Tag: slave

Socialism, slavery and the American way

Socialism, slavery and the American way

There is much confusion over this.  I would like to try and shed a little light on this and see if we cant chase away some of the confusion.

In a nutshell Socialism is basically Robin Hood.  Not the cute fox on the Disney version but a bloated bureaucracy that think that they know better than you, on how to spend your money.  Some take it further by making laws that you must follow but they don’t have to.

Some elites think that they know what is best for you to eat or not to eat and how you should live and what you should do and or watch etc.  China still is this way along with North Korea and most if the Middle East.  They take it to an extreme of not allowing their women many if any rights that the males enjoy.

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I digress, those who vote for such people that claim socialism as their trademark want free stuff.  Indeed the politician will promise their constituents all kinds of stuff and somehow it is the “fat cat bankers” on Wall Street that must pay!

The problem with that however is it is not the fat cat bankers who pay, it is anyone that works for a living and is not satisfied with living in section 8 housing, and sucking on the government tit!  People who decided that they wanted better than to live in the hood, buying and selling drugs and learning how to look innocent in a police lineup pay!

Socialism today is portrayed more as a contest between those without and “white privilege!”

If you are white and living in a nice house, you are a bad person because you have stuff, and it should be taken from you!  I wish I was making this up but that is the pervasive attitude among those that are the “have nots!”  Their votes are purchased by the promise of more free stuff including cell phones!

These have not’s have cell phones, a roof over their heads, air-conditioning and heat, cable TV, Internet and flat screen TV’s!  And are under the delusion that they are somehow entitled to it for free pervades their attitude and that of the black life matters crowd who formed an entire meme on a complete and utter falsehood! The narrative is false!  The narrative however makes the news when they push Bernie Sanders off the stage and co-opt his rally to talk down to  several thousand “progressive” white folks who actually are on their side!

On this subject “All Lives Matter!”  If you have some sort of issue with that open that book that you take to church with you sometime, and find anything in there that delineates between what lives matter and which ones don’t!  While some vessels were indeed made to be destroyed guess what, that is not your call, or mine.  That one belongs to your creator and has nothing to do with actually killing people on this earth!   From inception to natural death, every life matters, and is loved by our lord and anyone that thinks different is in error!

Skin color does not make a person who he or she is and if you don’t think that is so, think again.  Character of the person is the most important thing to look for when choosing friends or candidates for political office!  Character is all that matters when it comes to someone that you would send to Washington to represent you.

How much of what someone else earns is your fair share?

The answer is not a damned bit of it!

If your neighbor gets his or her ass out of bed in the morning, goes to work faithfully and brings home groceries those are his, for his family, not for you who slept all day.  If you need a hand up, great!  If it a handout, you best go and speak with the clergy.  That is part of their business.

We in fact were made to work.  We were designed by God to work.  Everything you do in life, do it for his glory!  How hard is that to comprehend?

It is hard to love, when you heart is full of hate.  It is easy to blame others for your lot in life.

Seriously I continue to see people stoking the race debate and how black people are somehow owed more stuff from white people because we bought you and sold you into slavery.  Well, not you personally and not me personally but, 300 plus years ago somebody did and now, somehow we as a nation should pay for it, again!

Correcting the record

Slavery did not start with the Spaniards and Africans.

Slavery began thousands of years ago.  Even during the time of Jesus 2000 years ago there were slaves, and it was not divided by color.

Some of the most mistreated slaves of “modern day” were the Irish!

Here is a small excerpt from a blog on Irish Slavery. (1)

King James II and Charles I also led a continued effort to enslave the Irish. Britain’s famed Oliver Cromwell furthered this practice of dehumanizing one’s next door neighbor.

The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves.

Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white.

From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade. Families were ripped apart as the British did not allow Irish dads to take their wives and children with them across the Atlantic. This led to a helpless population of homeless women and children. Britain’s solution was to auction them off as well.

During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers.

Many people today will avoid calling the Irish slaves what they truly were: Slaves. They’ll come up with terms like “Indentured Servants” to describe what occurred to the Irish. However, in most cases from the 17th and 18th centuries, Irish slaves were nothing more than human cattle.

As an example, the African slave trade was just beginning during this same period. It is well recorded that African slaves, not tainted with the stain of the hated Catholic theology and more expensive to purchase, were often treated far better than their Irish counterparts.

African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than 5 Sterling). If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. A death was a monetary setback, but far cheaper than killing a more expensive African. The English masters quickly began breeding the Irish women for both their own personal pleasure and for greater profit. Children of slaves were themselves slaves, which increased the size of the master’s free workforce. Even if an Irish woman somehow obtained her freedom, her kids would remain slaves of her master. Thus, Irish moms, even with this new found emancipation, would seldom abandon their kids and would remain in servitude.

In time, the English thought of a better way to use these women (in many cases, girls as young as 12) to increase their market share: The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion. These new “mulatto” slaves brought a higher price than Irish livestock and, likewise, enabled the settlers to save money rather than purchase new African slaves. This practice of interbreeding Irish females with African men went on for several decades and was so widespread that, in 1681, legislation was passed “forbidding the practice of mating Irish slave women to African slave men for the purpose of producing slaves for sale.” In short, it was stopped only because it interfered with the profits of a large slave transport company.

England continued to ship tens of thousands of Irish slaves for more than a century. Records state that, after the 1798 Irish Rebellion, thousands of Irish slaves were sold to both America and Australia. There were horrible abuses of both African and Irish captives. One British ship even dumped 1,302 slaves into the Atlantic Ocean so that the crew would have plenty of food to eat.

There is little question that the Irish experienced the horrors of slavery as much (if not more in the 17th Century) as the Africans did. There is, also, very little question that those brown, tanned faces you witness in your travels to the West Indies are very likely a combination of African and Irish ancestry. In 1839, Britain finally decided on it’s own to end it’s participation in Satan’s highway to hell and stopped transporting slaves. While their decision did not stop pirates from doing what they desired, the new law slowly concluded THIS chapter of nightmarish Irish misery.

But, if anyone, black or white, believes that slavery was only an African experience, then they’ve got it completely wrong.

Irish slavery is a subject worth remembering, not erasing from our memories.

The simple facts are that all through history people have been repressed by a ruling class.

