Blaming College Education for our economic woes. Part I

I'm gonna say the unthinkable. College educations are ruining the world's economies.

How can educating people ruin the world's economies?

The problem is, once educated, educated people need non-educated people working below them to sustain their own job. Think of education as an iceberg. For every part floating above water, also known as the "educated part", there is another 90% below water sustaining the educationally driven above water.

Is the ratio ten to one? I have no idea what the ratio of educated to non-educated is, but as more and more people are educated, there are less and less, less educated people below them to sustain the educated.

Want some proof? Look at what is going on in Haiti. What do you think it costs to support every doctor and educated person who is in Haiti? There probably are about 5 or 10 ten less educated people actually creating the products for each doctor, nurse, architect, or rescue worker that is required in Haiti.

Aha, you may say, rescue workers may or may not have a college decree. Maybe so, but most rescue workers are employed by an ever growing government employment force. Who is ultimately paying for their job? The less educated that do the actual "grunt work" creates the resources for the rescue worker to be employed to do their jobs.

The iceberg cycle appears to be inescapable.

There may be a solution, but ironically, the educated will never figure it out, nor if presented with the idea, would they accept it. The educated would rather see the world crash and burn then see the solution implemented.

Part II will cover the solution.

The 1.00 a gallon gasoline tax the entire country is paying without realizing it.

Some may argue that there is no correlation between the price of gasoline and credit card interest rate charges. However, when the price of gasoline crept up from 3.00 dollars a gallon to 4.00 dollars a gallon, economists began explaining how this rise in the cost of gasoline would adversely effect the economy.

What if I told you the entire country has been paying a secret one dollar per gallon tax for the last couple of years?

What if I told you that the 1 dollar a gallon of gasoline tax consumers are presently paying is not going to develop alternative sources of energy, but instead is going into the pockets of wall street bankers who don't reinvest the money on main street?

Here is the place to find the TMT (total miles traveled), if you want to do your own calculation.

Total average miles driven in the United States averages around 250 billion miles a month. To calculate the miles per gallon average I used 20 miles per gallon. While many cars get well above this figure, when city driving, older vehicles, trucks, buses and bigger vehicles are factored in, 20 miles per gallon is probably a "safe" overall estimate to make, therefore the United States consumes 12.5 billion gallons of gasoline per month.

Approximately 850 to 950 billion dollars in Consumer credit card debt generates an estimated 12.5 billion dollars a month in interest rate charges on this existing credit card debt. American Consumers are being billed 12.5 billion dollars of interest rate charges every month. Every month american consumers use 12.5 billion gallons. This translates into a 1 to 1 ratio. For every 1 dollars of interest rate charges consumers pay every month, they consume one gallon of gasoline.

So whatever you pay per gallon of gasoline, the overall economy is absorbing an additional $1 dollar a gallon in credit card interest rate charges.

That 1 dollar in interest rate charged for every gallon of gasoline consumed is not going towards alternative energy research, it is instead going to national banks as profit that then gets reinvested in foreign industry, or is simply given out as bankers bonuses.

Either way, the interest you pay on your credit card debt IS NOT coming back to your local community.

By not accelerating alternative energy research, the U.S. has to fund excessive military bases all over the world to monitor strategic oil resources.

I would much rather see the United States in a more self reliant energy position and that 1 dollar per gallon consumed should be going for alternative energy research.

Instead of having to pay to maintain all of these military bases and waste a lot of fuel fighting the right to consume a lot more fuel, we could actually use a leaner military to make sure countries are not wasting their resources too quickly.

And, more importantly, if we did have the energy resources to effectively power our own economy, our concern about world wide energy consumption habits would be more altruistic since we wouldn't have to have the energy supplies that we would be monitoring.

In the meantime, consumer credit card debt is the equivalent of 1 dollar per every gallon of gasoline consumed in the United States and in essence that is how our wars are being funded.

Paying interest rate charges on credit card debt is funding our war efforts all over the globe when it should be funding alternative energy research that would reduce the need for world wide military intervention.

The Problem With America's Debt - Glenn Beck - FOXNews.com - Glenn Beck claims debt with Chase Bank is "better" than debt with China, gasp.

