Cheer Up! 17 Reasons It’s a Great Time to Be Alive | Reader’s Digest

Posted on by Mike

Do you ever get depressed reading or watching the news or discussing current events with a neighbor or friend? I do sometimes. Maybe the problem is with the source of our information. Optimism doesn’t sell newspapers, get viewers, or win elections.

We’ve been lied to, folks. Things are better than they were 50 years ago. The gold old days weren’t as good as the good now days.

Check out Matt Ridley’s article in the April Reader’s Digest:

Cheer Up! 17 Reasons It’s a Great Time to Be Alive | Reader’s Digest.

Oh, Good. Another Bailout

Posted on by Mike

President Obama announced another bailout. It’s not likely to work, but he has to do something besides blame the “previous administration” for the economy.

Here’s why government spending won’t fix the economy: Government money has to come from somewhere.

  1. Taxes. Taxes come from the economy in the first place, so the net effect of government spending from taxes is zero.
  2. Borrowing. Sure that puts extra money in the economy, but because of the interest, each dollar spent is worth less than a dollar.
  3. Printing. Each extra dollar printed reduces the value of all the dollars already in circulation. Thus, each dollar spent is worth less than a dollar.

Government spending doesn’t create new wealth or extra jobs, it just redistributes money from those who pay taxes (or loan the government money) to those who help politicians get elected. 1I had a little help here from Glenn Beck’s Arguing With Idiots.

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 I had a little help here from Glenn Beck’s Arguing With Idiots.

Government at Work

Posted on by Mike 6 Comments

USA Today reports that the contractors who spent 16 billion dollars of the stimulus package created 30,383 jobs!

Incredible, the stimulus package is working. It only cost $528,610 per job. If the rest of the package is as successful, the stimulus should create just over one million new jobs.

Let’s turn over more stuff for the government to run.

CORA

Posted on by Mike

Scene: A senior couple reading the newspaper over a morning cup of coffee.

She: So every year we get a C.O.L.A. to offset inflation…what happens if there’s no inflation?

He: We gat a C.O.R.A.

She: What’s that?

He: Cost of Re-election Adjustment.