I agree completely with Steve’s sentiment. Some may argue that Steve is a crybaby, and using Obama as a scapegoat for his poor business performance. That’s the thing: his stock is on a 52 week high, and had outstanding quarterly results. Steve, instead of just complaining, took action against the poor business policies, and invested abroad. Their resort in China: the Macau, is growing like gangbusters.

I find it interesting he rails against Obama, but mentions good things about Senator Harry Reid. Harry was the biggest proponent in getting Obamacare passed. I suspect one of two things is going on:

1. He understands crony capitalism, and won’t bite the hand that controls the purse strings to get new casinos created in Nevada.
2. Is politically uninformed.

Steve Wynn is a smart guy, very smart, and not some average smoe. You don’t become one of the biggest players in Las Vegas without understanding the policial, and union environment in that town. So I would suspect it’s #1, and not #2. Which then speaks volumes on how much control politicians have over business in our country. He basically does not want to make his life a complete living hell. I suspect if he was completely honest, he would be railing against Harry Reid also.

The point is, in a time of economic slowness, the last thing a political leader should be doing is bashing the productive. It lacks common sense. The hint (not even actual laws) of more rules and regulation, businesses start taking proactive measures. This alone is not a smart idea in low (no?) economic growth, but that is what this administration keeps doing and doing and doing… One week it’s visiting Las Vegas, the next it’s rich jet owners, the next it’s Joe the plumber, or it’s evil doctors who’ll amputee legs just for a profit.

Mind you I’m not nieve to make Obama a scapegoat for all of our country’s ills. There is plenty of blame all around. My point is a leader should act like a leader, and not constantly vilify or blame others. Obama’s first, second and third concern should have been about job creation. It has been anything but that, and the results in the next year will continue to show this. At best the Obama administration is not helping with the recovery, and at worst hurting it.

So What Should Small Businesses Do?

As a small business owner, I also completely disagree with President Obama’s business policies. I unfortunately have less control over my destiny compared to Steve Wynn. I don’t have as much flexibility in investing abroad with my business.

With my “day” job, business has been slow. When speaking with my accountant; he states the same sentiment among other business owners he talks to. Most of my customers are small businesses themselves, and speak about the same issues to me. All I hear is people are treading water, and they expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.

So like any intelligent business person, I’m using my time and money to the best of my advantage. What I am doing is investing my time: researching new business opportunities, and educating myself in things I did not have time for previously. I’ve been reading like a fiend lately, and strategizing.

I’ll be honest: there have been times when I’ve wanted to give up. The point is you should never give up, and keep pursuing your dreams by taking action. Yes I’ve felt like I’ve been spinning my wheels for the past few years, but I know eventually it will pay off.

The economy will eventually get better, it always does. Large companies are sitting on Trillions of dollars. More money than ever. They’ve made themselves lean and mean, and more productive than ever. This means at some point we should see a quick rebound, but also possible high inflation. It just may not occur with this administration in office because of said policies. So sit tight, but also plan. If it does not happen here in the US, there are other countries that would more than welcome business owners.

I take a Zen approach with my investing and with my business. When this administration yins – I yang. Based upon monetary and fiscal policies: I will continue to invest in gold, silver, alternative investments, looking at methods that protect ourselves against inflation, and invest in stocks that have international exposure.

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How A Small Business Can Perform Like Wynn Resorts is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.

“We have tried spending money. We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just none interest, and if I am wrong somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job, I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. We have said we would give everybody a job that wanted it. We have never taken care of the people. There are four million that don’t have that much income. We have never done anything for them. We have never begun to tax the people in this country the way they should be. People who have it should pay. It’s never a good year to have a tax bill, but I think it’s a darn good year to begin to balance the budget. The biggest deterrent of all is that the country does not know when the end is in sight and this unbalancing of the budget, that’s what frightens people. I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started and an enormous debt to boot!”

