question posed: why are we always hearing about social security running out of money but not welfare?
A:
social security is a stand alone fund that is dependent on increasing contributions from a growing population that is in danger of running out because of the large number of baby boomers retiring, living longer, fewer people behind them who make less money. Welfare is not a fund and therefore the term run out of money is not applicable, it is funded by appropriations from congress with money collected via taxes paid by all of us, including anyone who has ever worked which includes nearly every welfare recipient, if your household income and your ability to make it went to zero tomorrow, how long would you survive? even at my tidy salary i wouldn't make it a month, if i was a more responsible person i bet i could make it six, i know people who worked their asses off and got shafted in the downturn who took over 2 years to finally get something that paid much less, i don't personally know any lazy people who have even collected unemployment (which we pay for directly but can't ever get back fully) let alone welfare, the alternative is that we just need to start shooting people for the crime of being poor thats how lions handle the weak and sick among them, guess thats what a lot of humans want as well
welfare should look a lot more like education, childcare, government internship jobs, things that require effort but give you something in return and ultimately lead you and your children down a path that ends with both paying more in taxes than you would have, but we are cheap, we go for the minimum, here give them some food and rental assistance, let them figure it out, in a lot of cases (economic downturn aside) clearly they weren't able to figure it out in the first place, they need more than food and a roof, they need guidance and training. I think the key is that the hand up should be the availability of opportunity if you'd like some help, we need that park cleaned up we can pay you x a day to do that and as a benefit teach you how to become a welder at night and all the while we will make sure your kid is healthy and cared for. think about that, your image of a welfare bum, 2 years of that kind of help would pick almost anyone up to the point that they would be paying back into the system for many decades to come.
this is a notion i have pitched for as long as i can remember but most of the time people think its unrealistic, they want change but they don't really want change if its going to cost them anything.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
obamacare insurance mandate the real story
the mandate -- i think thats probably the biggest bugaboo as far as i can tell, it feels like this massive theft of freedom and while some might make the but you have to have auto insurance argument on the pro side, that falls short with driving being a privilege not a right. I don't think there is a tidy box this fits in so the only way to really lay it all out is to take it to its natural course.
if i refuse to get insurance and i say, hey if i'm ever sick and broke just turn me away, let me die in the parking lot are we really willing to follow through on that? because thats what this is really all about, uninsured people going to the er and the rest of us paying for it so we either agree to just let people die or we agree to pay for other peoples healthcare even if they can afford it but just dont wanna or we agree to a mandate, its, yet again, pretty damn simple.
all that is water under the bridge, we agreed to the mandate, years ago, long past, gone bye bye. i dont think it really has anything to do with freedom, yes even if you are a christian scientist and will refuse care, thats ok, you can be insured anyway, i'm certain i'm paying a fee or a tax or an interest rate that is based on carrying your sorry ass too, thats kinda what a society is sorta for. we help each other, we support the common good, to the right many say fuck that, i got mine piss up a rope and to the left, hey i didnt try very hard to get mine, gimmie but in the middle where just about everyone really lives, how much do we take care of each other and how much do we just say fuck off and let each other die?
still not game? dont want to pay either the insurance or the fine? dont make any money, money is made within a system that was built and supported by the rest of us, all you have to do is opt out of the whole thing, sorry you don't get to bag on just the stuff you don't like.
as for congress, stop the bus, let these f'ing ass hats off.
if i refuse to get insurance and i say, hey if i'm ever sick and broke just turn me away, let me die in the parking lot are we really willing to follow through on that? because thats what this is really all about, uninsured people going to the er and the rest of us paying for it so we either agree to just let people die or we agree to pay for other peoples healthcare even if they can afford it but just dont wanna or we agree to a mandate, its, yet again, pretty damn simple.
all that is water under the bridge, we agreed to the mandate, years ago, long past, gone bye bye. i dont think it really has anything to do with freedom, yes even if you are a christian scientist and will refuse care, thats ok, you can be insured anyway, i'm certain i'm paying a fee or a tax or an interest rate that is based on carrying your sorry ass too, thats kinda what a society is sorta for. we help each other, we support the common good, to the right many say fuck that, i got mine piss up a rope and to the left, hey i didnt try very hard to get mine, gimmie but in the middle where just about everyone really lives, how much do we take care of each other and how much do we just say fuck off and let each other die?
still not game? dont want to pay either the insurance or the fine? dont make any money, money is made within a system that was built and supported by the rest of us, all you have to do is opt out of the whole thing, sorry you don't get to bag on just the stuff you don't like.
as for congress, stop the bus, let these f'ing ass hats off.
