Miami-Dade County Mayor Mayor Carlos Alvarez raised property taxes. He used the money to give huge raises to government bureaucrats.
Yesterday, he was booted from office in a landslide recall election.
200,000 people voted in the election, making this the largest recall election of a local government official in U.S. history.
88% of the people voted to toss him out.
This should be another warning to the cowardly and clueless politicians in D.C. who are still refusing to deal with the government deficit, debt, and economy.
Do your jobs, or it's your turn next.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
America is still the Land of Dreams
The continuing poor economic situation really got me thinking about what America is all about and what it means to be an American.
I don't like to write about my family, but given the ugly situation in Wisconsin and elsewhere, I feel the urgent need to write about my wonderful wife and how she is realizing her dreams in America.
When I got divorced a few years ago, a friend advised me to take a broader perspective on potential partners than women in my local area. During my career, I've traveled the world many times and I've met a lot great people. So, I took his advice. I found a great woman in the Philippines.
We were married in May, 2007.
My wife opened a home day center in the fall of 2009. She found the regulations, she passed her state inspections, she acquired customers, and she served her customers well. Her customers love her.
In her first year in business, my wife netted over $40K. Not bad for a girl from the third world in her first year as a business woman in America.
We are now saving so that she can open a large day care center. She has dreams of opening many day centers. She will do it.
In her short time in America, my wife already knows that your dreams can come true. She has seen it. She has done it. Her dreams are coming true every day. She is thankful for being in America. Nothing will stop her.
Unfortunately, American leftists just don't get it. They are so tied up in their income distribution, collective bargaining nonsense that they can't see the real America. To them, the entire concept of America is lost in the haze of political nonsense.
My wife grew up in a one room bamboo hut. She picked root crops for her grandmother's family business. Her daily shower was pouring a bucket of water over her head.
Now she is a successful business woman in America.
In spite of the county's problems, America is still the land of dreams and opportunities. My wife has demonstrated this.
All I can say is: Shame on the lazy. Shame on the government bureaucrats. Shame on the political left. Shame on them all for trying to destroy this country and what America represents to humanity across the world.
Shame, shame, shame.
I don't like to write about my family, but given the ugly situation in Wisconsin and elsewhere, I feel the urgent need to write about my wonderful wife and how she is realizing her dreams in America.
When I got divorced a few years ago, a friend advised me to take a broader perspective on potential partners than women in my local area. During my career, I've traveled the world many times and I've met a lot great people. So, I took his advice. I found a great woman in the Philippines.
We were married in May, 2007.
My wife opened a home day center in the fall of 2009. She found the regulations, she passed her state inspections, she acquired customers, and she served her customers well. Her customers love her.
In her first year in business, my wife netted over $40K. Not bad for a girl from the third world in her first year as a business woman in America.
We are now saving so that she can open a large day care center. She has dreams of opening many day centers. She will do it.
In her short time in America, my wife already knows that your dreams can come true. She has seen it. She has done it. Her dreams are coming true every day. She is thankful for being in America. Nothing will stop her.
Unfortunately, American leftists just don't get it. They are so tied up in their income distribution, collective bargaining nonsense that they can't see the real America. To them, the entire concept of America is lost in the haze of political nonsense.
My wife grew up in a one room bamboo hut. She picked root crops for her grandmother's family business. Her daily shower was pouring a bucket of water over her head.
Now she is a successful business woman in America.
In spite of the county's problems, America is still the land of dreams and opportunities. My wife has demonstrated this.
All I can say is: Shame on the lazy. Shame on the government bureaucrats. Shame on the political left. Shame on them all for trying to destroy this country and what America represents to humanity across the world.
Shame, shame, shame.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Thomas Friedman and the Great Man Theory of History
Thomas Friedman recently wrote an article stating that Obama's racial make-up and religious ancestry are the root causes of the turmoil in the Middle east today. According to Friedman, people have decided to fight their governments because Obama is black and his father was Muslim. Here is what Friedman actually wrote:
Americans have never fully appreciated what a radical thing we did — in the eyes of the rest of the world — in electing an African-American with the middle name Hussein as president. I’m convinced that listening to Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech — not the words, but the man — were more than a few young Arabs who were saying to themselves: “Hmmm, let’s see. He’s young. I’m young. He’s dark- skinned. I’m dark-skinned. His middle name is Hussein. My name is Hussein. His grandfather is a Muslim. My grandfather is a Muslim. He is president of the United States. And I’m an unemployed young Arab with no vote and no voice in my future.” I’d put that in my mix of forces fueling these revolts.
