What I really want to write about is a big basic concept that has saved me some heartache several times: Follow the Money. This combines three different concepts:

Which . . . → Read More: What’s fair? Capitalism or Socialism?]]> Nobody with a pulse can deny that there’s been an ongoing, heated argument in politics and pop-culture that pits “the rich” against “the poor,” the flames of which have been fanned by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. OWS supporters would have you believe that they’re fighting for the rights of the worker class against the perceived abuses of the “elite.” “Class warfare” it’s being called in some circles. Really? Is it really wealth envy that’s driving this argument? Or is it really a coming tipping point in a centuries-old philosophical discussion regarding the merits of Capitalism vs. Socialism?

Which is fair? Socialism or Capitalism?

There are elements of our society (the “99%”, the OWS crowd, and our current President among them) who would have you believe it’s Socialism.

They would have you believe that in a world where any one person (or group) has the skills, creativity, and bravery to do something extraordinary, that it’s somehow immoral for them to be able to profit from it. And if they should find a way to profit from it, then it’s the government’s duty to force them to “share” that profit with those who possess neither the skills, creativity, nor gumption to attempt anything even remotely exceptional with their lives. That just their mere existence qualifies them as a recipient of the spoils of someone else’s exceptionalism. In other words, they are entitled to impose on someone else’s time, skills, and resources without ever having done anything to earn it.

In the world of Socialism, where’s the motivation for the talented to make such an effort? If I know that any extra effort on my part will only benefit someone else, why should I make that effort? Sure I care about people and will go out of my way to help them – IF I feel that they’re deserving of my efforts. But I’m not gonna go out & build a multimillion dollar business for someone else.

In fact, statistics prove that employees tend to do only as much work as is required to keep them from being fired. (For proof, just google “how much effort employees,” “shirking,” and “propensity to withhold effort.”) Unless there’s some personal incentive in it for them, they’ll not expend the extra effort (talent) to accomplish better results for their employer.

Therefore, I would argue that Capitalism is a better (fairer) plan.

When a risk-taker is sufficiently motivated by unlimited rewards (even acknowledging that the risk of great loss exists), they’ll expend their time, effort, talent, skills, and creativity to accomplish what has (up to that time) been deemed impossible.

Those vast rewards are realized when the market place determines that Mr. Risk Taker has created something of value and is willing to pay him for it. Of course certain economic conditions will determine exactly how valuable it is, and therefore, how much the general population is willing to pay for it.

How is this fairer for everyone else, you ask?

First, it’s fair that they receive sufficient value for the money spent on Mr. Risk Taker’s goods or services.

Second, it’s especially fair if Mr. Risk Taker is unable to fulfill all the duties required to meet market demand and is forced to hire others to help.

Mr. Risk Taker if forced to hire workers

Under Capitalism, we love and value our “worker bees.” Somebody’s gotta drive the trucks, run and/or maintain the machines, sweep the floors, type the letters, keep the financial books in order, tend the landscaping, plant & harvest the produce, take our blood pressure, tend to our ailments and healing, etc. The employer who not only provides value to the public, but provides sufficient reward to his valuable worker bees, will have some loyal and hard-working employees.

People would rather have jobs than welfare. So those who are rewarded with good jobs have higher self-esteem knowing they’re providing for themselves (and their families). Especially if they have employers who show appreciation through good pay and other intrinsic rewards. In this way, Capitalism is valuing and honoring the population at large: Mr. Working Man.

Lastly, it’s fair because, as Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with Socialism, is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” “Social programs” are paid for via taxes. If more and more people are “benefiting” from these social programs, then fewer and fewer are paying for them. Why is it deemed more moralistic to demean large portions of the population by forcing them to be recipients of “social” help than it to give them a job in which they can take pride for being a productive citizen?

In summary, it’s Capitalism that provides:

• the incentive to the risk taker,
• the free market that determines whether that risk taker thrives or fails,
• the free market that determines that the employers who value and honor their employees will not only thrive but reap greater rewards,
• pride of productivity and self-worth for the working man,
• and revenues to pay for the necessary operations of government, and the existential operations of social programs for those with true needs.

Can we agree that unless a person actually happens to like their job, then work is not enjoyable? Yet we engage in it because we believe it benefits us to doing so.

