Lets Reinstitute The Chain Gang.

Hey. If a fine doesn't work, maybe a little hoosegow time might do the trick. Companies like BP don't pay much attention to fines and penalties. Actually I'm not sure about penalties. I don't think any penalties have ever been levied against them. Just like jail time. Now you could say, look, BP has paid $22 billion and has another $15 billion ready to shell out if necessary. But after all that, they still had a net profit of almost $24 billion. And that spill is only one among many problems BP has enjoyed. I say enjoyed, because they've always only paid some fines and then on to the profit banquet. Not that BP is any different than any other giant corporation. Fines are a part of the business plan. Now if you or I were to do something dangerous to the safety of others, especially after being told of the danger, and you continued to do it, what would you expect would happen to you? Does a prisoner's jumpsuit come to mind? See, the thing is, major corporations expect to pay fines. They set aside funds to cover that eventuality. So it just isn't a deterrent. But the one thing they can't do is set aside people for prison sentences. It's the one profession that doesn't have a whole lot of folks training for or applying for. And since big companies almost never get asked for a sacrificial lamb, you don't see a lot of ads in the classifieds for employees willing to go to jail, as part of the job description. Now small companies, they're in a lot more danger of having the boss end up in the slammer. At least they are if they break the law or intentionally endanger people. Maybe that's why it's so hard to grow a small company into a major corporation. It's probably hard to find people willing to go to jail until it gets big enough not to worry any more. What does a willing career corporate criminal do between jobs? After all, most small companies are owned by bosses who aren't usually willing give up their bosshood so some crook can take over the company. Ya just never know what direction that crook will take. Well anyway, if fines don't phase big companies maybe it would be smart to start sending some top corporate executives to jail. I'll bet corporations would become much better citizens. At least until their lobbyists changed the laws. Since these corporations are satisfied with smaller profits, maybe we should leave the matter up to the employees of the corporations. Either the CEO goes to jail and they get a pay raise or nobody goes to jail but they have to take a cut in pay to cover the fines. I'll bet that would clear up the problem.

When Is A Tax A Profit?

 I hope you're honest enough to be paying your state income taxes. Well, federal too, but especially the state taxes and especially in any of the sixteen states that have a special corporate arrangement. Yes, there are sixteen states led by New Jersey, who leads by far and away in this little tax special. Here's what these sixteen states do. For certain major corporations, a special dispensation is given. Here's what happens; The company you work for, deducts your state tax obligation from your wages, but instead of sending that money to the state, the company is allowed to keep it. That's right. Your employer collects your state tax money and the state allows the company to keep the money. All of it. I guess you could say it's a 100% fee for collecting the tax money owed. Of course, the state can then claim it doesn't have enough money to operate and must either reduce services or raise taxes or both. New Jersey looses about $186 million per year this way. Of course the state claims it's an investment in keeping the company and it's jobs in the state. But now the cat's out of the bag. Now all the other companies know about this little scam, oops, I mean plan. Do you think these other companies will want in on it? What about all the companies in all the other states? Think they're gonna wanna take part? Soon all the states will be giving away tax revenue to keep corporations from moving to other states. Then all the states can complain they need to cut services or raise taxes or both. Think all those companies want a piece of the action? Heck, I would. In fact, it's almost worth forming a corporation just to collect my own taxes so I can keep them. But why stop there. Why not ask the federal government to offer a similar deal. Of course the Fed already complains about not having enough income. But hey, then I'm definitely filing to incorporate. After all, if I print this out, it takes ink. So? So Snowbeard Inc in ink. Sorta has a ring to it, doesn't it. That way I could keep all my taxes. That's called incentivized profits. Taxation as an incentive profit center. Now all I've got to do is figure out how to include that pesky sales tax.

From Dionsaurs To Monkeys, We've Got It All.

