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What is it I don’t understand about American people?

March 15, 2016
Chas Smit

Chas Smit

OPINION by CHAS SMIT

I am born Dutch and have lived in California since 1987. As a child, I always looked up to America and someday I wished I would live there. From day one I learned this is not the best and greatest country on earth (a statement made by many of you who have never been abroad).

You probable say; why don’t you go back to where you came from? With my children born and raised here it’s easier said than done. I am kind of stuck here.

Things I just don’t understand:

Common sense

To stimulate a strong economy can only be accomplished by a strong circulating currency.

In other words; people have to earn moderate to high wages so they can consume goods and services. Without that in the equation the economy stagnates. The majority in this country makes less than $10 an hour giving them non to zero spending money resulting in a stagnating economy.

Minimum wage

Minimum wage in the private sector is about $8 or $10 an hour, while prevailing wage is $35 an hour or more. So by law, I can have a guy work all day for $100 while that same guy who works for the city/county/state makes $350 or more a day.

The guy in the private sector has almost non existing benefits and most likely has to work till he drops dead while that same guy working for the government riches himself with a lavish lifestyle and retires before he reached the age of 50. Everybody out there with common sense will admit something here is wrong.

Insurance

Small businesses are required by law to have both liability and workman’s comp insurance. Some folks obey these laws but many don’t. The enforced law doesn’t check people who don’t obey these rules resulting in unfair competition, basically putting the legal guy out of business. Remarkably, most folks supporting these regulations hire the guys disobeying these laws (Being a small business owner I know this is true).

Large government

Trading commodities (buy and sell) is the foundation of a strong economy. It’s like a business; trading without a profit results into going out of business. Nobody can support anything without making a profit. It’s called revenue!

Revenue is the stronghold of a country. It pays for roads and bridges and all that other good stuff we need in daily life so what’s the problem?

High government wages and sweet benefits have made working for the private sector a joke.
Getting paid so much more and be able to retire before the age of 50 why would anybody wants to work for the private sector and make $10 bucks an hour or less with no benefits?

What most folks don’t realize; government doesn’t create revenue. It spends revenue created by the private sector. Buying x selling x profit = revenue. If revenue no longer exists where will government get its money? For now they borrow money, but since they are putting the private sector out of business, they have no resources to pay it back.

The problem can’t be fixed

Anybody elected into the White House will be hand tight and unable to make any changes. Whether its Hillary, Bernie or Donald. As long as they don’t get what they want through the House or Congress nothing will change. In the meanwhile, the country will fall even further in into disarray.

Most democratic supporters are either local, state or government employees. Certainly, they don’t want to lose their sweet jobs and benefits and therefore they prefer Bernie or Hillary into the white house. These folks simply don’t want to lose their sweet paid jobs and high profile benefits and not to forget their early full paid retirement.

On the other hand, if a Republican gets into the white house the majority of us will stay hungry and uneducated so how to get a happy medium?

Somebody who is able to bring both parties together and get some common sense into the equation and give up on:

1. Wasting money by government and equal pay for state, government and private sector employees. (Like all other industrial countries). No more prevailing wages. Equal pay and benefits for everybody. No exceptions!

2. Eliminate bureaucracy. It simply kills everything. We all want clean environment but we have created such a paper and time consuming mess in witch government is no longer working for us but we are working for the government. It simply doesn’t work!

3. Make economic education mandatory in elementary and high school levels so kids and young adults understand what I am writing here. It’s all common sense but with the low level of educations in this country most folks don’t know how to use their common sense. In all honesty I belief this country likes their stupid people. Donald said it the other night on TV lol.

4. Lobbying can no longer be legal.

Representatives can only be elected based on performance. It simply is ridicules, to be elected into the white house takes almost a billion dollars. No wonder this government is corrupt. I buy my U.S. made prescriptions online in Canada for less than half the price then what I pay here. This has to stop.

How can a stock broker be sentenced into prison for inside market information while at the same time a member of Congress/Senate pockets millions of dollars from lobbying large industries? It makes no sense.

