HURRY!

It is getting boring. In capitalism, you always have to sell more of whatever it is to be successful or at least make more money. You can do this in two ways, get consumers to want ever more or enlarge your market globally. Of course there are those companies that do both. How do you get consumers to want ever more? Advertising! You advertise something as being on sale and to try to stampede the public into buying it you add, "Hurry, this is a limited-time offer." or "Hurry because availability is limited." or some such and maybe even mention a deadline. How many people are suckered into buying because of the HURRY?

I suspect that the public is inured to this approach by now. And in fact if you wait, there will be a new promotion next week or month that might be even better in the event you want the product. I hope we all take our time and don't HURRY.

But think how much of our economy is built upon advertisements. Essentially the entire radio/TV industry is built upon it, to say nothing about junk mail. So most of us are inundated with advertisements, and, if one doesn't get us, another may. There is all this wonderful stuff that would be fun to own. The net affect is consumers that forever want more. But HURRY!

CAN IT HAPPEN?

There are Republicans and members of the heirarchy of the Tea Party that would like to do away with things like Social Security and Medicare, and, of course, Obamacare. Others would just like to reduce them to help balance the budget, something that must be done at some point. But would it be possible to do away with them? It is not clear that at the grass roots level that Tea Partiers share this goal, for instance (http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/whose-tea-party-is-it/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1).

Suppose we got a clever Republican administration like that of Bush-43 that wanted to do away with them. I imagine that first a part of your Social Security payments would go into something like a 401k. Then more and then more until the whole thing was a 401k. Also somewhere along the line it probably would be made voluntary. So Social Security would be no more.

Medicare would suffer something equivalent to Social Security. It, no doubt, would start with vouchers as in the Ryan plan. With time because of inflation the vouchers would pay less and less of your medical expenses. And of course, it would be made voluntary at some point. And perhaps at some point the vouchers would just be discontinued.

Now the Bush-43 like administration would concentrate on convincing the voting public to go along with this plan, and they would use all the wiles they used to get us to go to war in Iraq to getting rid of Social Security and Medicare. I'm not sure what they would do, but truth would be no object just as it wasn't with us going to war in Iraq. Could this happen? I don't know, but the current candidates for the Republican presidential nomination certainly sound like they would like to do this. Perhaps they could somehow make it unpatriotic to be against doing away with Social Security and Medicare just as they did with the Iraq war.

Could it happen?

CONGRESSIONAL CONFERENCE COMMITTEES

When the Senate and the House pass the same bill but with some different wording or content, the two houses are to form a conference committee to iron out the differences. Perhaps few people realize that anything can happen in "committee." Many a bill has died in committee even if they passed both houses by wide margins. And the bill coming out of committee can look quite different than the one passed by both houses. I recall one year my Bureau ended up getting more out of conference than either house allotted. That is unusual as they usually split the difference, but this one time, at least, they gave us more. Once the conference committee resolves the language of the bill, it is voted on again by both houses but usually only in an up or down manner. It can be sent back to conference.

For a more detailed account of conference committees see: http://www.aacn.org/WD/Practice/Content/PublicPolicy/intro.pcms?menu=Practice

REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES

It still seems to me that the most qualified Republican candidate for president is Jon Huntsman. He was an outstanding governor of a Red state and balanced the budget, he is pro life, pro guns, and has been Ambassador to Singapore and , more importantly, China, our biggest rival and creditor. I think he faces several problems. This is his first time running so I think he lacks name recognition. He has referred to himself as a center right candidate, but he is a true conservative. His Abassadorship to China was under president Obama, and he made the mistake of saying some nice things about him. And of course, his Mormon religion probably counts against him. He has thrown his full effort into New Hampshire. If he should win, he might take on some steam. He is gaining in the polls.

I think Iowa is wide open and the caucuses are only a few weeks off. I don't know of any poll that has ranked candidates by their likelihood to go to the caucuses. As Gingrich doesn't have much of an organization in Iowa, I doubt he will win in Iowa. But right now, the "red meat" Republicans are in charge and like the idea of someone who can beat up on Obama. Eventually, I believe saner heads will prevail.

