Getting it Right - Welcome

The goal of this blog is to publish my thoughts on a variety of economic and political topics in the hopes that people who find them educational or beneficial will utilize them and/or forward to others who might find them interesting and/or worthwhile to promote to others, possibly including politicians who can push some of these ideas to fruition. The topics in my blog are meant to be of value on a long term basis, not a daily diary or political issue of the day log. If the information posted is useful to you, by all means utilize it and/or forward it as you see fit. If not useful, then merely ignore it. There are no universally agreed upon truisms and too little tolerance between some of those with opposing viewpoints to successfully convince the people with hardened opinions to move away from them. I am an analytical type person who will try to be as factual as I am able.

I disdain the current popularity of name calling and condemnation of viewpoints with no factual alternatives or logical solutions given that I see so often. If you don't have a solution based on fact and logic, then opt out of the discussion because you have nothing to contribute. My background is a degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and 39 years working in middle management jobs for a major retailer. My opinions are forged on the personal experence of life, family, friends, and work as well as triumphs and mistakes that I have made and hopefully learned from. My hope is that this blog helps you.

My first topic will be about personal finance. I chose that one first because most of us work long and hard just to survive but not all of us realize our dreams of becoming financially independent from the labors of our work. Much of our political votes/thinking also focus on the economy and in particular how well we are personally doing financially.

It is relatively simple, without sacrificing the enjoyment of living for 'today' and even at moderate incomes, to retire as a millionaire or multi-millionaire, if you focus on that goal consistently from a young age. It is also simple to ensure that your child or grandchild retires rich. It merely requires a one time gift of just $2,000 invested wisely and the passage of time. Please read my first post on this blog to learn more.


An index/schedule of past and future posts and their dates will always be updated so that it becomes the first post that you see below. If the date of a post that you wish to read is preceded by the word "Posted", then find it below or click on the title in the Blog archive to review.

Blog Archive

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Socialism – A Good Example of Why Socialism Always Fails


An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on) These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

Sunday, May 12, 2019

Identity Politics – The Truth versus the Democratic Lies


The only people practicing identity politics are Democrats and they have been doing that for decades. It is in the Democrats interest to have people FALSELY believe that in today's world, they are being discriminated by color, by gender, and by place of birth, and that only Democrats can fix that through open borders and by converting America from the most successful economic system in the world, Capitalism, to the most failed economic system in the world, Socialism. Let's take those issues one by one. Color discrimination first. In an age when a black person was elected president twice - you would think that this lie had been put to bed. Black people who try hard in academics and work are successful and that's what it takes for all people to be successful. Single parent families, no matter what skin color they happen to be, are understandably poorer, no matter what their skin color, than two parent families given that two instead of one person can be working and that a one parent family has a much harder time realistically working and taking care of young children. One if four white families are single parent families. For Black families, it is triple that - 3 out of 4 Black families are single parent families. Also, more Blacks, relative to their population are in prison. Is this discrimination as Democrats often claim? No, for the simple reason that Black crime is 8 times higher than the national average. Despite that, many more whites than blacks are killed by cops each year, but the fake news media only tells you about blacks being killed by cops. What about gender discrimination? Democrats love to pull out the totally irrelevant statistic that the average woman makes only 82% of the average man. If everybody worked the same job, that would be relevant, but there are thousands of different jobs with thousands of different qualifications and pay. Lumping HS dropouts with college graduates and everyone in between by gender, plus lumping part time and full time jobs together by gender, so that there is just one “national” job and one “national” pay for each gender is statistically, totally meaningless. In the only statistic that matters, men and women in the same job and with the same level of education and experience make the same money. That should be no surprise - it's been the law for 50 years. Finally - place of birth. Democrats falsely lump legal immigrants together with illegals. Illegals ARE NOT IMMIGRANTS - THEY ARE INVADERS. America admits one million people each year LEGALLY to come and live in America - all with a path to citizenship. That is more than all other nations on Earth Combined.
The myth of gender pay gaps:




Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Medical Care is “Rationed” in Europe and Canada


Not even socialistic Europe nor Canada have Medicare for All. Patients pay something. Also, taxes are much, much higher in Europe and Canada (40 to 60% Federal income taxes plus 20 to 25% hidden national taxes - called a Value Added Tax or VAT) to pay for their social programs, including medical services that they do have. In essence, and this is always true - the government has no money and pays for nothing. Taxpayers (you and me) pay for every government program. In order to reduce medical costs, Europe has dictated how much doctors get paid and how much doctors and medical facilities can charge for procedures. Consequently, there is a shortage of doctors, medical facilities, and medical equipment (such as MRI machines). As a result, medical care is "rationed" in Europe and Canada. It takes weeks and often months to see a doctor. If surgery is needed and it isn't terminal, you can wait months in pain before the surgery is performed. If you are "too old", you may be denied treatment such as dialysis for terminal medical conditions so that there are enough machines to save younger people.