Sometimes even if the only benefit is a pay check.

I know that a certain percentage of the population wouldn’t. They find . . . → Read More: Throwing Gas On the Flames of Class Warfare]]> Psychology 101:

people are lazy. They’re not going to engage in an activity unless it’s:
a) enjoyable
and/or
b) they believe it will benefit them personally.

Can we agree that unless a person actually happens to like their job, then work is not enjoyable? Yet we engage in it because we believe it benefits us to doing so.

Sometimes even if the only benefit is a pay check.

If you could find a way to get paid without having to work for it, would you do it?

I know that a certain percentage of the population wouldn’t. They find satisfaction in the work they do – it’s physically, artistically, or intellectually stimulating for them.

Moocher Class

But there’s another portion of the population that has no desire to achieve, no drive to engage or contribute, and no willingness to learn marketable skills. Oh, they have desires, drives, and skills, but none for which society would be willing to compensate them for using. We’ll call them the moocher class.

“Disabled”

Then there’s a small percentage of the population that truly lacks the ability to care for themselves. Even if they possess desire, drive and skills, there are valid reasons which prevent them from being able to support themselves. Or their bodies cannot handle the demands that would be required to engage in a skill or trade for the amount of time required to earn such a wage. We’ll call them the Able Yet Un-Able class.

Middle Class

The largest portion of the population we’ll call the middle class. These I tend to think of as “worker bees.” They go about their day-to-day routine: do their job, go home, eat, sit in front of the TV or play with the family, and are pretty much content to live life as it comes to them. And there’s nothing wrong with being a worker bee. Indeed society needs worker bees – not everyone can be the queen. There’s a quiet nobility in the middle class. They, for the most part, are the heart of America. They bring up their children to know right from wrong, teaching them a good work ethic, and eventually how to find a mate and raise a family of their own.

Two Percenters

There’s another percentage of the population, commonly called “The Two Percent,” who has Desire and Drive, and are willing to learn whatever Skills are needed to Achieve and Earn more than most. In their efforts to benefit themselves, they end up benefiting society.

How? First, because the marketplace will not compensate the Two Percenters for their efforts unless they provide a product or service that the market place really wants or needs. Therefore, they’ve fulfilled a need that benefits the marketplace (society).

Second, if their product or service is in great demand, they eventually have to hire others to help. Now, they’ve provided jobs.

Now let’s look at how much “compensation” these Two Percenters are going to earn for their products or services. Well, that depends on how much the marketplace is willing to compensate them. If a hypothetical Mr. Two Percent decides to charge too much, nobody will buy. (And if it’s a really good product, someone else will figure out how to provide it for less.) But if he charges too little, then he’s unable to even recoup his costs. Therfore, he’s going to charge an amount which the marketplace tells him is reasonable, as long as he’s able to recoup costs AND make a large enough profit to support himself while he either improves this one product/service or begins work on a new one.

Let’s talk about the costs that Mr. Two Percent has to cover: materials and utilities used in production, wages of any employees and/or contractors, and space needed to manufacture and warehouse the product (if required) are all pretty standard. Some of these are “static” costs and others are “fluid.”

For instance materials and utilities tend to be pretty static. The charges that Mr. Two Percent must pay for these don’t fluctuate very much, unless there’s some kind of supply and demand, or even seasonal effect on price. Space can be a pretty static cost, although rent will rise annually depending on the economy and the area, but cost of ownership of a space will remain constant.

It’s the wages paid that will fluctuate the most. Wage or other compensation will depend on an employee’s or contractor’s position within the company and their particular value to the company (how easy it would be to replace them, their skills, and their knowledge). Although we don’t normally think of Mr. Two Percent actually earning less than anyone else that he would employ, I’ve known many businesses in which the owners made a point of making sure that their staff was paid before they were – even if it meant they DIDN’T get paid at all. That was a choice they made between letting someone go & doing more of the work themselves (when they were already working 80 hours per week), or living on less in order to remain sane.