Was it someone on president Obama’s administration? Or was this from president Bush’s cabinet? No. It was FDR’s Treasury Secretary had to say after 8 years of the New Deal. Something to think about.

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History Doesn’t Repeat, But it Rhymes is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.

Now you can say during the Bush years we had a decrease in taxes compared to other years. Yes that is true, 2005 wasn’t the highest in recepts, but in fair comparison it was in line to the historical 17-19% of GDP. Historically no matter what the government does with the tax rates, we almost always collect 17-19% of GDP. Though keep in mind in 2010 we spent 23% to GDP. So how exactly are we going to recoup this difference from the norm? We simply can’t. The highest amount to GDP we’ve ever collected was in 1944 at 20.9%. We only came close to this in 2000 at 20.6%, and only occurred because of the dot-bomb bubble.

In 2010 we had a slight decrease in taxes to GDP at 15%, but is pretty obvious what was the cause of this decrease. So, if the economy improves we should see increase increase to GDP similar to what was in 2005. This would mean a much higher amount than the $2.1 Trillion in taxes collected in 2010.

Now this isn’t to say we shouldn’t have tax increases, but the straw man examples Obama gave in his speech are typical class warfare rhetoric. The examples he used would do little to increase tax revenue. He used the examples of jet owners, oil companies, and hedge fund managers cannot get their way anymore. While then pleading that children will not be able to get an education, food safety will not occur, implied the national weather service will no longer operate, and no more government funding for medical research.

Let’s ignore the fact that many of these companies, and wealthy individuals pay for most of our taxes already. Let’s also forget Obama’s own administration in 2009 had a stimulus that included tax incentives for corporate jets. The simple fact of the matter the examples Obama use are just a drop in the bucket in tax revenue increases. This assumes they would even be able to collect the difference from the tax changes.

I’m all for removing taxes that play favorites on individuals or corporations. Let the market decide on the winners and losers and not corporate cronyism. So this means not only remove the oil and gas tax subsidies, but also removing the tax incentives for ethanol and the “green” jobs initiatives that Obama touts so much about. We all know Obama would not approve for the removal of his “baby”.

We are spending way too much than what we take in, and we need to cut the excess bloat in our government. We need a much flatter and simpler tax code than what we have currently. The solution is simple: we need to spend less than what we earn.

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We Don’t Have A Revenue Problem, We Have A Spending Problem is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.

Here’s the first example. Our air conditioner broke in our house, in fact the day my new born son came into our house. So we started looking at local HVAC companies to do the work. Unknown to us, the town we live in requires a permit to do the work. In fact, also unknown to us, if you even make a change to an electrical outlet they want a permit for the work. So on the advice of our HVAC contractor, we went to town hall, and asked for a permit. Well that just opened up a whole can of worms. It appears the previous central air conditioner was not mentioned in the title records, and because of this we must pay 3 times the normal permit fee. It was too close to the edge of the property, and needed to be moved to another location. After all was said and done, the fee for the permit came to $800!! Even though it was the previous owner that did it illegally, and we were trying to be on the up and up and do things legitimately. I kid you not, after the work was completed the town inspector took two seconds to look at the air conditioning unit. He literally said, “Un and went off his way. Which proves my point it was solely for a revenue generation purposes. Why were we punished, when we had no idea this was an issue. Recourse with the title insurance company would have been a drawn out battle, and not worth the time to recoup the $700.

The second example is also with our property. Our neighbor pulled me aside, as if we were discussing drug smuggling, and suggested to run my sprinklers at 4 AM instead of the 7:30 AM I was running them at. The town drives around checking for sprinklers that weren’t “christened” by the them. She mentioned there is a $100 annual fee with the town to turn on your sprinklers. For what purpose, other than revenue making, does this annual fee serve? I refuse to pay an annual fee to my town for an in-ground sprinkler. To conserve water? No, because traditional sprinklers use much more water and are not set to a scheduled time.