North Korea currently to date is a xenophobic country that keeps its people in the dark to control them, and of course, if we really knew what was going on there would be public outcry!  Those people are slaves and they are lied to by their government.  If you could talk to them they would tell you that they are happy, and love their dear leader and the rest of the world is the “great Satan! “  Why, their entire environment is controlled.  No internet, social media, nada.

During WWII the Japanese people were lied to as well.  They were so brainwashed that the kamikaze pilot was born.  Not only were the pilots brainwashed but, the Japanese people were brainwashed to the extent that as the American forces captured an island the indigenous people would throw their babies off of the cliffs, and then jump after them committing suicide! Why, what were they told that would cause this.  They were made to believe that Americans were so bad, so depraved that they would “eat them alive!”  Now you can laugh at that but, they must have been convincing as the preponderance of evidence is astounding! Propaganda works!

My whole point to this is “seek the truth.”  If you listen to the race baiters who profit by lying to you, your future is grim.  I think Dr. Carson has a great message and it is my fervent prayer that Americans of all walks of life, will listen to him.

Image #: 21630241    Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS HEALTH)       REUTERS /JONATHAN ERNST /LANDOV
Image #: 21630241 Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaks to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, March 16, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES – Tags: POLITICS HEALTH) REUTERS /JONATHAN ERNST /LANDOV

This of course was my prayer for Obama.  Here Americans elected a black president!  Wow, how uplifting is that!  And before his first month in office he systematically brought race relations back 60 years!  “They acted stupidly! If I had a son he would look just like Trayvon.”  When Ferguson occurred he once again vilified the cops who in the end were spot on correct, but yet the lie continues!  Hands up, don’t shoot!

Chris Rock and others of his ilk are out there promoting hate and discontent.  How absolutely insidious are his actions they should be and to me are tantamount to yelling fire in a theater! When you reach “celebrity status” that comes with responsibility!  Start by telling the truth and if you think what you are telling is the truth, pick up a damned book!  If you are too lazy to read, send me a note, and I will fill you in on the details!

By the way, black people sold black people into slavery, do you really think that a bunch of short white guys went running around the jungles of Africa among the head hunters of the time, rounding people up to put them on ships!?

Warring tribes took prisoners and sold them as you might sell cattle to the Spaniards, and others for things like colorful beads.

The simple facts and the truth is that some of history is ugly! The human race has done some horrible things and it still continues to this day.  Watch the news for a little bit and you will shake your head.  To quote one of my friends, “that is messed up!”  What do you do?  You read it, understand what happened and do your best to keep it from happening again. Speaking of slaves do you know how they were controlled as a people?  They were kept ignorant.  It was unlawful to teach them to read.  Sound familiar?

So, aren’t you glad that slavery is over, dead, gone and buried!?

Well let me ask you this, is it?

I know people with a college degree working for peanuts.  They can’t even find full time work!  Why is that do you suppose?

I know, they are not looking hard enough.

Maybe they are not that smart.

Maybe there is nothing in their line of expertise available.

There are in fact three basic facts in this country today, which contribute to the problem.

  • Outsourcing
  • Immigration
  • Obamacare

When the internet really became a global thing it made it much easier to outsource.  Instead of creating a PVC or permanent virtual circuit that you would create through the local Telco’s and other communication giants, now you simply create a VPN or Virtual Private Network through the internet.

What effect did that have you ask?  Instead of paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month for connectivity you simply put in one T1 line direct to the internet and with the trick of software and encryption, you utilized the public infrastructure to move data, voice, streaming audio and so forth around the world!  With this technology I can send a phone to a worker in the Philippines and when someone calls it on my business network, in the states; it will ring in the Philippines on that persons’s desk.  If I want to have a meeting with my workers in Bangladesh, I simply initiate a video conference, and I am there!

If I am a technology company that creates software for companies here; I send out a smartly dressed and well-spoken person to represent my company.  He or she gets the contract, collects the SOW (statement of work) and works with my project manager here who directs the actual programming efforts in India, where my labor cost can be better managed (much more cheaply than programmers here in the states.)

I then can compete with my American counterpart where he is using American programmers, I can win the bid because I can undercut him or her by tens of thousands of dollars, and still make good profit for my company. The American company has no idea that his program is being worked on outside of the states.

Let’s say I am a huge computer company and I need support people.  Once again I have that VPN with the VOIP telephones (voice over IP) set up on desk in call centers all over the world.  You call for help, and you are talking to KIM or Paul or John which are pseudo names for “Peggy in Siberia” whose real name has more consonants than vowels.

Why do you think computer support via phone starts out with unplug the computer first?  They have a script that they must follow that was created from thousands of support calls.

Now let’s say I am that same computer company but I need some engineers, actually here in the states.

American workers want 6 figures and are probably worth it but, why pay that for one when I can pay that for 3? So I go to the lobbyist that gave money to some senator indirectly from me and tell them that I need more H1-B workers.  He remembers me because I gave money to him for his “person” so, he goes to them and puts a bill in front of them that he or they wrote for him, saying that we need more technical people because “there are simply no skilled people in this country, our education system has simply failed!”

Within months the limit is raised a few more thousand and I get a dozen or so highly trained engineers from some country that hates Americans, but loves our freedoms!  Of course I get them for the cost of what I could only afford two or three Americans!

Now you have all of the highly trained people who are Americans that can’t find work so what do they do?  They go on the government tit if they can, or they take some lower paying job and try to make ends meet.  Well, they were used to $100 thousand a year but, Home Depot is only paying $10 an hour, and only part time (anything less than 32 hours) because well, there is this pesky new health care law that would force them to pay for health care or pay fines for full time employees.

So this highly skilled person who has been replaced by three H1-B people seeks two part time jobs in retail!  Still part time and his average yearly pay went from $125K to $30K, working two part time jobs!  He or she has to use their 401 prematurely suffering a healthy early withdrawal tax to make ends meet.

Oh and by the way he or she has to pay for health care because it is now a law and because they are rich making $30K a year their health care cost is $526 a month.

Their kids who just graduated college can’t find work in their field so they too are working retail but their health care is only $210 a month because they are only making $12K and yes, still living in the bedroom that they grew up in and still eating mom and dads groceries, using their internet and air conditioning and water and complaining because they are asked to load the dishwasher!.

