Government Shutdown

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So when the apocalypse occurs, I'm coming to your house, it will still be standing ha, ha. Man, putting studs 8" on center is pretty overbuilt - but like you said, it will last a 1000 years 🙂. You are correct, codes often depict the bare minimum acceptable standard.
 


Uh, uh, uh, you can't say that the airlines (the big guys) are losing money because of deregulation and you and I (the small guys) are coming out ahead - we have to have government regulation to make that happen ha, ha, ha. I'm joking with you of course (humor is so hard to convey in an email 🙂 ).

The good news is that the airlines are making money and prospering despite going through periods of adjustment where they lose money. This is normal for market-controlled businesses. The market (competition) is forcing airlines to be more efficient and more concerned about their customer.

Southwest Airlines is beating the snot out of the other airlines because they actually care about their customer. They are not charging "bag fees," they have one of the highest "on-time" records in the industry and their attendants actually smile when you come on board - what a concept. They also have some of the lowest priced fares. Now consider this - they are also one of the most profitable airlines. They make money even in economy downturns. they also have one of the highest employee satisfaction rates (they treat their employees well).

The other airlines are starting to get the message and follow Southwest's model. This is good for all of us and it should be how the market operates to improve our lives.
 
The airline passenger bill of rights is another step in the right direction for all airlines and passengers as well. If such "rights" are guaranteed by all airlines, I suspect that they'll see more business as a result.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17173370/ns/travel-news/t/airline-passengers-bill-rights/
 


Explain to me then why there are so many bankruptcies that follow and all the ridiculous frees and low wages for pilots?

You paint a perfect picture like dereg is great, try working in the industry like my grandfather...he hates dereg and what it has done.
 


It would be difficult to understand your Grandfather's feelings without knowing some of his exact circumstances. Probably has worked or is working for an airline that is not competing as well.

Low wages are sometimes a part of market competition, but high wages also are. It is supply and demand. Since a lot of people want to be flight attendants and airline pilots, the supply of labor has gone up and wages have gone down. Conversely if you are working in almost any medical field right now wages are going up big time. Nurses now make more than engineers.

The free market is all about competition and sometimes there are losers. I worked as a carpenter to put myself through college. When I first started a journeyman could get $16.00 - $18.00 an hour. With the huge influx of illegal aliens into Arizona, framers now get maybe $12.00 an hour and that is 15 years later. This is not the free market's fault - it is simply reacting to supply and demand. In this case the government is not doing it's Constitutional duty to police the borders, but as we have mentioned, the government does nothing well.

The fees are a part of the free market also and you would not want government to interfere with that. If a company can charge $100.00 for a bag fee and get away with it, then they make more money. Southwest Airlines have a whole TV ad line exploiting this and as a result of their more customer-friendly policies (no bag fees) they are flourishing.

The bankruptcies / failed airlines after deregulation happened because the government was artificially propping up the airlines to a level that the free market could not sustain. They did this because it was thought that a certain number of airlines were necessary for national security (they are critical during war). They were somewhat like AMTRAk. This is the famous passenger line railroad kept afloat by the government for much the same reason. When deregulation occurred, those airlines not able to adjust either merged or went out of business.

The competition that the free market brings sometimes is not pretty but it is necessary. It is this competition that makes our businesses sharp and ready to compete with the rest of the world. It is a little like an athletic competition. The best athletes prosper, mediocre athletes get cut. In this analogy, the government is a little like the referees making sure that everyone plays by the rules.

Without competition you have the failed models of communism and socialism or complete the anarchy that accompanies dictatorships. We now see many of the quasi-socialist governments in Europe moving to conservative principles because their huge governments have spent them into poverty. Thus France elected a conservative prime minister (Sarkozy) and several conservative changes are going on in Italy which have caused large protests.

The Italians are used to the government supporting them, but their nation's debt has reached a breaking point that threatened to crash the euro's value. To a lesser degree, this is happening right now in our nation to the dollar because of the Democrat's and Obama administration's overspending. The dollar has plunged in value and is in danger of losing its coveted status as the world's most stable currency.

The Democrat's and Obama administration's goal of a huge central government is in all practical aspects just a version of socialism. The economic model of socialism has been proven to be an absolute failure repeatedly. Our economic model of capitalism has in just a very short time period historically given us the most powerful economy in the world, which has made us the most powerful nation in the world.

We must get our financial house in order and as with a private household, cutbacks are not pleasant. When we cut government services, there will be people who are affected but the government is not the all-caring nanny to every American citizen. It was never meant to be by our nation's founders who designed it - nor is it capable of doing that function (Italy has shown us this) . If it takes a government shutdown to get our leaders to start paying down the national debt then I am all for it.
 