The Bitter Class

Now! Let’s talk about another portion of our population. We’re going to call them the Bitter Class. You’ll find them among the 98% of the population outside the Two Percenters. How much of that 98% is actually a member of the bitter class is unknown. Definitely 100% of the moocher class belongs in this portion of the population, some of the Able Yet Un-Able are in this class, and there seems to be a growing portion of the middle class within them (thanks to the class warfare that’s being pushed by leaders within the Bitter Class and politicians who would use them). Although we can’t know how many there actually are, here are some was to recognize them:

• They’re envious of anyone who’s a member of the Two Percent class. More than that, they’re jealous.
• They seem to think that the Two Percenters shouldn’t make more than anyone else. And if they do, they should give it all away to “those less fortunate.” And if the Two Percenters aren’t willing to do that, they want the government to play Robin Hood by forcibly taking what the Two Percenters have worked for and EARNED, and redistribute it to those who didn’t work for it nor earn it.
• They seem to think that businesses shouldn’t make profits. I guess they expect the owners and stockholders to work and invest their time, energy, and capital without thought to compensation. Yet they don’t seem to think it wrong for entertainers and artists to be compensated for their work or uniquely created material.
• Some go so far as to think that companies shouldn’t charge for their products or services. I suppose they expect all the company employees to work for free, too. What would they think if someone were to suggest the same to their employer?

Remember our first point of agreement: people are lazy and will not engage in activity they find either unenjoyable or does not benefit them in some way? You see, the Two Percenters are the same. They either enjoy what they do, or expect a benefit (compensation) for engaging in that activity, or both.

And the Bitter Class will always enjoy and/or see the benefit in buying into the socialist agenda of class warfare and the concept of “from everyone according to their means, to everyone according to their needs.” They’ll always blame everyone and everything else but themselves for their standard of living. They’ll always point fingers, shake fists, and shout to anyone who’ll listen that somehow they’re a part of “those in need” and are not only owed some of those means, but that it’s those with the means that have held them back and kept them down, and that’s why their standard of living isn’t to the level that they’d like. To them, there’s always a conspiracy of “the rich” to keep others “poor.”

Some members of the Bitter Class will NEVER leave it. But there are some who can be educated enough to realize that:

• There really is no benefit to “the rich” to keep others poor.
• There really is not a limited amount of wealth in the world – it can be created.
• They can improve their standard of living simply by learning to make themselves more valuable to the marketplace.

I can tell you from personal experience that the Bitter Class mindset will never make you valuable to the marketplace. You’re the kind of person that the marketplace “smiles when you walk out of the room” instead of when you enter it.

Grow Up!

So stop ranting about the rich not paying their fair share. (And when you hear someone else spout such dribble, remember that they’re just being a crab in your bucket – yeah, go look that one up.) The “evil rich” have paid more than their fair share through blood, sweat, and tears in order to reach the status that they’ve achieved. And they still contribute to society in more ways than you can ever comprehend with your limited understanding and your limited viewpoint – that refuses to even look in order to begin to understand. You don’t know how much they make nor how much of it they give away. And they’ll never give it to you because they choose to give where they see fruit – and you ain’t producing it. As a matter of fact, you’re most likely the poison that’s killing the fruit of others.

If you want to increase your value to the marketplace, start first by closing your mouth and start looking at the fact that everyone (including “the rich”) has the same problems and issues as you, yet some are somehow able to overcome them. Then figure out how they overcame them. If you want to do the same, then take the same steps they did.

Everyone is human and shares the same frailties. Why don’t you stop asking, “What can I get for free?” And start asking, “What can I do in order to EARN what I really want?”

Thirty years ago I visited my first cousin in Virginia. While hanging out with his friend, the discussion turned to popular movies of the day. When I offered my two-cents on the authenticity and social relevance of the movie Billy Jack, one of the boys asked, in all seriousness, “Do . . . → Read More: My South]]>

I received this as an email from my aunt… Yep, it’s good enough to share – with a few editorial changes, of course.

This was written by Robert St. John, executive chef and owner of the Purple Parrot Cafe, Crescent City Grill and Mahogany Bar of Hattiesburg , MS.

Thirty years ago I visited my first cousin in Virginia. While hanging out with his friend, the discussion turned to popular movies of the day. When I offered my two-cents on the authenticity and social relevance of the movie Billy Jack, one of the boys asked, in all seriousness, “Do you guys have movie theaters down there?” To which I replied, “Yep. We wear shoes too.”

