Disneyland Closes At 35

Shutting Down the Government

I am currently teaching the social and political philosophy sections of an introductory course. Today the class was involved in a discussion about the philosopher Thomas Hobbes and his Social Contract theory.

Hobbes' fingerprints are all over the American constitution. Perhaps the only other philosopher who had more impact on our founding fathers was John Locke, another philosopher.

In short, Hobbes says the following:

1. Human beings are selfish.

2. Human beings seek power.

3. Human beings would take the property and person of all other human beings if they were powerful enough to do so.

4. Human beings are by and large equal. It is true that some are more powerful than others, but they can still be defeated, and killed, by a coalition of those who are less strong.

5. Human beings understand that they cannot ever experience peace and security in a State of Nature, a place in which there is no rule of law.

6. Human beings are willing to enter into a Social Contract giving each other the right to peace and security so long as others will also enter into the contract.

7. Some who sign the contract will cheat.

8. The person who enforces the contract is called the Sovereign. So long as the Sovereign enforces the contract he is to be obeyed. The Sovereign is the government.

9. When the sovereign does not enforce the contract he can and should be removed and civil disobedience is justified.

The question is this. Is the Sovereign providing peace and security?

 

And Now the Bill has Passed

It was gratifying to see the passage of continuation of the Bush tax cuts and the extension of the unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who were in danger of being forced out of their homes and into the streets.

I, like most Americans, certainly benefit from the extension of the Bush tax cuts. Had the bill to extend the cuts not passed I would have been faced with an additional $6000.00 burden per year which I can ill afford.

I also benefit from the extension of the unemployment benefits. I am not unemployed, but persons very close to me are. I will sleep much better knowing that they have some additional time to find work.

Now - to the future.

Americans are faced with myriad economic problems. I suppose Medicare and Social Security are at the top of the list of problems. We are told that Social Security will no longer be viable in 10 years, or 15 years, or 20 years. The forecasts about the viability of Social Security are numerous and gloomy; so, how can we save the program?

Many Republicans believe that Social Security should be privatized in order to allow each American to decide how to invest their mandatory retirement savings. It may sound arrogant and insulting, but I do not belileve that the average American would have any idea how to invest their money in private accounts. Call me an elitist, but I am not.

I have no particular knowledge to assist me in picking stocks or bonds or real estate investments, or whatever that would assure me that I invested my mandatory savings responsibly. I might have gone with the investment advice of any number of scoundrels and lost my entire savings. I have no reason to believe that the average American is any more knowledgeable than me in these regards.

Has the government invested my Social Security savings in a professional manner that gave me the highest return on my investment. I think not; still, perhaps they did better than I could have done.

It is then clear that the percentage of payroll to be deducted from every American's pay check each month has to increase to some degree or the program will at some time in the forseeable future go bankrupt. How much should it be? I would suggest a 2% hike for both employee and employer. You can run those numbers for yourself.

Then, there is of course, Medicare. I am thankful that the Congress did not act to reduce Medicare payments to physicians by the 25% figure that had been proposed; still, the program needs immediate attention. Many Senior Citizens, particularly in rural areas, cannot find a physician who will treat Medicare patients, which means these Seniors have no primary care doctor. Absent a primary care physician one cannot be admitted to the hospital.

Monies need to be redirected from non-essential programs, such as million dollar grants to study the mating habits of the Moravian land Mole, to essential programs like Medicare.

Lastly, I am a firm believer in a flat tax rate to cut off all the loopholes of the current tax code. This nation, through an by its Congress, should be able to figure out our monthly family budget as Americans. We have to have a budget and we have to live within that budget. We can't afford to subsidize everything. FIrst things first. No child, no elderly person, no poor person, no person whatsoever, should be denied health care.

No person should be denied an opportunity to get a good education. An opportunity - not a gift.

The unemployment benefits should be extended ad infinitum so long as unemployment is over 5%, but, every able bodied person who receives unemployment should be assigned to public service projects and put to work in some capacity. I personally would not feel good about receiving unemployment unless I could contribute somthing in kind to my community.

I am out of thoughts for today.

Happy holidays for all.

Can Congress be Resussitated?