Over the last few years Friedman has pretended to be some kind world authority because he's actually been somewhere other than Toronto and Cancun.
Well, I've been in 26 countries on 6 continents. I've been to many countries 20 or more times each.
I can tell you with complete certainty that Friedman has learned nothing in his travels around the world.
Thomas Friedman is trapped in the early 20th century "great man" theory of history. Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Roosevelt, Kennedy... "Great" men (not good men, but powerful men) changed our destiny. According to that view, a "Great Man" is the necessary catalyst for dramatic change.
Friedman desperately wants Obama to be the next "great man" who changes history.
The current reality is very different. The revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East are based on the availability of open and uncensored information. The same kind of open and uncensored information that Friedman and the mainstream American media views as a threat.
The Middle East has a very young population. They are on Facebook, Twitter, email, various discussion groups, and SMS (cell-phone text messages) interacting with their friends and relatives living in America and other western countries, as well as new acquaintances that they met on the internet. They also watch cable stations like CNBC International, CNN, and Al Jazeera. They know more about the world around them than any generation that proceeded them.
These people can actually see our freedom. They don't hate our freedom like Rudy Giuliani and other neo-cons believe. They are envious of it. What they hate are their own rulers who deny them this freedom.
In any societal disruption, changes in the environment build slowly. Eventually, those changes reach a tipping point and then radical change seems to happen overnight. This is what we are seeing in the Middle East today. The change that the internet brought to their countries has finally reached the tipping point. As a result, the people have awoken and the dictators are falling one by one.
I do agree with Friedman on one point -- we are only seeing the beginning of this revolution. There are dozens of tyrannies in the middle east and Africa that will eventually fall as part of this information awakening.
That is a good thing for them and eventually the world. I am glad to be here to see it.
Americans have never fully appreciated what a radical thing we did — in the eyes of the rest of the world — in electing an African-American with the middle name Hussein as president. I’m convinced that listening to Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech — not the words, but the man — were more than a few young Arabs who were saying to themselves: “Hmmm, let’s see. He’s young. I’m young. He’s dark- skinned. I’m dark-skinned. His middle name is Hussein. My name is Hussein. His grandfather is a Muslim. My grandfather is a Muslim. He is president of the United States. And I’m an unemployed young Arab with no vote and no voice in my future.” I’d put that in my mix of forces fueling these revolts.
Over the last few years Friedman has pretended to be some kind world authority because he's actually been somewhere other than Toronto and Cancun.
Well, I've been in 26 countries on 6 continents. I've been to many countries 20 or more times each.
I can tell you with complete certainty that Friedman has learned nothing in his travels around the world.
Thomas Friedman is trapped in the early 20th century "great man" theory of history. Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Roosevelt, Kennedy... "Great" men (not good men, but powerful men) changed our destiny. According to that view, a "Great Man" is the necessary catalyst for dramatic change.
Friedman desperately wants Obama to be the next "great man" who changes history.
The current reality is very different. The revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East are based on the availability of open and uncensored information. The same kind of open and uncensored information that Friedman and the mainstream American media views as a threat.
The Middle East has a very young population. They are on Facebook, Twitter, email, various discussion groups, and SMS (cell-phone text messages) interacting with their friends and relatives living in America and other western countries, as well as new acquaintances that they met on the internet. They also watch cable stations like CNBC International, CNN, and Al Jazeera. They know more about the world around them than any generation that proceeded them.
These people can actually see our freedom. They don't hate our freedom like Rudy Giuliani and other neo-cons believe. They are envious of it. What they hate are their own rulers who deny them this freedom.
In any societal disruption, changes in the environment build slowly. Eventually, those changes reach a tipping point and then radical change seems to happen overnight. This is what we are seeing in the Middle East today. The change that the internet brought to their countries has finally reached the tipping point. As a result, the people have awoken and the dictators are falling one by one.