In competition for these jobs driving the labor prices down even further are millions of “undocumented workers” who get free health care, WIC and other government subsidies.

I don’t know, do you think slavery is a dead and gone thing.  How is that socialism working out for you?

That is the progressive agenda you know…

The good folks in congress and certainly 1600 Pennsylvania Ave don’t want you to know how this all works though.  So, they draw your attention by strange happenings including Hillary Clintons e-mail which I would bet money is being “rolled under the bus” by the white house, as a distraction!

The following is a link to the blog on Irish Slavery that is a good read.

The simple facts are the more truth that you know, the less you can be fooled by those that wish to keep the masses ignorant and dependent.  This is not an R or D thing, or a white and black thing, but a character thing.  I encourage everyone to read and know history before we repeat it.  Communism and Socialism cannot work for the people.  It only benefits those in the Ivory towers who could care less about you and your problems.  They want your vote, and would do away with the Constitution if they could, thus doing away with the need to even talk at you.

-Best

(c) All rights Reserved 2015

The Cat has escaped, or Slavery Again?

The Cat has escaped, or Slavery Again?

The Cat has escaped, or Slavery Again?

It was interesting to learn that Willie Nelson is going after his own brand of “weed.”

Willie-Nelson-weed-strain

Just this afternoon there was another story about a couple trying to make a “weed empire.”

I use the word “weed” interchangeably with marihuana because, marihuana is just too hard to spell!  I am kidding of course but, if I were stoned; it may very well be too hard to spell.

We live in an escapist society.

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There are 150 some odd cable channels.  There is Netflix, Amazon, Redbox, other venues of streaming media via Roku, Google, YouTube, Hulu, Apple TV and the list just goes on.  If you have the internet; you can distract yourself indefinitely.

There is some year-round sporting activity of some sort whether it be Baseball or some other sport with “ball” somewhere in the name.

There is music of just about any Genre so if you want to just “veg out” and listen to, or play music there is that.

Some people escape into other, darker areas of the internet like online video games, chat rooms, and even pornography.  As the matter of fact if it was not for online porn, I doubt that the internet would have ever taken off.  I know that Al Gore did not invent the internet but he was trying to get some Chakra’s released with female masseuse which made the news a few years ago so maybe, we could gift him with the title of creating internet porn…   ?!  Ok, maybe not.

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Some of us are news junkies, we can’t get enough and of course we believe everything that we read because it is right there on the screen, it must be true!

Some of us reject the modern day trappings and escape into the Bible or some other Religious quest thinking it a nobler thing to do.

Some escape into books, science, physics, astronomy and snob ourselves out, thinking we are above the fray.

Life is messy

If you want to live in this world you have to get your hands dirty.  You have to deal with drama.  You have to submit to a government, and all of their bureaucracy.

To survive you have to find a way to earn money and that, in and of itself, has its own sets of drama.

Sitting at a restaurant listening carefully you will hear many different conversations, most of them will center on what someone did at work or what his or her boss expects or how crappy an employee is etc.  Drama!

Politics takes on the look and feel of a sports team as people tend to vote for one team or another, damned the facts.  The media makes it “easier” by siding with one team or another. They point out all of the bad things that the other team has done, even if it is not true.  Hollywood takes a part in that too as they too have a favorite, even though their favorite is most notably the group that ruined every country that its philosophy was ever tried in.  That philosophy allows a select few to be at the top and actually has them in the role of parasites living on the sweat and toil of the people who were either foolish enough to vote for them, or those that were not in the majority and suffer from the results of the actions of those that have not the intellect to vote responsibly.

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Today some celebrated 4/20 a pot holiday of sorts for Colorado.  I am not sure what percentage of people in Colorado actually take part in this “event” but suffice it to say making pot legal has done nothing to raise the IQ of the good folks of Colorado.

We could get into this huge debate about pot use and intelligence as we have done previously with booze use.  In the end we would collectively agree that using such substances kills brain cells and then we must ask “how many can you afford to kill before you become a blithering idiot?

pothead

I really think that those that partake in such recreational exercises should remove themselves from the voting public.  As the matter of fact, they should probably remove themselves from any situation where their opinion matters!

How harsh is that?!

Twenty two odd years ago I was almost killed by a drunk driver.  This person not only was drunk, he was taking medications that should not have been taken with alcohol.  His powers of making decisions were questionable at best.

When you alter your reality through artificial means it does not take too long before you perception of what “is” matches up with a straight persons idea of what “is, is.”

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If we looked at it on a Venn diagram, we may see some areas that are in common but, the odds are great that your perception of reality would not match up with “normal folks”
perception of reality.

If one can no longer relate to the masses, voting would be futile, and could damage the collective.

Common Core and dumbing down our country

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I am not certain where common core started and I have to tell you that it is nothing short of a disaster.  When rational people who give a damn look at it they ask, “and rightfully so” “what is this shit!?”

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Between dumbing down our kids and making things like Marihuana legal, I can’t help but wonder what is going to happen to this country.

The next thing you know instead of the LGBT community rattling sabers because they think that they were not given “more equal treatment” than straight people you will see the stoners marching on DC “if they can find it,” looking to change laws forcing companies to do away with drug test and provide high wages even though their vernacular will consist of words like “cool, and far out!”

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Is that why we are forcing companies to pay $15 an hour for people to flip burgers because in their stoned out state, that is all that they are able to do? Are we going to force them to allow being stoned at work?

We are going the wrong way.

I cannot speak from experience as I have never tried anything like this.  I do know that recreational chemistry is a gateway to harder stuff, much like beer to whisky.  Some can handle it and not become addicted and then there are those that cannot. Once you open Pandora’s box; you really have no idea how you will react and you have no clue what changes will occur.

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If this country is going to survive these progressive idiots currently ignoring history, or hoping that you are ignoring it or never learned history, the country is going to need smart people with critical thinking skills.  You cannot be your “best” if you are stoned.

Stupid-Progressive-Idiots

Back in the days of slavery it was illegal for blacks to learn to read. The people in control knew that knowledge was power and if these folks ever figured out just how ignorant that they were, and that they were being kept that way to be controlled; that it would be impossible to keep them in bondage.

