Once again, I am going to change the site. I am going to take all the social commentary and other stuff which I have been putting here will go into a new blog. This front page will only be for site news, like putting a book review up or something on the gaming side, etc. Since I am my only reader, it shouldn’t cause too much heart burn to anyone. grin
There is a great article in today’s USA Today. It is about David Merich, a “self-described corporate dropout.” It goes on about how he has taken advantage of being laid off by his firm, a financial services company, to take a break from his formerly stressful lifestyle. The key is this: his financial net worth, after this last year’s declines, is more than $650k. Wealthy by almost any standard, right? Wrong. According to the US government, since his annual income is about $10k, he is living in poverty. This is who goes into those statistics that you see all the time about Americans living in poverty, and who is used to justify increased government welfare programs.
Another point to be made is the one about the 7P’s. According to USA Today’s financial analyst, at the current rate of withdrawl and with his current income and lifestye, Mr. Merich should be able to continue this way indefinitely. This just goes to show that if someone plans and works to execute that plan, it is very possible to retire in comfort at a relatively early age. Why don’t people want to work for what they can get, instead of whining about they deserve?
Our money is going down the drain. I was making my way through the security to get to my aircraft for a business trip, and what I saw astounded me. Out of perhaps 25 people working at the checkpoint, maybe five or six were actually working. There was the guy checking tickets, a lady directing people to the various checkpoints, the guy in front of the detector, the two people at the x-ray machine, and the guy waiting for the people who set off the alarm. Ok, with two gates in operation, that comes to ten people, but here’s what is a waste. There was a huge gaggle of people wearing the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) badge on their person that were standing around, smokin’ and jokin’.
There were at least six people around the machines used to check for explosives (but still doing nothing) and another ten standing in front of a store doing nothing. Welcome to government security. No one in the group had any guns or anything with which to respond to a breach, their job was to stand around and talk. This is what we got when airport security was nationalized, and it is endemic of the government system. Too many people are given jobs in which they do not have any real responsibility, in which they do not have to perform, and from which they cannot be fired.
Next time you go through a security checkpoint, look and see how many people are actually working. Those are your taxpayer dollars at work (or not), tell your congressman or representative about that and vote against large and inappropriate government.
Addendum: I just walked past the security checkpoint for the connecting airport. Same story, huge number of TSA employees just hanging around. The main difference was that more people were looking busy, standing by the x-ray machines (although, how many do you really need at each machine?), with only about a half dozen checkers just smokin’ and jokin’ with each other.