USPS DOA

A lotta news out there about the Postal Service. My grandfather was a mail carrier, years ago, so I do have a fondness for the service. That said, I believe it's time to put a fork in it. There's no point spending money on infrastructure or repositioning the service to sell convenience store items or whatever other crazy scheme is out there.

Let's just call it quits in a year.

A year would give us enough time to ramp up technology so that everyone has internet access - either hardwired or via cell. Libraries could be ramped up a bit so that folks could do business there. There's no need for snail mail anymore.

We already get our bills, pay our bills and shop online. We correspond via email. We really don't NEED a Postal Service anymore. Sorry, Grandpa.

Class Warfare

Well, you know, someone is always going to claim that they don't have a fair shake, that someone else is gaming the system: getting more breaks and not doing their share. There's no way to level that playing field with the system we have today.

So here's my solution:

If you MUST have an income tax, make the percentage the SAME for everyone. And set capital gains tax at the same rate. No more deductions for anything. Ever.

Simple, right?

Dear President Obama

You're in the news a lot these days as you tour the country promoting your jobs bill. We've been hearing a lot about tax credits, infrastructure funding and other schemes to help jump the economy and get some people working.

The problem with all of this is that I don't think you're actually talking to small business.

Believe it or not, I am a small businessman. I have six employees. I'm no different than thousands of other small business across this state: florists, gas stations, restaurant owners et cetera. Tax credits won't be felt until next year. Infrastructure jobs won't directly help me grow my business. I don't want a business loan - I'm too afraid of default as it is. Decreasing my personal taxes will not convince me to hire. Increasing my personal taxes will definitely discourage me to hire. And, frankly, if I'm going to hire someone I'm going to hire the best person for the job and not base my decision on who's been unemployed the longest.

But you want me to hire. Fine. Pay attention and I will tell you exactly what it would take to get me to hire someone:

1. Increase my volume. It's pretty simple - if my business picks up then I'm going to need more help. You can't run my business but you can make sure my potential customers have money to spend. I know, this one is a complex issue but if folks have more cash then I should be able to get my share. If I can't then I'm a poor excuse for a businessman. This solution is a slow one though - we won't see an increase overnight.
   
2. Decrease, DIRECTLY, my business expenses. I'm not talking about partial credits I won't see until next year. Or deductions to be taken. I'm talking about doing something TODAY. If you give my payroll tax a holiday for a year then I will guarantee you I will hire someone tomorrow. Hopefully, that person will increase my business to the point that when the holiday expires I have the cash flow to keep them.
3. Pay for the employee. You heard me - pay their salary. What the heck, it's better than paying them unemployment, right? Set up a method whereby I can hire someone and put them on the Federal payroll for a year. My employee - your expense. At the end of that time we can convert that person over to my expense.

That's it. As I sit here, these are the only three things I can think of that would convince me to hire. Were you sitting across from me right now touting your current American Jobs Act I would tell you, quite sincerely, that for my small business and many, many others it will fail to move the needle even a little bit.

A Reply to a Jehovah Witness Letter

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t do this. But since you took the time to write me personally I decided I would take a moment and reply. First, let me state that I’m going to make two assumptions about you – please forgive me if they happen to be wrong. I mean no disrespect in any way.

My first assumption is that you are young. My second is that you came to your faith either through your parents/guardians or some well intentioned mentor. If you settled on Jehovah’s Witnesses after careful consideration of all the world’s faiths then you can probably disregard most of this.

You must understand that faith is generally a product of environment (it’s what your friends or family believes) or geography (it’s what the community around us believes). Put in that context, you have to allow that if you were born to the Pastor of the local Baptist church then you would likely believe their take on Christianity as fervently as you hold your faith now. That’s not much of a stretch though. Consider if you were born in Pakistan: you would be a follower of Muhammad and read out of the Qur’an. You would hold to that faith as tightly as you do now. If you were born in India you’d be praying to the great god Ganesha… Think on that one a bit.