By dumbing down our kids and by killing brain cells, we are putting yourselves and our kids in the next position to become slaves.

slave

By taking our collective eyes off of the Ball, people like Hillary can spin any yarn that they like. Enough people will vote for her because she is a women, or because they are emotionally drawn to her for one lie or another. She stands a good chance of becoming “madam president” even though she far from an ideal candidate.

hillary clinton 2016 Madam President or Mrs. President - the world of hillary clinton

If the progressive’s stay in the white house, we may all “need the weed,” just to be able to not give a shit!

Marihuana joint

Now that the kitty is out of the valise, (pot is legal) we may be looking at the beginning of that transformational change that our current leader talked about 7 years ago.  Many, too many Americans are already slaves and are too dumb to realize it.  The only difference is that they are comfortable in their indentured servitude. As long as they have the “rights” to the distractions (internet, cable TV, porn…) they don’t care.  That is a sad commentary on society.

We can fix things but it is going to take a change from what we are doing.  Firstly, we have to get someone in there who knows what to do.  There are very few current candidates that I feel are actually in this to “help the country” but rather in it to go sit in that Ivory Tower.

The allure of power must be an incredible aphrodisiac! To have that much power in one’s phone and pen must be incredible!  Every decision that one in that position makes has to be perfect!  There is no room for error!

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No matter what he or she does the opposing side will defame them and call them stupid and of course arm chair quarterback because “they magically know!”

Can you imagine sitting in the oval office or west wing or wherever he or she would make such decisions lamenting over dropping a bomb on someone, or turning the military loose to do what they do?

How many nights do you think that they get a good night’s sleep?  The weight of the world is on their shoulder and then there is the first lady or dude that influences them.

When he or she takes time away to play golf or just get out of DC they are excoriated by the press.  As a business man I can tell you that more business is done on the golf course than in the office.  If I need time to think I go play golf.  Usually somewhere between 1 and the 19th hole I have come up with a solution to whatever it was I was working on.

Right now my money is on Scott Walker.

ScottWalker

I will really be interested to see who he picks for a running mate.  If the Dems had a brain in their collective heads, they would come up with someone to run against Hillary.  Her history is going to catch up with her and there are only so many times you can ask “it depends on what the definition of is is?”

If you find my blog harsh, it is really meant to be blunt but not offensive.  I have no desire to offend but we do need to wake up!  We need to wake up and if we are afraid to talk about things that might offend others we are shooting ourselves in the foot.  We must discuss things that are sensitive topics so we have a dialogue vs someone calling the PC police.

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Political Correctness is a cancer eating at the fabric of our society, it is time that we kill the cancer.

Political correctness is another progressive idea that is stupid, and past it usefulness.

-Best-

© All rights Reserved 2015

If you disagree, drop me a line. If you agree let me know.  I value your opinion.  We as a country must have this dialogue if we are going to fix the things that are wrong.

State of the Union & What’s Next! #thefive

With unemployment numbers at 5.8 percent and the Dow Jones closing at record highs, one has to wonder why polls show that Americans are worried about the economy.

“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies and statistics!”

The truth about unemployment is that once you fall off of the unemployment benefits you are no longer considered unemployed, thus you are no longer part of the statistic.  If you are under employed; you are still employed and thus no longer a statistic.  If the truth was told, unemployment would be around 20%, higher in the African American community.

The racial divide in this country is mostly a fictitious agenda foisted upon us by people who stand to benefit from there being one. Much like the fabled war on women, it suited the Democratic party for there to be one, so they invented it, sold it to the American people under the precepts that men hated women and just wanted them barefoot pregnant and in the kitchen or we wanted to take away their right to vote and or drive or whatever nonsense that they could dream up!  Most any man knows that if momma isn’t happy, aint nobody happy!  “Momma” by the way can be a metaphor for “the women of the house.”

The plan worked; it helped get Obama elected to a second term and got Sandra Fluke name recognition which will be someone to watch in the future for the political arena, or to take Rosie’s place on the View, when too many people get tired of her nonsense.

I bet her parents are proud.  Really, you get on national TV and tell the world that you want taxpayers to pay for your $6 birth control pills!  I can’t get into the liberal mindset however.  California is one of the most screwed up states in the union, yet they keep electing those that are responsible!

While the war on women and racial strife propagated by this administration was to divert your attention from the “real issues of the day.” Sadly it worked.

Benghazi and our people were not protected or vindicated. Fast and Furious turned into “they acted stupidly and if I had a son!”  America was played by the ideas of Saul Alinsky in rules for radicals and “never let a crisis go to waste.”  What if you don’t have a crisis when you need one, invent one or don’t send help when it was needed.  Look, there is a video on YouTube which some might find offensive, make that a talking point with the main stream media which is full of sycophants’, all wanting a one-on-one interview with the president, or first question at the press briefing and have no journalistic integrity left what so ever!  They have traded it for ratings.

I picture Obama sitting at his desk with a bird cage in the corner, containing a bald eagle. The cage is just large enough for the eagle to barely fit. At the bottom of the cage is a journalism diploma covered in poop, and in his lap is some small dog with the head of some main stream journalist of whose diploma is in that bird cage.

No sitting president has ever weighed in on such issues and this president has been a lighting bolt for this type of activity!  His efforts to foment racial tension have actually been one of his most successful endeavors! Between him, Jessie Jackson Jr. and Good old Al, we have racial tensions at an all time high.  Mr. Sharpton is reported as owing over $4.5 million in back taxes, why is he not in jail?  Who is protecting him?

If blood is spilled over this Ferguson deal, they will all have it on their hands.  Of course if it starts looking bad for them, they will all slither off, and deny ever being there.  Kind of like Nancy Pelosi disavowing any knowledge of who Gruber is.

If you don’t know who Gruber is, you are watching or reading the wrong news.

The truth about Obama Care came out from the creator or architect of it, bragging about how stupid Americans are.  If you tell them there is a Santa Clause; they will believe you!  You can keep your doctor and health plan and it will be cheaper.  Enough people that know nothing of math believed it; and voted for the regime that created it and installed it against the will of the American people.  When they found out just how much they were lied to about that and other things well, there was a “wave” of unhappy voters.   Of course the disillusioned voters sent a message too, by simply staying home.

