Sunday, June 23, 2013

eye drops

More eye drops. It seems as if I have been using eye drops forever! All because of my recent cataract surgery for my right eye. You use them before the surgery and then for weeks and weeks afterwards. But I'm still wishing for a cataract in my left eye so that it can be removed and I can get on with life with brand new eyes. Maybe the doctor will spot a cataract during the next exam. I can always hope...

We live in a 'Blue' town located in a bright 'Red' county. And we have a budget crisis. Which was 'caused by the damn liberals' - of course. Sigh. The local newspaper, which I pray will fail soon, has scores of letters from the hate filled conservatives that love the forum given to them by the newspaper. What isn't mentioned is the fact that the city charter mandates a balanced budget on a certain date. That's nonsense and most cities have abandoned that kind of budgeting.You don't balance your own budget that way...why do we expect the city to do it?

Of course the main cuts will come from the police and fire departments. They make big bucks and so they will feel the heat on this. Policemen make an average of $97,000 plus benefits per year while firemen make $117,000 plus benefits. All of this in a city where the median income is $36,000.  But...with all of the vocal concern about public safety, those departments won't be too terribly inconvenienced in the end.

Of course I see the biggest problem here is the $36,000 figure. It needs to be $50k or $60k if you want a healthy economy. People are being forced to work longer and for less money all of the time. Yet the major corporations as well as the minor ones are sitting on huge piles of cash. Cash that could be used to create jobs. Didn't we hear that they were the 'job creators'? So where are the jobs? The well paying jobs?

The only well paying jobs here are the union ones. Police and fire unions. If there were more union jobs there would be more money in the economy instead of sitting in corporate bank accounts...getting .01% interest. what a shame...



2 comments:

  1. I just found your blog through Time Goes By which states that you live in California – you are lucky. I live in a red town, in a red county (Newt Gingrich's county) in a red state – no wonder I can’t find anyone to talk to! I saw on TV a couple of days ago that the US is no. 61 in the amount of what people pay on income tax – and they are whining about it. I think we are below Botswana – no wonder we can’t get enough money to pay for roads, bridges and education.

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    1. Sorry I didn't notice your comment until today. I get spammed so often it becomes difficult to wade through the comments to find a good one. I just deleted over 600 spam comments a few minutes ago and I had them cleaned out Just a few weeks ago...
      I read the Economist magazines Pocket World in Figures and they have many more disturbing facts...hard to stay positive while reading them and knowing that the elected officials are simply lying or they are so unintelligent they are lucky if they can find their way to their off-shore account.

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