Midweek Thought for October
The population of our country has a strong foundation of self-sacrificing to preserve our way of life in the greatest country in the world for the next generation. I have three beautiful daughters and there is nothing I would not do to help them as they mature into young women.
The best example of this is the generation of brave men and women who felt real hardship and pain but sacrificed (some gave the ultimate sacrifice and never had that chance to now be grandparents) far beyond the comprehension of the people of today. Take a moment if you can, but do it quick, because over World War Two veterans are dying at a rate of 20 per day. Speak with them or even read about their time in battle and the life they led prior to the war years. Then, think about your current way of life and the hardship you currently endure. It is nothing compared to the sacrifice our grandparents/great-grand parents made for us.
I joke to friends that the United States is the only country in the world where our poor/low income families are obese. In many areas of the globe, the poor are emaciated and starving, enver knowing where their next meal may come from. Poor have the latest iPhones and $200 sneakers. The depression era population never had similar luxuries (an iTypewriter??) and for the most part boxcars carried the drifters and a hobo around the country to find work any way they could. Could you imagine a low income person from New York City being told to hop a boxcar today and head out to North Dakota (where the unemployment rate is under 4%) to work for an energy company in the Bakken Shale. It is simply not going to happen.
Where does this laziness, lethargic work ethic come from. Here is my theory and it all made sense to me after watching a documentary in 2009-10? (I forget the name of it but it was real good). They made a point that since the hardship and sacrifice they endured as the “greatest generation” who grew up in the Great Depression and World War Two that their children would not suffer like they did. The hardship was so bad and made such an impact on them and their society that when the men came back from the war and the baby boomer generation began to grow that the mothers and fathers were so grateful to be safe and secure back home in the United States that they coddled their children and savored their time in peacetime (understood based on their circumstances). They were so happy to not be fighting or to not be out of work and struggling that they celebrated through their children. By celebrated I do not mean they threw a party, instead these new parents that had endured so much just wanted their children to live in a utopian society. Social Security benefits were now being received for a few decades by the early 1960s. Then the Johnson administration focused on the war on poverty by passing Welfare legislation. During the War in Vietnam, the children of the greatest generation were being asked to fight an unpopular war and they rebelled. Sex, drugs and rock & roll. Twenty years later, the children of the children of the greatest generation (the grandchildren!) had a grand idea. “Let’s take the entitlement society a step further” and President Clinton signed into law affordable housing legislation with the goal of everyone (regardless of credit or means) owing a home (what could go wrong?). It seems to run in 15-25 year cycles as the next great idea was Obamacare because everyone needs free healthcare (sure, free). Again, what could go wrong? As with Social Security, Welfare, Affordable Housing and now Affordable Care the problems would not affect the generation of people/legislators who enacted the policy into law, it will affect their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. It is clear to me that the Social Security and Welfare programs are close to insolvency. Lax affordable housing requirements enacted in 1998 led to the banking crisis of 2008. Obamacare will lead to the ????? crisis of 2024. Time will tell.
On a different but correlated note, I am not a huge fan of regulation, but I am a big advocate for stricter punishment of criminals. I am talking about white collar criminal punishment. I believe that if executives of corporations were held personally responsible for their criminal deeds (expanding the Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Act - RICO) then there would be more personal responsibility put back into the equation in the private sector. I am all for corporations making maximum profits and allowing their executives to make millions, but the high compensation comes with a price. C-level executives and board members of public companies should have more “skin in the game”. By this I mean that if something were to go criminally wrong under their watch then their personal wealth could be at risk. By doing this, more high level employees would take greater care and place more emphasis on ethical behavior. This is creative destruction to the core.
A good example of this the financial industry after the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act signed by President Clinton (do you see a pattern here!!). Prior to Glass-Steagall, there was a separation of ownership of brokerage and banking firms. In the years after you saw a plethora of mergers and acquisitions of brokerage firms (formerly structured as partnerships) by large banks. Brokerage units became larger, and better capitalized and the former partners now became shareholders/employees of the banks. The risk factor was removed. When they had been set up as partnerships, the brokerage partners who traded for the firm had to take calculated and minimal risk with the firms capital. If a trade went awry it could cost them not only their bonus for the year, but it could take down the firm and their net worth (Kidder Peabody-remember them?). Now as a division of a major corporation/bank, after the risk of losing their personal assets was removed, bank/brokerage employees were more at ease to accept riskier trades. Over lay this with the growth of the sub-prime mortgage market (which exploded after affordable housing legislation) and the end result was the banking crisis of 2008.
