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Archive for Finish Ahead
November 9, 2008 at 3:39 pm · Filed under Confound Authority, Finish Ahead
I read many letters, blog posts and online comments that express a real frustration and powerlessness over is happening in government today. At the federal level, it looks like the Bush administration has managed to make one more massive money grab, before heading out the door.
At the state level, sources of tax revenue are being shuffled around at a dizzying rate, resembling a game of three-card-monty.
And at the local level, which may be the most maddening, the city and county grapple with a desperate financial situation, while numerous parties vie to protect their own interests. What makes the local government situation particularly frustrating is our proximity to it. Indianapolis seems far away, and Washington D.C. even further; but we see City Council members every day around town, and yet still feel like we can’t be heard.
What can we do? Actually, lots of things. Read the rest of this entry »
November 8, 2008 at 3:25 pm · Filed under Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
There is an alarming trend in Muncie politics, and I suppose the city in general, to “aim for the cheap.”
Mayor Sharon McShurley has her hands full to be sure, managing a city with no money. While some budget cutting is necessary, the mantra of “cut more and cut deep” is a short-sighted approach to our problems.
Economic development is also a function of government. City and local officials, working with groups like the Chamber of Commerce, are tasked with attracting new business to the community. Doing that costs money, though, and the taxpayers in this community seem to be only interested in “starving the beast.”
Well, when you do that, you lose the good as well as the bad.
Why would any company want to develop a facility here? The roads are bad, the schools are weak, the city corridors look and smell like ass, and there are signs all over town either griping about how property taxes are killing the county, or insinuating that the fire department is in trouble.
Would you want to relocate yours or your employees’ families here, if that was the only impression you had of the city?
The sad irony is that we have tremendous potential here, if we could just get out of our own way.
Real estate is cheap; we have a nationally top-rated school to model the others after; we have a good university, hospital and public protection services - we really don’t have nearly as far to go as places like Flint, MI does; and we’re further down the road than Youngstown, OH was when they began their turnaround.
The only thing stopping us is, well, us.
You have to spend money to make money. We need to invest in our community if we want to make it economically viable - and not just money. That means infrastructure improvements; trying to have the best city services, instead of just the cheapest; taking responsibility for the condition of your neighborhoods; and embracing and supporting local government, rather than just holding them in contempt because you actually have to pay for what you get.
November 5, 2008 at 12:29 pm · Filed under Confound Authority, Finish Ahead
September 20, 2008 at 1:00 pm · Filed under Call Bullshit, Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
Monday, Senator McCain said the fundamentals of our economy our strong. He later went on to say that by “fundamentals,” he meant the American workers that have seen their wages reduced and their jobs outsourced.
Tuesday, he said that bailing out AIG was a bad idea, despite the fact that letting it fail would have been economically devastating. The free market would sort it all out.
Wednesday, he said bailing out AIG was necessary. It was, but anyone with any understanding of the economy knew that long before.
Thursday, the Senator said he would fire the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Never mind that the President doesn’t have that authority, our current crisis can hardly be pinned on Christopher Cox. He is part of the problem, to be sure; but replacing him isn’t going to magically fix anything.
Friday, he said that we are definitely in a recession, and the fault is Barack Obama’s, because the Illinois senator has been part of the Washington system for the past two years.
My friends, this has been more than just a tumultuous week. This is a glimpse into the future of a McCain/Palin administration. Like the Bush administration, McCain’s policies will be driven by fake populism, incompetence and greed; and when it all goes to pot, he will blame a Democrat.
Over the past 26 years – the same 26 years that John McCain has been in congress – the public protections put into place by FDR to prevent a recurrence of the Great Depression have been systematically dismantled by the GOP. It wasn’t that these protections were preventing growth and prosperity, but there was just so much more money to be made if greater risks could be taken.
Over the past 26 years – the same 26 years that John McCain has been in congress – we have been told of the wonders of the free market and the wisdom of trickle-down economics. Those policies didn’t result in new jobs and higher wages during the 80’s, and they still don’t today. During both of those decades, wages went down, unemployment went up and the economy went in the tank.
