Economics: The Great Fascade

It's hard to imagine we live in a day where the government can rack up the amount of debt we have as a county, and, get away with it.  The main reason they can is that the majority of the American population is uneducated in basic economics. Throughout high school and for those who pursue a college education, theses courses are not required to take. Somehow i guess i can't quite understand how an art history class is required and these classes aren't. Imagine if in high school how much more your average graduate would be able to prepare with a basic personal finance class. I think, and note this is my personal opinion the quality of student would reap profound benefits from these classes. On a larger scale; the economy in terms of a macro sense is extremely complex. I  mean think of it in terms of yourself. If a person came up to you and asked your thoughts on Quantitative Easing and the effects it has had on the American market; what would your answer be? Or what would you say if somebody asked you about the effects of Hyper-inflation? (those two examples are seeming to go hand in hand). The sad reality is that most Americans probably wouldn't even have a clue what those things are. I'm giving you people food for thought. How much worse or better off would the economy be if we abolished the Federal Reserve? What does the Federal Reserve do? Who is the current chairman of the Fed and what kind of economic philosophy do they practice? These questions may seem petty but they are questions that every American should know. My personal opinion on the matter falls in line with those of the Paul family. Ron Paul believes it should be abolished. Rand believes it  should be audited. That leads to another question, When was the last time the Federal Reserve was audited? 2012 is the answer. But it wasn't really much of an audit. Before that? It never had been. What it did reveal? It revealed trillions of dollars in secret bank bailouts. http://www.nationofchange.org/first-federal-reserve-audit-reveals-trillions-secret-bailouts-1314633089. This link will start you on the journey on just what is taking place in your government. A lack in education though generally leads people to instantly blame the President of the United States. Fact is, they are as of late, becoming the puppet for Wall Street and the Fed. If you really want to put the blame on someone look up these names: Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. Also to answer an earlier question Janet Yellen, the newest Fed Chariman runs along the same Keynesian theory as the her two predecessors. Basically what i'm saying is Education is the tool to save this country. The government gets what they want when there isn't an educated public. They can cook books, they can provide fake numbers and use VERY BIG EDUCATED TERMS THAT THE PUBLIC CAN'T UNDERSTAND. It's the perfect system to spend all the money you want and continue to hold stake on your cushy Congressional seat. So we need to make it a point to be educated that way we can sift through the things that our government thinks they can get away with.

Minimum Wage-It's the way it should be

I haven’t done this in a while so I figured I may as well put up a post that is relevant to the times. The point I’m going for is to relay to the public is that fast food workers DO NOT deserve 15 dollars an hour. When you think about the concept it seems like a great idea. Let’s give people a chance to make a living, off of a basic level job. We can eliminate the poverty we see in our country by simply paying employees a higher wage. Give people who are actually working a shot. Like I said it seems like a good concept in a theoretical design. However, the real question is it realistic? The unfortunate answer to that question is, no, there is not. I chalk this up to a lack of education on the fast food workers end. I am not saying it is their fault, but this is why the first step is education reform. That on the other hand, is an entirely different topic. So here is a little crash course on why this won’t work. When you raise the wages eventually everything else will raise as a result. This means it takes away the “ease” factor that most people enjoy about fast food. People like fast food because it is quick, easy, and affordable. I mean who doesn’t love having the option of a 1 dollar double cheeseburger? All of that disappears when you raise the wages. Maybe not so much the quick part but, the affordable part. Are people really going to want to pay 5 dollars for a Mcdouble? I know I won’t. So as a result, demand drastically decreases, while the money the company invests increases. Not a very good business model if you ask me. The next logical step that the company would take is to hire more employees and cut payroll hours. So yeah you may be making more hourly, but, the cut in hours will negate the hourly wage. Another thing that is imperative to look at is why this is brought up in the first place. The poverty line currently sits between 11-12 dollars an hour. So, due to lack of education, employees ask for wage increase to make it over the poverty line. Again, great in theory, now the reality. All increasing wages does is raise the poverty line. Instead of 11 dollars an hour being the poverty line, it is now replaced with, just to throw a random number out there, 19 dollars an hour. Also, as this happens inflation takes it course. Once that happens and your paying more for the price of your goods, it negates your raise. The last thing I intend to highlight with this is that these types of jobs are not meant to be a career. They are “stepping stones”. The jobs are intended for the younger years of your life. They are meant to give you experience at a young age and to help you get through college. My friend had told me what the Wal-Mart CEO had said. He said “ I want college students to work at my store so they can make more money to spend at my store”. It’s really as simple as that. This is what every single American needs to understand; if you are under the assumption that being a cashier at Wal-Mart is a career path, you are wrong. This is just a small portion of a much bigger issue. We need to educate the masses, and people need to understand that working a low-level job makes you highly dispensable. Which is why minimum wage is 8.50 an hour and should stay that way.

