LIBERTY: NJ Guv’s dumb suggestions!

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2006/07/reform-minded.html#comments

> Reform pension and health benefits received by government workers

Already covered, eliminate the pension and health benefits. Workers can save on their own and buy the benefits they want on their own.

>Encourage shared services and consolidation among towns and school districts

Change the state Constitution to put the gubamint out of the education business. I wrote a 40 year transition plan that would do it in baby steps to minimize the human impact. It took decades to get into this mess; it’ll take decades to emerge out of it. BUT, let’s change the paradigm!

>through a $250 million fund created with new sales tax revenue.

More money down the rat hole.

>Reduce debt to free up funds to use for property tax relief.

Cut State, County, and Municipal government 10%. The guv did on Wall Street. It was a common exercise. Zero base budgeting. Exercises in spending reduction. Let’s put gubamint on a diet.

>by selling, leasing and naming state assets.

Oh I see, we paid for these assets. So sell and lease back so we can pay for them again! Dumb.

# a local sales tax.

NO NEW TAXES! NO TAX INCREASES! Period, exclamation point, Carved in stone.

# Create a state comptroller to audit all departments, agencies and programs.

Another gubamint bureaucrat! Nope. Let have external private auditors who get paid based on the fraud, mismanagement, waste, or stupidity they can find an eliminate. Let them “bid in” for the right to look and we get our money up front!

# Move school budget votes to November.

Why bother … …  unless defeating a school budget means something!

# Cap property tax increases at 4 percent.

Wrong. This guarantees that taxes will increase at 4%! I’d suggest that property tax decrease of 4% of year instead!


MONEY: Credit card versus no card versus debit card

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51320

>You can use them to scrape the frost off your windshield in winter …

True the best use for them.

>No, there’s NEVER a good reason to hold a credit card! Get a debit card. You can use it for virtually anything a credit card
>will do like get a hotel room, buy stuff online or rent a car almost anywhere. A few rental car companies do have pretty silly
>requirements for debit card use or only accept them in certain parts of the country, but those guys are too expensive, anyway!

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of credit cards. They are the “crack cocaine” equivalent for the financially naive.

BUT I do think they have a place and use.

FIRST, legally, there is a distinct difference between debit and credit cards. You have rights under the various state and federal laws, statutes, regulations, and policies. They treat a credit card differently than a debit card.

SECOND, financially, with DEBIT, you’re money is gone and you are arguing from a position of weakness.  With a CREDIT card, the bank’s money is gone and you are arguing from a position of strength about accepting the bank’s opinion.

Not that I want to depend on either to protect me, but, there is anecdotal evidence that it can come in handy.

Assuming that a credit card is Zero Fee AND that it is paid off at the end of month, (you can still get these IF you shop wisely), then you have a tool.

I personally have three such cards. Obviously all zero balance. One I use for household expenses. One I use for computer related expenses corresponding to a budget of 1% of my net for this purpose. One I use for books and learning materials, and such corresponding to a budget of 1% of my net for this purpose.

By using these cards in this way, it makes the accounting simple. BUT, were they to change the terms and charge a fee, over the side they go.

Again, I think you may have underestimated the value of having one no-fee zero-balance card in one’s wallet. A debit card is not as good for the above reasons.

IMHO,
Keep up the good work of bringing sanity back to American money management,
Now, can you convince the gubamint to do the same?


LIBERTY: “The Deaths of Millions” … … a gubamint crime!

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51331

***Begin Quote***

Ask the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks;
or the 6 million Ukrainians slaughtered by Stalin;
or the tens of millions of other Soviet citizens killed by Stalin’s Soviet Union;
or the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their helpers throughout Europe;
or the 60 million Chinese butchered by Mao;
or the 2 million Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot;
or the millions killed and enslaved in Sudan;
or the Tutsis murdered in Rwanda’s genocide;
or the millions starved to death and enslaved in North Korea;
or the million Tibetans killed by the Chinese;
or the million-plus Afghans put to death by Brezhnev’s Soviet Union.
Ask any of these poor souls, or the hundreds of millions of others slaughtered, tortured, raped and enslaved in the last 100 years, if “world opinion” did anything for them.
***End Quote***

Those numbers are staggering. And, many of them have no dimension to them, for example lots of Tutsis!

Governments kill their citizens. Period!

Hence we should always be keeping gubamint small, hungry, and in check. Actually maybe we should keep our government in the Check Republic (partially joking). At the very least, the politicians and gubamint workers should be in Prison Clothes. Partially so we take them as seriously as they should be.  And, partially, so they know where they’re going when they hurt a citizen. And, you know they will. Can you see the House of Representatives being in session in Orange Jump Suits? And, when they enter and leave, that will be the “perp walk”. Do NOT ask me what I have in mind for Trenton!


RANT: Hey Governor Corzine … … still wanna hear about state cars? … (continued) …

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

You don’t? TOO BAD!

This morning 01 August at 0705 edst on Route 1 thru Pton … …

… … a yellow panel truck td01475 … …

… down route 1 at a leisurely 70 (Your serf speed limit is 55)

… tailgating the poor peon in his way

… never left the left lane

Any way I am sure that he was hurrying to get to I assume trenton to protect and serve me.

Arghhh!


RANT: Hey Governor Corzine … … still wanna hear about state cars? … (continued) …

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

You don’t? TOO BAD!

Yesterday afternoon at 1718 edst on route 295 north milepost 41.6 … …

… … a car sg 21573 … …

… rushed by in the far left lane at a leisurely 75 (Your serf speed limit is 65)

… tailgating the poor peon in his way

… never left the left lane

Any way I am sure that he was hurrying to get to I assume trenton to turn in “his” “my” car after a difficult day of protecting and serving the serfs of the Pepulls Republik of Nu Jerzey. Was he working overtime? So was I paying him to speed, so he could punch the clock, and I could stop paying him. Hmmm.

Arghhh!


LIBERTY: Gubamint involuntary; every other organization voluntary.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff85.html

***Begin Quote***

Compare a corporation with many shareholders whose stock trades on an exchange. A shareholder in such a company can exit ownership at any time by selling the stock; and therefore all the owners hold the stock willingly and unanimously at a given time. A citizen of a country has no comparable low-cost means of terminating whatever arrangement he has with the state. Shareholders are not stuck with their company, but citizens are stuck with their state. Furthermore, voters disagree all the time about what they want the state to do. At any given time a large part of the electorate disagrees with what the state is doing. There is no voter unanimity, and if a voter disagrees he can’t do much about it. Shareholders for the most part are in agreement, virtually unanimous agreement, about one thing. They want their agents to select investments that raise the price of the stock. If they do not like what managers are doing, they can do something about it. They can part company by selling the stock.

***End Quote***

So here we have an organization, the gubamint, that presumes consent of the governed, but we have no way to “un consent”. Interesting!