By all means, let’s not let a good crisis go to waste. Our politicians have painted themselves into a corner and don’t have the courage to do the right thing for America and get our fiscal house in order. We are spending $1.4 Trillion more than we take in and can’t seem to manage on $2.4 Trillion in revenue. Everybody has their hand out and no one wants their budget cut even though much of it is wasteful spending. The Federal Government needs to cut its budget by a third and let the chips fall where they may.
Washington had the chance to follow the dicipline necessary to avoid the cliff. The committee headed by former Republican senator Simpson and former Clinton guy Erskine Boles was a model of non-partisan honest thinking. That committee gave a good direction to shape fiscal policy. The problem is that those who commissioned that study did not listen to the findings. In the end, did anyone listen to them? No. Of course not. Our economy is the victim of interests who want to cut taxes and spend on programs from what we don’t have until we reach….the cliff! We are almost there.
You are right D. Obama charged the Simpson/Boles commission to come up with solutions. Of course, it was doomed to failure when they appointed an equal measure of Progressives and Conservatives to the committee. John Kerry and Patty Murray are not interested in cutting anything. They just want to keep on taxing and spending as usual. In fact, Patty Murray says the Bush tax cuts will go away in January if she has a say in it. These people all need to go in November and replaced with people that have the courage to take the necessary measures to get spending under control. If a number of Red States can do it and turn deficits into surpluses, the Federal Government has to do it.
This gets back to what was discussed last week and what business is willing to risk and not risk. What politicians and the left have forgotten is that this country was founded on and grew on the basic premise of free enterprise. For every liberal tax, give away and heathcare mandate there is a reaction from the economic business engine that drives this country. Why? free enterprise and the fact that companies have stockholders that demand a return on their investment. For those who think that stockholders mean rich people it does not necessarily. These are people who have pensions, 401K accounts and individual small investors.
So, companies have to protect themselves(and their stockholders) and will make decisions that benefit their business. That means,for example, only followng what they need to do on this ludicous healthcare bill and hedging to see if it will stand or be repealed/modified. It also means they will hoard cash because they don’t know what the real costs of the healthcare program is, not to mention the lousy economic conditions including taxes including future taxes, unemployment etc. The end result is a stalled recovery, less hiring which means less jobs and higher unemployment. If it is not resolved, more jobs will move offshore to take advantage of a lower cost of labor, tax incentives and anything else they have to offer.
In the meantime, the administration will continue to doddle, court and nurse votes from the dregs of society will taxes go up, economy tanks and giveaways become the norm.
Sargent, as usual you see things with clear eyes. The Progressives led by Obama, Pelosi & Reid have seen an historic opportunity to implement their Socialist dream and the results of the past 5 years have been a disaster for the country. Until they are gone and real fiscal responsibility returns, I am afraid we are in for more of the same. The RINO’s share much of the blame for reaching across the aisle and compromising to the detriment of the country. These bozos need to go as well as all the Progressives starting at the top.
One basic problem is that liberals and the other deadbeats who follow the current administration believe that the rest of us should do whatever is needed to provide them with the means to live like the rest of us without any hard work or sacrifice on their part. That is Obama’s view when he asked Joe the plumber- can’t you give a little more or redistribute a little more of your wealth? My answer is no. I give enough now and write some pretty large checks in the process. I earned my money. I grew up in a Democratic, union family and when I started my first job in private business, I had less than $5.00 in my pocket. After several years and 50,60 and sometimes 70 hour work weeks I made it. I did not blow it, gamble it away or spend it frivolously on who knows what. I invested my money. Now, I would like to keep it and when I die pass it on to my wife and children. The current administration would just as soon take it and give it away to anyone and everyone who wants a handout without turning a hand to earn it. I say, let them earn it.
Very good comments, all. Thank you. But this is not as simple as “Business good; Obama bad” or “Entrepreneurs good; freeloaders bad.”
Because of the misery that the strutting buffoons in DC cause, it’s not really funny, but I can’t help but laugh when I watch these clowns trying to decide which lever to pull next as they scramble to centrally plan the economic activity of more than 300 million people scattered over 50 states.
Don’t assume that business is opposed to this government interference. Many businesses will jump at the chance to use the force of the state to give them an advantage over their competitors, to keep new sellers out of the market, or to stick taxpayers with losses while keeping profits for themselves (think National Flood Insurance Program).
The solution is to demand that government keep its nose out of economic activity, period. Central economic planning does not work. Those of us who understand what a blessing capitalism is should not just be pro-business; we should be pro-free-markets.
Ask any of the people of the former Soviet Union how central planning and state control of the means of production worked out for them. They couldn’t produce their way out of a paper bag and thus the people stood in line for bread and toilet paper. Eventually, the system collapsed because they couldn’t compete with the US economically or militarily. Our current leaders want to go down that road and control, regulate and tax us to death. It is a presciption for disaster.
Amen to that. But the main ingredient of communism and socialism is state ownership of the means of production, not just state control of it. Even most liberal politicians in the US don’t favor that. They’ve paid enough attention to history to know it is not workable.
They recognize that capitalism produces prosperity, so they want it to exist to some extent so they’ll have wealth to steal (er, excuse me Mr. Chief Justice, I meant to say “tax”). That enables them to pay for their statist schemes and keep voters dependent on them. The parasites know it’s dumb to kill the host.
Another nice byproduct of crony capitalism (not real capitalism) is that politicians can enrich their politically-connected pals, which makes for a nice “Plan B” if they should ever lose an election. Can we all say “revolving door”?
Right on the head Roland. Businesses and special interest groups all have their hands out as well. It is up to someone smart in politics to take over and get government out of business activity all together.
A great example of how “well” these handouts work is the Native Americans. They recieve billions in federal aid, by far the most, and are the most impoverished group of people in the nation. Yet they ask for more saying it obviously isn’t enough then.
Yep. Who was it who said something like, “There’s nothing on earth as permanent as a temporary government program”?
Can you imagine how successful your business would be if every time your bottom line looked unhealthy, your strategy was to whine to customers all day about how you didn’t have enough money? They would all walk out the door and never come back. Yet when government does it, Americans get out their hankies, dry their eyes, and head to the polling place to approve a new tax.
Roland, Do you remember like I do when Obama took office and said he would be going over all the Department’s budget with a fine tooth comb and would be finding savings for the American people. They had an exhaustive study and came up with $100 million of reductions. That’s millions with an M. We are spending $3.8 Trillion and bringing in $2.4 Trillion revenue. Isn’t it great how our bureaucracy is willing to sacrifice on their budget? What a joke.
:) Yeah, it’s the old “waste, fraud and abuse” line that every candidate has in his bag of tricks. When I hear that one I laugh and change the channel. “Waste, fraud and abuse” is the very definition of “government program.”
July 19, 2012 at 11:22 am
Agent says:
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We need this monstrous Federal Bureaucracy because as the President just said, “You didn’t do that”. Our hard work, sacrifices, business acumen did not create our success. We had a lot of help from Government. Hmm! In my view, government hinders success and then they tax me too much. I am not getting much bang for my bucks. You know what, we could cut most of the Departments, Agencies, sub agencies in half and we would still have too big of a government. I think it was Jefferson who said the government which governs least governs best. The founding fathers were very concerned that we would have an intrusive government like we do today.
July 19, 2012 at 9:59 am
Agent says:
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I am sure there are a fair number of Indian tribes who are impoverished on their land, but a lot more of them wised up and have casinos and are making millions from them. They are all over Oklahoma, New Mexico and other places.
First Agent, you are correct as is Roland. However, the federal government, thru tax, pricing, fluctuations in interest rates, mandates etc can try to manipulate business like they are doing now. That is why we have a corporate backlash so to speak. You are correct, they don’t want to kill the host (at least not immediately) they want to squeeze it to near death.
Sargent Major, good to bring up interest rates. The Fed’s manipulation causes tremendous harm by sending the wrong signals to business. When the supply of capital is low because people haven’t been saving, interest rates would naturally rise if they were set solely by the market. The higher rates would discourage entrepreneurs from borrowing for expansion. This would be appropriate, since a lack of saving would also mean that consumers would not have the funds available to purchase the goods that would have been produced as a result of that expansion.