I do agree with Friedman on one point -- we are only seeing the beginning of this revolution. There are dozens of tyrannies in the middle east and Africa that will eventually fall as part of this information awakening.
That is a good thing for them and eventually the world. I am glad to be here to see it.
Friday, February 25, 2011
The Final Death of the 20th Century
The last few weeks have been among the most exciting and promising in recent memory.
People all over the middle east are rising up against the tyrants who have lorded over them for decades.
Even Colonel Gaddafi -- a brutal dictator, who has been in power for 42 years -- is fighting for his survival. This should tell us all that something very big is happening in the world.
The turmoil isn't just occurring in the middle east.
Beleaguered taxpayers in Europe and America have staged their own revolutions as well -- booting out fiscally irresponsible politicians who have run up their public debt and torpedoed their economies.
In America, the Tea Party movement helped spur an electoral revolution that saw the largest GOP gains in the Congress in more than a generation.
Expectedly, the forces of reaction are waging a bitter fight against change.
Government bureaucrats and others who live off of tax money have staged violent protests in Greece, France, and the U.K.
In the U.S., the teacher's unions are mounting an all out effort to hold on to the unchecked power that they have over our wallets and our children.
America has among the worst public schools in the developed world. Last year we were 25th out of 34th in math and science. People across the political spectrum understand that we need fundamental reform in education. Over the last three decades, every proposal by both Democrats and Republicans to fix the public schools have been met by bitter opposition from the NEA and other government employee's unions. The NEA has been successful in blocking any and all change.
Today, the NEA is fighting for it's very survival.
The more I look at what's going on around the world, the more I am convinced that we are witnessing the final death of the 20th century and the concept of the all powerful state that it spawned.
People from Tea Party members in America to lowly peasants in Libya are standing up and saying: we've had enough, NO MORE.
It's a great time to be alive to witness this monumental struggle for freedom against the state.
The sad part is that America may very well lag in this revolution because our vested interests are the most powerful vested interests on earth. It's going to take more than one election to push them aside.
Let's hope that our resolve remains strong and that we remain focused, so that America remains the leading beacon of freedom in the world.
People all over the middle east are rising up against the tyrants who have lorded over them for decades.
Even Colonel Gaddafi -- a brutal dictator, who has been in power for 42 years -- is fighting for his survival. This should tell us all that something very big is happening in the world.
The turmoil isn't just occurring in the middle east.
Beleaguered taxpayers in Europe and America have staged their own revolutions as well -- booting out fiscally irresponsible politicians who have run up their public debt and torpedoed their economies.
In America, the Tea Party movement helped spur an electoral revolution that saw the largest GOP gains in the Congress in more than a generation.
Expectedly, the forces of reaction are waging a bitter fight against change.
Government bureaucrats and others who live off of tax money have staged violent protests in Greece, France, and the U.K.
In the U.S., the teacher's unions are mounting an all out effort to hold on to the unchecked power that they have over our wallets and our children.
America has among the worst public schools in the developed world. Last year we were 25th out of 34th in math and science. People across the political spectrum understand that we need fundamental reform in education. Over the last three decades, every proposal by both Democrats and Republicans to fix the public schools have been met by bitter opposition from the NEA and other government employee's unions. The NEA has been successful in blocking any and all change.
Today, the NEA is fighting for it's very survival.
The more I look at what's going on around the world, the more I am convinced that we are witnessing the final death of the 20th century and the concept of the all powerful state that it spawned.
People from Tea Party members in America to lowly peasants in Libya are standing up and saying: we've had enough, NO MORE.
It's a great time to be alive to witness this monumental struggle for freedom against the state.
The sad part is that America may very well lag in this revolution because our vested interests are the most powerful vested interests on earth. It's going to take more than one election to push them aside.
Let's hope that our resolve remains strong and that we remain focused, so that America remains the leading beacon of freedom in the world.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
The Fundamental Difference Between Private and Public Unions
I grew up in Detroit. I make a huge distinction between industrial worker unions like the UAW and Teamsters on the one hand and government bureaucrats unions like the NEA on the other hand.
