished greatly. Furthermore, domestic firms have been adamant in not bringing their profits home or sharing their earnings as much as they used to with the employees who helped build wealth for those companies.
***A strong middle class is the path to economic and social prosperity.
***Offshore manufacturing has hurt the middle class.
***Obscenely low tax rates have contributed to businesses not paying their employees more.
***The cost of living has increased while wages have stagnated.
***Local manufacturers can't compete because it's like asking an American to out-compete a sweatshop on costs related to labor.
***The loss of wages has resulted in less tax revenue for the government, reduced work benefits for the middle class, less class-mobility for all citizens, and severely low prices on goods that should be much more expensive.
***Low wages have actually caused increased use of the social safety net for families resulting in higher spending in this area of Government. This is literally a self-perpetuating problem.
***Reduced wages have caused the cost of healthcare to increase as a percentage of a family's disposable income.
***Productivity is at an all time high, with wages being at all time lows, and getting smaller.
***Small businesses can't compete with large conglomerates because the costs are so severely different. Large multi-nationals can import at rock bottom prices, while local ma/pa shops are restricted to buying from local suppliers leaving them at a severely sharp disadvantage.
***The middle class is shrinking, and we risk having a huge demographic of people being pushed from middle-class status to low-middle class or working poor. Small businesses used to be able to pay livable wages in most cases, now many struggle to pay minimum wage because of the severe and fundamental disfunction of the economy.
***Local governments suffer from this severely big shock of incomes by decreased tax revenue, reduced job security, increased poverty, increased use of public services, increased use of charity services, and lack of access to necessary facilities for education, health care, and transportation.
The fundamental problem is wages are too low, as well as tax receipts. A huge middle class means more people paying taxes. A shrinking middle class with low top marginal rates means the rich hoard their wealth like dragons in caves burning up anyone who'd dare to try and steal from them. We have a severe problem in revenue collection. If this problem does not get rectified soon, we will see ourselves in a world of hurt socially and economically.
Conclusion: Industry needs to come back, free trade needs to end with low-cost manufacturing countries, and the wealthy need to learn their place. Their place being that they are men and women as much as the rest of us, and they don't have the right to use the poor and middle class as ladder rungs on their way to wealth. Wealth can be earned through honesty, hard work, and fairness. Employees are companions in business, not trash, not "hired help" and not a "cost". They are people who work just as hard as owners and operators of a business. That loyalty and compassion for the common working man means a society that cherishes the business that cares and works hard to build up it's employees to a class of citizen that is experienced and secure in his or her job. These principles are the fundamentals of American Business. We work hard, play fair, have compassion, and treat each other right and we all win.
Now, with that in mind, let's look at jobs. The job is the centerpiece of our society. Without a job, you're condemned to a menial existence of public assistance, favors, handouts, and charity. And to be clear, I'm not denigrating people who are on public assistance, as I have been myself...but it's no way to live as a life's ambition. Anyone who's on assistance will tell you it kinda leaves you feeling worthless because you're not working for what you want or have. At least, that's how I felt personally.
Because the job is the centerpiece of our society, this means that all the benefits and access is derived from that job. For example...in a well-paying middle class job, you have health benefits, paid time off, a pension with employer matching your contributions, and other societal benefits. Steadily, however...those benefits are disappearing for several reasons. Companies in the United States are becoming less profitable because of outsourcing and extremely one-sided wage competition from abroad. With new trade agreements in effect with nations like China, the ability of domestic manufacturing to compete with electronic and appliance manufacturing has diminished greatly. Furthermore, domestic firms have been adamant in not bringing their profits home or sharing their earnings as much as they used to with the employees who helped build wealth for those companies.
***A strong middle class is the path to economic and social prosperity.
***Offshore manufacturing has hurt the middle class.
***Obscenely low tax rates have contributed to businesses not paying their employees more.
***The cost of living has increased while wages have stagnated.
***Local manufacturers can't compete because it's like asking an American to out-compete a sweatshop on costs related to labor.
***The loss of wages has resulted in less tax revenue for the government, reduced work benefits for the middle class, less class-mobility for all citizens, and severely low prices on goods that should be much more expensive.
***Low wages have actually caused increased use of the social safety net for families resulting in higher spending in this area of Government. This is literally a self-perpetuating problem.
***Reduced wages have caused the cost of healthcare to increase as a percentage of a family's disposable income.
***Productivity is at an all time high, with wages being at all time lows, and getting smaller.
***Small businesses can't compete with large conglomerates because the costs are so severely different. Large multi-nationals can import at rock bottom prices, while local ma/pa shops are restricted to buying from local suppliers leaving them at a severely sharp disadvantage.