Minimum wage hike - deep thoughts by the staffordworken
in the grocery business they tend to very quickly pay more than min wage anyway, with decent service way above which is why the checker you see at your corner store has been there for 20 years and really knows her shit, the razor thin margin is on the cost of goods markup, the operational overhead on that massive throughput is there but its not really as much of a factor as you'd think, the real factor in grocery is no, we can't sell that for 1.99 it really does have to be 2.09 or there's just no profit in it so we have to shrink the package to make that nice 1.99 price point which is why you see f'ing 11oz boxes of cereal.
see this is a great case in point, if min wage even doubled that would not mean that all our wages would double at all, really it would just be the handful of new people right at the bottom and yes that would put wage pressure on those above them but that could be accommodated over time. as for phd's that cant predict what would happen, these are the people that couldn't see the housing crash coming, you and I would have no problem mapping out what would happen. some really basic forces are at work here and you have to look at the entire economy to see why an big min wage hike is the best thing we could do, its actually pretty simple, money is getting to concentrated at the top up there it just doesn't move through the economy enough, not enough sectors and not quickly enough, thats whats killing us so the solution is to shovel more money right to the bottom, fast as you can, fastest way is min wage, next fastest way is tax and spend and the latter has a massive overhead of overpaid politicians and government contractors who are in the 1% so you lose a lot of the juice that way.
when you look at it that way, the details of how it plays out at every end point dont matter, the reality is yes ultimately someone who had a wasteful business with too many employees simply because they were so cheap why not is forced to cut back and lay people off. but that's missing the forest, that person leaves, and their parent or spouse who's making much more has already lifted some of the burden and because the economy is growing fast again a new much better paying job opens up very soon, the logic that someone might ever get laid off so we should all just go down with the ship is kinda not gonna work here, this is the information age, data will power the revolution, we have to be a shitload smarter about the whole picture if we are going to survive.
so how did we get here? when most of us here were born things were in balance, what happened? at first, a really really good thing: the women's liberation movement a tremendous boon for woman and their families, sure we had to go through a generation of growing pains (latch key kids) before those kids grew up and still managed to put kids first, but thats to be expected, its a new thing, hard to see how it would all play out ahead of time. at first this meant that women didn't have to stay with abusive husbands because of money and that blue collar families could become middle class families, and middle class families could become upper middle class families and it was great, great on top of already pretty good.
however, what we failed to see what the effect on the labor market, a new surplus of labor started the downward trend, top that off with employers to this day getting away with paying women less for the same job then the boiling frog kicker, bit by bit that hard economic pressure of i just cant afford to take a job for anything less than... changes, kids started school, wife took a modest admin job and suddenly that job with the better commute and lower pay is within reach so you begrudgingly take it, you get a few raises but they never catch up to old job + inflation and then there's a big voodoo economic downturn that your employer uses to freeze wages, you don't walk out because eh well, there's still food on the table with what my wife is bringing in. over 20 years the trend is set, wages sliding backwards against inflation then it becomes the norm then even with 2 wages in the house its not enough to stay on top of everything, inflation no longer even keeps tabs with healthcare, education, housing that all just spiral out of site and in the new economy 2 decent wages feels like that meager entry level blue collar job in 1970, just getting by, then one of you gets sick and suddenly a family with one white collar income is hanging by a thread.