That has not slowed Prince Obama down though.  No, Thursday night he will announce some executive action that is well beyond his constitutional powers “and he knows it” allowing 5 million “undocumented aliens” in the country to register and work here. While the voters clearly want him to stop he is thinking that the vote was really telling him to plow ahead at full speed!

Who really wants this? Who benefits from it?

The American people don’t want it.  Even after all of the spin the liberal media has done, most Americans don’t think that this is a good idea. At least they are thinking… except of course for the 14% who had no opinion!  14 percent of you have no opinion?  What color is the sky in the world that you are living in?

How do you think that someone comes up with a billion dollars to use in a campaign?

We already have a high number of unemployed Americans in this country.  Because of Obamacare, companies are trying to skirt the law and hire more part time folks than full time.  If you bring in 5 million more people, who need jobs, into this economy; you now create more competition for the few jobs that are here already.

With that many more “workers” you have people who have had a tough life and lived in shanty towns, so to speak, and will do it again putting many families in single family dwellings where Americans are used to going to college, getting a decent job and moving out of mom and dad’s house, into an apartment or buying their own place.  These kids are returning home living in the room that they grew up in!  Mom and dad are supporting them again and don’t even get the puny tax break, which was something!

Not only do you have more competition for the jobs out there but, you know that these folks will get government assistance; their kids will need schooling which the taxpayers will pay for.  They will need housing which I can bet the taxpayers will subsidize and medical assistance which may be simply to overwhelm the emergency rooms of this country.

His plan will act like a magnet to other countries who know that the border is not only porous but, we pick you up and give you a ride to the processing center!

  • How many people can the country absorb?
  • How many cheap workers do companies need to be competitive?
  • How many of these do the Democrats hope to turn into voters?
  • Will the voter ID laws become a hot topic in 18 months or so?
  • What happens to the Americans who pay taxes who can’t find a job?
  • How much debt is too much before we default?
  • At what point Mr. Gruber, will this country fold as our money will become worthless?  How much money can you print before we use it to wipe our backsides with it, as we can’t afford toilette paper!? Well Mr MIT smart guy?

Americans are not stupid by the way…

We have all we can do to make the rent each month, pay for groceries and keep the kids in shoes.  We are currently experiencing a small reprieve from gasoline prices; although I have noticed that those prices are going back up as we get close to thanksgiving.

We send people to Washington to represent us so we can pay attention to the things that matter to us; family, friends and taking care of our own.  While we are generous to a fault, to steal from our kids and their kids, to serve some hidden agenda; is reprehensible.  Your Actions Mr Gruber and Mr prince Obama, have consequences.

There are companies out there who utilize unemployment benefits to keep their employees viable during down time in the economy.  They furlough them while orders are slow and then bring them back after there is a backlog of work.  These are not small companies by the way, these are giants in the industry, hidden under some sub company of the giant.

There are companies who hire folks on SSI or welfare, to work one or two days a week being careful not to give them enough hours or money that their employees loose their “taxpayer subsidized form of living.”   These companies have egregious hiring practices and get away with it!

There are more companies who take on contract workers who “work” for another company that is in the business of supplying cheap labor.  All of this to keep the number of FTE’s under the magic number of 50.

Then there is retail:

They hire many people part time, promise them that after they have been there a while that they see management potential in them and they will be full time!  This story is repeated time after time after time.  Yes, they get them to work like dogs and pay them minimum wage.  When they have their fill of being treated like crap, they move on and there are a dozen more waiting to take their place.  After we get 5 million more “legal to work aliens” in the country, do you really think it will help this?!  It will be great for the retail giants who need Spanish speaking sales clerks or people to work in the warehouse.

 So here is how it will work:

You have to be the “best of the best” to get a decent job in this country that has any benefits and pay to it. Or, you have to “know” someone.

You can get on the government tit and get your free Obama phone, and government subsidized food and health care until that runs out in two more years; or until the country goes bankrupt.  You have to be impoverished which I know of people who have purposefully impoverished themselves, to get into the system.

You can get two or three part time jobs, getting about 20 hours a week from each job and maybe make enough to get a cheap apartment, take public transportation or walk and live “survive” frugally!

You get on the government tit, and work at jobs where you are payed in cash so there is no paper trail anywhere.  As far as the “system is concerned” you don’t make any money and are living on the few hundred a month that they give you.  It never dawns on them to look and see that your style of living is much better than what it should be.

You can become an inventor and invent something that no one else has thought of, except… it cost tens of thousands of dollars to protect your idea, just in this country; never mind each and every other country in the world where major corporations have some business in that country and can do with your idea as they wish; and they have the means to tie up the case in courts for eons.

You can become an entrepreneur.  Start your own business and compete with the big boys.

You can hope and argue against the legalization of drugs and become a drug dealer.  There is a huge demand for successful dealers and the margins are great!  You can even sample the product and sell your client a little light, they will hopefully never know.

Of course, a slow pay client could cost you your life but, when you deal with an unregulated group of businessmen, what do you expect?

I understand that Chicago and Detroit have some good areas for training in how to do this; the competition however will kill for their clients.  If you get killed there, you truly become a statistic.  It will never be investigated.

As more and more people become desperate, more and more criminal activity will take place leading to jobs that might be around for a while.

You can become the MAN!  You can work for the people that arrest drug dealers, and put them behind bars!  That too has its risk as “the man” has little respect in this community.

You can become a jailer, working with the criminal element on a daily basis, being rest assured that there will always be an abundant supply of “product.”

What are the answers?

Jobs to shoot for in trades would be plumber, air conditioning heating, electrician and automobile mechanic or airline mechanic.  These folks make good money and will always have work, if they have any ethics and or honor.

A military career might look promising, if you don’t mind being told what to do, and when to do it, having little or no say so about it.   There is travel involved, and you do get to work in a team environment.  Currently there is no shortage of supply, so you need to be a college grad to qualify as cannon fodder.

IT jobs are being farmed out faster than they can be created.  India, the Philippines, and anywhere but here, are where programming and engineering jobs are going.

With tens of thousand of IT folks out of work, the government still allows thousands of H1-B workers in the country each year.  If you ever go to a career fair for IT folks you will see thousands of applicants for a half dozen jobs.  Somewhere in there a company that farms out IT jobs to such countries as India will come in and negotiate a deal with those companies and money talks!  A DBA could easily get a $100K a year.  That can be farmed out for a third that, and the “farmer” can still make money!

