President's Approval Rating

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Free Market for Dummies

So, I have been amazed at how many times I hear of the government trying to elbow their way into more and more private sector areas. What I mean is the government is going into business for themselves or they are trying to limit what we can or cannot do with our businesses.

Because I see too many of you guys buying into this, I want to do a little explanation of what and how the free market works.

So, lets create a business.

Lets say I open a business canning beans. Now in order to make my business work I must be able to purchase, can and sell my beans at a price that the consumer is willing to pay for. So, lets say I can produce a can of beans for $1.00 and I sell them for $3.00. I make $2.00 every time I sell a can. That is great, but if my brother comes along and thinks he can do better, and starts selling beans for $2.50 a can and is only costs him $0.50 to make a can of beans. I'm going to lose business even though he is making the same amount of money as I am.

Now, from her I can do two things. I can drop the price I am selling a can of beans below what my brother is selling his and take a cut in profit, and/or I can try and reduce the costs to produce a can of beans. Lets say I do a little of both. I'm going to cut my costs by $0.25 and found a way to reduce my costs by using a different glue for the labels, so now it only costs me $0.75 to produce a can of beans.

If you look at our prices, we are now equal. We are both selling our beans for $2.50 a can. Just for the heck of it lets say that I'm using a better quality of bean than he is and so people like my beans better than his, well I'm going to start selling more than he is. Well, again he has a choice to make, he can increase the demand for his beans by changing the quality of beans or reducing the price, or he can just give up.

To make this example more interesting, lets say that my brother decided he can take a shortcut and rather than replacing the water to boil the beans, he can save money and just use the same water over and over a few times and just hope that it doesn't cause anyone to get sick. So, because of this new change he now comes in cheaper by a quarter less a can than before.

To the consumer we have two products, one a good quality can of beans for $2.50 a can. Or a less quality can of beans for $2.25. Now, if you are me, you will go for the cheaper can of beans because who cares how good a bean tastes because canned beans are gross. Well, a year goes by and both companies are making the money they want to and all of the sudden someone gets salmonella from eating my brother's beans. Well, now there is a black mark on their company and the consumer immediately stops buying my brother's beans.

Well, because everyone is afraid that they are going to get sick he ends up going out of business. Now, I am alone in selling beans. Well, I start to raise my prices because I can. Until the guy down the street decides he can can beans cheaper than me and it starts all over again and I have to drop my prices to stay atop of the other guy.

Now, lets see how things go when the government is involved. Lets say I'm running a gym. I charge $50 a month to all the members of my gym. Well, someone in the government thinks that there is a need for all the citizens of the city to have access to a recreation facility where they can exercise or play basketball or whatever. So, the government votes to increase property taxes and charge $40 a month for a membership.

Well, if you are a citizen of the city you end up paying about $65 a month because of the increase of your property taxes and then the $40 for the membership. Well, because I'm in a free market society, and I'm being fairly aggressive, I reduce my prices by only $5 because it costs me $40 a month per person just to maintain the facilities. At $45 a month I can just make it by. Then, the city ends up paying the building off and so they lower their monthly prices down to $35 a month.

Again, I can't compete because everyone gets taxed the extra money and I can't. So, everyone starts signing up with the government run gym because up front it is a better deal, but in reality it isn't. I lose business and finally I end up out of business. This is all because government has an unfair advantage.

Even when the government starts passing laws to regulate businesses they screw things up. In California the government passed a law putting a limit on how much the power companies can charge, at the time the cap was realistic. But, as the tree huggers pushed to stop nuclear and coal powered plants, then the costs of electricity started to rise, then the electric companies couldn't supply electricity cheap enough because of the regulations that they were losing money and went bankrupt.

So, next time the government comes up with an idea to regulate businesses, think twice before going along with the idea.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

What is gray?

The other day I was having a discussion with a friend and I was told that life isn't black and white. This bothered me, I didn't push the issue, but it has given me something to think about.

I began thinking about why life couldn't be black and white. We hear that everything has its opposites, good and evil, virtue and vice, light and dark, pleasure and pain. Then I heard on the radio and advertisement for Rush Limbaugh where he made this statement, "When Good negotiates with Evil, Evil always wins!"

How could that be!?! Well, I came up with this. A statement is only true if it is 100% true. The second you add a small insignificant falsehood. The statement then becomes false. Parts of that statement may be true, but as a whole it is a lie.

In order for Good to negotiate with Evil, Good must give up on some of its "goodness" and take on some evil. Remember in the scriptures that it tells us to be white as snow, or white as wool. They use the extremely white things as examples, not white as the overcast sky.

We are the ones that came up with gray, to justify our actions. There is God and Satan, two opposites, there is no Bob in the mix. I think that there is a fine white line that we try to stay on and we keep running through it. But, because God is perfect, he can walk that line.

