Future of our country...

On Election night at the bowling alley I had an interesting discussion about the future of our country with one of my teammates.  My teammate felt that our future was in jeopardy because of our relationship with China. This night he did not go into any specific details as to why, but this wasn't the first conversation we have had on the subject. I knew he was referring to the affect their cheap labor has on manufacturing here in our country, and his concern about the fact that China holds a considerable amount our countries debt. I agreed that it was a problem, but instead of just letting it end there where I usually do, I decided to "stir the pot" a little, and see if I get a reaction.  My expectation was that he would just dismiss my question, but he did not.

He said, "Let's suppose you wanted to start a company making T-Shirts, and you wanted to hire Americans. Well the first thing I would do if I were President is give you a grant, then I would give you tax breaks and incentives."

I said, "That sounds good. Lets assume that the company becomes successful, employing lots of people, and I as the owner start making over $250,000 year.  Would you take away the tax breaks, incentives or ask for the grant back?"  He said, "Absolutely not, I would continue the tax breaks to keep the company going."

From previous conversations I knew he was of the "Tax the Rich" philosophy, so then I dropped the proverbial "bomb" on him and asked, "Then why do you support raising taxes the wealthy? They are hiring people and creating jobs, just like this fictional businessman you and I are talking about."  He responded by saying that "those wealthy" people are building their business by buying stuff from China, and have outsourced their workforce.

I am not sure how he knows that all of the existing people with money are spending all of their money out of this country, and how he knows that this new fictional business would not. My guess is he must have some inside information from the Democratic party that tells him that all of the people today built their companies without government tax breaks or grants, and they ALL spend their money by hiring people from outside the country, or buying foreign made supplies/parts.  Not being a member of the Democratic party means I do not have access to that inside information.

So he agrees with giving tax breaks to the "rich" as long as they run the business as he prescribes... He went on to support this stance by saying that if they do not run their business the right way, (i.e spend their money on US employees and materials) that he "as President" would nationalize their business because "that would teach them a lesson, and they would never do that again."


Both he and I have jobs. Those jobs are with companies where the owners are wealthy. These owners are spending their money keeping both of us employed. Common sense (not inside information) would tell a person that they keep spending their money on the both of us, because we help them make even more money.

I would like them to continue spending their money on me, which means, I hope they have lots of it to spend on me... so I do everything I can to help my boss and his company become successful. I also vote for change in government so he can keep as much of that money as possible to spend on me instead of giving it to the government in taxes so they can in turn give someone else (not me) a grant.  If that happens then the company becomes more successful, hires more people, sells more stuff, and generates more revenue, which in turn... generates more income for everyone, including the government.

I believe in the freedom of a company/person to run their business/life the way they chose and if they fail, then they fail... no bailouts... They pick themselves up after they failed, and learn from their mistakes and start over, or do something different. The most successful people are those that fail more often, and keep trying and keep learning.

Our country's future can not be good if we let the government decide how we should conduct ourselves.  We have over 200 years of proof that freedom to do whatever we want, and to mistakes, makes our country more successful than any other nation in the world. Why should we change that?

Surprises...

I had a few surprises last night.

As I pulled up to the bowling alley for my weekly league game, I noticed some unfamiliar faces hanging outside the building.  I also noticed they were milling around an part of the building I never really paid much attention to before.  As I checked out the scene, I noticed a sign on a door that identified it as a polling location. This door is not the main entrance to the bowling alley, as there is an extra room in building that I never noticed was there.  If I did notice it in the past, I just figured it was storage room of some sort, and never gave it a second thought. I talked with a few other people at the lanes, and found out that the owner has been renting out that room for polling

Look out Speed!
There's an election ahead

for quite some time.  I never considered that a polling place would be located in a bowling alley, let alone adjacent a bar. Now the room isn't located in the bar, and the people casting their votes did not have to go through the alley or lounge to get to the polls, so I guess that's why it's OK. I was just surprised, that as long as I have been bowling there, I never noticed that it was used for the elections.

My second surprise, and slight disappointment was that I was expecting the election results to be on the TV screens at the bowling alley, but they were not.  There was quite a bit of discussion about the elections, and I even had a lively discussion with a man with whom I disagree with politically.

The polls closed at 8PM EST in my area, so I figured by 8:30 some of the early results and even some commentary from exit polls should be available.  Since I could not get this information from the news on the TV, I did the next best thing. I opened up the cell phone's internet browser, did a quick Google search for a good election results site, and started looking for the best site to watch for the next hour or so.

I was curious about the results in the entire country, but I figured for the short time while I was bowling that I would just focus on the races in my state. I found a site from my state's state department, that had up to the minute results.  My first view of the site showed only 0.26% of the vote had been submitted, and at this early point the difference between the candidates was significant: 70% to 30% range.  My first thought was of immediate dread thinking that if most of the polling locations turn in similar results it would be a landslide, and not for the choices I made. 

I used up most of my battery for the remaining hour of bowling by hitting the refresh on this website, and by the time I left at 9:30 nearly 50% of the vote had been submitted, and the difference between the candidates was not as severe, but my choices were still not leading.  I was starting to loose hope.

After bowling I stopped at the entrance door of the polling place at the bowling alley, and they had posted the results from this location, and I noticed that all of my candidates had squeaked out a win.  I stopped at the place where I cast my vote earlier that morning, and noticed my candidates fared much better and won overwhelmingly there. When I got home, I brought up the election results website on my laptop bolstered by the local results I had seen, and by 11PM as the vote submission was nearing 90%, many of the races the gap closed significantly and in others the tide had completely turned.  With the trends, and the little information I gathered by looking at a results at few local polling places, I went to bed thinking that most of my choices had either won, or would most likely win.

When I got up this morning I got another small surprise. A few candidates I thought had won last night had in fact lost but by only a few percentage points. The results are still unofficial, and some of the close races will probably have a recount, but it looks like not all of my choices won last night.

It was a significant election last night, and the Republicans made a historic change in the number of seats in the House of Representatives. The question that has to be on everyone's mind, including mine, has to be whether or not within the next two years, if these newly elected people are the same as those that just lost? Or will we be pleasantly surprised to find out that they are in fact different, and willing to hold their own, and will in fact make real positive change in our economy and our country?