Common Sense and Government
61
I don't get it.
I read a lot, and try to stay up on current events. I watch several sources of news on TV in hopes that somewhere in all the talk there are at least a few kernels of truth. But as much as I try to learn, there are just some things I will never understand. Some of those are covered below.
Social Security
It is a well known fact that many employed illegal residents all use the same Social Security Number as proof of residency. Now, their employer's are required by law to withhold SS tax from their paychecks and match it dollar for dollar. This money is sent in to the Federal Government and recorded as a payment toward this SS number.
I have to wonder how it is the SS Administrations computer accepts payments from say 100 different employers on the same SS Number. Even they must know it would be impossible for this one individual to be working at 100 different jobs all at the same time. I would think bells would ring, lights would flash, and an automatic phone call be generated to Homeland Security. But I guess my thinking must be wrong?
Now a smart 62 year old user of this multi-use SS Number would be the first to file for his SS benefits using this number. He should receive the max allowable monthly benefit based on all those who paid into this account over the years.
It appears there just might be something wrong with our system, or they are really happy to receive all this extra money thinking they will never have to pay on this account in the future.
Guess I’ll never understand…….
Drug Testing the Payer
I wrote a hub about the fact that many workers who pay into the system are forced to submit to random drug testing as a condition of employment.
To my knowledge, and I hope I am wrong, no State has passed a law requiring the recipients of this hard earned money in the form of entitlements to drug test to be eligible for financial aid. So someone who is not working and earning his own money due to drug or alcohol addiction, gets handed a check without a drug test earned by someone who was forced to drug test to earn the money.
I was discussing this at a party recently, and a lady challenged me that if drug users were denied welfare their children may suffer! I asked her if she thought it possible the children might already be suffering at the hands of an addicted parent who would probably use the entitlement money for more drugs instead of food for the children? I told her my preference would be that welfare is denied, and the case be referred to CPS when children were involved. Handing money to a known drug addict is just enabling this behavior to continue, and will be a permanent drain on our system with no positive results. In my mind we could do far better for these individuals than handing them money to support their habit. Who knows, our hard earned money might even turn some of them around and make them productive citizens instead of a drain on society.
Guess I’ll never understand…….
Section 8 Housing
For those who are not familiar, Section 8 Housing is a federal program forlow-income families, the elderly, and the disabledto receive vouchers for housing assistance. If you would like more information you can look at the following website.
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/housing_choice_voucher_program_section_8
While I agree this is a good and necessary program, I saw something on the news last week that concerns me. I don’t recall the location, but a County Agency put out a notice they were accepting applications for Section 8 Housing on a two to three year waiting list. They were flooded with applications.
What does this say about our economy and our society? Have that many given up on our ability to turn things around that they know in advance they will need this type help in two to three years? This sure doesn’t say much for the confidence level of our citizens as to the future of this country. Either they have given up hope completely or have decided to jump on the welfare wagon while it is still rolling.
Guess I’ll never understand……….
Illegal Immigration
About two years ago, Arizona passed a law that every employer would use the Federal E-Verify system prior to employing new hires. To my knowledge, this is the only State that has made this a law. This system is free to use, and reportedly 97% accurate. I recently hired one of my own sons and was required to run him through the system even though I had every reason to believe he was a legal resident of this country. This becoming a law was challenged in the court system and a recent ruling was the State was justified in passing this law. Any employer found not using E-Verify could lose his business license.
We talk a great deal about the serious economic impact millions of illegal residents in this country create for us. Every employer in the country has the right to use this system for free to ensure job applicants are here legally, but do not take advantage of this tool. Now common sense would tell us if there were no jobs available for illegals, they just might stop coming here for work. Why don’t all States make this a law and penalize employers who refuse to use E-Verify?
Guess I’ll never understand……….
