Saturday, December 31, 2011

Robbery or recovery?

Gallup says 82 percent of Americans think it’s extremely or very important to “grow and expand the economy.”
That's not what the Obamacracy is doing. They are indulging in class warfare.
According to the same poll, 46 percent say it’s important to “reduce the income and wealth gap between the rich and the poor.”
That's less than half but higher than one would expect -- unless you accept the Obama solution, which is to make the rich poor as a means of equalizing.
Conservatives prefer to make the poor rich. That's what growth does. During the golden era of Reagan, all income segments saw rising incomes. Class warfare didn't work. Why worry about what someone else is earning, if you own paycheck is growing?
The question was poorly phrased because it left open how equality would be achieved.
Another question gives us more insight. Seven out of 10 people say it’s important to “increase equality of opportunity for people to get ahead.”
So, a vast majority of Americans think equal opportunity and growth are important. If so, they are conservatives.
Socialists think big government that robs the rich to pay the poor is more important than growth and prosperity.
Where they think the money for their scheme is going to come from is anyone's guess.
Maybe they actually believe the government's assumption under "static analysis" of tax proposals, which is that a 100 percent tax rate would produce a payment of 100 percent. In other words, people gladly would work all year and turn over their entire income to the government.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Afterward

I'm reading a library book on my Kindle called After America: Get Ready for Armageddon. I recommend reading it, but not until Jan. 1. You don't want to spoil your Christmas.
It is pretty clear that on our present course, this country is doomed.
Sample: Within a few years, the interest on the debt we owe China alone -- which must be paid -- will be equal  to the cost of the Chinese military.
We will be financing the war machine of the only other superpower, and it is not a friend of America.
How we got here is simple: We elected politicians who have no regard for this country or its future.
The current president castigated George W. Bush for the irresponsible spending during his term -- and then increased the spending dramatically.
It wasn't an "investment" in anything. It was money borrowed and wasted. Yet, it must be paid back.
Nothing has been done to spur growth. It has been growth in the private sector that has paid for the wasteful government spending of the past 50 years. If growth stops, the party is over.
Author Mark Steyn says it is over. He offers little hope that any course correction we make now will return us to prosperity, and there is no course correction in sight. The current argument is over how much MORE to go into debt, not how to reduce the spending.
The two major parties don't matter. The Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 produced the Contract with America, which promised to eliminate a number of useless government programs. By 2000 spending on those programs had increased 13 percent.
That is why we have the Tea Party movement. They alone seem to recognize what we face.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Pray for your children.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Merit badges

Trying to follow the logic in the arguments against higher pay for good teachers can be perplexing.
For example, from a paper further south: "Some will receive merit pay, not all. Let's just hope it will be the right teachers and that the merit pay criteria has merit."
That was her conclusion after arguing, essentially, that there was no way to discern whether any teacher was better than another.
If that is the case, how can we tell whether the "right teachers" get merit pay?
Strangely enough, if you walk into any public school and ask someone on the faculty who are the best teachers, you probably will be given the names of several teachers. How do they know?
Years ago a professor at the University of Florida devised an assessment form that statistical testing showed was accurate. Still, the powerful special interests that protect the education monopoly managed to kill the merit pay system is use at the time, which was based on that assessment.
Teacher unions maintain that all teachers are created equal and do equal work and must get equal pay. Except that if they continue to live and breathe they should be paid more.
To return to the teacher's complaint that not all will receive merit pay.
All are the best?
Teaching is a job, not magic. We can tell who is doing a good job and those who do should be paid more, as they are in every other profession. Furthermore, those who are not doing the job should be terminated, as they are in any other profession where unions do not prevent good management.