BTW Dogman - I was joking with you good naturedly - I never want to come across as a "smart ass" to anyone. You've made some really good points and I am sorry that your grandfather was hurt by deregulation.
 
I was just making points. He is more of a liberal at heart, seeing what the US has done to the airline pilot...

I am more moderate.

Continue:

Mentioning competition is good point, however, if I was to start an airline business, I would have to competed against the big guys...I have no market potential. Reg would protect me form the big boys and allow me to flourish as a business.

My grandfather had a good time with the flying business, he however saw the failure of corruption that lead to the demise of great businesses.

You say 'bad business' is what failed the lost carriers. Remember PanAm? It was one of the most successful business in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_American_World_Airways

However, PanAm went out and messed with the market, eventually failing.

You may say that bad business will destroy a company, this may be true, but it is the corrupt at heart that will destroy an economy...without rule.
 


I agree with you, corrupt leaders destroy a nation. This would be true of any business or government organization. That is why good leaders are so valuable. An Englishman, Lord Acton, who lived in the 1800s said this, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." There is something about giving a human being a lot of power that tends to corrupt them if they do not have the character to handle it.

I can't remember which founding father said it (maybe Jefferson) but he said that our "fragile democracy is dependent on having good men (or women) as our leaders." This is a very rough paraphrase. Our founding fathers knew that the success of our democratic republic was predicated on the quality of the character of the people who supported it.
 
"Franklin replied "a Republic, if you can keep it". Profound, is it not?"

Yes, very.

There is a great organization of legal professionals working to keep the historic references and background of God (in reference to the Christian God that nearly all of the founding fathers believed in) in our culture. They name of the organization is the American Center for Law and Justice, ACLJ (not to be confused with the ACLU). They are winning a lot of court cases.
 
I though Thomas Jefferson was a Deist?

Anyways. Business and politics is a corrupt group. Never rely on the benefit of Big Business nor Government. If there are those of corruption, begin by forming a non-corrupt system of business to attract the meek of heart.
 
Laws are observed, justice is delivered.
If its natural, like 2+2=4, then its observed. I can be a good sumaritan, and for most people, thats just what you do, if someones fallen, you bend to help them up.
Observing these things is held to be a natural occurance.
Justice is simply the result of amending a loss, or punishing the one who pushed someone elase down.
Laws arent to be written we HAVE to help someone up, tho its the natural thing to do, but pushing someone, creating a loss/harm of another, then comes the natural law with justice to be dealt out
 


It is a common misconception taught by most secular colleges that the founding fathers were deists.This is simply a myth that is promulgated by ignorance. If a person will do their own research and actually read the founding father's writings, it becomes very clear that they believed in a personal God and most were clearly declared Christians. Deists do not believe in a personal god but a cosmic god that is not interested in the individual's needs.

To be fair, Jefferson is one of two founding fathers who may have been at least partially a deist - but it is unknown for sure what he was. He was raised Anglican and was devout in attending a Christian church most of his life but later in life disavowed the Episcopalian church he had been associated with to some degree. He then as president attended church in what is now the same building that houses Congress - it was used as a Christian church in Jefferson's day. After reading Jefferson's writings I am convinced that he believed in a supreme being, but had a jumbled mix of other beliefs too. He was accused of being an atheist during his run for president. We also have records that Jefferson donated money to several churches - hardly the act of an atheist or deist.

In Franklin's earlier address to the Constitutional convention we can clearly see that he is not a deist. We can read Washington's prayers in Valley Forge and it becomes clear that he was not only NOT a deist but was a Christian. Also many of the founding fathers were ordained Christian ministers and so there is no doubt about them being deists. As you read ALL of the evidence and do not cherry pick, very few if any of the founding fathers could be construed as deists.

That being said, they had just escaped the warped, corrupted and twisted Church of England's form of Christianity and they were very strong in wanting every person to have the right to believe in whatever religion they chose. Thus we have the Establishment Clause that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This has been misinterpreted as eliminating religion from government. However, if you read the context of the history around this statement, it was clearly intended to keep government out of religion and not necessarily visa versa.

Today we have groups like the ACLU who are attempting to eliminate all references to God contained in our history. This of course redefines history to be inaccurate. The founding fathers regularly promoted religion in government and so it is difficult to argue that they would agree with the modern attempts to deny God.
 
Lookin at a few rigs here on Toms, Ive found em
BottlenecksO.jpg

A few bottlenecks anyone?
 
I wanted to get away a few years ago...

E One foot on the break and one on the gas

E Well there's too much traffic I can't pass, no

G What used to take three hours, now takes all day

A It took me fifteen hours to get to L.A.

G C'mon and write me up for 125

E Poster my face wanted dead or alive

G Take my license and all that jive

A I can't drive 55!

Rinse and repeat.

 
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