jabmyeyes.com » economics

Tanks vs Trains

jo — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:03:51 +0000

State and Federal court battles are holding back the entire industry of high speed rail. Meanwhile war machines carry on unobstructed?

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One great train and track needs to be built to prove its usefulness. A wonderful provider of jobs and a peaceful industry of builders and innovative minds to do their thing. Not to mention a very comfortable way to study, read, sleep off a hangover, prepare a power point, get your homework done, have some lunch, cuddle with a loved one, make friends with strangers, decrease your footprint, meet someone famous person, pee without stopping at a scary rest stop, do needlepoint, or just enjoy the view without worrying about driving off the cliff, while getting from point A to point B.

The United States government pays companies to build tanks and jets to provide security and to protect the nation from bad guys. But if the government pays a corporation to build solar panels, high speed rail, or windmills to provide energy independence (which is a better source of security) than it is called socialist government intervention or “Big Government”. Why isn’t it called socialist government intervention for us to subsidize the building of war machines?

Socialism is when the state owns the tank building company. Capitalism is when the tank building company is owned by the corporation. Subsidizing is when the state pays the corporation to build the tanks. We have been doing this subsidizing for years. The Federal Reserve loves it and so do the folks who build the tanks and especially those who own the tank building company.

Everybody is happy until the state says it would rather subsidize high speed rail. The tank builder doesn’t know how to build high speed trains and therefore shouts SOCIALISM. Corporate backed media gets on TV news and separates us. Before you know it Americans are telling other Americans to leave the country if they’d rather have trains then tanks.

Did you know Tanks are only useful for war? Tank builders therefore need war. Good tanks protect our soldiers. So here we are gladly subsidizing tank building to protect our sons.

Why can’t we also subsidize weapons of peace that contribute to energy independence? Things like high speed rail, and Renewables. Things that keep the planet clean and alive, and we get to live out our 70 to 80 years in peace? Unfortunately, some people just don’t get peace. Maybe a nice long clean peaceful life is just too boring to be enduring.

1% vs 99%

jo — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:19:05 +0000

Wouldn’t it be better if the TV and radio personalities would talk about facts rather than presuming fault?

Wouldn’t it be better if we stopped listening to the loud whiners? Shut them off, change the station; too busy admiring people who are discovering and inventing stuff.

The desire to classify ourselves is human nature. Humans are influenced by each other to impose group boundaries. For instance the 1% versus the 99%. The 99% is vast, not cozy; whereas the 1% are in bed together cuddling and clinging. Here are some pretty interesting things being done by members of both groups .

http://www.humdingerwind.com/#/wi_large/

Inventor Shawn Frayne has come up with a device that harnesses the power of wind without any rotating parts. Instead, his company’s Windbelts capture energy using fluttering fabric. Air passes over a taut membrane, it induces a vibration, somewhat akin to a violin bow. Magnets mounted on the membrane bounce back and forth between metal coils, inducing an electric current.

What makes this so way cool is that it can be put on fences in urban areas and it can be palm sized or room sized and the materials it is made from are all available right here in the good ole USA.

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Richard Branson has started a “Carbon War Room”. Does he qualifiy as part of the 1%? He has an influence on them. He concerns himself with the future of the planet and makes money doing it. His latest venture is opening a shop near the White House for Venture Capitalists to hang out and find investment solutions. International corporations like Maersk, the global tanker operator, 3M, and General Electric Co., the major U.S. maker of gas turbines, windmills and appliances; find there is money to be made and profits enhanced by cutting noxious pollutants and carbon dioxide emissions.

http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=7874§ion=home

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Pegasus Global Holdings Announces Plans to Develop World’s Largest Tech Testing and Evaluation Center

Pegasus Global Holdings bought a town in New Mexico. They needed a place to create and test green technology innovations. How cool is that? Is this the enemy doing cool things with their money? Pegasus Global Holdings is actually one of those big scary conglomerates making billions from war tools and satellites; which qualifies them as a member of the 1%. Perhaps refocusing their moneymaking prowess on technologies that have an end result of a healthier, cleaner, and subsequently happier planet is a good thing – even if their motivation isn’t benevolent grace.

