The Times are Changing

A friend sent me two articles that on the surface seemed to be unrelated. Newspaper subscriptions are falling again, and many executives are “being lured away” from the government controlled company AIG. He wanted to know what I thought of this turn of events. It is not hard to understand, people no longer subscribe to newspapers because they no longer contain news, or information that is relevant or reliable. Most people get the newspaper for the coupons and comics, all of which we can now get on line. Don’t worry, though a bailout is coming and we can be assured that the playing field will be leveled. Net neutrality is being billed and the way to diversify the net. That is a lie. Net neutrality will be used (regardless of which administration is in place) to allow those voices that match the proper diversity message to be heard. Don’t believe me? Check out China, or Venezuela who have filtering placed upon their countries internets to “eliminate pornography, and objectionable material”. While I am not a big fan of pornography, I worry when people start trying to determine for me what is objectionable. I have the solution for porn and most other “objectionable” material. Don’t subscribe, or watch. If there is no market, then people will find some other amusements. The news that the newspapers is a trailing indicator that we no longer have a free press and when the money comes from the government, who will question those in power, when questioning can make you really uncomfortable.

Don’t believe me ask the executives at AIG who are being “lured”, ok they are taking any going offer, to work for someone other than the government. Why? Just because their salaries are being made “fair” and palatable to the American taxpayer, why would they want to leave? Aren’t they happy suffering for the rest of us? AIG and the other companies should have been allowed to fail, but then the company holding the retirement fund for congress would have been out of business. No wonder they are “too big to fail”. No the executives are finding that working for the government is not as much fun as they thought it would be, and that the politicians play for real, and they are just looking to be rich. If AIG would have failed, those executives would have been out of work for a couple of years, and then found a small regional bank or even a division of Bank of American to run. The free market and the concepts of independent people making decisions for themselves is being systematically dismantled, and replaced with a view of entitlement and comfort.

Look at why newspapers are failing. In accounting we are trained to be professionally skeptical, why not in journalism. When a congressman calls the President a liar on national television did any news organization look into why he would endanger his political career? Nope, we just ran the Rutgers, or AP write-up stating that he apologized for the outburst and the president magnanimously forgave him his error. As it turns out the congressman was right. Don’t believe me, just look it up yourself. When the bailout of AIG the mass redistribution of wealth was undertaken and these executive got a first hand view of socialism in the new America. It is interesting that every socialist country is run as a “democracy”, but not many have a say. They put up with it, because they have no choice. We will have healthcare DMV style, don’t believe me visit the UK, and why do Canadians come here for their healthcare if it is “free”. I guess you get what you pay for.

When the government provides services, who do you turn to when they are not acceptable? There is a reason that the founding fathers as President Obama so eloquently put it “if the Constitution "didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and [the] Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties." The document, he argued, "Says what the states can’t do to you, says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf." And he is correct. Our founding fathers were very wise is putting limits on what the government can do to you, because the role of government should be what the people decide to allow the government to do, not the other way around. But don’t worry, our current congress and president have been working for a long time to change all of that, and they may succeed. Congratulations, socialists have won. Not with a bang or a battle, but by the day to day wearing away of our will, and we have let it happen, under the auspices of being open minded and not wanting to offend.

So when the government bails out the newspaper industry, remember we allowed this to happen.

The decay of the American Dream

When will we wake up? The recession--let’s call it like it is--depression is forcing many small family owned business to close. These are the businesses that we need to focus on helping to succeed. Why are they closing? Top line revenue reductions, increasing taxation, and they can’t adjust fast enough to keep things afloat. By the way, many of those put out of work will not qualify for unemployment because they were the business owners, and you guessed it, are not employees. While they paid self-employment taxes, the government does not view this group as needing help and are not victims of an oppressive employer, therefore are in control of their own destiny and can afford to be without work.

The problem is that we have it all wrong. Businesses are looking to complete tasks and they hire people to accomplish those tasks. If those tasks repeat, they extend contracts aka make a person an employee. The government also forces the issue by requiring a company to hire people if they are used to complete tasks for a period longer than six months, or if the task can be reasonably described as an ongoing task that would be completed by an employee. Most employers, especially the family owned businesses, are careful about hiring people into the business and come to view all employees as family. It’s one of the mistakes made by these businesses, but also one of their key strengths. The value of these businesses is incalculable from a societal prospective. They show families how to work together, build communities, and keep customers happy. These form a strong foundation for economic and community growth.

The companies that are “too big to fail” are rooted in 15 countries and have no loyalty except to the investors. This is how it should be. But I still assert that no company is too big or important to fail. We need a better tax code, a focus on what is important, and frankly the only thing about health care that we need is to remove government from the managing equation. A group that can’t deliver the mail without losing billions is not someone I want to manage my health in any form. The loss of these businesses is a very good indicator as to how well we are managing our own financial responsibilities.

Obviously we are failing.