Monday, July 11, 2011

SOMEDAY - THE REAL DEAL

In the 1930's President Franklin Roosevelt's administration created the Social Security program. There was strong political opposition based on the argument that this program would create a socialist state,reduce people's incentive to work and to save, and thereby reduce economic activity. In order to get the Social Security Administration bill passed, Roosevelt agreed the bill would be self funded. We all know we pay from our earned income a tax towards our future social security receipts.

The Medicare and Human Services expenditures by the Government are mainly funded by charges deducted from our weekly wages.

Only a hand full of the other government budgetary expenses account for the remaining government outlays.

A significant portion of this category is defense outlays. Historically the right wing of the Republican has been pro-defense expenditures.

The fact of the matter is there have only been three years, in recent history, that have accounted for the acceleration and the rate of growth of the debt level.

We have covered this analysis before. We have tried to explain that there is absolutely no way out of this without a significant increase in personal income. That requires a very positive capital formation environment. I don't mean to be trite, but the argument about corporate jets is about as trivial as it comes since every one of them is made by Union workers and using the political bogeyman is again an attack on our own people. For politicians like President Obama, being elected seems to come first.

Let's see the government publish how many planes it uses in its non-defense fleet. You mean government can use small jets but business owners can't. As long as political manipulation outweighs honest analysis, jobs will come slowly, the country will continue to retrogress and the world wide competitive environment will slowly but surely overtake us.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

In a world full of so many social needs, I find it beyond explanation that the media has rallied behind our "First Lady" and her entourages trip to Africa.

Imagine, we have a First Lady...what in the world would make Michelle Obama a First Lady except marrying Barak. She's no First Lady, she's just Michelle Obama. I mean its almost hysterical, the "First Lady Arrives In Africa".

I was talking to a brilliant, poor, educated Ugandan. She was explaining to me that what her people needed was erasers. I said erasers, yes she said, erasers. She explained that if we get an eraser, then we have to get a pencil. She said that right now in her town in a school she recently visited, there is one eraser in the whole classroom.

You see erasers lead to pencils, pencils lead to paper, paper leads to books, books lead to teachers, and teachers lead to schools.

We are spending how much money announcing the arrival of our First Lady to meet Nelson Mandela, when what the people need is real caring rather than political hubris.

You are not going to get rid of AIDS until you face up to the promiscuous sex and the religious base which supports population growth that can't be afforded. Our First Lady arrived in Africa, not with truth, just ceremony.

By the way, I really like Michelle Obama, they don't come much better than her.

ADDENDUM: There are over 2 million people suffering from AIDS in Africa. That is almost 20% of the population. There are over 2 million children who have lost their parents to AIDS in Africa. These facts may clarify this blog.
 

Shepard Osherow. All Rights Reserved