Tag: economy (page 2)

Granholm made a comment to MIRS news that she believes Sarah Palin is unqualified to be
President because she left her governorship when "the going got tough."

    Despite the progress we've made, many businesses are still skittish about hiring.  Some are still digging themselves out of the losses they incurred over the past year.  Many have figured out how to squeeze more productivity out of fewer workers.  And that cost-cutting has become embedded in their operations and in their culture.  That may result in good profits, but it's not translating into hiring and so that's the question that we have to ask ourselves today: How do we get businesses to start hiring again?

From the perspective of an employee of a small business, I can't tell you how cynical and dream-crushing your perspective is, Mr. President.

I don't see how you can claim, sir, that your administration has made any progress, economy-wise.   Here in Michigan, I've been told there were some stimulus jobs in the 83rd congressional district, however, there are only 15 districts in Michigan, and they number 1 through 15.

I don't like to talk about myself as much as you do, but I'd like to share some of my experience to let you know what types of things you all are doing "in Washington that are inhibiting" me.

I was hired 4 years ago to do a highly-skilled job that I had no idea how to do.  With the help of my fellow co-workers, I learned.  I learned fast.  It wasn't long before I could see some ways of doing things at work to make the job simpler, and more effective.  I became supervisor and was involved in the hiring process.  I helped hire people who had the same amount of knowledge of the job as I did when I got hired.  I am now helping them to become as successful as I have been.

I can't tell you how many jobs I've had before this that I literally stared at the clock, waiting to go home-where I never did anything either.   That's not living, that is only existing.

You see, when you learn something, a skill or a piece of knowledge, you feel good about yourself.  You say to yourself, "Wow, I did that.  Maybe there are more things I don't yet know I can do."

When you know you are able to do something that you never thought you could, you start to think that what you have been dreaming about doesn't just happen to lucky people, you start to think that those people who have reached their dreams worked at it, and learned as much as they could to achieve them.

Those people become entrepreneurs, small businessmen and businesswomen.

Every person has a dream of what they really want to do.  Some dreams become nothing because of the lack of work involved in making them come true.  In Michigan, I believe the back-breaking amount of work involved in holding one's dream is a direct result of the "inhibiting" effects of Michigan's current administration and your administration.

Sir, why would any small business person hire someone to do nothing?  After they worked so hard to take the chance to reach their dreams, why would they disrespect another human being in such a manner?  Who would say to an applicant, "Look, don't try to get ahead in life, sure I did it, but you can't."  Not me, never ever.

It takes hard work to reach your dreams, it takes a non-productive existence to suck them away.

For the small business owner out there, I have a few questions that I'd like to ask you to answer in the form of a comment.

Questions:
What do you think are the major contributors, specifically, to the past year's loss in sales and/or revenue?

Do you believe intrusive government is slowing your recovery?  If so, how?

Do you believe the current administration has made progress in the economy?

Are you cutting costs on your workers?  If so, how has that resulted in good profits?

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm made an ass of herself on Fox News Sunday yesterday.  Sorry to be so blunt but sometimes putting it simply is the best approach.

Granholm decided that after she and her fellow Democrats running the state of Michigan have implemented policies causing the projected loss of 1 MILLION jobs in the state by the end of her 2 terms as governor, that she'd take on job creator, Steve Wynn (see the video here).

After Wynn explained how the government on a national level was failing miserably in creating an environment in which job creation could flourish, Granholm chastised the successful entrepreneur for being "simplistic."  It's admirable that Wynn managed to keep his temper in check listening to blow-hard Granholm dismiss the private sector and singing the praises of a demonstrably failed and bloated government.

Let's start with the "municipality" and work out way up, shall we?

We learn today that the Detroit Public Schools, long a paragon of Lefty administrative virtue, have 257 "ghosts" on the payroll.  According to the Ivory Tower these are folks who are pulling down major bank but aren't even supposed to be on the payroll.  The local public school bureaucracy is so wasteful of taxpayer dollars they don't even demand a lick of work to get them.  

There were 37 unclaimed paychecks and 220 unclaimed direct-deposit slips totaling about $208,000, said Odell Bailey, DPS' auditor general. He added that the recipients are not on approved leave.

Robert Bobb, DPS' state-appointed emergency financial manager, also said an audit has begun to determine if employees have unapproved health care  dependents that are running up costs.

Probably important, too, that we don't blame this entirely on the bureaucracy. That means there are 257 individuals who at one time or another were entrusted with the education of Detroit kids whose integrity was so poor they continued cashing the checks they knew they hadn't earned.  

DPS might want to audit their character assessment and their hiring practices next.  And they're not the only ones.  As frustrating as a chronically bungled payroll can be it isn't nearly as dangerous as the mistake the Granholm-Cherry administration made this week when they took a convicted murderer who'd wracked up 124 "major misconducts" since entering prison, took him out of jail and dropped him off at his grandfather's house without medication.  

Because that sounds like a safe thing to do.

Read on...

Bouchard becomes one of the most prominent voices in Michigan to advocate some pretty serious changes to the way things are being done in Lansing, from being open to "tweaking" Proposal A to openly advocating a part-time legislature.

Just a few of the highlights include-

RightMichigan: Thoughts on the new State Police Headquarters?

Sheriff Bouchard: "What good is a state of the art building if you can't inhabit that building with the men and women who are there to protect you?"  ... "They should have put (the project) on hold years ago, frankly."

RM: The Americans for Tax Reform "No New Taxes Pledge?"

Sheriff Bouchard: "Clearly one of the first things you have to do is learn to live within your means... in fact, I was the first gubernatorial candidate to sign the taxpayer protection pledge."

RM: First specific thing you'd do, day one as Governor?

Sheriff Bouchard: "Stop the bleeding.  I'll freeze all non-essential spending and begin to go through immediately where we can cut spending..."

RM: Should we tweak proposal A?

Sheriff Bouchard: "I think you have to constantly, in government or the private sector, look at what you're doing and make sure you're competitive." ... "In anything you have to constantly go back and reexamine it and make sure it's meeting your goals." ... "I'd be willing to look at a whole new tax and regulatory process."

RM: On the idea of a part-time legislature...

Sheriff Bouchard: "Based on what I'm seeing in Lansing and how broke Lansing is I'd be calling for a part-time legislature." ... "One of the fixes I'd suggest is that we go to a part-time legislature."

And much, much more...

And THAT is about as light a spin I can manage for an introduction to this sort of a topic.  

7 percent of American teenagers admit attempting suicide, according to a recent study.  That number is 9 in Michigan, about 30 percent higher than the national average.  27 percent of Michigan teens admit being depressed.  That's better (or worse, I guess) than one in four.  

That counts as a problem.  A serious problem.  So what's the solution?  

I'd argue it is Jesus.  

The Mainstream media?  They put their faith in a different sort of god.  The Ivory Tower:

Michigan's joblessness, homelessness and hopelessness fuels teen depression, and using school time for mental health education might help catch it early, said Dr. David Rosenberg, chairman of psychiatry at Children's Hospital of Michigan...

The 2006 Chase Edwards Law encourages Michigan educators to teach suicide prevention in schools, but it doesn't mandate it -- even with school surveys showing that the percentage of depressed and suicidal teens has barely changed in Michigan since 2001.

The law goes unenforced in part because no funding is attached to it. Schools and districts can individually decide whether they'll broach depression, either through state-provided materials or through presentations...

OF COURSE!  The public schools, bureaucrats, politicians and state spending! Don't know how I ever could have put my faith in anyone else.

Read on...