5. A 25 percent flat tax for everybody is a strong alternative to bring this slagging economy back into motion. No more tax exemptions for the rich, no more tax deductibles, no more government subsidies for corporations wanting to move overseas. And if corporations move overseas they will be panelist with higher import tax.

6. Eliminate state and government funding’s (grants) so they no longer waste money by over paying law enforcement, firefighters, local government etc. They all get a spending budget and if they run out they no longer can hold up their hands and take the money from us, we the people.

Last week, I took my dog to Choro Creek Dog Park. Just before the campground I ran into three fire trucks, one ambulance, three cop cars, one sheriff car and two rangers. Between the fire guys and cops, I counted more than 15 people standing around a handcuffed woman. I never hear anybody complain about this sick and money wasting nonsense. It’s like everybody here is in denial. And for those guys in those firetrucks and cop cars; don’t they feel guilty knowing they are wasting so much money

That same morning at that dog park, I met this young lady. When I asked her what she does for a living she told me she works for a local general contractor and her main project is the new juvenile hall addition (for the folks who don’t know where this is. It’s that new construction on hwy 1 near the animal shelter).

She told me it’s a 22 bed addition and the cost of it is $15 million dollars. She also told me the current facilities are not 100 percent occupied and therefore the new addition is just an over capacity. I simply couldn’t belief it. $15 million for a 22 bed housing project or almost $700,000 per bed. It is so disturbing.

It’s your local government and local representatives who allow this waste to happen. In order for them to keep getting funded with grands and federal aid they have to throw money away or otherwise the flow stops. It literally makes me sick into my stomach.
And you folks let this happen because you simply don’t know or you are just in denial. At least most of you out there don’t know.

For all of you out there reading this I want you to know, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I am a realist with lots of common sense. I simply don’t understand how you folks let this happen right in front of you. It’s like having somebody come into your home steeling your stuff and you’re just sitting there and tell him to go ahead and take what he wants.

Hypocrisy

I am a non-believer but respect all folks out there with a faith in the religion of your choice. It’s your business and your faith and again I respect that however what I miss out there is the passion and compassion for each other.

While these government folks are wasting millions and millions of dollars and all of you are worshiping on your Sunday morning in church, what are all of you doing for these poor homeless folks. Other than judging them into one category that all of the homeless are druggies and alcoholics what do all of you folks do to solve this growing intercity epidemic?

Have you ever asked yourself the question; what do you do if tomorrow morning on your way to work the ATM machine tells you your card is declining, you arrive at your job and you find out the company went belly up so you’re out of a job, you can’t pay your mortgage so you’re losing your house and eventually you end up in the street?

The same folks you sit next to in church are now looking at you in a different angle. Instead of helping you they now put you in the category of druggies, alcoholic, loser and more. The same folks drinking their  $5 Starbucks coffee may give you 50 cents as if that will help you to get back on your feet.

So again, what are you going to do if you lose everything and you have absolutely no place to go? All these church goers, government employees, the community has done nothing to 0 for the homeless. Instead to chase them away telling them to go to the next town and the next town does the same thing and on and on it goes.

So for all these compassionate money wasters out there, what about converting some of the Camp San Luis or Camp Roberts barracks into living facilities for the homeless?

Each barrack can be split up into small apartments with running water and a small kitchen and for the folks with pets there’s plenty room for dogs out there. The facility will be drug and alcohol free and everybody willing to sign up for a job training program can apply for housing. So now we convert the homeless guy into a clean and shaven participant of society. We implement a job market and within no time these folks are back on track.

How simple and inexpensive can we bring these folks back and make them feel strong and proud again?

So before you vote for Hillary, Bernie, Donald, Marco or Ted think twice. Maybe you should not vote at all. Get rid of your government and let us “we the people” run this country. We hire Bill Gates or Warren Buffet to be the CEO and we’ll be fine.


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Americans are STUPID ! Don’t you understand that ? They have their heads up their anuses and think the view is just fine. They have cottage cheese for brains. They believe bullshit: from not taxing billionaires that take from everyone, making perpetual war is ‘peace’, and lost prosperity is due to the poor and those with no political power. Americans are DUMBASSES !