The Problem With America's Debt - Glenn Beck - FOXNews.com

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Glenn Beck does not understand the real damage that consumer debt is creating. He thinks we would be "better off" owing Chase Bank rather than China. This is just nuts. We would be better off incentivizing the consumer credit card debt by removing the interest rate charges for any consumer who is committed to PAYING DOWN THEIR CREDIT CARD DEBT.

Everybody wins, even the Chinese. But Glenn Beck falls short with his analysis. The alleged tea bagger could not bring himself to admit that national banks have destroyed local economies.

I will give some credit to Glenn Beck for spotlighting that the Barack Obama is holding on to part of the stimulus money so that the democrats can use it just before the next set of elections this fall to seed Wall Street and possibly electrify regions of the country with stimulus money.

But Glenn Beck loses the credit, and then some, when he has the gall to say consumers would be better off owing Chase Bank rather than China.

Mark Fiore presents the 2010 State of the Union Address We would have liked to have seen.

Click here to see the Mark Fiore Cartoon Animation regarding the 2010 State of the Union Address we would have liked to have seen.

Barack Obama to fix small business by offering a 30 billion dollar stimulus package, better solutions exist.

Consumer Credit Card debt costs americans 15 billion dollars a month. So when Barack Obama talks about a 30 billion dollar credit stimulus program for small business , I somewhat chuckle.

It would be far better to simply incentivize the reduction of consumer credit card debt. Offer super low interest rates on existing credit card debt to anybody who can pay down their debt. This would instantly begin to stimulate local economies all over the country and act as a customer creation model for small business.

No matter how easily one loans money to small business, if the customers are not out there because they are already steeped in credit card debt, it just won't matter.

Compared to record breaking consumer credit card default rates that have been ongoing for well over a year now, it seems to me that getting the largest number of consumers to pay down their overall credit card debt would be the best, fastest way to stimulate our economy.

And it would not require the government riding in to give us money that was already ours to begin with. Barack Obama's state of the union address seemed to be big on government intervention rather than creating pure stimulation of local economies through consumer credit card interest rate reductions.

Global Warming, Top O the Muffin, Muffin Stumps, and how a Show about Nothing is actually about Everything.

I believe that Seinfeld, the show about nothing, covered the issue of global warming in what may be one of the all time classic Seinfeld episodes called "Top o the Muffin".

"Top o the Muffin" gets to the heart of what is wrong with the way we conduct a capitalistic economy. Top o the Muffin was not about Global Warming specifically, but the entire story structure of what happens when Elaine decides to create a business that only sells muffin tops is reminiscent of what the entire planet is going through from an economic and global warming paradigm point of view.

The irony in being able to produce energy, water, cars, gasoline and roadways at such low prices now (just like the top o the muffin), is also creating an obstacle down the road (how to keep making the top of the muffin affordable while dealing with the muffin stumps) that will grow increasingly impossible to solve as time goes on.

Until an effective, energy efficient organic battery can be affordably created, we will continue to deal with an ever growing supply of energy "muffin stumps". Present day batteries (muffin stumps) cannot be put into the ground without harming the environment.

Petroleum, the present day muffin top, is a premium energy product that should be used to energize other types of energies that we need to develop, not compete with them.

How the Bro Stole the Country, from Cannonfire.

Check out the rest of this amazing tale at CannonFire.

The Amex "Recovery" Commercial needs to be spoofed.

If ever a commercial needed to be spoofed, it is this one. The AMEX "Recovery" commercial.

Time to END ALL Interest Rate Charges on EXISTING consumer credit card debt and reduce ALL home mortgage interest rate charges to four percent.

A couple of decades ago when I was just starting out in the film industry I worked for a film company that was in merger talks with two other film companies. Our company was 10-15 million dollars in debt and it appeared the only way to save ourselves was by merging with two stable companies so that the overall debt percentage would be minimized. Our company had already made a name for itself so combining with a financially stable company (aka too big to fail) would result in better times.

But then reality hits. It turns out that all three companies were hiding their own 10-15 million dollars of debt. Each company assumed the other two merging companies were debt free. After the merger the three companies realized they all had brought their own debt into the merger. The new and improved too big to fail company actually had 30-45 million dollars of debt and went out of business less than a year later. 

I bring this story up now because I see my microcosmic job experience is actually recreating itself on a much grander scale.

Most of world is in debt, and nobody really has a solution other than to try and hide their own debt from others.