My point today is that bubbles start not at the end when they pop. They start 10-20-30 years earlier when uninformed/ill-equipped/incapable politicians decide to coddle society by expanding social programs. I believe that the generous people of our great country will take care of their family/friends/community in a better manner than the federal government. Philanthropy is far more effective in caring for the sick/poor/less fortunate than a massive, corrupt federal government program. Incentivize high net worth individuals and corporations to give more to charitable causes (maybe a double tax benefit?) while the federal government reforms and/or cuts outdated, bankrupt legacy social programs.
More can be read via my two novels, Cameron Nation: Going All-in To Save His Country and Columbus Avenue Boys: Avenging the Scalamarri Massacre. www.cameronnation.com.
The best example of this is the generation of brave men and women who felt real hardship and pain but sacrificed (some gave the ultimate sacrifice and never had that chance to now be grandparents) far beyond the comprehension of the people of today. Take a moment if you can, but do it quick, because over World War Two veterans are dying at a rate of 20 per day. Speak with them or even read about their time in battle and the life they led prior to the war years. Then, think about your current way of life and the hardship you currently endure. It is nothing compared to the sacrifice our grandparents/great-grand parents made for us.
I joke to friends that the United States is the only country in the world where our poor/low income families are obese. In many areas of the globe, the poor are emaciated and starving, enver knowing where their next meal may come from. Poor have the latest iPhones and $200 sneakers. The depression era population never had similar luxuries (an iTypewriter??) and for the most part boxcars carried the drifters and a hobo around the country to find work any way they could. Could you imagine a low income person from New York City being told to hop a boxcar today and head out to North Dakota (where the unemployment rate is under 4%) to work for an energy company in the Bakken Shale. It is simply not going to happen.
Where does this laziness, lethargic work ethic come from. Here is my theory and it all made sense to me after watching a documentary in 2009-10? (I forget the name of it but it was real good). They made a point that since the hardship and sacrifice they endured as the “greatest generation” who grew up in the Great Depression and World War Two that their children would not suffer like they did. The hardship was so bad and made such an impact on them and their society that when the men came back from the war and the baby boomer generation began to grow that the mothers and fathers were so grateful to be safe and secure back home in the United States that they coddled their children and savored their time in peacetime (understood based on their circumstances). They were so happy to not be fighting or to not be out of work and struggling that they celebrated through their children. By celebrated I do not mean they threw a party, instead these new parents that had endured so much just wanted their children to live in a utopian society. Social Security benefits were now being received for a few decades by the early 1960s. Then the Johnson administration focused on the war on poverty by passing Welfare legislation. During the War in Vietnam, the children of the greatest generation were being asked to fight an unpopular war and they rebelled. Sex, drugs and rock & roll. Twenty years later, the children of the children of the greatest generation (the grandchildren!) had a grand idea. “Let’s take the entitlement society a step further” and President Clinton signed into law affordable housing legislation with the goal of everyone (regardless of credit or means) owing a home (what could go wrong?). It seems to run in 15-25 year cycles as the next great idea was Obamacare because everyone needs free healthcare (sure, free). Again, what could go wrong? As with Social Security, Welfare, Affordable Housing and now Affordable Care the problems would not affect the generation of people/legislators who enacted the policy into law, it will affect their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. It is clear to me that the Social Security and Welfare programs are close to insolvency. Lax affordable housing requirements enacted in 1998 led to the banking crisis of 2008. Obamacare will lead to the ????? crisis of 2024. Time will tell.
On a different but correlated note, I am not a huge fan of regulation, but I am a big advocate for stricter punishment of criminals. I am talking about white collar criminal punishment. I believe that if executives of corporations were held personally responsible for their criminal deeds (expanding the Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Act - RICO) then there would be more personal responsibility put back into the equation in the private sector. I am all for corporations making maximum profits and allowing their executives to make millions, but the high compensation comes with a price. C-level executives and board members of public companies should have more “skin in the game”. By this I mean that if something were to go criminally wrong under their watch then their personal wealth could be at risk. By doing this, more high level employees would take greater care and place more emphasis on ethical behavior. This is creative destruction to the core.