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We cannot get rid of debt without getting rid of the entire financial system. Congress illegally abdicated it’s Constitutionally-mandated requirement to issue currency, they gave that power to a private bank and then turn around and BORROW their currency. How can debt ever be eliminated if the currency used to pay it off is borrowed?


In fact, I would argue that the Federal Reserve Act is in direct violation of the 10th Amendment – basically, the federal congress does not just get to do what it wants, if it is not contained within the constitution.


So the problem (coming back to your questions, inferred and implied), this “house of cards” of the “spiraling debt” is EXACTLY how it is supposed to function, and there is no end except geometrically-increasing debt. Therefore, a matching ignorance is needed to keep the existing, extremely flawed system in place, thus we see an almost matching, inverse, decrease in the general education level. It is always about money, and the fewer people who realize it’s a fiat economy, the more likely it will be to maintain the illusion.


No one wants to change a system they are empowered by, even at the expense of their friends, family, neighbors, and countrymen. It’s like hoping for tort reform from a bunch of low-life lawyers (most of all three branches are usually lawyers who game the system). Do not hope for monetary reform from wealthy elitists who ply divisive tactics and encourage ignorance to maintain their wealth.


What you are seeing, or, as you put it, failing to understand, is the fallout from that applied ignorance at the top, trickling down. Just closely examine the democrat party (the only party that still exists from 1828 (or earlier), they actively have the self-appointed “intellectuals” and monied folk, yet claim to be the champion of the poor and under-served, when it is exactly they who are keeping said people poor and under-served. The Republican Party (est. 1854?) is not much different today.


For power, it is not about competing and winning, it is about gaming the system (and what better way than to create the system yourself) and to keep as many people ignorant of that, lest they be keen on toppling the corrupt, self-serving system.


Keep them dumb and well-fed (Socialism and Communism failed there) and you will keep your power nearly indefinitely.


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I have a solution for you Chas, go get one of those lucrative jobs as a cop or firefighter. Then you could use your new found fortune to take in a few homeless folks to live in your lavish mansion you paid for with govt money.


After you piss you pants on you first shift as a cop or firefighter you can always go back to washing windows. Maybe you should pay your own employees the wages you seek, there is a good start.


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I hate to break it to you, but being in a cop or a firefighter, especially a cop, isn’t generally the GOAL of someone who has other skills. It’s the fall back for high school wrestlers who don’t go to college. The fact that it is so highly paid is a direct result of union thuggery, nothing more. I could list off a thousand jobs for you that are more dangerous, more difficult, require more skill, and allow people to think like adults rather than high school bullies.


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Like bankruptcy attorneys.


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Sigh…I think you meant well Charles, but…


Let’s just take two of your “examples”


The first one is really easy. You apparently don’t realize the majority of the folks that work for both the county and city make much less than $50,000/yr and that’s including their benefits. They are also subject to the Rule of 80. That mean you add up the number of years they have worked (for say) the County plus their age and that has to add up to 80. So, if they work 20 years for the county they would have to be at least 60 to start getting their retirement. (And that retirement is taxed by the way)


The second example is pretty simple too.

You said equal pay and benefits for everyone. OK, well just start with your own business. Everybody who works for you will get the exact same paycheck as you, no matter how good they are at their job or how many hours they work. OH! and don’t forget that out of YOUR “equal” check you’ll have to pay expenses…


I’m afraid you’ll be out of business in no time…


People get paid by what they are worth in the real world. Your experience and training ARE worth more than some guy just coming in off the street with no skills. And please don’t even try to tell me you’d pay a teenage looking for a few hours a week the same as you’d pay someone who has worked full time for you for the last ten years. That would be suicidal on your part!


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Chas Smit,


You make valid points that many of us are sick and tired of, and any change to said points is like trying to walk upon water in the summertime, because the wealthy rule this nation.


I wear a purple robe at times while visiting Cal Coast News, therefore I have to agree with you wholeheartedly about hypocritical Christians relative to not following their Bronze Age god named Yahweh, and what He proposed for them in His writings within the Judeo-Christian bible.