***The middle class is shrinking, and we risk having a huge demographic of people being pushed from middle-class status to low-middle class or working poor. Small businesses used to be able to pay livable wages in most cases, now many struggle to pay minimum wage because of the severe and fundamental disfunction of the economy.
***Local governments suffer from this severely big shock of incomes by decreased tax revenue, reduced job security, increased poverty, increased use of public services, increased use of charity services, and lack of access to necessary facilities for education, health care, and transportation.
The fundamental problem is wages are too low, as well as tax receipts. A huge middle class means more people paying taxes. A shrinking middle class with low top marginal rates means the rich hoard their wealth like dragons in caves burning up anyone who'd dare to try and steal from them. We have a severe problem in revenue collection. If this problem does not get rectified soon, we will see ourselves in a world of hurt socially and economically.
Conclusion: Industry needs to come back, free trade needs to end with low-cost manufacturing countries, and the wealthy need to learn their place. Their place being that they are men and women as much as the rest of us, and they don't have the right to use the poor and middle class as ladder rungs on their way to wealth. Wealth can be earned through honesty, hard work, and fairness. Employees are companions in business, not trash, not "hired help" and not a "cost". They are people who work just as hard as owners and operators of a business. That loyalty and compassion for the common working man means a society that cherishes the business that cares and works hard to build up it's employees to a class of citizen that is experienced and secure in his or her job. These principles are the fundamentals of American Business. We work hard, play fair, have compassion, and treat each other right and we all win.
Monday, November 12, 2012
The Problem with Taxes
With the attention of the country shifting to the fiscal cliff issue, I think there's some context to raise here. Many times people protest that we pay a lot in taxes. Unfortunately, that's not correct. Let's consider, for example, the case of wages for the poor, and working class.
Middle class wages have risen barely in pace with inflation during the past 40 years which is about 2% a year in real dollars. For the poor, those wages have risen even slower, at a pace of 1% per year. With the middle class making up the bulk of the number of people, as well as the shrinking of tax rates due to the right-wing political movement...it's completely understandable that tax revenues are shrinking. Income growth is stagnant, and the cost of living increases every year at a normal and nominal rate. It's reasonable to assume that the reason that tax revenues are shrinking is because incomes are shrinking. The blue collar job market is vanishing more and more as firms ship jobs to The Third World to take advantage of cheap labor. However, this is the trap.
Low incomes equal low tax revenues. So if you want to bring tax revenues back up to snuff with the budget we have (which by the way is the budget we should have had from the middle of Bush '43's term to now), bring incomes back to the US, companies need to reassess their priorities and provide middle-class incomes to people who deserve to have them. If you run a US Business, you have an obligation to use US manufacturing.
To fix this problem, I propose the following;
***End free trade with China and other 3rd world countries, and apply tariffs to all imports from nations with lower standards of living than our own until the standard of living in those countries meet or exceed that of the US. China and other nations that manufacturing outsources to need to have taxes applied to their imports so the prices of these goods are pushed up higher, which means local manufacturing can compete and pay livable wages. In this instance, let quality be the deciding factor of whether someone should purchase something or not.
***Strengthen the worker safety-net by requiring businesses to provide 18 days of paid sickleave per year. (measured by the average worked horus over a 365 day period, to accumulate immediately, with the first 30 days being given 12 hours and the 2nd 30 days given 12 hours, then averaged by average hours worked afterward.)
***Increase the minimum wage to $9.75 over a period of two years, then adjusted to the CPI every year after that. The minimum wage mandates a minimum standard of living, increases class mobility, and overall increases household security. Further it'll also push the wages of other job categories which are closer to the minimum wage higher as well. The net result is an overall increase in wages across the board, and while I would expect an increase in some prices, that's OK too. Higher prices as a result of higher wages is overdue. We cannot keep holding prices down when everything else associated with prices demands their increase.
***Devote more public money to education programs, to post-secondary education, and begin investing in public trade schools as well to teach job skills to people. It is so important that people have access to basic job skill education, as well as academic education...whichever they choose to pursue.
***Reallocate about 30% of the defense budget, cancelling contracts with private contractors and having the military doing the jobs the military used to do itself before outsourcing became commonplace, and reallocate those resources to other priorities.
***Finally, workplace security must be law of this land. Citizens must feel safe and secure in their jobs by making sure that there is an employer-consequence to terminating an employee. A mandatory 30-day dismissal notice IF the employee is being dismissed due to downsizing, reduced demand, or other such needs. Otherwise, said employee should be paid a severance package equal to that of two weeks of pay.
Middle class wages have risen barely in pace with inflation during the past 40 years which is about 2% a year in real dollars. For the poor, those wages have risen even slower, at a pace of 1% per year. With the middle class making up the bulk of the number of people, as well as the shrinking of tax rates due to the right-wing political movement...it's completely understandable that tax revenues are shrinking. Income growth is stagnant, and the cost of living increases every year at a normal and nominal rate. It's reasonable to assume that the reason that tax revenues are shrinking is because incomes are shrinking. The blue collar job market is vanishing more and more as firms ship jobs to The Third World to take advantage of cheap labor. However, this is the trap.