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Paul Woods is a hero. He has a biorefinery in Lee County, Florida. It will consume almost two dry tons per day of carbon dioxide obtained from industrial sources, and will produce 100,000 gallons of fuel-grade ethanol per year. Whats not to love about that. He is an innovative scientist and has become pretty wealthy by being smart and steadfast, he is one of the 99%.

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Things that bother me

jo — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:38:15 +0000

So, I was in a thrift store where all the proceeds go to charitable causes. This thrift store was right next door to a store called “Tuesday Morning”. Tuesday Morning has knick knacks and stuff coming out of boxes labeled Made in China. They also sell laundry soap without phosphates that gets my clothes remarkably clean which is why I go there. Anyway, I overheard a conversation where a customer was stating that the thrift shop next door won’t bargain down their prices, “I’d rather shop here where everything is new”. I thought to myself –> isn’t it better to buy from a store where the result of your buying benefits locals rather than buying from a store where the result of your buying benefits Chinese factories? (I had a trunk full of beautiful crystal finds from that very same thrift store.)

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and another thing…

What is with some politicians and their big oil and coal bedmates? I met a very nice young man. He plans to take his brand new engineering degree to Mexico and work for an oil company. My heart sank.

If he’s excited about living in the tropics why doesn’t he take that brand new degree to Costa Rica and work for a geothermal company? Geothermal, solar, wind, biodiesel, and other renewable sources of energy aren’t at the Universities recruiting these brilliant young minds. They don’t have the federal funding for that. Oil and coal receive federal funding and they use much of it for recruiting.

Meantime, we’re building tired old SUV’s in our auto plants and wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t want them. Because the rest of the world has young brilliant minds too. They are being recruited into the renewable energy industry and making fast and powerful cars that run on batteries and biodiesel.

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one more thing…

Why are we giving up our waterways and aquifers to industry and agriculture and the bottled water industry? If we didn’t use tax payer money to clean up their messes, we wouldn’t have the beautiful country we have. We’d have birdless skys and choked waterways and putrid lakes without the EPA and environmental groups bringing tragedies to their attention. Taxpayers carry the brunt of expense to clean up after them. We fine them, but, they don’t pay. Instead they pay for politicians who cover for them or razzle dazzle the public with birthers to take attention away from the real issues.

That’s my money belt

jo — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:12:29 +0000

Some folks work hard and are poor anyway, not indigent, but, damn close and if any kind of physical anomaly befalls them they quickly become indigent. Some of these people are alcoholics or drug abusers and some are just unlucky.

A dumptruck driver with a swollen ankle, went to a local free clinic and was given a prescription to get an x-ray and have an orthopedic surgeon look at it at the county hospital ER. He had no way of getting to the hospital to get this done. His ankle was swollen, broken or sprained; couldn’t drive his dumptruck, and he had no insurance. He was that dreaded self-pay that never pays and is therefore turned away in non-emergent situations. He became a resident of the Salvation Army house. Orthopedic surgeons don’t fix people who don’t have insurance unless they have a lot of cash up front. Free clinics can only do so much.

What are the essential requirements of an American life? Food, shelter, clothing, clean water, good health and an education. Some of us think that access to health care is as essential as access to clean drinking water. Some do not.

Those who are opposed to the Affordable Care Act which is a big step in providing health care to a wider range of Americans seem to be concerned about the cost to them personally. “The more money we make the more they take.” Who are they?

What are they doing with my money after they take it? Isn’t that what we all piss and moan about? What is this going to cost me? A health care system that provides quality services for citizens is an acceptable and essential place for our money to go. Health care and the health of this planet is more important than killing people in other countries.

