http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052602909_pf.html
Last year I was able to go to Poland and Sweden for work. Didn't really get many oportunities to get out that much due to having to work the majority of the time but on Friday, one of the accountants in Sweden was able to take me out and about to do some shopping. I bought two things, a mixing bowl (kind of a joke but we really the bowl is awesome and is very popular in Sweden)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002COC82/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A13HTXU7N5QMMA&v=glance
And another glass bowl that was also made in Sweden. I think it cost like 1,000 Swiss Kronos, actually I don't remember how much it cost other than there's nearly 10 Kronos to one US dollar, at least a year ago that was the conversion rate. So I get up to check out and the accountant tells me the VAT (Value Add Tax) is 21% but I can get that money back when I go through the airport. I about flipped!! 21% national sales tax. Could you imagine paying that much on everything plus still paying an income tax! And a high one at that? Well as you can see from the link, there is now the idea being pushed around of adding a national income tax here in the US. We already pay either 3% or 7% here in this area depending on if we're paying for food or some sort of non-food product. Could you imagine increasing that amount by 10% so we can afford to pay for everything that this administration wants? It's just scary. And are you going to tell me that no one over 250k has to pay this 10% if it happens? I personally think it will. I think the President wants there to be few differences between us in Europe. From the taxes to the cars we drive. You know, maybe I could deal driving a 1.0 litre car if I had a 2000 + year old building that I could drive to and look at. But we drive to work and we drive to the mall and we drive to restaurant. Europe has it's cool stuff. We have our economy and our cars!! Don't take that away!! If all things are equal between us in Europe, why would I stay here? Europe has cooler places!! Bigger mountains, cooler cities, more history, etc. Why stay if we become them? And another thing.....you pay for lunch in Euros over there and it cost roughly 8 or 9 Euros. Now when you multiple that by 1.5 and you're now paying $12! For a hotdog and a coke! 3 Euros for a coke alone which is $4.50! Gas is sold by the litre and that costs almost 2 Euros. Multiple that by 1.5 and then by 4 to equal a gallon and you're paying around $10 a gallon! This was when gas was $4 a gallon over here. So...is this really what we want?? Income tax, national/state sales tax, expensive cokes, expensive hot dogs, expensive gas, small, expensive cars, etc!
Obama has made it perfectly clear that he's not pushing off these things that he claims needs to get done any longer. What he's also saying is he's finding the money to pay for it. It's going to be through taxes!! When it does I guess it makes no difference if we live here or Europe??
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
How the President got the Auto industry behind him...
Once again another example of how those making 250k or less will be paying more money out of their own pockets to pay for "Changes". This article goes on to explain some of the problems we'll have when 2016 gets here. This is a very aggressive timeline, 4 years sooner than what Bush called for, that will be very difficult for the auto industry to meet unless they start throwing heavy stuff that isn't absolute necessary out of the design of the car. Cars will be smaller and lighter....and slower :( . Oh well. What about the big-rigs still cruising the highways. Europe has small cars but they also have small freight trucks. These giants that are on the streets now will demolish one of these toy cars. And not to mention another small car will demolish a small car since it has to be light to meet the 35.5 mpg reequirement.
Anyway, on to my topic. The administration keeps mentioning how they are being supported by the auto industry. Have people already forgotten that the auto industry is now made up by the government. It's like me saying I support myself! Was Ford for this?? I really don't know? I guess I would have to do some research. All I know is, those that accepted bailout money don't have much say. They have no say over their pay, their executives, their board of directors, their budgets and what cars they design and sale! And what happens to those of us who own cars in 2016 that aren't paid for and don't meet this requirement? Are we going to have to pay some sort of "gas guzzler" tax? What would be the trade in value for a car that doesn't meet these requirements??? A lot of people can't afford new cars! They have to wait until they're used to buy the car. What about them? What are their options? If the auto industry is actually going to make money out of this deal it will have to be in the customers best interest to buy a new car. If we have an option then most people will pass on buying toy cars that are not safe just to save $1000 a year on gas. That means the auto manufactures will have a bunch of cars sitting on lots that no one has. Either way, someone loses!! Give them the time they need to build a car that is safe and what people want to actually pay for!! Who really wants to be passing a line of semi's while driving one of those new smart cars!!?? Not me!!!!!! Don't rush this! And notice that in this article it talks about the weight these environmentalists carry!! It's crazy!! Forget the economy, forget our pockets, forget about what the customer wants, make some crazy tree huggers happy!! There has to be common ground here. We can't let the gov't make such huge, reckless decisions that will not benefit the majority of the people out there! And again, don't give me this crap that the auto industry is behind Obama and his folks when they have no choice but to stand behind him and support him!! They can't go to the bathroom without his permission!!!
