"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." - The Great Ronald Reagan
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." - The Great Ronald Reagan
Exactly Pook. How should that power be used? That's where the moral and philosophical debates come in. Without letting the Gov. run everything (like it is now)I don't think you can stop a scam artist from taking people. The question becomes, how much do we allow the government to intrude in our daily lives?
ReplyDeleteAgree… That’s my biggest problem in life. I’m torn between two points of view:
ReplyDeleteOne: (what would the Big J do?)
Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
Or
Two:
My own greed to want more money in my pocket and for the government not to give it to people that didn’t work hard in life!
I do believe that the government can do a good job, and I think the government should tax someone a little more if you can afford it. God has blessed me with a good life, so if you read the bible I should be giving up my money to help the less fortunate. That is the battle I struggle with all the time. I’m not for big government, but I have seen personal suffering in my life (Immediate family) with healthcare. You can never change my mind that any cost of healthcare is not justified. As a civilization we should never put a $$ amount on someone life. I don’t understand why some doesn’t want to give poor free/reduced healthcare if it improves their life. I guess in the end we’ll be judge by God on how we treated everyone in needed. And I’m wondering if God thinks you can put a cost on a quality of life!
Pook,
ReplyDeleteWhat do you suggest the government do to protect people from scam artists? Not every aspect of our lives can be protected. It's too bad these things happen, but what are you supposed to do? Guarantee people that there is no way they can ever be taken advantage of? If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is...like the above average returns these people have been getting in a down market.
What about healthcare? Your comment about no one should ever suffer, we should take care of everyone is great...but how is this accomplished? The way the current administration is going is to find the most cost effective way to treat a particular problem. The problem with that is that not everyone has the same set of circumstances. What works for one person may not work for the next. Should one person be treated but not the other? Take a look at Canada and England...why do they come here for treatment?
What's your definition of "if you can afford it" to be taxed higher. According to Obama, that limit is apparently at $250,000. Who's to say that a couple making $250,000 can afford extra taxes. With the price of houses in certain areas of our country I would say that a couple making that certainly isn't rich. And would a lower income family be able to "afford it" if they got rid of a couple TV's...didn't buy that new car?
Your thoughts are great…but I’d really like to see how you recommend this utopia come about.
Reply:
ReplyDelete“What do you suggest the government do to protect people from scam artists? Not every aspect of our lives can be protected. It's too bad these things happen, but what are you supposed to do?”
- Government has to do something to protect the people, or why even have a government. Let see we have a fire departments, Standing Army, FBI, DEA, CIA, Local Police departments, State Police and some other departments I’m forgetting about. I think the government is already in the business of protecting people, so why not beef up the SEC some more.
Heathcare: “we should take care of everyone is great...but how is this accomplished”
- To be honest ---- I have no idea, but anything is better then nothing. I truly believe that Heathcare shouldn’t be in the business of being a business! Putting quarterly reports, stock price and stockholders meetings in front of human life is in my book wrong! We have some many illnesses that don’t get enough research money since big pharmaceutical companies don’t see a profile in it that will help their stock price!
“Who's to say that a couple making $250,000 can afford extra taxes”
- Sorry to say but if I made $250,000 I would be jumping for joy! I don’t even make half of that and I think god has provided me with a good life. I would have no problem rolling back the tax code to the mid 90’s. I think we all we’re doing okay then at that tax code. In the end, I truly believe you will be judge by a higher power. So if your making $250,000 plus, and your cry about maybe paying $2000-$5000 more a year, then I think you have a bigger problem them paying taxes, and I hope it’s hot.
“With the price of houses in certain areas of our country”
- That was the whole problem. Home prices should have never been that high!! But I don’t think your going to have that problem for many more years now. From what I’ve been reading about the home price they will level out around the “National Average” what they were in the early 90’s. And guess what: you can always move to a different state. You choose live in a state with high home prices.
Pook, we can beef up the SEC all you want…but the agencies you have cited are already in place to TRY and protect the people. There are laws against this type of stuff which is why Madoff should see jail time. You cannot always protect people but hopefully the penalties imposed on those who are caught are severe enough that it will deter future crimes. How should we protect the sweet old lady who hires someone to help her with her finances and ends up signing some documents that she is not sure what they mean and then they take her money? How should we protect the sweet old lady who hires someone to do repairs on the house, then they take the money and run. How are we to protect against the drunk driver who plows into your car killing your wife and kids. You cannot protect all aspects of someone’s life as stated before. The only deterrent is the punishment you put forth on those who have been caught.
