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The Economy of War (One Minute to Read)

10/17/2015

The United States spends roughly $4.5 billion a month in the middle-east. This seems terrible and Democrats often mention it but let’s take a different look at it because war can be good depending on your perspective as it’s an economy in and of itself for hundreds of thousands of people and countless U.S. companies.

As with any company, a huge part of the cost of war is in personnel. A lot of these expenditures would still go out even if the troops were moved back to the U.S., unless these soldiers were cut from the military which is what’s happening. With the millions and millions of people already out of work this doesn’t help our economy as we end up paying these soldiers who were let go for things like unemployment. So the bottom line is the money politicians say they save by reducing troops is a lie because we still spend about half their salary to keep them afloat once they are let go from serving in the military.

The other major costs when engaged in war are supplies. The money spent in the war effort goes towards stimulating our economy for those businesses that support the war effort (i.e. communication equipment, computers, fuel, guns, meals, uniforms, vehicles, etc.). As war winds down thousands of people will lose their manufacturing jobs and we’ll be paying for them as well to keep them afloat.

The federal government will lose 35% in tax revenues from the companies providing supplies for the war then the laid off employees will no longer be paying federal and state taxes. As you can imagine these taxes were huge and helped pay for the war effort. Basically more than half of the cost of funding the war was coming back to them in tax revenues.

We have lost thousands of soldiers due to our involvement in the middle-east which is terrible but I promise you there isn’t/wasn’t a single person serving over there who didn’t gladly enlist. I’ve seen countless interviews of families who lost their loved ones in Afghanistan and Iraq and they didn’t blame our country…they were proud of their children for serving; unless you’ve come from a military family this concept can be hard to fathom.

The bottom line is our country isn’t throwing away billions of dollars a month to fund the war instead a big chunk of it comes back to states and our federal government through taxes. War keeps people employed thus being its own economy and helping our country in a big way. Either our politicians (mostly democrats), don’t understand the economy of war or they are lying to us again about its true impact on our country. Do I like war, no, but if my livelihood was tied to my job at a manufacturing plant making ammunition I’d probably want the war to continue…how about you?

She's Still Here

10/3/2015

I hope you can envion and feel this...Kiley (nine years old), was a twin and her sister's name was Miley. Her family got into a car accident and Miley was killed. The hospital asked if her parents would be willing to donate her organs and they said yes. Kiley was devasted and livid with her parents for doing that to her sister.

Three days later the family was invited back to the hospital and Kiley was able to meet the little girl (Megan), who received her sister's heart. She stood by the door to the little girl's room and Megan asked her to come over and take her hand. Once there she pulled Kiley towards her heart and asked her to listen to her heartbeat. Your sister saved my life and she'll always be right here and then pointed at her chest. Anytime you want to hear your sister I'll be there for you. Tears began falling down Kiley's face realizing her sister didn't truly die that day. -- This kind of thing happens every day. I hope this helps everone understand the importance of being an organ donor. Thanks.

Does the Presidential Election Matter?

10/1/2015

I’ve heard so many people say to me the election doesn’t matter that no man or woman will get in office and be able to make a positive difference; in my opinion this is totally not true.

With the Republican Party having control over the House and Senate there wouldn’t be concerns about vetoes from a democratic president like we have had with President Obama. As it is now, even though Republicans do have a majority it doesn’t matter because if Obama vetoes something it takes 2/3rds of the Senate to overturn the veto which are numbers they don’t have. Something I'm extremely mad at our Republican legislators about, is they've only sent a few pieces of major legislation for President Obama to veto. If they were really doing their jobs Obama would be busy wielding the Veto stamp everu day.

Another MAJOR thing to consider is the power Presidents have with Executive Actions/Orders; of which Obama has signed 202 as of this post. The President gets to make things happen regardless of the opinions of the Legislature (which keep in mind are our representatives). In other words it doesn’t matter whether the President is a Democrat or Republican many times our desires/needs are trumped based on their philosophy. I think this is very scary because it negates the intent of our forefathers to have balance of powers in the Federal Government. One thing I promise you and that is democrats will do everything they can to limit “abuses of power” via Executive Orders although they’ve enjoyed it during Obama’s time in office.

The bottom line is your vote in the upcoming Presidential Election very much matters. Things have changed in many ways and the use of Executive Actions/Powers in a partisan world has gained tremendous leverage. Please not only get out to vote but drag as many Conservatives as possible with you. Help them understand that our choice in a President can make or break our Party and the philosophy and values we believe in. Thanks!