My frustration lies with the fact that our society is loaded with problems, many that could easily be solved with some simple procedural changes. No additional costs to the Government, just make a few changes. We obviously can’t fix everything all at once but if we start fixing those easily fixed problems, others may go away by themselves
I could go on with more examples of issues that could be fixed with common sense, but won’t bore you with more at this time. Run these through your minds and you may come up with a few of your own that would be interesting. The big thing is changes need to happen. We can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over and hope for different results.
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Peter, nice to see you in here. A little common sense applied in the right places could solve many of our problems. Like you, I fear we will run out of time before common sense kicks in. Any vacant apartments near yours down there in Thailand?
Got one right next to me that is vacant. But I want to come visit you. So stay for a while. Maybe together we can come up with a solution for all this silliness. Peter
Trying to use common sense as it relates to government is an exercise in futility. In one of my early small businesses in Canada, I was informed my payroll was to be audited. On the appointed day, four auditors drove out from the city to my rural address, sat in my office (once a garage) and poured over my paperwork for the entire day. My point? There was one more auditor than I had employees. Yup, it took three qualified government accountants driving a car from the government fleet eight hours to audit a payroll for two employees. I was assessed $52 in improperly paid social security co-payments and a $250 fine for my clerical error. The fine was later forgiven following my hair-raising, penultimate raving oration at the local Revenue Canada office and they settled for the $52.
Uh huh. The Canadian taxpayers money at work.
Did you ever look at my hub How one country tried gun control and shot itself in the foot? It will make you laugh (or cry) but bear in mind it was the second hub I ever wrote.
Do not, I repeat, do not look for common sense, efficiency, intelligence or industry from the civil service.
Good hub and my answer to all your questions is "I don't know."
Lynda, I guess it doesn't matter what country you live in, dealing with the government can be frustrating to say the least. No, I have not read that hub but will do so tonight. I love the way you write.
Peter - If you know who gets re-elected I will be needing that apartment next to yours. I will not stay here and watch everything I have worked for go down the toilet, and I don't care to live under Socialism. I'm sure if they rent that one you can help me find another one that is close to you. Don't worry, I will stay here until after you come to visit.
Intellectuals struggle with this stufff bless their pea picking little hearts. They make great college proffessors and great teachers. They serve a valuable service to our society. If they could just figure out how to wipe their own ass, they'd be more fun to be around.
You may have spotted a gold nuget here Mike. The question you ask here would make ANY politician stutter.
jim
Jim, I'm no computer wizard, but believe I could write a program that would light up the screen and say TILT when the 50th or 60th Social Security Payment arrived that month for the same person. I wonder who in Washington I would write or call to get an answer to this question?
Just imagine your'e my partner in The Housefire Project, and it's June 2012. The Project now has 1.2 million members. We're sitting out by the pool and you ask me that question. "I say I don't know Mike, that's a damn good question. Why don't you call McCain in the morning, and ask him. Let him know that every single member we have is anxiously awaiting an explanation and we ain't fed em in a week." Kind of makes problem solving fun doesn't it my friend.
jim
Jim, that will be a dream come true. A phone call to a Politician telling him or her that me and my 1.2 million friends and fellow members of Housefire are not happy with the way you voted on this bill. It can happen my friend. You have the ball rolling and we can get a voice loud enough to be heard all the way to Washington. As individuals, they laugh at our complaints and call us whiners. As a member of an organization like Housefire, they would pay attention. We have lots of work to do but we can get there from here. This darn question on all the extra SS Payments won't get out of my head, I will try to find an answer.
Hi Old Pool: It is frustrating all these issues you've broached. It seems like every since this present administration was installed there is a narly, upsetting, disturbing, frustrating, infuriating issue almost weekly. I've gotten so I have to stay away from the news, rent a lot of silly movies and just escape.
This week I went ballistic over Huntsman. Are they kidding? The media went gaga over his announcement. Who the hell wants that pansy, RINO as president? I'm getting all worked up again Poolman and I'm too old for this shit. I need to go back to my flowers and watercolors.
But I am gunna git me a gun. I may even take Frogs advice and learn how to use it.
Hi Lizzee - By Huntsman I guess you mean Obama Jr.? Were he to be elected I don't think we would notice any change at all.
