United Liberty

I know what you’re thinking: man that Pete is a positive guy. I like to describe myself as realistic, with a bit of fatalism throw in. Either way, I find it hard to look at the economic landscape and have any hope. It is especially dreadful when politicians have to get re-
elected, AND said politicians consult certain “economists”.

Economists have for years looked at what is happening in a society and sought to come up with solutions as to how an economic crisis can be “fixed”. The problem is, like in all fields, you have good economists, and you have the not so good (The latter seem to be the ones that always find their way onto the public payroll).

In extremely broad terms economists can be split into two categories:

If you are a student of American history your eyes should be opening as to which economist is most often chosen by our elected officials. The real question is “why”?

Well, why wouldn’t a politician pick economist #2?

A recent Rasmussen poll revealed substantial support for small government amongst Americans:

Sixty-six percent (66%) of U.S. voters prefer a smaller government with fewer services and lower taxes over a more active government with more services and higher taxes.

Even if they prefer a small government, Americans are faced with a country in which the federal government is the largest employer and the pay afforded its employees dwarfs that of a private worker:

While many workers in the private sector have despaired of a pay increase in the past few years, Congress takes care of federal employees with annual raises, awarding 3.9 percent in 2009, 3.5 percent in 2008 and 2.7 percent in 2007.

The average pay for the nation’s 1.9 million federal workers is a little over $71,000, with the 372,041 federal workers in the Washington area earning an average of $94,047. The average salary for the nation’s 108 million private-sector workers is $50,028.

Government employees are often unionized and have infrastructure built to keep them from being fired even if they fail to perform their job functions. They tend to vote Democratic and their unions are among the biggest contributors to the Democratic Party. Is it any wonder then that the average American continues to face a vacant job market while a Democratic Congress provides increasing raises for federal employees?

I really don’t like school.

This has been a constant since I was a kid. As a child, I never paid attention and didn’t really learn to read, until I found a reason to outside of school by way of my enthusiasm for comic books. In my opinion, school was nothing but a good way to get harassed by other children with dominating personalities and humiliated by psychopathic teachers desperate for a government wage.

I read plenty of classic books in high school, but not on assignment from classes. I was reading Kurt Vonnegut and Malcolm X’s autobiography while considering dropping out of the public school system altogether as a freshman. While community college was an improvement in terms of intellectual quality, I still don’t see the reasoning of why people must dedicate so much money and time to higher education just to spruce up their resumes for employers, who offer jobs in which experience is far more important.

Washington Post reported last month that the Obama daughters will be attending an elite private school:

Continuing a tradition among Washington’s power elite, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have decided to send their kids to Sidwell Friends School.Michelle Obama confirmed yesterday that Malia and Sasha, the incoming first daughters, will enroll at the pricey private school when the family moves into the White House in January.