When someone moves into a town why don’t they send you a nice welcome packet with the details of the rules and regulations. No different than the condos I’ve purchased in the past. There is no excuse of this because the town gets notified of the title change, so they know when a property changes hands. Instead, because of incompetence, or hoping you voliate the rules on purpose, you have no idea what rules and regulations the town has. Sure you could go to the town and ask for these details, but then they would proceed to hand you legalese I can guarantee longer than our Declaration of Independence and Constitution combined.

For both situations, the only logical reason is it is a form of legalized payola. It makes other fellow home owners either not do the work, or do it subversively. Local business owners are hurt because they don’t get the business. I suspect this form of payola will get worse, as Business Week, had a great article about the troubles of Nassau County. For readers not familiar with the area where I live, it is one of the highest taxed area of the country. To put into perpective, my small one bedroom condo rental I pay over $4k annual in taxes (which is also in Nassau County).

Now mind you as a libertarian, I’m not suggesting no laws or regulations. They are very much needed. My point and question is when do these “well intentioned” laws cause much more unintended consequences than the positive effects? In many cases these regulations increase the cost to do business, add red tape, and decrease the flow of legitimate commerce. The more our government leaders push for rules and regulations, the more chance it has to go underground. The free market will always exist no matter what our government does.

Yet we also then entrust our civil servants to be honest with us regarding the policies they create. They always state it is for our best interest, yet can’t even tell the truth about some mistaken twitter post that was supposed to be a direct message. So if they cannot be truthful with simple things, we should trust them on government laws? We can even get someone like Charlie Rangel to be honest with his taxes, yet expects us to to the same? He got a censure big deal. If it were a regular citizen, they would be in jail for the thing he did. Hypocrisy at it’s finest. While I’m not suggesting I’ll do anything illegal or immoral, as our leaders have shown , it does not pay to be responsible.

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It Does Not Pay To Be Responsible is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.

With that said, I have been watching the events unfold in Wisconsin for the past two weeks. I have been reading commentary on both sides, and I have come to some decisive conclusions. My primary question is why should public sector unions be treated differently than private sector unions or non-union employees? The obvious answer, they shouldn’t. Private sector employees during the past three years have seen major economic disruptions. High unemployment, decreases in pay, loss of value in their retirement funds, increases in local taxes, and decreases in government services. For the most part, public employees have been unaffected by this downturn.

In addition, premiums for health care continue to rise for the private sector workers. While some public sector union employees, put in little to no money to support their healthcare. How is appropriate for a private sector tax payer, who has none of the guarantees for retirement or healthcare, asked to pay for government employees who do? Isn’t it logical for when private sector experiences an economic decline, shouldn’t the public sector also?

It use to be said, if you worked for government, yes you would make less money, but it would make up in your benefits. I can speak at least for the New York, Long Island area, this is definitely not the case. In many cases public sector employees make more, and in addition get better benefits. This goes for teachers, police and public officials. This path is unsustainable, and has to end now.

We’re Broke

In my opinion, this is just the beginning of future protests, and more than likely will get ugly. Be it from unions, seniors, or other parties that claim some stake in the government entitlement pie. We cannot afford to continue to go down the path that we are currently on. If we continue, it most certainly will not end well. We don’t have a tax problem, we have a spending problem within our government. The most obvious example is this graph from Mary Meeker (the same Mary who wrote in the 90′s the Internet Report).

This picture is certainly worth a 1,000 words. 58% of our current (not future) federal budget is to pay entitlement programs. It does not take a rocket scientist to know this isn’t sustainable, and based upon baby boomers soon to retire it will only go up. So a word to public sector unions, the game is up. We all must make sacrifices, and you must also unless you want to become the next Greece. The ability to pay little or no money towards health insurance, and get a hefty pension plan with little contribution is the thing of yesteryear. Private sector employees don’t have these benefits, why should public sector employees?