ReplyDeleteI don’t have any great solutions on healthcare either, but doing something is surely not better than doing nothing. Take the time to come up with a good solution and then implement it. If the government gets control, healthcare is not going to be any better than it is now…again, look at where it is currently being run by the government. Tell me what the government runs efficiently? Profits…that’s a tough one. I understand where you’re coming from, however, profits are what drive competition and ingenuity. If there is more competition, costs come down. If there is more ingenuity, new and better drugs are found and created.
In regards to how taxes were under the Clinton’s, I would know…I was only 16 years old. I don’t make $250,000 either…that’s just the number that Obama has used as his “rich” meter. Where Lord Obama came up with that number, who knows. To some $100,000 a year is rich, to others, $1,000,000 a year is rich. Regardless of where the number is, the point is still the same. If you neighbor came up to you and asked for $1,000 to buy a new car, would you give them the money? Ok, what if it was just $50? If you neighbor came up to you and asked for $1,000 to afford a heart transplant, would you give them the money? Higher taxes are doing just this. The government thinking they know what is best to do with your money instead of you. I also highly doubt that anyone is going to hell because they have a problem with government taking more money. How much charity donation would go down because of increased taxes? Hmmmmm……
Good solution on moving to state where housing prices are low. I’ll get the word around to everyone in California, Arizona, New York, and Florida to move to Nebraska. We’ll see what happens to housing prices in Nebraska when it is a desired place to live. Housing prices are high, not because of the location, but because people WANT to live in these locations. We have accepted higher costs of living…just don’t think the government needs to be any more involved in that equation then they already are.
Healthcare:
ReplyDeleteMore competition has really lowered my cost. So for the last 7 year my healthcare cost keeps going up each year. (Based on per month contributions) My wife just had to have out-patient surgery about 3 months ago. That was a great bill for a 30 min surgery. Let me know when that competition starts to lower cost!
Home prices:
Home prices in California, Arizona, and Florida (not sure about NY) shot up because of invertors flipping, building, and pushing prices up. Greenspan gave a speech about this issue about a year ago. (I’ll look for this on youtube) It’s funny how the housing prices ran up in mainly only 4 states. (California, Arizona, Florida, Nevada) This housing pricing problem was not a supply and demand issue. It was all about greed. The same thing that happened during the late 90’s with the internet stocks.
Taxes:
I’m not going to cry about the $250,000 limit. So some people making 250 + might have to buy one BMW, instead of buying two BMWs'. I don’t think this is a show stopper. There are other taxes I have a problems with.... like dividends tax, estate tax, and so others.
Healthcare: If there really was competition it would cut the cost. Each state has different rules about who can offer ins. in that state. As a result you only get a handful of companies able to offer ins. If a company could cover all 50 or 51 according to Obama they could spread out their risk among a larger pool of people and costs would go down. But thanks to regulation we don't have true competition.
ReplyDeleteHome prices: They are what they are. No one forces anyone to buy or sell a home. If you bought 2 years ago you made a bad deal. You could buy that same house for a third less now. There are some great bargins for new homeowners right now. So what's bad for one is good for another. The problem coming up is with the Gov. getting involved. We will see prices stabilize which will freeze some out the market because they need the prices to come down a little more so they can afford them.
Taxes: Our corporate tax rate is the highest in the world. This promotes industry moving their plants and offices offshore to a better tax climate. The big issue among many is when a corp. moves to another country and those jobs are lost. Lower the tax rate and they'll stay. Why should there be a death tax? I work all my life and build up a business or amass a large 401 K and no I have to give half to the Gov! I already paid taxes on that money and now I have to pay again? Double taxation is not right no matter what the income is. I really feel for people who think they or their kids or Grand kids will never make a lot of money. I may not make $250,000 but I hope my kids or Grand kids do. So why would I want to penalize my Grand kids by taxing the "rich" more. That's pretty selfish to alleviate my tax burden but lay it on future generations. Why is Gov. the only entity that doesn't have to budget? When I run out of money I cut back. When the Gov. does they raise taxes. How does that make any sense?
All the above scenarios have been made worse not better by regulation. The free market will actually work if we ever try it!
We can go around and around on healthcare, but I don't think the “free market“ would work when it comes to healthcare.
