2009-4-15 09:50:00
[Compiler's Note: The "Local Posts" series of articles found here in "The Archives" are a collection of exchanges between JJ Dewey and others participating on a local online newspaper blog, and were subsequently re-posted by JJ Dewey on The Keys Of Knowledge discussion group.]
Note from JJ:
Artie and I are going to our first march today (April 15) in support of the National Tax Day Tea Party. I invite all like minded souls to participate.
JJ:
Good letter from Mr. Undis on organ donations. There is a simple solution to the shortage problem however which is this:
Allow people to sell their organs at death and have the proceeds given to their children. This way many who die destitute can manage to still give a gift to their children.
Now some say it is wrong to do this but by whose standards? There is nothing in the Bible or Koran prohibiting it. And how can a non-believer claim that something that will save a life is immoral?
Doctors and hospitals charge a bundle for an organ transplant. If they can charge then why not the one making the ultimate gift of a part of his own body?
JJ:
Pam Gerger wants to lower the speed limit to save gas and lives.
This is insane for a number of reasons. During the glorious Carter administration the limit was reduced to 55 MPH. At the time I was driving over 40,000 miles a year and the low speed about drove me crazy. A low highway speed is definitely bad for mental health. It made me think of a Ray Bradbury story, "The Irritated People."
If she wants to save fuel then buy a hybrid, but don't make me waste my time creeping along the highway.
Lowering the highway speed does not save lives. When the speed was raised up from 55 to 65 MPH, there were fewer highway deaths per mile driven. It would thus cost lives to go back to a lower limit.
Check out this site:
http://www.motorists.org/mi/stats.html
I will forever be thankful to Steve Symms for his part in fighting the slow driving and thinking policy of the Left and getting rid of the 55 MPH speed limit.
JJ:
Allow people to sell their organs at death and have the proceeds given to their children. This way many who die destitute can manage to still give a gift to their children.
"Brt929" responded:
"Could you be any more ignorant? It is against the law to sell or entice someone to sell an organ for very good reasons. Could you imagine how the rich could prey on the poor if this was allowed? How would we procure organs for those that don't have the means? Do we want 'capitalism' determining whose life is saved?"
JJ:
Sounds like you are on the same page as Jimmy Swaggart on this one. The only reason to be against this is an unsound religious one.
The situation of the poor would be unchanged. How can the rich take advantage of a dead guy? People could still donate their organs but the increase of organs from sales would save many lives.
What have you got against saving lives? Sounds like you hate capitalism more than life itself.
JJ:
Dr. John Muney, an immigrant from Turkey, now practicing in New York, decided to give back to this country for his good fortune and set up a program for his patients where, for a fee of $79 [USD] a month, he would give patients unlimited medical care. This would even cover in office surgery -- everything but hospital visits.
All was going fine. He had thousands of cash customers and no expensive dealing with bureaucracy. He was happy and making a good profit and his customers were very happy.
The government is not happy with capitalism at work without its interference so they stepped in and told Muney he was breaking the law because he was too much like an insurance company. The only way to satisfy the meddling bureaucrats was to charge an extra $33 per visit for non preventative care.
I'm sure the bureaucrats are disturbed that Muney does not have enough paperwork and, in the name of fairness, will attempt to drive his charges up to match other doctors.
JJ:
Since there is no way to stop Obama from spending trillions of dollars we do not have, may I suggest a way to minimize the damage?
Since he likes Lincoln he could borrow one of Lincoln's ideas and create the equivalent of Greenbacks. To do this he could just bypass the Federal Reserve and have the Federal Government just create the money. If he did this then there would be no addition to the national debt and no interest to pay.
Then we would only have to worry about hyperinflation.
As it is now we are headed toward excessive debt, interest payments, and hyperinflation.
"TWall" wrote:
"Notice unemployment goes down steadily until 1938, when Roosevelt decided to cut funding to some of these programs and unemployment went back up."
JJ:
Here are the actual unemployment figures:
That's the trouble with deficit spending for public works projects. When the project is finished (such as building a large building to house bureaucrats) then everybody gets laid off. When money is invested in private business it circulates much more freely.
The new Congress in Roosevelt's second term stopped the trend toward higher taxes, and in 1938 enacted a capital gains tax cut, against Roosevelt's criticism, although he did not veto the plan. Production began to recover because of this and his greater cooperation with capitalistic business to prepare for war.
"The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has."
-- Will Rogers (1879 - 1935), "Illiterate Digest" (1924)
Copyright © 2009 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved