It's not "what were we thinking?" but "ARE we thinking?"

It's said by middle class Americans that one class pays taxes, and another class gets the benefits.  That is probably greatly exaggerated, yet I would agree it still holds some truth.

Yes, we all benefit from police and fire protection, public sanitation, a strong military, the (increasingly irrelevant) postal system, etc, but individually, most of us in the middle class simply don't qualify for any public perk.  We pay for them, yet we "make too much" to qualify ourselves.  No wonder we're resentful.

Europeans pay considerably higher taxes than we do, but I've read that most pay it willingly (Greeks, Italians, and a few others excepted) because the average taxpayer there personally gets something in return.  Higher education is subsidized or is free, health care is subsidized or is free, day care is subsidized or is free, elderly care is subsidized or is free, and so forth. Not just for the poor, but for everyone.

I'm not saying we should necessarily emulate European socialism, but just pointing out how even middle class taxpayers there recieve something for their tax  dollars....er....Euros.  They're getting "bang for their buck".

If you're middle class in America, you're on your own.  You pay, you just don't get your money's worth in return.  As long as you have a good job and believe a bright future awaits you, you'll pay for your kid's daycare and college tuition, mom's nursing home, etc, out of your pocket and still pay your taxes and not think much of it.  But in this age of globalization, that often isn't possible any more.  

Anyone remember when Ross Perot ran for president back in 1992?  Free trade agreements were the hot topic back then (the opening salvo of globalization) and Ross said, "That giant sucking sound you hear will be American jobs going overseas." Prices were cheaper at Walmart, so (almost) everyone was happy.  We lost a few jobs initially, but no big deal.  

The next year, a few more jobs left, but the price of a toaster was cheaper still so who cared?...on and on.  Now the news (USA Today, Yahoo) reports that 4 of 5 middle class Americans are fearful of their future and are essentially just hanging on.  

Yes, we're creating new jobs once again, but they generally aren't anywhere near as high paying as the ones we've lost.  We're constantly lowering the bar.  

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A real world example of the mess we've caused for ourselves:  Our roads and bridges are crumbling.  They say it will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to fix them, money the state and federal governments don't have.

Road maintenance and expansion are paid for with gasoline sales taxes.  Because new cars get better (mandated) mileage these days, more people can drive more cars more miles and still buy less gasoline.  They put more strain on our highways, yet pay less taxes to maintain them.  

We really need to *gasp* raise gas taxes.  In my state most of our new major roads are toll roads.  So now I'm not paying more taxes, but I'm paying tolls instead.  My wallet can't tell the difference.  

Paying more taxes isn't necessarily a bad thing IF YOU CAN SHOW ME I'M PERSONALLY GETTING SOMETHING OF VALUE FOR IT.

The politicians are just playing games with us.  Yet by touting their tax cutting record, we keep re-electing them.  We've become a nation of airheads.

S

Some things change, and some things never seem to change

Students today seem by-and-large to be more conscientious about their studies than my friends and I were back when we were in school.  This is a good thing as success today takes more study and knowledge than it did 40 years ago.  "Hard work" went a lot further then than it does today.  Now "working smart" is more important, IMO, than "working hard".

Yet there will always be a few dunces who are stuck grasping at straws on test day.  The headline in USA Today read "Nineteen buses found with flat tires on test day."  It seems one (or several) students weren't prepared for their tests, so they just sabotaged the school buses.  Flat tires = no students = tests postponed.  Ta Da!

Flashback:  Murdough Hall, Texas Tech University, 1970.  My good friend and I had a big _______ test the next day.  ( I can't remember the subject.)  Typical for us, we had managed to do just about anything/everything except study for that test.  We would rather spend 4 hours planning and executing a clandestine dumpster dive than actually studying for a test.  (I never said we were very bright.)  

Our only chance was an all-nighter.  Things went well for the first hour or so, then we got bogged down arguing the case for Ginger vs Mary Ann or something equally ridiculous.  By about 4 am we realized we were just plain screwed.  Too much to learn, not enough time left to learn it.

Then we remembered the campus newspaper story a couple of weeks earlier about a bomb scare....the building in question was cleared, the students affected sent home.

You see where this is going.

Our plan was hatched:  We would use a pay phone a few blocks off campus and call a bomb threat in to the KK (Kampus Kops). We would put a handkerchief over the mouthpiece of the phone to disguise our voice.  (That's what all the bad guys did on TV.)  Then we would arrive at our building just as it was being evacuated.  Test delayed until Monday.  *back slapping, high-fiving*  Disaster averted.

Except for one little thing.  In my mind Fred (not his real name) would make the actual phone call, while in his mind I would do the deed.  This led to an argument as we stood outside the phone booth because neither of us wanted to spend time in Leavenworth in the event the handkerchief-over-the-mouthpiece trick failed and we were caught.

As things turned out we showed for the test, dutifully bombed it (pardon the pun), yet somehow still passed the course.  Lesson learned:  We were both chicken to the core.

Postscript:  I managed to somehow mature, marry, have a family, and lead a criminal-free life.  "Fred", however, later went over to the dark side.  He became a very high-ranking Republican leader in our state House of Representatives.