this all happens because price competition on a loaf of bread is not the same as wage competition in a free market, choosing another place or brand for your bread is extremely liquid, that can change daily, but your job? a thing that might require a different town, school district, house? you can feel ripped off for years before you are willing to move and then you will find that because everyone else feels the same way, there isnt a better paying job out there. something has to balance out that lack of liquidity, self employment and small business opportunities are the ideal balance, my employer should be competing with my ability to go out on my own, when you run your own small business your net output is totally maxed, its the very most the economy can get out of one person in terms of productivity so we want to encourage that above all but that alone wont get the engine started, there has to be wage pressure at the bottom and it has to come from outside business, they wont do it on their own but when required to across the board, they stay on the same level playing field with their competitors something they could not have done by being the first guy to pay better. with that influx you have growth and with growth small businesses can get off the ground, then you have a healthy cycle that can sustain itself with a whole lot less government intervention.
see this is a great case in point, if min wage even doubled that would not mean that all our wages would double at all, really it would just be the handful of new people right at the bottom and yes that would put wage pressure on those above them but that could be accommodated over time. as for phd's that cant predict what would happen, these are the people that couldn't see the housing crash coming, you and I would have no problem mapping out what would happen. some really basic forces are at work here and you have to look at the entire economy to see why an big min wage hike is the best thing we could do, its actually pretty simple, money is getting to concentrated at the top up there it just doesn't move through the economy enough, not enough sectors and not quickly enough, thats whats killing us so the solution is to shovel more money right to the bottom, fast as you can, fastest way is min wage, next fastest way is tax and spend and the latter has a massive overhead of overpaid politicians and government contractors who are in the 1% so you lose a lot of the juice that way.
when you look at it that way, the details of how it plays out at every end point dont matter, the reality is yes ultimately someone who had a wasteful business with too many employees simply because they were so cheap why not is forced to cut back and lay people off. but that's missing the forest, that person leaves, and their parent or spouse who's making much more has already lifted some of the burden and because the economy is growing fast again a new much better paying job opens up very soon, the logic that someone might ever get laid off so we should all just go down with the ship is kinda not gonna work here, this is the information age, data will power the revolution, we have to be a shitload smarter about the whole picture if we are going to survive.
so how did we get here? when most of us here were born things were in balance, what happened? at first, a really really good thing: the women's liberation movement a tremendous boon for woman and their families, sure we had to go through a generation of growing pains (latch key kids) before those kids grew up and still managed to put kids first, but thats to be expected, its a new thing, hard to see how it would all play out ahead of time. at first this meant that women didn't have to stay with abusive husbands because of money and that blue collar families could become middle class families, and middle class families could become upper middle class families and it was great, great on top of already pretty good.
however, what we failed to see what the effect on the labor market, a new surplus of labor started the downward trend, top that off with employers to this day getting away with paying women less for the same job then the boiling frog kicker, bit by bit that hard economic pressure of i just cant afford to take a job for anything less than... changes, kids started school, wife took a modest admin job and suddenly that job with the better commute and lower pay is within reach so you begrudgingly take it, you get a few raises but they never catch up to old job + inflation and then there's a big voodoo economic downturn that your employer uses to freeze wages, you don't walk out because eh well, there's still food on the table with what my wife is bringing in. over 20 years the trend is set, wages sliding backwards against inflation then it becomes the norm then even with 2 wages in the house its not enough to stay on top of everything, inflation no longer even keeps tabs with healthcare, education, housing that all just spiral out of site and in the new economy 2 decent wages feels like that meager entry level blue collar job in 1970, just getting by, then one of you gets sick and suddenly a family with one white collar income is hanging by a thread.
this all happens because price competition on a loaf of bread is not the same as wage competition in a free market, choosing another place or brand for your bread is extremely liquid, that can change daily, but your job? a thing that might require a different town, school district, house? you can feel ripped off for years before you are willing to move and then you will find that because everyone else feels the same way, there isnt a better paying job out there. something has to balance out that lack of liquidity, self employment and small business opportunities are the ideal balance, my employer should be competing with my ability to go out on my own, when you run your own small business your net output is totally maxed, its the very most the economy can get out of one person in terms of productivity so we want to encourage that above all but that alone wont get the engine started, there has to be wage pressure at the bottom and it has to come from outside business, they wont do it on their own but when required to across the board, they stay on the same level playing field with their competitors something they could not have done by being the first guy to pay better. with that influx you have growth and with growth small businesses can get off the ground, then you have a healthy cycle that can sustain itself with a whole lot less government intervention.
