observations, thoughts, and things that seem to be overlooked by a modern day Paul Revere by drugsrus48
(libertarian)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Another Open Letter toGlenn Beck
Ive been listening to your radio program for a number of years and watching you on FOX fairly religiously. I have also purchased four or five copies of Common Sense, read it and passed it around. I have the America's March to Socialism CD, and Arguing with Idiots. I believe you are a modern day Paul Revere, and most of the time I agree with you. BUT, like Al Calavicci tries to explain to Sam Beckett in the early episodes of Quantum Leap, "sometimes things go a little ca-ca".
Capitalism is all but truly gone. There are very few capitalists around anymore. I'm guessing that you are one of the few who pay your employees a livable wage. I know from listening that they have a "Cadillac" health plan. But I'm guessing that, like all other American employers, they don't receive vacation pay. They get what Americans call vacation pay, being paid for time off, but real vacation pay would be (in American pay check terms) double time. I once worked for a company that came close. Salaried people received one and a half days pay for every vacation day. I also believe that Michael Moore is pro-capitalism at heart, but as John Stossel stated on his program "What we now have is crony-capitalism". This broken system can be fixed.
Why do American companies compete to see who can pay their workers the least ? Many years ago a company I worked for made an offer to a German gentleman who was a regular visitor due to technical problems (How would you like to come work for us ? Bring your family to this country, blah, blah, blah) He politely informed them that their "generous" offer was about half of what he was already making, and this was more than forty years ago.
Mr. Obama wants to build nuclear power generating facilities. He says this will create jobs. GREAT, but many of these jobs are highly specialized. I know because I spent about thirty years in that industry as a trained machinist. There hasn't been a steam turbine-generator power station built in more than twenty years, nuclear or fossil fueled. At sixty plus years of age, I am one of the youngest who knows how to perform some of the machining needed on these monsters. So the questions become not only who is going to do the work and fill these jobs ? BUT, who will teach them how to do the needed work ???? And where will some of the much needed but long gone home made equipment necessary for some operations come from ?
America makes nothing anymore, we make MONEY. You explain day in and day out how the money grubbing evil union pension plans are breaking companies' backs, but mention nothing about the golden parachutes of management. The trade unions of old are mere skeletons of their former selves. By your own admition most union members today are government workers. There is no outcry concerning the retirement benefits of Congressmen and Senators. You mention nothing on the outrageous salaries of sports figures, movie stars, or TV personalities. ( I wonder how Conan O'Brian will survive until maybe September on a mere $45 million). If I made as much money as Al Gore on such a b__s__ deal, I would surely be bunking with Bernie Madoff. Most private sector jobs pay less than $30K /year (my wife has a "good" job @ just over $11.00/hr. and a health plan co-pay @$200+ per each 2 week pay). Recently a local company furloughed 30 union (steelworkers) after contract negations faltered claiming the economy was at fault. During these negations the company stated "we need to be globally competitive(referring to pay scales)". How do we compete when Mexico and China are paying twenty cents an hour ???? Henry Ford decided to pay his workers (long before the UAW) the ungodly sum of $5 /day ( a lot of money at the time). His reasoning being that "My employees should be able to afford what they are building". The ads on TV encourage families to "go RV'ing" - have you priced an RV lately ? The average American family would probably rather live in a modest RV than where they are living now, except that it's a bit small.
The Social Security cupboard is bare. Ten thousand baby-boomers per month are retiring and filing for their claims and there is no money -- where did it go ? ? Every retiring baby-boomer who files a Social Security retirement claim has paid into the system.($65K in my account, not adding any interest that could have accrued in 45 years) Social Security was supposed to be separate from all other government funds. Who stole the money ?
I believe it was in 1986 that Ronald Reagan stated that health care costs have outpaced inflation by ten times. Now twenty-five years later suddenly that seems to be a serious issue. Where was the outrage then ?
The whole economic situation is like a festering zit on a teenagers face coming to a head. It looks ugly and when it pops the stuff inside is even uglier and it stinks and might even hurt a bit, but when it heals, it may leave a small scar as a reminder but you recover and move ahead.
We all live in Bedford Falls, USA - the little town from It's a Wonderful Life,but George Bailey took Mr. Potter up on his offer to work for him and give up on that old saving and loan thing. If you remember we didn't see much of "Potterville" in the movie - it wasn't as nice a place with Henry Potter owning everything. It's time to wind the clock back and return to that wonderful little town, but "they" say you can never go back. I think we can but it is going to take a monumental effort by every one of us. I will even volunteer to break the news to the overpaid "stars" and corporate types that they will have to learn to live on less. Their facial expressions will be worth seeing.
