Category Archives: Economy

The Middle Class – Part II

Posted on May 23, 2011 | 6 comments

The middle class. The Great MC.

What is it, how is it defined? Is it growing? Shrinking? Is it, more importantly, being exploited by the rich and the powerful to enable their largess?

Is Obama right? Is it true, in fact, that the folks-the “Us”- are being used and manipulated in some grand game to keep the rich richer?

For me, the rhetoric needs substance; needs some form of validation. There has to be some means by which the idea has a backdrop to judge the truth. There has to be a definition of the middle class that we can use to see if, in fact, what is being said is true. Or not true. And for me, it comes down to two things:

  1. The earnings of the middle class.
  2. The life style, or things, that the middle class can buy.

So, let’s take a look:

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6 Comments

Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: National

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Unemployment Benefits End: 297 / 40 = $7.42

Posted on May 19, 2011 | 9 comments

First, we’re talking about $297.00 a week.

Don’t forget that:

About 45,000 people have lost extended benefits in the month-long standoff between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, up from an initial estimate of 37,000 people who lost the chance to receive 20 weeks of federal benefits after normal benefits and all other extensions have been exhausted.

Each week, about 2,100 people are running out of benefits, which would pay them an average of about $297 a week, officials said.

So, I just checked and this is what I found:

I’m not sayin’……I’m just sayin’.

9 Comments

Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: North Carolina

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The Middle Class – Part I

Posted on May 17, 2011 | 3 comments

For a long time now I’ve been interested in “The Middle Class”, or as I call it, The Big MC™ .  What it is, what it means and how it’s been used over the years. My fascination comes from two sources; my own personal experience and then the use of The Big MC in today’s Liberal shaping of the term.

America’s greatest allure is that through the promise of Liberty any individual is able to achieve that goal of leaving the days of back breaking labor to the days of our fathers and giving a better life to our children. It is our birthright as a nation that our citizens are able to have a better tomorrow rather than a better yesterday. It’s our hope, our collective yearning, that our drive to and from the salt mines will bring better days, has framed our national dialogue.

It is both ironic and horrifying that the same should be used as a wedge to drive us apart and serve to prevent that very dream from it’s manifest.

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3 Comments

Posted in Economy, Liberty, Middle Class, Politics: National

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Life Is Good

Posted on May 14, 2011 | 2 comments

Listen.  I’m busy.  Work, church, kids, Lodge and other activities demand from me a ton of time.  A TON!

Enough time such that I don’t have time to play Sony Playstation at all.

1.  Because I don’t wanna spend the little free time I do have playing Playstation.

2.  Because I don’t wanna become addicted when I realize how flippin’ fun it is.

Which just makes this unbelievable:

Raleigh, N.C. — A security breach on the Sony PlayStation Network might have put at risk the personal information of more than 780,000 North Carolinians, state Attorney General Roy Cooper said Friday.

You’ve gotta be shittin’ me!  780,000 people have a Playstation in North Carolina?  Carolina only has 8,049,313 people in the whole state.  And if that isn’t bad enough, there are only 3,132,013 households.  That means there is a Playstation in nearly 1 out of 4 homes!

And those 780,000 people are only the ones who have signed up for online Playstation network.

Yeah, life sure sucks for a lot of people!

2 Comments

Posted in Economy, Middle Class, Politics: North Carolina

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Wisconsin Was Only The Tip Of The Spear: Collective Bargaining Rights

Posted on May 11, 2011 | 3 comments

What started out in Wisconsin has been embraced by a large part of America.  While Wisconsin was busy becoming famous for playing the role of battle ground, states all over America were busy getting to work.

Wisconsin passed a bill which would strip much of the collective bargaining rights away from union members.  When it came to benefits, these unions would have to compete in the market just like us normal guys.

Pity that.

Wisconsin still hasn’t been able to implement it’s law, however.  A judge has ordered an injunction due to a suit brought up against the Republicans claiming that the session used to pass the bill violated open meetings rules.  I don’t know for sure if those rules were broken or not, however, the bill will become law in time.  Either with a positive ruling or by simply voting again.

But look at what it kicked off:

The Democratic-controlled Statehouse in Massachusetts voted earlier this week to strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights, as part of the state’s budget measure. It passed by a vote of 157 to 1.

…

The Massachusetts legislation would allow local municipalities to make unilateral changes to agreed-upon benefits, like health care, bypassing the need for union approval. It would, however, leave open a 30-day window where unions may be consulted on changes to benefits.

The nation is in trouble; states are in trouble.  And finally, through the actions of a few strong legislatures and 1 governor, people are beginning to see the massive damage inflicted by unions.

3 Comments

Posted in Economy, Liberty, Lobby/PAC, Politics: National

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Housing Boom and Housing Bust: Federal Loans and Foreclosures

Posted on May 11, 2011 | 14 comments

Remember when houses were worth more than they are now?  Remember when the value of a home would go up almost overnight?  You could buy one on Tuesday and sell it for a profit by Friday.

Yeah…good times.

Until the bubble hit.  And then it wasn’t such good times; in fact it was bad times.  Really bad times.

The housing bubble hit all of us in some way or another.  For many of us, our homes are worth less now than they were before; we still haven’t caught up.  And the economy?  Well, we know how THAT has played out.  So, with the the downside of such a bubble being so, well, down, the lessons we learned just a few short years ago should still be fresh.  Should still be pertinent, right?

Wrong.

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14 Comments

Posted in Economics, Economy, Lobby/PAC, Politics: National, States Behaving Badly

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The World’s Most Valuable Brand

Posted on May 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

There is an organization that measures such things.  And, in fact, they place a dollar value to those brands as well.  Anyway, the latest list is out and the winner is:

Apple

In a study released Monday by Millward Brown, a market-research arm of London advertising giant WPP, Apple AAPL +0.50%  was listed as the world’s most valuable brand, with an estimated value of more than $153 billion.

And how do they determine this list?

…calculations are based on an analysis of financial data combined with “consumer measures of brand equity.”

They use how well consumers feel they are served by the corporation.

In so far as companies are “greedy” and “capitalists”, they can’t succeed unless they build and sell something that people want.  And the most successful of those corporations are exactly those corporations that do the best job at making the best products.

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Posted in Economy

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So How Is Obama Doin’ With The Economy

Posted on May 8, 2011 | 11 comments

We all wanna compare; we wanna know.  How is one team vs. another?  How am I compared to my peers?  So, it’s only natural that we do the same thing for the economy and how we’re managing our way out of it.

So.  How is Mr. Obama doing?

Well, let’s look.

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11 Comments

Posted in Economics, Economy, Government, Liberty, Politics: National

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Capitalism And It’s Failure

Posted on April 28, 2011 | 2 comments

I just ran into a post of mine on another blog that I wrote in 2008.

Good stuff – Enjoy.

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2 Comments

Posted in Economics, Economy, Politics: National

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We Dropped the Bomb 66 Years Ago: Look What Happened

Posted on April 26, 2011 | 2 comments

Several days ago my friend over at Rational Republican posted about the plight of California.  A once great state relegated to the backwaters of the nation.

After years of continued liberal policies, the state that may very well have been the economic powerhouse of the nation is instead hemorrhaging people, earners and businesses.

It’s sad.

To put it into words, consider the years following the bombing of Japan.

See what the difference is between a pro-growth and pro-liberal mindset.

Consider Hiroshima and Detroit.

RR, you have to move.

2 Comments

Posted in Economics, Economy, Government, Idiots on Parade, Politics: National, States Behaving Badly

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