Now, to prevent the Great Depression II, we the people must take on a trillion dollars in bad debt, while corporate and financial industry executives – including friends and relatives of President Bush and Senator McCain – walk away with billions.
We’ve seen where President McCain will take us. We’ve seen it because we’ve been there before. It’s time for us to stop reliving the past and embrace a new future – the future of President Barack Obama.
August 4, 2007 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Finish Ahead
To read about all of the furor over Delaware County’s property tax increases, I am reminded of a simple fact: All politics are local.
Having just moved back to Muncie from Florida after 10 years in a community where the property taxes on my 1,500 square foot home were $3,000 a year, I was surprised to read that people were complaining that their tax bills went up to $1,000 when their home was reassessed. But outrage is relative, as is perception of value; so while my personal feeling is one of “get over it,” I understand how a dramatic change in monthly expenses could make folks upset.
What disturbs me is who they are upset at.
I read comments like “the schools are killing us” or “downsize MITS” and just grimace. There’s nothing like a tax controversy to bring the me-monkeys out of the woodwork. After all, my house has never caught on fire, so why should I pay for emergency services, right?
The sad fact is that the blame usually rests squarely with the very people making all of that noise.
People who decry taxes will vote for anyone who promises them relief from “the tax man,” regardless of whether that person is qualified, intelligent or competent enough to hold the office for which they run. Case in point: In 2004, Hoosiers voted to re-elect President Bush (after having elected him in 2000); and in Delaware county he won by a full 14 points.
So what, you ask? Well, who do you suppose is paying for all of those Bush tax cuts?
Maybe a lot has changed in 10 years, but I always believed Hoosiers to be a fiscally careful lot. And, if I asked one what would have to happen if I suddenly cut his income by a third but none of his expenses, he’d probably tell me that he’d have to find the difference somewhere else. But change “income” to “taxes” and such common sense flies right out the window. City services still cost money. With the federal government paying less to the state, and the state paying less to the county who did you think was going to pay the difference?
Six years ago, economists warned that the President’s tax proposals were reckless and short-sighted, that they only really benefited the top 1 percent of Americans, and that the state and local governments were going to have to raise taxes to take up the slack. But the GOP media machine dismissed them all as out-of-touch “Harvard elite” party-poopers. The president talked bonnily about reinvestment and job creation, hoping that no one would recognize his plan as a re-hash of the old “trickle down” Reaganomics of the 80’s.
Apparently, enough people didn’t; but I bet they can feel it trickling down on them now.
The good news is that, compared to the national average, taxes in Indiana are still pretty reasonable. That will come as cold comfort to someone already struggling to make ends meet; but change is the way of life, and Hoosiers are up to the challenge. What needs to happen, though, is for concerned citizens to look not for ways to blame local politicians; but for ways to revitalize local economies with local business and true community reinvestment.
As always, the answer is to lead the way forward, not to look back.
July 4, 2007 at 2:39 am · Filed under Finish Ahead
Note: At the end of this post is a link to the latest episode of the Thomas Jefferson Hour, in which Clay Jenkinson, as Thomas Jefferson, discusses the Declaration of Independence.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 12, 2007 at 2:54 pm · Filed under Finish Ahead
It’s always interesting to me to see real life reflect national politics (or is it the other way around?).
You would think that with a represenative democracy, it would happen more often than it does. Yet, our day-to-day sensibilities seem to become less relevant, the closer you get to the White House.
Still, it happens. Employers hire otherwise incompetent people, out of cronyism or because of whom they are related to, or to gain favor with some group of customers. People who should lose their jobs get to keep their jobs because of who or what they know, or because of some favor they’ve done in the past.
It never really turns out well, does it?
Much like politics, the solution is deceptively simple: Hire the best person for the job. Period.
Sure, you may alienate some interested group; but did you really want to do business with such small-minded folk anyway, let alone allow them to tell you how to run your business?
So why on earth would you let them decide who gets to run the country and how?
Read the rest of this entry »