Now I’m sure some of you will argue – the continuation of the Bush tax cuts are the cause of this shortfall. You would be wrong though, as typically 18-20% of our GDP is collected in taxes. We always seem to collect the same amount relative to GDP no matter what the tax rate is on the rich, poor or middle class. Yes we did experience a shortfall in taxes collected for the past 3 years, but that should bounce back to typical rates as the economy improves. Our government is currently 25% of GDP, yet we are only collecting 18%. Does anyone see a problem with this?

But Teachers Didn’t Create The Problem!

I have a very liberal college friend who lives in San Diego, and is head of the local teachers union for his district. His claim, along with the others who protested this weekend, he is helping the keep the middle class. His argument is teachers didn’t create this financial mess yet are being blamed for it. While there is some truth to that statement, it’s really unrelated. The commonly stated “evil doer” Wall Street can be partly to blame for the 2008 economic crisis. The funding issues of public union employees is a much earlier problem, and unrelated to the crisis specifically. It all boils down to public employees have much better healthcare and pension plans compared to their private sector counterparts. Funding for their pensions has been underfunded for years. Through either accounting tricks that if any private company would do would put them in jail, or politicians kicking the can down the road. I find it ironic, my friend lives in one of the worst economic states, yet is pushing harder for more union collectivism.

The bottom line regarding anyone with a public sector job, as NJ governor Chris Christie has stated, if you don’t like your job, quit. No one is putting a gun to your head stating you must do the job. This would be no different than working for a private company. I have quit working for companies because the hours, and pay were awful. I moved on to a better paying job at another company. The problem is (at least with teachers), private schools typically pay much less. If that isn’t an indicator of what the free market salary for a teacher should be, than I don’t know what else is. The problem comes down to teacher benefits are too generous compared to private teaching jobs.

Sure there are many things I personally would like to do as a career, but if it’s not paying the bills, I would choose another career. Otherwise I would suck it up and understand this is what the career I chose pays. Why should this be any different with teachers? Mind you, I’m not suggesting teachers aren’t important. They most certainly are. My point is government employees, should be making a similar salary and contributing similar amounts to what’s seen in the private sector. The discrepancy is painfully obvious.

Repugnant Senators, Doctors and Teachers

Now on to the Democratic Senators who left Wisconsin and Indiana to hide in another state. Their actions are completely deplorable. My response would be the same, if they were any other political affiliation. As Obama has stated when he was elected President, “elections have consequences”. The past 2010 elections, the people elected a Republican governor and a Republican majority in their senate. All were elected to represent the people. If you don’t like the bill, that is fine, state your opinion on the floor, and vote against it. If the people of Wisconsin don’t like the results, they will vote anyone out in the next election. That’s the way a republic works plain and simple. You didn’t see Republicans during the health care debate, leave D.C. because they didn’t like the bill. They all just voted no. So get back to your state, and do your job you were elected to do. Otherwise you aren’t fit for the post, and a coward trying to circumvent the democratic process.

Let me now discuss the teachers protesting and the doctors involved in giving out “sick notes”. The doctors in fact admit they are doing this for the protestors, and is another deplorable issue. Do these doctors not have any ethics? They should be investigated for fraud, and have their license revoked. I’m all for the right to protest, but you shouldn’t get paid while protesting. It’s on your own time, and your decision to protest. I also find some teachers in contempt for taking their students to the union protests. From the reports, it wasn’t for an education in politics. A private sector employee would more than likely get fired for any of the shenanigans mentioned.

So What Should Be Done?

Mind you I’m not completely against unions. My beef is with just public sector unions. With unions in the private sector, if the union becomes too demanding and gets a stronghold on the business the business either goes under, or moves business to another location. There is room to negotiate so the union doesn’t kill off the golden goose. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen during the 80′s with the steel mills in the United States. The unions became too greedy and powerful. In the end the businesses became unprofitable and shutdown. The checks and balances that exist in the private sector, do not exist with public sector unions. Since the government is effectively a monopoly, there isn’t any other government to compete against, and the source of all income is the taxpayer. I’m not going to politicize the Democrats and their incestual relationship with unions. I will say it’s too easy for government officials to give into union demands, and kick the can down the road.

