OBAMA IS DISMANTLING AMERICA!

Thomas Sowell, who is one of my heroes, says that the election is about survival of freedom. This week he is my guest blogger. His view is my view. Read what he has to say at: http://www.creators.com/opinion/thomas-sowell/-quot-issues-quot-or-america.html

THE NEW FRONTIER IN SCIENCE

A variety of discoveries in the field of social science offer tremendous opportunities for improving the human condition. I am referring to the social network phenomenon. Our humanity is rapidly changing because of social networking. Science is becoming more interdisciplinary and more collaborative. Consequently, the results of scientific study are better and more useful. If two heads are better than one, think how much better millions of heads are that are connected by networks! Science needs data, analytic ability, and ideas. The age of computers and the Internet and networked people provides huge amounts of all those necessary things.

Computational social science is going to bring a hurricane of changes. We will have the data and the networks to inspire cooperation that will be beneficial for mankind. I hope I can be around to enjoy it!

Should You Keep Your Old Car?

If you want to save money and reduce expenses, keep driving it until it drops. A decently cared-for vehicle that is less than 10 years old and has less than 200,000 miles on it, will last for a long time. You must take care of deferred maintenance and faithfully service it.  Also, the car has to be the right size to accommodate your family needs. If so, it will be smart to keep it instead of buying a new car. Loan payments stack the deck against a new car. You could encounter much higher repair cost than assumed and still come out ahead by keeping the old one. An old car is almost always cheaper to own than a new one. Insurance premiums and registration fees are less and no payments are a big cash flow advantage.

Trading your used car for another used car is usually a bad move. You have to sell the current used car at a wholesale price and buy the “new” used car at retail price. Also, warrantee plans on used cars are not worth their cost and have fine print exclusions. My wife and I both have 10 year old cars with 150,000 miles and we self insure for collision and physical damage. This is another big saving but does entail some risk. So far, we have been lucky!

INCREASING THE TAXES OF THE WEALTHY?

It is not a panacea and it is not a solution to our economic problems and it is not fair. In fact, it would be destructive to the future of our country. It would worsen the terrible recession that we are struggling with. It would discourage the creation of new beneficial industries such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple which have spawned the rich people who pay most of our taxes. The latest data show that a big proportion of the federal income tax burden is shouldered by a small group of the very richest Americans! We need more incentives for smart, innovative people to get rich.

The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earns 19 percent of the income but pay 37 percent of the income tax. The top 10 percent pay 68 percent of the tab. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent now earn 13 percent of the income but pay just 3 percent of the taxes. A sense of fairness says that we should decrease the taxes for the rich. That would stimulate the entrepreneurs to invest more in new businesses, hire more employees, and create a stronger stock market. The economy is growing at half the pace of 2010 and unemployment is rising. Raising taxes on the rich will only make things worse.