Ok, so I am confused...yeah, yeah, well get used to it. Chrysler is being allowed to go into bankruptcy. Does that mean that "we the people" have lost our right to collect the bailout money already given to these clods? We bailed them out in 1979 and I am sure that we gave them another few billion just over the past few months and now they are going into bankruptcy protection. Hmmm
If bankruptcy is good for Chrysler allowing them to "reorganize" then how is it that bankruptcy wasn't a good idea for GM (until recently), AIG, and all the giant banks? Are we seeing a change in strategy a flip-flop, if you will? I think it's about time for someone in Washington to let me in on why they allow one company to go under, while others get gifted large sums of money and then are allowed to go under, and others are saved and all the while the little guys are going under or barely above water with no appreciable help.
Oh, I know, yes-yes, I did in fact receive an increase in my paycheck with the new federal tax laws. I am receiving nearly $8 a week in additional pay after taxes. Whoa NELLY! I'm getting ready to saddle up for a trip to the dollar store for exactly seven pieces Chinese plastic crappola and nearly outdated foodstuffs. Is anyone else underwhelmed out there?
So I was watching American Idol one night and Adam Lambert, obviously one of the top two (#1 one by a mile in my opinion), is voted into the bottom two of the final five. I'm thinking as I watch this travesty, Americans may have talent but their taste is all in their mouth. My Dad suggested wisely that Adam's performance was the only one that was held true to the theme of "Rat Pack". I think that's probably the best answer. The teen girls doing much of the voting probably didn't "get" the connection. A friend had a theory that people were voting in those they want to be with Adam. While that's an interesting theory, I think it may assume too much intelligence among the voting public. If our system of creating a new American idol is hard to fathom, let's look at our government and business madness.
People outside America may not understand our idiotic system of interaction between government and business. I work in a construction company right? We have so many insurance policies it's hard to keep them all straight and most of them are required by law, the rest by necessity in this litigiously insane place. We have a General Liability Insurance policy, Auto Insurance policy, Worker's Compensation Insurance policy, Business Owner's Insurance policy, Medical Injury Insurance policy, Medical Insurance policy, Dental Insurance policy and probably a couple more that I am forgetting about.
Then there are the licenses and permits. We must buy business licenses for each city where we do business and pay a small percentage of our total business in that city to the city each year. We have a Contractor's License, we have a Hazardous Materials license, we have a motor carrier permit, we have vehicle registration cards and weight stickers and Haz Mat stickers and registration stickers, vehicle licenses, and of course everyone must to possess a driver's license. We pay a hazardous materials fee to the state and a lead materials fee which are used to fund safety programs that are designed to protect us from hazardous materials although we aren't sure what the state actually does with that money since we've never seen anyone from the state - and we'd actually prefer that they stay the hell away from us anyway.
Why - you might ask - do we here in America make things so complicated? Why do we have all these insurance policies and licenses and permits? I believe that the answer lies in the fact that l awyers - and lawyers who've become politicians - run the show. Without lawyers, we'd have lots less regulation, lots less taxes and lots less law suits. Business might be able to operate and make a decent profit and government might retract into a body that simply enforces basic laws that make life peaceful and safe.
In California, we are regulated beyond reason. We are taxed beyond reason. We are insured beyond reason as a shield against law suits beyond reason. The "beyond reasonableness" of our system is curious too when you consider that one of the foundations of a legal education must certainly be argumentation based on logic. How is it that a bunch of lawyers well-educated in logic have developed a system that defies logic? And how is it that "we the people" have long been content to merely sit on the front porch grumbling over taxes and excess regulation?
I have a related and still-developing theory on black holes; it is this:
Cranky's First Law of Astro Physics - Black holes are formed when a civilization's legal books represent enough mass to suck the light out of an optimist's eyes.
I imagine that the galactic slurping sound of a Black Hole's creation would be similar to that of a Congressional cocktail party.
Just a simple curmudgeon observing life in the USA. Cranky posts to his blog regularly at http://crankyblog.com.
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