Class Warfare?

The next time you hear about how "the rich" don't "pay their fair share" or how they need to pay more in taxes, please consider the following;

Here are some reasons I'm glad some of you here in America are "rich;"

1. You provide me and my employees with work. I am in the dry cleaning business and you buy clothes that require my services. You are busy working, earning a living and require my delivery services. I and my employees appreciate that you need us.

2. You buy goods and services that keep other people busy at work and they also need my services, again providing us with work and an income.

3. You buy expensive products. I am grateful to you for buying things like plasma tv's when they were $10,000 and personal computers when they were thousands more than they are now. Your purchases at higher prices allowed the manufacturers to improve technology and production so that now, many of the rest of us can afford the same products at a fraction of the cost you paid.

4. You buy cars (and maintain them) when they are brand new that years later, I can afford. It may sound silly, but because you bought that Cadillac years ago and maintained it well, I was able to buy a luxury car in great condition and with low mileage that I would have never been able to consider if I'd had to buy it new.

5. You are willing to spend your hard-earned dollars on medical procedures that later become affordable to the rest of us. Thanks to you, I could afford Lasik surgery that prevented me from spending hundreds of dollars a year on bi-focals (and possibly tri-focals later).

6. You pay much more than me in taxes. Because of the taxes you pay on all of your purchases and property, it reduces my liability. I don't mean I wish you to pay more (on a percentage basis) than I do, but I realize that if we both paid 20% income taxes, you'd pay more than me and I am grateful to you for that.

7. When my church has big-ticket repairs/improvements needed, you often step up to help out. This helps ease the burden on the rest of us that may not have the resources to pay for the repairs/improvements.

I could continue with many other reasons to thank the so-called rich. There will always be those better-off than me and some less-fortunate. We should be willing to offer a helping hand to the less-fortunate while not begrudging the more-fortunate.

Amazing New Jobs Bill

Wow! The congress and president are excited that they passed a "bi-partisan" jobs bill. Yep, they say it will inspire businesses to hire people by giving them a "tax holiday" on the Social Security Tax employers pay.

Just how will it work? Well, you hire someone who's been unemployed for 60 days or more and the business is exempt from the 6.2% (of annual salary on this employee) for the remainder of 2010. Sounds great doesn't it? Until you consider; on a $20,800 annual salary ($10 per hour), it would result in a $1,290 (annual) saving for the company, but it is still costing the business $20,800 to pay the employee, plus unemployment and workman's comp that are both based on payroll, and oh yeah, there may or may not be the actual work there to support hiring an employee...duh!

And here's the kicker; the uncollected revenue will have to be made up by the taxpayers (you and me). When will the idiots in D.C. understand that you need customers buying goods and services to justify hiring workers?

Man and "Environment" Can Coexist

I was struck by forest ecology supervisor Craig Iverson's statement in an article in the May 10, 2010 Pensacola News Journal (www.pnj.com, Coldwater Creek Feels the Burn). The statement had to do with the demise of a woodpecker species during the 1970's, '80's and 90's. The woodpecker species was disappearing because "there was too much brushy understory in Blackwater. We were not burning enough."

Disclaimer; I know Craig Iverson and he is a very intelligent man. My entry here is no indictment of him or his statement.

What struck me about the statement was that we've been told for years (by those purporting to protect the environment/earth) how man is "destroying the environment." We are threatening the habitat of numerous species. To listen to the reports it often sounds as if the planet would somehow be better off without mankind.

So I ask the following;
1. How arrogant must we humans be if we think that we have the power to destroy the earth? Think about that. If you believe in God, you've got to believe that He wouldn't give us the power to destroy His creation. If you believe the earth is greater than us mere mortals, how could you possibly believe we would have power over the earth?
2. What if we didn't protect some of the many "protected" species? Many other countries put no such restrictions on themselves. What would happen? Would new species be created?
3. How much money do we spend every year to "protect" species that have no apparent value to the environment?
4. Isn't man part of nature? If the lion is part of nature and eats when it wants (killing its prey with no regard for the endagerment of a species), why does man have to worry about preserving certain species (other than to maintain a food supply)?

Just for the record; I don't support the senseless killing of various species for no reason. I'm just asking questions.

I say; we can coexist, but we humans are higher on the food chain than the animals and plant life. What do you think?