Low incomes equal low tax revenues. So if you want to bring tax revenues back up to snuff with the budget we have (which by the way is the budget we should have had from the middle of Bush '43's term to now), bring incomes back to the US, companies need to reassess their priorities and provide middle-class incomes to people who deserve to have them. If you run a US Business, you have an obligation to use US manufacturing.
To fix this problem, I propose the following;
***End free trade with China and other 3rd world countries, and apply tariffs to all imports from nations with lower standards of living than our own until the standard of living in those countries meet or exceed that of the US. China and other nations that manufacturing outsources to need to have taxes applied to their imports so the prices of these goods are pushed up higher, which means local manufacturing can compete and pay livable wages. In this instance, let quality be the deciding factor of whether someone should purchase something or not.
***Strengthen the worker safety-net by requiring businesses to provide 18 days of paid sickleave per year. (measured by the average worked horus over a 365 day period, to accumulate immediately, with the first 30 days being given 12 hours and the 2nd 30 days given 12 hours, then averaged by average hours worked afterward.)
***Increase the minimum wage to $9.75 over a period of two years, then adjusted to the CPI every year after that. The minimum wage mandates a minimum standard of living, increases class mobility, and overall increases household security. Further it'll also push the wages of other job categories which are closer to the minimum wage higher as well. The net result is an overall increase in wages across the board, and while I would expect an increase in some prices, that's OK too. Higher prices as a result of higher wages is overdue. We cannot keep holding prices down when everything else associated with prices demands their increase.
***Devote more public money to education programs, to post-secondary education, and begin investing in public trade schools as well to teach job skills to people. It is so important that people have access to basic job skill education, as well as academic education...whichever they choose to pursue.
***Reallocate about 30% of the defense budget, cancelling contracts with private contractors and having the military doing the jobs the military used to do itself before outsourcing became commonplace, and reallocate those resources to other priorities.
***Finally, workplace security must be law of this land. Citizens must feel safe and secure in their jobs by making sure that there is an employer-consequence to terminating an employee. A mandatory 30-day dismissal notice IF the employee is being dismissed due to downsizing, reduced demand, or other such needs. Otherwise, said employee should be paid a severance package equal to that of two weeks of pay.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Socialized Healthcare is SO Possible!
In the United States, we spend $7,126 per person on health care. In Great Britain, they spend $3,012 per person for COMPREHENSIVE health care coverage...and all have full access to all health care procedures. The NHS (National Health Service) is a fully socialized healthcare system, where all doctors, nurses and hospital workers/specialists are Government employees. Now you guys tell me, that we can't afford this? On just the Medicare budget which is about $835 Billion per year, we could pay for about 90% ($2700-ish per person)of this level of expenditure by itself. This means no tax increases, and no additional spending to cover most people.
It is an outright lie that we can't afford to care for all peoples' healthcare needs. An outright lie!
Furthermore, we could eliminate ALL the spending that states do on Medicare/Medicaid and other health insurance programs such as workers compensation health insurance...because people would be covered. The employees who work in the Healthcare industry could be absorbed into the system meaning that there would be no staffing issues. Doctors would get salaries, and be given incentives to work in the public system, grants to go to school and train and learn, and private practices would have the right to participate in this system as a Government employee.
You know why big business hates this idea? Because it's one less object of influence to dominate you as a worker. Your health insurance is one benefit from employers that give them power over you. By making health care part of the commons, it becomes a public good, and therefore empowers people with their choices and decisions. There is no profit incentive, there is no shareholder to pay, there is no corruption to extort money out of you. It's a standardized expense, everyone has the same full coverage, and everyone has access equally. It's an exciting prospect to think that we have the money already to implement this system. The closest domestic model we have is the VA Medical system which is a mini-version of the NHS and the quality of care is wonderful. The system can work very well for us, so long as we have the courage of conviction to collectively build a system for the future generations after us.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Wicked United for Marriage Melts Hearts
For those of you who bought tickets to the performance of Wicked at the Paramount Theater last night, you missed a great show! The show opened with a surprise guest appearance from Governor Chris Gregoire who spoke about how the fight for supporting R-74 does not end until November 7th. The performance was a wonderful experience with a series of intensely deep messages such as fighting to think for yourself, and to do what you believe is right. It's a story that fights against stereotypes, embraces differences, and stirs feelings within those who feel like social outcasts, encouraging them to fight to rise above social stigmata of not conforming. It's also a political intrigue, a comedy with over-the-top performances from GAH-linda (Glinda) and Elphaba, while also creating a touching and deeply complicated relationship between two very different individuals. And finally it's also a love story, with a moving and passionate romance between Ms. Elphaba and the care-free Prince of the Winkies, Fiearo. What really melted my heart more than anything was at the end of the performance, with the cast on stage in the background, the director of Zach Silk spoke to the audience about the importance of families being included in sharing the happiness and joy that marriage brings. And how it's so important that we keep fighting to ensure that equal marriage rights are the law of the land. If you missed Wicked United for Marriage, the cast is continuing to tour across the country and I encourage you to see the show at your first opportunity.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Education, The Great Seawall
How many of you have ever seen a Sea Wall. A sea wall is a large structure built in areas where larger waves are present and prevent waves from moving inland into the communities they protect. Just as Sea Walls are barriers to prevent waves from sweeping away civilization, the same is true with Education. Education serves as a great wall against waves of ignorance, confusion, and misinformation.