The wrench that Fed manipulation throws into this naturally self-regulating system is what causes booms and busts. And for people like my wife and me, who have not lived like royals but saved and made sure we are debt-free as we approach retirement age, they’ve made it impossible to get a decent return on what we have.
I agree Sargent. We now have a Socialist President determined to fundamentally change the USA to his Social Justice vision and accomplish it by doing everything anti business he can think of or his minions can think of. After all, we can’t let a good crisis go to waste, can we? We also have a Congress divided that can’t agree on anything positive and refuses to implement cuts to the behemoth bureaucracy we have. The only way to solve this problem is to change out the Senate, keep the House and vote this dude out of the White House. We can then get down to doing the serious business of getting this very heavy burden off our backs.
We are so divided on such petty topics. Make no mistake that is exactly where the owners of this country want you to be, in mindless circular arguments while they have their way with us, our money, our freedom and well being. If you want the real truth, follow the money. The Federal Reserve and the private bankers that own it and us are the ones that need to have all of this frustration aimed at them. They are the same rich bankers that stabbed us with the housing bubble and then received bailouts, effectively taxing the US citizen twice. They are the same ones that will send us into the much worse end game of the money bubble, when the owners cannot hide the shell game any longer.
You’re on the right track, No Party. But please keep in mind that the banking system in the US is private in name only. While technically the Fed might not be part of the government, reality suggests otherwise.
No business can do me any harm without the help of the state. They can’t force me to give them my money for their products, and they certainly can’t force me to give them my money for nothing. The latter is what we call “taxation” when the government does it.
In the poisonous concoction of big business and the state, the state is always the evil ingredient.
I agree up to a point Roland, but the Federal Government is forcing you to buy health insurance or be “taxed” for not doing so. If you pay the tax, you are paying them your money and getting nothing in return. I do agree that there is a poisonous combination of crony capitalism in the relationship of big business and the government. The big boys always get the preferential treatment in taxes, government contracts in return for campaign contributions. All one has to do is look at Warren Buffet, Jeffrey Immelt and Bill Gates to see how these titans have enriched themselves because of political connections.
You are spot-on; I detect no disagreement here. It was funny to see the anti-capitalists argue in favor of Obamacare. “The evil insurance companies are ripping us off!” they yelled. So how does Obamacare fix that? By forcing everybody to buy the insurance companies’ products. Yeah, that’ll teach those fat-cats a lesson!
What’s really disappointing is to see the supposedly pro-market Republicans caving in so willingly to some of the worst parts of this plan, like mandatory coverage for “pre-existing conditions.” In my mind, medical coverage has not resembled real insurance for a long time, but this puts the final nail in its coffin.
The idea of the Progressives is to convert this country into an entitlement dependent society so they can keep getting elected and keep the gravy train rolling. In their diseased brains, they think it can go on indefinitely. Margaret Thatcher said it best. In Socialism, pretty soon you run out of other peoples money.
Regarding the Health Markets, they are more than willing to be the government shills on the exchanges and when their loss ratios go to pot covering all the Pre X’s, they will get subsidized by HHS so they can stay in business. Pretty sweet deal for them getting our tax dollars.
Yes, I guess it’s cynical of me, but I’m afraid there’s an even worse scenario: The Obamatrons know that under the new rules premiums will skyrocket if they allow them to, and that will give the Michael Moores of the world credibility when they say, “See! See what your wonderful capitalism is doing to us?” Then the people will agree to complete government takeover of medical insurance and, voila! Medicare for everybody.
I agree once again! People need to realise that we don’t have anything close to real capitalism anymore. It is all crony capitalism which is argueable worse than socialism in my mind. Before Obamacare and even during the Bush era business industries were heavily regulated and that is what has been sucking the economy dry. No politician has the stones to go through the austerity measures necassary to balance this budget. Using today’s or even the past decades economy as an arguement against capitalism is completely misguided.
July 19, 2012 at 4:38 pm
Agent says:
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Live Free, I didn’t study Crony Capitalism when I got my Economics degree, but I did study Socialism, Communism, Marxism and Capitalism. Trust me, you don’t want Socialism running this country. Crony Captitalism is more about corruption and political payoffs than a system of economics. It is bad to be sure, but if we didn’t have so many corrupt politicians willing to pass favorable legislation to these mega companies in exchange for a campaign donation, trips and other luxuries given to them, we wouldn’t have that problem. That is why we need term limits to get these 20-30 year people out of office and put in people who will represent We the People for a change. Lobbyists should be banned from the Capitol and contact with an elected official should be a felony punishable by at least a 10 year sentence and multi-million dollar fine. Things would straighten up quickly under those circumstances.
July 19, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Roland says:
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LiveFree and Agent, excellent points. As much as I hate socialism, the one good thing I can say about it is that when a truly socialist economy comes crashing down, the people can be 100 percent certain who is to blame. Here, no matter how much cronyism or sort-of-socialism has crept in, I fear that most folks will assume the greedy capitalists blew the thing up. Michael Moore and Bernie Sanders said so, dontcha know.
I have lost faith in the strategy of electing more “good people.” Decent people simply are not attracted to politics in sufficient numbers for this to work.
But some days I’m optimistic that more folks are learning sound economics and are starting to see that liars and demagogues are running the DC asylum. Nowadays, when I hear these buffoons blabbering I just laugh hysterically. Get enough people to adopt that attitude and I think we’ll start to see change.
Agent, I’m curious: In your economics education, was the Austrian School ever mentioned? Back when I was in Prof. John Kuhlman’s Econ 51 (of which I remember nothing), I would have laughed you off the campus if you had told me that someday I’d be studying economics as a hobby!
July 19, 2012 at 11:35 am
Sargent Major says:
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One measurement of growth has always been new business start ups and success measurement of those businesses 2, 3 or even 5 years out. I read this week that in the last 12 months, there has been 394,000 new business start ups in the US. Sounds good until you hear that this number is the lowest number of start ups since 1977. People have no money to invest in a start up.They can’t use the equity in their home because they have none. Fact two, this week an article said that in the month of June more people, in the US, filed for Social Secuirty disability than began a new job. Well that sure is a negative measurement if I ever saw one. So what does this mean? While large companies may have the resources and maybe political clout to manuever within the bounds of US commerce and tax law, what has driven growth, creativity, and a big portion of the US business engine has been small businesses which hopefully become big businesses the same way Google, Microsoft, Apple, Ford Motor Company, Kellogg etc has done throughout history. The problem small business face now is lack of capital, a lousy economy, an educationally diminished workforce and unskilled labor that would rather collect freebies than work.
Good points Sargent. Most small businesses are started up by the Middle Class. The Middle Class has seen their net worth go down by 25% in the past 3 1/2 years. How are they going to start up a business with no money? Even if they could, how are they going to find employees who want to work if young people would rather be on the government “teat” rather than work? They can play on their ipad, smart phone downloading apps all day and not hit a lick. They also lack common sense and business skills and really aren’t interested in gainful employment in the real world. I have several business clients who tell me they can’t find competent help and their hires don’t last long because they don’t show up for work. They go right back on unemployment where they are perfectly happy and have no ambition to better themselves. It is a sorry scenario.
I wonder sometimes how dramatically just one change – eliminating all minimum wage laws – would boost the economy. I think even many rabid Keynesians would admit privately that these wage controls are lunacy, and that they doom untold numbers of low-skilled Americans to lives of unemployment and dependency.
Yes, unless you also eliminated welfare-state programs there would still be freeloaders. But given that we live in a world of scarcity where there is always work to be done, without a minimum wage at least there would be no such thing as involuntary unemployment.
Agent, I read a great commentary this morning by publisher Jeffrey Tucker about Obama’s “You didn’t do this” speech. An excerpt:
If you listen to what he said, he can’t conceive of cooperative human relations apart from ridiculous government projects. He imagines that market activity is isolating, autonomous, and selfish, and only sanctified when blessed by the inclusion of gigantic government projects like the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc.
