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Posts Tagged ‘economy’

More states are weighing major increases in income tax or sales tax to make up for plunging revenue.

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Social Change Project Mercatus, State and Local Policy Project at George Mason University.

“This paper presents the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual’s ability to do the same.”

” New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland.”

Read the details here.

Download the study PDF file here.

Thanks to BobEhrlich.com and Ron Miller for the news.

(RegularFolksUnited.com – by Ron Miller) “As we approach the end of the 21st century’s first decade, we are reaping the whirlwind brought about by one of the most deceptive and cunning politicians to come upon the scene in my generation. A man barely known outside of Illinois in the summer of 2004 is the President of the United States in 2009, becoming the leader of the world’s most powerful nation through an illusion not unlike the Wizard of Oz, all the while deflecting attention from the man behind the curtain.”

Read the rest at RegularFolksUnited.com

We keep hearing that financial people on Wall Street earn HUGE bonuses in the millions because they work with complex derivatives.

We pay police, fire fighters, soldiers, teachers, and nuclear power plant operators a pittance in comparison. Wealthy sales and marketing folks are a lofty privileged class supported and promoted by their own kind at the great expense of the business and the economy. These derivative folks and these mortgage folks as well as an incompetent Congress created the current economic downturn so in my view they are not all entitled to the bonuses really smart people are entitled to.

What I understand from having worked in business over the years is that the people close to the money work very hard to pay themselves more and equally as hard to pay those that maneuver for them a lot less. The notion that hard work reaps great benefit is true to a point but there is probably a law of diminishing returns.

The bonus money these so-called experts receive are obscene. This problem cannot be fixed by Congress. It must be fixed by the corporations. There must be a corporate conscience. Can you imagine the success a company might have if they had the funds to pay everyone a living wage that were also hard at work everyday?

Every company I ever worked for based bonuses on my performance and in the off chance our sales were low bonuses were not paid or dramatically reduced in amount. The bonus was reasonable based on my management contributions and not excessive.

Corporate America has some soul searching to do.

(BoatingIndustry.com Friday March 20, 2009) – BoatingIndustry.com reports that Boater’s World Stores owned by troubled retailer, Ritz Cameras is shutting down. This means Calvert County will lose it’s major competitor to West Marine in Solomon’s Island, MD. A firm is being hired by Ritz to sell off Boater’s World assets.

Read about it here.

(Investor’s Business Daily via DIGG) DEADLY RATIONING: The gatekeeper for Great Britain’s national health care system is denying cancer patients drugs that would extend their lives. Why? Because the medication is considered too expensive.

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