A good example of this the financial industry after the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act signed by President Clinton (do you see a pattern here!!). Prior to Glass-Steagall, there was a separation of ownership of brokerage and banking firms. In the years after you saw a plethora of mergers and acquisitions of brokerage firms (formerly structured as partnerships) by large banks. Brokerage units became larger, and better capitalized and the former partners now became shareholders/employees of the banks. The risk factor was removed. When they had been set up as partnerships, the brokerage partners who traded for the firm had to take calculated and minimal risk with the firms capital. If a trade went awry it could cost them not only their bonus for the year, but it could take down the firm and their net worth (Kidder Peabody-remember them?). Now as a division of a major corporation/bank, after the risk of losing their personal assets was removed, bank/brokerage employees were more at ease to accept riskier trades. Over lay this with the growth of the sub-prime mortgage market (which exploded after affordable housing legislation) and the end result was the banking crisis of 2008.
My point today is that bubbles start not at the end when they pop. They start 10-20-30 years earlier when uninformed/ill-equipped/incapable politicians decide to coddle society by expanding social programs. I believe that the generous people of our great country will take care of their family/friends/community in a better manner than the federal government. Philanthropy is far more effective in caring for the sick/poor/less fortunate than a massive, corrupt federal government program. Incentivize high net worth individuals and corporations to give more to charitable causes (maybe a double tax benefit?) while the federal government reforms and/or cuts outdated, bankrupt legacy social programs.
More can be read via my two novels, Cameron Nation: Going All-in To Save His Country and Columbus Avenue Boys: Avenging the Scalamarri Massacre. www.cameronnation.com.
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message 1:
by
Paddy
(new)
Nov 07, 2012 03:47PM
Socialism is the problem
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4 years and the USA will be unrecognizable.
Well, yes 51% of the people feel that way. I just can't seem to put my arms around how an economy growing at 1% can sustain social programs growing at 8% with a 11% unemployment rate and $4 gas. How is that expected to change in the next four years after all the rich people decide to pull their money out of the country, lay people off and not want to fund Obamacare. Look at Boeing today, mass layoffs and much more to come.
Democracy- Fuck that, how about a David&Paddyocracy?
Paddy, anyone can do better than what we are stuck with. Only thing is, I don't think we would give away free stuff to slackers so how can we get elected?
Alas yes, that's what politics has come to. I can't remember which commie leader said it first, they all did at one stage or another, but socialism is inevitable. It goes completely against human nature in a way which will cause us to devolve intellectually. We're fucked but ... Look at the situation in UK at the moment, the semi-literate filth are all making a fortune in welfare payment for having a lot of children, whilst accommadated in state housing, and those worthy to be allowed to breed pay for it all, have less children, and are powerless to stop it. cheers marx
Enlightened self interest in a laissez fair (can't spell in french) capitalist society run along the principles of Rands objectivity, and; yes, I'm being serious; to a lesser extend Benthams ultilitarianism is the way forward.Who is John Galt?
So many older generations would never think of not sacrificing (WW2-the greatest generation) to preserve the future of their kids and grandkids. Our adult population are spoiled brats who never wish to sacrifice even though their kids and grandkids will be forced to pay for this. Unbelievable selfishness.
Well said! It is impossible for most young people to even imagine what the WW2 generation endured. I've researched and read so much about WW2 and the sacrifices that were made. I didn't learn much of this in school, I had to read and learn on my own. I feel it is my duty as a parent to educate my daughter on the sacrifices that were made and how fortunate we are to know where our next meal is coming from and have the luxuries we do. It is important for her to respect those who sacrificed for us.
Such a soft, short sighted, uneducated population now.
Check out Eddie Jones on GR, he writes about this on his profile. Well worth a look.Oh, BTW, if you want guaranteed reviews for any of your books, I'm your man, and will gladly oblige
Thank you. Yes, if you have read my books, please review that would be much appreciated.