Citizen's First ?

Does the American Government really put it's citizens first? In light of recent events it has to come into question.With all of the obvious things set aside I.E. the scandals in which our leadership continues to lie to us something else comes up that hits closer to home for most of us. What i'm speaking of is the education crisis. While the Senate just passed an immigration bill that grants amnesty to nearly 11 million illegal immigrants and promises no notion of border control, they were unable to come to a decision on education and college students will see their interest rates nearly double as a result.

Now it may just be me but it seems like the citizens have taken the back seat. As of the passing day a college student could obtain a college loan at 3.4 percent. Monday will approach and will sting just a little more as that number will jump to 6.8 percent!! As if debt wasn't already a notion that deters people from higher education. It is just another instance in Washington where congress waited too long to address an issue. (or maybe i should say an important issue) Congress must come up with a solution after failing to meet their deadline. It's time Washington drops the issues that Americans don't care about (only 3 percent of Americans believe immigration is a pressing issue).  There is a time for things such as immigration, now is not that time. As of right now there are American citizens that are faced with huge financial issues with education.

Take care of the citizens then the illegals. It's time we as the people stand up for ourselves and make Washington take care of the things they were elected to do.

Hero or Traitor: The acts of Edward Snowden

Who is Edward Snowden?            

Hero-a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.

          Traitor-One who betrays one's country, a cause, or a trust, especially one who commits treason.

          Oh my, another post article about Snowden? You Bet! This event is extremely important and it is imperative it does not go away. What makes it so important is that America as a whole is still very split on what Snowden actually is. On one half you have the “He’s a traitor and needs to be put to death!!” argument (Oddly enough this is the side the US Government sides with.) and on the other half you have the “He is an American hero” argument. So just who is Edward Snowden? As almost all of America knows he released confidential information withheld by the US government and the NSA showing evidence on American citizens.

          Now a traitor is classified as someone who betrays his country, with that said did Snowden really betray the country? Betraying the country would be releasing classified information to a foreign or domestic enemy. Snowden however did not release this to an enemy, unless the government or the American people believe otherwise. He released this information to the American public to expose the infringement of their fourth amendment right. (I have provided the link to that amendment at the bottom of this article for anyone who needs a refresher. ) So, was his act a form of treason or heroism? Without a doubt he defied the government, but did so because the government was defying the American people. I personally put myself of the side of heroism. This was a guy who was making over 200,000 dollars a year and was looking at a very nice pension upon his retirement. He put that all on the line with this. He gave up everything he had for the American people to know everything. That classifies more as a hero in my eyes but it’s on yourself to decide. But when making that decision consider this:

 “People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.” – Benjamin Franklin

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."- Thomas Jefferson

If those words are true the debate between hero or traitor is actually not a debate at all.

 http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment

Does equality for all really mean equality for all?