Does the Devil Really Exist?

10/1/2015

Regardless of what we believe, true is true but the fact is we live our lives right or wrong based on our beliefs. Do you believe there’s a devil? Do you believe in God? I don’t think you can believe in one without the other.

There’s always a flipside to everything; it’s a natural law which means to have good there must be bad/evil. How can you say someone is good without having a reference as to what is bad? It’s only natural that people want to focus on the “spiritual” good in life by focusing on God and not putting much thought into the bad which is the devil and that there’s a hell. The bottom line is that’s scary to think about there being a devil so most people avoid letting their minds go there.

The problem with this is that in most cases we are motivated more by our fears than by our positive expectations…not everyone is wired this way but most are; it’s the old carrot or the stick. What motivates you to get up every day, the expectations of great things or the fear of not getting up and what that might mean to your life? Our motivation fluctuates but we should be honest with ourselves. With this in mind, we’re okay with believing in God and having it motivate us to live an unselfish life but the fear of hell can be just as motivating (maybe more), it’s human nature.

Does God exist? Does the devil exist? I believe they both do because I believe in the natural law that there is always a flipside and that there is a purpose for this. My hope in this post is to get you to think about more than God because motivation comes in many forms.

Should We Take the Bible Literally?

10/1/2015

This topic has caused many arguments between people of Christian and Jewish faiths. Although this will upset some of my Christian friends I don’t think we should take every verse given in the Bible as a literal truth. Keep in mind while reading this that I believe God is capable of anything whether his message when interpreted reaches the level of truth he intended is something else in my opinion.

For me, some of the Old Testament can be a bit strange. Did Jonah get swallowed by a whale? I don’t know, I find it hard to believe but does this mean I don’t believe the Bible…no. Jonah didn’t do what God told him to do and he was punished…God punishing sinners is a known truth; was it via a whale, I don’t know. Does this make me think the Bible is non-sense? No way. This would be like me not believing in aliens so I must not believe in space.

My argument is extensive but I’ll keep this short for reading purposes. Jesus said if your hand causes you to sin cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Does Jesus really want us to do this or was he trying to get the message across that if there’s anything in our lives that causes us to sin then cut it out…get rid of it? This makes much more sense.

With this in mind it seems rather simple to me that we shouldn’t take the Bible literally…filled with truths galore of course but if someone takes certain verses out of context and/or literally, it could cause irreparable like splitting a church apart; this has happened.

We have our opinions and mine is that the Bible is inspired by God and is filled with truth but I also think that we shouldn’t take bits and pieces out of context and run with it literally because it can be dangerous. What never to take out of context…God loves you. Amen.

Is Money the Root of All Evil?

10/1/2015

This question is easy…no. Is the pursuit of money evil? Is the love of money necessarily evil? Is hating money righteous? You decide. It would be tough getting through life though if you hated money.

Since the dawn of man there’s been a form of currency whether it was bartering with products or services or the actual creation of currency…money has always made our world go round. Was bartering evil? Was the creation of currency evil? I say no to both of these. How the money is/was used is what matters in my opinion.

Without money people in need couldn’t be helped. When you donate food to a foodbank you bought the food with money. Billions of dollars are given to charities every year with the U.S. being the most giving country in the world. How can money or the pursuit of it be evil when it’s necessary to help the disadvantaged? The fact is socialism can’t exist without capitalism and the reverse isn’t true; Bernie Sanders doesn’t understand this.

It’s easy for democrats to demonize people who are rich (a relative word defined by our politicians), when the mass of voters aren’t wealthy. But the fact is the greatest contributors for those in need are some of the wealthiest in the world like Bill Gates and the Koch brothers. They certainly aren’t evil just because they’re rich are they?
Is money the root of all evil…no there are plenty of “roots” to evil. Is the pursuit of money evil? No. If we didn’t have people pursuing money the world would actually be a worse place.

I hope this post gets you thinking and that if you did think there was merit to the old saying that: “money is the root of all evil” that you’ll give it a second thought.

Obamanomics

10/1/2015

Obama has doubled our debt since he took office even though he reduced our military which is one of our greatest expenses. How is this possible? Because he began increasing the size of government; most recently Obama Care which is costing us around $778 billion instead of being a wash as he promised.

Food stamps have almost doubled since Obama has been in office. We now have around 47 million people on food stamps which costs our Federal Government $70 billion dollars a year. By the way the cost of the program has gone up over 70% per person on food stamps under the Obama Administration.

