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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Las Vegas, Nevada, Entertainment Capital of the World

I flew to United States of America (Los Angeles) on a sponsored ticket (free), but internal transport I had to pay my own. That only mean one choice, Greyhound buses, and season ticket. With that, I traveled around California, Arizona and Nevada. For Nevada, one cannot but visit Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is not nicknamed the "Entertainment Capital of the World". There you can find posh casinos and Vegas Hotels, entertainment shows often featuring famous celebrities and often free to lure the gamblers, free flowing alcoholic beverages, bright blinking neon lights. If you count instant weddings with the most liberal wedding requirements in the world, include that as entertainment as well.

If you have deep pockets or willing to splurge on a luxurious Las Vegas Hotel, expect to be pampered like a VIP for hotels in Las Vegas go to extra length to make their guests comfortable, feel important and enjoy their stay. Now if only I can make my latest venture lucrative enough to splurge a return trip to Las Vegas.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Why Bush’s $150B stimulus package won’t work!

I am sure we all hear about this huge tax refund that's supposed to be given back to the American people. It won't help the economy and it's easy to understand why. The question that simply needs to be answered is: Where will that money end up?

First, we have to look at why Bush thinks a stimulus package will work. Obviously, we all know Bush is an idiot when it comes to just about everything. That should be your first clue. But, if it isn't, here's the first reason. 90% of the nations wealth is in the hands of 10% of the nation. That means most of that stimulus package is going straight to the rich. The one thing rich people do well is hoard their money. In other words, it's going to end up in a bank account somewhere collecting interest. Most of that money will not end up stimulating the economy.

Now, we've at least got $15B left which is the 10% that the poor people of the US will get to spend. Let's imagine that all of it is going to be spent. Truth be told, most of it will probably end up going towards the future of some kids college tuition which isn't going to stimulate the economy NOW. But, let's just imagine $15B will be spent in the US. We've got to ask ourselves, how much of that will go to American companies?

Now think! How much actual stuff is produced in the US? Automobiles are mainly manufactured overseas. Ask Detroit about that! Clothing is manufactured overseas. Furniture, computers, and everything is manufactured overseas. I saw a documentary on cartooning and one of the artists explained that after they come up with concepts and art, the actual cartooning is sent to Taiwan. So even the cartoons we watch in the mornings are being manufactured overseas. Don't get me wrong, not everything is manufactured overseas. I think the United States is number one at manufacturing lies and deceit!

So, when we all go out to spend that $15B stimulus package, it's not even going to companies in the US. It's going to manufacturing companies overseas. The greater reality of that situation is that the money isn't even going to the people in those nations but instead it's getting kicked up to their local politicians for bribes and right back to the company heads who are already rich, the CEO's and shareholders who have probably received a fat chunk of that stimulus package.

The idea of the stimulus package is based on the health of the economy. The nation has to be producing for the people to buy. If you guys are old enough, you'll remember that "Made in America" campaign so many years ago. They were saying look for the "Made in America" tag or ask your car dealer if your car was made in America. We can't even do that anymore because barely anything is made in America!

Let's do some more factoring in. How many foreign companies as well as property owners exist in the US? A lot! The US is the only nation that sells out to other nations while other nations have strong restrictions against foreign investments. In other words, we're selling out our most valuable asset, land! Ask yourself how many buildings in downtown Manhattan are owned by the Germans, Japanese, and Chinese. The Chinese are basically taking over. Anyway, when foreign companies move in, they bring in their own labor force a lot of the times. I don't mean they bring in thousands of people in one shot. But, if you go into any of these buildings, you'll find the lower tier workers are from the surrounding area but management at most levels - lower, middle, and upper - are from the homeland.

This nation's economy is suffering from a multitude of problems - increased rich/poor gap, imported labor, exported jobs (especially in manufacturing), and a major Republican spending spree which goes to fatten up the pockets of Bush/Cheney's friends. There's absolutely no way for this stimulus package to work in favor of US, at leastt NOT at this point in our economy.

This nation has to get its jobs back! This is the most important thing. When Bush got into office, the nation lost MILLIONS of jobs and we haven't recovered that yet! In fact, we're not even close to recovering it. The nation has to balance it's imports and exports. If we continue to import more than we export, we will continue to run in the negative. We have to reindustrialize the nation meaning we have to bring back manufacturing facilities as well as jobs. We can't increase exports if we can't produce anything to export. We have to be tough on immigration. I don't mean just getting rid of Mexicans. I am talking about getting rid of Russians, Germans, British, Japanese, Chinese, and others so that Americans can fill those positions.

Let's be honest, do we really want the minimum wage jobs that many SURVIVE on or do we want those high paying jobs that we can LIVE with?! I know what I want! I don't intend to use my degree to become a janitor! So, I am not worried about the guy flipping burgers at McDonalds and can't speak English. I am worried about the Russian guy at Morgan Stanley that makes 80k a year and can't speak English. But, I digress.

This nation has to get back into a cyclical economy meaning when we spend our money, it's spent within the nation and goes to people within the nation so they can spend more in the nation! When money goes out of the nation, it somehow find its way back to the nation. This is the only way a stimulus package will help the economy! It will not help the economy if the money going to the people barely gets spent and what is spent is funneled to other nations anyway.

That's why the stimulus package won't work. So my advice to anyone reading this is if you get a nice chunk of change, PUT IT IN THE BANK! Don't spend it! If you have to spend it, try to buy American! If you've got enough money to spend, INVEST IT! Learn that stock market. It's the only thing that will help you!