This President has no clue about how this country was formed and what made it tick to be the greatest country ever conceived in world history. His formtive years were spent in a foreign country and his upbringing was influenced by Communists and radicals and so it is no wonder he doesn’t have a concept of what Capitalism is and what it has done to fuel the economic engine. With him, it is all about redistributing wealth to make everyone equally poor, much like what we see with Chavez in Venezuela. That is why he must go in November and we install someone with business sense and get the government off businesses backs.
If this is too far off topic somebody slap me. My wife likes to watch the new “Dallas” on TNT. We watched the original show back in the 1980s for mindless entertainment. But now I lose interest right away, and last night I figured out why.
It’s not just the silly “who’s the father of the baby” stuff, which is bad enough. It’s the way they portray business: as an evil, cut-throat war where ruthless SOBs like J.R. constantly connive, cheat and stab people in the back to whatever extent is needed to advance their interests. Everybody in town is either J.R.’s lackey or his enemy.
Like Obama and his followers, the show’s premise ignores the fact that private commerce thrives and creates prosperity because entrepreneurs every minute of the day are voluntarily taking part in peaceful, amicable win-win exchanges with others.
Roland, I couldn’t even get through the previews for Dallas. It is a totally brainless trumped up version of what our business society is all about. Are there cheats out there? Sure! In our business, are ethics always observed? No! We run up against agents who fudge on writing insurance. They usually get found out and they seem to have the most problems with E&O. For the most part, independent agents are honorable. I can’t say the same about some of the captives we run across on how they do things.
That’s interesting. I am “only” a director on the board of a small farm mutual, so I’ll have to ask our manager whether she’s noticed the same E&O phenomenon you have, which suggests that independents sweat the details more than captives.
Our captives are technically not employees but they are pretty darned close. I do know that when we introduce any new computerization, if anybody is going to stubbornly dig in and resist the change, it will be a captive.
In part I guess this is because the independents also write for large companies who, because of their resources, have been more on the cutting edge of technology all along. But I suspect it also says a lot about how being more exposed to the rough-and-tumble of the marketplace increases one’s willingness to cooperate and please the person on the other end of a transaction.
July 23, 2012 at 10:18 am
Agent says:
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Actually Roland, the Hoover Dam and Golden Gate bridge were both built in the Great Depression since there were no private sector jobs. This was FDR’s Stimulus and he did create the shovel ready jobs unlike this current President. The WPA was formed to build roads and sidewalks just so workers would have something to do. It was a very expensive proposition and government debt escalated tremendously. FDR actually extended the depression 5 years longer than it should have taken by doing Progressive policies instead of incentivizing private industry. The only thing that brought this country out of depression was WW11 and gearing up the military. Jobless men joined the service and women worked in the factories and presto, unemployment went to nil.
Roland, the captives we run up against most often are State Farm, Allstate and Farmers Group. The Farmers agents are the most imbecilic on how they write insurance followed closely by Allstate. State Farm is better than the other two, but even they aren’t watching their renewals very well and let business sail through on automatic renewal and the coverage is out of date and poorly written. Sometimes the customer is hard to sell because they just can’t believe their home is underinsured by $50,000 on their current policy. Allstate has a much lower Replacement Cost guide than most carriers and they sell it as Replacement Cost to get to a lower premium. When the loss occurs, that is when all hell breaks out on the settlement. I would rather miss the business when I am right rather than fudge on sq footage like these people do.
I have had the pleasure of operating both direct writing and independent agency companies. I have found that there are many good agencies and then there are some that 1.) should not be in the business and probably should have never been in the business and 2.) a select few should have been put in jail and are lucky they have not been sent to jail. As we all know ignorance and greed are the root of many of the problems. unfortunately, some companies do not do a very good job of training agents, either new agents or veterans, especially on new product and product changes. Also, some companies don’t have good operational controls to identify cheaters until they have a big problem and then the result is reactionary when, if they had been pro active, the resulting loss would have been much less. I was particularly picky when it came to operational control and audit. And yes, we prosecuted some agent producers
I agree Sargent. A good example of incompetence is one I am familiar with. One of my customers owns a Commercial Office property. An Allstate agent leased space from him. The lease agreement had the hold harmless provision in it for our insured in case of claims on the office premises. The Allstate agent had a customer slip and fall in his office. Apparently, the agent didn’t have a package policy including premises liability with Med Pay. The claimant tried to sue our insured and it was denied. It was messy for a while, but Allstate eventually settled with the claimant. They have now terminated the agent. What agent in his right mind would not have protection for his office? That is the heighth of stupidity in today’s world.
Well Agent, I think you answered your own question-
“They have now terminated the agent. What agent in his right mind would not have protection for his office? That is the heighth of stupidity in today’s world”.
I like that comment a lot Roland. It is hilarious to see the far left minions trying to walk back Obama’s comments that “You didn’t do that” referring to successful businesses. They say it was taken out of context. I think I understood him perfectly. He got off the teleprompter and revealed himself for who he is and what he really believes in.
Please forgive a bit of contrarianism. Far be it from me to defend a creep like Obama, but my first thought when I saw a written Fox News account of this (after seeing video of the whole speech) was that they did indeed take that sentence out of context. Have the Obamaites been screaming bloody murder about this? I haven’t been watching the news much this week.
If they have, I’m afraid there is some truth to it. In the sentence right before the one Fox quoted, Obama was talking about the government providing roads. So it was clear the “that” he was referring to was roads, not the building of the business itself.
This is not just a subtle difference. As I said, I can’t stand the guy, but he was not saying that if you have a successful business, government, not you, built it. He just wasn’t.
I wish Fox would be more careful. The speech was odious enough even with everything in context, and even minor dishonesty in quoting it discredits all of us who want this guy out.
Roland, I am afraid I understand where Obama is coming from everytime he opens his mouth. Context or out of context, he is all government all the time. Government couldn’t have built the roads and bridges without taxpayer money. We built those roads and bridges. Remember how we just had to pass the Stimulus so we could get more “shovel ready” jobs going and build the infrastructure that was crumbling? It ended up as political payoffs and making payroll for cities and counties and money was funneled back into Obama’s campaign just like all the green money that was doled out. As soon as the money was gone, they went belly up. The Transportation department has a huge budget for infrastructure building and repair or maintenance. Where has all that money gone for decades?
July 20, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Agent says:
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Allstate didn’t waste any time, changed the sign and moved another young agent in there. I hope he has better sense. Looks to me like Allstate would write a new agent a policy for his office contents and liability or insist he get one before appointing him. I would have to think they provide E&O to them. The way they write insurance in our area, they need E&O writing minimum limits of liability on Auto and low values and low limits on HO.
Not surprising. It is unfortunate that this happens as it gives the industry a continual bad name. We paid for a pretty in depth study on industry trust, loyalty, brand, repurchase tendencies etc. What we found out was the insurance industry ranks maybe, just above a car salesman or car dealer with regard to trust, loyalty and respect. This is sad but I think we bring some of the blame on ourselves; carriers and agent/producers. Some agents write minimum limits, low values etc. If that is all the customer wants to buy and is satisfied OK but make sure the file is documented and the customer signs off. Not everyone needs the same minimum limits deal. Also, the producer should know what company to place the business with. There are producers who do not address the customers needs and essentially, for the sake of the sale or maybe company pressure to make a sale, does not sell what the customer should have. Then when there is a problem it is the carriers fault, plus a nightmare for the agent.
Agent, of course I agree completely that the Obama “You didn’t build that” speech was a stinkeroo from start to finish. All I was saying is that Fox and Romney should be more careful about taking a sentence out of context. Obama does a great job all by himself of revealing his collectivist ideology, so it’s not necessary to cherry pick his sentences. That just gives Obama’s side an opportunity to cry foul.
BTW, I don’t have any more confidence in Romney than I do in Obama. Notice that when he talks about Obamacare, Romney never says just get rid of it. He always says repeal AND REPLACE. In fact mainstream Republicans openly embrace some of the nuttiest parts of it, like mandatory coverage for preexisting conditions.