Our economic growth has been stagnant. When our legislators don’t put together a balanced budget it means there’s not enough tax revenue to pay for the expenses. If we don’t get solid economic growth then we don’t increase the money that can be taxed to pay down the debt. A very vicious cycle and the bottom line is Obama didn’t do what he said he would do in growing our economy. Liberals like to blame it on Bush but the fact is Obama knew the state of our economy but still made the promises he did. Did he lie to get elected? Wouldn’t be the first time a politician has lied.
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The amount of people who are out of work has skyrocketed to approximately 93 million people. This is where percentages lie because the unemployment rate doesn’t capture the actual amount of people who are out of work just those who are still qualified to file claims.

The bottom line is our economy has tanked under Obama and let’s face it his foreign policies have been even worse. There’s no doubt in my mind that when historians step back and review his impact they’ll have a terrible story to tell one that is even worse than under President Carter. That is unless they don’t allow the fact that Obama is black to scare them into not telling the truth; sad to say, but it wouldn’t shock me.

What Happend to Universities? (Four Minutes to Read)

10/1/2015

This is a long article but absolutely a critical topic. I’m not saying that brick and mortar colleges and universities will be extinct but I am saying they should be put on some kind of an “endangered” list. In order for something to survive it must provide value and quite frankly their value is fading fast. I do realize there’s a correlation between how much money people make if they go to college or not but the gap is narrowing because of the rising costs of education. This means the investment in a college education isn’t providing the return it once did. I’m not saying it isn’t important anymore to go to college but there are some things everyone should think about
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Keep in mind that what I’m writing always leaves room for exceptions to the norm. Besides increasing costs for an education another reason colleges are losing their value is due to so many students opting for the easier courses these institutions offer.
Many degrees have little application for either the private or public sector. In some cases if a student does get a job in his or her field it isn’t one that can realistically provide them a living so they end up moving on to another occupation.

These students’ parents might have spent $100,000 getting their child a degree in something that only allows their child to potentially get a job interview. Of course all of the other job candidates would have degrees as well so it becomes an issue of whether or not your child could quickly jump into the job and start making a positive difference. If he or she took a light course load they might be in trouble. Let me also add that it’s the parent’s responsibility to steer their child in the right way. It’s critical they share some of what I’ve mentioned above…basically give them insight into the real world.

The fact is when a college student gets their degree in Liberal Arts he or she will very unlikely work in their desired field. Someone who gets their degree in music has a tough road ahead because most of the jobs available to them are very few and low paying. A student who gets a degree in political science (even if she moves on to law school) will initially have some very low paying jobs before their career will hopefully take off. Plus, at the same time they’re trying to pay down their college debt. Unless this young person doesn’t have to worry about money for about five years, she might want to reconsider her degree. A large majority of students drop out within the first two years for a variety of reasons most being financial
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One more example, if a student gets his degree in history (it’s one of my favorite subjects), making a living off of the degree will be very difficult. The problem is that a student coming out of college might get a job in the school system but once again they are generally low paying job that they often leave due to low salaries. To have a decent shot at becoming a professor and making more money, the student would need to obtain his doctorate in history (which means more debt). Then they have to contend with the fact that job openings for teaching in colleges and universities that pay well are few and far between.

Colleges are struggling because their students spend four years in school yet would have a very difficult time passing an exam that employers come up with so they can figure out whether the job candidate has the skills they’re looking for. All that time spent studying and they can’t take it with them to the marketplace. One of the primary reasons for this is that students didn’t learn hands-on applications to the real world so the calculations don’t stick. Most companies use MicroSoft Office products so being an expert in these areas (especially Excel), would give them an edge over the competition. It’s also a timing thing because if they learned applicable math their senior year it would be easier for them to remember but a lot of courses that address the skills employers need on the job are sometimes offered to students their freshman and sophomore years.

On-line learning has become popular so some college professors post their lessons on-line and then coordinate tests sometimes on-site sometimes via the internet. One of the problems with this is that many students don’t learn well on-line and I’m one of them. I don’t know why this is the case because I love to watch presentations on-line (www.ted.com) where professionals come in and talk about all kinds of topics but for some reason I have a tough time following an on-line college course. I’d be much better off in class listening and watching my instructor because they give better clues as to what part of the material being learned is the most important.