What has happened to Machele Bachmann? She has sounded rational for a few weeks now, even if I don't agree with her views. I do agree with her that the payroll tax cuts are a bad idea. It just makes the funding of Social Security and Medicare that much harder in the future. How many will she fool? Iowa is her place. It's there or never.

Ron Paul is doing surprisingly well in the polls in Iowa, but I have a hard time seeing him as the winner. He is just too much. Though some aspects of his foreign policies are well taken, others are just nutty. It is interesting that libertarians side with the Republicans because it is the Democrats that are social libertarians. Apparently it is fiscal libertarians that take precedence.

I'm sorry, but I can't stand Rick Santorum. He lost big in his run for a third term in the Senate. His stands against things like masturbation (of all things), oral sex (even for heterosexual couples), and homosexuals are just too far out. (http://www.americablog.com/2006/06/rick-santorum-its-all-about-sodomy.html) I'd like to see him take a lie detector test on personal masturbation and Justice Scalia too. He is also opposed to contraceptives in health care plans. (http://www.ricksantorum.com/pressrelease/senator-santorum-launches-“faith-family-and-freedom-tour”). Also see: http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2009/12/in-end-liberalism-wins.html He sure wants to get into our bedrooms. It is not a surprise to me that he is doing poorly in the polls.

I still guess that in the end, the Republican nominee will be Mitt Romney. One thing I think we can count on if he becomes president is a large downsizing of the Federal government employees. This was his business career - downsizing. What else he will do is uncertain to me, but I'm sure he will try to be remembered as a great president. After all, this guy has excelled at everything he has done, except possibly campaigning. Why would we expect differently of him as president. So he might be better than anyone expects.

For an earlier assessment of Republican presidential candidates see:http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/07/republican-presidential-candidates-for.html

REMEMBRANCE OF A SPRING MORN

A funny thing happened to me the other day. It was about seven-thirty in the morning, and I was going to work. It was one of those wonderful mornings that we have been having lately. The sky was as clear as crystal with only a few big puffy white clouds floating here and there. The sun shown brightly. With its low angle it cast long black shadows through the trees which cut deep marks across the spring grass. The morning was pleasantly cool, and that indescribable smell of spring came through the open car windows. I was just driving along dreaming of nothing in particular, not concentrating on my driving. From time to time I would gulp in huge breaths of fresh air just because it tasted and smelled so good.

All of a sudden I became aware of wheels fast approaching me from behind as if to pass, but they did not. They continued to follow close behind. Probably of all the irksome things I can think of, having a car tail close behind bothers me the most. I looked through my rear view mirror to see how near he was, but I could see nothing. He must have been out in the blind spot that the mirror does not cover so that I figured that he would pass me any moment, but he did not. Finally I stuck my head out of the window and looked back. You know it's very odd, but it was my own tires that I heard.

1952

THE SERGEANTS (Poem)

Who are these sergeants, mostly men,

Dying in such numbers in far off lands?

Iraq, Afghanistan.

More than corporals,

More than privates.

Our top heavy military?

Some sergeants in their 50s.

More in their 40s.

Many in their 30s.

They must have been surprised

To be called at such ages

Into a savage war.

http://icasualties.org/OEF/Fatalities.aspx Figures for Operation Enduring Freedom up to date were 525 sergeants, 339 corporals, 339 specialists, and 341 privates (both Pvt. and Pvt 1st Class).

Total figures from 3/21/2003 to 4/30/2006 only are 738 sergeants, 707 corporals and 339 privates. http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=psc_working_papers&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D4%26sqi%3D2%26ved%3D0CEEQFjAD%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Frepository.upenn.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1000%2526context%253Dpsc_working_papers%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Ddeaths%2520by%2520rank%2520in%2520Iraw%2520and%2520Afghanitan%26ei%3DQAeSTqbMMYiltwfjpvSHDA%26usg%3DAFQjCNGwfVq1ubJusyLoQu72R7iOepBz0g%26sig2%3DPqxbeg0852-sVDIXG6Cm0A#search=%22deaths%20by%20rank%20Iraw%20Afghanitan%22