Relative to the hypocritical Christian and the homeless population that you mentioned, you have to understand that these pseudo-christians place themselves into a Catch-22 situation on a daily basis because of either their outright ignorance of the bible, or by actually reading ALL of their Bronze Age bible and not following it to the letter.


Either way, ALL Christians become outright hypocrites to their faith, and they’re Christians in name only. Unfortunately, many Christians find insidious comfort while hiding behind their hypocrisy. Your mentioning the homeless relative to what Christians are suppose to do in the name of their Savior, is one of the best examples that can be made of their ungodly hypocrisy.


JESUS STATED: “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matthew 15: 7-9)


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I’ve got a “Catch-22” for ya!


First you’re going to have to prove that those folks are hypocrites, which you can not do.


Otherwise it’s called bearing false witness!


Take the beam out of your eye first before you accuse others…

#justsayin


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flicka47,


Case in point, when was the last time you saw any Christian follow Jesus’ direct words as shown below?


Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)


Do you hear the same “crickets” that I do? Yeah, you do.


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Wow! You really missed the whole point of that didn’t you?

“If you want to be perfect…”


NO man is perfect in the eyes of God except by the gift of His grace. You can not earn salvation period. and God does not expect any of us to be perfect, that’s why He sent His son


Although if YOU think YOU can earn salvation maybe you’d better start with not lying about what you have no way of knowing, i.e. what people give to others.


It looks like you are guilty of at least one, if not two or more of the seven deadly sins…Envy and Greed and bearing false witness…


So, so sorry for you! You will NOT be entering the Kingdom of Heaven by your own words.


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flicka47,


I have never seen such insolence towards our Savior, as you now calling Jesus a LIAR!


With specificity, Jesus stated forthwith, “if you want to be perfect go sell your possessions and give to the poor…..” When you proffer that no one is perfect, you are saying that Jesus LIED when He made the statement that He did! Where do you get the authority to not only rewrite the bible, but to call the Savior of this world an outright LIAR?! BLASPHEME!


Barring your faux pas above, people giving to homeless is to be a full time profession, taking care of the homeless is not a part time job. Jesus said: “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” (1 John 3:17) As an example of this passage to follow at all times, do you have possessions at this time, yes? Therefore when you see a homeless person, do you give assistance in the way of money, shelter, food, clothing, etc.? Yes? I hardly think so, therefore you’re just another “lip service” pseudo-christian that are a dime-a-dozen in this community.


Your erroneous statement: “Although if YOU think YOU can earn salvation maybe you’d better start with not lying about what you have no way of knowing, i.e. what people give to others.”


Logic 101 precludes that if all Christians followed Jesus’ word regarding the poor, then all of the homeless would be in shelters, clothed, food, and taken care of in every need. But, they are not in our community, therefore, Christians are not giving as prescribed by Jesus! 2+2=4, get it?


The ones that are bearing false witness, are the ones like you that are not following their bibles relative to taking care of the poor! 3+3=6, get it?


Flicka, I am sorry to inform you that you are now guilty of the unpardonable sin because you have called the Holy Spirit of Jesus a LIAR! “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:31-32)


Your reward is that you are no longer a Christian, there is no more baggage for you to trip over in this life, no more being a hypocrite to your Bronze Age religion, you are free of the bonds of Christianity. Be happy! On the flip side though, you will burn in the sulfur lakes of Hell upon your demise. Therefore, have fun while you are on earth as being non-religious. Amen


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*yawn*


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Interesting piece, Chas.


Chas writes:


“It’s your local government and local representatives who allow this waste to happen. In order for them to keep getting funded with grands and federal aid they have to throw money away or otherwise the flow stops. It literally makes me sick into my stomach.

And you folks let this happen because you simply don’t know or you are just in denial.”


Chas, whatever you do, do NOT Google: sewerwatch “women’s jail”


… and then read-up on the new, VERY expensive, and (almost certainly) completely unneeded SLO County Women’s jail, that is currently being constructed off Kansas Ave.


The path that led to that multi-million-dollar disaster, will make your head explode.


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Here is the site for the cronyism at the Sheriff’s Dept and County Administration. I am sure the boat also fell into this category. What a joke that the County BOS would allow Parkinson to buy, maintain and use a 27-foot Defender Class boat for recovery of panga boats at a cost of $350,000 plus maintain. When was the last time he heard about a drug panga boat?

