The Broken Spectrum Of The World - Delivered

Sin Taxes ought to be illegal, and more then likely they probably are. I can’t argue one way or the other there though because I’m not sure about the that particular issue, but that isn’t really the point of this article.

Here over the past couple of years, many states have raised the sin tax on alcoholic and tobacco products reasoning that they would be doing everyone a favor by reducing sales of these products and bring more money into local and state coffers. They have succeeded in doing both, they have slightly decreased the sale of these products and have greatly expanded their tax revenues. I just have to question the fact that these two things made us all better off.

Seems to me that taxes are always on the rise and rarely decreasing, so this hasn’t done anything to help us there except allow government to spend more and more. Sales have decreased, but not by much, and I can’t really see how this has made us a better society. I know the original intent to raise the sin tax on tobacco products was to get people to quit using them, however is that really the job of the government, to police our private lives? They couldn’t make tobacco illegal because it wouldn’t be popular and they wouldn’t get all those juicy taxes they are accustomed to, so their solution was to just raise the taxes on something they deemed to be evil.

I’ll keep it short. Times are tough these days, yet all the government seems to care about is getting more and more of our money, which for the most part, is wasted. Seems to me more like taxation without representation.

Where has it gone? When did it go exactly? If you know the answer to these two questions, please, feel free to share, because I don’t know. Now don’t get me wrong, there are still some objective reporters out there, just very few of them. I won’t got off on a tangent throwing names around, but every major news outlet is guilty of taking sides instead of looking at issues in an objective manner.

Personally, I watch Fox News, and for those nay sayers that never have anything good to say about Fox News, don’t speak too quickly unless you plan to throw CNN, MSNBC, and all the others in there too, as they’re all guilty as well. Fox News runs some bias through sometimes, however the others do it on an even more consistent basis. I’ve been turned off to a lot of it all as a result. I find I’m watching less news these days for the fact that everyone is either regurgitating the same thing, or spouting off their opinion about something instead of actually reporting the pros and cons of each issue.

However I will step up and take one swing at the big leagues, and while I know he’ll probably never read this or anything else I have to say, it doesn’t change the truth of the matter in the least bit and I’m sure I’ll have some people that are in agreement with me on this one.

I was watching the O’Reilly Factor last night, I had set the channel to change when House came on, but for some reason it never changed, so I ended up watching part of his show while I was playing the new guitar I got the other day. Generally, Bill says a lot of stuff that makes a lot of sense, and he’s right on some issues, however there is generally always some segment of his show that I don’t agree with, whether it be the issue itself, or the way he presents the issue.

A segment of his show last night was what would the rest of the country be like if we had San Francisco’s morals and values. First of all, why is this even a segment? I’m sure there are a lot more important things going on in the world that he could cover besides what San Francisco may be like. I have to say, he has never had much love for California, mostly because he believes that they have poor morals and also because it is a largely Democrat state. It’s no secret he doesn’t like most Democrats.

The entire segment features a reporter interviewing different people on the streets, however it only covers a handful of things. Most of the segment was about people being able to openly smoke marijuana and then trying to directly relate that to homeless people “hippies” traveling in groups and staying in parks and pretty much being a problem, though that problem is never actually stated. The segment also seems to try and link smoking marijuana with crime problems in the city and the fact that certain places aren’t safe to go at night and how New York is a much safer city. There was also a comment about the reporting watching a drug deal go down outside of city hall, but most of me says BS on that. It seems to me though, that if there were police actually patrolling these problem areas, they would be a lot safer, and that it has very little to do with marijuana, which he seems to try and demonize the entire time. He also goes on to show pictures of cross dressers, hookers, and pornography shops. There was also footage of bad parts of town as well.

After watching the segment, not factoring anything in, yeah the city seems pretty horrible and you would be led to be in agreement with him. However if you are so weak minded that you readily accept what he tries to spoonfeed people on a regular basis, you easily miss that most big cities are not very different from San Francisco and that we only saw the bad parts of the city and none of the good parts. Instead of attacking the problems and providing solutions, the entire segment seemed like a smear campaign against the city and marijuana, and to a lesser extent, gay people. It seems like several people on Fox News have a problem with gay marriage as well and it seems to me that they have been very partial to the new law that was recently voted on and passed and have been against the gay rights protesters.

There will come a point when big media gets so sloppy that they start clearing the path for smaller contenders to come in and do the job better unless they start to shape up.

Two of my previously written articles that relate to this thread that may be of interest are Gay Marriage and Taking A Controversial Stance

In many towns, including my own now, have started to put cameras up at traffic lights in an attempt to generate more ticket revenue. Some try to claim that the cameras make intersections safer and they justify having the cameras with that reason, even though the underlying reason is more ticket revenue. I’ve even heard of cases where cities have decreased the amount of time the yellow light is on in order to ticket more drivers. The ultimate question though, is this even legal?

To begin, tickets are issued to the owner of the car, no matter who may be driving it. This is a major problem in and of itself as the cities are not punishing the particular offender, they are just delivering justice to whoever, whether they are guilty or not, as a convenient way of padding the city’s coffers and accomplishing “safety”. Why is it that a lot of the things that any level of government does in the name of safety generally restricts and infringes upon our rights? It is to the point where people are guilty until proven innocent. Until these camaras can get a picture of the actual driver, all tickets given through this system should be voided. However I’m not so sure this system provides more safety anyways.

