General Motors

Why is it that the Obama administration seems to only be concerned about
protecting the jobs of union workers? The unions were major supporters of his candidacy
- is a simple answer. He has also stated that unions are good for the middle class which has me scratching my head.

The automotive industry world-wide has way too much capacity. And then you have the matter
that cars easily last for 200,000 - 300,000 miles compared to 50,000 a couple of decades ago. Competition has created a far stronger product for the consumer but that does not mean this is a good business to be in. And the situation is not going to get any better any time soon. Finally because this industry has so much political clout all over the world, every government in the world that has car factories is trying to add subsidies to keep their factories up and running.

So it is a mess that our government and other governments will surely waste a lot of money on - rather than letting more of the industry shut down and getting these employees to move into more productive jobs. Our government really does not like the idea of a free market.

A new way to make a living...

I ran into a fascinating guy by the name of Toby Turner. Toby recently graduated from the University of Florida. He started out in Microbiology then moved to Psychology and finally ended up in Telecommuncations Production. He is one of the lucky ones because he only ended up about $18,000 in debt when he graduated but has a friend that is approaching $100,000 in student debt.

I came across a hilarious You Tube video that Toby created and happens to highlight some of the challenges with college financial aid today. It is called “I go to college for the financial aid” and is at http://www.valueofcollege.com http://www.twitter.com/tobyturner.

But the interesting angle starts post graduation. Toby has created an amazing brand for himself. He is a song writer, YouTube video producer, on-line talk show host and general all-around web content entrepreneur. He is finding ways to make a living and create opportunities where some folks are sitting on their rear ends. Check out his web site at http://www..tobyturner.com/."

College can be a major waste...

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0202/060.html"
"The Great College Hoax"
This article in Forbes highlights the falacy that every college education is
worth the money and the time. "Higher education can be a financial
disaster". It is time for parents to stop forcing kids into college
and suggesting great alternatives (like starting a business, going to work,
going into the service, learn a trade). A bunch more history majors
from Harvard are not going to lift this economy out of the big hole we are
in.

If you pay by the hour you likely have an employee

Did you know if you pay a babysitter or gardner by the hour (as opposed to a fixed price
for a job) you really have an employee? This means that if you use them for 5 hours
per week you really need to set up workers compensation insurance,
payroll withholding and put up all the anti-discrimination notices to
inform your "employee" of his/her rights. But here is a law that
is almost universally ignored except for a few folks that want to be
President or on his cabinet.

If the government wants to jumpstart this economy lets greatly streamline
and simplify this process. I for one would start hiring but absent this - I
will avoid my next employee like the plague.

Why are the cops always lying on tv?

Does it bother you that our police are always lying to the suspects
on tv? It bugs the heck out of me. Is this reality? If so do we really
want a culture where no one trusts the police because they consistently lie?
If they lie to the other guy are they lying to you?

Getting out of the Great Recession

Have you ever tried to hire your first employee legally?  What a frickin hassle.
You have to take care of withholding for state and federal payroll and income taxes, get workers
compensation insurance (and how hard to you think that is if you have only one employee?), post
all kinds of notices in your place of work and then if things go bad you have all kinds of penalties
depending on what state you are in for laying off or firing the employee.

If we want more folks working,  lets make it far easier for entrepreneurs to hire their first employee (full or part-time). Once you have a 1,000 employees the marginal cost of hiring one more is not big deal but the real growth in an economy usually comes from the small business not the likes of Ford, Citibank or AIG.

Now that the housing myth has been foreclosed on

Three years ago you would have been hard pressed to find someone
that didn't believe that "you just can't lose buying a house".  Our state
and federal governments have been subsidizing home ownership for
years (actually since 1913 when the first federal income tax included a
deduction for home mortgage interest). And the subsidies kept on
growing (deductions for property tax payments, no tax on the gains for
the first $500,000 that a couple makes on a home, and federally guaranteed
loans).  It is one thing to support ownership of a small basic home but why are we taxpayers subsidizing McMansions that consume massive amounts of energy
and sit mostly empty?  And not just someone's first McMansion but we subsidize
their second McMansion as well.