HELLO, we have a wonderful fully staffed Coast Guard in Morro Bay who were willing to assistance the Sheriff’s Dept. Waste, waste waste! Does anyone on this site think the the Women’s Jail will cost $35 million or less. I have no doubt that it will cost the TAXPAYERS more…


Here is the article mentioned above:


http://sewerwatch.blogspot.com/2010/09/single-handedly-terminating-slo-county.html


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Thank you both of you for paying attention to these shenanigans, as most people are not. That boat purchase was criminal behavior, even if it was technically legal. And not just its purchase, but also the marketing and the lobbying by the company that made it.


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Thanks for writing and for sharing. You bring up some good points and your heart is in a good place. I just want to add a couple notes. I just finished a multi-year remodel and landscaping project. Even at $20 per hour (cash), I had a hard time getting any support for the project. I don’t really think that the “majority in this country makes less than $10 an hour.” If they do, they don’t work here. As a child, I started poor and uneducated…I worked odd jobs starting at age 10 including putting myself through six years of college. I disagree when you feel that everyone should make (and be taxed) the same. The chance to invest in yourself and better your future IS the American dream. Remove that and we’ll forever be below average as a nation. Relative to taxing all people at 25% (or whatever number), I also strongly disagree. Why would we tax a single parent struggling in a minimum wage job? We don’t tax such a family now, so why would you propose that? A flat tax is the worst thing possible for the poor. Read up. Lastly, relative to churches, you speak from a place of misunderstanding. I have volunteered with the local churches often and we do take turns housing the drug and alcohol free homeless. Research that. I totally agree that a $15M prison, a $39M county government building, and a $24M police station are simply crazy. So are the salaries of ALL of our government staff.


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Chas- lots of great points, but I have to point out your economics is a bit flawed. Money (FRNs) is debt. It is printed by the Federal Reserve, and you and I are the asset that debt is written against. That’s why we now have a universal income tax (didn’t prior to 1913). This is key to understanding our current economic situation: the IRS says you have no basis in your own labor. That means it has no value, therefore, all money you make from your labor is 100% profit. Hopefully everyone can see the problem with that. This is a built-in bias in favor of corporations and against labor. Anyone that wants to talk about “income inequality” needs to START by understanding how money is created, and how the tax code stifles individuals, especially the middle class.


Capitalism has NEVER existed in it’s pure form. As soon as the use of violence enters the picture, you have fascism, and every market ever has had cartels that rise up and through violence (state or otherwise) seize control of that market. We currently live under a fascist/socialist model. Look these words up, since they get mis-used constantly. Remember the story of that tea party that dumped the Brits product into the drink? Look up the events leading up to that, the English were attempting to corner the tea market through force. That’s fascism, not capitalism.


Also, America wasn’t founded on capitalism. This is a gross misunderstanding of our history. Puritan work ethic built this country, i.e. labor + religious freedom. Was it perfect? No. But nothing human ever is. Capital without state coercion didn’t enter the picture until long after the colonies were established.


As far as minimum wage goes… I wonder, would you also like to see price fixing on other commodities? It’s working GREAT for Venezuela. Minimum wage is nothing more than a price fix for labor, and it’s been shown many times that as that wage goes up, entry-level jobs go down. Chas should understand this, being the owner of a small business. Look at the employment rate for black teenagers in 1965 vs. now if you want a longer view.


But hey, let’s keep up that right vs. left false dichotomy! We’ve got an election to be entertained by! Don’t worry, when the dust settles, nothing will have changed. We’ll continue our gradual drift to communism, nice and slow so hardly anyone notices. It’s a pity no one reads Lenin or Marx but their proponents, we need to know the enemy.


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You’ve made some good points.


Why do people want to live here? Why do people think the USA is a great nation?


Despite our political differences and incapability to stop excessive bureaucracy, the people here are some of the nicest, most grateful people on the planet. We know we can’t fix everything, who can? At least the people I meet truly make me feel welcome.

You can’t say that about many places on Earth.


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