An Improved Nation

What are they thinking?!

Congress is planning to bail out the failing insurance companies, mortgage lenders and auto makers.

I’m sure I’m not the only person struggling to keep my car in decent shape and fully fueled. I’m not the only one struggling to pay the pharmacy and doctors. Not the only person who’s worrying over my diminishing insurance coverage.

Congress is going to feed those who’ve made our bank accounts worthless but it can’t be bothered to flatten and grade the curbs or adorn the street corners with interactive audio and visual cues. They can’t be bothered to demand State and Local Municipalities insist every building and vehicle open to public business be refit with ramps, low curbs, hydraulic assist doors and lifts with wide [mechanically operated or assisted] doors, lowered counters, larger [screen or sign] fonts, translucent lighting... and a host of other accommodations that are of equal benefit to those who are and are not aged, ill or disabled.

There are still many places which are inaccessible to me and those like me. Short sighted folks fail to consider while they are healthy at this point in time, the time will come when they too are aged, ill or disabled. Hopefully, you will have lived a long and meaningful life before that time has come; however, when your infirmities set in, wouldn’t it be nice if accommodations were already in place?

There is a board of persons [at the State and Federal level] appointed to get such things done – but they’ve been doing little more than talking, discussing, suggesting since 1985! Really, what’s to discuss, just get it done.

Spend the money on something useful to us all.

Don’t reward those who’ve gotten rich making our lives burdensome.

Solving problems is generally much easier than it may seem. Most often the solutions are avoided because greed and fear overwhelm our reason.

Problem: Insurance Companies Failing. Solution: Federalize. Make Medicare the National Health Insurance Carrier, available to everyone! Cease all private health insurance. As to life insurance: a tax exempt ‘end of life’ fund would end the worry of internment expenses. Insuring your debts against death and loss of income is as easy as paying the fee on your loans or credit cards. I know, I’ve ignored the children and unemployed spouses. Surviving spouse will need a job, sell the house and the extra car - live within your new means. Insurance companies simply can’t get the job done because inherent to their business is profit!

Problem: Auto Makers Going Bankrupt. Solution: Make Fewer Cars. It could also be argued there is no need for so many auto makers, to say nothing of so many car models! Auto makers should be concentrating on developing a better automobile, one which is fueled by sources more efficient and globally available. They should also be consolidating with fuel dispensaries (gas stations) to more readily enable the transition from gasoline to a new fuel. Of course, decreasing the salaries and severance of the board and officers is a course of action which would allow the company to maintain it’s workforce without compromising product.

Problem: Mortgage Lenders Bankrupt. Solution: Close The Doors. Really. For years I heard all that prattle about “for what you’re paying for rent you could own your own home”. I know many people who ignored my counsel and soon found themselves with a home they couldn’t keep. Home ownership shouldn’t come with your first five figure annual salary. Homeowners are responsible for their own structures, equipment and land. Home ownership has more expenses than a renter is led to believe, expenses renters take for granted. The fools who bought these easy mortgages received their due – now the villains who sold the mortgages will get theirs!

New worries will crop up. There will be bank failures. A drop in stock value is inevitable. That’s what this country must endure. We must shake out the cobwebs, brush the dandruff away. We’ve gotten stodgy and old. Feeding the rich, stepping on the poor.

We wave our flag and hold tight to our religious texts while raising our fists and pointing our fingers. Often we neglect the tenets from which this nation was born and upon which this nation is supposed to be governed. Many of us are hypocritical. Most of us feel powerless. We compound our problems rather than solving them.

The United States Of America and it’s member states have endured many financial crises over the centuries of it’s life. And, we’ll endure this one.

In the meantime, let’s slow down a bit. Stay home. Keep a savings account rather than a credit card. Be social with one another. Help those in need. Accumulate friends and knowledge rather than things and debt.

Let’s be content with what we have and put profit aside while attending to the building of an improved nation.

Speaking Frankly by Lewis

Better For Everyone

What is he thinking?!

Our newly unelected Governor [with our State Legislature] has presented the 2009 budget weeks in advance – softening the blow or warming the stethoscope.

Earlier this year the Governor vetoed [a recurring act of our Governors] legislation which would have ensured our retired a level playing field in health care insurance. Civil Service retirees have long been at the mercy [not unlike private sector retirees] of their former employers with regard to their health insurance. Our Unions have proposed [for many years now] legislation which would keep our former employers from making changes to our health coverage [including premium share] without making the same changes to the working employees health coverage.