Sanity needs to be brought back into government employment. Public sector unions must be limited in power, and what was suggested by Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker makes reasonable logical sense:

• To make paying into a union optional. Let the worker decided if they want pay into a union member. Making a public employee automatically pay union dues is a slush fund plain and simple.
• Pay 12% of healthcare costs (private sector pays much more). The union members only pay only 6%.
• End collective bargaining rights. Not eliminating it allows the same mess to happen in the future. Effectively unions bargain with themselves

Now according to the news reports, if by Tuesday this bill isn’t passed, then 1500+ employees will get the pink slip. No government should be held captive by missing senators, and public unions. That’s the risk one must take by belonging to a union. After all, working in the private sector you can get laid off at anytime, shouldn’t the same occur when you are in a union?

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Why Should Public Sector Unions Be Treated Differently? is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.

• Jobs
• Taxes
• Health care reform
• Trade policies
• Monetary polices
• New business rules and regulations

I’ve realized that all of these items can be summed up into a much larger question.  I believe I’ve found one fundamental belief that affects all other decisions of our elected officials. The question is:

What kind of economic pie do they believe in?

Fixed Size Pie

Does the candidate believe in fixed sized pie where there is only so much available?  That the economic pie if you will, must be divided up into sections.  That one group gets a specific amount, another gets another part, etc., etc.  That scarcity is abound, and there is only so much pie to go around for everyone.

Growing Pie

Or does the candidate believe in a society that should grow the pie?  That we can we the people collectively can grow the pie.  We create wealth, and all will prosper in the process.

John Stossel recently discussed this very subject, and thought the metaphor was perfect.  An older video from John Stossel’s greed report goes into more detail.

So which does your candidate believe in? Do they believe in a fixed size economic pie, or can we create more pies? As I stated in my Yakezie post, I believe the economic universe is always expanding, just like the universe.  We are creating more and more and overall making society better.  From my experience, fixed pie people believe in economic scarcity, and act accordingly with their policies.

Have a happy Halloween, and go out and vote!

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The Senate passed a bill to lower the volume on TV ads.  I can now relax while watching TV. The volume won’t be too loud when they go to commercial.  Thank you government! The volume police now have my back.  I’ll no longer need the mute button on my remote, and can return my Tivo. For you SciFi fans, I’ll make the obscure reference that Congress should allow for Max Headroom like Blipverts to be aired now instead.

The first I heard of this bill was in Consumerism Commentary blog post “Too-Loud TV Commercial Bill Passed the House“.  See that blog post for my colorful comments on the bill.  I think there are other important issues for Congress to deal with. The economy is just humming along at 1.7% GDP growth, and unemployment is only at 9.6% so no need to worry about that.  There are reports that businesses (and even wealthy individuals) are hoarding more than $1.8 trillion in cash.  Even if you think businesses are doing this on purpose to hurt Obama, one has to wonder if the uncertainty of taxes might have a little part.  Fellow business owners give me the secret handshake next time you see me so we can bring down Obama and the Democrats.

Readers do our government has better things to do with their time?  Do you think this is an efficient use of your taxes?  Do you think the indecision on the Bush tax cuts are affecting the economy?

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The Senate Passed a Critical Bill is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.

I too think it’s important to teach children about money, and not rely on our public education system for any insight.  During the interview on how the financial reform law will help the general public, the topic wandered into the financial education of his children.

President Obama stated, “They’re starting to get old enough where they may be able earn some money baby-sitting. They’ve got their own savings accounts.”  Obama, like president Jimmy Carter when he walked to the White House after inauguration, is trying to appear he still lives like the common man.  To be president of the most powerful nation, you are anything but common.  His life, even if he is speaking from naivety and not to his political base, will never be like pre-president Obama.  If Obama’s children really go out and baby-sit for a family, don’t you think the secret service would chaperone?  All for a $10/hour baby-sitting job so his children get that “teachable moment”.  Lets not forget of course at the taxpayer’s expense no less.  So remind me again what is Obama teaching them?  I assume his children part-time activities will be included the 3.6 million jobs created or “saved”.