Romney’s message is: “I will administer this socialism better than Obams will. Vote for me!” His business experience is irrelevant so long as he does not have a firm grasp of the proper role of government.
I agree that Romney is pretty much a moderate. After all, he was governor of Massachusetts and Conservatives don’t get elected there. Conservatives are going to have to hold him accountable for what he does when he is elected. There is too much anger at Progressive Socialism and the damage it has caused to get away with business as usual. Why do we have $16 Trillion in debt and running $1.4Trillion each year? The entitlement spigot needs to be turned off and Romney has pledged to get rid of all unnecessary programs which are mostly wasteful and duplicative. The Departments and Agencies need to be cut in half as well. The idea is to create more taxpayers with real jobs and that cannot be done unless we give employers a break on the taxes and regulations and repeal Obamacare and replace it with common sense solutions.
I am not necessarily a Romney supporter and I agree, if he is from Taxachusetts he can’t be to conservative. So, he is a moderate at best. Unfortunately, I am not sure a real conservative would get elected today. So, given the choices that we have I will take Romney. I believe under Romney there will be less tendency to have the government try to reduce states rights and take over everything that they can. In other words move the country toward socialism. I also believe that under Romney the country will show greater fiscal restraint and a move to reduce the monstrous debt that we can’t afford.
All that said, I would vote for a potted plant before I vote for Obama.
A potted plant would do no harm. In fact, it converts C02 to oxygen. That can be the new green technology. I think with Romney, he knows that business will not thrive unless you lower their taxes, get rid of burdensome over-regulation, disband the EPA or reduce it to bare bones and encourage energy independence from foreign sources. This country should have already been energy independent, but government keeps getting in the way. I have seen estimates that 500,000 new productive tax paying jobs could be created in a short while if the country made the commitment. We put a man on the moon in 10 years when the commitment was made. Perhaps Romney can inspire the country to greatness again after so many year of decline and despair.
It is all over the internet that the US has reached the trillion dollar deficit for the year and it isn’t even August yet. Five plus months to go at about an average of $142 Billion each month and we will exceed last years deficit by about $300 Billion. I know this doesn’t bother Planet and his fellow Progressive cohorts at all about debt, but this country will pay the piper one day soon if this debt spigot is not turned off.
I kid you not, First Agent, at lunchtime I watched a clip from C-span’s Washington Journal program. A caller said this: “The United States is not bankrupt; it can print money any time it wants to!”
Roland, that is how the diseased brains of Progressives work. They don’t look at debt as a bad thing. They think they are entitled to a home loan with no visible means of paying the monthly payment. They should get free health care, housing allowance, food stamps and go on unemployment or the new craze of Social Security disability. Hey, the government can just print up more money and just give it to them. Monitizing debt is a very disastrous policy and keeping the mint presses going 24/7 will hasten the day of reckoning. One of these days soon, China will say – sorry we make no more loans to you because you can’t pay it back or they will say sorry, your interest rate just doubled. The government credit card will never get paid off and we will just be making payments on the interest. Banana Republic here we come unless we get debt under control.
Well said. Our only child is 18 and will be heading to college next month. She has a good foundation, having attended a church-based school from preschool through 8 (government high school was iffy).
I’m trying my best this summer to teach her a little about real economics, the miracle of free-market capitalism, and the nature of government and politics before she gets away.
I told her the other day that she has the misfortune of having been born in interesting times.
July 24, 2012 at 5:00 pm
First Agent says:
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Roland, We were fortunate to have 2 bright daughters that excelled, got a good education and have been highly successful. One is a Physicians Assistant and the other is a pharmacist. They should be able to survive even in this environment. I worry about my grandchildren who are also bright and have great potential. They are being educated in private schools which are light years ahead of the union teacher public schools. They know their history, math, science, win essay contests etc. I just wonder what they will be facing when they are ready to go to college.
July 24, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Linda says:
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JC-it’s not “who is John Galt” it’s where is John Galt and Dagney and Hank?
Ok, now talking about family. I have a daughter who graduated from college and got her first job. She was able to rent an apartment as the job was to far for her to commute. After she got her second check she called me and said she could not believe how much money she had taken out of her check. I said ” welcome to the real world sweetheart”. I also said,” you can now understand how uninformed and inexperienced college students can be talked into voting the wrong way”. She then said “Dad I have to pay federal income tax, state income tax, a city tax, and what in the world is this FICA tax? This is ridiculous”. I told her that I thought she had just become a republican and that if she did not want to continue to pay higher taxes, don’t vote for a Democrat, otherwise know as The New Socialist party. Just like the president says Hope and Change- or in other words hope you have more than change left in your pocket when he leaves office.
Sargent Major, considering the good sense that the head of the household obviously possesses, I’m not surprised to hear that your daughter learns a lot quicker than I did. Not that I was ever a Democrat or anything, but for many years I just assumed that our wise overlords in DC must know what’s best for us, and we all have to contribute our “fair share.”
I wasn’t “mugged by reality” until I started my own business and had to make payroll. Long story short, now I don’t trust any of the creeps at any level of government who steal our wealth and use it to make our lives worse.
I sincerely hope you guys are right about Romney being better than Obama. I don’t see it. To me he’s just another plastic man with no principles who lacks the courage needed to lead Americans away from this pathetic government-as-daddy culture.
Roland, you and Sargent both do good posts and tell it like it is. It is refreshing to see straight talk instead of Progressives brain dead responses on how great Socialism is. If you put rankings on a scale of 1-10, Obama is a 1 and Romney is about a 7. He will still need some encouragement/goading to do the right thing for America, but he isn’t dumb and he does know America is crashing under this Socialist nightmare. On a lighter note, I saw an email this morning and Obama has a new golf cap. On the front of it, it says Entitleist. Appropriate if I do say so.
“Entitleist” – I love it. Myself I’m a tennis player, and I play with Head racquets. Perhaps the Chief could carry his gear around in a bag that says HeadUpMy… Well, you get the idea.
Yes, us golfers out here really liked that one. I play in a Saturday morning choose up group of about 30 guys. In this group, there are around half dozen black guys. These are solid citizens who worked all their lives, had good jobs making a comfortable living. They gave Obama the benefit of the doubt in 08 and they didn’t like McCain at all. After 3 1/2 years, they all say they will not vote for Obama again and think he has done a terrible job and is hurting the country. I have seen polls that the support of the black community has waned from about 98% to 92%. You should google Anita Moncrief and see what she is about. She is former Acorn and is a whistleblower about their deeds and fraud. She is very well spoken and needs no teleprompter.
July 25, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Sargent Major says:
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“Entitliest”, that is pretty good and accurate. LOL. As much as Michelle Obama uses Air Force one for boondoggles she probably hits a “Flying Lady”. When he plays with Bill Clinton do you suppose they play a firm shaft? I used to play a lot more golf than I do now. Of course as I have played less my handicap has gone up but that is the way it goes.
Roland, I would have liked to have had a another choice for President as I agree that Romney might not be the charging leader we need to turn things around. Since we have but one choice I will take Romney and hope the Congress- Boehner, McConnell and company can work together to do what is needed and make the right decisions. I have heard some say they are voting for Romney, not because they think he is the best Republican candidate, but as a sure vote against Obama. I would say I hope drafting Romney onto the team with the house, would be much better than what we have now. It can’t get much worse.
Do you think there would be some cheating going on if Clinton and Obama played golf together? They say Clinton used to take mulligans all the time when he hit a bad tee shot. He picked up 10 footers and counted them as made putts. Obama doesn’t have an honest bone in his body and no telling what he does. He is a lefty as well as Clinton. If they hit it in the rough, they probably move it out to the fairway.
They say you can tell a lot about a man’s character by how he plays golf. If he bends the rules at golf, he is an untrustworthy person and perhaps you better not do any business with him. Clinton and Obama have led the league in lies told and no one else is even close. I am still amazed that Clinton is revered as a stateman. Hello! He was impeached, but not removed from office for lying.
