“Mr Konop,
Even you can see that I did not deny the assertion in the report.
Even you can see that I simply added some additional information, from a reliable (and cited) source.
You can see that, can’t you?”

And the response was . . .

“David
You deny the problem of the Middle Class getting sold out!”

and,

“Example
Slave labor is wrong!
Stealing is wrong!
Do you get the point!”

and,

“David that is check mate from Jan!”

= = = = = = = = =

Mr Konop, what in the world are you on about?

.

This current job I’m on is the longest I’ve ever been on which is more than 3 years.

Jobs get boring and I tend to wear out my welcome. Within 3 years, I start speaking out about what I see is wrong with the way things are done.

I find your comments, backed by facts and the sources very interesting and informative.

Thanks.

I’d like to talk to you more on investments. If your willing, email me at bellsouth.net.

Thanks for your open and honest response to my question.

What do you do for a living?
=========================

I am a retired jack of all trades. Raised on a small farm, I was a jerk in college (which I didn’t finish until in my 40’s) and went off the deep end until one night on a one person pity party, driving around alone, I realized I had to straighten up or end up in prison. I went in the Navy during Vietnam, started reading the Bible and learned a trade, electrician and running a 25 ton portal crane on a floating dry dock for subs in Spain.

After 6 years on subs and sub support craft, I left the Navy, restored my relationship with my parents whom I had treated like dirt, and started working any job I thought I’d like and the Lord led me to. As a kid I had worked with migrants, drove tractor, packed fruit, and did other physical work and liked working (but still was a jerk).

I started out after the service driving tractor trailers hauling apples. Then moved to Mo. doing home remodeling (plumbing and electrical and carpenter) for an Uncle, installed alarm systems (120 degree attics turned me off after a while) and then became an installation mgr. for Westinghouse, then farmed 8,000 acres for the U. of Mo.’s experimental farm in Weldon Springs. It was there that a sheriff made me a deputy to handle trespassing problems and I started riding with deputies to learn how to keep me from making a mistake and getting shot or sued.

They sold the farm and I went into police work full time becoming the head of the detective bureau in Wentzville, Mo. Then GM asked me to go to work for them in security and I did that, gave about a dozen lectures for the training department as we moved to team concept and then production supervision. When that got boring, (usual reason for job change) I bought an very small RV park for seniors in the mountains of Arizona and after 11 years, retired and now am taking it easy.

However, during all jobs, I kept reading, saving and investing which allowed me to retire. I use the “Investor Business Daily,” as a guide in how to read the market trends and manage my own securities portfolio. In other words, I put my money in the things I believe are going on and so far that has been rewarding.

I see my buying power, per dollar, going down so, I have to make more dollars and do that with my investments. It is why I am so interested in world political trends. I make money knowing what is going on in Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, Canada and the U.S. While not nearly as knowledgeable as the economists, I do know enough to listen to them, compare what they say with reality and each other and their track record.

I agree with you on the major entitlement programs that are going to cause trouble pretty quick.

Social security to me is not an entitlement program, especially if you have paid into all your working life. It is a forced savings plan that the government has robbed, as I know you know.

It is one thing to take my money via taxes to help the people who truly need help, but to help generations of people on welfare, or fund pork programs, or basically redistribute wealth is where I have a problem.

As far as healthcare, I had an Uncle who died this past year. Years after abusing his body and abusing our healthcare and welfare system, he found himself in the hospital being kept alive by the healthcare system. Probably cost over $1M to keep him alive for about six months when there was no hope of him recovering. What a waste of money for someone who most likely put very little money into.

The more the government grows, the less efficient they get.

I’m not sure what I’ve written makes you think I’ve artificial assumptions on entitlement programs.

I also agree with your last paragraph of this posting.

I do agree with John that slave labor is wrong as well as monopolies and industries in collusions of price setting.

I disagree on the point of illegals taking jobs away from American from the perspective they are willing to work cheaper, which is competition, global at that since there are many other countries that have people willing to make less than people in the US doing the same job. I say that when I myself is in an industry that has jobs going overseas.

Jan Paul, I agree with you on taxes and government regulations being to complex and actually costing you and I money. I hear the train, but I don’t have to get off the tracks because it will wreck before it gets to me. I really like you stated in post #31.

Bottom line, while I’ve never been hired by a poor person, the rich are getting richer, the middle class is getting squeezed, and the poor think the government should take care of them, which is at the expense of the middle class.

John, people don’t save anymore because of the “I want something I can’t afford, now” mentality. Easy credit has displaced wages, and oh, I think I hear that train - but don’t worry.

David that is check mate from Jan!

Great post Jan!

We are at a negative saving rate. Many were counting on home value to be their “savings” and now many owe more than the house is worth or they have even borrowed the equity.