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-05-19-auto-safety-small-cars_N.htm
Anyway, on to my topic. The administration keeps mentioning how they are being supported by the auto industry. Have people already forgotten that the auto industry is now made up by the government. It's like me saying I support myself! Was Ford for this?? I really don't know? I guess I would have to do some research. All I know is, those that accepted bailout money don't have much say. They have no say over their pay, their executives, their board of directors, their budgets and what cars they design and sale! And what happens to those of us who own cars in 2016 that aren't paid for and don't meet this requirement? Are we going to have to pay some sort of "gas guzzler" tax? What would be the trade in value for a car that doesn't meet these requirements??? A lot of people can't afford new cars! They have to wait until they're used to buy the car. What about them? What are their options? If the auto industry is actually going to make money out of this deal it will have to be in the customers best interest to buy a new car. If we have an option then most people will pass on buying toy cars that are not safe just to save $1000 a year on gas. That means the auto manufactures will have a bunch of cars sitting on lots that no one has. Either way, someone loses!! Give them the time they need to build a car that is safe and what people want to actually pay for!! Who really wants to be passing a line of semi's while driving one of those new smart cars!!?? Not me!!!!!! Don't rush this! And notice that in this article it talks about the weight these environmentalists carry!! It's crazy!! Forget the economy, forget our pockets, forget about what the customer wants, make some crazy tree huggers happy!! There has to be common ground here. We can't let the gov't make such huge, reckless decisions that will not benefit the majority of the people out there! And again, don't give me this crap that the auto industry is behind Obama and his folks when they have no choice but to stand behind him and support him!! They can't go to the bathroom without his permission!!!
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-05-19-auto-safety-small-cars_N.htm
Sunday, May 17, 2009
I Hate CNN Polls!!
Has anyone else noticed the polls on CNN and how they are stupid and how they don't ever offer the answer that I would choose? For example the poll for the weekend is, should Notre Dame give Obama an honorary degree? My response would be something a long the lines of, it's not really my decision so I don't really care. This is really just the left's opportunity to tell a Catholic school that they need to accept abortion if the majority say yes. The funny thing is the majority does not accept it but the liberal media will have us believe otherwise. Perhaps the majority of CNN readers accept abortion. They have other stupid polls as well that are also awesome but I don't remember them off the top of my head. It seems the polls all to often are there to show that conservatives are in the minority. What they need to realize is that conservatives a lot of times avoid that website. I read it every day however. I find it interesting to see what's on the front page of both Fox News and CNN and to see the spin each put on the news of the day. All this fair and balance crap is bogus for both companies I would say but I think reading from everything may get you a bit closer to where we need to be. Just don't pay attention to the polls on CNN!!
What poll would you actually like to see on CNN? I think one that I would enjoy would be: What do you think Obama gained from meeting with Brad Pitt and George Clooney the first weeks of his presidency? I think Clooney was talking about Darfur and Pitt was talking about poverty or aids or something. Are we to assume that Obama actually learned or gained some sort of insight fromt these two mega stars that he didn't already know? We were/are in the midst of an economic crisis and two of the experts Obama has in his office are stars of some of my favorite movies, the Danny Ocean movies. Is that not ridiculous? What did he learn from them? What did they know that the President of our country did not know or what did they know that his advisors did not know? What was the purpose of these meetings so early in his presidency? Does anyone actually think the President learned something from them??? If he did then that's scary! If he didn't then he's wasting this countries time!! I'm confident that this was just a meet and greet. Autographs were probably passed around and they probably talked about being voted sexiest man for People magazine and they probably told Obama that they'll try to get him on the cover as well. I just can't picture Pitt or Clooney telling the President information that only they know. I mean really...think about it. Think about Obama sitting there wide eyed, nodding his head and saying something like "interesting" or "I can't believe we allow this to happen" or "you have my word that I'll do something abou this" as they talk to him. RIDICULOUS!!!