Yes, I agree, you should have a gun and know how to use it. Knowing how and when to use a gun is the real key to gun ownership. I can't imagine living in this world without a gun for personal protection. Most of the bad guys have guns, so it is only fair the good guys have guns.
Just leave the news turned off and have a great day.
Mike - If you tell a lie often enough what is supposed to happen? I think we're seeing a lot of it happen. SS is going broke, as is Medicare. I'm beginning to think we need to drug test all federally elected officials and federal bureaucrats.
Please don't get me started on Section 8 housing and the abuses involved in that program.
Obama is trying to back door amnesty now as he has back doored other things to circumvent the will of Congress. This is one of the most explosive issues that he could bring up so I'd be very careful if I were him. We don't want amnesty for illegal aliens. Secure our borders and begin the deportation process and they can take their rug rats with them.
The Frog
FP - As usual thanks for your comments. I have formed an opinion that may or may not be viable. Your assessment of this would be appreciated.
Farmers have crops that MUST be harvested or rot in the fields. Our own unemployed are not going to give up their unemployment checks and other entitlements to go work in a field. We have no guest worker program up and running that would provide the needed labor, so that leaves the farmer one choice. Hire illegals or watch his crops rot in the field.
Now that leaves our Government two choices. One being draft a working Guest Worker program that would require planning and monitoring, and then really close the border to illegal immigration. Two would be continue to lie about the border situation and turn a blind eye to those coming across to work the fields for the farmers.
I suspect the choice would be number two, business as usual.
Your comments would be appreciated.
I lived in a brand, new, modest home in Festus, MO, for a couple of years. My ex and I didn't realize that directly across the street was HUD housing. I'm not a snob and had I known, at the time, it wouldn't have deterred me from buying the home we settled into. Soon we saw police cars across the street everyday. They openly did drugs on the front porch, sold drugs at 3 a.m., but the part that really bothered me was their confrontational spoilin' for a fight attitude. The 17 year old son of the single, mean, pinched face bitch he called mom that rented the house, began scaring the neighbors 2 doors down from us as he peeked into their daughter's bedroom window more nights than not. Once the problems were highlighted in an article in the local newspaper, people started getting out while they could sell their property. The house right next to us sold to a motley crew of drug dealers. My ex decided we needed to move when the dude next door started making comments to me every time I went out in the yard. I caught one HUD resident baiting my pedigreed Golden Retriever into her home. When I went over with Leo's leach, she opened the door and at least 25 dogs were milling inside her home. I guess she was stealing pets and selling them for drug money from the look of things. We did sell our home in 4-days, and accepted a contract from the family with no children. I know personally that people can become victims of circumstances beyond their control, but we are still in charge of how we deal with those circumstances. I am a lot less naive today. Great article, Mike, that leaves many questions to seriously ponder that leads to many more questions, making me discouraged that it feels like the hole we are now in is too deep to dig out of. I was thinking maybe Barbados?
Amy, great to see you in here and thanks for the comments. I feel your pain with the housing and bad neighbors issue. That situation can quickly turn the American Dream of home ownership into a frigging nightmare.
Unfortunately, under the guise of protecting our rights, law enforcement's hands are tied and not much can be done. That is the exact reason I choose to live in a rural setting with acres separating the houses.
I was thinking seriously about Costa Rica, but unfortunately American developers have discovered this gem and the prices are rising rapidly. Now I'm thinking perhaps joining Peter down there in Thailand may be a viable solution. We are rapidly headed toward Socialism in this country, so it will be a place that doesn't love this form of government. If you find the perfect place please let us know.
My goodness Amy, I've heard a lot of horror stories
(20 years in the escrow business) but your's is certainly one for the books. I had no idea Section 8 was that big a magnet for scum. Let us all know if you find a place to escape.
OP - Migrant workers are still working the fields. Those pickers are legal. Illegals will pick for less money so there ya go.