Congress can be said to be alive only because it still moves about spasmodically, indicating that the body is yet alive while the brain may well be dead.

How is it possible that any rational congressman or senator could go home for the holidays and announce to their constituents that they did not vote to maintain taxes at their current level, and that they did not vote to extend unemployment benefits for two million people who find themselves in dire circumstances with no end in sight. I cannot imagine that they will do so; still, many are talking as if they will do just that.

Why?

The answer seems to be that our representatives in government are arrogant, pig-headed and hateful.

The Republicans hate the Democrats and vice versa, and to hell with the American people. Who cares if the average American's tax burden goes up by $1000 or $4000 or more?  Who cares if two million people go hungry for the holidays and into the coming year? These concerns do not seem to register with these so-called representatives of the people. 

To hell with the people they seem to say. I don't care what happens. if I am a Democrat I am not going to be bested by a Republican. If I am a Republican I am going to jam my political victory in the recent elections down the Democrat's throat. That's all that matters to these infants in adult clothing.

President Obama compromised and he was correct to do so. The fact is that the recent elections sent a message to the President. As unpalatable as it may be, he, through his actions, acknowledges that he cannot simply do whatever he wants to do.

It is not as if he got nothing from his negotiations with the Republican leadership. He got an extension of the unemployment benefits, a dimunition of the payroll tax for a year, etc.

What was he supposed to do? He could have acted like a petulant child and all of us would have suffered, but he didn't. His decision to compromise was rational and insightful.

The Right Thing to Do

It was gratifying to learn that the Republicans and President Obama had come to a compromise that will allow unemployment benefits to be extended for a period of thirteen months. No doubt that news has been a source of monumental relief to literally millions of Americans in these days just prior to Christmas. I am not on unemployment, but I know many persons that are. I worry about them, their future and the future of their children; thus, I am pleased that the benefits are going to be extended. I say going to be extended because they have not yet been extended.

The President's compromise with the Republican leadership was actually one of the most sensible actions that he has taken. It is clear that he did not want the Bush tax reductions to be extended to those persons who earn more than $250,000 per year. It seems to me that he actually believes that the extra taxes which he wanted to impose on the wealthiest of Americans would serve to stimulate the economy. Perhaps it would. I am not an economist, but many of the economists that I have watched on televison, read about on the internet or in periodicals, do not feel that taxing the rich will serve to stimulate the economy.

I also question whether or not extending the unemployment benefits will stimulate the economy. It seems to me to be a wash. I was not in favor of extending the benefits because I thought that it would stimulate economic growth. I was in favor simply on moral grounds. If our government can bail out Goldman Sachs it can bail out Joe Citizen, and it should.

All this to say that the debt continues to grow, job growth is stagnant, unemployment is at nearly ten percent, we cannot give our military personnel a decent pay raise, etc. So, what is to be done?

I can think of a few strategies.

1. Remove all our forces from Iraq and Afghanistan as quickly as is logistically practible.

This is a logical strategy, and yet I cannot help but recoil a bit from my own words. Surely the removal of American troops from these two wars will result in breaking promises to our allies in both these countries, just as it did in Vietnam. I despise the broken promises we have made in the past all over the world, still, I can see no other way out of our economic woes, and just as importantly, I believe that our military is exhausted. We cannot continue to ask our young men and women to serve two, three and five tours of duty in these theatres of combat to support corrupt regimes.

2. Calculate the amount of monies necessary to balance the budget and establish a flat tax rate that  will accomplish that goal within a specified amount of time. I am just as sickened by the high salaries and bonuses paid to corporate executives and their minions as the next guy. I do not believe that bonuses should have been paid to a single person responsible for the economic debacle in the first place. On the other hand, I do not believe that a person who is wealthy should bear a higher tax burden than those who are less wealthy. Everyone should pay their fair share. The tax code should be completely revamped. There should be no more loopholes that allow corporations or the rich to pay less than their fair share, but they should not be asked to pay more than their fair share.

Simply calculate what is owed, what is needed to balance the budget, and tell me what it is. I will pay whatever percentage of my income that is necssary to meet the goal and every other American, every one, should do likewise.