By all means, let’s not let a good crisis go to waste. Our politicians have painted themselves into a corner and don’t have the courage to do the right thing for America and get our fiscal house in order. We are spending $1.4 Trillion more than we take in and can’t seem to manage on $2.4 Trillion in revenue. Everybody has their hand out and no one wants their budget cut even though much of it is wasteful spending. The Federal Government needs to cut its budget by a third and let the chips fall where they may.
Washington had the chance to follow the dicipline necessary to avoid the cliff. The committee headed by former Republican senator Simpson and former Clinton guy Erskine Boles was a model of non-partisan honest thinking. That committee gave a good direction to shape fiscal policy. The problem is that those who commissioned that study did not listen to the findings. In the end, did anyone listen to them? No. Of course not. Our economy is the victim of interests who want to cut taxes and spend on programs from what we don’t have until we reach….the cliff! We are almost there.
You are right D. Obama charged the Simpson/Boles commission to come up with solutions. Of course, it was doomed to failure when they appointed an equal measure of Progressives and Conservatives to the committee. John Kerry and Patty Murray are not interested in cutting anything. They just want to keep on taxing and spending as usual. In fact, Patty Murray says the Bush tax cuts will go away in January if she has a say in it. These people all need to go in November and replaced with people that have the courage to take the necessary measures to get spending under control. If a number of Red States can do it and turn deficits into surpluses, the Federal Government has to do it.
This gets back to what was discussed last week and what business is willing to risk and not risk. What politicians and the left have forgotten is that this country was founded on and grew on the basic premise of free enterprise. For every liberal tax, give away and heathcare mandate there is a reaction from the economic business engine that drives this country. Why? free enterprise and the fact that companies have stockholders that demand a return on their investment. For those who think that stockholders mean rich people it does not necessarily. These are people who have pensions, 401K accounts and individual small investors.
So, companies have to protect themselves(and their stockholders) and will make decisions that benefit their business. That means,for example, only followng what they need to do on this ludicous healthcare bill and hedging to see if it will stand or be repealed/modified. It also means they will hoard cash because they don’t know what the real costs of the healthcare program is, not to mention the lousy economic conditions including taxes including future taxes, unemployment etc. The end result is a stalled recovery, less hiring which means less jobs and higher unemployment. If it is not resolved, more jobs will move offshore to take advantage of a lower cost of labor, tax incentives and anything else they have to offer.
In the meantime, the administration will continue to doddle, court and nurse votes from the dregs of society will taxes go up, economy tanks and giveaways become the norm.
Sad, real sad.
Sargent, as usual you see things with clear eyes. The Progressives led by Obama, Pelosi & Reid have seen an historic opportunity to implement their Socialist dream and the results of the past 5 years have been a disaster for the country. Until they are gone and real fiscal responsibility returns, I am afraid we are in for more of the same. The RINO’s share much of the blame for reaching across the aisle and compromising to the detriment of the country. These bozos need to go as well as all the Progressives starting at the top.
One basic problem is that liberals and the other deadbeats who follow the current administration believe that the rest of us should do whatever is needed to provide them with the means to live like the rest of us without any hard work or sacrifice on their part. That is Obama’s view when he asked Joe the plumber- can’t you give a little more or redistribute a little more of your wealth? My answer is no. I give enough now and write some pretty large checks in the process. I earned my money. I grew up in a Democratic, union family and when I started my first job in private business, I had less than $5.00 in my pocket. After several years and 50,60 and sometimes 70 hour work weeks I made it. I did not blow it, gamble it away or spend it frivolously on who knows what. I invested my money. Now, I would like to keep it and when I die pass it on to my wife and children. The current administration would just as soon take it and give it away to anyone and everyone who wants a handout without turning a hand to earn it. I say, let them earn it.
Very good comments, all. Thank you. But this is not as simple as “Business good; Obama bad” or “Entrepreneurs good; freeloaders bad.”
Because of the misery that the strutting buffoons in DC cause, it’s not really funny, but I can’t help but laugh when I watch these clowns trying to decide which lever to pull next as they scramble to centrally plan the economic activity of more than 300 million people scattered over 50 states.
Don’t assume that business is opposed to this government interference. Many businesses will jump at the chance to use the force of the state to give them an advantage over their competitors, to keep new sellers out of the market, or to stick taxpayers with losses while keeping profits for themselves (think National Flood Insurance Program).
The solution is to demand that government keep its nose out of economic activity, period. Central economic planning does not work. Those of us who understand what a blessing capitalism is should not just be pro-business; we should be pro-free-markets.
Ask any of the people of the former Soviet Union how central planning and state control of the means of production worked out for them. They couldn’t produce their way out of a paper bag and thus the people stood in line for bread and toilet paper. Eventually, the system collapsed because they couldn’t compete with the US economically or militarily. Our current leaders want to go down that road and control, regulate and tax us to death. It is a presciption for disaster.
Amen to that. But the main ingredient of communism and socialism is state ownership of the means of production, not just state control of it. Even most liberal politicians in the US don’t favor that. They’ve paid enough attention to history to know it is not workable.
They recognize that capitalism produces prosperity, so they want it to exist to some extent so they’ll have wealth to steal (er, excuse me Mr. Chief Justice, I meant to say “tax”). That enables them to pay for their statist schemes and keep voters dependent on them. The parasites know it’s dumb to kill the host.
Another nice byproduct of crony capitalism (not real capitalism) is that politicians can enrich their politically-connected pals, which makes for a nice “Plan B” if they should ever lose an election. Can we all say “revolving door”?
Right on the head Roland. Businesses and special interest groups all have their hands out as well. It is up to someone smart in politics to take over and get government out of business activity all together.
A great example of how “well” these handouts work is the Native Americans. They recieve billions in federal aid, by far the most, and are the most impoverished group of people in the nation. Yet they ask for more saying it obviously isn’t enough then.
Yep. Who was it who said something like, “There’s nothing on earth as permanent as a temporary government program”?
Can you imagine how successful your business would be if every time your bottom line looked unhealthy, your strategy was to whine to customers all day about how you didn’t have enough money? They would all walk out the door and never come back. Yet when government does it, Americans get out their hankies, dry their eyes, and head to the polling place to approve a new tax.
Roland, Do you remember like I do when Obama took office and said he would be going over all the Department’s budget with a fine tooth comb and would be finding savings for the American people. They had an exhaustive study and came up with $100 million of reductions. That’s millions with an M. We are spending $3.8 Trillion and bringing in $2.4 Trillion revenue. Isn’t it great how our bureaucracy is willing to sacrifice on their budget? What a joke.
:) Yeah, it’s the old “waste, fraud and abuse” line that every candidate has in his bag of tricks. When I hear that one I laugh and change the channel. “Waste, fraud and abuse” is the very definition of “government program.”
We need this monstrous Federal Bureaucracy because as the President just said, “You didn’t do that”. Our hard work, sacrifices, business acumen did not create our success. We had a lot of help from Government. Hmm! In my view, government hinders success and then they tax me too much. I am not getting much bang for my bucks. You know what, we could cut most of the Departments, Agencies, sub agencies in half and we would still have too big of a government. I think it was Jefferson who said the government which governs least governs best. The founding fathers were very concerned that we would have an intrusive government like we do today.
I am sure there are a fair number of Indian tribes who are impoverished on their land, but a lot more of them wised up and have casinos and are making millions from them. They are all over Oklahoma, New Mexico and other places.
Who is John Galt?
First Agent, you are correct as is Roland. However, the federal government, thru tax, pricing, fluctuations in interest rates, mandates etc can try to manipulate business like they are doing now. That is why we have a corporate backlash so to speak. You are correct, they don’t want to kill the host (at least not immediately) they want to squeeze it to near death.
Sargent Major, good to bring up interest rates. The Fed’s manipulation causes tremendous harm by sending the wrong signals to business. When the supply of capital is low because people haven’t been saving, interest rates would naturally rise if they were set solely by the market. The higher rates would discourage entrepreneurs from borrowing for expansion. This would be appropriate, since a lack of saving would also mean that consumers would not have the funds available to purchase the goods that would have been produced as a result of that expansion.