I have a solution to the hide the debt game that is being played and since I am a nobody, I may be correct when I say "nobody" has a solution.

Gargantuan consumer debt and the destructively high interest rate charges that accompany the consumer debt has destroyed a critical component of a sustainable worldwide economy. Consumers all over the world have less money to spend because more and more of their income is going towards repetitive, revolving interest rate charges that are so onerous they have become unreduceable.

While the actual amount of worldwide consumer debt may not seem like a substantial amount of the overall worldwide debt, it is having a profound affect in many insidious ways. The bottom line is the amount of disposable income that each and every consumer is able to create is dramatically shrinking, and in the process, disposable income no longer first travels between consumers and local small businesses within local economies, disposable income now goes directly to pay a bank debt or some type of tax, and this is a huge problem.

We have reached an economic tipping point where the absolutely profoundly rich are now draining the worlds resources by expecting to get the best return on obscene amounts of savings. Money that should no longer be receiving interest payments is actually siphoning more and more capital away from the everyday person who is just trying to make ends meet.

Banksters worldwide keep stalling the inevitable. The longer the banksters wait to severly reduce interest rate charges on existing consumer debt and decrease home mortgage interest rates to an across the board 4%, the worse things will be for the worldwide economy for an ever expanding period of time.

Too much emphasis is being placed on maintaining interest rate profit margins even when those interest rate profit margins are actually spiraling every country into deepening debt that is devaluing real estate values everywhere.

Countries need to transition to alternative forms of energy that they can generate on their own land, for their own needs, or wars will increase. The key stumbling block to global energy self sufficiency is it needs to happen within the cost parameters of existing oil supplies and prices, and there in lies the parallel problem.

It takes petroleum to create alternative energy infrastructure, but petroleum is being used in a "one time and its gone" methodology.

The longer we wait to deputize oil for the primary purpose of ramping up other forms of energy as quickly as possible, the less likely we will be able to make a successful alternative energy transition while also being able to concurrently service the energy requirements of 6 billion people worldwide (and growing).

What does the world's inability to harvest new sources of energy have to do with interest rate charges? Interest rate charges enslave people to work longer and harder just to maintain their same level of debt. As consumers work longer and harder at their jobs they consume more and more petroleum and energy sources at a time when that petro should be used to create alternative forms of energy.

One example of the reallocation of petroleum to create alternative forms of energy is the idea of completely redoing the electrical grid infrastructure. Actually re laying every bit of electrical wire in the entire United States with the most efficient forms of conductive wiring could significantly reduce the amount of power that needs to be generated, but the petroleum to drive such a project is being diverted to simply driving our gas guzzling cars.

Unfortunately, there is no mechanism in place to create a public works program to make the revamping of the energy grid a likelihood. Instead, the interest rate trap is contributing to consumers working extra hours (assuming they can find work) at jobs that drain our energy resources, which in turn requires our government to fund military installations all over the world, which in turn provides all that extra petroleum which we should be weaning ourselves off of.

Consumer Interest rate charges on EXISTING credit card debt is creating an indebted, enslaved society that will do anything to be able to pay their bills. Most of the work that is being done simply perpetually repays repeating revolving consumer credit card debt and those nasty interest rate charges that prevent the debt from ever being paid down, which further removes us from the urgent energy goal of replacing petroleum as the dominant energy supply source on the planet.

What the world needs to do is DECREASE the amount of hours the worlds workers need to work to maintain their present lifestyle. Each work hour reduction creates more flexibility and more time for actually improving the energy infrastructure of our planet while also reducing energy consumption as well.

Any banker or politician that thinks it is a good thing to create more work hours so consumers can keep repaying repetitive interest rate charges on existing consumer debt is actually helping to accelerate the global population towards a possibly preventable economic and ecological global catastrophe.

Time to Re Do our Income Tax Laws and Simplify Income Tax Returns.

I just want to offer a new way to do income tax. The key proponent being that income tax becomes much much easier to calculate, and that the american consumer only have to pay one entity, and then that entity pays out all the other tax entities in the proper amount.

I propose a level 4 income tax system. The level 4 income tax rate includes rates of 50%, 40%, 30% and 25%. The consumer CHOOSES which level of income tax percentage rate they want to pay, and each level comes with built in deduction choices.

If a consumer chooses a 50% income tax rate, they get three full deductions of their choosing. The consumer can choose to deduct their home mortgage, medical expenses, and car payment deductions.