Just three years ago, my wife and I were attending a food and wine seminar in Aspen, Colo. We were seated with two couples from Las Vegas. One of the Glitter Gulch gals was amused and downright rude when I described our restaurant as a fine-dining restaurant. “Mississippi doesn’t have fine-dining restaurants!” she insisted and nudged her companion. I fought back the strong desire to mention that she lived in the land that invented the 99-cent breakfast buffet.

I wanted badly to defend my state, my region, and my restaurant with a 15-minute soliloquy and public relations rant that would surely change her mind. It was at that precise moment that I was hit with a blinding jolt of enlightenment, and in a moment of complete and absolute clarity it dawned on me: my South is the best-kept secret in the country. Why would I try to win this woman over? She might move down here.

The Southern Magnolia

I am always amused by Hollywood’s interpretation of the South. We are still, on occasion, depicted as a collective group of sweaty, stupid, backwards-minded, racist rednecks. The South of movies, TV, and Hollywood is not my South.

This is my South:

My South is full of honest, hardworking people. My South is the birthplace of blues and jazz, and rock n’ roll. It has banjo pickers and fiddle players. But it also has BB King, Muddy Waters, the Allman Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Buffett, and Elvis. And Nat King Cole, Gloria Estefan, Leontyn Price, Anita Baker, and Beyonce. And Morgan Freeman, Dakota Fanning, Jeff Foxworthy, and Julia Roberts.

My South is hot. My South smells of newly mowed grass. My South was kick the can, creek swimming, cane-pole fishing and bird hunting.

In my South, football is king, and the Southeastern Conference is the kingdom.

My South is home to the most beautiful women on the planet.

In my South, soul food and country cooking are the same thing.

My South is full of fig preserves, cornbread, butter beans, fried chicken, grits and catfish. In my South, we also eat foie gras, caviar and truffles.

In my South, our transistor radios introduced us to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at the same time they were introduced to the rest of the country.

In my South, grandmothers cook a big lunch every Sunday. So big that we call it dinner. (Supper comes later).

In my South, family matters. Deeply.

My South is boiled shrimp, blackberry cobbler, peach ice cream, (or peach cobbler and blackberry ice cream, if you prefer), banana pudding and oatmeal cream pies.

In my South people put peanuts in bottles of Coca-Cola and hot sauce on almost everything.

In my South the tea is iced and almost as sweet as the women.

My South has air-conditioning.

My South is camellias, azaleas, wisteria and hydrangeas.

In my South, the only person that has to sit on the back of the bus is the last person that got on the bus.

In my South, people still say, “Yes, ma’am,” “No ma’am,” “Please” and “Thank you.”

In my South, we wear shoes… Most of the time.

My South is the best-kept secret in the country. Please continue to keep the secret. It keeps the idiots away.

This past week we received our fruit & nut trees from Burgess. (I didn’t expect them to be shipped until fall.) They arrived on Monday and needed to be put in the ground as soon as possible – they’re “bare-root” trees & shrubs. With my husband away for work from 7am to at least 7pm, . . . → Read More: Memorial Weekend and Georgia Red Clay]]> For most people Memorial Day Weekend is a fun time with friends & family. Often involving a beach or some other vacation spot. After this past weekend, I am sun-burned and sore all over… But it’s not because of any fun!

This past week we received our fruit & nut trees from Burgess. (I didn’t expect them to be shipped until fall.) They arrived on Monday and needed to be put in the ground as soon as possible – they’re “bare-root” trees & shrubs. With my husband away for work from 7am to at least 7pm, that meant the work was all on me!

So, I dropped all the work that I had planned for the week and went to the store to get top soil & humus to mix into our solid red clay soil. Late afternoon, after it cooled off (relatively speaking – this IS Georgia!), I gathered all the tools & materials & went to the first spot to start a hole. Stabbed the shovel into the ground. It only went about an inch deep. I stood on it and bounced. It only went maybe another half inch! UGH!!!

Sun-baked Red Clay

What am I gonna do if I can’t even dig a hole?!?!?!? We hadn’t had rain in WEEKS, but we did have record or near record highs, so the red clay was hard-baked!!  I waited on Danny, hoping in vain that he’d come home early enough to dig the holes for me. No such luck.

