Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pa.--Couple arrested for not paying tip

I knew the folks in Pennsylvania leaned to the socialist side, but this seems to be way too far across the pond. I would expect this in Europe, but in America? A couple spent over an hour waiting for the food, had to get their own napkins and silverware, paid for the food, but did not leave a tip. They were arrested. Why? They had a party of six and the “gratuity” was included. Now, most of us do not have an issue paying a gratuity especially for “large” groups. However, what is implicit is the duty of the establishment to provide a base of service commiserate with the standard service of the restaurant. A “gratuity” is just that, a bonus for a job well done. Regardless of a pre-calculated convenience for both the patron and the establishment, if not earned, the tip should not be paid. Now I know that there are cheap skates in the world, and someone will always try to take advantage of the situation. However, most people are honest hard working individuals that like to see other hard working individuals get ahead. Waiting tables is tough, but that is also why it can be rewarding to those who do an exceptional job. My niece waits tables through school, because she can make more there than sitting behind the desk. The hours are long, and she is tired when she is done, but she is also doing well because she takes care of her customers. Why do we think that there cannot be consequences for our actions? In this case the establishment was busy. Good for them. They did not serve this particular group of customers well at all. Shame on them, and the consequence should be that there is no tip (which is above and beyond the actual cost of the meal).

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It is interesting that it was the couple that was arrested rather than the owner for wasting police time. While the amount may have been printed on the bill, it was not part of the meal. The only good news is the article named the restaurant. I think that is one I will avoid in the future.

Attention Blue-light Shoppers

“There’s no way we are ever going to make money at this”.. The two men charged with insider trading at Bear Stearns we acquitted due to lack of evidence. It is interesting that the most honest quote of the entire sub-prime fiasco was contained in a short email that did not provide sufficient evidence that these two men were trying to manipulate the market. They weren’t, and they couldn’t. What the hedge fund was trying to do was contain the damage and keep the bank afloat from the really poor decisions of those who had determined to get into the sub-prime business in the first place. We can’t blame the executives really. They are measured on how much money they generate for the bank, and in the short run sub-prime loans generated a lot of money. They got creative, they sharpened their pencils, to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. But no matter how you polish it, when you start with droppings all you end up with are shiny droppings. Myth busters proved that you can get a shiny dung dropping with enough work. Scary. I digress. Back to sub-prime loans. The whole industry was desperate, the housing market could not sustain the growth and they needed additional revenue to continue, so they banks who had lent developers significant sums of money, decided to protect that bad investment with more of the same, by allowing people to gain access to overpriced homes and finding creative ways to get around the credit requirements. Very cool. I myself benefited from this creativity, and I am also currently paying the price for not paying enough attention to what I was doing. Heck at the time everyone was doing it, and we were all convinced that as long as things continued we would all be fine. That is a true statement. We would all be fine as long as things continued to rise. However, like our government we all made the simple mistake of not thinking, and just hoping for the best. Everyone regardless of education, intelligence, or savvy can be taken in based on information that seems right, but only under even minor scrutiny falls apart. We all trusted, but we did not verify. These two men were at the tail end of a long line of bad decisions, and rather than look to things like banking policy, the Federal Reserve and their heavy handed tactics, as well as the change in capitalization requirements, we looked to the hedge funds. Now these really need to be examined, but not by our government (we already know they wouldn’t recognize a hedge if they had to mow it), but by the stock holders of the banks, and through civil courts. The minority stockholders need to become more vocal and assertive in their right to obtain information and ensure integrity of the company. No company is too big to fail, and thus those that use hedge funds as a way to hide fraudulent activities should be banned from all securities transactions until corrected. Unfortunately, these much like the Anderson debacle, our judicial system failed to obtain correct information and understanding of the case and the ramifications of their actions. These two men were a link to the right target, but should not have been the targets.

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.

Cash for clunkers

Our Government at Work

It is good to see customer service is not dead. Our government has once again extended the deadline for the cash for clunkers program. Excellent. Except for the fact that they are not extending it for you. They are "extending" the program because they have been overwhelmed with demand from dealers that cannot get through for approval. No automated system, you have to wait for someone. Very efficient. Good to know our representatives think of the details. Currently the average wait time is 30 minutes, and dealers are recommended to call back if they are disconnected. It is good to know that our government cares about us. It is the handling of programs like these that gives us all confidence in the ability of the government to be responsible and responsive to what the people need. It is also good to know that they are using our money wisely. Remember the transparency thing? We spent 3 billion of your money so that someone could get a new car. While I am sure these individuals are very happy with the new car, did you enjoy paying for it? Yes, all tax money comes from your pockets, including the interest we are paying China to hold most of our debt. Congratulations, the 3 billion will be 3.9 billion, that is 3,900,000,000. It will be interesting to see how many cars were actually purchased for that money. If you take the 3 billion assume all 4,050 was used, 740,000 cars would have been purchased, but only 625,000 were actually purchased. Meaning that 115,000 cars were not funded due to overhead for the program. That means that over 20 percent of your money was used to make sure that when you bought someone a car the rules were followed.