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I see you have a star close to Libertarian. I am not sure why you have a problem with celebrity and sports stars saliries? Accrding to Libertarian thoght, those saliries are private salaries and epitimize the free market. In fact, their saliries are at the heart of economics 101, supply and demand. Maybe you might want to re-think this open letter?
I also worked in the nuclear power industry, for over 20 years, but I am not in favor of plants such as Mr. Obama proposes. Like most politicians (including Albert Gore Jr.) he has little grasp on current technology. Huge power plants and their massive distribution networks are long out of date. A community can now afford their own small nuke utility, about the size of an underground electrical vault, entirely self contained, which can power 20,000 homes for 7 to 10 years for $25M. Recoring would cost a bit more than half the original purchase price. I'll let you do the math on the cost per household, but the ultimate goal is $0.10 per kilowatt-hour total cost.
Do you want to talk about economic stimulus? Imagine how replacing our current bloated electrical utility economy with wholly-owned community power stations producing clean power at a fraction of the former cost, and with a fraction of the transmission losses, would jump-start this country. This technology was largely developed at Los Alamos, who licensed it to Hyperion Power Generation, the company that will make the reactors.
There are other technologies like this. Toshiba is working on small reactors that will power a single large building for up to 40 years.
Mr. Obama and his ilk are small thinkers, big talkers, and even bigger spenders. It is not as if our government was unaware of this tech; they developed it (after we paid for it). Rather than leverage it to provide real economic improvement and freedom from the tyranny of big utilities, Obama whines about the evils of Big Coal and Big Oil while leasing the tech to one company for cash to feed his social programs.
Posted By: No Name Supplied
Date: 2010-03-01 06:19:10
I have to agree with Craig, this is the Free Market so you can earn as much money as you want but no one should be able to do anything about it. The only time you are penalized for earning more money is when you have to pay heavy taxes for earning a more money. Like Beck has been talking about, the reason America is not true Capatilism anymore is because the Progressives after World War I started changing our country. One thing they did was took us off the gold standard. The reason they did this was so we could print as much money as we wanted. Because of that our country is now a consumer country which is why we our amasing a huge debt.
You claim to be a libertarian. How can you ask "Why do American companies compete to see who can pay their workers the least ?" True capitalism depends on free markets, including labor markets. Workers are free (responsible) to get the most for their efforts. If a worker is willing to trade their time for a less than a "livable" wage who is at fault. Is the employer suppose to coddle them and pay them more simply 'cause "it ain't fair?" A libertarian would demand the individual excercise their free will, prepare, and choose a better job excepting personal responsibility for their position in life. Minimal government demands individuals accept their responsiblity in doing their best to take care of their own situation. It does not preclude them from giving help to others less fortunate.
"True capitalism depends on free markets, including labor markets. "
Yes, but the government is controlling a lot of things right now that's preventing the free market to function properly. For example, they control food prices through agricultural subsdies much like they did during the depression. My cousin gets paid $80K a yr from the federal government to NOT farm his land. I know of another lady that gets paid to NOT farm her land too. They regulate pretty much everything else so much that it hinders economic growth. We need less government control on things. We need to end these subsidies and entitlement programs. That would be a start in the right direction..
"They get what Americans call vacation pay, being paid for time off, but real vacation pay would be (in American pay check terms) double time."
I would like to live in your world. Yes, vacation pay is being paid for time off. You get paid not to be at work. No company in their right mind would pay you more not to do your job *ahemwallstreetahem*. The only time vacation pay would be considered double-time would be a working vacation. Paid time off that was earned but not taken.
"Why do American companies compete to see who can pay their workers the least?"
They do this because they can. Tax laws and other legislation instituted with the aid of special interests have made it almost impossible for most small businesses to pay competitive wages. As such, larger corporations (the ones with all the money, i.e. Wal-Mart) don't have to compete. This is the definition of "crony capitalism."
To Beck: "...but mention nothing about the golden parachutes of management."
To your credit, this is something Beck has been lax on. He needs to make his opinion clearly known, instead of mention it only in passing. Which he has done on several occasions. He agrees that the "golden parachutes" and bonus packages are obscene, but he also clarifies that they are legal. The stimulus package had a provision requiring the companies who received bailouts to honor all their previous contracts. This included employment contracts in which executives and employees were to receive bonuses.
"There is no outcry concerning the retirement benefits of Congressmen and Senators."
Actually, he has mentioned this several times. Even going so far as to oppose the fact that the average U.S. citizen makes around $40,000/yr, while the average federal employee makes around $70,000/yr. He's even working with the folks at the CATO Institute to rework Congress' fiscal policies. Granted, this was announced after you posted this letter. If you haven't seen it, check out the archives of watchglennbeck.com. Air dates April 12-16, 2010. He's summarizing, but I'm excited to see what else they come up with. The full budget plan will be released and presented to Congress later this year.