3. Increase the payroll tax relevant to social security payments. I constantly hear that the government knows the hour and the minute when social security will become bankrupt. If I knew that my personal retirement savings were going to run out on a day and hour certain I would have no choice but to reduce my current spending, or find ways to increase my current income. I know that the current payroll tax for social security cost me nearly seven percent of my payroll income over the course of my working years. Perhaps it should be nine percent, or eleven percent. It needs to be what it needs to be to support the program in perpetuity.

These are a few of my thoughts. I'm sure you must have some strategies as well. Perhaps we should have a national discussion about these issues that is not partisan.

Extension of Unemployment Benefits

I am aware that this topic has been discussed and debated ad nauseum; still, I feel compelled to put in my two cents.

It is simply immoral to cut off unemployment compensation to two million people at the end of December. It is particularly immoral in light of the billions of dollars that were spent to bail out AIG, General Motors, as well as scores of banks and megabusinesses.

In order to qualify for unemployment compensation one must have had a job that one lost. I find it hard to believe that people set out to lose their jobs on purpose simply in order to go on unemployment. I can't imagine that any of those persons who are on unemployment would not be delighted to find gainful employment.

The Republicans claim that they are not against an extension of the benefits. They say they are for the extension so long as it is paid for from existing funds. The Democrats seem to be opposed. It seems clear to me that they should work together to find the funds in the existing budget. If the government can find monies to examine the mating habits of the three toed sloth they should be able to find the money to fund the extension of benefits to unemployed persons.

I am personally disgusted by the fact that the members of Congress spend most of their time hating and obstructing each other in every way. Democrats and Republicans are sent to Congress to serve the needs of the people. The unemployed are in desperate need. It is the responsibility of Congress to meet that need.

I will no doubt be asked how long can we afford to keep people on the public dole? I do not know, but it should be for as long as possible given the current economy. I imagine we could afford to extend benefits and set about creating jobs if we were to take our troops, all of them, out of Iraq and Afghanistan. It would also help if some mentally balanced person had line item veto powers. It would help if there was an end to pork barrel spending and earmarks.

Instead there is talk about trimming Social Security and Medicare. That's a great idea. Let's steal from middle class people who worked their entire lives to earn these benefits. Of course I suppose I am biased as I am one of those people

We, as a people, should insist that appropriate spending cuts be instituted. I am pro military to the core; still, it is clear to me that to be pro military at this point means advocating for the return of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines from Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are we wasting billions of dollars and American lives to support drug dealers, arms dealers and a deranged Afghani president?

Congress should do the right thing. Among the right things to do is to immediately extend benefits to those persons who are about to face a very dismal holiday season.

On Merit

I have recently been teaching aspects of Social and Political philosophy to my classes.

 Political philosophy concerns itself, among other things, with the question of what legitimizes government, in other words, what is it that government provides to the citizenry that makes the government worthwhile? 

There have been numerous answers to that question. Thomas Hobbes held that a government is legitimate and must be obeyed so long as it provides peace and security for its citizens. John Locke held that a government is legitimate so long as it protects the person, possessions and property rights of its citizens. Karl Marx held that a government is legitimate when it provides financial and social equality to all its citizens.

A second question asked by Political philosophy is how should goods, services and materials be distributed? What principles should be employed to determine who gets what? One of these principles holds that goods and services should be distributed based on merit. How are we then to define merit?

Well, Wade Phillips was, until yesterday, the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. He is, by most all accounts, a very nice, unassuming, caring individual. He was well-liked by his players, and he did win some games; but, not this year. The Cowboys record is 1-7 at the midway point of the season, even though this is a team that was thought to be a Superbowl contender. He did not merit the opportunity to continue as the head coach. He was fired. Why? Because he did not perform in a meritorious manner.

My father would have understood the decision to fire Wade Phillips. My father was a man who believed that goods and services should be awarded based on merit.

I understand and agree with the firing of Wade Phillips because I believe that goods and services should be awarded based on merit.

