Bizarro Economics....

In a Bizzaro world, people do the opposite of what they normally do or should do. Sometimes I have to wonder if we aren't venturing further into such a world.

The news is full of stories about workers that are taking pay cuts in order to protect their jobs. Not an easy thing to do, but hard times require hard decisions to be made, and hopefully those decisions will help companies weather the current recession and survive to offer better paying jobs in better times.

I also saw the other day that people who are drawing unemployment benefits will receive a $25.00 a week raise. As much as sympathize with people who have lost their job, I can't understand why they should receive a raise while someone who is working is taking a pay cut.

The raise will increase the maximum unemployment check to $415.00 a week. That means a person working 40 hours on a job that pays $10.25 per hour will take home less money than some people take home from not working. I'm sure most people don't want to be drawing unemployment. I'm also sure they shouldn't be forced to choose unemployment benefits over wages because they can't afford the pay cut.

But that is pretty much the way our government operates. We have a tax system that punishes success and rewards failure. 85% of the revenue from income taxes comes from 25% of the taxpayers. 68% of the revenue comes from 10% of the taxpayers. A lot of that revenue ends up as "refunds" to millions of people that didn't pay any income tax to begin with.

We have a government that punishes good decisions and rewards bad decisions. We are embarking on a multi-trillion dollar federal bailout program where people who bought and paid for homes that they could afford will shoulder the mortgages of people who bought homes that they couldn't afford.People who are working for businesses that made good decisions will be forced to bail-out companies that made bad decisions.

It's not that I have anything against helping someone up when they're down and out, but neither do I think we should punish them when they manage to get back up.

Great Expectations

The California Second District Court of Appeal has upheld the decision to award James Stevens $2.4 million because of some sexual harassment that occurred at his work place. Apparently Mr. Stevens was offended by it, and didn’t feel like he should be subjected to such treatment on the job. I’m sure a lot of people would feel that way.

I think he was expecting a little more money, though. The initial award from the jury was $18.4 million.

On the other hand, Linda, down at the coffee shop, says if it wasn’t for the sexual harassment, she wouldn’t even bother to show up for work. I suppose we all have different expectations in our lives.

Back at Millville Grade School, my old pal Stinky Wilmont was tickled if he managed to get a C on his report card. In gym. I felt the same way if I managed to pull off a B, but that snooty Bernice Hawkins expected to get A’s in everything.

When I order a cheeseburger, I’d like for the lettuce to be at least some shade of green, and I hope that the bun isn’t. Other than that, I’m not too picky. I do know a person that almost always sends her meal back to the kitchen for a redo at least once when the waitress brings it out. Again, different expectations.

The outcome of our last election was influenced greatly by peoples’ expectations of what their government should do for them. Some people expect a lot. Others, not so much.

Being a Libertarian, I’m one of those that doesn’t expect a lot. Libertarians think government should exist to protect its citizens from force and fraud. We’d like our road use taxes spent on roads, and the taxes we pay for education spent on education. And if you’re not bothering somebody else, we think the government ought to leave you alone. As I said, we don’t expect a lot.

Unfortunately, at least for the limited government crowd, people who don’t expect much have been in the minority for the last several elections. At one time, people were pretty much expected to take care of their own retirement. Then, at some point, people started expecting the government to take care of part of their retirement. We’ve now reached the point where a whole lot of people expect the government to take care of all of their retirement.

People used to expect banks to make loans to people that could afford to pay them back. Now they expect banks to make loans to people that can’t afford to pay them back, and then they expect the government to bail-out the bank and the borrower when the deal falls through.

Not to long ago, people expected businesses to provide a product or service for consumers, and expected them to succeed or fail based on their ability to figure out which product or service the consumers wanted, and how to provide that product or service at a profit. Now they expect the government to spend trillions of dollars on businesses that couldn’t figure out either.

The problem is, expecting government to pay for our every wish costs a lot of money. The national debt doubled in the last eight years, and it’s on course to more than double again in the next eight years. We’re handing a multi-trillion dollar debt down to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I’m just not sure they’re expecting it.

How much is a Senator?...

I'm reminded today of the story of the man who asked a woman if she would sleep with him for a million dollars. After she said yes, he asked her if she would sleep with him for a dollar. When the offended lady said "What do you think I am?!", the man replied, "We've already decided that. Now we're just haggling on the price.

58 representatives that voted against the taxpayer funded bailout changed their minds for $130 billion worth of pork. I guess that means that representatives cost $2,241,379,310.34 each.

I guess that means we also know what they are.

P.J. O'Roarke called them "A Parliment of Whores".

I guess he was right.