But seriously, those polls on CNN never have my answer. It's like the only people they are catering their answers to are left leaning folks. For example, how bad is Pres. Bush doing? Bad, Really bad, or Really really bad! And how do you feel about the job performance of Obama so far? He's amazing, Best President ever, or it's too soon to tell but from what I can see he really could be the Messiah. Or how scary is Global Warming? It scares me, we should start walking and riding bikes right now to slow it down, we should kill any living breathing thing to prevent the destruction of mother earth. Or how was the Earth created? Big Bang, created from white hole or black hole, any way other than having some sort of supreme being creating it.
I'm exagerating a bit here obviously but not by much! I think it' so important for us to get our news from everywhere and hope that we're getting the information we need to make a judgement as to what side we feel we should take.
And here's some reading for you that shows some of the ways your money has been spent recently, you actually can read the link rather than actually going to webpage if you want, it kind of tells you what you're clicking on.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/14/government-funds-million-program-make-chinese-prostitutes-drink/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/08/government-funds-study-gay-sex-argentina-bars/
Maybe CNN should do a poll on if this is how they want their money spent!
What poll would you actually like to see on CNN? I think one that I would enjoy would be: What do you think Obama gained from meeting with Brad Pitt and George Clooney the first weeks of his presidency? I think Clooney was talking about Darfur and Pitt was talking about poverty or aids or something. Are we to assume that Obama actually learned or gained some sort of insight fromt these two mega stars that he didn't already know? We were/are in the midst of an economic crisis and two of the experts Obama has in his office are stars of some of my favorite movies, the Danny Ocean movies. Is that not ridiculous? What did he learn from them? What did they know that the President of our country did not know or what did they know that his advisors did not know? What was the purpose of these meetings so early in his presidency? Does anyone actually think the President learned something from them??? If he did then that's scary! If he didn't then he's wasting this countries time!! I'm confident that this was just a meet and greet. Autographs were probably passed around and they probably talked about being voted sexiest man for People magazine and they probably told Obama that they'll try to get him on the cover as well. I just can't picture Pitt or Clooney telling the President information that only they know. I mean really...think about it. Think about Obama sitting there wide eyed, nodding his head and saying something like "interesting" or "I can't believe we allow this to happen" or "you have my word that I'll do something abou this" as they talk to him. RIDICULOUS!!!
But seriously, those polls on CNN never have my answer. It's like the only people they are catering their answers to are left leaning folks. For example, how bad is Pres. Bush doing? Bad, Really bad, or Really really bad! And how do you feel about the job performance of Obama so far? He's amazing, Best President ever, or it's too soon to tell but from what I can see he really could be the Messiah. Or how scary is Global Warming? It scares me, we should start walking and riding bikes right now to slow it down, we should kill any living breathing thing to prevent the destruction of mother earth. Or how was the Earth created? Big Bang, created from white hole or black hole, any way other than having some sort of supreme being creating it.
I'm exagerating a bit here obviously but not by much! I think it' so important for us to get our news from everywhere and hope that we're getting the information we need to make a judgement as to what side we feel we should take.
And here's some reading for you that shows some of the ways your money has been spent recently, you actually can read the link rather than actually going to webpage if you want, it kind of tells you what you're clicking on.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/14/government-funds-million-program-make-chinese-prostitutes-drink/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/08/government-funds-study-gay-sex-argentina-bars/
Maybe CNN should do a poll on if this is how they want their money spent!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Controlling Compensation???
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124215896684211987.html
Now this should be a way Obama can help the rich pay less taxes, tell them he's lowering their salary and giving more of the money to those entry level positions. Or to those people who take the entry level positions but really have no desire to go any further in their jobs. Which isn't a bad thing if the job matches up with the needs of the employee. Perhaps their family requires more time, perhaps they already deal with too much stress in other areas of their life and this is all they can do or perhaps all they need is a job that pays $10 an hour and they use for extra money to go on vacation, pay for extra curricular activities, etc. Those are all great reasons to stay working at a job that pays $10 an hour plus your 4% raise each year. Or maybe it's $15 an hour, whatever the case, good for them!! I wouldn't mind Jessie getting one of these jobs in a few years!!! :) However, how can you compare what they do to what executives do?