Here is an example, Nephi was told to kill Laban. Well, Nephi knew, "Thou shalt not kill." But, God told him, "It is better than one man die, than a nation perish in unbelief." So, there is an exception to this rule. This may be seen as a gray area, but with God's perfect judgment, he can see that white line and stay exactly on it. If he couldn't, then "God would cease to be God," because he couldn't obey the laws of God.

When I was in Physics in college. We learned that when light passes over an edge, that it is "split." That, when you look at the edge of a shadow, there is a gray area. But, when looked at closer this gray area is made up of large and small patches of light and dark. That you can look further and find that any gray seen again can be looked at again and is made up of light and dark again. So, truly there is no gray. Here is a picture where you can see the light and dark as light is passed over a razor's edge.

Gray is only seen from afar. But, under closer examination it is just a mixture of black and white.

Does this make our becoming perfect seem more difficult?

I think so!

But, what gives me comfort is the atonement. As we get tainted with spots of dark, that we can clean these and become white. Remember! "No unclean thing can enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Thursday, May 28, 2009

When hardworking people are punished because of lazy people!!

Okay, I have had it. Yes, it has been a while! But, when I read this I had to share!!

This Supreme Court nominee makes me sick!! I found this story and was infuriated by what happened.

"In 2003, the New Haven fire department had several vacancies for new lieutenants and captains. Candidates for promotion had to take a written and oral test. Candidates had three months to prepare. Ricci gave up a second job to study. Because he is dyslexic, Ricci paid an acquaintance more than $1,000 to read textbooks onto audiotapes. He studied 8 to 13 hours a day. And he succeeded. Ricci's exam ranked sixth among the 77 candidates who took the test.

But New Haven's civil service board ruled that not enough minorities earned a qualifying score. The city is more than a third black. None of the 19 African-American firefighters who took the exam earned a sufficient score. The city tossed out the exam. No promotions were given. Ricci and 17 other white firefighters, including one Hispanic, sued New Haven for discrimination.

In 2006, a Federal District Court ruled that the city had not discriminated against the white firefighters. Judge Janet Bond Arterton argued that since "the result was the same for all because the test results were discarded and nobody was promoted," no harm was done."

So, Ricci worked his tail off for this test and promotion! He found a way to study for the test and passed, but because a bunch of lazy guys that happened to be Black and Hispanic didn't study and pass, Ricci was denied his promotion.

"When the case came before the three-judge panel of the New York federal appeals court, Arterton's ruling was upheld in an unsigned and, as the New York Times described it, "unusually terse decision." One of the judges who upheld the ruling was Sotomayor."

That does it, our newest Supreme Court nominee is racist against whites.

I consider myself colorblind! I believe that anyone, Black, White, Green Yellow, Orange, Purple, you get the idea. Can become whatever they want if they will work hard enough for it. But, don't punish the hard working for the sake of the lazy. If anyone of those who failed that test really would have wanted to pass, would have gone to the extremes like Ricci.

We have shown we are mainly a non-racist society, hello we have a Black president! All these affirmative action rules are doing are creating laziness. That any minority doesn't have to work as hard as the next guy. They don't have to excel in anything, they can just be mediocre. This breeds a horrible work ethic.

I watched an episode of "ER" a long time ago and a Black woman came in and needed help, well the Black doctor came in to help her and she refused his service knowing that he didn't have to perform as well as the next guy to become a doctor.

So much for everyone being created equal!!

Reference: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/05/28/obama_sotomayor_ricci_and_white_male_privilege__96703.html

Monday, March 16, 2009

Put a little fear into them!!

So, I haven't posted something here in a while because I've felt like I need to do something. So, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what is going on and what we, the average citizen can do.

And I think I've come up with an idea!!

I've done a lot of digging and I'm getting tired of our federal politicians. Our local reps. are doing fairly well.

But, I had a thought because Mr. Hatch doesn't come up for reelection until 2012.

I have found that many states have what is called a recall provision. So what this entails is if the state is unhappy with the way their state reps. are acting, a petition is gathered and if enough signatures are received, then they can put into effect a recall of that person. Which would cause a special election to take place to allow the state to let the person remain in place or elect someone else in his/her stead.

I like this idea, so we don't have to wait for our vocally inclined friend in Washington to come up for reelection. To take this a little further, this would at least put a little fear into them that their job isn't sure until the next election, but that they can lose their jobs at any time if they try and get drug dealers out of jail and such.

If a law like that was put into place, they all would wonder about the stability of their jobs and start voting like Utah wants, not what their pockets or the party says. Then if that doesn't fix things then we use the law to remove them from their seat and get someone real in there the represents us and our desires.

If you like this idea let me know and just leave me a comment.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Does Truth Ever Come Out of Washington?

