Dave Barry Points Out What’s Wrong With America
Quote from an interview in Reason Magazine with Dave Barry in 1996:
“Any parent that relies on any law to help [...]
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Well, they’re at it again. Do you remember all those complaints about mortgage lenders and their unethical practices? Hidden fees, rate switches, delays at closing, etc? Well, they haven’t stopped.
“And Ms. Essl found one more unpleasant surprise waiting for her in the closing papers: a nearly $600 fee, to cover the cost of a lien search. ‘Nowhere, anywhere through this whole process,’ she said, weariness evident in her voice, ‘did anybody say there were fees of that magnitude.’”
and
“For Ms. Essl’s $20,000 loan, the…fee worked out to 3 percent.”
Hidden fees in the range of an extra 3%? So, if you borrowed at 6%, you’re now borrowing at 9%.
Who is the unscrupulous institution?
The federal government, of course.
It’s true that the fees aren’t being charged by the government but by the banks loaning the money. But, the fees are charged because the government requires collateral on every loan, which means a lien search must be done.
And, the fees aren’t even the worst part:
“Sharon Essl, a restaurant owner in New Jersey, commented that after submitting an application to Wells Fargo on July 31 — and resubmitting it three more times — her loan was finally approved two months later. ‘But — wait for it,’ she wrote. ‘Still have not closed!’ In an interview, Ms. Essl said that she received the closing papers last Monday and that the first installment of funds was due by Jan. 28 — four months after she was approved.”
and
“In December, Elease Caracci wrote… that she had won approval for her A.R.C. loan in early August but had yet to receive any money.”
Four months is a big deal to any small business.
When are voters going to understand that the pipe dream they’re handed on the campaign trail is just that? A dream. When the government gets involved, the strategy is good about 25% of the time and the execution is good about 2% of the time.
Being a dad is tougher than I thought. But not in the ways I thought it would be tough. Don’t get me wrong, all the things I thought would be tough, are tough, including the early morning diaper changes, the spitting up and the horrible newborn poop that requires a pressure washer to clean.
For me, though, there are harder things than sleep deprivation and “the icky stuff”. It’s hard for me to know if I’m spending enough time with my family. Heidi and I joke about boy #1 never letting me sleep in past 6:00am with the phrase, “play with me, Daddy”. It’s so cute, it’s nearly impossible to turn down (unless I’m actually sick).
He’s also fond of asking me, almost first thing in the morning after he wakes up, “Are you going to stay home?” I can’t express how hard it is to hear that, right before I got to work or school or church. I know I’m doing everything I can to spend time with him but I never know when it’s enough.
Then there’s the balancing act of trying to spend enough time with #2, who’s still 7 months and can’t tell me when he wants me to play with him while spending time with #1, who can tell me. I already feel like I’m not able to focus as much on #2 as I was on #1 and I worry that I won’t be as close to #2, who I love every bit as much as #1.
My hope is these things balance out in the end. School ends in June, so that’ll free up some time. Plus, I’m going to make sure to spend one-on-one time with each kid, every month or so. Throw in working together in the yard and the garden and making home improvements, as they grow up, and we’ll probably do okay. I figure as long as I really do my best to spend as much time truly focused on my family, as possible, they’ll recognize that.
So far, this perpetual ambiguity around whether I’m meeting my family’s needs has been the hardest part of the job. And I figure that fact alone means I’m very blessed.
Being a dad is tougher than I thought.
And I love every second.
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http://www.theteapartyisover.org/
“Our Strategy is simple. This movement is a fad.”
So they’ll probably ignore it since fads just go away.
“We need to prevent their dangerous ideas from gaining a legislative foothold. So our strategy is to spread the truth about their dangerous ideas and prevent their policies from taking root in America.”
Because people typically launch large attack organizations to bring down a…fad.
Apparently the group is incensed over such radical Tea Party beliefs as:
- Programs like Social Security and Medicare are socialistic and should never have been created in the first place
- President Obama is a Socialist
- We should undermin[e] the legitimacy of the federal government in favor of a radical rightwing form of state’s rights
Wow, the Tea Party sounds AWESOME! Where can I join?
By the way, who’s behind this group? The SEIU. Love them unions!!
In the 2008 election, I was stymied by how many people voted for Obama, despite the destructive nature of his stated goals. He wanted to increase union membership, widely known to cause unemployment and business failure. He wanted to reform the health care system with proposals that would increase access to a broken system, without fixing the system. He proposed an economic stimulus plan that wouldn’t even begin paying out in earnest for a couple of years, thereby having no (or harmful) effects in the short-term.
So, why did people vote for him?
I could get all cynical and talk about socialism and power-grabs, etc. I’ve done that and, while it may be applicable to some people, I know many sincere, intelligent people who voted for him. So, cynicism aside, I asked myself, “why did (do) people support Obama or any big government politician?” That includes just about every Republican, by the way.
I believe the answer is two-fold:
- We sincerely want to help other people.
- We’re not as good at knowing what’s best for others as we are what’s best for ourselves.
The question is, how good can we be at knowing what’s best for others and ourselves. I believe an individual, over time, will know what’s best for him more than any other person will know what’s best for him.
For example, let’s say I know what’s best for myself 90% of the time (meaning I’m wrong about what’s best for myself 10% of the time). Further, let’s assume I’m right about what’s best for others 50% of the time and I’m wrong 50% of the time. Here’s a graph that shows what I’m talking about.
Given that, let’s say my decision to act is based 75% on what’s best for me and 25% on what’s best for others.
Combining the two scenarios, we can see how this vote will turn out.
In words, our decision is right for us 68% of the time and wrong about 10% of the time. It’s right for others 13% of the time and wrong 13% of the time. The magnitude of these numbers changes based on the assumptions but the outcomes do not. Unless you make the assumption that you know what’s best for somebody else more than you know what’s best for you. And I think that’s a stretch.
What does this have to do with Obama and government? The fundamental mission of government is to make decisions based on what they think is best for others. As we’ve shown, that’s not likely to turn out in the best interests of the people they’re trying to serve. Which means the government should do less to make decisions for others and more to make sure people have the information they need to make their own choices.
Obama’s policies are clearly about making choices for people, not giving them information to make their own choices. For example, forcing all taxpayers to buy health insurance, requiring community service by high school and college students and removing card check restrictions that make it easier for union organizers to harass people who don’t vote for the unionization of the work force all pave the way for forcing decisions on others.
Let’s get back to government that supports our individual freedoms and decisions. Instead of supporting choice by force, why not support the free exchange of ideas and information? And when a good idea comes across your desk, instead of writing to your senator in hopes they’ll force the rest of us to implement or fund it, why not just make it work for yourself and pass on the information to others.
We’re all adults. Let us choose.
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http://www.newsweek.com/id/232167?GT1=43002
“Obama is accused of being too radical, but he’s been governing from the middle for a year. So why all the anger? Because he’s leading with his head, not his heart.”
Wow. read more…
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