Examples Related to Yesterday's Vent

If we're not yet aware of the 'Scrabbling for Dollars' that's going on - and there's a name for the current financial woes that is adequate, hmm? - I thought I'd add a few quick examples.

One of the recent news-bites was on school buses opting to display advertising as a method to fund crippled budgets. I'm not sure if small, local businesses will be able to afford much space or if it will become corporate logos painted on the sides; is Coca-cola a suitable merchant for targeting youth? Or more stuff we can't live without, like iPods and iPads and name-brand jeans. This is just what the kids need!

The old standby, since few object to it: raise cigarette tax another dollar per pack. What they're missing is that if all of us gave up this 'evil habit', the economy would tank in short order. The states and federal government depend on the funds from tobacco sales, a large amount of revenue for them, and mass panic would ensue if everyone quit and these sales bottomed out. It'd be one time I'd consider quitting, just to push back on the holier-than-thou, tobacco-slamming folks; wreaking havoc on 'their' economy by giving them exactly what they ask for.

Oh, possibly their last drive to raise prices on smokes forced many to quit, which is why they need to increase the tax to keep their profit margin... which in turn may force more smokers to roll their own (I do) or quitting, because you can't bleed the same folks indefinitely.

Half of the 'legalize pot' campaign has nothing to do with personal freedom or health: it's about creating another tax revenue source. Once Monsanto can figure out how to genetically modify and control it, we'll have corporate pressure to legalize, too. (Just like corn.) This will, of course, shatter the income from the backyard growers that are depending on it for a livelihood and to keep their utilities paid when minimum-wage (Hello, Bachmann!) jobs don't make ends meet anymore. Anyone see consequences from these scenarios, when we outlaw a plant that grows wild, then legalize it for tax purposes? Do we all know that one of Grandma's favorite windowsill plants, sold everywhere, is a hallucinogenic? Anyone want to tell the little old ladies this multi-colored houseplant is illegal?

We can always have law enforcement raise fines and increase ticketing for income, if we need the money, but a more creative route in a Florida jail was to save $45,000 annually by no longer giving men free underwear. Since they don't house a huge population, they must be buying from Victoria's Secret to have this kind of savings. Some yelled it was sex discrimination to allow women free underwear, but I am of the opinion that all menstruating males should also be allowed their underwear quota.

As it is, the jails already make money by charging booking fees, selling necessities and snacks, and even charging 'for their stay' at the Grey Motel. I met a local man who came back into Minnesota after 5 years and was picked up on an old restraining order he didn't know about. Imagine his shock to be hauled 60 miles and locked up for two weeks, costing him his last $300 on a credit card, just to have the judge throw the case out since he'd never been served. The job he had lined up was gone and they put him out on the street - no return trip to where they picked him up - a free man once again. And folks wonder why the cops have a bad rap!

Is there any irony that property values are dropping, but the states are looking at increasing property taxes? To offset the reduction in sales tax because folks have less money to be spending, which seems brilliant then somehow - they don't have any money, but the state needs more, so - let's raise property taxes on these folks. Our rural county is seeing 7 - 8 foreclosures daily in the courthouse, and it's a lightly-populated area. Are we in trouble yet?

The larger corporations seem to be doing fine, record profits and CEO's don't seem to be taking pay cuts. The thought of taxing them closed down Minnesota for a few weeks, because some things ARE 'holier than thou' - i.e. Big Money. The talking heads called these folks 'job creators' though they're really investment opportunists and global vultures. They've started far fewer jobs in the USA than the number of jobs moving overseas. Where are 'the jobs they are creating?' I will assume they mean keeping lobbyists and attorneys employed.

OSHA is busy doing their part to keep revenue flowing, nailing small businesses with excessive fines for minor offenses. That this may destroy the smaller businesses is not taken into account; we all know that "a soap dispenser 3 inches too high might splash an eye" (it's been there for 20 years, but that's different) and is worth several $1000 in fines. A local shop that had an inspector come through 'to make sure they were OSHA compliant' a few years ago still got $15,000 in fines against it. This is a local shop that is decent, employs about 25 people, and has been here without incident for 30 years. "But we gotta grab the cash" and OSHA's just doing its part.

These are just normal headlines, like the local businesses that only hire part-time workers to avoid benefits (local newspaper, Kohl's, etc.). This has been going on for at least the last 10 years, it was one of the ways K-mart kept prices down before they moved out of our area. I'm sure Ms. Bachmann would approve - I just wish she'd try living off these wages before spouting her mouth off.

Post offices closing or reducing services is another example of trying to save; except this does mean less money for the employees to spend in the communities to generate sales tax for the states and Fed, not to mention income tax and paying property tax. This type of thinking is everywhere, and no one seems to realize it is all Dominoes. You can't topple one thing without affecting another.