There are companies out there that you can request a bid on some piece of software that you need developed. They in turn act like the GC on a job, and get it done for you in some corner of the world at a competitive cost and yes; there is enough in it that they make money acting as the PM and go between.

IT support or customer service is demanding but, requires someone with good communication skills and customer service skills.  If you settle for cheap you get a reputation like HP had for years.  Companies are still working this issue as people in the Philippines are getting better than Peggy in Russia or Kim in India.

Factory jobs too are being farmed out to countries that have horrible human rights issues and no concern for the environment.  While we have a president who has stopped the coal industry and hurt many workers and caused our energy prices to sky rocket, that same coal that is so dangerous here is being sold to, you guessed it, China and other third world countries that have no tree huggers, no Sierra Club and no EPA.  Magically, all of this global warming talk has nothing to do with selling coal to countries that could care less about pollution.  Obama must think that the polluted air and green house gasses in China, stay in China!

The obvious choice for anyone with a brain is anything medical.  Keep in mind that they are lowering the standards for doctors and nurses so you truly can be tomorrow’s “worst doctor,” and still get called doctor!  With millions of new people being dumped into an already over utilized system, medical professionals will be in high demand!  If you have a penchant to play god, (most doctors that I have worked with felt as if they were gods,) this field might be for you.  Nurse or medical technician or dentistry is a field worth looking into as well.

I fear that this has been in the works for sometime as they have been working on reforming law suites regarding mal practice for years.  Tomorrow; when you go to the worst doctor in the world, and he screws you up, you won’t be able to sue him.

Here is a billion dollar idea!

I have always felt that owning a tattoo removal shop would be a burgeoning business.  You could actually have both, have one shop where they put the tattoos on, and another in an upscale part of town where they can be removed!  You could even sell insurance that if you got the tattoo and later decided that you did not like it, or changed your mind, you could go to the other shop and get it removed, for free; if you kept up your modest yearly insurance fee.  You could make a deal with other tattoo shops to sell your insurance for you, and they get a commission for selling it!  You get the yearly renewals.

The insurance would be “per tattoo” and underwritten by the size, colors used, type of skin and whatever other technicality that that industry could think of.

People are mutilating themselves in wholesale fashion so maybe even offer a clinic where this type of thing can be “undone.”  Plastic surgery could have a whole new line of business besides boobs, butts, and tummy tucks!

Salesman is a vocation that requires good people skills, and communication skills.  If you are good, you can make a nice living.  Being a sales person would require that people can afford to buy what you are selling.

There are always government jobs.   The IRS is going to need a lot of new folks to administer Obama care so this is a place to apply to today!

And lastly for this diatribe, you could be a politician!  It requires the ability to act and have little or no scruples. Most politicians were once lawyers.  Most doctors and lawyers deserve every joke that has ever been written about them.

I used to do field service.  During that time I dealt with lots of both!  I dealt with some of the most famous doctors you would ever want to know, as well as some of the most notorious lawyers that you might want representing you, if you had screwed up.

To me that was always a “tell” as to if the guy was innocent or guilty.  Take OJ Simpson for instance.  He had the dream team and he got off!  Why did he need the dream team if he were truly innocent?

I once had a lawyer confide in me that it was easier for him to get you off, if he knew that you were guilty than if you were innocent.  This was a very high profile attorney which If I mentioned his name you would know it.   Between the OJ Simpson trial and that statement, I lost a lot of respect for the “system.”  It was truly “justice” is for those that can afford it.  Justice of course not being truly about what justice is, actually quite the opposite.

I had another lawyer who met me at the door who was totally apoplectic!  He looked as though you might expect a rabid dog to look before it bit your head off!  He had never met me before but he wanted to scare me into believing that he was all kinds of bad and I had better do my best for him!  They sent me in to deal with customers who were pissed off by someone else, as I could “fix things.”  I could make nice with the customer and fix things!  I stood there and let him rant for over 5 minutes, I took out a notepad and acted as though I were making notes while he quite literally spit on me, while he was expounding his thoughts about my company, our product and where he thought that our company rated.  After he started winding down as he was not getting the desired response from me, I asked him point blank; “are you finished?”

His demeanor changed immediately, he had been acting as I suspected.  He actually reached up and wiped some of his spittle off my face and then, we went about taking care of his problems.  Another such lawyer, a woman, pretty much gave me the same treatment. She told me flat out that she was a bitch!  If I did not “fix” things, she would be my worst nightmare!  I extended my hand and she was taken aback at first, and then took mine.  As we shook hands, I told her how much I appreciated her sincere honesty!

A smile broke out on her face and from that moment on, I was the only guy that was permitted in her office from my company. For the rest of my years with that company I looked forward to working with her, as she me.

This is where politicians come from. Reagan was the consummate politician, as he was a good actor! Now if we could find another actor with some scruples; that might be a good candidate!  Morgan Freeman would make a good president.  He has many believing every week that he knows something about physics! Besides, I really like his voice?  Have you ever noticed that when you read something that they wrote you read it in their voice?  I Digress…

So, what’s next and why is Obama rushing this immigration stuff?

The last thing on his agenda, probably one of his last promises to those that put him in office or who control him now, is climate change!

Why, does he care about green house gas?  Does he really know anything about it?  If he can make something happen who would benefit from it?

In order for someone to benefit financially, someone has to spend money.  Al Gore has lost most credibility but they may drag him out again to see if he can convince you that there are no more polar bears and all the penguins are turning into BBQ.  Who knows what crazy crap they will come up with and what Pelosi or Reid will say?  One lies and the other one swears to it.

Here is the problem and the reason for the rush on immigration.  What he is doing is illegal.  The republicans are going to have to spend a lot of time and juice in chipping away at Obama Care and they are going to have to spend a lot of time dealing with his immigration antics which will leave him time to further is final agenda.  During this same time there is an election in which the Republicans are going to try and get a candidate into office.  The main stream media will spend their time excoriating the republicans at each and every chance and we know that they have a little less than half the country watching them.  Fox will continue to try and keep up however there are a lot of things in the air which is what this administration wants.  And let’s not forget about the Middle East and any disruptions and or killings there.  If there are too many targets, it all turns into noise; and the public tunes out.  Football or any other type of sport wins out and American Looses!