Well, there ya have it. The folks in Tennessee have had their say. And they say that Adam and Eve were the proud owners of a herd of dairy dinosaurs. Now let me tell ya, herding dairy dinosaurs is no easy task. Ya gotta get up pretty early in the morning so as to catch them dinos while they're still half asleep, elsewise they git a bit ornery. And while you're at it you have to keep your hands warm, otherwise they're likely to kick ya or take a bite out of ya. What Tennessee has gone and done is to pass a Monkey Law. That is to say, they have made it possible and legal for science teachers throughout the state to teach creationism along with evolution. And while they're at it, they don't have to mention global warming. Now it so happens that Tennessee ranked next to last on SAT tests of all the states. My guess is that they won't be satisfied until they get that record. Dead last is the goal. They named it after the Scopes Monkey Trial from back in the 1920s when they proved in court that man did not come from monkeys. And that teacher, Scopes, got his what fer. Now I don't mean to suggest that all Tennesseans think like this. Many don't. But they've mostly moved out. America has fallen behind many industrialized nations in education. Try as I might, I can't see how this will help us catch up. When these young minds absorb this misinformation and then attend college with the hopes of becoming a scientist, they're in for a rude awakening. Because unless Tennessee somehow drifts off into the South Pacific or the middle of the Sargosy Sea, they're gonna have a tough time interacting with the rest of the world. They could form an alliance with the folks from Atlantis though. I think they may have some ideology in common. Now please don't misunderstand me. If you want to believe that God created the world in six days, that's okay. That's religion. And having belief in your religion is a good thing. But let's not confuse religious beliefs with science. They're two different subjects. I just don't happen to believe dinosaurs and humans lived at the same time. There's no record of it happening in religious writings or archaeological research. So unless you find the milk pail next to a dinosaur and a mans cold hand in that dinosaurs belly, forget it.

How Sweet It Is. Or Is That Sweat? Depends On Your Job.

I know that some of my friends will disagree with me on this, but here goes anyway. There's been a lot said about income inequality, whether it exists or not. Or rather, is income inequality increasing? Well the answer is, absolutely. And the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the Bloomberg Report all agree it is. I'm sure a lot of others agree too, but these I've seen. First a few facts. In 2007, companies generated $378,000 per worker, in 2011 they generated $420,000 per worker. But  during that time workers incomes did not go up at all. But profits increased 23%. So if profits went up by 23% and worker production increased by $42,000 per worker, but workers didn't get a dime extra pay, where do you suppose all the 23% profit went to? If it's just floating around in the air, I'd like to buy a big net to catch some myself. The only thing that's stopping me is I don't know where to swing the net. Not only are wages frozen, but in many industries wages are down significantly. Take Caterpillar as an example. They're hiring workers for a new high tech locomotive plant at $12 per hour. At $24,000 per year, you won't be able to send you kids to college or even a trade school. Maybe you can get them a job next to you on the production line. But if things continue, that $12 an hour will still be in effect and they won't be able to move out of the house. Gives a new meaning to the term, multi-family dwellings. Here's another factlet. Midwestern Auto factories' wages have gone from $28 an hour to $15 per hour. For the same work. For the same hours. And they capped lifetime wages at $19 an hour. So if you started there out of high school last year, you can plan on making no more than $19 an hour when you retire about 50 years from now. Let's see, that comes to about eight cents per hour increase per year. So let's do a little more math. If inflation remains at 2% for those fifty years, that comes to thirty cents per hour. At that rate, by the time you retire fifty years from now, you'll be making somewhere around $8 per hour, adjusted for inflation. Which is okay because minimum wage will still be only $7.25 per hour. Well how come this is happening to us, you may ask? You may ask, but they don't want to answer you. Part of the problem is that there are few unions any more. Which means there's nobody to stand up for you. So companies can pay you what they want. What can you do about it? Quit is about all. And during a recession, there's somebody else who needs that job desperately. It's called market economics. It's sorta like having somebody putting their foot on your neck and telling you to smile for the camera. Folks may think unions are a bad word, but that bad word helped put a lot of sons and daughters through college and provided for a comfortable lifestyle and an old age  people could enjoy instead of fret over.