Remember why the program is being "extended"? The money is still being spent, and more money will be required to shut the program down. The program is being extended to allow for dealers to call in and obtain approval when the whole system has been unavailable. Bet you won't hear about that as a lead in on CNN. These things are buried on page 6, and thus most people won't see them, and others will refuse to acknowledge what they mean. Examine the actual expenditures of our federal system sometime. Programs like Amtrak has never been profitable and we sink an average of 4 billion a year into the program. Our post office is an example of the fine customer service we can expect when the Cap and Trade bills go into effect and our healthcare is managed by the government. Talk to veterans who must receive healthcare from our VA system or the Bureau of Indian Affairs to see how happy they are about their care. Take off the rose colored glasses, ask hard questions like do I really need to help pay for someone else's car?

The Depression is not over...

Yes, this is a depression. Regardless of what those trying to garner votes for various initiatives are trying to tell us. A depression is defined as a period where the GDP is reduced by 10 percent. Since we have over 10 percent unemployment (the government numbers only reflect those who qualify for unemployment benefits). These numbers do not include things like the small business that has gone under, and the owner who is now looking to recover. So the article in the LA times that "Retail sales fall 5.1% in July despite back-to-school lures" , is merely stating what a reasonable person could deduce without a lot of thought. However, it seems that people are confused. We have taxes and government encroachment at record levels, companies closing, and unemployment at the highest level since 1983, and the Market Oracle in the UK is calling these numbers Depression levels. We are decimating entire submarkets with programs like the "Cash for clunkers" which is nearly crippling the spare parts industry which has relied upon salvage to continue. With the government destroying the cars that supply the spare parts they are ensuring that we will be forced into the new models that are "green" and environmentally friendly. Much like the light bulbs that use less electricity, have only a slightly longer life span and are filled with toxic and hazardous mercury. So if we dispose of them in the landfill we pollute our water supply much more than a clean coal factory will produce carbon gases.

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So retail sales are falling why is this a shock and why are we surprised? We are not building anything, we have outsourced many of the technologically sound jobs to India, the Philippines, and Mexico, but we have kept the really important fast food jobs here. It is tough to afford designer clothes on a McDonalds paycheck. This will impact everything, not just clothing, but technology and every industry within this country. We are not creating things or even managing them, we are putting money into a mismanaged and now government controlled financial services industry, which is making 38 billion in nothing but overdraft fees. The solution is actually simple, it is just no one really wants to go through the pain. Much like diet and exercise, we need to put discipline upon our spending, and realize that life and everyday is a gift and not a right and start treating them as such. We do not need insurance to pay for all aspects of healthcare, we do not need the government to buy our cars in exchange for others that fund the general fund, we do not need a social security system. We need to start taking care of ourselves and taking the government out of the equation. The argument is that some people can't take care of themselves. True, but then we the people can figure out how to solve that problem and not pass that responsibility to another. The Bill Gates foundation has immunized more people in 1 year than the UN has in 10, for considerably less money. The difference? Someone who actually cares, and a group that exists for themselves. The government is filled with brilliant people, in a twisted and self focused system. We need to take those people and let them go back to industry and solve real problems instead of creating them.

What Branson’s sale really means...

In the course of human events people, companies, countries and the world evolves and changes. Mr. Branson’s unique rise has obviously fallen on some hard times. While the decision to sell his mobile phone company may have been to help pay for his hobbies, the decision to sell a large stake in Virgin Galactic to a cash rich group is telling about how well the US and European economies are fairing. It seems that the large amounts of cash flowing from the US and Europe into the coffers of the ruling families in Abu Dahbi and Saudi Arabia is paying dividends. You can tell how well a country, company or person is fairing based on investments in infrastructure. The poor do not invest in roads, high end hotels, clean water, bridges, or other infrastructure because they do not use those things to survive. Growth becomes how do I get through tomorrow without starving. If you want to see the contrasts, look at Africa compared to the rest of the world. Continual war, tribal focus and corruption have lead to the stagnation and death of entire peoples.

The sale of a portion of Virgin Galactic provides the needed cash flow for Branson’s empire, and allows those in Abu Dahbi to have yet another large accomplishment to show, when Branson beats all others to establishing a community in space. Mr. Branson is one of those individuals that whether you like him or not, you must admire the intrepid spirit and gumption. The fact that he sold the stake to the Middle East shows how far the US has fallen behind, not only in equity, but in though leadership and direction. We are focused on the “right” to healthcare, while the team in Abu Dabi is focused on a legacy and growth. Branson makes obtains a boatload of money, and the rest of the world looks for someone to blame for not being great, some are focused on doing the hard work necessary.