Never waste a Crisis…!

The bottom line to this last 6 years and future 2 years will be higher energy prices, and people like Warren Buffett getting at least 7 years of hauling tar sands and oil and what have you on his railroad.  They may even use his rail road to haul parts for the pipeline!

The Keystone will pass early next year and many of the workers will most probably be immigrants from you guessed it, tomorrow’s executive order.  So instead of Americans getting a decent salary, they will use Mexicans as slaves, and put them on jobs paying them less than what they would have to pay the 46,000 Americans.

Republicans will have their hands full creating legislation for Barack Obama to Veto as they will be fully engaged in making the Democrats look bad “like they would have to try,” so Hillary won’t have a chance.  They will try and stop Obama and like I said, chip away at the things that he has created but, basically nothing will get accomplished of any consequence as remember, politics is all about raising money and campaigning!

The damage from this administration will take years to undo.  There is going to be $20,000,000,000,000.00 of debt and this administration is responsible for half of it! When the president took office the national debt was $10.6 T.

Obama will have fundamentally transformed America. The next President will have one hell of a job on his or her hands.  There is no telling where this President and his wife will retire, but my bet would be Dubai. Once there he can try to be a king or at least prince, as he will have experience!

Don’t agree? Leave a comment and let’s talk about it. Just keep it clean if you want a response.

-Best

Life, Wealth and Happiness

I chose the title carefully as the three can me mutually exclusive.

Stuff and Reality

Most of us grow up seeing a pattern of “wealth = happy.”  In fact some of the poorest people that I know are some of the happiest.  How is that possible?

The world today tells us that we “need” an expensive car, or the largest flat screen TV or whatever the newest gadget is.  Apple is doing their part by providing a new version of their products about every 18 months or so.

A few years ago a “car phone” was for the most exclusive and wealthiest of us.  Today, kids in grade school have a much more sophisticated version than I would have dreamed possible just a few years ago.

A simple automobile that cost a few thousand not too many years ago now cost upwards or $40K.  Of course you can spend $24K for the same basic car but it does not have the “logo” that the $40K car has.  Will the less expensive car do the same as the expensive car, probably; but it will not have the social status of the $40k car?  I cannot envision spending $150K on a car but there are many on the roads.

If you are a churched person you no-doubt know that “God will provide.”  Does that mean that if you pray really hard and give money to the church that you will get the $40K  or $150K car?  No.  It means that you will have the necessities of life.  The trick of course is realizing what the “necessities are.”

This is where the poorest among us have the rest of us beat.  They are happy with what they have.  One of my favorite song writers penned the phrase, “it’s not about having what you want, it’s about wanting what you got.”  If you think about that, it is so true.

“Failure to plan is planning to fail!”

Am I telling you to settle for less than what you have or want?  No, I am telling you to set your expectations accordingly, set your goals a little higher than your expectations, and take the actions necessary to achieve those goals.

Much like project management, your goals need to be fully planned.  What do you want, what does the end goal look like, and what does it take to achieve it?  What milestones must you achieve to get to where you want to go or be?   Goals should be on some sort of timed deadline.  If you set dates to accomplish certain milestones you are more apt to succeed at the end goal. Start with prayer for wisdom.  Praying to win the lottery is probably not going to get you anywhere.  If it does; please keep me in mind.. J  Realistic goals are part of the prayer process.  Few grow up with the goal of being a garbage man.  If you did, “bless your heart.” Many end up there because they failed to plan.

Do I look down on those folks, not on your life!  It takes all kinds of folks to make the world go round.  If more folks planned better, I think that finding a ditch digger or garbage man might cost more money.   I make a point to know my garbage collection folks.  If I can, I go out and tell them good morning etc.  The same is true of the mail person and even the janitor at the office.  They are all people and disserve the respect that you yourself would want.  If you think that you are better than them you are in dangerous territory.

Wealth or the lack thereof.

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I would seriously recommend taking the Dave Ramsey course for you who are just starting out.  After listening to his radio show for several months, I am convinced that he should be a required course in high school.  Credit card companies would lobby against that but, that would be just too bad.  Our progeny need to understand the fundamentals of his wisdom, and the sooner the better.

The good news is that if you are a parent you can go through the course with your kids.  It does not need to be mandated from the Ivory towers of DC.   Many churches around the country offer this course.  Why?  A tenant of the course is to be generous, think there could be a connection?  Too Cynical? Only they and God know their motives.

His mantra goes against current trends in advertising and indeed the way that we spend money!   His philosophy and wisdom really came from making mistakes and learning from them.  These are mistakes he made many years ago.  So, why make the mistake if you can learn from those that have already done it?  Like history, if you don’t know it, you will repeat it.

The jobs that you take should reflect some part of the path that you are on in order to achieve your goals.  Jobs can be milestones.  Let’s say I want to be a geologist.  I would start out learning everything I could about the subject from books to social groups that are like minded.  I might take an internship at a company that studies core samples.  Even if I have to wash beakers or crush rocks, I would be part of the process and undoubtedly something I learned would stick that I could apply later.

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The society we are in today has kids out of college with no practical experience looking for the big paycheck and the corner office.  Bless their heart!

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Many out there just take anything to get some sort of income.  Folks, this is ludicrous.  Letting fate decide your future is a formula for a life filled with dead end jobs being someone’s slave.  If you can’t afford to leave the bedroom that you grew up in, you are on the wrong path!  If you are forced to return to the bedroom that you grew up in because you are not making enough money to live on your own and be investing money in your future, you are certainly on the wrong path, or making bad decisions.

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Briefly, fast food jobs are for kids in school.  Those jobs will allow them to earn some spending money, gasoline and insurance money and if they are strict with themselves, some savings for college.  They teach the fundamentals of the working world and truthfully make one appreciate a real job when they get one.  I am a firm believer that everyone should have a fast food job as a child.

 

Retail jobs in general are the same type of job.  Most retail jobs are not a career choice that should be anywhere in your decision making process.  If those jobs are part time they are for kids living at home.  Unless your end goal is to manage some high end retail establishment, you have no business working there unless of course, you are a teenager.