The next morning, I went to Home Depot & purchased a mini-tiller that I’d researched and had my eye on: the Honda FG110. It’s not supposed to be able to break “virgin” ground, and I hadn’t been able to find the digging tines attachment for it anywhere, but I was desperate and running out of time.

Late that afternoon/early evening, after it cooled off (relatively speaking, of course), I put it to the test. It actually did the job! It bounces when it hits really hard-packed clay, but with patience, it dug in & turned the clay to dust! And it’s small enough that the hole it digs is just the right size! Unfortunately, I only had time to plant 3 trees before it was too dark to see what I was doing any more.

Danny comes home (as I’m putting everything away) & says, “Why don’t you just put them in pots for now? That gives them time to put on some leaves before we plant them in the fall, so I can see them when I’m mowing the field.”

Fortunately, I have enough big pots (from potted fruit trees we’d planted last spring), but I don’t have enough potting soil. So the next morning I go out looking for potting soil that does NOT have fertilizer in it. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find just plain old potting soil without some kind of plant food in it! (Directions say not to fertilize for the first year because it can damage young roots.) UGH! I got home just in time to put everything away & get to the school for my afternoon volunteer work and bring my darling daughter home.

The rest of the afternoon was spent mixing soil by hand and putting 6 more trees in pots! YAY! I was done!

Planted Mulberry

The next day? The order of fruit & nut trees from Four Seasons came in! At least Danny would be home tomorrow… He could help with the work! Unfortunately, I was out of big pots. So instead of buying more pots, Danny dug the holes while I bought more top soil & humus. (Thank You to the retired Army Vet who helped put the heavy bags in the back of my truck!) The rest of the day was spent digging holes, mixing dirt, and planting the trees. IN THE GROUND. That’s when I got sun burned, because we started in the morning and didn’t finish until late afternoon.

Just for the record, the ground was so hard that even Danny couldn’t dig the holes with a shovel!!! And it had rained overnight 2 nights before!!

Since it was Memorial Day weekend, that meant we had another day to get some work done. So Monday was spent cleaning (scrubbing!!) the vinyl siding and washing windows! I pulled my hair back to keep from getting so hot, put sun block on my arms and put a wide brimmed hat on my head to protect head, neck & ears from the sun. Unfortunately, even the hat hurt my sun burned ears.

We’re gonna re-side with hardy plank & next time,  I’m hiring someone else to do the work!

“The Passion of Christ” is one of those movies that gets good circulation every Easter, and when I see it, I’m always reminded of a heated “discussion” that an actor friend and I had about it when the movie first came . . . → Read More: Easter and Antisemitism]]> For a month now, God has been telling me to write this blog post. The problem is that the concept behind it is so short, that I haven’t bothered. It’s not “long enough” to be worth the time to write… nor read. But He keeps saying “WRITE IT!” So, in my endeavor to be obedient, here I am.

“The Passion of Christ” is one of those movies that gets good circulation every Easter, and when I see it, I’m always reminded of a heated “discussion” that an actor friend and I had about it when the movie first came out. She argued that it is Anti-Semitic. I argued that it’s not.

Of course the gist of the argument goes like this:

Her: “It blames Jews for killing Jesus.”

Me: “No, it credits certain Hebrews for doing the Will of God.”

The whole Christian faith hinges on one fact: that Jesus gave himself as The Perfect, Living Sacrifice as an atonement for our sins, then rose from the dead, conquering Death, so that we may have a direct relationship to God, the Father, and have Everlasting Life, with Him in Heaven.

NOTHING else about our faith matters if this did not happen! In order for it to happen, though, He had to have been “sacrificed” first. This implies that He couldn’t die of old age, but had to have been “put to death.” And who would have done that? Who could have done that?

Those who loved & followed Him, surely wouldn’t.

Those who hated Him were too scared of Him to dare to take action to cause harm.

But when we keep in mind that only the people who are closest to us, and have known us most, if not all, our lives, are the very ones who will scoff that we are or could be anything “special”, then we can find those who would and could bring about His death. Luke 19:41-42, Isaiah 53:1, and Isaiah 6:1-4 speak about Israel not believing (as in to recognize or identify) their own. So it had to be the Hebrews who would reject him and have him put to death. They (the Sanhedrin, specifically) couldn’t do it themselves because Pontius Pilate would have had them put to death, too, for the resulting uprising. Not to mention that they were sticklers of the law. (In the interest of time & space, I’ll not get into all the reasons why they couldn’t simply have had him stoned to death themselves, except to say, “That’s not how God wanted it done.”)