The wrench that Fed manipulation throws into this naturally self-regulating system is what causes booms and busts. And for people like my wife and me, who have not lived like royals but saved and made sure we are debt-free as we approach retirement age, they’ve made it impossible to get a decent return on what we have.
I agree Sargent. We now have a Socialist President determined to fundamentally change the USA to his Social Justice vision and accomplish it by doing everything anti business he can think of or his minions can think of. After all, we can’t let a good crisis go to waste, can we? We also have a Congress divided that can’t agree on anything positive and refuses to implement cuts to the behemoth bureaucracy we have. The only way to solve this problem is to change out the Senate, keep the House and vote this dude out of the White House. We can then get down to doing the serious business of getting this very heavy burden off our backs.
We are so divided on such petty topics. Make no mistake that is exactly where the owners of this country want you to be, in mindless circular arguments while they have their way with us, our money, our freedom and well being. If you want the real truth, follow the money. The Federal Reserve and the private bankers that own it and us are the ones that need to have all of this frustration aimed at them. They are the same rich bankers that stabbed us with the housing bubble and then received bailouts, effectively taxing the US citizen twice. They are the same ones that will send us into the much worse end game of the money bubble, when the owners cannot hide the shell game any longer.
You’re on the right track, No Party. But please keep in mind that the banking system in the US is private in name only. While technically the Fed might not be part of the government, reality suggests otherwise.
No business can do me any harm without the help of the state. They can’t force me to give them my money for their products, and they certainly can’t force me to give them my money for nothing. The latter is what we call “taxation” when the government does it.
In the poisonous concoction of big business and the state, the state is always the evil ingredient.
I agree up to a point Roland, but the Federal Government is forcing you to buy health insurance or be “taxed” for not doing so. If you pay the tax, you are paying them your money and getting nothing in return. I do agree that there is a poisonous combination of crony capitalism in the relationship of big business and the government. The big boys always get the preferential treatment in taxes, government contracts in return for campaign contributions. All one has to do is look at Warren Buffet, Jeffrey Immelt and Bill Gates to see how these titans have enriched themselves because of political connections.
You are spot-on; I detect no disagreement here. It was funny to see the anti-capitalists argue in favor of Obamacare. “The evil insurance companies are ripping us off!” they yelled. So how does Obamacare fix that? By forcing everybody to buy the insurance companies’ products. Yeah, that’ll teach those fat-cats a lesson!
What’s really disappointing is to see the supposedly pro-market Republicans caving in so willingly to some of the worst parts of this plan, like mandatory coverage for “pre-existing conditions.” In my mind, medical coverage has not resembled real insurance for a long time, but this puts the final nail in its coffin.
The idea of the Progressives is to convert this country into an entitlement dependent society so they can keep getting elected and keep the gravy train rolling. In their diseased brains, they think it can go on indefinitely. Margaret Thatcher said it best. In Socialism, pretty soon you run out of other peoples money.
Regarding the Health Markets, they are more than willing to be the government shills on the exchanges and when their loss ratios go to pot covering all the Pre X’s, they will get subsidized by HHS so they can stay in business. Pretty sweet deal for them getting our tax dollars.
Yes, I guess it’s cynical of me, but I’m afraid there’s an even worse scenario: The Obamatrons know that under the new rules premiums will skyrocket if they allow them to, and that will give the Michael Moores of the world credibility when they say, “See! See what your wonderful capitalism is doing to us?” Then the people will agree to complete government takeover of medical insurance and, voila! Medicare for everybody.
I agree once again! People need to realise that we don’t have anything close to real capitalism anymore. It is all crony capitalism which is argueable worse than socialism in my mind. Before Obamacare and even during the Bush era business industries were heavily regulated and that is what has been sucking the economy dry. No politician has the stones to go through the austerity measures necassary to balance this budget. Using today’s or even the past decades economy as an arguement against capitalism is completely misguided.
Live Free, I didn’t study Crony Capitalism when I got my Economics degree, but I did study Socialism, Communism, Marxism and Capitalism. Trust me, you don’t want Socialism running this country. Crony Captitalism is more about corruption and political payoffs than a system of economics. It is bad to be sure, but if we didn’t have so many corrupt politicians willing to pass favorable legislation to these mega companies in exchange for a campaign donation, trips and other luxuries given to them, we wouldn’t have that problem. That is why we need term limits to get these 20-30 year people out of office and put in people who will represent We the People for a change. Lobbyists should be banned from the Capitol and contact with an elected official should be a felony punishable by at least a 10 year sentence and multi-million dollar fine. Things would straighten up quickly under those circumstances.
LiveFree and Agent, excellent points. As much as I hate socialism, the one good thing I can say about it is that when a truly socialist economy comes crashing down, the people can be 100 percent certain who is to blame. Here, no matter how much cronyism or sort-of-socialism has crept in, I fear that most folks will assume the greedy capitalists blew the thing up. Michael Moore and Bernie Sanders said so, dontcha know.
I have lost faith in the strategy of electing more “good people.” Decent people simply are not attracted to politics in sufficient numbers for this to work.
But some days I’m optimistic that more folks are learning sound economics and are starting to see that liars and demagogues are running the DC asylum. Nowadays, when I hear these buffoons blabbering I just laugh hysterically. Get enough people to adopt that attitude and I think we’ll start to see change.
Agent, I’m curious: In your economics education, was the Austrian School ever mentioned? Back when I was in Prof. John Kuhlman’s Econ 51 (of which I remember nothing), I would have laughed you off the campus if you had told me that someday I’d be studying economics as a hobby!
One measurement of growth has always been new business start ups and success measurement of those businesses 2, 3 or even 5 years out. I read this week that in the last 12 months, there has been 394,000 new business start ups in the US. Sounds good until you hear that this number is the lowest number of start ups since 1977. People have no money to invest in a start up.They can’t use the equity in their home because they have none. Fact two, this week an article said that in the month of June more people, in the US, filed for Social Secuirty disability than began a new job. Well that sure is a negative measurement if I ever saw one. So what does this mean? While large companies may have the resources and maybe political clout to manuever within the bounds of US commerce and tax law, what has driven growth, creativity, and a big portion of the US business engine has been small businesses which hopefully become big businesses the same way Google, Microsoft, Apple, Ford Motor Company, Kellogg etc has done throughout history. The problem small business face now is lack of capital, a lousy economy, an educationally diminished workforce and unskilled labor that would rather collect freebies than work.
Good points Sargent. Most small businesses are started up by the Middle Class. The Middle Class has seen their net worth go down by 25% in the past 3 1/2 years. How are they going to start up a business with no money? Even if they could, how are they going to find employees who want to work if young people would rather be on the government “teat” rather than work? They can play on their ipad, smart phone downloading apps all day and not hit a lick. They also lack common sense and business skills and really aren’t interested in gainful employment in the real world. I have several business clients who tell me they can’t find competent help and their hires don’t last long because they don’t show up for work. They go right back on unemployment where they are perfectly happy and have no ambition to better themselves. It is a sorry scenario.
I wonder sometimes how dramatically just one change – eliminating all minimum wage laws – would boost the economy. I think even many rabid Keynesians would admit privately that these wage controls are lunacy, and that they doom untold numbers of low-skilled Americans to lives of unemployment and dependency.
Yes, unless you also eliminated welfare-state programs there would still be freeloaders. But given that we live in a world of scarcity where there is always work to be done, without a minimum wage at least there would be no such thing as involuntary unemployment.
Agent, I read a great commentary this morning by publisher Jeffrey Tucker about Obama’s “You didn’t do this” speech. An excerpt:
If you listen to what he said, he can’t conceive of cooperative human relations apart from ridiculous government projects. He imagines that market activity is isolating, autonomous, and selfish, and only sanctified when blessed by the inclusion of gigantic government projects like the Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc.