The consumer would have additional choices for deductions, such as college education or home improvement, but they could only choose three to actually use when they file. The consumer simply chooses the three most costly deductions. I would also allow a renter the right to deduct their rent as long as they were not related to the person they were paying rent to.

The 40% plan would allow the consumer two income tax deductions.

The 30% plan would allow for one income tax deduction.

The 25% plan would have NO deductions, it would just be a pay as you go system in which all income is immediately income taxed at the 25% rate and the remaining 75% belongs to the consumer.

To prevent people from using their deductions to pay nothing into the system, there would be a bottom end cap at 20%. No matter how much one deducts from their income tax, they would still be responsible for 20% of their gross to the government, no excuses, no exceptions.

It is possible somebody could game the system and come up with a method in which one deduction is "overused". I would not be against limiting any one deduction to reducing someones income tax liability up to a certain percentage amount. I do not know what that deduction limit should be however. It would take some testing of the 4 level income tax plan to see how much each deduction could lower someone's overall tax liability.

Would you be ok with the idea of a direct deposit of your income into a bank for income verification and your income tax payment, but then you could immediately use the remaining money as you see fit knowing you had no more income tax issues to deal with?

The bank would also handle your deduction payments. Once again, the bank is immediately verifying your deductions because they process the payments you give them that relate to your deductions.

The final and very important aspect of the level 4 income tax system is you could choose to be a part of the above program, or not. I would definitely choose to be a part of the above program, and I would probably do the 30% deduction income tax with the one deduction option.

Could income tax simplification actually increase productivity?

Could income tax simplicity allow people to make more informed financial choices since they know where they stand with their taxes and know exactly the remaining portion is that they can afford to spend?

Could income tax simplification lead to increased productivity as people spend less time in general on their income taxes? Might the banks gain an extra method of usefulness by being the actual income tax revenue splitter that allocates all monies to the proper tax collection agency?

Isn't it ridiculous that with all the advances in computing that each and every tax payer is still directly responsible for paying each and every tax bill to the proper agency? Why does the government continue to waste my time with such frivolity?

Why can't I have the choice to just direct deposit my income into one banking entity, have my tax liability split off from my earnings, and I've honored all of my tax obligations while knowing exactly what I have left over that is actually mine!

What do you think? Are you afraid of income tax simplification, or crave it for it for the simplicity it would bring?

SATURN collapses while Wall Street Stalwarts come up with IPO's for internet ventures, what's wrong with this picture?

An economy that only invests in internet IPO's while letting actual american manufacturing jobs die is more of the same crap. Wall Street is offering IPO's on some internet ventures that will produce virtually NO manufacturing jobs.

Barack Obama, you are a fraud.

Have you heard of the Virtual Internet Universe Called Entropia, that actually requires you to use REAL DOLLARS to purchase Virtual Entropia Property?

My mouth dropped when I saw this. Apparently people actually use real US dollars to purchase virtual property in an internet virtual universe called Entropia. There is even an exchange rate in which one US dollar equals 10 "Virtual Peds". My initial reaction is this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

I just have to wonder if this entire scheme was developed on Wall Street by a derivatives hedge fund conglomerate that was already investing in things unseen and things never made. Certainly Bernie Madoff must be impressed by Entropia.

Since I know very little about Entropia, I will refrain from absolutely condemning the premise of exchanging one real dollar for 10 virtual "PED" dollars while I mull over the concept some more.

I suppose if one is a "shut in" for a myriad of reasons, including some form of mobility handicap, but they have real money to spend, Entropia apparently is a way of communicating and living a virtual alternative lifestyle without leaving home.

Someone might be financially supporting Entropia so that it can continue to be available for their own personal enjoyment.

I think I saw a story where Entropia devotees literally spend their entire days and nights in the virtual land of Entropia. So buying an estate in Entropia, if it helps ensure that Entropia makes real money, is probably not quite as dumb as it seems to those of us who do not visit Entropia and are having trouble with the concept of buying virtual estates with real money.

However, if people start buying of properties in a virtual world with real money, then they probably have made as good an investment as can be expected nowadays. (that was a joke, or was it?). Nowadays, we are finding that more and money is not real anyways, so maybe Entropia is just ahead of the curve. Certainly Bernie Madoff could be the honorary cheftian who oversees the land of Entropia, or the villan who could cause Entropia's demise.