The NEA funnels compulsory union dues into political campaigns to essentially elect their own bosses. The politicians who benefit from this refuse to make any changes whatsoever in the horrible school systems no matter how bad they get.
Milwaukee teachers earn on average for $100,000 a year in salary and benefits. What do we get for it? 32% of kids in Milwaukee never graduate high school. Many of those who do "graduate" are functional illiterates who can't read, write, or perform simple arithmetic.
American cannot remain a prosperous country with our awful school system. This has to change. It will never change as long as the NEA and AFSCME own the Democrat Party.
FDR himself was against government workers unionizing. He was right.
The NEA funnels compulsory union dues into political campaigns to essentially elect their own bosses. The politicians who benefit from this refuse to make any changes whatsoever in the horrible school systems no matter how bad they get.
Milwaukee teachers earn on average for $100,000 a year in salary and benefits. What do we get for it? 32% of kids in Milwaukee never graduate high school. Many of those who do "graduate" are functional illiterates who can't read, write, or perform simple arithmetic.
American cannot remain a prosperous country with our awful school system. This has to change. It will never change as long as the NEA and AFSCME own the Democrat Party.
FDR himself was against government workers unionizing. He was right.
Common Thread to Middle East Protests: Young, Connected Populations
There have been a lot of uninformed commentaries on the cause of the various uprisings in the Middle East, especially among the neo-cons who have become hysterical about a plot by the Muslim Brotherhood to take over the Middle East and then the world.
The fact is that the situations in the countries experiencing protests in the middle east are all very different.
1.) Tunisia is a relatively wealthy country. The protests there are very similar to what happened in Chile and many Southeast Asian countries in the 80s and 90s -- people who got some amount of economic freedom finally demanded political freedom as well.
2.) Egypt is very poor and corrupt. Young people decided not to take it any more. Sure, the Muslim Brotherhood was involved in the protests, but they didn't start it or lead it. In the end, I suspect that Egypt's military will behave a lot like Turkey's military and not allow a theocratic state to emerge in there.
3.) Bahrain is also a wealthy country. It has a population that is 2/3rds Shiite being ruled by a Sunni minority. The Shiites see a fundamental unfairness and have finally have decided to do something about it.
4.) Iran is run by religious tyrants. The young people don't like it. Prior to America invading Iraq, the young people in Iran were electing reformist governments. The Iraq war enabled the clerics to whip up mistrust of America in Iran, warning that we were secretly plotting to install the Shah's son as ruler. Those type of scare tactics are no longer working.
The common thread running across all of these countries is that their populations are very young. They are restless. They are also on social media like Facebook and Twitter. So they understand more about the outside world than ever before.
Having direct contact with free people in North America and Europe is a catalyst for all of this discontent.
The neo-cons have it exactly wrong. The young people in the middle east don’t hate our freedom. They envy it. They see the freedom that we have and it causes them to be furious with their own governments for denying it to them. This is a good thing.
This is why cutting off trade and restricting travel is exactly the wrong policy when dealing with tyrants. We need to encourage more contact between Westerners and the oppressed peoples of the world. Yes, this even includes Cuba. Once they see what we have, they won’t stay silent any longer.
The fact is that the situations in the countries experiencing protests in the middle east are all very different.
1.) Tunisia is a relatively wealthy country. The protests there are very similar to what happened in Chile and many Southeast Asian countries in the 80s and 90s -- people who got some amount of economic freedom finally demanded political freedom as well.
2.) Egypt is very poor and corrupt. Young people decided not to take it any more. Sure, the Muslim Brotherhood was involved in the protests, but they didn't start it or lead it. In the end, I suspect that Egypt's military will behave a lot like Turkey's military and not allow a theocratic state to emerge in there.
3.) Bahrain is also a wealthy country. It has a population that is 2/3rds Shiite being ruled by a Sunni minority. The Shiites see a fundamental unfairness and have finally have decided to do something about it.
4.) Iran is run by religious tyrants. The young people don't like it. Prior to America invading Iraq, the young people in Iran were electing reformist governments. The Iraq war enabled the clerics to whip up mistrust of America in Iran, warning that we were secretly plotting to install the Shah's son as ruler. Those type of scare tactics are no longer working.
