[New BMT Blog Entry] Paul's Tales - New Year 2009

[WattsMack]

So I'm sitting here thinking about what I can do to make 2009 a

better that 2008 was.

And I'm thinking of what the government and the new administration

could do, realistically, to make the new year better than the old one.

Can President Barack manage the "national attitude" and create some

optimistic thinking in Americans? If so, then I think we can start to solve

our own problems. We really don't want the government involved in fixing

the problems anyway. When was the last time you saw the government, in

any situation, do something that was efficient, effective and/or economical?

Doesn't happen.

Indeed, I just read that the government bean-counters have already lost control

and lost accountability of the $700 billion dollars that the banking industry got!

That didn't take long.

I believe that we, as Americans, are the only ones who can solve our problems.

Hopefully we can do that before the problems take over, and we are forced into

very compromised lifestyles.

We seem to be deaf, dumb and mute when it comes to controlling our own government.

And just that issue has led to a series of unprecedented blunders by that government.

We are not providing any oversight to our elected representatives. They just have free reign,

as long as we let them. We sit back. Fat, Dumb and Happy.

Our international position has plummeted, both socially and economically; we are fighting

wars that we shouldn't be in; and the cost of government has skyrocketed as more and more

"handouts" are made available to those in need (or not).

More and more of our core industries, utilities and real estate are being bought by foreign interests,

as we send more and more jobs away to cheaper producers. We are borrowing money from those

countries that are now doing our jobs for us.

And still our demands for energy and consumer goods keep spiraling upward.

Seems like a one-way street to me.

I think it's time for some really old-fashioned reasonable thinking.

Simple things like "You can't spend more than you have, or more than you make" at any level,

and you have to pay the debts, as quickly as possible.

Stop trying to force our form of democracy on the world. It obviously doesn't work when we do.

I think the quiet, tough kid on the block always gets the most respect. Be the quiet, tough kid, and mind your own business.

When we can't hire a person because they make more on welfare than when they work, even though they are healthy

and strong, something is wrong with that. Why can't there be a sliding scale for the amount of assistance you receive,

based on the wage you make? If you could get more total income while working and collecting a fraction of the

government's assistance, then why wouldn't you work? The government cost of welfare goes down, the people work,

and can develop self-respect, and that puts the lower paying jobs back here in this country, where they belong.

All good thoughts, and best wishes to everyone for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Paul Van Scott

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[Mike]

Paul,

I stongly agree! Amen to that.

mike

[Rob]

You want public assistance? You provide service to the public. Working parties can be a good cost effective solution to get people off of the welfare roles. It doesn't take a whole hell of a lot of brains to clean up trash, paint walls and walkways, or many other services that could be performed by able bodies.

This is my rendition of "Pay to play". Just is backwards from the state of Illinois.

Rob