The dumptruck driver could get back in his truck after his ankle was fixed and be a productive tax-paying citizen again. How is that bad for you?

Who gives a fig what S&P thinks?

jo — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 18:31:41 +0000

Trickle down economics isn’t causing that drip you hear, its drool. Who cares what S&P thinks? Except, “after the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 is the most widely followed index of large-cap American stocks.”

We should all be listening to Fred. The news is full of Standard and Poor (S&P) credit downgrade of the US’s borrowing worth. I say, OK, so lets not borrow from them. Lets revoke their use of ratings as a political weapon. I’ve read and read and read and can’t really find an answer. Numbers, economics, and resources all seem to play a part.

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It may be disturbing to some to find out that not all good comes out of the wealthy corporate interests represented by the S&P’s 500. Japan is pulling themselves out of their natural and man-made financial woes. How? Innovation. It also helps that they don’t have a tea-party or christian fundamentalists standing on their drowning heads. OK, with that sentence, I’m guessing I’ve lost about 25% of you.

Economics is nothing more than realizing that all the Earth’s resources are scarce and the study of Economics is how those resources get allocated amongst people. A comparison of 1961 to today was made that sparked more research. I asked my smart friend Fred If our tax rate were the same as it was is 1961, would our deficit get payed off quicker?

and like a true economics guru he gave this reply…

Your question about the tax rate being what it was in 1961 would eliminate the deficit is a good one. The math is correct but ignores what has happened to the dollar since 1961. The top tax rate today is 35% on $357,500 of taxable income. In 1961 it was 34% on $8,000 and went as high as 91% on $200,000, $400,000 joint filers. See http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/federalindividualratehistory-20080107.pdf for historical rates.

Back then a dollar was still worth 50 cents. Now it is worth something between a dime and a nickel. (this is the stuff, I just can’t seem to grasp. How can a dollar only be worth a dime? Compared to what? )In 1961 a large milk shake (real dairy) was 25 cents, gas was 25 cents a gallon, a new cadillac cost $2,999, and the minimum wage was 75 cents. A living wage was $5,000 and it took only one person working to support a family. Full time workers made much more than the minimum wage which applied mostly to part time and seasonal itinerant workers. If one made $20,000 a year they were rich.

Since then we have had greatly reduced tax rates but a very high tax in the way of inflation. Inflation went up most in the 1970′s until Reagan stopped it by raising interest rates in 1979. Since then inflation has been slower, but still running 4-6%. until 2008 when prices of some things went down, like housing making average inflation minor. Still we have food, medicine, fuel, education, all going up more than the Consumer Price Index. (The consumer price index takes a semester to understand. Why are we suffering if the price of things has gone down? We’re not making it we’re just buying it, so we should be on top of this game.)

Now the government has used a new tack to fleece the citizen, it is called borrowing. We get tax cuts to make us feel like voting for the creeps, they take our social security money to fund wars, (is that why they want to tap into social security? Are those 500 in the S&P wanting our pittances for wars? Are those 500 in the S&P making money off of loaning to our pentagon for these wars? ) they give us cheap goods from China sending our jobs overseas so they can borrow from the wealthy and the Chinese, to finance more wars, that make some rich people richer so they can finance their reelections. “creeps” and other epithets are extremely appropriate in view of their game. These are smart people; they know what they are doing to us. (they don’t see us though, it’s like bomber pilots dropping bombs, all they see is a little poof)

Comparing the value of a dollar in 1961 ($.50) versus today ( 5 – 10 cents) we can compare the tax rates and equivalent dollars over the time from 1961 to now as follows; (50/10 + 50/5)/2 = 7.5 times. (I’m lost)

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Back to the main question, a tax of 34% on any family making more than $120,000, (16,000 X 7.5), and 91% on over $3,000,000, (400.000 X 7.5), would be equivalent to the tax rates we had in 1961. (91%?! Nobody wants that! Wealthy folks should not pay more just because they are wealthy. , They should pay the same as we here in the trenches pay and take away their loopholes. Perhaps those companies that profit from war should pay higher taxes.)These rates would go a long way to wiping out the deficit. I don’t have the figures, but it may even give us a surplus.