Does that mean that I do not want to help the poor, serve the sick and needy, provide for a decent standard of living for all citizens? No. I do want to do these things. I want to see the unemployment benefits extended once again for all the citizens who have lost their jobs and cannot find jobs to replace those that have been lost. I want everyone who comes to the hospital in need of care to get that care. I want to see the young and the elderly cared for regardless of whether they have money to pay the freight or not. I am willing to have my tax burden increased in order to make this possible.

Having said all that, I also firmly believe that notions of merit should be reintroduced into our society, our educational institutions from elementary school forward, and into our government. What sort of government taxes the people in order to bail out AIG, Goldman Sachs, General Motors, and the list goes on. How in God's name do these institutions merit what they recieived? I do not beleive that they do.

It is also true that any number of our citizens made bad financial decisions, did not plan effectively, did not live within their means. What do they merit? Well, at least as much as AIG and Goldman Sachs. On a one time basis.

Both individuals and corporations need to once again operate on the principles of merit. Aristotle holds that one learns, if one tries hard, to become virtuous, and meritorious, over time. We just do not try hard enough. What should government do in the meantime?

A legitimate goverment would set things right. Many foreclosure proceeding should be cancelled at this point. Many credit card debts should be wiped from the books. Usury should be abolished. Truth in lending should be mandated by law. A legitimate government would set things right, and then start over teaching the meaning of merit.

We cannot depend upon goverment to provide for all our needs. We must once again learn to take care of ourselves and our own. We must have charity in our own hearts for our neighbors and fellow citiziens.

We must halt our constant cry for more rights and realize that we need to honor our committments. A right bestowed on one individual becomes an obligation for another person. We must all do our part, strive to be excellent, strive to be better. We must strive to be meritiorious. Larger government will not make us more meritorius. It will make us smaller, more needy, less in control and less free. Is that what we really want?

Too Much Information

I have made no new entries for some time now. Why? I have been reading the blogs of other people in an attempt to discern what topics and which viewpoints attract blog readers. I have now read perhaps 200 individual blogs, some quite good, and some quite bad.

I have also looked back over all my postings for the past two years and I would assess myself as no better than average. Some of my posts are, in retrospect, interesting and informative and some are not.

There are many accomplished writers and communicators filling cyberspace with their work, their viewpoints, their philosophy of life, their medical problems, relationship problems, their memories and anything else that may be thought by the human mind. I have come to one primary finding.

All these bloggers have a point of view and all these bloggers think their point of view is the correct point of view. Bloggers seem to be an arrogant lot for the most part.

I can honestly say that I do not claim to know anything for certain. I inquire. I want to know; still, there is simply too much information. I listen to political pundits on the national news, whether that news comes from MSNBC, CNN, Fox, ABC or the local newspaper, a newspaper which is now the size of a napkin. Too much disparate information. Too little substantive data. Too much hubris. And yet when I raise a question, i.e., "what is social justice" I am told that if I were not an idiot I would know that it is what the bible says its is.

I have been taught that arguments from authority only are fallacious arguments for they deny any alternative view.

I've read somed interesting blogs over the past two months. I want to read more. My goal is to read and to respond. I am weary of sitting on the sidelines. I feel as if I have sometimes been punched in the mouth and did not fight back.

Yet Another Semester

I have spent the last two weeks preparing for the beginning  of the Fall Semester 2010. I am struck by the fact that with the advent of each new semester there are more and more obligations to be met by professors, obligations that  seem to have little to do with the ability of the professors to teach.

In Texas, a new House Bill requires that every professor in the State of Texas post a Curriculum Vitae and Syllabus for every course taught.

This information must be posted on the college website and must be easily found on the Internet without regard to user name or password protection. The notion, as I take it, is that students should have complete information as to the qualifications of their instructors, as well as a complete record of the academic record of those who will be their teachers. That does not seem to be such a bad idea; however, it does take a good deal to time to comply with this new law and one wonders how important it is to the students to have this information.

My experience as an Adjunct Professor has taught me that most students care about and are concerned about a limited number of issues.

1. How much work do I have to do in this course?

2. How will I be graded?

3. Is there some way in which I can acquire extra credit? Do I have to do any written work or are all the questions on exams true/false, multiple choice or fill in the blank?