Soda And Candy Gate, With Extra Fries, To Go.

Look at this little nugget of information. A study by the Agriculture Dept states that food stamps have substantially reduced the poverty rate during the recent recession. Why is that finding so important? Well if any program can reduce poverty levels during a recession, then it must be a worthwhile exercise. Let's face it, the recession caused a lot of people to loose their jobs and many still haven't found full time work. You know, the kind of work that can feed and house your family. But hey, if food stamps were able to make the difference for those folks, how could anyone find fault with the program. Hah! Well let me tell you how some folks in Washington can find fault with it. The way to find fault with the food stamp program is to begin to defund it. See that way you don't have to come right out and find fault with it, you can just make it go away without saying a word. What I don't get is why some folks would begrudge other folks, who have fallen on hard times, why they would begrudge a little help with feeding the kids? Of course the answer is simple. There are people who have misused the program. They've cheated and even worse, some folks have bought soda and candy with the stamps. What we have isn't government waste, what we have is much bigger. It goes far deeper. It shakes the very foundation of our democracy. This insidious cancer is weakening and tearing down the very fabric of our society. We have Soda & Candy Gate. If you think Watergate was bad and if you think people rightfully went to jail over Watergate,  just wait until you see what happens from Soda & Candy Gate. This will shake the whole country. Candy merchants will go to prison and children's teeth will rot and parents must be held accountable for this travesty of justice. Either all of that, or the rules could be changed to disallow soda and candy. Personally I don't see all the harm in an occasional treat, but, maybe pizza would make a better treat. Or broccoli.

If You Want More Industry, Shouldn't You Train For It?

Here's a little tidbit you may find interesting. Interesting, but not very helpful. It seems that government funding for much of the training for unemployed workers in newer fields, or any field is drying up. There's several reasons for that. The obvious is that there are still a lot more people unemployed then back in 2000 when there was $2.1 billion in today's dollars allocated while now only $1.5 billion was made available for job training. And in the proposed House budget, there would be further cuts. I guess the idea is that if you got laid off, shame on you. If you can't afford to pay for your own retraining, shame on you, or maybe it's "tsk tsk, that's a shame, but don't count on the government to help you". Now if the government really does want to cut it's costs, okay, but does it really make sense to ignore the needs of the unemployed or under-educated to get better skills in order to get jobs? Does it make sense to pay for more unemployment compensation or would it be more practical to train these folks for the better paying jobs that will, more and more often, be the jobs of the future? Cutting costs is always a good idea. Especially if it's in areas of waste. But in education, whether public schools and post high school education or job skills training, cutting costs will only mean lesser education. Hey. We're in competition with a bunch of other countries to attract industry./ Industries that need highly skilled workers. So if we skimp on training our workers while other countries expand their efforts to improve their worker's skills, where would you guess that leaves us? Now a selfish person, which I know you are not, might say our workers should pay for their own training, same for any post high school education. Don't expect us to pay for it. The thing is, we just keep on paying for unemployment compensation. That or let a lot of people go hungry and have crime go way up. That way we can train and hire lots of police, thereby resolving the unemployment problem, right? But what if by paying for the education and training, we helped get people back to work at companies that came here because we had better trained workers. Wouldn't that save us money in the long run? I'm just sayin.

Easter!

For Christians, Easter is what it's all about. For everybody else, it's not so much. But for Christians it's how we know the truth and why we know we're saved. So we celebrate this great news, even while the rest of the world goes on with their day like any other day. Wars go on as if nothing is any different, famine provides no loaves or fish for the children. Just knowing that we have been saved doesn't excuse us from sharing our good fortune with others. In fact it requires it. Remember, that since we are saved, we must still feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick, welcome the stranger. Why? Because it may well be the risen lord we have done these works for. If you feel gratitude for having been saved, then lets all show that gratitude Goodness, this is a celebration that could go on all year. At least the showing of gratitude should. Happy Easter.