In my last job a story was passed down to me about someone asking our old CEO of Blue Cross how he justifies paying himself so much money when it's the $10 an hour jobs that keep the company afloat. Many people think this same way, it's the employee that builds the company and make it successful, etc. Well this CEO responds with anger in his voice and says, "It’s the decisions I make that make it possible for you to have a job".
I do not understand why people will make the rich villains. Why? Because their successful, they have money, nice cars, etc? It’s simple jealousy! And I have to admit, I get a little jealous at times as well but I do realize that the jealousy deal is ridiculous! We should be learning from the successful, not punishing them. Observe their work ethic, observe how they think, what they say, decisions they make! Don’t punish them by taxing them more or lowering what they make. As this article points out, if you do it in one area whether it’s the banking industry or whether it’s healthcare, those that are capable of making lots of money will move to another area where they are not limited. So then we end up with a crappier banking industry and a crappier healthcare industry. Socialism promotes mediocrity, why try if you’re not going to rewarded according to your efforts. Socialism in a few industries promotes avoiding those industries! But it’s not hard to see that this is the direction we’re going. And if you think an unemployment rate of 8.5% is bad wait until 10% is the best rate you’ll get.
This administration is poking its hands in places it doesn’t need to be in. Mainly b/c they can’t successfully run hundreds or thousands of companies. They cannot make sound decisions for everyone. My guess is Obama has all these college text books in front of him and he’s trying to find out what he should do. “Chrysler wants to spend $130 million on advertisement in one quarter, ridiculous, this text book says advertisement is risky, lets cut that in half.” Let the guys that earn the big bucks make the decisions. They have many people they are representing and they feel the pressure to make the right decisions. And if they don’t make the right decisions, don’t give them billions of tax payer dollars, tell them what changes to make, and then still see them go bankrupt a few months later!!! Let them go bankrupt to begin with!!!!! Don’t just throw more money in there that will just be wasted, especially if you’re going to make it even harder by telling them they can pay anyone that’s worth anything and they can’t pay out bonuses and they can’t do advertisement and that have to make hybrid cars that no one wants b/c they’re little toy cars, etc! This administration lives in a world of make believe and it’s frustrating! Let the people with the experience make the decisions!!!!! If they make the wrong decisions let them live with it.
Now this should be a way Obama can help the rich pay less taxes, tell them he's lowering their salary and giving more of the money to those entry level positions. Or to those people who take the entry level positions but really have no desire to go any further in their jobs. Which isn't a bad thing if the job matches up with the needs of the employee. Perhaps their family requires more time, perhaps they already deal with too much stress in other areas of their life and this is all they can do or perhaps all they need is a job that pays $10 an hour and they use for extra money to go on vacation, pay for extra curricular activities, etc. Those are all great reasons to stay working at a job that pays $10 an hour plus your 4% raise each year. Or maybe it's $15 an hour, whatever the case, good for them!! I wouldn't mind Jessie getting one of these jobs in a few years!!! :) However, how can you compare what they do to what executives do?
In my last job a story was passed down to me about someone asking our old CEO of Blue Cross how he justifies paying himself so much money when it's the $10 an hour jobs that keep the company afloat. Many people think this same way, it's the employee that builds the company and make it successful, etc. Well this CEO responds with anger in his voice and says, "It’s the decisions I make that make it possible for you to have a job".
I do not understand why people will make the rich villains. Why? Because their successful, they have money, nice cars, etc? It’s simple jealousy! And I have to admit, I get a little jealous at times as well but I do realize that the jealousy deal is ridiculous! We should be learning from the successful, not punishing them. Observe their work ethic, observe how they think, what they say, decisions they make! Don’t punish them by taxing them more or lowering what they make. As this article points out, if you do it in one area whether it’s the banking industry or whether it’s healthcare, those that are capable of making lots of money will move to another area where they are not limited. So then we end up with a crappier banking industry and a crappier healthcare industry. Socialism promotes mediocrity, why try if you’re not going to rewarded according to your efforts. Socialism in a few industries promotes avoiding those industries! But it’s not hard to see that this is the direction we’re going. And if you think an unemployment rate of 8.5% is bad wait until 10% is the best rate you’ll get.