Tuesday, October 01, 2013
Crashed my BMW motorcycle in traffic
Wrecked my Bike - short derp - laying down a nice bmw in seattle traffic
epic stupid fail you can see coming a mile away from the rear mounted camera point of view, almost a year later i'm still riding, albeit with a lot better skill.
full video (unedited)
after the wreck ride down through seattle, pike place market to the ferry terminal
Best Commute - BMW K75 twisty country roads daily!
The best commute
ferry docking in kingston then ride down to suquamish,wa before da memory card runs out, sorry for the wobble workin on getting a go pro
Abortion
I don't think science is equipped to say when 'life' begins, there job is to determine when something far more specific happens, the definition of life is very subjective, I think viruses are not living and bacteria are because I've drawn my own intellectual line in the sand, religion has a role to be sure but mostly one's own faith and that's where we run into a huge problem, we take a step back and try to combine subjective definitions of words like life and law and governance and representative democracy and everything falls apart. as the president once said, no one is pro-abortion, its a catchy turn of phrase but what it is really pointing out is that we differ on the issue at one level as argument over what to do at another, the real unrelenting divide that we don't talk about enough is where does the law fit in with this? I don't see any way that there will ever be agreement on that question and it concerns me, I feel like we will never put down that fight to focus combined energies on actually preventing abortions by helping people, I think that's where the fundamentalism really does a disservice to itself because there is this notion that reducing the number of occurrences is not a worthy cause at all, only complete legal elimination only total agreement only the vilification and ironically killing of doctors will do, if I were a christian in the truest since of the word and thinking wwjd? my actions would be education and assistance to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place, furthering health to reduce the number of birth defect related abortions but more than anything based on the numbers, great family and community support for young mothers, such a vast number given great support from those around them would choose to keep their baby. my slogan for this combined movement that will never get off the ground is "choose life" very intentionally having the harmony of bringing the very key words of the opposing movements together, pro choice and pro life, choose life, its that simple, how can I help you make that choice?
I'm reminded of the Rich Little joke where he imitated Reagan and Cronkite "cronkite: Mr. President, when do you think a fetus should be considered life? reagan: when it votes republican"
in 1970 the party line was that it doesn't and I very much believe that if you were old enough to be thinking about the subject then that you would be going against the party line then and would be ridiculed as an outlier then just as someone who thinks its later does now, its not that belief I have a problem with, its the complete drumming out of dissension in either direction that screams thought police, the fact that 'what the bible says' has magically changed just points a light at the issue. as for stereotype I think we are differing in interpretation of correlation here, not everyone who believes that life starts at conception does so because they were told to by evangelical leadership just as I don't believe in global warming because Al Gore told me to I believe it because I grew up in glacier valley watching the glaciers disappear but if you are inside the Gore circle by god you better believe every bit of it without questioning, so i totally see your point, someone might see that I agree on that issue and assume i'm a pinko-commie left wing Gore worshiping liberal when I'm not.
An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America
An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America
like try this on for size: I don't like Mitt Romney as a person because he was a bully as a kid and I got beat up by bullies, I never got beat up by potheads and at his worst if anything the president was once a pothead. As an adult Romney make big bucks by screwing people over, bully 2.0, that is not who I want in the big chair, I want someone who is going to shut down the fed. I could care less that Romney IS a Mormon (rather than assuming he is because he's white and has good teeth?) and I stand on some really solid ground on that one having been raised a Mormon, I can't stand the church but knowing what I know about Mormons that might actually be his best quality. He is all but in the bag as the nominee and that is a crying shame, as much as I love this president I am damn sure there is even better, he's not perfect, no one is, but he's the best we have ever had because better people would never run. so I say this, if you love your country more than you hate 80% of the people in it, give us a better republican to go up against Obama, it is entirely possible but not on this platform, this platform is going to get you shipped off to Somalia where you can enjoy the small government and fascism you've been longing for.
