It’s about damn time!

Our leaders have to be out of their damn minds!

All their political posturing has completely screwed us.

The hell with the debt ceiling! Our leaders have damaged our credit worthiness, probably hindered any recovery from the recession, and have hurried us on our way toward being a 3rd world cesspool.

When the President of Russia describes our country as a parasite that is dragging the rest of the world toward an even deeper recession.

We need to recall ALL of our leaders then elect people that are interested in actually doing good things for the country instead of beating their chests to highlight how important they are. This debt ceiling discussion should NEVER have reached the level it did.

How about this? SPEND WHAT YOU HAVE!

Washington, like Sacramento seems to think it has limitless credit cards funded by the taxpayers. I say it’s time for the taxpayers to start rejecting the charges.

I was thinking about what I’d do to stimulate the economy…

Here are some ideas. They may not be good ideas, but they’re ideas nonetheless.

Make offshoring illegal! 

Ohhhh I know that sounds bad doesn’t it? But think about it. If companies have to use laid off American workers uhhh it creates jobs.

Cancel all New H1B1 Visas, Don’t renew old ones. 

This sounds horrible! Again, if there’s an American worker to take the job you’ve just put an AMERICAN back to work in their own country. 

One of the dirty secrets in High Technology over the past decade or so is that you can hire an H1B1 worker for pennies on the dollar compared to an American doing the same job. It’s created what I think of as a labor force akin to slave labor. 

The corporation has the ever present threat of canceling the workers visa and sending these folks back to their own country. With that threat hanging over their heads… H1B1s work like slaves. 

I’ve seen these people carried out of work by EMTs because they refused to take a sick day. Of course they expose everyone to whatever they’ve got but they keep working until they drop.  

Nobody considers the additional cost of the EMT call, or the lost work because everyone else in the department was sick too.

Lighten EPA restrictions

I’m not talking about to the point of creating Love canals all over the country but how about we give corporations more choices than closing shop or moving to a third world cesspool?

California has lost tons of companies large and small due to onerous regulations regarding so called “toxic” materials in their business.  By “toxic” I mean chemicals that you’d find under your sink. Ammonia, Acetic acid (main component of vinegar), Acetone, I could go on but you get the picture. 

The United States is following California’s lead and making it harder for companies to do business AND be profitable. 

I’ve wondered how much the BP spill in the Gulf was the result of cutting corners to make numbers and how much was just negligence or bad design? I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that really expensive “mandated safety systems” were installed at the cost of overall safety.

Reduce Immigration Quotas

Another hot button. If we have 12% Reported unemployment in this country we probably in reality have closer to 24%. This disparity in unemployment figures is because of the unrealistic way the government keeps count. 

Why not automatically reduce immigration quotas by double the unemployment figures? If we can’t find jobs for the people that are already here what makes us think that immigrants will fare any better?

As for the illegal immigrants (of whatever ethnic origin)… they should be returned to sender. The third time the same person is caught here illegally… they should be clapped in irons and put to work as part of a prison work gang. They’ll be fed, clothed, and they will work, just they’re not going to be sending money home.

Institute a flat rate tax

One tax rate. No state income taxes, JUST ONE flat percentage and that’s it.

No more IRS filing, no more gamesmanship on April 15th. 

Everyone pays the same amount. Corporations, Poor people, Small businesses, Rich people, the Middle class, EVERYONE.

I personally believe that we’ve incorrectly villainized  the wealthy. 

Not everyone was born wealthy. And many of the wealthy became so, by hard work and astute business dealings. I believe that making the wealthy “villains” because they capitalized on opportunity does us all a dis-service. 

We should point to those folks and say “See, anyone can make it with hard work.”

But I think they should pay the same percentage of tax as all the rest of us. 

Make the governments (US and State) spend within their means

With a flat rate tax in place, the government can predict how much they’ve got to spend on an annual basis.

That should mean that  the budget is predictable too. No borrowing, no raiding of social security, no raiding of road taxes. The politicians will know beyond a doubt how much they have to spend, and they’ll have to allocate funds to essential services first. 

If the economy is doing well and the citizens are making more money, then there’s more money to allocate to non-essential services. If the economy is bad then the converse is true.

I think that this would act as a very effective check / balance for the size of our government and would force our legislators to focus on what’s really important. Like the PEOPLE they’re supposed to represent. And…You know, minor stuff like maintaining a growing economy….

Remove immediately any politician that is late on or obstructs budget decisions 

Yes up to and including the President!

The American people deserve better than to be used as bargaining chips in a personal battle of wills between politicians.

When the President threatened to withhold Veterans and Social Security recipients checks. It demonstrated just how far removed he is the common person. It also demonstrated the contempt he has for the American people in general.

So I think it’s time to make sure that politicians KNOW THEIR PLACE! They need to be reminded that they ARE OUR EMPLOYEES. They are paid and employed at the sufferance of the American People. A few instant firings of these arrogant parasites might bring all the others to heel. If not… well then I guess elections come early this year.

Start Charging for Military Intervention

I think we should bill any country where we’re expending military resources. 

I think we should bill the UN for Peace Keeping missions.

I even entertain the idea of us renting our military forces to other countries. 

I’m not talking about currency as payment either. I’m talking natural resources, Oil, gas, gold, silver, rare earths, in short any commodity that our nation could use. 

Why the hell should the United States taxpayers keep footing the bill?

If someone needs our forces to settle a dispute… well they can damn well pay for it.  I also think that our troops should be very well paid for their services and that could easily happen if we were billing countries that asked for our help.

It might also make folks think twice before going to war if they knew their opponent could afford to field our military against them. 

The world has cast America in a peacekeeping role. Lets make it profitable! 

Empty the Prisons

Every convicted prison inmate has two choices:

  1. Military service outside the United States. 
  2. Prison Work gang.

The goal is to make use of the standing labor force that’s just sitting around costing money but returning very little to the society.

I’m sure the ACLU would have a heart attack if any of these ideas ever were implemented.

I don’t know if any of these ideas would work…

I do know that continuing on the way we have been will lead to our becoming a third world cesspool, and I’d hate for that to happen.

Bad… Spooky bad

I read this article this morning and it sent chills down my spine.

This is bad ju ju… very very bad ju ju.

Apparently in addition to having to worry about your credit score (BTW… a completely subjective, fictitious number anymore after the banking / mortgage disaster…) now you’re going to be graded, rated and judged on your influence score.

Yep, Your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts now are going to be used to create an influence rating. That rating may be used by others to decide if you’re worthy of perks. The article suggests that perhaps even jobs would be offered or withheld based on your influence score.

Klout allows you to log in a see your score right now. I didn’t check mine…

Personally, I see this as a very good reason to delete all my social media accounts so that I’m not in the system and therefore not scored.

I could see a situation 20 years in the future… “Oh no sir we’re not allowed to perform medical procedures on you… Yes Sir, I understand you have enough cash but your influence score is just too low. You’re not relevant enough to continue to live. NEXT! Please sir, step aside for someone who is more motivational.”

After all, we all know just how well the credit scoring system worked. If your credit score is too low you couldn’t buy houses, or cars, or get credit cards. That way the financial system in the United States is protected from bad debt. YEAH RIGHT!

Folks we need to move away from shit like this!

Already some employers are asking for your social media accounts and blog addresses as part of the application process.

If an HR person doesn’t like something they see, or you don’t “friend” them fast enough you can loose job opportunities. It’s no longer about what you can do for the company…  it’s about your personal life as well.

We need to start dealing with each other Face to Face again. Arbitrary indexing and scoring is simply another way to strip us of our humanity.

Maybe I’m wrong here but this just feels like a very slippery slope.