How Many Does It Take To Push The Wagon

For those who grew up in the city or in the era after television and computers, you missed one of the greatest thrills of all–riding in you grandfather’s wagon.  The wagon was usually made of wood, about 6ft wide and 12-15 ft long and four huge wooden spoke wheels.   In the fall in the rural south, we use to have hayrides and if you were lucky you might be able to steal a kiss from your sweetheart.

The wagons were usually pulled by two horses or mules who had no trouble with the weight of the riders.  However, have you ever wondered how many it would take to push the wagon.

1–Let’s say there are 20 average size people and 3 are riding and 17 are pushing.  No problem the wagon rolls smoothly.

2–Now assume three get tired of pushing so it is now 6 riding and 14 pushing.  A little straining but still it rolls.

3–4 more decide to get on the wagon and join their friends.  10 riders-10 pushers.  Now the pushers are really straining.  The weight of 10 plus the wagon.

4–The 10 riders are having a party and not excerting any effort except to drink beer and party.  They convince 5 more to ride and have fun.  Don’t worry the 5 pushers left will take care of all of them.

5–Now we have 15 riders and 5 pushers.  The five pushers are really strong and do their best but the wagon only moves a little and it causes great strain on the pushers.

6–Finally, the 5 pushers lose their strength and can’t make the wagon move an inch.   At this point the 5 stop trying and sit under the tree.

7–So the 15 riders now are sitting still and wondering why in the hell is somebody not pushing the wagon so that they can continue to party.  But the wagon just sits in the road and everything comes to a halt.

Too many riders and not enough pushers will make any wagon come to  a halt.  Same as with the US government spreading the wealth around.  When there is no incentive for the pushers to push because there are too many riders, our economy will come to a halt.  It does not matter if the 5% are the strongest and the richest because there is no incentive to work to support those who just want to ride.

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal tells this story more elequently than I can.  If you want to read it, just copy and paste.

Pookie

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122463231048556587.html

Spreading the Wealth

I can not claim credit for this one but thought it was humorous.  A local asked the question in the local newspaper “If Obama wants to share the wealth of those who have with those who do not, how much of the 150 million that Obama raised in September will go to the McCain campaign?

Pookie

Joe the Plumber

Everyone has been talking about Joe the plumber lately.  There now are others who are being singled out as a name and an occupation.   I guess I would be Pookie the insurance man.

I am not too concerned about how Joe is going to vote but I am gravely concerned that a private citizen like Joe would be scrutinized by the media and a political campaign looking for things in Joe’s life that might discredit him.

Joe is not running for office–he is just Joe and has his right to privacy.  The right to privacy is mentioned in 4 of the Bill of Rights.  So why then does the media think they have the right to invade a citizen’s private life?

Maybe I should reread Orville’s “1984″?

Pookie

A Duck Can Not Be An Eagle

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, there is no way it can be an eagle.

This is the way I feel about many politicians.  They do not tell the truth.  They think that we are not aware of what they are actually saying.  Abe Lincoln once said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

A case in point.  Most people agree that approximately 40% of the people in the US do not pay any income tax.  However, one of the candidates of the two major parties says that 95% of the people in the US will receive a “tax refund” if he is elected President.

I may have missed something in my study of economics and business in college but there is NO WAY a tax refund can be given to a person who did not pay any taxes.  The payment might be called welfare, a government give away or even that catchword of many–a redistribution of wealth, but it is not a Tax Refund.

i wish that those who seek elected office at all levels would  tell us what they believe and what their plans are in plain simple terms and not try to change a duck into an eagle.

Lincoln was right that you can’t fool all the people all the time, but it sure appears to me that the percentage of those who can be fooled all the time is growing.  This concern that I have is that more of our citizens are either uninformed or don’t care.  They may wake up one day expecting to soar like an eagle and realize that they have to be a duck–calm and serene on the top of the water but paddling like hell beneath the water to escape the predators that are constantly after them.

Pookie

10-19-08