ReplyDelete- Bill Clinton & Bush relaxed federal regulation when it comes to home loans and most financial institutions. I couldn’t agree with you more (“the free market will actually work if we ever try it!”)… Relaxing the rule(s) in the finical market have done a great job to-date. Just like when the federal regulations around energy trading rules were relaxed, we all learned the word Enron. Greed is a powerful thing… I wish we could live in a free market, but greedy executives will always make sure we can never have a totally free market.
- “Double taxation is not right no matter what the income”….. I couldn’t agree with you more. I have a big problem with that. I don’t mind paying more taxes, just not twice!
- “That's pretty selfish to alleviate my tax burden but lay it on future generations. Why is Gov. the only entity that doesn't have to budget?”
o Agree 70%. The Iraq war (alone) has cost around $600 billion dollars to date. I don’t think I’ve seen republicans crying about the cost of that. For the last 8 years republicans lost their way, and ran up a huge national debt to around (7-8 trillion). I don’t like the excuses “we r at war”. More people we’ve kill that year from drunk driving then that horrible day. So let’s run up a trillion dollar debt to fight drunk driving. Now to be fair the Dems are doing the same thing republicans did. I don’t care who, but someone needs to stop spending!!
Ways to fix the Economy:
A) Legalize Pot and Tax it.
- If beer is legal the pot should be. How many people do you see driving high? It’s too hard to even get of the couch to want drive. Okay, maybe to taco bell.
B) Sex Tax:
- It’s been around forever, and it will never go away. So let make it safe (like in parts of Nevada) Tax it!!!
C) Tax Fat People more:
- Just like car insurance, if you get a speeding ticket your rates go up. If you break the scale your rates go up.
D) Tax gambling more and let all states have casinos.
- I look at this as a self inflicted tax. If you don’t want to be taxed, don’t gamble.
E) Charge money for Driver license.
- make everyone pay $100-$200 per year to have a Driver license. This can replace the gas tax
f) Drill More..
G) Have Jenna Jamison come to my house to sell me US treasury bonds. =)~
I agree with a lot of what you said Pook but the problem is once again what is worthwhile to spend money on and what isn't.
ReplyDeleteThe home loans were changed almost 20 years ago. There is NY Times reprint from a 1999 article talking about how Fannie Mae was pressured by the Clinton Administration to ease lending requirements so more people could get into homes. (I can send the link if you want)This was the beginning of what we're seeing today. Government regulation again interferes. A home is not a right.
I agree the taxes you list would raise money but most of them would prove detrimental to those on the lower end of the economic scale. Walk into a Quik Shop and who is buying cigs, lottery tickets, sex mags and beer? It's the guy in the dirty clothes with the beat up truck and the fat wife. Statistics show that the poor spend a higher percentage of their money on these things than the rich. So all your doing is making the poor poorer causing society to give them more handouts which costs the Government more money. So all this extra money that was raised is not enough and we still raise taxes.
Lack of money is not the problem, spending is. The U.S. spends more per child than any other country yet it's kids still do worse on standard tests.
The solution to the problem is to tax less creating more jobs and opportunities. The solution is personal responsibility. Parents stay married and raise good, moral kids. You can't legislate morality. All the laws in the world won't stop wrong doing. It has to be an internal thing. For someone who likes to quote scripture I'm surprised your solutions have to do with things God would condemn. Gambling, sex, drugs. If we lived according to His values we wouldn't be in this mess.
“For someone who likes to quote scripture I'm surprised your solutions have to do with things God would condemn. Gambling, sex, drugs. If we lived according to His values we wouldn't be in this mess”
ReplyDelete- God doesn’t care if you gamble. Gambling is the same thing as buying stock, getting on a plane, driving fast, and may other ting. It’s the same thing as drinking. I drink coolers light all the time. Does that mean god doesn’t love me, does that mean I’m an alcoholic? NOPE!
- Most illegal drugs didn’t become illegal until sometime after world war one. So I guess God let them all go to hell since Cocaine was legal to buy and use about then. It you smoke pot god doesn’t love you??? Not. Some might say God put Pot on earth for humans to find. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_(drugs))
- At the end of the day, it’s when you take an every day event and let it pull you down, and others around you. My values are not rules or about what I do in my life. My values are about how I do those things and how I let those things affect my life and others around me.
“Lack of money is not the problem, spending is. The U.S. spends more per child than any other country yet it's kids still do worse on standard tests”
- Agree… We need less carp in schools and more of the three R’s. However, we still have more people in collage then the rest of the world.
- I don’t care if everyone makes it out of high school. Some one has to pump my gas.