In fact, the tax rates in 1961 were too high because the rates still included the WW II repayments. (Our taxes included repaying the war debt? Now they want social security to pay the war debt?) When Kennedy reduced the rates it brought big expansion to the US economy, but it was accompanied by inflation which became intolerable by 1973 when Nixon brought out price controls, which did not work, by the way.

Reagan fixed inflation and brought us trickle down economics, which did not work, by the way. (It just brought a lot of drooling)

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Bush jr brought us cheap efficient wars, which do not end, by the way. (Cheap and efficient? Fred, I believe your stabbing at humor here.)

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Reagan, Bush sr, Clinton. Bush jr, and Obama all brought us the global economy and cheap foreign goods at Wal Mart, Which do not last, by the way. (that is the plan?, buy crap that doesn’t last so you buy more crap. This is not sustainable)

They also gave away our jobs, so we no longer work, by the way. (so we’ll be a bedroom society. Let the rest of the world work while we figure out how to get disability.)

This is my final answer. . . . I think.

We could fix the deficit if we balanced the long term budget by combining tax increases (much lower than 1961 rates), with reduced wasteful spending on senseless wars, control of medical costs and education costs, and getting organized money out of politics.

Fred

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(we need to put a cap on political donations. $1000 per person and since corporations have been deemed “a person” that’s all they can give too)

“Despair is the conclusion of fools” — Benjamin Disraeli

unions built America

jo — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:59:04 +0000

Unions built America after their military service fighting to preserve it.

Fair Trade

jo — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 14:49:57 +0000

If you have ever seen the term “Fair Trade” on labels, you may have wondered what that meant. I would like to explain.

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It is a marvelous system of guaranteeing the buyer that the product they are buying is not harming people or the planet. For example: In Papua New Guinea the farmers grow cocoa on land they own. The cocoa was sold to middle-men that in turn sold it to chocolate makers who in turn sold it to us. The farmers profits were miniscule in comparison to the middle man. Logging Companies wanted to buy these lands from the farmers and since the farmers weren’t making much money growing cocoa they were willing to sell. The Nature Conservancy came along and explained to the farmers that the sale would be a short lived income. With Fair Trade certification their profits would be greater and last as long as they were willing to farm sustainably. Keeping their lands to sell Fair Trade cocoa will provide income forever (or until we stop loving chocolate).

The farmers were granted the fair trade certification after a long (three years I think) and arduous process of sustainable growing and marketing education. The middle man was removed so they had to find their own fair trade buyers. You wouldn’t think it would be hard to find buyers for this wonderful cocoa; it helps to understand these farmers have limited sources of communication and funds for travel. These photos might help explain.

The purchase of a fair trade product means paying a fair price to the producer, and creating lasting trade relationships that can guarantee the financing environmental development. When you buy fair trade product you establish a more direct and concrete partnership with the producer.

So remember when you buy fair trade certified products you are participating in saving families, forests, and ways of life we can never enjoy.

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If you think fair trade clothing is ugly hippy crap take a look at Colin Firth’s wife Livia in a gown designed by Jeff Garner who used fair trade Ahimsa Silk for the beautiful gown she wore to the Golden Globe awards.

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So to summarize, fair trade and rain-forest alliance are providing decent wages for countries like India, Mexico, Guatemala and Ethiopia. If you complain about immigration then buy fair trade products. The immigrants will go home and grow stuff for us to buy rather than coming here and taking our jobs cleaning hotels and picking tomatoes.

If they keep taking…

jo — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 03:18:01 +0000

If they keeping taking from the middle class the American dream will cease to exist.

