Government Efficiency vs. Private Sector Efficiency (Stage 7 Blog)

It is the right of the American people to wonder where their tax money is going. The American people have to remember that their tax money belongs to them not the government for the government itself also belongs to the people since they have the power to elect officials who could terminate or replace their jobs. Nobody can argue against the fact that the private sector is much more efficient than the government. Some people might try to argue that the government provides a better quality of services and products but in reality this isn’t true. The government is inefficient, for example if you try to withdraw money from an ATM machine, and the ATM machine eats your ATM card we are on the phone in minutes finding out why and what can be done about this. If we tried to contact the government on the other hand, with most everyday problems it would get us nowhere because people know that calling upon the government gets you nowhere unless you enjoy a lot of paperwork. The article “Government vs. Private Sector, Who Does Things Better” helps explain why this is. As stated in this article the government is structured to have built in incentives to spend. While a private sector manager might question how hiring additional people would affect profits and income, the government only asks itself whether hiring more people would help get the job done faster, and that question always has the same answer. To be honest the only thing the government does better than the private sector is waste money. The government is responsible for the labor laws and acts and thus strictly adheres to them. The government also has to listen to unions more so than the private sector. Even if a government worker doesn’t deserve a yearly raise, everyone gets one anyway. Unions can be blamed for the collapse of the automobile industry and are taking a larger part in government jobs than in the automobile industry. Government jobs provide decent wages, job security, and nice benefits all at the cost of the taxpayers. The government continues to do so while are nation goes more and more into debt. So is our economy flawed in the profit motivated private sector or the government sector? The question seems to have a simple answer to me.

Re: Arizona's New Immigration Law Continues to Make Ripples

Sammie, the author of the article “Arizona's New Immigration Law Continues to Make Ripples” writes in favor of legalization of the millions of illegal immigrants residing in our nation. What Sammie doesn’t point out is that while America may be known as a “melting pot” there is a difference between immigrants coming to the America to start a life here, and the illegal immigrants who cross the border in search of work. The immigrants coming to live, and stay here are beneficial to society as a whole. They contribute to our economy and help our nation profit as a whole. The illegal immigrants crossing the southern border of the United States have many key differences that were not mentioned in this article. One of these differences is that these immigrants entered our country illegally. They have already chosen to break our laws and I suppose people who don’t believe that we should react to this have the same level of respect for the other laws of our nation. Another key difference is that while immigrants who move into America do benefit our nation and help our economy grow, immigrants who cross the border illegally –more often than not- do the opposite. These immigrants come, take jobs in a nation that is already short on work, and then send much of their earnings back across the border to their families, thus adding to our nations growing number of economic problems.

I understand that people don’t want to be singled out because of the color of their skin but, when a clerk at a liquor store asks to see an ID is that really so different? Could that not have been caused by profiling? Then why not ban liquor stores from checking people’s IDs for the sake of people who don’t like being singled out? Of course this is ridiculous. The laws is in place because it is for the greater good.

How's Obama Really Doing

The blog article "Obama Really?" discusses the large roll that race and Obama's vocal elegance played in the 2008 election. While I do believe that his race played an important roll in bringing out new voters to the polls, I don’t believe it was the key aspect that won him the election. Obama -like the post said- is a very elaborate and... I believe the best way to describe his vocal talents would be to call him a demagogue. He speaks in a manner that makes people put their trust in him without second guessing him. I think it’s important to point out that Obama’s fiscal policies are to blame for our nation's dwindling economy. I think the problems began earlier than the author of this post believes. I think the original problem lies not in the legislation passed recently but in the election itself. During the last debate many people realized that obama was going to win the election, and the thought that a socialist was about to come into power scared many Americans into pulling out what money they had invested in our economy. After reading this article you have to wonder if politics itself is corrupt. The point made that our leaders worry more about retaining their power than problems affecting the nation is a valid argument. If our leaders were less concerned their poll numbers and more concerned about issues like our ever increasing national debt maybe our nation wouldn’t be in the situation it's in now.