So here we are with the fact that, in order for God’s Will to be done, Jesus had to be “killed.” Therefore, there were several people who acted alone (Judas Iscariot) or in groups, as God, Himself, led them to do.

Thus, who’s being Anti-Semitic here? God? The Hebrews themselves? These accusations would be ridiculous. Anyone who says the story of the Crucifixion of Jesus contains Anti-Semitic overtones just does not see the big picture.

Nobody “blames” the Jews for killing Jesus. We recognize that God, Himself, closed their eyes and hardened their hearts to Jesus’s teachings, so that they could and would do what was required of them at that time in history. Thank you, God, for doing so!

At what point is one considered “fortunate” – financially speaking? Well, Obama has, in the past used the $250 thousand annual salary as this magical beginning point.

You’ve probably heard numbers thrown around lately giving certain statistics regarding which “fortunate” . . . → Read More: What happens when one is considered “fortunate”?]]> By now everyone’s familiar with the gist of Obama’s plan to address this nations deficit and dire financial circumstances: by raising the taxes on those who are “fortunate.” For the purposes of this post, though, I’m going to set aside the fact that our problem isn’t a revenue issue but a spending issue, and focus solely on the word “fortunate.”

At what point is one considered “fortunate” – financially speaking? Well, Obama has, in the past used the $250 thousand annual salary as this magical beginning point.

You’ve probably heard numbers thrown around lately giving certain statistics regarding which “fortunate” members of our society pay how much of the total federal revenues received from income taxes. There’s a very good report by The Tax Foundation which uses actual IRS data. It’s pretty easy reading and you can see the numbers for yourself. Here are some points to take note of:

• In 2008, “the top-earning 5 percent of taxpayers… earned 34.7 percent of the nation’s adjusted gross income, but paid approximately 58.7 percent of federal individual income taxes.”
• “Overall, these data on high-income tax returns appear to confirm that the recent recession…”, like most recessions, “occurred for the same reason, a sharp decline in income at the high end.”
• The top 25% of income earners had a sum total AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) of approx $5,678,179 Million (yes, that’s over 5 Trillion) and were taxed at an average of 15.68%, thus paying $890,614 MILLION in taxes. (That would be over $890 Billion dollars. )
• “… taxpayers with an AGI of $159,619 or more in 2008 constituted the nation’s top 5 percent of income earners. To break into the top 1 percent, a tax return had to have an AGI of $380,354 or more”
• The top 1% of income earners paid 23.27% of their AGI in taxes. (That would be $88,508.38 out of the $380k quoted above.) Top 5% paid 20.7% of AGI in taxes. (That would be $33,041.13 out of the $159,619 quoted above.)  The top 5-10% paid 12.44%. Top 10-25% paid 9.29%.

Could you imagine having a small business and working your butt off at least 18 hours per day, “24/7/365″ as they say, and having an AGI of  $159 thousand dollars and having to turn around & give $33 thousand to Uncle Sam? OR doing very well, having an AGI of $380 thousand and having to give away $88 thousand of it?!?!?

Did you know that if you win the lottery or report your gambling earnings, the Federal Government will take 40% of those winnings as taxes on “unearned income”? Based on the stats above, the folks who work their butts off to earn that money may as well have been gambling or playing the lottery instead of working hard to make a buck. AND hire employees for good paying jobs. Which would you rather do?

Let’s look at it like this. Most people believe they could live comfortably if they were earning $50,000 annually during their retirement. In order to be earning that much money in interest and dividends – remember you’re not working so you don’t have an “income” – you’d have to have ONE MILLION DOLLARS invested and earning 5% interest (which you just about can’t find any more). Want to be earning $75,000 annually so you could travel and live a life of relative luxury? Then you better have $1.5 Million in those investments earning 5%.

And guess what? You’re still gonna have to pay taxes on that “income” too.

Does any of this sound very “fortunate” to you? And Obama wants to make it worse!