IBM CEO Retirement Perks

Solutions?: The Problems

Our system of government is broken. Where else can you work for someone where you get better benefits, wages, pensions and perks than the owners? Where else can you work from 2-4 years, get fired and receive pension and perks till the day you die? Where else would you get better health benefits then the bosses? I'm not talking about the people who fix the buildings, sweep the floors, or work in offices doing the many things that are needed to keep our government going. I'm also not talking about the policemen, firefighters, or the people who keep our infrastructures going. I'm talking about the politicians, the people responsible for representing us.

How can our politicians be representing us when they continually vote along party lines? Are they really representing their constituents or pushing party agendas? The way things are set up now, they hold all the cards, they vote on their own pay raises, benefits packages, pensions, they have healthcare and the whole nine yards. There are only two major parties, between the two, their contacts, their clout, they make enough money from campaigning that they can effectively shut down any outsiders. Anyone with ideas that go against the party, or ideas that are too dangerous to keeping the status quo are shunned by their party and cut from the benefit of party raised money for campaigning.

The whole idea of needing so much money to campaign is part of what corrupts our system. Most politicians spend a lot of time when they should be working for us raising money for the next election cycle. Needing such vast amounts of money gives corporations and wealthy individuals the upper hand, because even if something is right and a good cause, a politician would be committing political suicide to support it if that cause wasn't in the best interests of the people footing much of their election campaign. It is the person who has the most money to buy the most airtime, that can slander the other person the most, who has the upper hand in our elections. Politicians like that are puppets of their highest donors and will not go against their biggest donors best interests. They will not be concerned with their constituents wishes, they are a broken cog in democracy.

It is time we the people take back our government from the rich elite that runs it now. Our whole election process is a joke. There is no accountability, no consequences for cheating or not telling the truth. These people are all applying for the job of our Representatives, but they do it all on their terms, not ours. We have to step back and say whoa on a second. Do all these commercials put together to mislead, about the flaws of the other opponent or brag up the triumphs of one's self really any good to the selection of our leaders? Is it any good to have two parties that basically have a monopoly on candidates and individuals having to tow the party line? What do we do to fix this? Can this be fixed? Next time I will give my thoughts.

The War on Poor

You know figures and stats can be manipulated to show anything you want them to. You could quot figures showing that the rich pay the majority of tax collected, and I could show you figures on how the common man pays a higher percentage of his income on taxes. They say that there are a lot of people who don't even pay taxes and should thus not be deserving of any assistance, but I see people who don't fit into a society that has evolved to the point that it is so costly that some can't afford the basic necessities let alone pay taxes. They say, give more money to the rich and they will hire workers," I say put more money in the hands of the many, they will spend it creating demand and more workers will be hired. No matter how much money you put in the hands of the rich, they won't hire workers if the common man can't afford the products and services their businesses have to offer, but if there is a demand, businesses will hire more workers to handle the extra work. The same people who argue that sticking more money in the education system won't fix it, are screaming for us to continue to lower the taxes on the wealthy. Sticking more money into rich peoples hands won't create jobs, it certainly didn't all through the last 10 years we have been giving them these tax breaks. Instead, corporations have been making record profits by laying off thousands of workers. There is a war going on in America.

One would naturally think that this class war would be between the richest and the poorest, but it isn't, it should be though. This war is between the poorest and the former middle class that are hoping to hold on to some remnant of their former glory. The super rich for the most part have shed themselves from being in the target sights of the majority. The wealthy have been successfully using the former middle class people as a buffer cushion between them and the people who they are hurting the most. The well off are convincing the middle class that it's the fault of the lower class that they aren't doing better in life. The middle class is told that all the lower class is fat and lazy and living well off the fruit of the middle class. When there is talk of stopping the tax cuts or adding more taxes to the rich, it is spun into a story of how this is going to cost jobs, hurt small businesses and cost them money. The dream of many middle class people is to start up their own business even though most will never get to that point and many who do will lose their ass, so they take that spin and side with the rich who in turn will cut off their toes and make it even tougher for new businesses to start up and compete. There is a sucking sound in this country, but it's not our jobs being sent overseas, that screwing was over a while ago, this sucking sound is the sound of what's left of our wealth being sucked out of every one of the common man into the pockets of the very few elites.

It has been the goal of a few elite groups to cause total meltdown of the nation for their gain. Really, what are a few years bad returns if it leads to most all of a countries wealth ending up in your pocket? Just like you can never hardly win in a legal battle with a corporation because they have the money and resources to out last the common person, how long would it take to liquidate the common man of everything he owns if he didn't have a job? How rough would it be for the super rich to go that long not making money? People you are being liquidated. One of the reasons they want to downsize government and cut all services? They want to get the money that's tied up in government programs and projects in your pocket temporarily, so it's where they can get their hands on it.

So what's their plan for the future? Here's one billionaire's idea in an article/blog on Yahoo. In this plan:

Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties. The idea is for these countries to start from scratch--free from the laws, regulations, and moral codes of any existing place. Details says the experiment would be "a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."

