Insatiable consumption

"From consumers to government, we have become a society of over-consumption. The federal government over-consumes and will continue to do so under either an Obama or McCain administration. State and local governments over-consume, many running substantial deficits. And individuals over-consume. We have gotten away with this insatiable consumption due to the massive wealth of our country, built up over decades of American ingenuity and hard work. But the party can only last so long."

"Now we face mounting competition from countries like China and India. While we are busy consuming, they are busy investing and developing. So will the bailout work? It will be a very expensive and embarrassing band aid on a financial wound that could have caused massive disruption in our economy. To that end, I believe it will work. But what it does not address is the financial cancer that has been growing in our country since the 1980s. And with the political pandering to the middle class that we call presidential politics, I expect the financial cancer to metastasize, if it hasn’t already."

More on the financial mess

"many would never have gotten homes they couldn't afford if lending standards had been reasonable, and "exotic" mortgages hadn't been vogue."

"Anybody remember decades ago, when -- gasp! horrors! -- children sometimes shared bedrooms, fought over one TV (or in later years, one computer), and the typical family home had only one or one-and-a-half bathrooms?"

I guess some people must think that sounds like living in the woods or something, huh? When did we all go nuts?

We may be in for one giant economic spanking, but I kind of suspect it's deserved and will happen eventually, regardless.

"How much would our economy have grown since 2001 without all the debt-fueled spending? I feel like the real message right now is that the party's over, but nobody wants it to be."

It is best we get the spanking over with so we can move forward from the realistic solid foundation. Hopefully in a few years I want remeber the spanking!

Emotion, Logic, Perception and Reality

What a financial mess! Who is to blame? Some say the President. Some say Congress. Some say the SEC. Some say the government bureaucrats who are responsible for overseeing the financial world. Some blame the former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. You can blame who you want, but the bottom line is the blame rests with the US consumer.

In trying to provide the American Dream the consumer demanded financing with no money down, and the financial community felt stressed to play its part. Consumers in the US stopped saving long ago; therefore, they had no money for a down payment on items like autos, jet skis, boats, houses, flat screen TVs, personal computers, and finally groceries.

Somewhere along the way we lost sight that hard work is the reward for being able to purchase such items. The US consumer became the NOW society. To meet the demand the financial community responded with 'credit cards', no money down auto loans, and no money down home loans. Then the interest only loans were invented to help consumers get more of the goods and services they craved. Consumers spent their paychecks long before they ever actually earned the money for their actual labor. Why? Had to have it now! But wait - thought we were rational in thought, and someone rational would not buy something they could not afford. Not true. If someone is going to provide you the mean, the way and the opportunity to get it now they took it 'hook line and sinker' with no questions asked. Except, what is the payment going to be - yea I can afford that. Forget "A penny saved is a penny earned".

It is totally amazing the number of US consumers who actually think they are going to get something for nothing. Before you go blaming all those other folks, look in your closet to see how many items of clothing, shoes, jets skis, autos, TVs, computers, cell phones, furniture, etc. you really don't need and should have never purchased. If you purchased it just to have it then you helped create this financial mess.

Now we have to bail out the financial markets before it REALLY hits your pocketbook. Oh, least we forget you don't have a pocketbook for you only use plastic these days. If some type of bailout does not take place then the folks working at Pilgrim's Pride along with those working at other businesses will lose the very thing that started this mess to start - the PAYCHECK. If businesses can't borrow money then they may not be able to make the payroll. If they can't make the payroll then you can't send in your minimum monthly payment to the 38 + creditors to whom you owe your paycheck. Can't pay the utilities, can't put the gas on the plastic card for the oil company shut you off for non-payment, nor buy the groceries cause all your plastic cards got suspended for non-payment. Before you blame all those folks you better look within your own house to see how much you contributed to the financial boondoggle.

