POLIBLOG

POLLIWOG (Tadpole): the early stage of an animal that will eventually become a frog, hoping to be kissed by a princess, turning into a prince! POLIBLOG (Political Blog): the early stage of a center-right political blog that may eventually become a full blown blog of the center-right. Join in if you find any merit in the comments. If you are on the left and disagree, feel free to straighten me out! Who knows, with effort from all of us this blog may turn into a prince!

Name:
Location: San Diego, California, United States

Friday, February 23, 2007

COMMENT #2: Salaries out of control?

I have analyzed my own company - electronic contract manufacturing - with 35 employees and an enterprise that has made reasonable profits for the past 16 years, a mid-technology company with no employee making as much as the Lieutenant in Boston, and the average personal income is aproximately $50,000. Seems about right given the national statistics for household income median.

I have to keep the employee costs under control because of the PROFIT constraint mentioned above. If I don't limit costs, the PROFITS go away, and trouble follows.

Not true of the city, who must just raise taxes - in any of a myriad of ways!

Look at your own employer and see if their data makes sense with the City of Boston! You may find it interesting!

COMMENT #1 - Salaries out of control?

In 2005 the median household income in the United States was $46,236.

Should a city have an average personal income rate 1.5 times the median household income? And with the nepotism in most government bureaucracies, the City of Boston Employees household income is most likely much higher still!

Think of the entire spectrum of jobs in a city like Boston. Is that skill set on average that much higher than skill sets of comparable market set skill sets - which is where the median household income number comes from - salaries set by the free market (of course the median household income includes a high percentage of government bureaucracies which may be why the number is going up!)

I posit the following: as a businessman I know quite well the constraints of PROFITS. Without having to meet these constraints, and cities never do, why wouldn't salaries skyrocket?

It seems there is no reason!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Salaries Out of Control?

I have a quiz for you:

  • I was made aware today of a large concern with 16,000 employees whose employees made an average of $70,000 dollars each in 2006. In this concern, the highest paid employee received $240,183.

You need to think about those numbers for a minute before you guess. My conclusion was that very few of the 16,000 employees earned what any rational person would call an average income.

What is the concern? Answer tomorrow!

  • The Answer: the city of Boston, Massachusetts!

Read about it here. Highest paid city employee is a police lieutenant who made the $240,183 last year! Sounds sensible to me! More analysis later!

Thomas Sowell: more economic wisdom in a short column...

than I can hear from all of our 2008 Presidential candidates from either side of the aisle!

Commenting on "Obama's Worn-Out Economic Ideas" he clearly explains how politicians do not use facts to further themselves, but what they can get people to believe, and since they are only interested in the short-term, anything that is good for constituencies in the short-term is the bandwagon they hop on, to the detriment of our society!

A very short read, and well worth it to understand the economic basics!

"Britons fall out of love with marriage"

London TIMESONLINE has an article on the changing values in Briton. The average age of marriage in Briton has increased three years since 1995 - to 36.2 for men and 33.6 for women.

I surmise that this is due to younger people not getting "married", but choosing to live together. In other words couples still get together, but as values change, the above statistic increases, and I would guess that the divorce rate decreases, since you do not have to divorce if you are not married.

This trend does not seem healthy to me. Where has "commitment" gone? How many bastard children are created? How many of these children end up in single parent households?

Marriage has its problems, but to me is the better system and yields fewer problems. Comments?

By the way, in the U.S. the average age of marriage for men is 27 and for women 25, but it is also trending up as Briton is. This type of society, first generated in Scandinavia, where the populations are much smaller and much more controllable, appears to be moving West. Let's hope it takes its time jumping "the pond" to the U.S.!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Thomas Sowell critiques "Priceless Politics"

Thomas Sowell, extraordinary economist and clarifier of conservative views, explains how free market prices, the guiding mechanism of our economy, are ignored by our welfare state, to the detriment of the poor and downtrodden who they promise to help!

The money quote:
  • "The great allure of government programs in general for many people is that these programs allow decisions to be made without having to worry about the constraints of prices, which confront people at every turn in a free market."

His column asks why San Francisco has six municipal golf courses, all losing money, while they have their share of "poor and downtrodden". Good question!

Comments?

Monday, February 19, 2007

MARK STEYN: "Why the Iraq war is turning into America's defeat"

With his usual clarity and humor, Mr. Steyn explains how the left is leading us to defeat.

The money quote:

  • "According to a report by the New York Sun's Eli Lake last month, Iran is supporting Shia insurgents in Iraq and Sunni insurgents in Iraq. In other words, it's on both sides in the so-called civil war. How can this be? After all, as the other wise old foreign-policy "realists" of the Iraq Study Group assured us only in December, Iran has "an interest in avoiding chaos in Iraq.'' "
    "Au contraire, the ayatollahs have concluded they have a very clear interest in fomenting chaos in Iraq. They're in favor of Sunni killing Shia, and Shia killing Sunni, and if some vacationing Basque terrorists wanted to blow up the Spanish Cultural Center in Mosul, they'd be in favor of that, too. The Iranians don't care who kills whom as long as every night when Americans turn on the evening news there's smoke over Baghdad. As I say in my book, if you happen to live in Ramadi or Basra, Iraq is about Iraq; if you live in Tehran, or Cairo, or Bei-jing, Moscow, Pyongyang or Brussels, Iraq is about America. American will. American purpose. American credibility. "

Emphasis is mine. We should all take note!