Ann Romney on Leno: ‘I love the fact that we have the first African-American president’
Ann Romney on Leno: ‘I love the fact that we have the first African-American president’
After reading this my thoughts are this: I really hope no one would vote against this guy because he's Mormon, that should have no bearing and a lot of people simply don't want a really rich guy in office and on that i'm on the fence, his wealth has nothing to do with what is wrong with him as a president, how he got it, might, depending on your views, and I really hope people focus on stuff like that, this is how this guy works, do I want that in the whitehouse or don't I. same goes for the sound bites and gaffes those are fun to laugh at but they lack the substance that a life's work has.
yes the "how you acquire" is very relevant, guess i'm saying that and that wealth in and of itself should not be a dis-qualifier though if you were born wealthy and only got more so, even if you are good and smart and skilled you might not have any idea about a lot of stuff that is important to the people you represent. but I look at warren buffet and think, i'd be conflicted about him taking office, on the one hand he's worth so much how could he possibly connect but he wasn't always that well off and he got where he was by doing a great job of keeping a cool head in hot times, valuable skill, whereas bill gates, eh, his intelligence and skillset just don't offset the fact that he was born rich and got much richer, there's a piece that he cant really be in touch with even with his philanthropy work.
Council says get crosswalk moving, now - bureaucracy in action! :(
Council says get crosswalk moving, now
why does everything have to become so mind-mindbogglingly bureaucratic? kids probably cross there every day, some probably doing so right now, have some of the kids who will paint 2013! in several intersections around town, take some of that white paint and make some strips, grab a couple construction cones with lights and plunk them down, when you can, ad some signs, when the magic government grant fairy comes to visit put in bumps and lights and a big metal rainbow if you want but seriously stop arguing about things in a committee while kids are crossing the street as we speak, they've seen star wars, they know who senator Palpatine becomes, don't be that guy! :)
no more tipping because of raised taxes
this is just a larger one in line with the pappa johns et all mentality, i'm sick of it, we dont have to have this compromise capitalism, free market etc.... if its not working out for most of us we don't have to keep feeding these assholes their millions, its all well and good when there is a thriving middle class, then ya sure, you kick butt (fairly) and work much harder, have a much better idea, you get to be rich, totally cool with that, but when this kind of greed is this rampant? why the fuck to I have to keep supporting the system that makes it possible for you, i dont, and I dont have to 'take' your money away from you to do it, i can just stop giving it to you, you piss off enough of us and you just watch how easy it is for us to get along without participating in your carnival game.
for some really great fodder watch undercover boss, the oblivion and condescention is just stunning, though I will say it seems like a lot of people, ceos and skilled workers are pretty high and mighty about their contribution (probably hyped for the shows ratings) but over and over again, ceo's that cant operate a light switch who have a mindset of "i bring something else to the table" well when all we care about is food on the table your contribution aint going to mean shit dude. that being said this only elevates my appreciation for people at the top who are gracious, know shit from wild honey and arent afraid to get dirty and really get that every dime of their wealth comes from their employees and their customers.
i would bet that if a person is well off enough to have this mentality they are well off enough to pay cash for the entire restaurant with liquid assets let alone able to afford dinner with a tip. clearly just a class warfare shot being fired by someone with little to no skill wielding a weapon made of paper at an enemy that outnumbers them 99 to 1 who are motivated by suffering not some 'liberal agenda'.
AN INTERVIEW WITH SKY HORSE INTERACTIVE’S DAVE STAFFORD
AN INTERVIEW WITH SKY HORSE INTERACTIVE’S DAVE STAFFORD
"...The beautiful thing at this point in the gaming industry is that there is a very clear way for indie developers to bring their games to a large audience. In the past it was prohibitively expensive and almost impossible to get indie games developed and published. The big players controlled distribution and the development costs were too high. But then something very beautiful and magical happened with the advent of smart phones and the rapid development of gaming engines that could publish across a number of channels. Suddenly it was feasible for small teams or even individuals to develop games that expressed a very singular vision and bring those games to market. People who never considered playing traditional video games were now spending more and more time playing games on their new smart phones."
coffee poem
oh coffee oh coffee that you would grease the dry crusty pathways in my mind and make me appear as human, I would be your friend.