The reality is there are more folks who don’t believe what you do in this world. And most of them believe just as strongly that your faith is WRONG, just as you might think theirs is wrong. The reality probably is that none of us have it right.

Faith is a fragile thing and, sadly, it seldom bears up to hard scrutiny. So we tend to shy away from really taking a hard look at some of our core beliefs in fear that we’d find them baseless. Doesn’t have to be that way though – religion and faith can be a good thing provided we remain objective about them. Generally, a righteous life is a good one as long as the path to our spirituality doesn’t tread on others. Religion can give one a sense of strength, support and community.

With that in mind, realize your faith for what it is: a guideline for leading a good life. Use that brain that God gave you and consider the world and its religions as a whole. Remain objective about the path you are on. If there is a God, I’m sure He’d want you to do good things with the life He gave you.

US Airways

Don't get me wrong, I think all the airlines are in trouble. Seriously, they need to lobby congress to get TSA to back down a bit. It used to be that four hours was my tipping point. Any less than that and I would drive. Any more and I would consider flying. My tipping point now is about twelve hours - even if it costs me more to do it. Between the TSA's draconian screen procedures (am I the only one worried about what that full body scanner might just be doing to us?), new luggage fees and reduced services folks like me are getting fed up. And that should make air travel companies just a wee bit nervous.

All except US Airways. What the hell, they're already the worst airline in the country right now - what have they got to worry about? Here's a sampling of observations from my last flight:

1. Everything is for sale and nothing is free. I asked at the desk if I could somehow get out of the dreaded middle seat - more as a service to the folks destined to sit next to my bulk than anything else. I was cheerfully told that, yes!, there is an aisle seat available but it's a premium seat and I'd have to PAY for it. Mind you, this seat was no different than any other: not business or first class. It was just a seat that wasn't in the middle. And there are no free snacks - no peanuts or pretzels. But they are more than happy to sell you drinks, snack boxes, charge cards and what have you. I was just waiting for one of the flight attendants to ask me if I wanted to spend time with her in the champagne room.
2. An elderly lady brought her dog on board. She told the cabin, at large, that she paid $200 for her dog to ride in a bag under the seat and, of course, US Airways also counted the animal as her carry on bag. She had to pay to check her regular luggage. Near as I can tell, they did nothing extra for their $200 besides inconveniencing (and fleecing) a little old lady.
3. Their trash bags have a US Airways logo on it. Big deal, you say? Well, remember that they no longer provide free snacks. Put the two together and you must realize that US Airways is more interested in paying to BRAND THEIR TRASH than giving a token to their customers. In other words, garbage is more important to them.
4. My favorite US Airways story still remains the carry on shuffle - in Charlotte I watched an attendant (Nazi) at the top of the gate telling folks they had too many carry ons and insisting that the bags be combined. So ladies would stuff their purses and men would jam their laptops into their roller bags. The first attendant would then release them down the jetway to be met by the second Nazi telling folks their bags were too big and insisting everyone gate check their bags. So, of course, everyone began UNLOADING their roller bags of the very things they had just stuffed in!
   

Harumpf.

Airline companies are in trouble and in need of a serious image make over. But, for me, it's to late for US Airways. I'd rather drive.

I Had a Dream

Actually, it was a nightmare. In my dream, I was stuck in the dreaded middle seat of an MD-88 on a cross country flight wedged between Nancy Grace and Jane Velez Mitchell. And Sean Hannity was kicking the seat behind me.

I gotta lay off the bedtime merlot.

Debt Ceiling Shuffle

So, both parties had to make a show of pushing through their DOA plans in order to save face with their party members. This way, when they get down to work for real and vote on a compromise bill they can then face their constituents with palms upraised and say "hey, we TRIED to do the right thing but THEY wouldn't let us. Don't blame us! We had to vote on this compromise to save the Republic."

Is it just me or is this dance getting kind of old?