Motivation Monday ~ Are You/We STUPID or Something?

Oct. 14, 2012 - PRLog -- Today’s Motivation Monday© asks the question whether you / we are stupid or something?!

I ask this question based on reviewing multiple media and wonder whether “we the people,” Americans are stupid or are the media and politicians just treating us like we are??

Tuesday, is the second Presidential Debate between Mitt Romney (R) and President Obama (D).  Millions of people watched the first Presidential Debate, which everyone called pretty fairly as a really bad night for President Obama and a great night for Mitt Romney.   However, Thursday night’s debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Paul Ryan was less clear.  There were some things that were very clear, but the media seems to refuse to make it obvious.  

So, if you don’t mind, I hope you enjoy your coffee and read this Motivation Monday© column.

Point 1:  When you are having a debate or a discussion with someone and you consistently laugh or smile incredulously every time they speak, that is rude and disrespectful.  Men, try this with your wife a few times and see how quickly she hits you with a frying pan! Point proven!

Point 2:  Who are the “middle class?”  Politicians keep lying and manipulating numbers so that we have no idea what the hell they’re talking about !  And then the media, will reinforce “their candidate’s” position.  This week I watched a split screen on my TV and went back and forth between Fox and CNN’s coverage of the debates.  As soon as the debate was over, they were looking to project a “winner” and a “loser” and based on their political bias’ they chose “their candidate.”  THAT IS NOT WHAT MEDIA IS SUPPOSED TO DO!!  They are supposed to provide objective feedback so that the public can make a decision, not lead them toward their preferred conclusion.  And here is a good one that nobody seemed to care about or question.  After the Presidential Debate, one station had Andrea Mitchell as a “fact checker,” even though she had been found guilty of intentionally editing a video to make Mitt Romney look like he was saying something, that he did not say a few weeks ago?!  That doesn’t quite seem like an “unbiased fact checker.”  

These puppets that are on screen trying to remember facts and figures as they present their arguments to America are NOT the real brains behind the message, (although Paul Ryan has some credibility).  The real “numbers guys” are the Economists that run the numbers and make the projections behind the scenes.  These are the “geniuses” from leading Universities in America.  I propose / suggest, that each candidate goes into a private session with their economists and puts together a Power Point Presentation with all of their calculations and assumptions and projections and when finished, have the candidates filmed presenting it, without seeing their opponent’s Power Point.  Each Candidate gets 1 hour to make their presentation.  

The “debate” then becomes a panel of economic professionals that do NOT have a political affiliation review the Power Point Presentations and share with America who is more accurate or who is just plain lying or doesn’t know what the hell they’re doing!  Then have the candidates AND their economists attend the debate and be questioned by the panel.  It would remove rhetoric and BS and finally get some straight answers.

Point 3:  There is a very simple financial model that nobody is paying attention to and I don’t know why? ARE YOU / WE STUPID?   “Small Business Owners” (which for argument sake is companies with less than 100 employees) make up approximately 65% to 75% of the GDP ~ Gross Domestic Product.  This is purely straight forward REVENUE.  Where does REVENUE come from and how is it generated?  
While we all respect our teachers, firemen, policemen and women, and all those local, county, state and federal employees, which is a higher percentage than ever before in America, …what “REVENUE” do they actually create?  It’s OK, I’ll wait.  What “REVENUE” from any products or sales or imports or exports that can be bought or sold that goes toward the bottom line of our GDP do they contribute?  It’s OK, that’s right, the answer is $0.00.

It’s OK.  Public Service was never intended to be a “revenue generator.”  It was serving the public good.  It’s all the good stuff.  Teaching our kids.  Keeping society safe and preventing anarchy! Taking care of the sick and our elderly and keeping our homes and property safe.   You can’t put a price tag on it, because it’s so important.  However, there seems to be a movement that is dividing our society.  Teachers and Police and Public Employees Unions seem to think that they “deserve” more money.  On Long Island, New York, where they have the highest paid Police in America, they are closing in on a $200,000 Police Officer.  That’s right!  $200,000 to be a police officer and that doesn't include medical or their pension.  There are $100,000 teachers and $400,000 School Superintendents!

DO THE SIMPLE MATH, AS BILL CLINTON SAID, “IT’S CALLED ARITHMETIC; THE NUMBERS JUST DON’T ADD UP!”   Where is the money supposed to come from to pay these people?  They create nothing that can be sold on the open market nor something that they can make a “profit” on and yet they all want more money?  Their friends and neighbors are losing their homes that being foreclosed and businesses are closing their doors and yet these people, at the height of selfishness are saying they want more money.

Meanwhile, the small business owners and entrepreneurs that are generating 65% to 75% of the GDP are paying higher taxes to pay these people; paying higher fees to local governments and higher penalties, because the local governments need more money to pay these people that generate no revenue and small business owners have to struggle to keep their businesses and their shops open.

So, here is the simple financial model that I don’t understand why people do not get it, which means that we ALL MUST BE STUPID OR SOMETHING!   If you take 65% to 75% of your GDP and burden it with more taxes, fees and penalties it would seem like common sense that those businesses only have a few choices:
1-   Lower Overhead ~ Fire People
2-   Increase Prices ~ Chase away your customers
3-   Outsource ~ Find Cheaper Labor and Cheaper Costs
4-   Quit ~ Go Out of Business
Somehow.  Local, state and Federal governments and politicians don’t seem to get this simple math.  If you continue to overpay the Public Sector and grow government, it will continue to burden 65% to 75% of our GDP, which are our local “mom and pop businesses,” which will force them to fire people and possibly close their businesses and they don’t work 40 hour work weeks or have guaranteed COLA raises annually.
We are in a Financial nightmare and we have a financial model that is failing and yet people and many in the media are still pushing for a guy who has never run a business and his most significant job was being a “Community Organizer.”  He has not passed a budget in 4 years and he has had $1 trillion in debt every year of his administration.
In the “other corner” you have a guy that has made millions creating financial models that work and have made small companies huge.  Yes.  He has cut losses on some businesses and shut them down or declared bankruptcy, rightfully so, but overall has created more success than failure.

We must be STUPID though, because we are in a financial nightmare and we have a financial expert running for President and somehow it’s still not a “no brainer” as they say!

Here is a very simple question for us all to start our week with.  How do you save the economy by adding more Public Sector jobs that generate no revenue to the bottom line of our GDP? And further burden the small business community that generates 65% to 75% of our GDP?

Happy Motivation Monday©!   I will be sharing similar columns over the coming weeks, as we move toward one of the most important elections of our lifetime.