OK, people are we finally getting it after the recent economic numbers that the U.S. economy is in a slump? The housing market is in a free fall, gas is at all-time highs again and we have more unemployment claims again this month.
So lets look at this.
First, gas. Speculation is killing the market, first it was over the war, then it was over Iran, now Nigeria. What the real problem is is the idiots who are speculating over all these issues. Are you serious, Nigeria? Even OPEC wants gas at or near $35 per barrel. Yet, we have these morons thinking because there is a disruption possibility in Nigeria we are going to lose production. Hell, the USA and the rest of the world cannot keep up the way it is with production. But yet, we as consumers bark and moan and do nothing, no one protests, no one talks with their wallet, or their VOTE.
Second, the housing market. People ... if you work for $7 per hour and are trying to buy a house for $400,000 dollars with no money down, you are going to lose it in six months because you can not afford it! What idiot loan officer approves these loans? Now, everyone deserves the American dream of owning a home, but be smarter on your choices, people. And you, Mr. Home Loan financial person, your job should be based on the number of foreclosures that you give out, not the number of loans you give out.
Third, employment. Everyone should work, now not everyone can, it's a given. Family issues, disability, medical, what have you. But if you are an able-bodied American with the capability of even holding up a sign for the Domino's Pizza lunch special, then you better get your lazy butt off the couch and work. I am sick of hearing, as I overheard at a coffee shop this week, "I wish some one would give me a job," to which their friend asked, "What are you looking for?" "An office, where I can come and go as I want, do what needs to be done and get paid serious money!" It was too funny because as I overheard, (was hard not too) he had no education, no skills and currently did not work because he got fired from his job for smelling like pot and failing his drug test! Are you kidding me? Son, grow a brain and think about where your life is! "The world needs ditch diggers," as stated by Judge Smales, in 1985.
There is a famous Milwaukee radio personality that states it best: "We are big, fat, lazy Americans. We want it when we want it, how we want it, whenever we want it, and we want more of it"
Let's start using the seven pounds of space between our ears rather then the 20 pounds of space on our backside, people.
One last piece … People, learn how to drive! You say FIB's are bad … Wow, Wisconsinites, you are the worst drivers I have been around. God created the lever near your left hand. It is called a directional. Learn to use it, please!
Christopher Carter is president and chief executive officer of CCI, a Milwaukee-based technology company. Additional information is available at www.ccierp.com.
2 Comments
It is about time someone said what we all are thinking.
Speaking of rants on political issues, sometimes we need to call these elected people for what they are doing - manipulating us citizens to their own ends. My own recent experience: I went to a session near my home in Racine to discuss the state budget last week, held by one of our elected representatives. The stated focus was "no new taxes." The real focus was the old parlor game, "ain't it awful" – let's complain – about new fees and tax increases. The true objective is to get sympathy for the complainer; fixing the problem doesn't gather sympathy. Now, sympathy and relief from taxes to people who deserve it is valuable, especially as it leads to creative long term solutions. But this group hardly qualified. [paragraph] One of the "onerous" taxes was an increase in the legal fees for selling a house from $500 to $1000. A typical home in Racine County today sells for around $175,000. The proposed fee increase represents 0.2% of the sale price of that typical home. The buyer and seller negotiate over ten times this amount before settling on a closing price. How is 0.2% going to influence the sale? But this is a change; someone will find a way to claim it hurts them and solicit sympathy. [Update: I understand the fee has been removed from the budget. What else comes out of the budget to balance this change has not been mentioned.] [paragraph] A real problem with home sales in Racine is demand – how many people want to live here. I know people who live in western Mt. Pleasant and drive to the Kenosha Metra station to ride the train to work. They like living in Mt. Pleasant; they like their jobs and the income. These people have coworkers, many of whom would also like to live in Mt. Pleasant, if they could only get to work more easily than at present. If we had KRM, the station would be less than four miles from Mt. Pleasant homes. These coworkers would become Racine area home buyers, and gladly willing to pay a few thousand more dollars than the present selling price to get a nicer house and a more desirable community than available south of the state line. [paragraph] But KRM represents a change. Never mind that the cost is even less noticeable than shifting present tax money from one place to another. Never mind that developments near the train stations will provide local tax income to exceed the costs many times over. If you are considering selling your home and moving to a condo in a few years, the people at this meeting were not thinking of you. They were more concerned with playing "ain't it awful," instead of improving the Racine area. [paragraph] There was also a lot of "ain't it awful" hand wringing at the money needed to keep the City of Racine functioning. Why not bring in the KRM Rail to give a strong shot to Racine's (and Oak Creek's and Milwaukee's) economic activity? That would allow Racine to generate more of its own tax money, but the suggestion was quickly dismissed without comment. It didn't offer sympathy. [paragraph] I'm sure the same could be said for Milwaukee, especially Bay View and points south. I bet these folks are quite concerned about more home buyers and better sale prices. [paragraph] I'm sorry; I cannot understand the logic that prefers complaining about an undesirable situation over fixing it. KRM offers the best, brightest opportunity to improve Racine, and it will certainly help Milwaukee, too. The cost to us voters is virtually nil. Those who want to avoid new taxes can do so - allocate a penny of present transportation funds (gasoline taxes) to cover KRM. Interstate I-94 is going to be rebuilt in a few years. We could allocate the "traffic mitigation" funds for that project to fund KRM. The Marquette Interchange project, which will cost almost as much as the I-94 rebuild, planned $20 million for traffic mitigation. The local funding portion of KRM needs less than that. [paragraph] Face it: It's time for the people we elected to DO something, something positive, that will help us and our businesses. Does no one in Oak Creek care how their customers reach them, when I-94 is shut down? For 5 plus years? Does no one in Milwaukee care if traffic from the south slows to a trickle? When the travel time from Kenosha reaches an hour and a half. Or two hours? Twenty-one percent of the sales taxes collected in Racine city come from outside Racine county. That's about 20 percent of the local retail business activity. How do those folks get to Racine in the first place - a lot come by I-94. How much of Milwaukee's sales come from I-94 traffic, perhaps 5 or 10%? When I-94 is shut down, you can plan on dropping your business by that much. I don't know about you, but I'd hate to look forward to such a prospect. Maybe it's time to speak to the people who got elected to serve _all_ of us, that they need to do that. [paragraph] Racine and all of Racine County needs KRM. Milwaukee needs KRM. We need to bring Southeast Wisconsin into the modern world of expensive gasoline and convenient transportation. We cannot afford to push ourselves deeper into a backwater of declining economic activity. We need KRM. We need it now.