Yesteday AM, I ran with the temperatures at 2 below zero (Mississippi weather?). This AM's temp was at 31 degrees. What is going on? Tue it was 51 degrees headed out to eat at Sparkie's; overnight into Wed we had 7 or 8 inches of snow......
I heard on the radio this AM some politician [I guess since I didn't catch a name or title] talking about all the good things Congress is going to do to remedy "income inequality." He mentioned the minimum wage and the current overtime things Congress is considering and maybe more, including "affordable health care." At the end of the interview he was asked, almost tongue in cheek I thought, if that meant by 2015 (when the guy said all this would like take effect), "a Big Mac will cost $17?" Not missing a beat, the interviewee retorted, "That may well be, but it's a zero-sum game and the money must come from somewhere." I think the guy missed a little something there, if not in Economics 101, at least in common sense. Who is going to pay $17 for a Big Mac?????? And, if nobody is buying Big Macs, what will that do to those workers who are the potential recipients of minimum wages, more overtime pay, and affordable health care? I'd guess it would put them out of jobs, where minimum wages, more OT, etc. won't affect them any long. Ah, the best of intentions......
Was this really in the newspaper, as I was told? Some woman down South somewhere went into a clothing store and bought some fancy lingerie using an EBT (?)/welfare card? Aren't those cards for food? (The store operator had no problem taking the card, saying, "I don't discriminate," whatever that means other than, "I want the money." I presume that's standard operating procedure.) Of course, we all have anecdotal evidence, that's all it is, anecdotal (but no less truthful?), of shoppers using these cards--government-issued from taxpayer monies--while holding the latest and greatest, say, cell phones or I-pads or whatever they are called. Wait a minute! Isn't there something incongruous about that? Have we created a culture where people now expect free stuff without working for it? Have we created a culture that no longer views hard work as having a reward? Have people come to believe that they are owed something just because they exist? Do they believe that they don't have to take jobs they don't like or work more hours or whatever to provide for their families? After, they must think, the government will give them food (or cards for food, with which they can apparently buy anything?), health care, etc., so I don't have to work or don't have to work at a job I don't like or....
I think back to how my mother-in-law just shook her head when Karen and I first were married and we subsisted most days with Chunky Soup on rice (the bulk stuff, not Minute Rice) for dinners. We were saving to buy a house. Gee, I didn't know (or maybe it wasn't the culture then?) that I could still have ribs or steaks or even burgs for dinner every night because the government would pay. Silly me. Then, when we bought our first house, for the first five or six months, we had no stove/oven--we couldn't afford one. So, we cooked outside on a cheap Hibachi, boiled spaghetti and noodles in an old electric coffee pot (which worked well for corn on the cob, too), and had lots of cold sandwiches. Oh, the local pizza place had yucky spaghetti, all you can eat, on Wed--oh, it was yukky, but was only 99 cents. I already have mentioned my "five jobs" at one time--to pay bills and save/pay for college for the kids.
I still can't get over Obama and his family taking these vacations, some just weekend jaunts, and they cost more than I will make in my lifetime. I know, I know, his supporters will say "But, he deserves those vacations." Yeah sure, but other rich people don't deserve what they have.
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