Kind of reminds me of something out of the science fiction movie, "Water World". Maybe they are getting ready to outlast the raising water from the melting ice caps from global warming that most of them refuse to acknowledge. Kind of makes me wonder where they are going to get people to work and live there with no laws or minimum protections. You might not want to drift too close to their "sovereign nations", you might just get Shanghaied and end up owing your soul to the company store on some off shore man made island. It's what he says later in the article that kind of sums up the attitude of the wealthy.

"There are quite a lot of people who think it's not possible," Thiel said at a Seasteading Institute Conference in 2009, according to Details. (His first donation was in 2008, for $500,000.) "That's a good thing. We don't need to really worry about those people very much, because since they don't think it's possible they won't take us very seriously. And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

All something to think about.

Defense: The Double Edged Sword

While reading an Associated Press article on Yahoo titled, "Doomsday defense cuts loom large for select 12" , a few things come to mind, hardly any of them good.

Is it a coincidence that the six Republicans and six Democrats represent states that have the most to lose by the automatic cuts that would hit defense spending in their states? I guess that's pretty good incentive for them to come to some kind of agreement before the dead line. Myself, I think it's pretty sad that such a large percentage of our population is in the business of making things to kill other people. Yes, this would put a lot of people out of work if we didn't have these businesses, but we should be employing these people in different job fields.

Should it really be our responsibility to police the world? Should we spend more than most the other countries combined for defense? The really sad part is we are not only making these weapons for our wars, but we are making them for all the wars around the world, sometimes supplying arms to both sides of the conflict by one means or the other, so is it for jobs we allow people to be killed? It also goes to figure that it is more profitable for us to have wars around the world than to have peace, is this really right? How can you really be committed to peace when you need wars to keep your people employed?

If we were to put all that talent on solving our country's and the world's problems how much further along could we be as a species? Imagine putting them think tanks and talented people to work on coming up with alternative energy solutions and standards and infrastructure to make it all work? If we weren't policing the world we would use a lot less oil as fuel for all the toys of war, the ships, tanks, planes, hummers, what have you. How would that affect how long the oil we have lasts and the price at the pump? While we plan for war our infrastructure crumbles, our education fails us, we will die from within. We have to use these technologies for saving lives and making the lives we have better, not tear down what already is with bombs and missiles. We need to put these people to work to make life better for the living, not make a living off people dieing.

Egypt and the U.S.

Just a short post today. I have been watching closely the protests in Egypt and listened to banter back and forth about what this means to the U.S. and the rest of the world. Many in the U.S. seem to have the idea that this is bad for the U.S., it will destabilize the region, the new guys might not be as friendly to the U.S., the new guys might be radical Islamic, this will cause other countries in the area that have the same kind of political set up to revolt against it's leaders, etc., etc.

Here we are/were fighting two large wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with our leaders telling us that this is to promote democracy for those that can't have it. But here now is a large populace of Egyptians that are fighting for a democratic political system, and here we are arguing amongst ourselves if it is better to provide so much as a supportive statement for the Egyptian people, or try to keep the dictator in power some how because he is a U.S. yes man. How stupid are my fellow countrymen that they think they can spread democracy by the end of a gun barrel while destroying and leveling cities. In the dictionary this is the definition of a terrorist. Surely if we back the people we will be in a better position to negotiate with what or who ever the new leadership will be than if we continue to support the old and supply tear gas and rubber bullets to be used against the people. If we want to help spread the ideals of democracy, we must ourselves live by the ideals of democracy. We can't claim to have the best political system and then support dictators to rule over other countries. IF you change to a democracy, THEN we will help out financially, NOT before. If we expect other countries to follow the rule of law, we should be responsible to the rules of laws ourselves. None of this illegal getting fondled at the airport, secret government or secret prisons, no illegal wire, phone, bank, internet tapping, no no torture when there is, breaking international laws and agreements, or any of all the other things we do that don't follow the rules of law, but I digress.

I have a feeling what the real cause of anxiety to Egypt's surrounding countries and even some of the western countries and the U.S., is that something like this could happen in our country. We have many of the same things wrong with our country that Egypt has with it's country. A small percentage of the people controls a large percentage of the money and thus power. The people who are in power aren't doing things that are the best for their country, or it's people, only for the short term gain in their own pockets. The politicians that are supposed to be representing us and working for us are corrupt, working just to try to stay in power or get in power, voting along party lines with no regard to what their constituents want, for their own financial gain, without any compassion for the people caught up or destroyed by their greed. I think this is the real cause of concern of the U.S. and the world.

Problems of Our Government

One of the problems with government now days is that politicians have too much lea way of the facts. There is too much disinformation out there that overshadows the facts. These people work for us, but they work under their own rules. We as a people should demand that our leaders are held to a certain level of conduct both while in office and campaigning. All politicians should be held to statements of fact and have the references to back up what they say. If they claim that the other party voted a certain way, they should have to be able to prove their claims. There should be no innuendos of misconduct, or unethical motifs if there isn't any facts of it. Everyone makes honest mistakes at times, but when they do there should be a public acknowledgment if and when mistakes are made. If anyone is continually making mis-statements either on purpose or by their lack of knowledge of what's going on they should be fined, if the practice continues they should be replaced. There should be a lot easier way of expelling dishonest, unethical representatives from our employment, instead of slapping them on the hand and allowing them to continue being employed by us. The people should have media and news programs that they can trust as being factual and unbiased. Having honest, truthful information at the fingertips of everyone is essential to an informed public and an informed voter.