Education today is something that I personally care deeply about. The reason I care about this is because I truly think that knowing about the world around you can be a mechanism that creates peace, understanding, tolerance and world stability. So, it disturbs me that math and science have gotten all the attention when really, it should be reading and comprehension that get the attention more than any other field and discipline. Just some simple examples of why:
1) You cannot do math if you cannot read and understand instructions or situations.
2) You can't describe your findings to others if you can't write in coherent sentences with some basic organization.
3) I truly believe that the US falling behind in the world through education is in large part because our society doesn't focus enough on reading and comprehension skills.
4) Reading and comprehension skills are also to blame, in part, for people being ignorant about issues. If something is "too hard", no one wants to do it. Its too hard to read a voter initiative because it's long and uses big words.
So, what should schools focus on instead? They should focus on drilling and dogging students to read and understand what they read more. They should focus on teaching reading techniques to empower students with skills that teach them how to retain information and take notes. Furthermore, money needs to be invested into spotting and offering special services to students with ADHD, Bipolar disorder, and dyslexia...as well as other learning disabilities. The current focus on math and science has sacrificed money that should be devoted elsewhere...and that "elsewhere" is the foundation to all other learning schools. Without reading and comprehension skills...most people can't learn well at all, depending on their learning styles.
Reading is the foundation upon which all other learning schools and disciplines are built on. If you don't take care of the foundation, then you end up with a broken, and wobbly building which may fall on it's face. We should be devoting our education dollars to reading, comprehension, and most importantly civics. It is astonishing to me how few people truly understand even a basic functioning of the government. Teaching people about how government works is pivotal to preventing usurpers from taking over the government and spoon-feeding the public interpretations of law that is and isn't legal.
Education is the best defense against the possibility of powerful people manipulating us as a nation. Education gives us opportunities for self-improvement, self-enrichment, and self-discovery. Education equips us with the knowledge to challenge people's assertions, and finally...education gives us the means to grow and understand the world around us.
Education today is something that I personally care deeply about. The reason I care about this is because I truly think that knowing about the world around you can be a mechanism that creates peace, understanding, tolerance and world stability. So, it disturbs me that math and science have gotten all the attention when really, it should be reading and comprehension that get the attention more than any other field and discipline. Just some simple examples of why:
1) You cannot do math if you cannot read and understand instructions or situations.
2) You can't describe your findings to others if you can't write in coherent sentences with some basic organization.
3) I truly believe that the US falling behind in the world through education is in large part because our society doesn't focus enough on reading and comprehension skills.
4) Reading and comprehension skills are also to blame, in part, for people being ignorant about issues. If something is "too hard", no one wants to do it. Its too hard to read a voter initiative because it's long and uses big words.
So, what should schools focus on instead? They should focus on drilling and dogging students to read and understand what they read more. They should focus on teaching reading techniques to empower students with skills that teach them how to retain information and take notes. Furthermore, money needs to be invested into spotting and offering special services to students with ADHD, Bipolar disorder, and dyslexia...as well as other learning disabilities. The current focus on math and science has sacrificed money that should be devoted elsewhere...and that "elsewhere" is the foundation to all other learning schools. Without reading and comprehension skills...most people can't learn well at all, depending on their learning styles.
Reading is the foundation upon which all other learning schools and disciplines are built on. If you don't take care of the foundation, then you end up with a broken, and wobbly building which may fall on it's face. We should be devoting our education dollars to reading, comprehension, and most importantly civics. It is astonishing to me how few people truly understand even a basic functioning of the government. Teaching people about how government works is pivotal to preventing usurpers from taking over the government and spoon-feeding the public interpretations of law that is and isn't legal.
Education is the best defense against the possibility of powerful people manipulating us as a nation. Education gives us opportunities for self-improvement, self-enrichment, and self-discovery. Education equips us with the knowledge to challenge people's assertions, and finally...education gives us the means to grow and understand the world around us.
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