PRODUCTIVITY: who do we pass our costs along to?

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

http://thelibertarianforum.com/General/Minimum-wage-is-not-necessary.html

Minimum wage and other labor laws hurt the poor and aren’t necessary. Written by Omer Altay
Tuesday, 14 August 2007

***Begin Quote***

Minimum wage and other labor laws are aimed to protect workers and raise standards, but does that really happen? Minimum wage by definition creates unemployment. It eliminates every job that’s worth less than $5.15 an hour (the federal minimum wage). The fact is that a business is not a charity. If a business determines that a person’s labor is not worth $5.15 an hour, or whatever the local minimum wage is, they have no reason to keep that person employed. Paying the worker a bonus to meet the minimum wage would be charity work, and many businesses don’t have the finances or interest in such charity work, and will instead lay off the employee instead of raising their pay.

Minimum wage simply does not protect the worker at all, but instead, gets rid of every low skilled job that’s worth less than $5.15 an hour.

***End Quote***

So we have to be productive above the minimum wage. Businesses are not charities; nor are they tax collectors. Everything is passed along.

But who do we pass our costs along to?

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RANT: Easily forgotten events VJ day

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Medals of America http://www.usmedals.com/ sent out a email.

vj-day-3-flat 13

vj-day-3-flat 15

It touched me. I’m one of those grumpy old far … … fogeys who thinks that, whatever one’s politics, you have to recognize the sacrifices that some have made as a result of some politician’s decision.

Bring the boys and girls home on the first thing heading this way. Period. Any politician who disagrees, is more than welcome to pick up a rifle and stand a post. Stealing a line from “A Few Good Men”.

*** begin quote ***

Col. Jessep: Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.

*** end quote ***

My message to the politicians is “quite frankly I don’t care what you think you’ve decided.” When you lead from the front, then and only then, will it matter what you think or decide.

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RANT: stupid jerks who’ve never seen a nuclear bomb

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese385.html

Instant Death
by Charley Reese

*** begin quote ***

One of the Americans interviewed who had participated in the raid on Hiroshima said that people who say we ought to nuke this or that country “are stupid jerks who’ve never seen a nuclear bomb. If they had, they wouldn’t say that.”

*** end quote ***

I am afraid of politicians, bureaucrats, and pundit who don’t appreciate the real world facts. When they talk about using nukes, “turning the Middle East into glass”, and other bellicose bumper stickers, then imho convict themselves of stupidity by their own words. Maybe I am overly sensitive, In a College Theology course, one of the assigned reading was of the Jesuit priest who was near Nagasaki after the bomb hit. For sheer destruction, it was shocking. If I was the Lord High Sheriff of Nottingham, I’d condemn them to immediately go to Nagasaki and Hiroshima and adsorb what their words mean. But, I’m not the Lord High Sheriff, I’m not anything, other than one fellow who wouldn’t vote for them as Dog Catcher. To speak so glibly about such terrible consequences, shows me just how shallow they are. We don’t need leader like that. We need ones that understand that words have consequences.

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MONEY: Fed creates $37 billion on the spot

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/reality-vs-state.html

Reality vs. the State
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

***Begin Quote***

So on it went for seventy years, until one day the entire hoax was exposed by the ultimate reality test: the market economy. Bad credit risks didn’t pan out. Those who lent without regard for underlying fundamentals are suddenly seeing red all over the place. Bankruptcy ensues. Those who purchased repackaged mortgages on the open market find themselves with a hot potato and no one to toss it to.

So what does the government do then? It runs to the basement and turns on the printing presses. It creates $37 billion on the spot and buys up the bad loans and calls them assets. The government says that this is to create confidence. But confidence can’t be created by making up reality. That path only leads to more illusion and error.

***End Quote***

Didn’t anyone think that “averting the crisis” was in and of itself a problem? Anyone still believe the gooferment’s core inflation rate numbers? Anyone not concerned where this runaway freight train is heading at full steam?

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RANT: how effective this brave security cordon

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz71.html

Who Really Has the Monkey On His Back?
by Vin Suprynowicz

*** begin quote ***

Airline passengers who grit their teeth and resign themselves to having all kinds of inoffensive belongings seized by the blue-gloved airport goons will be pleased to know how effective this brave security cordon really turns out to be.

Late Monday a passenger in Lima, Peru boarded a Spirit Airlines jet for Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Arriving in this country, he presumably passed through all the required “international arrival” security rigmarole, killing several hours in the secure area of the Fort Lauderdale airport before boarding a plane to LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

*** end quote ***

Making the airport security theater the laughing stock it deserves to be. And you trust the buffoons to keep you safe? Please don’t make me laff even harder!