I'm a "workfare" not "welfare" type of guy Mike. Why are we letting perfectly capable bodied people sit on their duffs with their hands out expecting others to fill their paws for doing nothing. Every time "workfare" is brought up the Democrats scream, "YOU WANT THEM TO DO WHAT? WORK!" It's like watching Maynard G. Krebs whenever the "W" word.
As far as amnesty goes, the last time they tried it when Bush was President the phone calls actually caused the Washington switchboards to malfunction and they had to be shut down. It isn't a popular idea with the majority of the American electorate.
The Frog
Dear Mike and Mslizzee, Since I've been writing general articles online at AMS, I've picked a lot of topics from their bulletin board on travel. It is interesting learning about other countries. Although there is no such place as Nivana, if I'm going to move on, I want it to be as close to paradise as possible. I am seriously considering Barbados, Denmark, or an island like Phuket in Thailand. I'll let you know when I scrape the bucks together to go see for myself. No better time than now since I'm on my own, laid off from my job with few responsibilities other than myself and my dog. With tourism the main means of the island economy, other than the resorts, many of the inhabitants are far from wealthy so I would imagine living is relatively cheap. Barbados is appealing, because the gorgeous climate and magnificent surroundings are buffered from hurricanes, the last one to hit the island being 1955. I'll keep you posted.
Amy - Check out Costa Rica!
Thanks FP - No, I am not a fan of amnesty either, and think the current administration is struggling with this. They would love to have all the extra votes this move would make, but fear the wrath that most in this country would bring down on them. I have some Hispanic employees, legal citizens I might add, and the word on their grapevine is amnesty will happen before 2012. They encourage their friends to not apply for legal status because soon they will be citizens anyhow. I sure hope they are wrong about this.
Mike - If they want to watch the American public come unglued then that is their prerogative. All that legislation they tried when Obama had both houses came up empty handed. I keep reading about his trying to accomplish this by executive order. Man, he better not try it.
I'm just sayin...
Hey Froggie, you're a prince! I'm going to do that. My bro is a professor of microbiology at UC, Davis, who has been there on research projects often. The only thing that scares me is the huge parasite problem he's studied there. Nevertheless, I'm going to research the country 'cause I've heard its gorgeous. Probably a matter of where you situate yourself, like everywhere else.
Although technically Frog is right, technically so are you. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't. Without the illegals the crops don't get picked and if they don't the prices of food will go way up. If we stop them from coming and make the farmer pay a living wage for an unemployed American, same result higher food prices. Any way you look at it we end up footing the bill with higher prices. I know most Americans don't realise this but we pay way to little for our food. In Europe it is almost twice as much, here in Asia it is about the same but always fresh. We can't have our cake and eat it to, If we had a decent system and distribution and pricing it would go along way to solving this problem. Did you ever think how do the Europeans do it without Mexican? How do the Japanese do it? The U.S. is the one with the immagation problem all because of the costs of bringing in the crops. It happens in other countries to some extent but not like in the states. It is an economic problem first that generates the immigartion problem I believe. It is solvable just like the rest of the world has found. Everyone must eat to live we just make it so complex and money based that we throw up our hands and say "business as usual". At least that is what I think. Peter
Peter, as usual I agree with how you think. You have seen enough of this world that you have experience to draw from. Of course it is solvable, but only after we admit it is a problem a problem.
Peter - Evidently you didn't read my write up about The Food Police. They're coming to your kitchen soon enough. If this sort of government regulation nonsense continues, commodity prices will rise even higher than they are.
The Frog
Frog we're all in the same boat, food prices are going up and the "food police" can't change that, it is supply and demand. They won't be coming to my kitchen because mine is in Thailand. And don't worry about that anyway by the time the TeaCups are done, there won't be any FDA or anything of that sort left to do anything about it.
Peter - I can only pray friend. I do it daily anymore, several times. Hopefully I won't be in constant prayer. LOL
All of our knees are getting sore lately.
Peter - I bought some heavy duty knee pads after this last election. LMBO
Hey, Peter, how is cost of living in Thailand?
