First Post

Since giving up social media for lent I am using this blog as my way of sharing my thoughts... It will be an interesting to reflect on the articles I read and the information I gather during this time. I doubt anyone but me will read it, but it will be a good exercise in introspection. The New Hampshire primary was yesterday. Big win for Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Could there possibly be two more opposite people as lead candidates. One wants to play Robin Hood and the other wants to improve on capitalism. They are both nuts! I don't think either will make a good president. I don't think either will work well with congress. Four years of stale mate and no action... That doesn't sound so great. I read an article this morning that breaks down some key differences between democrats and republicans. She made some good points, and described what the Republicans could do to win the black vote. It was an interesting perspective. I think poor people, regardless of race, are just desperate and will jump on the band wagon of anyone who promises them a solution. I find it sad that our schools and our culture do such a poor job in educating them on the opportunities available in our current economic system. They get big promises made about increasing minimum wage, free college, free health care, but someone forgot to mention to them that these things will likely cause the cost of living to also go up. And the saddest part is that with all these things given for free the quality of service will drop. Healthcare - it will all be government run, so providers will be restricted by what is allowed by the government. The health care provider won't be the one making the decision about what medical services you need, the government will... Look at Canada, that is how their free system works. Add to that the change to the system will take away the incentive of the best and brightest to specialize and do research. Why? What is their monetary gain for doing so? College - our public education system has been a mess for a long time! Tuition costs have skyrocketed since the 90's when government subsidies were removed from the college budget in an effort to balance the state budget. Classes were cancelled and students scrambled to get the requirements fulfilled with limited class offerings. I know, it caused me a lot of grief! The states didn't put the money back and the colleges and universities raised tuition to make up the balance. Que in the banks and wham we created a mess! Minimum Wage - this one baffles me the most. Simple supply and demand. If you are an employee demanding a higher wage (or the company is forced to pay you more) then the supply of money is depleted. The owner/board will then look to ways to offset this higher wage. That will happen in two ways: one, the company will higher fewer workers and reduce their labor force; two, the larger companies will find ways to automate the process or outsource it to another country where wages are less. This bodes poorly for the smaller business. So in essence we put more of the little guys out of work and make it possible for the large corporations to take a larger piece of the american pie. Higher wages but fewer people working and now relying and those same large corporations the government was trying to force into paying better wages. I am no economist, but capitalism just makes more sense to me. I have always liked math and numbers so I am looking at this from that perspective. I am open to other ideas and read the view points from people who disagree with me, but I have yet to find one compelling enough to make me change my mind.