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There is definitely a difference between adult jobs and “youth” jobs.  “Youth jobs are training wheels for life.”

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One job does not fit all.

I see way too many older folks taking retail jobs in places where there should be kids.  I think this is a direct reflection of the times that we live in.  The sad fact is that these older folks in these jobs allow their attitude towards that job to come through while dealing with the customer.  It is not hard to tell that they are not happy and feel that the job is beneath them.  Guess what; it most definitely is!  Staying in that job is mistake of monumental proportions.  Stay in it long enough to retrain and re-invent yourself if necessary, and then leave it for the teenagers that it was originally designed for.

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Some older folks are taking these jobs to get out of the house.  If you need the money, at least shoot for management.  Leave the kid jobs for kids.  Of course if you had planned correctly you would not need the money and could be spending your time out of the house, volunteering somewhere.

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The last few years, entitlement spending is at an all time high.  We are paying people to stay home and live on the government tit.  That money that the government gives away comes from those of us who are working, not living on the ignorance of a government run amuck.   If the politicians that think that what they are doing is correct they need to revisit it.

 

Anyone taking money from the government that should be working should be “reinventing” themselves.  Currently if you are attending school you are not eligible for unemployment.  What kind of foolishness is this?  If you don’t find suitable employment in X months you should be required to take some classes and I would argue that those classes should be subsidized by the government.  If you get an “A” 100% re-imbursement and so forth.  It is almost as if we don’t want you to ever work again, we want you to live on some small amount of money taken from those that are working.  Folks this is crazy!

 

If you know a politician or someone that you can talk some sense into by all means lets push this initiative.  People need a hand up, not a handout!

 

Business is not ignorant of this fact.  To get skilled workers to work for peanuts on a part time basis vs. dealing with kids who often have not developed a good work ethic is a bargain.  If they get college graduates to slave away at minimum wage jobs, that too is a bargain for them!  Keeping them at part time so they don’t have to screw with benefits, another win!

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We see the argument to raise the minimum wage so people can make a living at these part time jobs that school kids should be doing.  The pay is not the issue, the issue is that adults should not be doing these jobs!

 

Slavery is not Dead!

 

The problem is that these kids need those jobs as that is the next part of their training to become good workers.  A part time retail or fast food job is not for anyone that is serious about making a living.  Managing these occupations is another story however; it is slavery at best as you are most undoubtedly salaried and will work 50 or 60 hours a week and “it will be expected.”

 

Raising the retirement age was another mistake on so many levels.  Companies are shoving you out the door when you are 50 and looking for the college kids fresh out of school to bring in and abuse.

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This guy still votes too.  That is another blog for another time.

Very few companies see the value in bringing in older Americans as they would have to pay them a decent wage.  On top of that, these folks have experience and to some degree that experience might be askance of the job requirements and or environment of that company.  The phrase “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” certainly may play through their mind.  Mature workers are excellent employees most always as they are skilled professionals and are not the party animals that they once may have been.  Their children are most probably out of the house, so little will pull them away from their task.

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Mature workers indeed need a vocation as we were designed to work.  Those of us who linger in the couch or in front of the TV or video games all day are most probably going to expire way before our time.  “A body in motion stays in motion!”  Keeping a regular schedule, going to bed at a decent hour, getting up at a decent hour, greeting the morning sun for fifteen minutes in the morning will keep you healthy.  There is of course more to it but these fundamentals are all too often overlooked!

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If you take a look at the richest people in the world (which is out there on the internet) you will notice Bill Gates is number 1.  The Wallmart and Sam’s ilk are close to that and there are so many others.  What I would like to call to your attention is that none of these made it there because they are “nice people.”  They are shrewd business people.  One has to wonder if they are “happy!”

 

Some of you may try to extol the virtues of Mr. Gates as he gives money to different charities, “what a nice guy!”  When Bill was buying the first operating system from a guy for $4k and licensing it to IBM for millions, I was involved with computers.  When Mr. Jobs was a criminal, phone phreaking, making his first large sum of money, I knew about it and how he did it.  When Bill got the windows idea from Xerox who happily showed him their ideas and products and told him about it being open source he happily took it and ran with it.

 

I have kept up with Bill, not because I am angry with him, he is a shrewd business man. One has to wonder if they “the richest folks in the world” are “happy” and how much money is enough?  How do people get so rich?  I wish I could say it was by treating people right and practicing good “ethical” business practices…

 

Retail stores hire folks are minimum wage and then give them just enough hours so they don’t have to pay for benefits.  Some reward their slaves with a few more hours for extra effort while only giving a few to the people who are not really motivated to be there.  Folks, it is hard to be motivated for $8 and hour, especially when it takes more than that to get a hamburger.  If you are working for someone, even as a slave, do your best as you are gaining experience not just in folding clothing but in dealing with people, managers and situations out of your control.  This also should teach you the value of an education and setting goals!

 

What is your goal?  Money is not a goal, but a tool.  Like a hammer or saw, it is nothing more or less than a tool. Money is a common tool that everyone can use to pay for or gain enough of to obtain food, shelter and the other basics for life.  In some cases it can buy you an island or maybe a small country.. It is still a tool and a means to an end.

 

Your goal should be to be happy, that I would wish for you.  Deciding on what is (happy) is another story.  Some find happiness in stuff, and others find it in family and friends.  Some of the happiest people that I know find happiness in serving others and or taking care of the other creatures that live amongst us.

 

I think that happiness is nothing more than a state of mind and those that have little to worry about seem the happiest.  I guess if you’re rich enough to hire people to worry about things for you, so you can focus on being “happy” that might be one example of being one of the world’s richest folks might work for you.

 

Personal growth, understanding the person in the mirror, makes me happy.  Each and every time I learn something about me, I am a little happier. There are few things that are in “your control.”  Getting a good education, understanding that knowledge is power is a great foundation for being happy.  Using that knowledge in a way that is consistent with “enlightened people” to me is a mark of wisdom.  Serving others, in some way that is consistent with who you are is another way to become happy.  I find that helping others takes my mind off of “self.” Looking at the bigger picture, one can appreciate the complexities of life and sort out the small stuff that should be in the noise, and not artificially elevated to demand your full attention.

 

This is a lot to chew on.  Questions and thoughts are always welcome.

 

-Best to you and those that you care about!