Time management life lesson
big rocks
so i'm in the middle of moving last night and my son really wanted to help but I explained to him that i really needed to put the big stuff in the storage unit first, stuff that was too big for him to help with but then soon, i'd get a lot of his help. i was very busy and in a hurry and it was getting dark, then I remembered this, so I sat down and told him this story and when i was done I explained how if i put a table in the storage unit then the little boxes he could lift could fit under and over it but if we did those first the table would never get in.
then, I said, and for the next 10 or so years my biggest thing is to teach YOU things that will make your life better so since that is my biggest thing I put down this little move stuff for a few min to make sure that got in first, because if I waited then it might be too late and i'd forget and I'd never get around to it.
so then he said, did your dad teach you stuff? not a lot I said, but I learned a lot from watching him, what worked and what didn't work, one of the things I learned was that if you don't put spending time with your kid first, it will never get in. and that, felt like a nice solid patch on that booboo (he died when i was 21), like its this tapestry we keep working on, we learn how to make strong thread and layer after layer we see the holes left by the best attempts of those before us and every generation, with luck, the fabric gets stronger.
try to remember that the next time your boss bitches that you didn't answer your cell phone in the middle of a parent teacher conference, he's the water the kid is the stone, put the stone in first.
9/11 thoughts
so today we are asked to remember a date in history. by our friends, our family, by a sign on the road, its a tiny symbol of solidarity but it asks us to remember a date, the meaning behind it implied but unspoken. much the same as remember the alamo, some secret code word, we all nod with a serious look and drag a symbol in the sand. but how could we forget? clearly that is not possible, I don't know anyone that would not make sure to teach their children who were not even born yet everything they could about it so remember isn't really what we are saying. I worry a bit that some may be implying "remember, those people, they did a bad thing" that's not terribly useful, again its not like we'd forget. instead i prefer this; for all our differences there was a moment there where we were utterly united, we linked arms across all lines, we held each other dear, friend and foe, brother and stranger on that day they only succeeded in making us better, making us the essence of what is good in us, in showing us just how many friends we really have in the world, even Khadafy stood with us as if we had been attacked by evil aliens, even someone with so much hatred for everything we are stood by our side and said, not this, we are after all all human we are earthlings and against something so horrible no one should stand alone. on that day there was more good than there ever had been before. today, today we forget, we do, we really do, every day we long after let them win a little more, we let our fear take away our freedom, we'd rather get groped at the airport than let this happen again, we've let ourselves go, we forgot how great we can be. so remember, to be great, to be awesome, to each other.
Listen Up Apple-Haters: IPhone Sales Eclipse Microsoft and Amazon Revenue
Listen Up Apple-Haters: IPhone Sales Eclipse Microsoft and Amazon Revenue
and in other news if you think making video games is a silly business, grand theft auto 5 cleared one BILLION daullllerrrs in its first 72 hours. so, yea, i will be making games, for the iphone, fish where the fish are.
congressional approval rating
pick your favorite bill in history that passed and is now law. now imagine being forced to pay 350ish people in the 6 figures to try and fail dozens of times to undo that law. carry the one, divide by seven and you get congresses approval rating...
What the GOP has missed on Obamacare
What the GOP has missed on Obamacare
huh, hadn't ever thought of this impact, self empowering employees undermines union power.
Jon Steward Shreds GOP over Obamacare
Jon Steward Shreds GOP over Obamacare
its already a LAW, it passed, it got signed it got vetted by the supreme court, negotiation, compromise? that was 2009, 2013? no, you don't get to do that you jackasses. let the f'ing thing roll under its own weight and when it actually doesn't work put forth your own amendment to that law that makes it BETTER. how the fuck do these people get paid more than I do? grumble grumble huff....
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