He also goes on to say, “That if they got $100.00 in their bank account at 2-3% for six months this is how much money they’ll have at the end of it”.   The Obama children must get a special CD rate directly from the Federal Reserve with that political pull he has.  As I see the highest 6 month CD rate offered nationally is currently only 1.50% APY, and shows how much in touch he’s with the common man.

Obama then goes on to say, “I mean, it was only a few years ago when, you know, we had high credit card balances, we had two little kids that we were trying to figure out how to save enough for college.”   Records show the Obama household was making a decent salary since 2000, even before becoming the rock star book writer. In other words, depending upon their tax-filing year, their household income placed them within the top 1-10% in the nation.  He’s one of those rich people that the administration likes to vilify.  The Obama’s were not struggling by any means, and if planned properly should have a sizable nest egg for their children’s education.

It’s telling that Obama had such high consumer debt (his words not mine), even with such a high salary. Maybe the Obama family fit into “The Millionaire Next Door” profile of high income, but low net worth.  I assume he’s gotten assistance with his debt from one of those debt counselor ads you see on TV. Maybe it’s time he sat down with one of those counselors to help him with our ever-growing national debt and large deficits.  Granted the previous administration was no slouch with Uncle Sam’s credit card either.

Obama also says, “We were still thinking about our own retirement and looking at our retirement accounts and wondering are we going to be able to get enough assets in there to make sure we’re protected.”  Based upon their 2009 income statement alone, most common folk would have enough to a live conformable retirement.

Then again maybe I’m being too harsh on the President.  After all he called the bottom of the stock in March 2009 and stated it was a great time to invest.  I’ll have to take Obama’s business and investing advice from now on since he’s a big proponent of the free market right?

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What kind of effect will all of this have on donating?   Is it logical to look at the tax increases as a forced “charity”?  If health care is the final entitlement to help support the general population, is it logical to assume people will donate less?  If you are going to see 5-10%+ increases in your taxes when you make above $250,000, will you donate less because of it?  Even more specifically, in 2008 people gave $21.6 billion to health related services.  Will this area dry up to nothing? There also have been some discussions to increase the itemized deduction amount, and/or cap the deduction for donations.  Forgetting the current economic climate, which obviously has reduced donations, I believe this new law will have a long-term affect on charities.  I also believe it will cause many other ill effects that congress never even imagined would occur.

Readers: What do you think?  Do you think there will be less donations because of more cradle to grave entitlements?  Are you planning on donate less because of the new taxes and entitlement?

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Will The Wealthy Donate Less Because Of Health Care? is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.

Once you realize this yourself, you’ll lead to a much happier life.  Unfairness is what makes everyone unique.  It makes you different than anyone else.  You’ll stop asking why are they richer than me?  How come my child is awful in sports?  You won’t be asking for government intervention to fix what’s “broken”.  Yet we constantly ask our politicians to help fix something that directly affects us in life because it’s unfair.

I recently watched on DVD with my four-year-old son, “The Sneetches” by Dr. Seuss.  Dr. Seuss was a rhyming rapping genius, and as a child of course I never got this.  When watching this video, the proverbial light bulb went off in my head.

The basic gist of the story: the Sneetches without stars on their stomach felt they were being treated unfairly by the ones who did.  The ones without stars met up with a man named Sylvester.  He had a machine that would allow them to also have stars by each paying $10 dollars.  Once everyone has stars, the ones who initially had stars wanted their stars removed by Sylvester.  It could be said that Sylvester is our government.  I won’t give away the rest of the suspenseful story, but I suggest you watch it.  For the complete video you can check it out on YouTube.