Next I’m going to cover a great option to overcome the devaluing of a university degree and that is for a student to attend a technical college (I’m including community colleges as well). Technical colleges are more closely tied to the business community and what their needs are. These colleges better project where the jobs are headed so they can offer the courses necessary to fill the marketplace’s needs. They’re way better at caring for the student after they graduate and use their ties in the business community to help their students find employment. Universities often just churn and burn their students because they have too many students to make a dent in helping them after they graduate.

Many universities reach a point where they don’t think they have anything to learn; they get pious about their institution. They look at themselves as consultants to the business community when it should be just the opposite. This creates a big problem because unlike what technical colleges are doing, universities are terrible about being in touch with businesses’ wants and needs. They're usually very good at collecting donations and marketing their college but these things don’t end up enhancing the quality of their students’ education and keeping costs down for them.

I don’t understand donations by alumni because I believe if you have some discretionary money it would be better spent on real people and organizations in need. Universities are not unlike our government, there’s so much waste in their budgets. There’s so much fluff built in that doesn’t benefit their customers (students), so the return an alumnus gets from their donation doesn’t sound very good to me.
Technical colleges are more lean and mean. They often have great instructors who don’t have the lucrative salaries that university professors have. Their instructors usually aren’t academia but instead have worked in the real world. At one time I managed a college intern program at work and every student told me they wish their professors had real word experiences to share. Community college instructors are great at hands-on training in areas that require it (i.e. computer programming, electrical engineering, graphic design, etc.); basically less talk from them and more action. This type of teaching is much more effective towards learning. Plus when you respect your instructor you’re much more inclined to listen to her.

Some people might wonder if their child might be less competitive in the market place if he or she went to a technical college versus a major university. Throughout my career with privately and publicly held companies, where someone got a degree and what level of degree mattered less than the skills listed on the resume. Most job descriptions automatically list a four-year degree required but they realize degrees are a dime a dozen so they want more. If someone were an Eagle Scout or a Vet they definitely got a chance to interview with me. We were concerned if someone had a Liberal Arts degree because we felt it said something about their thoughts towards business and the skills we needed them to learn in college. So what it all boils down to is that as an employer we wanted new employees with good character and who could start contributing quickly because a lot of training isn't taking place like it used to because companies don’t have time.

Students who attend community/technical colleges often work to pay for their education. Once again this is a character issue as we knew the young person could hold down a job and that he or she knew what it meant to work. We realized that working for us would be much better than where they were working so they came on board with great attitudes. Several of the young interns that I brought into our company worked at the same part-time job for years (began in high school). I’d feel more confident about hiring someone like this than a student straight out of Harvard.
Once again I’m not saying a college education isn’t important and I know of many colleges and universities that are fantastic and don't fit the profiles I'm mentioning above. What I am saying is that maybe a four-year degree isn’t for everyone and that some students who attend community colleges or technical institutes might have a better shot at getting a job sometimes than the millions of college educated young adults who are competing with other people with the very same resume.

I’m also saying that colleges/universities should take a hard look at their bureaucracy because student costs can’t continue to go up like they have. I think they should bring in more instructors/professors with real world experience so the students would respect them more and enjoy learning more. I think universities should do away with professor tenure because it makes zero sense. All it does is give a professor a lucrative salary for he or she to teach less. Students don’t deserve to attend a class based on the premise that an Ivy League professor is going to teach the class when they end up with their professor’s assistant teaching and advising them. These tenured professors are usually off writing articles for trade magazines or writing books in order to pat their own and the school’s ego. Of course the school uses the professors writing for public relation purposes.

I’ve attended a community college (CPCC the best ever), a technical college, and a four-year university. In my case I learned more from the smaller institutes and I enjoyed the classes more. The bottom line is that I think we should take a good look at advanced degrees and figure out what we need to do to churn out students who can compete in a global economy. We don’t need a bunch of kids with ideological views but instead kids who can immediately contribute to the marketplace. We don’t need our kids to think they are losers for not attending universities and instead support the fact that for some young people attending community colleges and technical institutes could help them achieve just as big of dreams as those students attending four-year colleges and could possibly get there even faster.

My focus was on college educations but the fact is the best thing we can do for our children is tell them the truth about the real world and that some things they might want to get a degree in won’t help them in the real world. You’re paying for the degree you should want a good return on your investment and that is to have your child positioned to get a leg up in the marketplace but what’s most important is their character because as Abraham Lincoln said: “Ability may get you to the top but it takes good character to keep you there.”

Author: John Mann

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