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Have a great weekend everyone.

S

More stuff that really chaps my hide....

I've found several more things that just chap the heck out of me:  It seems the abbreviated online versions of many news services (Yahoo, USA Today, NYT, etc) like to tease us with articles such as "10 things you can do now to save on your electric bill" or "The 5 best and worst places for retirees to live".  So you click on those links and expect to see a list....#1, #2, #3, a so on.   Instead you see 16 paragraphs of text.  So where are the "10 things..." or "The 5 best..."?  Just show me the damn list!

And freeway designers.  I've been in many parts of the country where there are tall screens separating the freeway lanes going in opposite directions....northbound traffic can't see what's happening on the southbound side.  I'm guessing this is to prevent rubberneckers from slowing traffic while looking at a wreck on the opposite side of the freeway.  Makes sense, right?

But not in Dallas.  Ooooh no!  Here we build 12-lane-wide brand new freeways that have a 4' tall divider between lanes going in the opposite direction.  So every time there is a wreck going one way, cars going the opposite direction slow to 3 mph in order to see all the carnage.  Then as soon as you pass the wreck it's back to 80 mph.  WTF? 

Then all the "traffic engineers" complain traffic is too slow and initiate another 10-year, gazillion-dollar project to install more lanes.  (Job security?)  Bullshit.  Just include a tall divider down the middle and traffic will zip right along.

Come on all you egghead engineers.  This ain't rocket surgery!

S

Where do they get this stuff?

Over this past weekend I saw several things that really got my attention.  There are funny, odd things everywhere if we'll just look for them.  This one had me absolutely ROFLMAO:

We were at The Whole Earth Provisioning Company (or as I call it, "The Hippie Store") when the cover of this book, F for Effort, More of the Very Best Totally Wrong Test Answers by Richard Benson caught my eye.  It had me rolling in the aisle.

(Everyone knows the correct answers are "Sam" and "Brenda".  Duh!  ;)

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Then later I saw the message on the rear of this truck, which caused me to do a double-take.  In fact, I caught up with it in order to get this photo:

Look carefully.  It says "Emergency Ice"....for "restaurants, hotels, clubs, special events, and concrete".   What the....CONCRETE?  Huh?  

"I'll have a concrete on the rocks, please."

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Finally, on the online edition of USA Today I saw this:

Police bust ends 'free sex after nine car washes'

Thank you Police!  The very idea, my wife making me wash her car 9....NINE!....times before she....  

(I'm all prunie after just 4 washes.  No way I'd make nine!)

S 

TAXPAYER RIPOFF ALERT

According to a recent USA Today report 21,000 retired federal workers receive a lifetime government pension (from YOU, the taxpayer) of $100,000 or more per year.

Those would include 326 DEA agents, 237 IRS investigators, 186 FBI agents, 444 Social Security agents, and...wait for it...714 retired postal workers.  POSTAL WORKERS for cryin' out loud!  One retired Smithsonian zoologist receives a $162,000 annual lifetime pension, and six other retired federal workers receive over $200,000 per year for life!

Gimme a second to regain my composure.... *deep breath*

By comparison, consider this:  The average federal pension is $32,824.  The average state and local government pension is $24,373.  The average social security recipient receives $14,760.  (The absolute maximum a social security recipient can receive is $30,156.)

Want a bit more sand kicked in your face?  The average federal employee retired at age 59.4 years old, and had served for 27.8 years (2006 statistics).  Full Social Security eligibility for the rest of us isn't until age 65-67. 

True, years ago government salaries were below private sector pay, which is why the retirement benefits were more generous, but those days are long gone.  Today federal government employees make 25-33% MORE than their friends in the private sector for comparable work.

Here's my point:  With a trillion dollar federal deficit every year as far into the future as we can see, and with virtually everything on the table for possible cuts, why aren't federal pay and benefit reforms on the table, too?  (If there is a major restructuring underway now that I'm not aware of, please enlighten me.)

IMO federal employee pay and benefits should be brought to parity with those in the private sector.  Pay, benefits, pension, retirement age....everything!  Why should civil servants have it SO much better than the taxpayers who are paying them? 

I suggest you contact your congressman and register your outrage!  Oh, wait....he's an overpaid federal employee, too.  (And besides, right now he's on vacation.)   *sigh*

S

EDIT:  Let me add this for the benefit of a retired federal employee friend of mine....once you're retired, your pension should not be tampered with....with one caveat.  If some day Congress deems it necessary to cut existing Social Security recipient's benefits, then the same % cuts should apply to retired federal worker's benefits, too.

It's a sweet gig if you can get it!

The headline on the USAToday story read, "Gov't paid $600 million to dead employees".  My question:  How can you tell a dead government employee from a live one?


It was a story about how retired or disabled government employees received benefits even after they were dead if their demise wasn't reported to "the system".  In one case benefits were paid for 37 years after the guy went stiff.  (Oh....so that's how you can tell the difference!)  The Feds discovered this flaw in their system in a 2005 audit report, but didn't want to be bothered with fixing it until now.   Too much effort, and besides, it's just money.


I'm not making this up.  ;)


S