This paragraph comes straight from our new president.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

So, I have bolded a few things that have caught my eye. Since my last post, I have been trying to organize my thoughts into something logical and understandable. Anyways, I don't feel like any of these bolded words really mean anything to anyone in Washington. All of these are one sided words. They apply to us, but not to anyone in Washington. Here are a few examples:

1. We have had how many of Obama's nominees have tax problems? Can you say three, and one still got through!! What happened to fair play, responsibility, and truth?

2. Utah's favorite Senator Orrin Hatch, wrote my mom about his desicion to vote for Geithner as the Secratery of the Treasury. He stated that it isn't his responsibility to choose a nominee, but if the person is quailified to vote for him. Duh, if he is such a financial genius, then I guess we will cheat ourselves out of all of these debts Obama is creating.

3. Yes, lets spend our way out of debt, that is the best thing for us. How about we cut the crap and balance the budget. Think if you ran your money like the government runs its. We'd be in big trouble.

4. Lets give Utah its extra vote in the House, and while nobody is looking give one to the District of Columbia. They aren't a state right? Ummm, NO!!!

Come on the list could go on and on. Washington is full of perpetual liars. They try and grey everything out and make it seem okay. But, I have had it!!!

First thing I'm going to do is to write "Senator" Hatch and give him a piece of my mind. Do you realize he has been in office longer than I have been alive?!? He ran on a campaign that he predecessor was in office too long, which was two 6 yr. terms. I will not vote for this guy, ever again.

Like it says in the scriptures we must clean the inner vessel before the outer. So, we must clean Orrin's clock first.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Founding Fathers are absolutely Genius!!

So I have always considered our Founding Fathers to be inspired men. But, until just recently I never realized how inspired they were. I have begun a collection of quotes from significant people on our history that I like. As I have done this I have started with the Founding Fathers.

Now I'm going to share with you some of their words and you tell me that these guys didn't know what they were talking about and knew exactly what they were doing when they created our government.

Also, see if you can see how any of these quotes apply to us.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
Thomas Jefferson

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."
Thomas Jefferson

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary saftey deserves neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Bongress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution."
Abraham Lincoln

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
Thomas Jefferson

"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quite under such misconceptions it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
Thomas Jefferson

And Finally My Favorite....

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams

I don't know about you, but I've had it up to my eyeballs with all the crap we are putting up with. I am so pissed off right now with our government that I can hardly see straight. I know that the democrats are killing us, but I have been looking into Orrin Hatch and the crap we are putting up with there. Is he conservative? Yes, I guess. Is he a Utah conservative? No Friggin' Way!!! This guy has Washington government written all over him and he is getting under my skin.

We are being too patient here with our government. The Colonies rebelled with less than we are putting up with. We need to put a stop to this Big Government crap. We need to elect some new leaders that aren't some government shoe-in.

We need to stop being silent and make our voices heard. The more I dive into the thoughts of those who created this nation, the more I understand where we are getting off.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Expelled

Some of you may have heard of this movie, some may not have. But, the other day I went to the RedBox, and using my free promo codes I rented Expelled. This had Ben Stein in it, I know him at the Eye Drops guy. You know the monotone guy, "Dry eyes need Clear Eyes."

Anyways, so I got the movie. I wasn't sure what to expect, I thought that it was going to be on how horrid our school system is. But no, it was on what is happening in our schools with Creationism. I couldn't believe what they were saying. They were going from university to university and talking to people that had been "fired" for teaching Creationism, or "they just weren't a right fit for our school." Yeah, a huh!

What was the best part was when they were explaining the whole Darwinism idea and how ridiculous it is. They were talking to these scientists and putting their words into English so we could understand what they were really saying. Like how proteins were formed on the backs of crystals to create life. So, Ben Stein showed a casino and said how in order to get life all of the slot machines had to get a jackpot at exactly the same time. The odds of that were so small that literally they said it was basically zero.

Later on they were interviewing an Atheist that has put out a book trying to defunk God. So Ben Stein interviewed him and this guy was so arrogant. One of Ben's last questions was how he thought life came upon this earth, and basically he said ALIENS!!! Can you believe that!?! The idea of God is so out there for him, that Aliens coming down and creating us is a more logical thought in his mind than God! What a looney tune.

I don't know, as I have taken a lot of science classes and understand how things work, I cannot deny the existance of our Heavenly Father. I mean look at our planet. What are the chances that we are orbiting the sun at the exact distance needed to sustain life. Or, the fact that our bodies are organized like they are. This is not chance. We had to be put here, we had to be created, the chances of all this happening is so small that it is zero. Come on, if the chances of the protiens being created on the backs of crystals is basically zero. Then, the chances of all life coming from that is even more zero that the first.

Anyways, if you have time go to your RedBox and rent Expelled. Some of it is pretty slow, I won't lie to you, but it is VERY informative on what people are thinking.