Larry Tabb a serious financial guy said “to withdraw support for the Paulson plan because it may benefit a few organization that got in way over their heads, let’s not bust up and tear apart our financial system. Let’s certainly not bust up our country. And let’s not cut off our nose to spite our face. For that, this country and the American public need leadership: bipartisan, unambiguous and morally steadfast leadership. Not a group of folks fiddling around…. ” Folks, the US consumer did the fiddling by buying when they had no business buying. If we did not want so much in the way of material goods and services then I don't think you would have ever seen a financial mess as we are seeing now. If you don't like the Paulson plan then you better come up with one quick are you may not get that next paycheck, and you will be living off that savings you never really started.

Check the emotion and the perception at the door, and review the logic and look at the reality! The US consumer got us here, and the US consumer can move us forward.

Appraisal and Tax Reform

State Rep. Larry Phillips of Sherman is exploring a comprehensive package of property tax reforms including changes to the appraisal and review systems. At the core of his efforts will be the desire to give taxpayers a stronger voice.

That won’t make him popular with the bureaucracy. Get on board and help Rep. Phillips with the effort of keeping more of your hard earned dollars in your pocket. Better yet, contact your state representative and have him get on board with Representative Phillips.

How many would know how to survive

RE: “Simple country-folk economics prevail every time.”

I was talking to an older lady a few weeks back about her growing up on a farm during the Great Depression. She said their family produced everything. They raised cows, goats, chickens, various crops all themselves. They de-seeded some of their produce for planting the fields next growing season. About the great depression, she said, “We didn’t even know we were in a depression. We rarely saw money. When we needed something, we traded butter, and eggs with other people."

How many would know how to survive and live off the land? Most younger folks believe vegetables grow on the grocery store shelves! One is left to wonder what they know about how butter and eggs get to the dairy case.

Mysterious document appears

Just got back into town and read last weeks local newspaper about the mysterious document that seems to have suddenly appeared from being misfiled. What is the CAD trying to hide? Wonder what other mysterious documents will appear in the future?

After reading the article it sure seems like someone is trying to get the newly elected board representative to step down by resignation. One would have reservations about this since an election was held and ballots were cast. If they were cast incorrectly then that is too bad. The vote was canvassed and the individual sworn in and seated. You can't go change the rules in the middle of the game even if you were the one who made the rules up and have a history of not following the rules you established. You can correct the problem on the next go round.

Why was this document dated five plus years after the establishment of CADs? Was one taxing entity trying to stack the deck and felt they needed to assure more representation at the table in order to carry more weight and run those appraisals higher to fill their taxpayer funded pocketbook? One would have to ask if that mysterious document that suddenly appeared is even a valid document. How can one board, council, or commissioner's court bind another board to an agreement to which they have no real control? This appears to be some of that 'black and gray area' legal fishy stuff. Let's waste some of those taxpayer funds on a $200 hour lawyer from who knows where - to solve a problem that really does not seem to be a problem, and at the very least will correct itself in a few months when new folks are elected to fill terms on the CAD board of directors.

Folks have been saying all along you don't need elected representatives serving on the CAD Board of Directors and I think this is an excellent case why a school board member, city council member or commissioner court member don't need to fill these seats. You eliminate the conflict of interest that involves fairness and just makes normal common sense.

Until the next mysterious document appears................................

Did Thomas Jefferson have it right?

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

WHO OWNS YOUR MORTGAGE NOW?

What's old is new again

FDR’s Inaugural Address in 1933

“... This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days."

“In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone."

“More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment."

“Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and have abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men."

“True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish."

“The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit."

“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men."

“Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live. Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now."

..."And finally, in our progress towards a resumption of work, we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order. There must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments. There must be an end to speculation with other people's money. And there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency."

Who pays taxes?

This comes from the folks at AFP:

The Presidential campaign has presented an issue worthy of wide discussion. Who pays taxes? And when tax cuts are promised to 95% of Americans, what does that mean?

In the last analysis of income taxes paid to the U.S. Treasury (in 2006), taxpayers whose earnings were in the lower 50% paid only 3% of our total tax burden. That means most of these taxpayers paid almost nothing. The next lowest, earning, 25% paid only 11% of the total tax burden. Collectively, this means the lowest 75% of earners paid only 14% of the current income taxes collected in this country. Since 75% of Americans are already paying little or no taxes, how do you cut taxes for 95% of Americans?

