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

March 15, 2016

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.