There's a ton of examples on 'financial / budget fixes' invading our country, and if you simply look for them, they're everywhere. The investment / retirement plans the disappeared, social security cuts, etc... The highway departments are strapped, the cities are struggling, the states are in budget-ruins, and the Fed keeps telling us we're improving - while they raise the debt ceiling one more time. (I know, cut aid to the poor and increase taxes on everything, but leave the top level alone - thanks, GW!)

Truth of it, none of it matters in the long run - the ship will sink. It's going to get worse on all of us because we can't think of a healthy alternative.

I find it all completely irrational, and there's no sense in telling me how "we are of higher intelligence" when we continue to be this stupid.

My Take on the Economy and the Rest of Life

I find myself frustrated with all the jaw-ing on about the economy sinking and how to fix it while the same folks remain clueless on alternative solutions and the simple fact that THIS ECONOMIC SYSTEM CANNOT BE FIXED. Its own nature guarantees it will eventually collapse.
Rather than wasting time repeating what is wrong with this system, I thought I'd offer a comparison of what our current experts are suggesting through the model of 'a sinking ship'. The ship is slowly sinking, and there's no way to patch it because it was constructed of flawed material. Not only that, we've been at sea a long time, there's no land in sight, and we're running out of food.

Okay, we've been riding this ship so long we've forgotten there's any other means of transportation. We're hoarding our personal stashes and trying to grab whatever we can to secure our individual survival with the hope land will appear to save us. We're scared half out of our wits, and some are completely around the bend - we need the ship's crew on full alert with weapons drawn to protect us from them.

Just like real society, there's different races and cultures and levels of wealth, but we're all scared; the food supply is dwindling and the ship is springing leaks. We got folks on the oars being whipped to row harder, and we blame them for our predicament. We blame the poor and other races, we blame the wealthy, we blame the captain and the crew (some who are on the take, of course, being human).

We don't blame the ship, the ship builders, or ourselves. We're desperate to get to shore, but the waves keep crashing and we're in a panic. Small groups have banded together to ensure their own survival - we call them 'experts' and listen on edge to their advice.

What they're saying is that it's somebody else's fault and then point out scapegoats to throw overboard or sacrifice by stuffing them in the latest leaks. "It's the poor eating up our supplies, theirs ran out! Toss them off the boat!" (Never mind the poor are the ones working the oars and paddling harder because their lives depend on it.) "It's the whites / blacks / Christians / Muslims / gays / seniors / wealthy". The richest have prudently secured their place as long as the ship is afloat by paying off the captain and crew; it will difficult for the poorer levels to toss them off.

"Cut spending, increase revenue." Current talk is reducing social security, welfare, minimum wage (Bachmann to the rescue), raising taxes on everything - property, licenses, fuel, food, rich (who are still able to buy their way out of this for now). In other words, let's eat the old and poor and vulnerable or throw them overboard to see if the ship will ride higher in the water.

Problem is, we're on a ship, and it's sinking. The waves are like the weather, threatening whatever crops and supplies we do have while flooding our cabins and washing our own sewage into our drinking water. Folks are camped out in the hallways and fewer lights still burn at night, while the wealthiest dance in the ballroom dining on caviar and trying to pretend "we'll all get through this, somehow" - just toss off more of the poor and homeless. Even the recently homeless, those that lost their cabins and security in the last wave and didn't think it'd ever 'be me' they were talking about. (Hello, middle class, so eager to toss off the welfare bums just a few days earlier.)

The crew isn't safe, either, though 'job security' was the catch-phrase that got them to enlist. Those who are injured or unable to perform are getting their benefits slashed, questioned, or denied. The very folks they protected are now trying to pitch them overboard. They've become obsolete.

Who do we eat next, who do we shove into the next leak? These are the questions being asked today in our economic chaos.

The irony is that we have a massive blimp in the hold with room and supplies enough for all, and we don' t know what it is. The shipbuilders intentionally locked it up tight and deny it exists, because all it'd take is for every person to help inflate it and we'd be free of the 'economic ship'.

Instead we'll keep eating each other and warring and slashing budgets and sacrificing and squeezing what we can out of each other while the corporate players go another round of Monopoly, telling us the ship is the only game in town. And if we're smart, we can play too until we're One of Them. Never mind your soul, there is no afterlife in this world - anyway, it's legal.

Like I said, I'm totally annoyed, frustrated and fed up with the folks on the ship that won't listen about anything other than sacrificing each other. And we're on the ship.

But... In My World... I'm tearing apart cars, planting things, getting dogs, painting, and generally living busy. Those are different stories on life. Compared to the amount of misery going on in the world, I'm doing good! Dollar-wise I'm not, but Life-wise, it seems I do okay, somehow.

Best to all, please don't throw anyone overboard, just start inflating the blimp!