Maybe Entropia is the natural evolution to "Star Naming" rights. Star naming rights was really big in the late 70's and 80's. People could actually purchase the naming rights to a "star" up in space, and actually receive a document stating that they were the owner of the name of that star. So it would seem that the next logical step after naming your own star would be to actually...drum roll please, inhabit that star and develop your own colony and create a way of life.

Is the day fast approaching when buying an "estate" on Entropia could actually be a cost effective alternative to actually traveling in our world???

Imagine the lives that could be saved if we could retrain texters who text while they drive, texters who operate heavy equipment even as they text, to instead live in the land of Entropia in front of a "real computer" in a room, instead of being out in public texting and possibly causing some tragic accident.

Mulling this over has made me feel like I need a vacation, but in which world?

There may be a way to intelligently explain the exchange of dollars for Peds. One is not actually buying an estate in a virtual universe. One is actually buying time-share on an interactive computer program.

Perhaps the only number that really matters is what is the cost per hour to maintain an estate in Entropia. If it turns out that one can afford to spend 5,000 hours in Entropia, and their estate costs 5,000 dollars, then in actuality, their virtual entertainment is costing them one dollar an hour, and perhaps that can be considered a bargain after all.

At the end of the day, maybe the cost per hour to live in the land of Entropia is what matters most. Just don't forget to add in the real rent, electricity, food, heating, and clothing that is also needed to sustain that virtual environment.

A dollar an hour to live in the land of Entropia becomes pointless if one has no way to make money because they spend all of their time in Entropia.

Dylan Ratigan: Americans Have Been Taken Hostage

Dylan Ratigan: Americans Have Been Taken Hostage Posted usingShareThis

---------------My commentary below-----------

I think it is important to note that the Ratigan column appears on Huffington Post. Huffington Post has already called Barack Obama the "Bank Centric Kid". Huffington Post is also the internet "news source" that blasted Hillary Clinton on a daily basis during the 2008 democratic primaries and PRAISED Barack Obama on a daily basis. Without Huffington Post's interference, Hillary Clinton most likely would have been the democratic nominee in 2008.

Yet Huffington Post has an article that basically blasts Barack Obama and his administration.

It is a shame that we can find three powerful women such as Arianna Huffington, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin, and know that if we put them in a room, they would have virtually nothing in common and unable to build any kind of a consensus of any kind.

Yet if we put three powerful men in a room, the odds are that at least two of them would form some kind of alliance or allegiance on some level. (think back to George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton and their tour around the world to raise money for Hurricane and Typhoon victims a few years ago. George Bush Sr. was OFFENDED and most likely DISGUSTED that he lost to Bill Clinton after only one term in office.)

Make it a game if you will, find three men in politics that completely annoy each other the way Palin, Clinton and Huffington do. I don't think it can be done.

Put Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Bill Richardson in a room, nope, some kind of alliance would happen between two of those fellows.

What about Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy (assuming he still were alive) and Jimmy Carter, Bill and Ted might work something out, maybe even Ted and Jimmy. Jimmy and Bill, definitely not.

What about Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton, and....Bill Mahrer in a room, would the three scorn each other the way Huffington, Palin, and Hillary Clinton most likely would?, Nope, Bill and Bill would get along. Heck, didn't Rush even have Bill on his show once?

It is just kind of galling to me how women seem to neutralize each other and in the process let under qualified men such as Barack Obama slip through to positions not earned.

Jim Quinn of the The Burning Platform dot com asks, Who got Judge Pleska to stay her decision that the Federal Reserve must reveal who got bailouts.

Who got to Judge Preska? First Bloomberg wins the right to review where the bailout money went and orders the Federal Reserve to to comply within five days, now there is a stay of that order, why? (LINK)

NEW BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT, INTRODUCING ROBOTS AGAINST CHASE BANK! ROBOTS AGAINST CHASE BANK ARE SPEAKING OUT!

NEW BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT, INTRODUCING ROBOTS AGAINST CHASE BANK! THE ROBOTS AGAGINST CHASE BANK ARE SPEAKING OUT!

Growing legions of Chase Bank customers / victims are now venting on YouTube. Robots Against Chase Bank is there to assemble the Chase Bank youtube venting protestors into one easy to find place.

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