The author of a piece in Townhall posed some simple questions: With over 50% of the voters paying almost nothing, what is to stop them from voting even more confiscatory tax rates upon the others who are paying? When giving money out to an ever-larger share of the taxpayer population, what stops them from voting a greater payment to themselves?

Taxpayers who are “pulling the wagon” need to weigh in. Read about it here -

http://townhall.com/Columnists/BruceBialosky/2008/09/12/the_95_solution

Vote On A Revenue Cap For All Levels Of Government

Texans need to be afforded the right to vote on a revenue cap for all taxing governmental entities.


http://www.americansforprosperity.org/index.php?id=6386&state=tx

Superintendents' Super-Sized Salaries

As hundreds of Texas school districts insist that they are broke and need to raise taxes, last week the Lake Travis ISD voted to give superintendent Rocky Kirk a $6,000 pay raise (guess this was a cost of living adjustment). This brings his base salary to $231,520, which does not include numerous benefits.

Beaumont ISD Superintendent Carroll Thomas has a whopping base salary of $322,117, the second highest in the state. And remember these are base salaries - many superintendents receive not just health insurance and pensions, but also life insurance, car allowances, and health club memberships.

Worst of all, many times when a superintendent must be removed for poor performance, districts must pay hundreds of thousands for work that is never done because these contracts are multi-year, and sometimes will carry two superintendents on the payroll at the same time. School districts need to look carefully at both the pay of their top administrators as well as the compensation and number of non-teaching staff working in their central office before they ask yet again for more taxpayer money.

The full Texas Education Agency list of Texas superintendent base salaries is online.

Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer it is your money - hold the folks you elected into the power positions accountable for their actions.

Texas Rep. Charlie Howard of Sugar Land

said he was "disappointed" with the taxing entity’s decision to raise taxes. Rep. Howard called into question the wasteful spending decisions of the board. He was praised for holding those in power accountable for their wasteful spending decisions.

Our school taxes are enormous, despite the teeny break we received from the Tex. Leg. last year. Our school board continues to spend, spend, spend on nothing but new schools, illegal aliens, and football stadiums. I am fed up!!! This seems to be a statewide epidemic. Property taxpayers are responsible for the accountability of their locally elected officials.

PISD passes new budget for coming year

The PISD passed a budget and the public was not afforded the right to see the line item specifics before it was passed. At the coffee shop round table it is told that school board members did not receive a line item specific before they agreed to pass the budget. They received a summary sheet of revenue and major expense categories. I don't know many businesses that could operate in this manner.

Is this what the sponsors of the new transparency laws had in mind?

Is the PISD trying to hide all those expenses that taxpayers are not fond of covering like - donuts, pizza, athletic tape, T-Shirts, etc. At one of the local coffee shop round tables the other day it was told there are 24 paid coaches on the payroll at PISD. It was discussed that some of the 24 don't teach a class. It was shared with the group that the PISD had some needs for special need teachers, i.e. special ed, reading intervention, etc., but failed to actively recruit such qualified individuals. Individuals are left to wonder if one of the 24 coaches took the spot of a special needs teacher.

It was discussed that several former residents of Camp County returned home and applied for open positions at the PISD, but many of the several were told they did not have the proper experience that PISD was looking for and did not meet the qualifications. It is interesting that most if not all these individuals were working in like or similar teaching positions at other school districts across the state and were on good terms with their employer. On the surface it appears the PISD administration was stockpiling positions for certain individuals

Truth or tales - individuals will have to do their own homework and come to their own conclusions. If you go to a football game count the number of coaches on the field and don't forget to include the two and possibly three in the press box. It appears Twilight Super has got it going on in the area of athletics, while the educational ship takes on more water.

STRICTER GPA RULES STIR DEBATE

What is there to debate? The Dallas ISD took care of this with the new policy they adopted - students can turn-in homework whenever they want, teachers can't give below a 50 on an assignment, and the biggie students have to be given the opportunity for a 'do over' on assignments and exams.

And we all thought schools thought responsibility.................