These people that supposedly work for us, are fat off our tax dollars. They have all the perks, health care, generous pensions, and the list goes on and on, all at our expense. With the technologies of our time why are we paying for our representatives to travel from their home states to the capital, they could use video conferencing or other such means of communication. Not only would we save the cost of their constant traveling back and forth, but they can have all their supplies, notes, proposals all in one spot in their own state capital building instead of hauling everything back and forth, just think of the savings in airfare, fuel, pollution, wasted travel time, multiple housing accommodations or hotel costs car rentals, cab fees, multiple offices, heating and air conditioning all them places, all could be eliminated, or at least cut a lot. Once the system is in place, it stays there and whoever is in office has it to use. If this would have to be implemented in fazes, it should start with the states farthest from Washington and states that are the poorest.

Every two to four years all salaries and pensions should be adjusted to average privet sector equivalent job rates. Their health care should be at the same level as the rest of us, so either all their care isn't free, and easy to get, and the best money can buy, or ours is. These people are not kings. If we can't afford such perks for ourselves why would we provide them for our employees? Our representatives run around like teenagers at college abusing their first credit cards. It's fun while it lasts, but eventually it will catch up with us. Our government should be run like a business, not running on a deficit constantly, we should be coming out a bit a head so we can invest in the future. We are doing everything for immediate gain and profit instead of having the vision to look ahead to the future. We should be looking out for our best interest as a country instead of looking out for the best interest of big corporations making obscene record profits. Corporations have no business in government, they have their votes and donations of the individuals, just like everyone else, but they should not be free to donate to political parties period.

The process of voting for our representatives is getting to be a real joke. With all the disinformation and lies, it's a circus and no one knows what to believe.

Our representatives public life should be all business and being there and taking part in the task at hand. When they are doing their job in their public capacity politicians should be professional, honest, efficient, and ethical. They shouldn't be spending their time in between elections in a continual campaign mode. On the other hand their private lives unless they are involved in illegal activities should be that, private. If it isn't illegal or if they are not trying to pay for their private lives with their public funds, or if it isn't affecting their public responsibilities, their private lives should be left out of politics. I guess you could argue that maybe their involvement with the KKK or something might affect the way they vote on things, but in a way that is a public display...

Okay, so I don't have all the answers, but the point here is to get others thinking. How can we shake things up, reduce costs, improve our government. If you have any suggestions feel free to post your opinions, I reserve the right to remove offensive posts, but you can disagree with me without profanity.

Yet Another New Beginning: Politics in a changing world

With the recent shooting in Arizona I have really mixed feelings about everything political. Let's give our prayers to the survivors of the people who got killed and the people injured during this tragic senseless event. I was hoping that maybe this might be a wake up call against the climate of our political events of late. As of today though I realize this is never going to happen. I think our news media, political, and justice systems are really broken in this country. During the last couple of elections the tone of things has just gotten out of hand.

I believe in the 1st amendment and free speech, but there are limits. It has always been against the law to say certain things, for an instance, you can't stand up and yell fire in a crowded theater. I thought there were laws against slander where you can't publicly say untrue things about people, but in our political arena this seems to be common practice. I also thought you couldn't make threats against other people, and I even thought that you couldn't incite a riot or incite violence, but perhaps I'm wrong because you can see this go one everyday, specially in political settings.

Now before anyone starts getting bent out of shape, I don't think that the shooting actually had anything to do with Palin's gun slogan remarks, I'm not going to point the finger at Palin or her other Republican buddies and say that it was their fault this troubled person went postal, but I do think that the other issues the Arizona Congresswoman has had with people smashing her office door and making threats does have to do with the Republican Tea Party getting everyone riled up into a frenzy with prophesies of doom and hate speech. Pretty much all everyone was hoping to get out of Republicans after this horrific event were statements denouncing the strong language used during campaigning and against violence of this kind directed towards innocent people and politicians. This was not a demand for an admission of guilt, it was just a statement that was hoped to come to try to help deescalate some of the hot emotions that have been inflamed more and more the last few of election cycles. Instead we first got some double talk about how posters and things said were misconstrued, then came the cry of we can say anything we want as it is protected by the 1st amendment. I'm sorry, but these weren't just harmless metaphors, these were cries to come to arms and take back their country from people who don't have the same opinions that they do. What's even more disappointing/saddening/stupid is it wasn't that long ago, that these were the same people that were calling for the assassination of the founder of Wikileaks for exposing some mostly embarrassing, but some possibly criminal things that have been going on in our government and other governments around the world. These people have been bending over backwards trying to figure out how to strip any 1st amendment rights from Wikileaks to stop information that should be coming out of our major news organizations if they weren't all on the dole with these people in power, or it would maybe be more correct to say if they didn't have the people in power on their doles.

It's too bad that the tragedy of what's happened, the lives lost and lives damaged are getting lost in the back and forth finger pointing and arguing about who's to blaim.