The Fix
There recently was an article in the  St. Petersburg Fl. Times. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on:  ”How Would You Fix the Economy?”
I think this guy nailed it!
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Dear Mr. President,

Please find below my suggestion for fixing America ‘s economy.

Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the “Patriotic Retirement Plan”:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force.  Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire.  Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed..

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR.  Forty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.

It can’t get any easier than that!!


P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress pay their taxes…

Mr. President, while you’re at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I’ll bet both programs would be fixed pronto!

If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.

If not, please disregard.

January 21st 2010, a date marked in history as the day the United States of America was sold to the highest bidder. With the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn an almost century old law prohibiting corporations and unions from funding elections, the flood gates have now been thrown open. Special interest groups, corporations and even foreign held entities can now spend as much money as they see fit to sway elections in the USA.  Democracy died today. We have been invaded by a power greater than anything we have ever faced before. And not a shot was fired!

“Today the business once transacted by individuals in every community is in the control of corporations, and many of the men who once conducted an independent business are gathered into the organization, and all personal identity, and all individualities lost. Each man has become a mere cog in one of the wheels of a complicated mechanism. It is the business of the corporations to get money. It exacts but one thing of its employees: Obedience to orders. It cares not about their relations to the community, the church, society, or the family. It wants full hours and faithful service, and when they die, wear out or are discharged, it quickly replaces them with new material. The corporation is a machine for making money, but it reduces men to the insignificance of mere numerical figures, as certainly as the private ranks of the regular army. ~ Fighting Bob La Follette, speech on the Dangers Threatening Representative Government, Mineral Point, Wisconsin, July 4, 1897

The queen of day time talk, Oprah Winfrey has decided that she want’s to take over one of the busiest shopping districts in Chicago, as well as a major arterial street into the business district of Chicago for two full days to launch her new “Oprah Winfrey’s 24th Season Premier”. What’s wrong with that? Well, considering the citizens of Chicago have paid for a multi-million dollar venue called, “Millennium Park”, that is equipped with some of the finest sound equipment and acoustics and can accommodate over 10,000 people, I have to ask, why Michigan Avenue instead? Why purposefully inconvenience thousands of people? Just because you can?

Could it be solely that what the queen wants the queen gets? And Queen O wants Michigan Avenue damn it!!! After all, any other production can use the Millennium Park facilities, but who but Oprah can get Michigan Avenue closed for two full days? Even the Pope couldn’t do that! To top that off, Mayor Daley has come out and stated that he thinks, “This is a great thing we’re doing, I wish we could do this everyday in the city of Chicago.”

Sure it’s a great thing… for Mayor Short Shanks and his machine maybe! I suppose Queen Oprah kicked out a hefty sum of cash to pull this off. I know, that’s just speculation, but hey, when did the Daley administration do anything for anyone that did not benefit them directly. As for the rest of the citizens, you know the people that are paying the taxes, the ones that King Richard is supposed to represent, the little people that actually carry this city on their shoulders  in the, “city of big shoulders”, think of this? According to the recent Chicago Tribune Poll 80% of Chicago’s citizens think it stinks! Sort of like the LAZ parking meter fiasco that the Daley Administration pushed through as well!

Thanks, Mayor Daley, you’ve once again proven it’s all about you! You’re the finest Mayor money can buy!

It seems the country is, “up in arms”, about the proposal for a new and reformed health care system. Terms such as, “Socialism and Communism”, are being slung like beer at a Cubs game. After listening to both sides and participating in several heated debates on this topic, I’ve tried to view it from the other sides viewpoint.

So maybe the red camp is right! Perhaps giving a damn about the health of our nation is less important than corporate profits. After all, as has been pointed out to me previously, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution do not specifically guarantee a fair and affordable health care system to the people, so why change what the founding fathers bestowed upon us?

Come to think of it, those documents written over 200 years ago didn’t guarantee us many of the things that we’ve openly accepted and expected of our government to provide. As long as we’re going to stick to the basics, let’s get rid of some of that other fluff!

Emergency services! Who needs em? Let’s privatize our police and fire departments! Let’s turn them over to a corporation so that our misfortunes can be a source of profit for someone. Let’s give everyone a choice whether they want protection or not.  We can create  insurance specifically for this. Just think of the tax savings we would get. I mean really, what is the chance that your house will actually burn or you will get mugged or worse?

If we privatize these socialistic services, you’ll have to pay for this insurance directly out of your own pocket, but it won’t have been collected out of your taxes right? Just think, you can then choose which  fire department you want  if your house is burning. Only problem is, it will have to be approved by your insurance carrier first.

“911 insurance, what is your emergency? What, you have an electrical fire? I’m sorry madame, you only have coverage for spontaneous combustion. Electrical fires are not covered by your policy. Good luck putting that one out!!”.

“You’ve  just been robbed? Sir, your policy does not cover robbery, it only covers fraud and murder. Have they murdered you sir? Would you like to upgrade your  policy to include robbery in case this happens again?”

Ahhhh the profits that could be made! Wonderful wonderful profits! This could be bigger than OIL!

Sound kind of stupid? Yeah… so does throwing away the chance of finally bringing an affordable and just health care system to our country which is currenly rated as number 37 in health care worldwide. We Americans  are consumed with being number one… why are we so willing to settle for number 37?

For the facts about Health Care Reform, please visit:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/

Hiz Honor has come up with another plan to save the fair City of Chicago millions and millions…. get rid of seasoned  veteran police officers.

Now that makes sense, just when they get the experience under their belt, we get rid of them to bring in rookies making half of what they did. Of course this sets well with the rank and file of Chicago’s finest. Who wouldn’t want to retire at 55? It is a rough job, so why not give em a break. In addition, it is usually the cops that have been on the street for awhile that tend to lose their idealism and wander into less than, straight and narrow” ways of dealing with things. So perhaps this is a good plan. Get rid of the tired, worn out, corrupt slugs that are leaching off of our tax dollars. My only question is, “when are you going to retire Daley”?