Amy - Peter has a hub on living in Thailand with some prices. Very interesting reading. I have spent time in Costa Rica and love it. My sister now owns slightly over 10,000 acres in Costa Rica, and spends about 6 months a year down there. But, prices are going up rapidly.
Interesting comments, they distracted me from the social security number issue. As far as the illegals using the same number, I have a bigger fish to fry....The potus has an almost innumerable amount of social security numbers. Yet this issue is just totally ignored.....No, I am with you, I do not understand why one number covers many people...why did the gvt just not issue a central number for everyone if this is happening?
How is the potus getting away with his ruse....the questions just keep piling up with no answers in sight.
I still do not understand why the State of AZ is being sued by the gvt. Makes no sense. Why not sue the entire US while they are at it?? You are right. I do not understand either. Not at all. Great piece Mike.
Hi Linda - The idiocy part of this is the SS Administration should know that over 100 payments coming in on the same SS Number would indicate something is not quite right. But they don't pay attention to money going out, why should they care about money coming in?
Arizona is being sued because we embarrassed Obama by saying we were going to do what the Feds are not doing. That is it, plain and simple.
Linda - Write Obama a letter and ask him who Harrison J. Bounel is. He is a non-existent person who just happens to using Obama's social security number.
This is why government ought to float the Navy, deliver the mail, and otherwise stay out of our business.
I love it Poolman.....a well vented hub.....Guess I’ll never understand...those words speak for so many of us.
We just need to get some common sense back into our system....and I know it seems impossible...but THAT is the only way we can ever save this nation.
Up and awesome...
CMerritt - I appreciate you stopping by and of course your comments. I find this so frustrating that even obvious problems with easy solutions are not ever addressed. My approach has always been to fix the obvious, and often things begin to work again. I guess our elected officials don't believe in this approach.
WillStarr - hate to break this too you, but the Government even loses money delivering the mail. A fact few consider is how much does it cost to mail a letter? We assume it is 44 cents, but after the Post Office gets the money from the government to make up their losses, it could well be 44 dollars per letter. They do float ships pretty well, I'll certainly agree with that.
Thanks for stopping by.
As far as the Arizonans doing what the Feds will not...I recall back in the solid days of the cowboy vigilante groups forming to combat things they wanted to deter. Personally, I along with many feel the suing of AZ is yet one more reprehensible act he is committing. Of course, this is not news to you I am sure....
No, his suing AZ is no big surprise. About in the same league as the lady who sued McDonalds when she burned herself with hot coffee she was holding between her knees. Only problem is, she won that lawsuit. AZ has since counter sued the Feds over this issue, so it should get interesting. What is really odd is that other states don't even seem to be upset that AZ is being sued for trying to protect it's borders and citizens. Go figure.....
I would assume that the other states are somewhat happy for the inexpensive labor they are gaining with the influx of illegals needed employment, which is yet another reason why so many people are out of work. The illegals are not capable of doing the high paying jobs of course, due to lack of "smarts", but the positions some Americans could take, they are taking. I know this does not constitute all of the unemployed Americans, but some who could have jobs do not .... And if the other states are not concerned Mike this further shows lack of unity in our country.
I argue that for the most part, illegals are not taking jobs from Americans. They are taking the jobs most Americans are not willing to do. Of course there are a few exceptions, but this is the general rule.
If you gave an unemployed person the choice of picking melons, or collecting unemployment benefits and watching TV, which do you suppose they would choose? This situation will never change until like the illegals, our own are forced to work or starve. This sounds harsh, but that is just the way it works. I would choose stay home and watch TV myself if that option were available. If it went away, I would pick melons because I have to feed myself and my family.
PETER LUMETTA Level 6 Commenter 11 months ago
Mike your common sense is just to sensible for most folks. They would rather believe the the horse manure spread by the politicians than deal with reality. Unfortunately we may run out of time waiting for the light to go on and we'll all find ourselves wondering what happened. We must stop the waste and stupidity of the Dummies in Washington (DIW). We're working on it, thanks Peter