Life is full of unfairness.  Here are some examples in the real world:

• US government employees make more than the private sector
• Someone else is richer than you
• Your child has a learning disability
• You are born in North Korea (sad part they don’t realize it)
• Too young or too old
• Too ugly or too pretty (yes being too good looking has issues)

All of these are unfortunate things, but that’s the way things are.  Those were the cards you were dealt with in life.  It’s your decision how you play your hand.  I’m not saying I don’t have compassion for these issues.  I do, I really do have compassion for others.  My point is instead of complaining, use the unfairness in your life, and work around them.  Use what could be considered a disadvantage, to your advantage.  There have been many examples throughout history of people who have, against all odds, made themselves into a success story.  What made them unique was the reason for their success, not failure.  They didn’t blame others for their issues, and instead took action regardless of the circumstances.  We need to become the best we can be, and not compare ourselves to others.

Entitlement

Related to unfairness is entitlement.  I’ll send out the all points bulletin, but you aren’t entitled to anything.  Just because you worked hard all of your life doesn’t mean you deserve anything.  Even though every child wins an award in an elementary school sporting event, that’s not how the real world works.  Some examples:

• You already got two years of unemployment benefits, does not mean you are entitled for more.
• If I don’t listen to what my customers want, it does not entitle me to still be in business.
• You don’t deserve a corner office when just getting out of college.
• The senator, who doesn’t listen to their constituents, isn’t entitled to their position come election time.
• You aren’t entitled to own a home.
• You aren’t entitled to an education.
• You most definitely are not entitled to free healthcare.

Entitlement to me means everyone deserves the same quality of service for the same price (or “free”).  We all know in economic reality there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Some way, somehow someone has to pay for the services.  Since I’m in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, there aren’t magical leprechauns dancing around a pot of gold so an entitlement can exist (or maybe they do).  Even communist and socialist countries have shown that people still get treated unfairly with entitlements.  For example, it’s safe to assume in his failing health, Fidel Castro gets better healthcare than the average person within his country.  Everyone in Cuba is entitled to the same healthcare, but not everyone gets treated equally.  In the end, entitlement leads to mediocrity, which leads to overall poor service, and lack of innovation.

Readers what do you think?  Do you think I’m a heartless bastard who has no care for his fellow man? Or do I just accept the facts of life, and deal with it in a rational way?

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Life Isn’t Fair. Now Get Over It. is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.

It seemed like it was only yesterday they increased the limit.  Oh wait it was.  What seems like eons ago, but was December 24th 2009, Congress raised the debt ceiling 12.4 trillion.  It’s the Christmas gift that keeps giving back for many generations to come.  Moody’s is again threatening to decrease our AAA rating.  Being always late the party, by the time Moody’s actually decreases the U.S. credit rating it will become already accepted fact.  Some analysts are saying we should already be downgraded, but we do have some reasons why we haven’t been yet.  We are still the world’s reserve currency, but for how long who knows.  At least the last crisis people flocked, like seagulls, to treasury bonds.  The next round, we might not be so lucky.  Who is going to loan us additional money when other countries are tapped out.  Countries like China have also threatened to decrease purchasing more treasuries, and from some news reports appear to be doing this already.  Brother can you spare a trillion?

Readers what do you think, we as owners of this country should do? Should we do anything?  Am I just uneducated about Keynesian economics, and this is nothing to worry about?

If you believe what I say is true, how can we ensure our deficit is reduced, and decrease our spending.  Keep the conversation apolitical.  I do not want to see comments blaming Bush, Obama, Pelosi or any political party.  Let’s look forward, and what action items we can do as a people to get this under control.

Let me circle back to the purpose of this blog – investing and small business.  Brett Arends from the WSJ has a good article on ways you can protect yourself financially.

Readers, do you have any other recommendations to help protect yourself financially?

• What Makes Debt Socially Acceptable?
• We Don’t Have A Revenue Problem, We Have A Spending Problem

A US Debt Limit that’s Unlmited?!? is from Investor Junkie Copyright © Empowering Media, Inc.