Numbers I continue thinking about...

Since February 12, 2007, (1 week):
  • 24,500 abortions have taken place in the U.S.
  • 805 people have died on our highways in the U.S.
  • 14 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq
  • 14 U.S. soldiers have died by accident worldwide

Comments?

Labels:

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Immigration or Birth Rate?

I have been asked what is wrong with letting the birthrate drop in a society, therefore having to fill its needs with immigration. My usual response is look at the EU and its problems, which are worsening each year. Here is an article from the London Times regarding Catholics in United Kingdom which illustrates the effects.

My point is not that any of this is necessarily bad, but only to illustrate the society will stay much more stable with the appropriate birth rate, and controlled immigration!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Schwarzenegger's Folly - an excellent analysis!

John Stossel has a column here that follows up yesterdays post quite well.

If you thought about my "Single-Payer Grocery Stores/Restaurant" system, Mr. Stoessel confirms the effects of that strategy in the medical arena. The key statement:
  • "People who don't face the full cost of their choices don't act like cost-conscious consumers. Higher prices result."

Who could deny this?

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

FOOD for thought!

With the entry of Hillary Clinton into the 2008 Presidential race, there will be much discussion over government backed single-payer medical insurance, or a significant step towards it like the earlier proposed "Hillarycare."

It is often useful to think about a comparable situation to understand the effects you will see with implementation of a new system. I propose the following:

  • We should implement "Single-Payer Grocery Stores/Restaurants" for all Americans in order to alleviate the hunger in this country. We would all be able to go to the Grocery Store or Restaurant of our choice and eat our fill, the tab being picked up by the Government.

Imagine for a moment what this would do to the cost of foods! Besides the fact that all prices would go up due to the addition of a large bureaucracy you would probably see the following:

  • Allocation of Filet Mignons with price controls
  • Subsidies to Okra growers (except perhaps in certain parts of the South!)
  • Co-pays to get into the now overpriced Ice Cream Store and long lines

I could go on. There might even be some WASTE of food with it now being FREE to everyone - just like single-payer medical care.

Free Markets are a wonderful and under-appreciated mechanism.

Canada and England are both in real trouble with their single payer systems and are looking for alternatives, as our Progressive friends push for the same failed policies!

Monday, February 12, 2007

Numbers I have been thinking about...

Today, February 12, 2007:


  • 3500 abortions will take place in the U.S.
  • 115 people will die on our highways in the U.S.
  • 2 U. S. Soldiers will die in Iraq
  • 2 U.S. Soldiers will die by accident worldwide

Comments?

Labels:

Friday, February 09, 2007

"Why can't Liberals grasp this?" says Lawrence Kudlow

"When You Tax Profits, You Tax People" is Mr. Kudlow's latest column explaining how Hillary's plan to take the profits of Exxon is simply taxing you and I more and hurting the economy at the same time. All my Liberal friends, please read this carefully!

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Victor Davis Hanson puts our struggle in perspective!

"America the Blameworthy" comments on Dinesh D'Souza's new book "The Enemy at Home" and the entire Muslim/West relationship. Worth the read. The last paragraph:

  • "But worst of all, too many americans embrace only their fantasy of a perfect United States, rather than the good America we actually have."

We'll never be perfect, but we are good.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

"Why is a 'One World' view an unacceptable approach if one wants to continue the good of the U.S.?"

Review the discussion under Mark Steyn below which led me to the conclusion those of us concerned about birth rates, etc., are not of a "One World" view and therefore find it difficult to accept the elimination of the "West"!

Contribute your thoughts on the subject.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Iran says Feb. 11 Big Day!

Newsmax.com reports on the latest statements from Iran.

They have the right to develop nukes, and they have solved the world's AIDS problem!

Assuming accuracy of the report, and Newsmax.com is typically fairly accurate, we had better stay prepared. And I am assuming they will be shipping the AIDS cure around the world very soon!

War on Iran? Good idea to be prepared!

Over at MEDIATED Curt writes an entry titled "War on Iran? Bad idea!"

War is always a bad idea. But preparation is not, as we have proven many times in our countries history and as history shows over and over. W's only answer has not been war - we forget little things like his offer to Saddam Hussein - who at that time was not looked upon favorably by the entire non-middleeastern world - to allow him to leave Iraq and save his country all this turmoil. He gave is typical response - NO! Does he carry any burden for the deaths so far? W's also took his time - many months - before attacking Iraq and had the approval of Congress and even the United Nations, after months of attempting to negotiate. How quickly we forget!

Michael Barone gives us a typical insightful analysis of why preparation for war is the rational thing to do. As he points out, Iran has been at war with us for the past 27 years! How quickly we forget!

Read MEDIATED and Michael Barone and post your thoughts on the subject - it is the most important international subject on our plate (yes, even more important than Iraq!).

Friday, February 02, 2007

Investor's Business Daily Gets It!

This January 31, 2007, editorial summary of W's accomplishments with our economy should be read by every American!