Collective bargaining helps a capitalist economy

I live in a neighborhood with a homeowner’s association (HOA) and monthly dues of $60. I recently learned that $9 of that $60 is to pay for trash and recycling service. $9 per month is an amazingly low rate! When I lived just a few miles away and had to pick one of the 4 trash service providers the lowest rate was $18 per month. So why am I paying only half the price for the same service while living in this subdivision? Because it is the power and efficiency of collective bargaining.
When I only represented myself and I went to the trash service companies and I told them I didn’t want to pay $18 a month for their service they simply said they didn’t care. I had no negotiating power. But when our HOA went to several trash service providers and said we represent 300 homes and we want a lower rate per house to pick up all 300 houses, the trash service providers dropped the rate to just $9 per house.

If the law prevented collective bargaining, we would not be allowed to negotiate a group discount, but the law (currently) does not prevent collective bargaining and thus we can negotiate lower rates.

This lower rate is not only a benefit to those living in our subdivision, but it also benefits the trash services. When the truck drives down the street they simply pick up the trash at every house. The truck drivers don’t have to determine which houses are part of their service and which houses are not. This is part of the reason why the trash services will charge lower rates for large areas, because it decreases their time and thus their costs to do the pickups.

Collective bargaining is an important feature in capitalist societies to help control prices, especially prices for essential services. In this case it allows a win/win scenario where the resources of our society and be implemented most efficiently at a price that is satisfactory to all.

Raise our taxes! We need the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

I am not an extremely picky purchaser of my groceries. I don’t buy organic, or non-GM, or local, or even the cheapest. But I am thankful that I can be reasonably certain that the food I eat is safe. I don’t have to spend my time inspecting the plants where the food was put into packages. I don’t have to spend time observing the food growing or getting raised. I don’t have to spend time monitoring everyone involved with the production and shipping of the food I eat.

I don’t have to do these things because I have someone to do this for me. Not only does someone do this for me, they know more about it than I do. I don’t even have to spend my time or money hiring experts, or learning how crops grow or food is made just so that I can perform adequate inspections. I don’t have to learn all the ways that food producers can cheat me out of my money such as by lying about the ingredients in my food.

Who does this for me? It is the many government agencies, primarily the FDA, police, and judicial system that handle this task for me. And it is less expensive for me to pay a few dollars in taxes to have an agency like the FDA make sure my food is safe than to pay someone directly to do so. So I don’t complain about paying taxes. In fact, I think we should all be paying more taxes. All of us making more than $50,000 grand a year at least should be paying more in taxes. As a society we can do a much better job making sure our food supply is safe than relying on the businesses profiting from providing us the food to do so.

Raise our taxes! Let’s stop pushing the burden of the deficit to future generations. Let’s stop borrowing from our offspring to finance our current luxurious lifestyles. Let’s tighten our belts and learn to do with a little less today so that everyone can live a little better in the future. It doesn’t take much. But we do need to realize that the most efficient ways to solve many of societies problems is to pay taxes and have a government use that money to make our society better.

I may be an atheist, but I know I’m going to heaven

My mom is a Christian. She knows I am an atheist but she tries not to think about it. Nothing is more dear or more important to her than getting along with her family, especially her children. When she dies, she will go to heaven which should provide her eternal happiness. But the only way she can be eternally happy is if her offspring join her in heaven when they day. There is no way that she could be totally happy if one of her offspring went to hell.
Therefore, in order for my mother to live in the happiness of heaven for eternity, I will have to join her there; even though I am an atheist.

Quote of the day

The beatings will continue until morale improves!
source unknown

Thought favors liberals, emotion favors conservatives

When, in the course of government decision-making, emotions are held in check and civil discussion is held debating pros and cons of the alternatives, the adopted solution usually favors the liberal choice. However, when it the course of government decision-making, plurality reigns, and decisions are based on heated emotion, anger, and fear, the solution usually favors the conservative choice.

No matter what you believe about God, most disagree

No matter what you believe about God, most people in the world disagree with you. There are twice as many non-Christians as Christians in the world. There are three times more Muslims than non-muslims. No religious view point is even close to a majority of the people living in the world. This means that most people in the world believe you are wrong about God.
One of many data sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_religious_groups