This President has no clue about how this country was formed and what made it tick to be the greatest country ever conceived in world history. His formtive years were spent in a foreign country and his upbringing was influenced by Communists and radicals and so it is no wonder he doesn’t have a concept of what Capitalism is and what it has done to fuel the economic engine. With him, it is all about redistributing wealth to make everyone equally poor, much like what we see with Chavez in Venezuela. That is why he must go in November and we install someone with business sense and get the government off businesses backs.
If this is too far off topic somebody slap me. My wife likes to watch the new “Dallas” on TNT. We watched the original show back in the 1980s for mindless entertainment. But now I lose interest right away, and last night I figured out why.
It’s not just the silly “who’s the father of the baby” stuff, which is bad enough. It’s the way they portray business: as an evil, cut-throat war where ruthless SOBs like J.R. constantly connive, cheat and stab people in the back to whatever extent is needed to advance their interests. Everybody in town is either J.R.’s lackey or his enemy.
Like Obama and his followers, the show’s premise ignores the fact that private commerce thrives and creates prosperity because entrepreneurs every minute of the day are voluntarily taking part in peaceful, amicable win-win exchanges with others.
Roland, I couldn’t even get through the previews for Dallas. It is a totally brainless trumped up version of what our business society is all about. Are there cheats out there? Sure! In our business, are ethics always observed? No! We run up against agents who fudge on writing insurance. They usually get found out and they seem to have the most problems with E&O. For the most part, independent agents are honorable. I can’t say the same about some of the captives we run across on how they do things.
That’s interesting. I am “only” a director on the board of a small farm mutual, so I’ll have to ask our manager whether she’s noticed the same E&O phenomenon you have, which suggests that independents sweat the details more than captives.
Our captives are technically not employees but they are pretty darned close. I do know that when we introduce any new computerization, if anybody is going to stubbornly dig in and resist the change, it will be a captive.
In part I guess this is because the independents also write for large companies who, because of their resources, have been more on the cutting edge of technology all along. But I suspect it also says a lot about how being more exposed to the rough-and-tumble of the marketplace increases one’s willingness to cooperate and please the person on the other end of a transaction.
Actually Roland, the Hoover Dam and Golden Gate bridge were both built in the Great Depression since there were no private sector jobs. This was FDR’s Stimulus and he did create the shovel ready jobs unlike this current President. The WPA was formed to build roads and sidewalks just so workers would have something to do. It was a very expensive proposition and government debt escalated tremendously. FDR actually extended the depression 5 years longer than it should have taken by doing Progressive policies instead of incentivizing private industry. The only thing that brought this country out of depression was WW11 and gearing up the military. Jobless men joined the service and women worked in the factories and presto, unemployment went to nil.
Roland, the captives we run up against most often are State Farm, Allstate and Farmers Group. The Farmers agents are the most imbecilic on how they write insurance followed closely by Allstate. State Farm is better than the other two, but even they aren’t watching their renewals very well and let business sail through on automatic renewal and the coverage is out of date and poorly written. Sometimes the customer is hard to sell because they just can’t believe their home is underinsured by $50,000 on their current policy. Allstate has a much lower Replacement Cost guide than most carriers and they sell it as Replacement Cost to get to a lower premium. When the loss occurs, that is when all hell breaks out on the settlement. I would rather miss the business when I am right rather than fudge on sq footage like these people do.
I have had the pleasure of operating both direct writing and independent agency companies. I have found that there are many good agencies and then there are some that 1.) should not be in the business and probably should have never been in the business and 2.) a select few should have been put in jail and are lucky they have not been sent to jail. As we all know ignorance and greed are the root of many of the problems. unfortunately, some companies do not do a very good job of training agents, either new agents or veterans, especially on new product and product changes. Also, some companies don’t have good operational controls to identify cheaters until they have a big problem and then the result is reactionary when, if they had been pro active, the resulting loss would have been much less. I was particularly picky when it came to operational control and audit. And yes, we prosecuted some agent producers
I agree Sargent. A good example of incompetence is one I am familiar with. One of my customers owns a Commercial Office property. An Allstate agent leased space from him. The lease agreement had the hold harmless provision in it for our insured in case of claims on the office premises. The Allstate agent had a customer slip and fall in his office. Apparently, the agent didn’t have a package policy including premises liability with Med Pay. The claimant tried to sue our insured and it was denied. It was messy for a while, but Allstate eventually settled with the claimant. They have now terminated the agent. What agent in his right mind would not have protection for his office? That is the heighth of stupidity in today’s world.
Well Agent, I think you answered your own question-
“They have now terminated the agent. What agent in his right mind would not have protection for his office? That is the heighth of stupidity in today’s world”.
I would say- an untrained and terminated agent!
Incompetent? Not in his right mind? Exhibiting the height of stupidity? Unfit to be gainfully employed?
Maybe he should run for office!
I like that comment a lot Roland. It is hilarious to see the far left minions trying to walk back Obama’s comments that “You didn’t do that” referring to successful businesses. They say it was taken out of context. I think I understood him perfectly. He got off the teleprompter and revealed himself for who he is and what he really believes in.
Please forgive a bit of contrarianism. Far be it from me to defend a creep like Obama, but my first thought when I saw a written Fox News account of this (after seeing video of the whole speech) was that they did indeed take that sentence out of context. Have the Obamaites been screaming bloody murder about this? I haven’t been watching the news much this week.
If they have, I’m afraid there is some truth to it. In the sentence right before the one Fox quoted, Obama was talking about the government providing roads. So it was clear the “that” he was referring to was roads, not the building of the business itself.
This is not just a subtle difference. As I said, I can’t stand the guy, but he was not saying that if you have a successful business, government, not you, built it. He just wasn’t.
I wish Fox would be more careful. The speech was odious enough even with everything in context, and even minor dishonesty in quoting it discredits all of us who want this guy out.
Roland, I am afraid I understand where Obama is coming from everytime he opens his mouth. Context or out of context, he is all government all the time. Government couldn’t have built the roads and bridges without taxpayer money. We built those roads and bridges. Remember how we just had to pass the Stimulus so we could get more “shovel ready” jobs going and build the infrastructure that was crumbling? It ended up as political payoffs and making payroll for cities and counties and money was funneled back into Obama’s campaign just like all the green money that was doled out. As soon as the money was gone, they went belly up. The Transportation department has a huge budget for infrastructure building and repair or maintenance. Where has all that money gone for decades?
Allstate didn’t waste any time, changed the sign and moved another young agent in there. I hope he has better sense. Looks to me like Allstate would write a new agent a policy for his office contents and liability or insist he get one before appointing him. I would have to think they provide E&O to them. The way they write insurance in our area, they need E&O writing minimum limits of liability on Auto and low values and low limits on HO.
Not surprising. It is unfortunate that this happens as it gives the industry a continual bad name. We paid for a pretty in depth study on industry trust, loyalty, brand, repurchase tendencies etc. What we found out was the insurance industry ranks maybe, just above a car salesman or car dealer with regard to trust, loyalty and respect. This is sad but I think we bring some of the blame on ourselves; carriers and agent/producers. Some agents write minimum limits, low values etc. If that is all the customer wants to buy and is satisfied OK but make sure the file is documented and the customer signs off. Not everyone needs the same minimum limits deal. Also, the producer should know what company to place the business with. There are producers who do not address the customers needs and essentially, for the sake of the sale or maybe company pressure to make a sale, does not sell what the customer should have. Then when there is a problem it is the carriers fault, plus a nightmare for the agent.
Agent, of course I agree completely that the Obama “You didn’t build that” speech was a stinkeroo from start to finish. All I was saying is that Fox and Romney should be more careful about taking a sentence out of context. Obama does a great job all by himself of revealing his collectivist ideology, so it’s not necessary to cherry pick his sentences. That just gives Obama’s side an opportunity to cry foul.
BTW, I don’t have any more confidence in Romney than I do in Obama. Notice that when he talks about Obamacare, Romney never says just get rid of it. He always says repeal AND REPLACE. In fact mainstream Republicans openly embrace some of the nuttiest parts of it, like mandatory coverage for preexisting conditions.
Romney’s message is: “I will administer this socialism better than Obams will. Vote for me!” His business experience is irrelevant so long as he does not have a firm grasp of the proper role of government.