Is it such a difficult thing to see? We are the you - in fewer years than you image, you’ll be among us! Do you really want to be neglected? Of course not; yet, there you are, willing to sacrifice the services to the old, the infirm, the impoverished, and the retired.

We are in this boat with you. Where we go, you will follow.

It’s easy to point your finger. Easy to say, we’re the cause of your problems. But, any medical doctor will tell you the solution isn’t as simple as surgical removal. Many infections and injuries require more thorough care, a long-term, permanent solution is needed to ensure the recovery of the entire body.

A Nobel Prize Winning mathematician correctly theorized the best solution for a group is one which is beneficial to both the group and each of the individuals compromising that group. Equal sacrifice with equal reward. We benefit when you benefit and you benefit when we benefit.

The proposed budget would cut vital health care services and eliminate functional jobs. The surviving services would become burgeoned with the patients once served elsewhere. The remaining jobs would become burdened by an ever increasing work load. That type of nonsense will invariably lead to new problems: stressed employees; at risk patients; inadequate service; greater employee illness; and, more. Each problem will inevitably create a greater fiscal crisis.

The fundamental problem with our economy is money itself. Everyone is held in it’s grip. Money has become a primary need and desire for each of us. Certainly, many would deny it. But, when they stop to think a minute, they’ll have to admit, all philanthropy, charity, politic, lifestyle and pleasure is generate from the use of money. {I could write another piece about the truth in “the root of all evil”.}

That’s the reality of the world.

We and You want and need more money. It’s a vicious cycle, one about which I’ve spoken once or twice before now; so, I repeat myself. I will say that the proposed budget is offensive in it’s targeting of select groups. You want to tax grocery items? I-Pod downloads? Fine. Tax them all! I’m for it. Absolutely. I’m a firm believer in a fixed tax rate being applied to every sale of services or goods and every type of income, no exceptions! I also believe the tax should be shared by Local, State and Federal government, with the lion’s share of the sales tax paid to the Locals, while the lion’s share of the income tax is paid to the Feds.

This nonsense of tacking bits of sales tax to select items or applying fees to items currently taxed is an absolutely insulting practice!

In our society taxes are necessary. Taxes are often the sole source of revenue for our municipalities. {Seriously, why aren’t our utilities [power, water, refuse and communications] owned by Municipal Government? What a huge source of revenue that would be?!} Taxation isn’t a problem, the flexible rate and it’s incongruent application is the problem.

Well, that AND the often overwhelmingly unwise spending of the tax money collected. Though, to be honest, how many of us are completely innocent in that regard? How many of us have often unwisely spent money? Deficit spending didn’t actually begin with Government.

President Reagan [an economist of some note] once demonstrated “trickle down economics”. At the time much ridicule was lauded his way; however, the truth is obvious. Take a look at our own checking accounts. The less we have coming in the less we have to spend. The more we have taken from us the more difficult our lives become. Like a drying water source, we cease to move, we end. In economics, as in life, the burden is passed to another. In turn, each to bear the burden will determine it’s viability and it will either be carried, lessened or dropped. Eventually, everything will hit bottom where it will either be crushed [becoming a foundation for something new] or be lifted again, even carried aloft to the top once more.

Taxation is necessary. The payment of taxes is necessary. As I see it Food Stamp recipients should be exempt from Sales Tax at grocery stores and restaurants. Medicaid and Medicare recipients should be exempt from sales tax at doctors offices and pharmacies. Just as income of less than $18,000 per annum should be the ONLY income tax exemption, while allowing an $1800 deduction from income for each person in the household less than 18 years of age or over 60 years of age. In corporate application, the income deduction would come from the employer payments to the employees pension fund.

I’m used to getting slapped by those who insist charitable contributions should be deductible from income – it’s not charity if you’re receiving a reimbursement!

The burdens are ours to carry or eliminate.

Poverty. Disease. Violence. Ignorance. Intolerance. Hatred. War. Greed.

Will a reduction in school aid serve to eliminate these burdens? Will a reduction in aid to hospitals and nursing homes, while removing services provided by Medicaid and Medicare reinforce these burdens? Will an increase in the Medicare premium eliminate any burden? Will eliminating jobs, reducing the work force, reinforce these burdens?

Things are difficult the world over. The solution can not be found at the edges of the whole. The root must be repaired, tended, our core must be nurtured. In that way something new can be grown, something better... better for everyone!

Speaking Frankly by Lewis