Why is saving so important? Simple, it lets you minimize booms by not spending as much as a society (government reduces debt during a boom as most nations are now doing in this world boom) and then during a down turn you can continue to spend (not government) until the economy picks up.

Every family needs both long and short term savings. The home can be part of the long term “investing” for retirement but at least several months savings for household and living expenses should be one of the first goals after leaving school and entering the work force.

The spending in a downturn, when it comes from government, often leads to “government dependent jobs.” In other words, when the economy recovers, jobs “created” by government spending either have to continue or you start raising unemployment by laying them off to re-introduce them into the private sector businesses not dependent on government spending.

We have created a situation where we have a downturn or recession every time we start trying to balance the budget.

Quote:
We are told we must balance the budget. Look at the record and find out what happens when we do. Shortly after each balanced budget we had a recession. Check the record. Notice the many years between numbers two and four. No surpluses and no recessions until the surplus in 1969. By December, 1969 number three started. No one has dared to balance the budget since.

The large deficit in 71 and 72 got the economy going again. The deficit was reduced in 73 but before the budget could be balanced , number four started November 1, 1973. The pattern was repeated with numbers five and six.

We had number four when the deficit was reduced to about $5 billion, number five at about $40 billion, and number six at about $70 billion. Recessions five and six were so close, because the deficit in 81 was too small to keep the recovery going. Just look at the huge deficits required to end number six.

Since 1985, many items have been taken ‘Off Budget’ to hide the true size of the deficit.

Note the large reduction from 86 to 87. Could this be the reason for the October 1987 market crash? Economist predicted a depression within six months. Why were they wrong? The 88 and 89 debt increase figures tell us the answer.

The government borrowed enough to stimulate the economy out of the predicted depression.
http://www.wealthmoney.org/budget.html
========================
That article by Money Talk has a chart that gives you a visual image of what they are talking about.

If you look at the CPI chart, and debt, from 1913 on (IRS and Fed Reserve act year and when we stopped appointing Senators and started electing them), we see them all now going parabolic. Since both inflation and taxes to pay interest on debt, takes away from buying power, real wages are going down even faster than any drop in wages or even if you are making more, you can’t buy as much if your wage is only going up as fast as “reported inflation.”

That is why we are starting to move down the per capita wealth chart that is based on “purchasing power parity (PPP).
quote:
1 Bermuda $69,900
2 Luxembourg $68,800
3 Equatorial Guinea $50,200
4 United Arab Emirates $49,700
5 Norway $47,800
6 Guernsey $44,600
7 Cayman Islands $43,800
8 Ireland $43,600
9 United States $43,500
http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy/gdp_per_capita_2007_0.html
===================

Yes, there are good reasons for some of them to have moved ahead that we can call “unique” to a small nation’s special make up.

But, Ireland did it with manufacturing and exporting and tax reform. They proved that you can take a nation with 120% debt to GDP and not only get rid of the debt but move the people in per capita wealth up to that of the U.S.

The tax on Irish workers is high. 20%. And I believe they start paying at a lower wage then we do. However, they were making 1/2 our wage and 20% hurt then but now with 300% more wages, 20% isn’t felt nearly as much.

When a low wage worker had $5 an hour after tax wage it did hurt but when you moved up to $15 after tax wages, that tax became a lot less noticeable.

I don’t believe, however, the good times will last in Ireland. People there, like here, will start demanding more of their government and ruin a good thing. Also, the EU is demanding Ireland end its low taxes because they say it isn’t fair to the high tax nations who have to compete with Ireland.
Quote:
Friday, May 4, 2007 ~ 12:08 p.m., Dan Mitchell Wrote:
Tax Harmonization Fight Heats up in Brussels. A proposal to harmonize the definition of corporate taxable income is triggering heated debate at the European Commission. High-tax nations largely support the plan since it is a way of hindering tax competition – particularly if a harmonized corporate tax base is an interim step to a harmonized corporate tax rate. Led by Ireland, a number of nations are resisting this misguided scheme.
http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/blog/blog.shtml
=====================

GDP rose from about $5.465 trillion in 1992 to $13.2 trillion now or 140% higher. Do your wages reflect that progress.
http://www.theodora.com/wfb/1992/rankings/gdp_gnp_million_1.html

The huge growth in population due to immigration (illegal?) has to be a factor too. The huge rise in GDP isn’t reflected in wages but may be in population when illegal immigration is included.

For 1992, the ave. mfg. wage was $12.49 (ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ForeignLabor/ichccsuppt07.txt)
For 2005, $18.32 or 47% higher.

Look at a chart of inflation growth and see if wages are keeping up.

As John stated, look at trends. The other nations are going up and we are going down and while still ahead, for how long with those trends. Ireland passed us in 2004 and are increasing the gap in wages.

I would say savings rate and wages are the two best indicators of a long term healthy economy.

Slave labor is wrong!

Stealing is wrong!

Do you get the point!