4. Is the Professor going to provide a complete review prior to each test to ensure that I have a good idea what the questions will be?

These are, not surprisingly I think, the major concerns of students in the majority of the classes I teach.

I do not doubt that I, as an undergraduate, was concerned with the same questions; thus, I am not really overly upset with the mindset I find operative in so many of my students. I can deal with these issues, and in reality I can deal with most all the issues associated with teaching in college. I have only a few bones of contention with which I intellectually wrestle.

I love to teach. I do not like paperwork. Never before, in any previous semester, have I been asked to learn, adopt and implement so many new computer applications and inputs.I am besieged with a multitude of new requirements that tax the ability of a 64 year old man who is not highly computer literate. I have complained bitterly to my wife, but to no one else.

I was complaining again this evening. My wife said, "The process of learning this new technology in order to meet the requirements for teaching on-line and preparing for your in-class courses keeps your brain active and allows you to teach young people which in turn keeps you young."

I suppose she is correct. She often is.

Recollection

The Greek philosopher Plato holds that we human beings enter this world knowing all that we possibly need to know. He says that soul precedes body and that soul knows everything.

The problem, Plato says, is that when the soul enters the body it is corrupted by the body and forgets what it knows; thus, learning is simply re-collecting what we already know. You might picture a fully formed puzzle being dropped onto the floor. The pieces scatter themselves throughout the room and have to be re-collected in order to put the puzzle together again.

We have, unfortunately, only one life in which to perfect the puzzle and most of us never do so. It seems to me that we attempt to force pieces into the puzzle of our life that do not, and will never, fit. We want certain things to happen in our life that are not included in our puzzle pieces. Many of our hopes and aspirations will never fit the puzzle that constitutes our life.

Some of us want women, or men, or jobs, or material objects that we will never obtain. Why? Because we don't have those pieces in our puzzles. Many of us spend our lives trying to find pieces for our puzzle that we simply do not possess.

I am considering all my puzzle pieces. The entire puzzle is almost complete. I wish there might have been more pieces, a bigger and more expansive puzzle, but it is what is is, and I must be content with that re-collection.

Last Flight from the Nest

My youngest daughter will be departing this coming Sunday to enter college five hours distance from our home.

She was a surprise baby. A big surprise. I recall envisioning, the day my wife told me that she was with child, the sailboat that I had hoped to purchase disappear forever over the horizon never to reappear.

I feigned happiness about the pregnancy, but was secretly horrified by the event. My older son was 23 and my older daughter 21 at the time. I was 45 years old, and of course realized that I would be 64 when she began college. Well, that time has come.

Of course I thought she was a most beautiful baby when she was born, and she quickly became the center of my life. I cannot now imagine not having had her in my life these past 18 years. Our relationship grew even closer when her mother was diagnosed with cancer when my daughter was 9 years old. My wife died 18 months later.

I had no family living within 400 miles and wondered how I would get her to school, to dance lessons, to soccer practice, and later to volleyball and all the myriad activities that come and go along the way. I'm not sure how we managed, but we did, and we had a good time doing most of it. Not all, but most.

It took three attempts to pass the driver's license test. She auditioned for modeling agencies 3 times and was rejected because she was one inch short of the minimum. I would not have allowed her to model in any event, but I had to endure the tears and drama engendered by the rejection all the same.

The existence of boys, boys with the same mentality I must have displayed at 16, added to the horror. That horror was mitigated to a degree because I sent her to a Catholic girl's school. The university she will be attending has 18,000 students and more that 9000 of them are boys.

Horror again rears it's ugly head. I dislike all boys aged 14 through 25.

She is going through Rush to see if she wants to be in a sorority. All I can imagine in my mind's eye, over and over again, is the movie Animal House.

I know that the feelings swirling around in my head and heart are much like the feelings being experienced by thousands of parents who are about to send their last child to college far from home. There is one difference. I am 64 years old, just like I knew I would be. I think it would be easier if I was 45 again; still, I managed to take care of her for 18 years, to teach her lessons that are important and to learn from her. She has enriched my life substantially. I would not trade her for an 38 foot sailboat, a yacht, or anything else.

The surprise baby turned out to be a wonderful surprise.