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LIBERTY: you must have tolerance for things you don’t like

Monday, August 13, 2007

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2007/tle430-20070812-04.html

The Problem with Conservatives
by Sean Gangol

***Begin Quote***

It reminded me of the reasons why I chose Libertarianism, instead of becoming a die-hard conservative. If you truly want to live in a free society, you must have tolerance for things you don’t like. You may not like abortion, drugs or homosexuality, but these are things you have to co-exist with if you want to live free. If you are the type that want control over other people’s bodies or if you want to treat a certain group of people like secondary citizens, then a police state is the only place you belong.

***End Quote***

Sounds reasonable to me.

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RANT: Verizon

Monday, August 13, 2007

Just wasted about an hour over a few days, trying to put in my new credit card number into their website. Love it. It wouldn’t update the number, looked like it worked, but when you put the auth code in you could see that it was using the old number. Argh! Called up, waited, and found out that it can only be done thru the phone and an automated unit. Argh! Argh! So why have that option on the website?

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LIBERTY: pleading for a military invasion

Monday, August 13, 2007

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/08/12/zimbabwes_horrors/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+–+Jeff+Jacoby+columns

Zimbabwe’s horrors By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | August 12, 2007

***Begin Quote***

NO ONE is surprised when a Roman Catholic bishop condemns the violence of war. But when was the last time you heard of one pleading for a military invasion?

***End Quote***

No, sorry, it’s not up to the taxpayers to fund a “nation building” exercise. As we learned in Iraq, you can’t build a nation without using force. And, you become the bad guy

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JOBSEARCH: Resume Spider (not recommended)

Monday, August 13, 2007

http://www.resumespider.com/

This came up on my radar and I took a look at it. And this big fat old turkey is unimpressed. Anytime you have to hunt for how much something costs that to me is a big red flag. In looking at it, I had three observations:

(1) It suffers from what I call LinkedIn syndrome — you can only have one resume — so how can you customize for the oppty under consideration;

(2) It’s three blind mice — who is looking at your resume, who is submitting it duplicatively (I lost a job that way), and who are you selling into.

(3) It costs the seeker money.

So it has a lot of negatives in my mind. Any one of these would turn me off.

YMMV

*** begin quote ***

Plan A – $39.95
Resume Distribution
One time fee – 3 distributions. We will email your profile to recruiters, employers and corporate hiring managers that have registered at ResumeSpider to receive your information. These targeted leads are matched by your desired job function, industry and location.

Plan B – $69.95
Resume Distribution Plus
(Valued at $79.90)
Same as Plan A. We also provide you their contact information, track who has opened and evaluated your resume, and give you access to the SpiderTalk private messaging system.

Plan C – $99.95
Combo Package
(Valued at $119.85)
Same as Plan B. In addition, you now have access to our Industry List containing 100s or 1000s of company contacts. We do not send your resume to this list; however this list provides you a minimum of one key contact name at companies targeted by their office locations and their respective industries. If you are applying to job ads, you usually don’t know who received your resume, so this information can very helpful because now you have a name to contact.

*** end quote ***

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Bridge Collapse Lessons

Monday, August 13, 2007

http://www.mises.org/story/2668

The Wrong Lessons of the Bridge Collapse
By Brad Edmonds
Posted on 8/6/2007

“Imagine how safe we’d feel if the people who inspect and approve bridges could actually lose their jobs and their fortunes if they make a fatal mistake!”

*** begin quote ***

The collapse of a bridge in rush-hour Minneapolis must be well known by nearly everyone in the United States by now. Whenever anyone dies, it’s a tragedy; when many die, and expensive property (dozens of automobiles) is lost, that’s obviously a tragedy. When all this loss of life and wealth happens because government bureaucrats did their jobs poorly or correctly, that’s a preventable and costly tragedy — bought at the expense of many taxpayers who likely would have done other things with their money than pay those bureaucrats. Remember, those who might have done other things with their money include the dead victims.

*** end quote ***

I know everyone thinks I am a loon, but take, for example, this bridge collapse, and ask the question who in the gooferment got fired for a poor job?

Yup, no one!

As a matter of fact, gooferment at all levels is going to steal MORE of your money so that they can NOT do what they are supposed to be doing.

I just don’t know how we can be so stupid NOT to see the flaw in the gooferement — both the nanny state and father homeland are a joke. Unless it’s your money they are used to stealing.

Where’s my pitch fork?

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