This administration is poking its hands in places it doesn’t need to be in. Mainly b/c they can’t successfully run hundreds or thousands of companies. They cannot make sound decisions for everyone. My guess is Obama has all these college text books in front of him and he’s trying to find out what he should do. “Chrysler wants to spend $130 million on advertisement in one quarter, ridiculous, this text book says advertisement is risky, lets cut that in half.” Let the guys that earn the big bucks make the decisions. They have many people they are representing and they feel the pressure to make the right decisions. And if they don’t make the right decisions, don’t give them billions of tax payer dollars, tell them what changes to make, and then still see them go bankrupt a few months later!!! Let them go bankrupt to begin with!!!!! Don’t just throw more money in there that will just be wasted, especially if you’re going to make it even harder by telling them they can pay anyone that’s worth anything and they can’t pay out bonuses and they can’t do advertisement and that have to make hybrid cars that no one wants b/c they’re little toy cars, etc! This administration lives in a world of make believe and it’s frustrating! Let the people with the experience make the decisions!!!!! If they make the wrong decisions let them live with it.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I went to a Protest!!
Ok....I guess I'll make this my first post to explain the title. A few weeks ago I went an Anti-Tax Protest with a friend at the state capital in Atlanta and I learned quite a bit. I enjoy chanting "less taxes" and "more freedom" and I enjoy doing something to show who and what I support. I also learned that it's not just the other party that are out there that are ignorant. I saw a few folks out there that are obviously upset that we have a black president. I saw some others out there that had signs that just didn't make any sense. They can't blame Obama for the taxes they are currently paying. He's just getting started. They can be mad at him next year and after. And I saw some folks saying they'll bring some guns to their next protest rather than the sign they were carrying. Ignorance is annoying to me. On either side. I realize politics is not interesting to everyone but it should be. At least interesting enough to keep them up to date on what's going on in the world. And you should be able to have at least some discussion about why you either support or not support any major thing going on, whether it's the budget or some piece of legislation. And certainly the idea of spending your money and my money through taxation! It is our money. As my boss would say, if we were taxed at 100% we would be slaves. Since we're taxed at 30% or wherever we fall makes us partial slaves. I may not go to that extreme but to a certain exten I do agree with him. This administration and all the other politicians decide how to spend our money. They’ll spend over half a million on an Air Force One flyover NYC that causes mass panic and hysteria just to create a little pin that you can be purchased in souvenir shops throughout Washington DC. This does not count the money it took to control the panic this flyover caused and the hours spent trying to find out who was at fault. You put your money towards that! You put your money towards bridges, airports, the study of volcanos and transgender interaction in Australia, and hovering trains, and momento coins, and whatever else that simply isn't needed in most cases. And another topic of discussion is how much power should the President of the US have over private companies? Should he be able to fire CEO's or control bonuses or advertisement money? Should he be allowed to select a Treasurer that doesn't pay his own taxes properly? Lots of areas of interest out there for me and possibly you as well!! One reason I decided to do this blog was b/c I felt it was not enough to talk or think to myself about politics and how upset I am and how disappointed I am about what’s going on in our country. I figured I might as well write to myself about how upset I am as well. Talking and thinking to myself just doesn’t cut it! I need to put it down in a blog to really feel like I’ve done all I can! I said once before on facebook that I hope some day I’m on a plane where terrorists try to take over and I’m some how able to fight them off and become a national hero and then use that platform to run for office and become a Senator or something. That’s pretty much my only chance! I don’t see it happening any other way. Not too many Sarbanes Oxley Accountants (if that’s what you want to call me) end up as politicians. So how else am I supposed to get there! I’m not going to start over and I’m not going to run for my Home Owners Associate Board thinking that’s going to get me to where I would like to be. So the only option is to save a plane full of people from terrorist acts and then be interviewed by all the major networks and talk about how I was doing my part to keep the country safe and how we as Americans need to do what we can to protect our country or start a blog that becomes a must read for millions! So we'll see what happens!!
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