| Jump to bottom |
'Pile another embarrassment:' Uninformed voters beget 'dumbest' elected officials
You are on target as usual. Only problem with this column: Most of the people it's directed at can't read. It's a perfect example of the Detroitification of America. More and more illiterate people are simply pulling a lever based on slogans and zero reading or thought about the candidates or their background, there by giving us the dumbest possible people elected to serve.
BC:
Spot-on. The problem isn't information. It's an appalling lack of critical thinking and what voters do -- or don't do -- with the information as we speed down the slippery slope. In Detroit, in the 'burbs, in Michigan, in the nation -- doesn't matter. The willing suspension of common sense, of recognition that government money (with the exception of Treasury printing dollars) actually comes from one place, and one place only: private-sector jobs.
Voters are free to be ignorant. They're free to elect pols who will demagogue business. They're free to elect pols who'll pursue policies that will pull more dollars into public coffers and aggregate government power at the same time. They're free to elect pols who show they don't understand, by their actions, how incentives work in a market economy or how business people make decisions on hiring and firing, investment and expansion. But voters also are free to pay the price, as the nation did in the 1930s. Business held its dollars, reduced investment and delayed hiring. They called it the Depression.
-- DCH
Scamholm
Scamholm is ony a symptom of the bigger problem - the voters of Michigan and voters in general, who fail to read much more than the sports section or the comics. After all, if she were judged on her job performance like anyone else in the real world, her supervisor or manager would have given her the boot after the first term because she had not demonstrated any apptitude for leadership and problem solving at the same time she squandered market share.
Voters seem more inclined to vote for good sounded slogans that actually examine a person's RECORD, which generally gives you a pretty good idea of whether they can or can't handle a future promotion. If memory serves me correct, when she ran the first time she constantly offered up few comments on her plan, saying in effect since she was AG there were matters she couldn't comment on and offered very few specifics on where she planned to go. Now almost eight years later we know - she had no plan and no clue. She likes the pomp and circumstance of being governor but not the hard work it takes.
'Keep Delta employees far away from the Northwest culture'
I don't know what the answer here is, but as a frequent traveler, who no longer EVER flies Northwest, keep Delta employees as far away as possible from the Northwest culture.
Service stinks, employees are noted for their surliness, and the entire operation reminds me of the Detroit Lions -- they accept being almost the worst in every category.
The employees should be glad they still have jobs it's such an awful airline! Northworst.
Bob:
I was with you until you got to the "accept the worst" part. Would grant you the observation about the surliness of Northwest staff, etc., especially when viewed historically. But have also had -- and heard about -- some very positive experiences. That said, the labor culture within Northwest is probably not the kind of cultural attribute the Delta board would want to see absorbed by the folks out of Atlanta.
-- DCH
If it didn't work in Michigan, why would BHO vision work for America?
Sacred cows may be dying all over the place, but it seems to be totally out of sync with what is occurring nationally -- which is a move toward more central control, more pro-union and away from a business centered attitude.
As you have so eloquently noted in many columns, Michigan is the poster child for how to be uncompetitive and anti-business. And it has worked wonderfully, leaving Michigan with far fewer jobs and a whole lot less tax base both from the businesses that have fled and the folks no longer employed and spending money.
A reasonably smart person must look around and wonder if it didn't work in Michigan, why is our federal government so bent on trying to do what didn't work here? And you have to wonder how bad the results are going to be.
BC:
You, sir, have hit the nail on the friggin' head. You want to see the effect of the high cost of doing business? Come to Michigan. Want to see the effect of deeper union control of industry and the government apparatus? Come to Michigan. The effect on public education, where we rank in the top 10 nationally for spending and in the mid-30s for results? Come to Michigan. Want to see the legacy of a two-term CEO who looks good, gives good speeches, sounds empathetic, cozies up to labor at the expense of business (every time) and has degrees from the right (actually, left) universities? Come to Michigan.
I've said it before: We are you, America.
Yes, there are all sorts of ancillary factors that hastened the demise, starting with the toxic combination of external factors (like the global financial meltdown) and years of self-inflicted wounds that brought Detroit Auto to its knees. And, in the process, exposed the structural weaknesses and unsustainability of the Michigan model.
Yes, come to Michigan, where reality speaks for itself.
-- DCH
budget deficit
WSU you wondered where to cut? How about universities who have all these brains but can't figure out how to stop adding jobs while business has elminated 20% of employees in many cases. Why can't universities do that with all their expertise? Have they ever? No. How about increasing the co-pays to match the private sector for state govt employees? Millons there. How about CUTTING taxes on business, which would, not right away, but 3-4 down the road cause businesses to move into the state, creating jobs, payroll taxes, etc? By your measure, we should continue to raise taxes when that is all we have done. Nothing, no effort at structural reform has happened and two years since we raised taxes last time (with no cuts) we're back at square one. Our labor union mentality, of excessive benefits and wages has resulted in a standard of life that taxpayers can not afford and that is readily apparent to most folks.