The common thread running across all of these countries is that their populations are very young. They are restless. They are also on social media like Facebook and Twitter. So they understand more about the outside world than ever before.
Having direct contact with free people in North America and Europe is a catalyst for all of this discontent.
The neo-cons have it exactly wrong. The young people in the middle east don’t hate our freedom. They envy it. They see the freedom that we have and it causes them to be furious with their own governments for denying it to them. This is a good thing.
This is why cutting off trade and restricting travel is exactly the wrong policy when dealing with tyrants. We need to encourage more contact between Westerners and the oppressed peoples of the world. Yes, this even includes Cuba. Once they see what we have, they won’t stay silent any longer.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Milwaukee Teachers Earn Over $100,000 a Year
The Wisconsin teacher strike has ignited another debate about America's supposedly underpaid teachers.
Let's talk reality here.
According to the MacIver Institute total teacher compensation in Milwaukee is $100,005 a year. Salaries average $56,500 and benefits are $43,505. It's a strange salary to benefit ratio, but unions have been pushing benefits over salaries for decades. It was their choice to do this.
Teachers work less than 37 weeks a year. They get 10 weeks off in the summer, 1 week at Christmas, 1 week for mid-winter break, 1 week for spring break, and 11 holidays. The leaves 1472 hours for work. $100,005 / 1472 hours is $68 an hour.
Over the last couple of years, I ran a little consulting firm. When I needed people, I brought them in as 1099 subcontractors at a straight hourly rate. No benefits whatsoever. Over the last two years, the average hourly rate I've paid is $65. That's less than the Milwaukee teachers make.
There are three important differences as well:
First, I live on the west coast, where the cost of living is much higher that it is in Wisconsin. Computer programmer rates are much lower in the Midwest than they are in Seattle. The average teacher in Wisconsin makes significantly more per hour than the average contract programmer.
Second, I hire people who have quantitative college degrees, like Computer Science where they go through 4 semesters of calculus, linear algebra, and statistics. I don't hire people who have worthless teaching certificates or degrees in "Phys Ed".
Third, if the people I employ don't do a great job, my customers won't pay me. They certainly won't bring me back to do more work. On the other hand, teachers get "tenure", which makes it impossible to terminate them no matter how screwed up their product (your kids) become.
The sad fact is that America's poorly performing public school system has little to do with lack of funding or poor teacher compensation. The schools don't perform because the unions care more about their own power than they care about our kids. That's the bottom line.
Let's talk reality here.
According to the MacIver Institute total teacher compensation in Milwaukee is $100,005 a year. Salaries average $56,500 and benefits are $43,505. It's a strange salary to benefit ratio, but unions have been pushing benefits over salaries for decades. It was their choice to do this.
Teachers work less than 37 weeks a year. They get 10 weeks off in the summer, 1 week at Christmas, 1 week for mid-winter break, 1 week for spring break, and 11 holidays. The leaves 1472 hours for work. $100,005 / 1472 hours is $68 an hour.
Over the last couple of years, I ran a little consulting firm. When I needed people, I brought them in as 1099 subcontractors at a straight hourly rate. No benefits whatsoever. Over the last two years, the average hourly rate I've paid is $65. That's less than the Milwaukee teachers make.
There are three important differences as well:
First, I live on the west coast, where the cost of living is much higher that it is in Wisconsin. Computer programmer rates are much lower in the Midwest than they are in Seattle. The average teacher in Wisconsin makes significantly more per hour than the average contract programmer.
Second, I hire people who have quantitative college degrees, like Computer Science where they go through 4 semesters of calculus, linear algebra, and statistics. I don't hire people who have worthless teaching certificates or degrees in "Phys Ed".
Third, if the people I employ don't do a great job, my customers won't pay me. They certainly won't bring me back to do more work. On the other hand, teachers get "tenure", which makes it impossible to terminate them no matter how screwed up their product (your kids) become.
The sad fact is that America's poorly performing public school system has little to do with lack of funding or poor teacher compensation. The schools don't perform because the unions care more about their own power than they care about our kids. That's the bottom line.
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