State Of The Union- Morning After

I am getting grouchy.

This morning I browsed some blogs Buckeroo, Dartblog, Angrybear, Blogsforbush, Jimglass and Voxbaby's views.

There is great reporting on the Social Security dilemma as well as some justifiable comments.

What of course made me "Grouchy" was the reaction during the speech by the Democratic toddlers when they booed the President. The reaction was the same you would expect from an assembly of kindergarden children when during his speech the principal shortens play period.

There is such a wide variety of opinions on the updating of social security that I myself am somewhat looking for the truth. I am quite sure the truth is not with Paul Krugman or Nancy Pelosi or that guy Reid who is so confused he is in need of professional help.

Let me appeal to all the economists to make their blogs easy to understand for the common man, please explain in plain English how the GDP, future predictions, p/e ratio, rate of return, and nominal growth affect the solving of this problem.

Your blogs are written to be read, not all readers are PHD's in economics and we would all like to be informed of your ideas.

Grade inflation doesn't matter

A lot of talk on blogs recently including VOXBABY about grade inflation a few of my thoughts for you to ponder.

1. From high school to college there are many standardized tests so that universities can select the candidates they are looking for. If you score within there range most likely you will have a chance for admission. There are a few other criteria such as being an athlete or concert pianist or your mommy or daddy went there but admission is weighted heavily to score.

2. From college to grad school again there are various standardized tests for schools to determine your admission. I am not saying your class rank is not important but if you score poorly your chances of admission dives no matter your college grades.

3. Grade inflation becomes a topic when students taking more difficult courses receive lower grades than those they feel are taking less challenging courses. SO WHAT! To combat this apply yourselves, learn and absorb all you can and when you graduate do your thing.

4. There are so many "C" students outperforming "A" and "B" students out in the real world
that grading becomes unimportant.

Do you use a financial advisor, attorney, doctor, accountant based on the grades they received or their performance in the real world?

Nobody ever asked Sam Walton, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Henry Kissinger, Albert Einstein or Clint Eastwood their grades.

We can take care of ourselves!

With all the flack about saving social security let's see how we can help ourselves.

First encourage a slight increase in the payroll tax, this is not the entire solution but it will take some pressure off the congress as they are NOT intellectually prepared to make any decisions.

Encourage personal accounts and let each person fund theirs by saving money in the following ways and contribute to their accounts.

1. In the morning or anytime buy a cup of coffee for $1.00-$1.50 and not a "YUPPIE LATTE"
for $4.50-$5.00.

2. Get gas at a station for$2.00 per gallon instead of the adjacent one for $2.20. I hear people complaining about the price of oil and the savings are on 3 very large signs.

3. Give up the booze and cigarettes if you need a fix take Xanax generic at 5-10 cents a shot once a day

4. Buy raw food and cook dinner instead of overpriced, overcooked, dried out takeout.

5. Buy American products they are less costly today and let the French and Germans go down the drain along with their Euro.

There are many other ways you can save for your retirement, you can now refer to the above for guidance.

Finally, throw the lobbyists and special interest groups out the door they contribute nothing to our well being.

Let some charity begin at home

Why I am grouchy......

Some of you might not know that as a result of the three hurricanes this past summer in Florida the following conditions still exist:

1. Some families with children are still without shelter and living in cars.
2. Some families are still living in shelters. The shelters are at capacity.
3. Some families homes are still not livable and require repairs and are still waiting for help.
4. Damaged businesses have let go employees, these employees have no earnings and cannot afford repairs or a rentals.
5. FEMA in most cases has stopped assistance.

Now you all know that the result of the tsunami 350 million dollars of aid is being sent to the survivors. They will benefit from this with improved homes, updated businesses and subsistence.

I am not stating that the governments (state, federal, local) did not help the hurricane victims,
but they need more to bring closure and get them back to normal.

Certainly if the United States can be so generous to foreign countries, a few million (that is all it would take) can be diverted to our tax paying citizens who are suffering.