Past Five

Challenge Yourself

I am at my six-year-old daughter’s ice skating time...7:30 A.M. on Saturday morning. My four-year-old son went to the bathroom in his pants twice already today, so sitting in an ice rink for 60 minutes listening to music and watching 15 kids skate doesn’t seem as bad as it did last night!

 

A boy, who is probably 12, shares the ice time, and he won junior nationals, many competitions, etc. I’ve seen him skate at times when my daughter was in a show. Even to a novice dad...he’s really good. While I was watching my daughter, Kylie, I saw this boy’s pants had ice all over them. He never falls, I thought to myself. Then he fell again...and again. Huh?

 

He falls in practice...and then he doesn’t fall in the competition. He pushes and challenges himself when it doesn’t count...and fails. Then he is ready when it does count. Internal talent is a drive to be better; a desire to prove that you're better...than your competition and better than you were yesterday. It’s no different for adults and the work world. Push yourself all the time. Try new “tricks” to see if you can be better. Challenge yourself.

 

It's actually quite fun when you win and improve! Kylie's not too shabby either...

Unemployment Benefits

I am excited about the energy surrounding Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States. I am a libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative. I don’t agree with higher taxes, and I believe the unions are a dinosaur...a symbol of an era past its time. In the day of CNN and MSNBC, workers in Asian sweatshops get reported on…there aren’t workers here needing more protection. The loaded cost of a UAW member is more than $65 per hour! That’s $130,000 for a labor job. Hardly necessary...and it explains why costs are so high. It’s ridiculous.

Now the people in Washington are talking about extending unemployment benefits. This is a terrible idea. We cannot give people an incentive not to work!!! If someone needs to wait tables or work at Home Depot to earn a wage, then do it. We are getting people who are educated and can do lesser jobs, and they would rather take unemployment money to do nothing!? It’s not fair to those of us who are working two jobs, working 80 hours per week to keep our job to have unemployment benefits increased.

 

Instead, we should offer people incentives to get jobs. For example, if you get a job which pays 50% or less of your 2007 W-2, then you are eligible for 40% of unemployment liability. (If you were making $100,000 and now you get a job for under $50,000....you would be eligible for partial unemployment.) This would be an incentive to take a lower paying job, which puts more money into the economy.

 

If someone is claiming unemployment and making $1,600 per month, practically nothing is going into the economy. It all goes for basic needs. Increase that number and more spending occurs, more tax dollars, etc., and less government handouts.

 

We must not believe unemployment is an entitlement...it should be the last resort. Last I saw, McDonalds is still hiring.