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We’ll exile ourselves to places like Costa Rica, Italy, Germany and Norway for the same reasons our forefathers came to America. Us worker bees will leave the tyrannical hedge fund managers and their big oil buddies to play with their – own 401k’s.

It might be a good thing — no one left to fight their wars. Perhaps they’ll stop booting out the illegal aliens; who may be needed to clean their mansions and perform CPR on their stressed out hearts?

Save CPB

jo — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:53:03 +0000

In a budget proposal made public recently, House Republicans announced plans to zero out all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the nonprofit responsible for funding public media including NPR, PBS, Pacifica and more. In Fall 2008, NPR programming reached a record 27.5 million people weekly, according to Arbitron ratings figures. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) adds 21,000 jobs which in turn generates 1 billion to the American economy. It supports stations that do not further any one religious philosophy and the stations must remain noncommercial.

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Most Republicans and the politicians they vote for don’t even watch NPR and PBS yet claim the programs have a socialist bias. What is actually happening is member stations are required to be noncommercial or educational and cannot be designed solely to further a religious philosophy or be used for classroom programming. (“Nova” is socialist?) This can only mean that they relate socialism to anything that does not promote Christianity and commercialism. If you are a centrist who leans to the right and you listen to NPR — you will like Wait…Wait Don’t Tell Me, Car Talk, Marketplace, and Prairie Home Companion. If you go to http://www.pbs.org/programs you can see all the wonderful programs to choose from that are much too numerous to list here. If you are a centrist who leans to the left you will like many of those same programs (and probably already watch them). If you are far right or far left than you really have no interest in truth so this doesn’t apply to you. Just carry on with your Fox and MSNBC and their frequent commercials.

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The entire public interest media sector and all the jobs it creates are threatened by these Republican house members. Write your Senator and your Congressman and let them know if they zero out funding for CPB they must also zero out oil subsidies and bail outs of car manufacturing. Zero out public libraries and the USPS. Zero out — so all of our news and information comes from commercial or Religious funding. Can you imagine corporate censorship and commercials interrupting Sesame Street? You think the government is about censorship? Wait until Monsanto has a say in childrens’ programming, or JP Morgan controls PBS programing.

Better School Felon

jo — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:47:59 +0000

I read today about a Mom who was convicted of a felony for lying about where her daughters resided in order for them to attend a better public school. Have any of you ever done anything like that? This woman was in someones cross-hairs; many single Moms all over the nation have done this very thing. She was in college to become a schoolteacher. Felons are not allowed to be schoolteachers which is probably a good thing, but, doesn’t the felony conviction seem a bit harsh?

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/26/ohio-mom-jailed-for-sending-her-kids-to-a-better-school/

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So what is the solution? She was living in the projects probably on welfare so she had time to go to school and be a proper mother to her daughters. Her alternative course of action may have been to work two jobs in order to have enough income to live in a better neighborhood with better schools. Her daughters would be latchkey kids which is legal for teenagers. Who cares if teenagers are home alone, they never get in to trouble. How would she attend college if she worked two jobs?

With two jobs she wouldn’t qualify for any financial assistance, food stamps, or health insurance; maybe not even free school because her income would be too much, unless of course, she could get someone to pay her under the table. More lying and more possible convictions.

The current system forces people to lie and rewards single parents who don’t work. Currently, if you work while putting yourself through school, you don’t qualify for help unless you are a single parent. A single parent can go to school for free, and if you are an unemployed single parent then you get a home, food stamps, insurance and free school. (Just don’t ask for good schools for your kids, because the free homes are in bad neighborhoods.)

Lets say she never gets caught and her daughters grow up and go to college. She is now a schoolteacher with an income that negates the kids qualifying for a grant unless they get knocked up.

My point? This woman should not be convicted of a felony because she arranged for her daughters to go to better schools. Perhaps we should bus good teachers to bad schools and fire the bad teachers. I believe that you should qualify for financial assistance if you are in school and even more so if you are in school and have a job.