    Today our country took a major step in the argument of same sex marriage. Now as i am so , so on this issue i figured i would bring some things to the light. The argument on this moral issue was simple "who are you to judge what love is?" Now that honestly is a very good question, but i don't think it justifies homosexuals being able to marry. The reason this issue does matter is it will now become a gateway for others to justify their reasons for wanting to marry that is widely looked at as taboo in our society.
    The main group it will attract are polygamists, and the argument they will pose will be one that will be virtually impossible to oppose. It will be the same "who are you to judge what love is?" argument. But on top of that in some cases their religion will back them.. How can you argue with a religion that is over 200 years old and they are devout to it, and roll that together with the "who are you to judge what love is?" point and that's a stronger argument than homosexuals had.
    Polygamists wont be the only groups it will ultimately attract however, unfortunately it will also attract groups such as: people who practice incest, pedophiles who want to marry children, and all sorts of other groups. Now granted these things are clearly wrong and you may think i'm taking this to the extreme however it has to be brought up. As outlandish as these claims may seem they are realistic. The same argument of "who are you to judge what love is?". It opens the door people!!! That's all i'm saying. It's time to take a step back and ask how far do you let "equality" go ? And is the concept of of "equality tarnished by a changing society? Marriage was set as a standard you meet the requirements you get married, if you don't meet them you don't. People want to separate this issues from same sex marriage, saying it's not fair to compare those things. Those people will have to answer the same question that won this same sex debate
    "who are you to judge what love is?"

Spend Big Lose Big: The stimulus fail

Let me start this article out with a simple math equation 1x2=2 ,1x(-2)=-2. Now anyone who attended any type of school knows that this is known as a multiplier. Now let's bring that theory to our economy. The stimulus bill though with good intentions was the wrong way to go about trying to fix the economy. And in this article i hope to provide you some insight on to why it was a bad decision.
The Main flaw with something such as the stimulus is that for every dollar you put into that is one more dollar you take out of the market that could be spent in a more productive way. It takes away the markets' ability to take care of itself, which is often referred as the "invisible hand".The Founding Fathers believed in this and to much of their credit it's proven to be right. Unfortunately, our current leaders didn't seem to agree with them. Our current leadership chose the road less traveled and chose to landscape their bill after FDR's New Deal. Now with that statement alone we should've have known the stimulus would fail but hey, why not try it again.
There were Multiple arguments against the bill while it was being debated. One of the more important one was John Mccains' argument. Senator Mccain proposed a stimulus package that would've costed 430 billion dollars. This bill was based on spending cuts,lowering tax rates, and tax reform. The argument ? Well the Keynesian's argued that it didn't spend enough money, which might explain why the actual bill eclipsed a trillion dollars.
In the end the stimulus bill failed to meet even there most optimistic predictions, we actually would have been statistically better off doing nothing at all. The stimulus package was full of "shovel in the ground" projects which just added to the alarming debt burden. One of these projects was actually for a joke machine to be built at a university ($700,000). These projects awarded states who lived outside their means and punished those who did. But all that set aside in fails in comparison to what the wreckless spending in Washington is really doing, and that is committing generational theft. At one point we will have to pay back all of the debt, but it wont be us it will be our children and grandchildren!!! Are we really okay with that? I would like to think not.

Obama's use of the espionage act

The espionage act of 1917 was enacted June 15 of 1917. Since it's beginning the purpose of the act was to prohibit any attempt to interfere with military operations, support U.S enemies during wartime, to interfere  with military recruitment. The act had been argued since it's existence that it is unconstitutional.
     Now it's time to bring it to a more current time throughout history it had been used a total of three times, in Obama time in office it had been used six times. So it raises the question as why? Well Obama has been infamous for using the power of government to criminalize his enemies and praise his allies ( kind of ironic when you think back to his campaign promises).so it's honestly an easy conclusion he is using this weapon to promote fear in the government and media. And up until recently it had worked well, Until now. After a while a tool used in the wrong way loses its edge. The reason for this its that you van only cover up so many lies , and now his admin is starting to feel the pain of the controversies its created.
     The use of this act is used as an attempt to silence the whistle blowers. However after so long its kind of hard to deny the facts. I'll be adding on to this blog citing the exact cases of the act being used in due time. Until then stay informed America! Fight for your rights that the constitution guarantees you, and remain vigilant in the pursuit of justice.
Www.nytimes.com
Www.theblaze.com
Www.dailykos.com