Competency and transparency

From the Fort Worth Star Telegram: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION DEFICIENT IN COMPETENCY, TRANSPARENCY

This sounds just like any government run operation. Now the taxpayers are going to take over all these bad home loans from Freddie and Fannie. You have to wonder about the free markets at times. I don't think it is the free market operations as much as it is just pure greed.

Robin Hood is crying

"More than 100 school districts around the state are trying to hike their tax burden. Expect voters to be treated to dire tales of children untaught, buildings unrepaired, and sports teams un-fielded. Not mentioned will be the massive influx of funding per-student over the last decade squand ered on a system that values process over results.

School bureaucrats will also take aim at the Legislature, blaming them for not pumping "enough" money into the system. But it's a system awash with cash.

For example, the Arlington Independent School District is going to "dig deep" into its reserves to bridge a "budget gap.” The alleged budget gap? $17 million. Their reserve? $83 million! Money isn't the problem, years of poor spending decisions are."

MQSullivan - Empower Texans

Society, public schools, what is the cause

"Thought is becoming shallow, uniform, derivative, herdlike, and tritely mediocre."

The destruction of the necessary intellectual hierarchy of achievement and function is cheered on by the educrats like Twilight Super. It appears that Twilight Super is only semi-educated and is part of the problem and has no way to offer a solution. Twilight Super would be considered a 'working stiff' which is someone who just fills a spot on a payroll until it is time to retire. Least we forget Twilight Super has already retired once.

Educrats help with the "crumbling away of the edifice of civilization, and the presumption with which this homo insipiens gregarius sets themselves up as the norm and chokes everything that is finer or deeper." It is noted that classical education seems to be doomed in our mass society.

Why is classical education doomed? Educrats "persecute it with genuine hatred, the hatred of one whose lack of mental discipline bars them from access to this education - not to mention the influence of our era's rampant materialism." Herdlike describes the education system of today. What is good for one is good for all, and all need to be measured in a standardized way. Why do the educrats not fight such measurements with more zeal? The mediocre would have to return to the real job of an educator - teaching! No more canned already prepared study and learning programs to ease the work burden. True educrates would lose materialism time. TRUE EDUCATORS would have no problem with the adjustment.

"Today communities are broken up in favor of more universal but impersonal collectivities in which the individual is no longer a person in his/her own right." This leads to a system called socialization. Socialization lacks individual action, decision, and responsibility shrinks in favor of collective planning and decision. Life becomes uniform and standard herdlike life, ever more subject to party politics, nationalization, and socialization. Individuals within the herd lack the leisure and composure to think for themselves.

What have we been hearing lately - "health care for all", "we need to evenly distribute our earnings", "some in our society have too much", "we need to take care of all Americans", "nationalize Freddie and Fannie to protect" etc. Could the educrats be the reason for our herdlike society? Twilight Super might just be one of many contributing toward our MASS SOCIETY problem created by a dysfunctional public education system.

Free market principles really do work

Growing Texas Town Decreases the Property Tax Rate, But What Will Happen to Appraisals?

It appears that the city council in Leander has lowered the property tax rate in order to promote growth in the community. Makes logical sense if you lower the tax rate then your community becomes an attractive target for businesses looking to expand, relocate, etc. Relocation's, expansions, etc. promote add-on businesses like fast food joints, additional retail outlets, etc. and all this works to increase the taxable property base. Don't forget the additional sales tax revenue that goes along with the new establishments selling goods and services.

http://austinvitw.blogspot.com/2008/08/is-hell-freezing-over.html#links

This only works if you have local leadership that understands and embraces the concept and knows how to apply the principles.

It is not only the price of fuel hitting the pocket book

"A major piece of the puzzle is that the state rate buydown only affected school property taxes and the 47% of the property tax burden attributable to other local government entities has increased due in part to rate increases. Too many local governments grew excessively instead of tightening their belts, increasing their spending by 11 to 12% over this period, compared to 7 to 8% increases in the previous decade, which translated into higher property taxes."

and we thought we got a property tax cut................................the worst is yet to come