Another set of tax increases will solve our problems...
On the head, as ususal. The last tax increases, two years ago, when the income tax was raised, raised an additional $765 million I believe. That's three-quarters of a billion NEW dollars. And two years later, like a whimpering drug addict, we're back for another fix of the public's money. Has ANY structural reform occured? Nope. None. Have our overbloated university sytems cut jobs? Nope, they've added jobs. Has business added jobs? No, cut, in fact. Granholm and the Dems (save for Andy Dillion) on the otherhand, as someone already noted, have never met a payroll, and seem to lack a fundamental high school knowledge of how economics works. Haven't we figured out that simply raising taxes NEVER works, i.e. Detroit and other every big city in the country where populations have fled, leaving fewer people to pay more and more taxes. It's a equation that has been proven not to work.
Toyota is Ruining the Economy
Huh? Toyota is ruining the econonmy. Claptrap. Our politicans are. Read facts. Wall St. Journal quoting studies on how much cap and trade will cost the average citizen (up to $6,800 per year). How about spending THREE TIMES the federal budget in one year, resulting in a federal budget deficit larger than all the other president's deficit's COMBINED! And you think Toyota is ruining the economy?
The Henry Waxman's and Nancy Pelosi's and Obamas of the world are ruining the economy. Me thinks that were this 1776, this bunch in Congress, Republican and Democrat, would be tried for treason and hung.
Americans have given up their freedom for ignorance and some form of hypnosis which has convinced them there will never be a day of reckonning. Well, California is already there and the federal government is next folks. Our grandparents, which built this country into the 20th century superpower are no doubt shaking their heads at our own stupidity and laziness.
Buy from Government Motors ... Comrade. Or we'll have you 're-educated'
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac ... how about Social Security and Medicare, both of which are going to be underfunded soon, leaving taxpayers to come up with the difference. And yet, there are still dolts out there who think we shouldn't have a choice!!!! The fact is, the government pays about twice as much for anything, and works about one-third as efficiently as any business.
Those people who support all this Obama government this and that ought to ask themselves some questions (though they're not that smart of course), like if the government can't run those programs, why give it MORE to run?
You know almost the only sector that grew in the last quarter??? Correct if you guessed the federal government!!! Now ask yourselves, what the h--- is wrong with that equation, comrades?
BC:
C'mon, dude. Pretty easy to position government as the solution to just about every problem when the market ... and Republicans ... and Wall Street are so conveniently positioned, rightly and wrongly, to be blamed for the perfect storm that pushed the U.S. economy into the deepest recession since the Great Depression. People are mad. They're scared. They want enemies and scapegoats, not explanations and the self-justifications of politicians and bankers.
I'd guess majority of folks would share your mistrust in government's ability to manage broad swaths of the economy. Only thing worse, 'round-about-now, is ceding that mantle to corporate America. Irrational? Largely. Understandable? Yes.
-- DCH
New Democrat Obama same as the Old Democrats
Actually, dkmich, Obama doesn't look so much like a "new" Democrat as the old version -- tax and spend pretty much sums up what we're getting from Team Obama these days. I've seen ballons floated on proposed new taxes on health care, sodas, a national sales tax and a carbon tax. Need I say more?
BC:
No, you needn't. The mounting evidence speaks for itself -- a president in a hurry to enact an far-reaching agenda that would change this country in profound ways. He's moving with stunning swiftness, I'd submit, because the agenda far outstrips the "change" most Americans thought they were getting last November (if, that is, they thought at all).
-- DCH
What hath the guv's many trade trips wrought?
Today's article on the president "saving" 600K jobs got me to thinking about this. Someone ought to take the time to document the governor's many trade mission trips aboard over the past few years, compare the money spent versus the return, sort of an ROI approach. Just how many "jobs" did those trips produce according to the execs at the companies they visited? Any, a few or none? Shouldn't be hard to find out .... Just ask them once a reporter hunts up the list, which should be at least partly, in the paper.
It's a fair question and one I've personally wondered about for years.
BC:
You're not alone in wondering, surely. Put another way: How many Michigan jobs would have been saved -- or new ones added by domestic U.S. investment in the Big Mitten -- had the guv and her people summoned the guts to take on special interests in an effort to execute long overdue structural reform? Or comprehensive tax reform? The mind reels at the lost opportunity.
-- DCH
Granholm's 'disastrous tenure' never focused on MI's challenges
"Maybe then we'd have a CEO in Lansing focused on the myriad challenges facing the state, instead of campaigning, however subtly, for an escape to Democratic Washington."
