Analysis for Critical Thinkers

A young couple gets a gift certificate from a friend to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The  couple goes out to dinner and orders the most expensive item on the menu – which is something that they usually would not do because their budget is sort of tight. But hey, they figure that this is sort of a “free” dinner so why not live it up?

A little boy receives a hand-me-down bicycle from an older cousin who had outgrown it. The boy likes the bicycle but doesn’t take good care of it. He leaves it out in the rain and in the yard, not caring really too much about what happens to it because he didn’t have to pay for it anyway. His parents feel the same way.

A man loses his job and cannot support his family. He luckily finds a Big Government program that will put him up for free in a house that he can live in with his family. The house is not exactly his dream house but the price was right – for him. Because it is not his, he does not take care of it. There are weeds overtaking the front lawn, his kids have written graffiti on the walls and garbage is accumulating everywhere. Since he has no stake in this “temporary” housing, he sees no need to take care of it. He complains that he is forced to live in such squalor. He wants to know why some people get to have such nice houses.

A spoiled kid gets a housewarming gift from his parents when he is finally able to buy a house of his own- only his parents also gave him the money for the down payment on the house too, otherwise he would not have been able to afford it in these “difficult and unfair economic times.”  He soon grows weary of this house and wants something better and he abandons the old house alng with the housewarming gift since he had no concept in what it cost in terms of man-hours. Maybe his parents can spot him some more cash too while he is still “getting on his feet”. After all, this is America!

A man buys a half a million dollar house with only 1% down. This 1% down program is concocted under pressure on the bank from Barney Frank and Congress to allow more people to buy and own their own home.  It was deemed “unfair” that some people couldn’t amass the usual 20% down payment. After all, owning your own home is the “Amerian Dream” he is told. He has every right to own a house just like everybody else! So his $500,000 house he just bought cost him $5,000, which he got from a loan from somebody else who understands how downtrodden people are nowadays. So in actuality, the house has cost him nothing. After a few months of not being able to afford his mortgage payment, he seeks more Big Government help because this is all racist! Evil predatory lenders tried to trick him! He then learns that the value of his home has since fallen to $400,000 due to the slow market and George Bush. Because he has none of his money from any of his labor tied up in the house, he simply walk away from it. That’s right, one day – he just leaves, letting the bank and “somebody else”  deal with the unfairness of it all.

It has been my experience that those who receive something for nothing fail to realize just how much of somebody else’s work was needed to provide this “free” gift. I find that because of this, they tend to not take care of it as much as they would have if they bought it with their own money that they worked so hard for. For me, doing without has been the biggest incentive to work harder and save part of my earnings each week until I could finally afford to pay my own way. I still look back fondly at the day that, through hard work, priorities, discipline, depriving myself of certain luxuries for years, and perhaps even some good luck – I was finally able to buy my own house with a mortgage payment that I calculated that I could afford. It isn’t, I suppose, my “dream home” but what makes it a dream come true is that I did it all on my own. This is why I resent it when those who are less disciplined look to Big Government to force me to pay more and more so that they too can have what I have earned due to what they see as “fairness”. Even if it turns out that I be forced to help buy a home for other people, my fear is that they will not appreciate it and not take care of it since they will likely not realize how much work it really is to pay your own way.

Some will call me “greedy” because I want to keep what I have earned. Some will call me “evil” because I think that you should buy your own home.  All I can say is that I encourage everybody to try to achieve that wonderful satisfaction of finally buying your very own place with nothing more than the money that you have earned through hard work, discipline and delayed gratification. It is a real accomplishment.

Here are a few of the topics of the day:

“Did you plug the hole yet daddy?” asks the President’s daughter about the 5 week old oil leak in the Gulf. I know that little girls think that their daddy is a hero that can do anything – especially if their father is the President of the United States. In reality, the President has no business sealing oil leaks – that should of course be left to oil drilling types suh as BP. This notion that Big Government bureaucrats are “supervising” and “approving” each step of the operation is ridiculous – as if to say that the bureacrats know what to do to stop the leak. The President of the United States and the Federal Government have no role in stopping the leak other than providing any supporting equipment and manpower that they may have that could be of some use to the experts. Claiming that BP was knowingly unsafe afer they were awarded a safety prize for that very oil rig is an issue that can be examined once things are more under control.

Andrew Cuomo Picks Robert Duffy for His Running Mate for the NY Governor’s race. His critics pointed out that Cuomo’s “diversity” is suspect now because he chose a white male. I suppose that they expected him to pick a black male, a hispanic female, an Asian, an illegal alien, a handicapped person, a homosexual and a Muslim as part of his new team. Choosing someone just because of their race or sex makes as much sense as not choosing someone because of their race or sex. In trying to show how “diverse” they are in some sort of social experiment, people tend to forget the actual job that they are being elected to perform.

Reality of Cuts Hitting Disabled Bus Riders. Here is a story from Nassau County, NY about “devastating cuts” of  $1.2 million for certain bus services for handicapped people. The Newsday article has a picture of an upset woman in a wheelchair and quotes such as “No more social life” and “It’s pretty much a death sentence”. The story involves U.S. Circuit Court judges, attorneys, County Legislators and bureacrats. While my heart goes out to these people, it does bring up an interesting point: How much of our lives have we let ourselves become dependent on Big Government for? When a particular group of people with certain special needs has a problem, the knee-jerk reaction is to ask Government to force other people to pay for their needed services – as if there is some bottomless pit of Big Government funds. Other alternatives include banding together with other similar-needs people and pooling resources, starting a church group, getting private donations, or even starting a charity –  I’ll even donate money to your worthy cause – or even be a volunteer driver! You may find that going the private route may get you services far and above the Big Government route. I know that it is harder getting started and much easier to simply have Government bureacrats force the money out of people for you.

Despite Recesion, Auto Insurance Costs Rise – What surprises me is that some find this surprising. When money is tight, some people tend to look to cash cows such as insurance companies or Big Government for some “free money”. The possibility of “phony or exaggerated claims” is being looked into. Maybe establishing a new bureacracy to oversee the issue is the answer – at least that will create some new Big Government jobs.

Supreme Court Nominee Kagan has no Experience- In the long and growing list of Obama nominations that are quite surprising, Elena Kagan is selected for Supreme Court Justice – the Judicial Branch of the Federal Government. Kagan has no judicial experience. The person put in charge of the treasury Depatment which includes the IRS was found to have cheated on his taxes when he was selected! I find it difficlt to believe that of all the millions and millions of citizens, there is not a qualified one for the choosing. Of course the President and Chief Executive himself had no executive experience either before he was President. He did claim however that his mere running for President for two years was worthy enough to be counted as executive experience.

2010 Census Response Rate of 72% – According to the census.gov website, the Census National Prticipation Rate is 72%. The question is though, if the purpose of the census is to find out how many people there are, how do we know what percentage responded – unless we already know the total? This reminds me of the mindset that does studies to “prove that there is global warming” where they already have the answer and then try to prove it. I’ve often wondered how – with all of the Bureaus and paperwork and forms of Big Government – they do not know that I already exist somehow. Just like on my 1040 tax form. I realize that, other than my deductions that I claim, everything that I put such as my salary, interest income and investments – they already were notified about. I guess they just want to see what I am going to put. Someone told me that there is some law that prevents the census from using information from other branches of Big Government. This may or may not be true. I do know that such a law would gurantee employment to the 635,000 census takers – at least temporarily holding the line on the national unemployment rate.