I’ve seen accidents that are caused by these cameras. People approach these lights and as they are about to get close to the intersection, the light changes to yellow. Instead of safely going on through with ample time, they stop abruptly for fear of getting a ticket if they don’t make it through the intersection in time. An abrupt stop on a busy street can cause all sorts of problems and chain reactions, none of which are safe. This causes wrecks, which in turn uses up city resources to respond to the accident, higher insurance costs, and a lot of un-necessary headaches.

If traffic citations are going to be issued, they should be issued at the time of the violation witnessed by a law enforcement officer, otherwise a person would either have to just pay the ticket, or show up to court and defend themselves, even though there is no actual accuser to cross examine in order to justify the citation. If the ticket ends up being thrown out, we have managed to successfully waste more of our court resources when they are already strained due to so many cases. In the end, the government has either gained little to no money, or lost money in this situation, all the while taking more money and time from the citizens needlessly.

It seems that as every day passes, our rights are infringed upon more and more by the government. It also occurred to me that without freedom of the press, we would be living in a country ripe with corruption, with the government operating more freely without regard for our civil rights, not that it already doesn’t. I’m actually surprised that our mail isn’t opened and read, then sealed back up and sent to its intended location, all in the name of safety or some other bullshit reason that the government uses to infringe on our rights.

It turns out that Google has started a new intiative to help prevent the outbreak of the Flu. How would a company accomplish such a feat? Easily, by simply providing each user’s search information to the government so that Flu outbreaks can be pinpointed and contained. Thats a great idea isn’t it? All of our private information is sent to the government in return for our protection. Maybe I’m blowing this out of proportion though, I mean I should be willing to give up my freedoms in return for protection by the government. Though I can’t help but wonder, exactly who is going to protect me from the government? With the stroke of a pen, law enforcement officials can obtain any information from any company about any person for just about any reason. Last I checked, that amounted to illegal search and seizure.

Perhaps we should start requiring everyone with the HIV virus to register with the government so that the health of the public can be protected by making the information public and requiring these people to carry some form of identification with them showing that they are HIV positive. Come to think of it, that sort of system worked well for certain countries during World War 2, so we know how well such a program would work. Maybe we should start having every transaction that we make each day recorded and sent to a government database in order to ensure that people aren’t doing anything that we wouldn’t want them to do, that we could possibly deem hazardous to everyone else. That would really help to protect us all.

Just out of curiosity though, have you seen V for Vendetta? If not, I’d recommend watching it, as it is a great eye opener.

It was announced today that GM’s shares futures are valued at $0, as most expect the largest vehicle manufacturer in the US will go bankrupt, Ford and Chrysler aren’t far behind either. These companies have been around for decades, a year ago most would have laughed at the thought of one of them going under, now the possibility is very real. We’ve all known that they have been struggling over the past 4-5 years, but most don’t realize that there are a couple of issues at hand that have brought about the the struggles and possible downfall of the American Auto Industry.

These companies have made some mistakes, and other problems were partly out of their hands, but could have been managed if they would have been willing to put forth the effort. A large problem has been that back in the 90’s, the major American companies ceded the small car market to foreign auto makers and pushed forward with heavier vehicles, as gas was cheap and demand was high, they effectively put all of their eggs in one basket and when the price of gas shot up, the basket fell and most of the eggs were broken. They were so far behind technologically in the small vehicle market, they steadily lost sales and reported more and more losses. This was the proverbial nail in the coffin, but not necessarily the main problem. The recent credit crunch has also taken it’s toll as many people and even dealerships cannot get credit.

I wrote a small article a while back pointing out this problem and is not necessarily just an issue for the Auto Industry, but for several industries. Labor Unions and labor laws have just about killed our economical competitiveness. While labor unions were very beneficial and much needed back in the earlier 1900’s, they are now outdated and are a strain on the system. Labor unions have become so greedy, their production is down and their pay is way up, the auto industry can barely breath as each new contract brings a looming strike that could potentially cripple the company if the auto companies do not bow to the union’s demands. A company cannot be competitive and profitable when the janitor makes $30 an hour.

When the unions do strike, the companies cannot fire the employees for refusing to show up for work. I’d get fired for refusing to show up to my job, there is always someone to replace you. Also unions are not optional, if a company has been unionized, you are required to be apart of the union and pay union dues. Union laws such as these are unhelpful for both the worker and company alike. Personally, I’d like to negotiate on my own behalf, not have someone do it for me then tell me what I will do. Unions have played a major role in sending companies overseas as they have skyrocketed the cost of labor. While some companies are indeed just that greedy that they have moved overseas, others have either had to decide if they will fail or move elsewhere where labor is cheaper.

I also have a short story to share as well. My grandmother once worked for General Tire, she claimed that they were the best paying company in town, everyone wanted to work there. Working conditions were great, the hours were easy, and quotas each day were easily met, after the quota was met for the day, they sat around and did nothing and were paid for it, all because the company was unionized. However each year, the union asked for more and more money and threatened to strike each time when their demands were not met. Eventually the union priced themselves out of a job and the company packed up and moved elsewhere. My grandmother and thousands of others lost their good paying jobs due to the greed of a union, demanding more and more, far after what the fair pay would have been. My grandmother never worked for a unionized company ever again. I will will never work for a unionized company either.

As for the looming bailout, it should not happen. These companies can function just fine by going the route of bankruptcy, however the ideal solution is to put themselves up for sale and allowing themselves to be bought up by an American company. Its very clear that the people who have been running the show at these automotive companies have failed miserably and need to be replaced by more business savvy people who will rebound the company and bring about good structure change.