Daniel, please. Has this governor, ever during her disastrous tenure, focused on the challenges facing the state?
Folks, you think things are bad in Michigan. Wait 'til Team Obama passes and screws up health care, passes a national sales tax, ups your other taxes and fees, passes cap and trade legilsation, which will raise your power bills by $70-$100 PER MONTH, and then we face massive inflation from all the money we're printing with nothing to back it up. Wonder how many of these "change" idiots will want to admit they voted for the Great Obama then? Everyone on this forum sign off now and write the people in Congress who represent you, because this train is headed right off the dock.
BC:
Yeah, but here's the rub: They'll blame someone else -- Bush, the Republicans, NAFTA, the media or the "greedy" and "selfish" Americans who don't want to pay higher taxes, who don't want the europeanization of their economy and lifestyle, who don't want bureaucrats doling out their health care, dictating the design of their cars and, yes, even numbering the trees along their city streets (like they do in Wiesbaden, Germany, where I lived and worked for four years).
Accountability applies to others in ObamaNation -- and certainly in GranholmWorld -- not to those who call the shots even as they shirk responsibility for their inaction. Voters get they government they deserve, right?
-- DCH
Clueless nation, media smoked by 'Team Obama and Scamholm'
Really, what does it matter? Most of the media and the nation is totally clueless about all the smoke and mirrors of Team Obama and Scamholm. We just tripled the federal budget, Jenny is poised to send yet another TAX our way and the people (voters) seem too stupid to care until they start paying for all this (like we can increase the budget by 150% and NOT PAY MORE...RIGHT).
And Granholm. She's only proven how totally clueless she is about economics time and time and time again. Without a doubt the worst, most ignorant governor in the nation when it comes to anything regarding a fiscal policy.
Whether you pay for it, or business does and passes it onto the customers, the voters are always going to pay for increased "fees" or anything else.
Bob:
Makes you sick, no? Taxes don't matter to economic growth. Regulatory burdens are arbitrary. Producers are penalized. And under-achievers -- say, I don't know, like the governor with the worst economic record of any state in the nation -- get credit for managing economic transformation. Sounds about right for America, circa 2009, where the two highest rated TV shows are "American Idol" and "Dancing with the Stars."
Like I said: Makes you sick.
-- DCH
Cobo
Daniel,
To what "jewels" are you referring? When only 15 percent of voters turn out for the primary, one can only deduce that voters don't care, so things must be great in good 'ol Detroit. Sad part is, the people who think it's a great city must be comparing it to places like Baghdad and Beirut where some government still functions.
I'd like to say the people of Detroit deserve better, but when only 15 percent turn out, they don't.
S.o.t.S: Where's common sense on taxes, greening of MI?
Once again, you hit it square. Has there ever been BETTER proof that tax credits and cuts work to attact business than the booming film industry here? Michigan is a poster child for how tax cuts attract business, though you'd never know it from the Dems and the Guv. Is there a lesson there for all to see? Yep.
Second point: The Guv can B.S. all she wants about green power, but ask yourselves some common sense questions folks. Solar? How much sun do we get in Michigan in the winter? Yeah, right. Wind? Has to blow a minimum of 8 mph to power those things. What happens when there's inadequate wind? We sit in the dark or what? Like it or not, coal is plentiful and nuclear is cheapest of all. Plus, they happen to produce power pretty much 100% of the time.
All this other talk about renewables sounds great, but it's smoke up your backsides. Think about it. And think about that stimulus package. How about just reducing taxes on business? Think that won't stimulate business?
BC:
Here's the point: To hear the guv, to read commentary issuing from Washington, or to watch talking heads on channels like MSNBC (ueber-snark Rachel Maddow, that paragon of penetrating economic analysis, comes to mind), is to witness the politerati becoming completely unhinged from anything approaching rational economic decision-making.
Tax cuts are discredited and are irrelevant to growth; private enterprises are fast becoming public trusts; government control over broad swaths of the American economy is justified. It's absurd. The arguably real need for government stabilization of a shaky banking system has morphed into a license for wholesale government intervention in the economy ... no questions asked, apparently.
Which is the scariest part. Anytime partisan government policy-making becomes unassailable in the eyes of its patrons -- and, yes, that includes the economic packages of Team Obama/Pelosi, as well as many aspects of Bush national security policy post-Sept. 11 -- average folks should be paying very close attention. That's a whole lot of not good.
-- DCH
Granholm to Washington
You have to admit it. She's be practically perfect for a Washington choice; little or no real world experience outside of being a bureaucrat; no track record of success; shirks responsiblity and hard decisions; is great at ribbon cuttings and emphasizes well; is always ready to blame someone else for her lack of ability.
| Jump to top |