Our Expanding Government

Our government was created on the basis of having minimal control on the lives of its citizens. Our government was the result of the people of the American colonies living under the unfair rule of an overbearing English monarchy. The colonies decided that they didn’t want the government to restrictively limit their freedoms and rights, and this belief formed the basis of the U.S. Constitution. I believe the modern citizenry has forgotten what our forefathers worked so hard for. The people sit idly by now, watching the government expand its influence over their lives. The people are willing to allow the government, which is supposed to be “for the people” continue on a given course that could very easily turn disastrous. We have been bought. Our elected officials have made extravagant promises of programs larger and more widespread than ever before. Don’t get me wrong, universal healthcare for every American would not, and is not a bad thing. But what we forget to consider is the cost of such a large scale program, and the power and influence the federal government will gain over people’s lives because of it. Nothing in this world is free; the money for such a program would have to come from somewhere. With our nation’s loose fiscal policies can our government really afford to nationalize healthcare coverage? Where is all the money from the stimulus package, healthcare plan, and other programs coming from now? The answer is one we often tend to choose not to believe or choose to forget; the children will pay the price. Whatever wealth our government continues to extravagantly spend will one day have to be paid back. With our national debt somewhere around twelve to thirteen trillion dollars should our government really be digging a deeper hole for future generations to face? Can the government really do things more efficiently than private citizens? Does our government have the right to take control over our daily lives? Regardless, our government has reached a state of unsustainable spending and unless something is done soon, it will have done too much damage to be repaired.

Ulterior Motives

A couple weeks ago, the federal government, the news media, and environmentalists nationwide were going into a hysteria regarding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Damages were predicted to be catastrophic and irreversible. This was billed as the worst environmental disaster in US history. Now according to this blog off of the drudge report, two weeks after the oil was capped, cleanup crews are already beginning to have trouble finding any oil to clean up. Why then if this event was so disastrous, are cleanup crews already starting to have trouble finding their next cleanup site? Could it be that the factions inflating the disaster were doing it for ulterior reasons? Could they have been using the event for political or monetary reasons? I think it’s fair to say that environmentalists will panic anytime a tree falls down, or any time a duck is caught in a plastic garbage bag, so it’s easy to understand that the environmentalists would exploit an oil spill like this one to promote their own cause; but why would the government exaggerate the oil spill? The answer is simple, and for a cause very similar to the environmentalists. They used it for their own political gain. By exaggerating this disaster, democrats hope to gain political influence among many of those affected. By putting pressure on BP the government is playing upon the fears and hopes of the costal regions. But even if pressuring BP to compensate victims and replace their current management might be a good thing, the government is doing it for all the wrong reasons. Rather than the good of the nation, the left wing officials behind this are more concerned with how their actions appeal to voters and how it might help them get their own legislation passed. Obama and the liberals in congress seek to pass a cap and trade bill that will greatly increase taxes, and increase their control of capitalist institutions. Seeing our government take these actions makes me remember that our government is supposed to be inefficient so that this course of action shouldn’t be possible. Change should come slowly and in cases regarding government takeover of privatized companies, change shouldn’t come at all.

To see background information regarding the rapid dissappearance of oil in the gulf click HERE

A Sacrificial Lamb for the Government

Tony Hayward has been the topic of much controversy over the past few weeks. While most news stations and media outlooks have portrayed him as an ineffective insensitive CEO of BP, Fox News put a different outtake on the situation. Rather than an ineffective uncaring official, this news station suggests that Tony Hayward, due to his own insensitivity became a “sacrificial lamb” to a “politically charged world”. This possibility really appealed to me because I believe that Tony Hayward’s replacement was a result of his lack of public appeal rather than his lack of ability. While I admit that his behavior following the disaster was less than acceptable, I don’t think that a few insensitive comments by an overstressed man should result in the loss of his career. While I may not agree with the decision to replace Tony Hayward for his lack of… eloquence, I don’t think anyone is going to have to worry about him since he should be well off for the rest of his life. I have to wonder if our rights and freedoms are being threatened by an ever expanding government. While my opinions might be a tad biased towards the right wing conservatives, it is my opinion that the US government was able to pressure BP into replacing one of its top executive officials. In my opinion if the government has that much influence over a PRIVATE corporation then the government has expanded larger and plays a much greater roll in our daily lives than the framers of the constitution intended. If we continue to allow our government to expand past its purpose we might soon find ourselves in a nation where our government is in complete control of our lives and in complete command of our economy.

Fox News Article - BP

Fox news

My favorite news station would probably have to be Fox News. I think that to be fair, the rublican news programs should aslo be represented. I noticed that every major news station except fox (which is rumored to have the largest viewer audience of the mentioned stations) was linked on the Govt page. Just thought it would be nice to have a opposing view visable to contrast with. Without being aware and informed about the opposing argument people really arent agreeing with their side as much as they are just going with the flow. http://www.foxnews.com/. For some reason my browser dosent have a link button.