Ron Paul Comments Missed by Many?

During a South Carolina Presidential Primary debate this past week, Ron Paul made mention that trade with other countries was not hurting our economy and that we should not be worried about it. I believe his comments were so nonchalant that most people missed it, certainly the moderator did as there was no follow up.

To be sure, I am not a Ron Paul supporter (in fact I've never read his writings and I don't think I've ever visited his website). While I may agree with him on some issues, like many other political candidates, I disagree on some issues as well.

Congressman Paul was responding to comments made by opponents regarding overseas competition for jobs. Mr. Paul said we shouldn't be so worried about trade with countries like China because while we send dollars over there to buy their goods at cheap prices, the savings (due to low prices) stay here, in the pockets of the people buying the products.

The reason I think this is such an important point is that, as a nation, we largely ignore the elephant in the room on economics and jobs; which is that we all want to buy cheap products and services, but we think we deserve top pay for our own labor. Furthermore, we get outraged that companies take their manufacturing jobs (yes I said "their" not "our" jobs) to countries where the labor is cheap and regulations are more favorable to industry.

I believe we have raised our standards so high that it may take a full-blown crash of our economy in order to bring large numbers of manufacturing jobs back to America. Every economic money producer (e.g. housing, lending, technology creation) goes through booms and busts and labor will be no different.

We bought houses with no money down, maxed the loan payments out, maxed out the credit cards to furnish the homes, did the same with our cars, clothes, even education. Yep, with the help of society, willing lenders, educational institutions and a government willing to spend, spend, spend, we mortgaged our entire futures to the point that we require huge salaries to pay for the previous spending. Younger generations actually own very little because everything has been financed. By the time we pay our car off, we've got a new one with a new loan, the home mortgage is 30 years and we'll be retired before the mortgage is paid off, that is if we can actually someday retire.

We will need to get to the point where people are willing to work for a few bucks an hour and live at a much lower standard because the developing nations already do that and they are the ones getting the jobs. This will also require some relaxing of regulations by our government which also means people so entrenched in regulatory movements will have to forego their activism to get jobs back.

Ron Paul said in that same debate, we have a problem of morality. This got largely overlooked but the point is so true. We don't value hard work in America as much as we used to. We don't see being a hard worker as virtuous. Today, the hard worker is the sucker who just hasn't figured out how to make big money the easy way, without leaving the comfort of their recliner.

I now only wonder a)when the wage bubble will burst and b)whether there will be enough people with strong work ethic to put the nation back to work.

Ringing in 2012

Usually people ring in the new year with resolutions that may or may not be fulfilled and positive outlooks for the near future. Here at the beginning of 2012, I take a bit of a different view.

I bid good riddance to 2011. It was a year with few blessings and many defeats. Though I survived those and will continue on, I see some disturbing trends in my town and as many investment advisors will tell you, past performance is a good indicator of future success or failure.

Four years ago the local Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) brow-beat my wife and I into paying over $6,000 in penalties to the state. Again in 2011, the same DEP representative attempted the same technique. However, this time I had an attorney with me. The DEP rep immediately postponed the meeting and four months later, no more word from the DEP.

In mid-2010, the city government-owned natural gas utility (ESP) was discovered (by state auditors) to have coded numerous business accounts as "tax exempt" in their computers, unbeknownst to the business customers. Mine was one and instead of the utility paying the back sales tax, which was about $6,500, out of the $8million profit they made, they required me to make it up. I put the issue to a newly-elected city councilman, whom also happened to be an architect who had renovated some historical buildings. Ironically, considering the councilman had received tax benefits for renovating his buildings, he actually said siding with me on my issue would be unfair to the other taxpayers. Apparently what is good for some, isn't so good for others. This all came to a head in 2011 as a contributing expense the business just couldn't bear.

2011 saw our fair city lease out an entire floor of their building to a private company. On the surface this would appear a good move, but considering private sector commercial space is in such abundance, it seems to be in direct competition. Later in the year the city gave an entire piece of property to a local company with the stipulation that the business hire 100 people over the next couple of years. Again, this seems in direct competition with private commercial property owners. Tax incentives are one thing, but outright giving of property, well, that's another matter.

And near the end of the year, the county hired someone for a marketing position (Equestrian Center Marketing Director) who had no marketing experience. One of the county commissioners pushed for the man's hiring and then pushed for an increase in salary for the position before the man even started the job. Nobody within the county government could find it within them to file an ethics complaint. When the newspaper exposed this matter, the man was fired and the position re-posted. This time, the job title was changed to "manager" and voila! The man is one of the seven finalists for the job. Keep in mind that, after a statewide survey was done, the position in this county is at a higher rate of pay than any of the other Equestrian Center Marketing Directors across the state.

I now fully understand why most people who come to Pensacola, leave after about five to seven years. They realize that our town is so entrenched in the "good old boy" system it is likely to never change.

So as we begin 2012, I have little faith that our little town will show much change, but I take on the challenge to affect as much positive change as I can. This is my new beginning. If you can bear it, I beg you to work every day to meet this same challenge.

Thank you.