I agree that Romney is pretty much a moderate. After all, he was governor of Massachusetts and Conservatives don’t get elected there. Conservatives are going to have to hold him accountable for what he does when he is elected. There is too much anger at Progressive Socialism and the damage it has caused to get away with business as usual. Why do we have $16 Trillion in debt and running $1.4Trillion each year? The entitlement spigot needs to be turned off and Romney has pledged to get rid of all unnecessary programs which are mostly wasteful and duplicative. The Departments and Agencies need to be cut in half as well. The idea is to create more taxpayers with real jobs and that cannot be done unless we give employers a break on the taxes and regulations and repeal Obamacare and replace it with common sense solutions.
I am not necessarily a Romney supporter and I agree, if he is from Taxachusetts he can’t be to conservative. So, he is a moderate at best. Unfortunately, I am not sure a real conservative would get elected today. So, given the choices that we have I will take Romney. I believe under Romney there will be less tendency to have the government try to reduce states rights and take over everything that they can. In other words move the country toward socialism. I also believe that under Romney the country will show greater fiscal restraint and a move to reduce the monstrous debt that we can’t afford.
All that said, I would vote for a potted plant before I vote for Obama.
A potted plant would do no harm. In fact, it converts C02 to oxygen. That can be the new green technology. I think with Romney, he knows that business will not thrive unless you lower their taxes, get rid of burdensome over-regulation, disband the EPA or reduce it to bare bones and encourage energy independence from foreign sources. This country should have already been energy independent, but government keeps getting in the way. I have seen estimates that 500,000 new productive tax paying jobs could be created in a short while if the country made the commitment. We put a man on the moon in 10 years when the commitment was made. Perhaps Romney can inspire the country to greatness again after so many year of decline and despair.
LOL, Sargent Major and First Agent, I think you have hit on a great new slogan for the campaign:
“Vote Romney. He emits beneficial gases!”
Better we have beneficial gases than the sour gas Obama emits. That is toxic and will kill anyone within close proximity to it. Good slogan Roland.
It is all over the internet that the US has reached the trillion dollar deficit for the year and it isn’t even August yet. Five plus months to go at about an average of $142 Billion each month and we will exceed last years deficit by about $300 Billion. I know this doesn’t bother Planet and his fellow Progressive cohorts at all about debt, but this country will pay the piper one day soon if this debt spigot is not turned off.
I kid you not, First Agent, at lunchtime I watched a clip from C-span’s Washington Journal program. A caller said this: “The United States is not bankrupt; it can print money any time it wants to!”
Roland, that is how the diseased brains of Progressives work. They don’t look at debt as a bad thing. They think they are entitled to a home loan with no visible means of paying the monthly payment. They should get free health care, housing allowance, food stamps and go on unemployment or the new craze of Social Security disability. Hey, the government can just print up more money and just give it to them. Monitizing debt is a very disastrous policy and keeping the mint presses going 24/7 will hasten the day of reckoning. One of these days soon, China will say – sorry we make no more loans to you because you can’t pay it back or they will say sorry, your interest rate just doubled. The government credit card will never get paid off and we will just be making payments on the interest. Banana Republic here we come unless we get debt under control.
Well said. Our only child is 18 and will be heading to college next month. She has a good foundation, having attended a church-based school from preschool through 8 (government high school was iffy).
I’m trying my best this summer to teach her a little about real economics, the miracle of free-market capitalism, and the nature of government and politics before she gets away.
I told her the other day that she has the misfortune of having been born in interesting times.
Roland, We were fortunate to have 2 bright daughters that excelled, got a good education and have been highly successful. One is a Physicians Assistant and the other is a pharmacist. They should be able to survive even in this environment. I worry about my grandchildren who are also bright and have great potential. They are being educated in private schools which are light years ahead of the union teacher public schools. They know their history, math, science, win essay contests etc. I just wonder what they will be facing when they are ready to go to college.
JC-it’s not “who is John Galt” it’s where is John Galt and Dagney and Hank?
Ok, now talking about family. I have a daughter who graduated from college and got her first job. She was able to rent an apartment as the job was to far for her to commute. After she got her second check she called me and said she could not believe how much money she had taken out of her check. I said ” welcome to the real world sweetheart”. I also said,” you can now understand how uninformed and inexperienced college students can be talked into voting the wrong way”. She then said “Dad I have to pay federal income tax, state income tax, a city tax, and what in the world is this FICA tax? This is ridiculous”. I told her that I thought she had just become a republican and that if she did not want to continue to pay higher taxes, don’t vote for a Democrat, otherwise know as The New Socialist party. Just like the president says Hope and Change- or in other words hope you have more than change left in your pocket when he leaves office.
Sargent Major, considering the good sense that the head of the household obviously possesses, I’m not surprised to hear that your daughter learns a lot quicker than I did. Not that I was ever a Democrat or anything, but for many years I just assumed that our wise overlords in DC must know what’s best for us, and we all have to contribute our “fair share.”
I wasn’t “mugged by reality” until I started my own business and had to make payroll. Long story short, now I don’t trust any of the creeps at any level of government who steal our wealth and use it to make our lives worse.
I sincerely hope you guys are right about Romney being better than Obama. I don’t see it. To me he’s just another plastic man with no principles who lacks the courage needed to lead Americans away from this pathetic government-as-daddy culture.
Roland, you and Sargent both do good posts and tell it like it is. It is refreshing to see straight talk instead of Progressives brain dead responses on how great Socialism is. If you put rankings on a scale of 1-10, Obama is a 1 and Romney is about a 7. He will still need some encouragement/goading to do the right thing for America, but he isn’t dumb and he does know America is crashing under this Socialist nightmare. On a lighter note, I saw an email this morning and Obama has a new golf cap. On the front of it, it says Entitleist. Appropriate if I do say so.
“Entitleist” – I love it. Myself I’m a tennis player, and I play with Head racquets. Perhaps the Chief could carry his gear around in a bag that says HeadUpMy… Well, you get the idea.
Yes, us golfers out here really liked that one. I play in a Saturday morning choose up group of about 30 guys. In this group, there are around half dozen black guys. These are solid citizens who worked all their lives, had good jobs making a comfortable living. They gave Obama the benefit of the doubt in 08 and they didn’t like McCain at all. After 3 1/2 years, they all say they will not vote for Obama again and think he has done a terrible job and is hurting the country. I have seen polls that the support of the black community has waned from about 98% to 92%. You should google Anita Moncrief and see what she is about. She is former Acorn and is a whistleblower about their deeds and fraud. She is very well spoken and needs no teleprompter.
“Entitliest”, that is pretty good and accurate. LOL. As much as Michelle Obama uses Air Force one for boondoggles she probably hits a “Flying Lady”. When he plays with Bill Clinton do you suppose they play a firm shaft? I used to play a lot more golf than I do now. Of course as I have played less my handicap has gone up but that is the way it goes.
Roland, I would have liked to have had a another choice for President as I agree that Romney might not be the charging leader we need to turn things around. Since we have but one choice I will take Romney and hope the Congress- Boehner, McConnell and company can work together to do what is needed and make the right decisions. I have heard some say they are voting for Romney, not because they think he is the best Republican candidate, but as a sure vote against Obama. I would say I hope drafting Romney onto the team with the house, would be much better than what we have now. It can’t get much worse.
Do you think there would be some cheating going on if Clinton and Obama played golf together? They say Clinton used to take mulligans all the time when he hit a bad tee shot. He picked up 10 footers and counted them as made putts. Obama doesn’t have an honest bone in his body and no telling what he does. He is a lefty as well as Clinton. If they hit it in the rough, they probably move it out to the fairway.
Ha- you have heard of liars poker? How about liars golf?
They say you can tell a lot about a man’s character by how he plays golf. If he bends the rules at golf, he is an untrustworthy person and perhaps you better not do any business with him. Clinton and Obama have led the league in lies told and no one else is even close. I am still amazed that Clinton is revered as a stateman. Hello! He was impeached, but not removed from office for lying.