By Daniel B. Kline
With regular people still struggling, the economy barely showing signs of life and hope being in short supply, President Barack Obama has chosen to play politics. Instead of pledging to cut taxes even further and make the tax cuts passed by his predecessor, George W. Bush, permanent, our president has chosen to stick with the liberal mantra that we should increase taxes on the so-called rich.
In 2001 and 2003 the Bush administration passed a tax package that cut Federal income taxes across the board. Those were temporary cuts and if Congress does nothing, taxes will rise for everyone – an unspeakable crime in these economic conditions.
Obama, of course, does not want that to happen. Instead, he wants a new plan that keeps the cuts for individuals making up to $125,000 and couples making up to $250,000. Anyone who makes more than that, you can practically hear him say, can afford it and deserves to be punished by having to pay more into the sinkhole that is our government.
Along the ridiculous traditional party lines, Democrats favor tax cuts for the middle class on down with an increased burden on the rich and Republicans want taxes cut on the upper end of the income scale. The liberals think the “rich” should pay for their success (no matter how hard they worked to attain it) and the conservatives blame the poor for being a drain on public resources (no matter how hard they work to escape).
This entire argument supports nobody except the politicians. By arguing for their side on the poor/rich spectrum, Republicans and Democrats get to play to their party bases. It all sounds nice in commercials where Democrats get to go after “fat cats” and Republicans can attack “wasteful social programs,” but it’s all hogwash meant to ensure the status quo.
All Americans should be fighting for lower taxes for everyone because across all levels of the economy, we can spend our money better than our elected officials can. The government has not been able to spend its way out of this recession no matter how many tax dollars it confiscates.
Only regular people, investing in the economy, building businesses, buying things and spending their dollars can fix the economy. Less money paid in taxes means more money that flows straight into the economy. It’s stimulus without the politics and the wastefulness.
Instead of letting Washington increase taxes on anyone, the people must demand accountability from their government. Where has our money gone and why do they need more of it? Why do they persist in calling for tax increases when historical data clearly shows that lowering the tax burden actually increases revenues for the government.
It’s easy to look at someone with money and assume they can afford to give the government a little more. What we can’t see when we look at someone in a nice house or driving a nice car is exactly how hard they worked to get there. We also can’t see the money they spend buying things, the people they employee and the overall impact their money has on the economy.
It’s easy to hate the rich and claim they don’t pay their fair share. That said, if Donald Trump wants to buy a diamond-crusted blimp with his name painted on it in melted gold, well, that’s a lot of jobs for a lot of people.
I trust rich people making silly purchases to fix the economy a lot more than I trust Democrats or Republicans to come up with a solution. I also trust that if you take less money from everyone – be they rich, poor or middle class – that regular people will spend it far better than any politician ever will.
Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com or befriend him at facebook.com/dankline. Follow him on Twitter, @worstideas.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
19 probably too young for making major decisions
By Daniel B. Kline
Bristol Palin, 19, and Levi Johnston, 20 seem destined to become the poster children for youthful mistakes. First, the unmarried couple had a child -- which we’ll have to assume was by mistake, not design -- and, now, the couple plans to compound their foolishness by getting married.
I’m all in favor of Palin and Johnston trying to be a couple in order to give their child a two parent home. That’s the responsible choice and responsibility has not been a key value for Johnston for much of his time in the public eye.
There should, though, be a few interim steps between “blasting your baby’s grandmother in the press” and marrying her daughter. How about dating, co-parenting and actually dealing with the reality of life instead of living in the short-lived media frenzy “hey, we’re on the cover of US Magazine,” whirlwind?
In being a parent and being in a marriage, the only two easy parts are getting married and creating the baby. Everything else takes effort and it’s hardly glamorous or exciting the way the initial rush of getting married or having a baby is.
At 19, you essentially know nothing. My 19-year-old self would disagree with that, but he would be wrong and he would still think “Rock Me Amadeus” was a good song, so nobody should be listening to him.
At 19, I had long hair and tended to wearing ill-fitting t-shirts with unbuttoned button-down shirts over them. Add in some too loose jeans, a few skinny ties, along with glasses that came right out of the Sally Jesse Raphael collection and I looked like a poorly-tailored rock and roll Muppet.
This was not a good look then, anymore than it would be a good look now, but to my teenage self my clothing choices -- like all my choices -- seemed well thought out. In fact, at 19, I was even more sure that I was right about everything than I am right now and that’s coming from a guy who writes a newspaper column mostly to tell you how he’s right about everything.
All 19-year-olds think their love will stand the test of time. It’s part of the foolishness of youth mixed with the complete lack of knowledge of the real world that most college age kids have.
Reality, however, says that teenage love with its giddy rushes and crazy highs rarely turns into the real thing. And, when it does, it takes time, life experience and the maturity to see beyond the surface.
My 19-year-old self dated my current wife. I loved her pretty much immediately, but had we gotten married or had a child at that stage of life, we would have been making a foolish decision that would have almost certainly ended in divorce.
Pretty much everyone over the age of 19 looks back on their teenage self with a mix of laughter and cringes. The teenage years are for experimenting, finding yourself and discovering what you want to be. Bad outfits, foolish pursuits and plain old mistakes mark these years, but most of us don’t make poor choices that threaten to set the rest of our lives on the wrong path.
Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston – despite their undeserved fame – are not so different than the rest of us and that’s why it’s a pretty safe bet to say their marriage will fail. In general, if you’re not old enough to be mature enough to tell your parents you intend to marry, then the odds of a successful marriage are pretty much zero.
Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. See new content daily at WorstIdeasEver.com and follow Kline on Twitter at @WorstIdeas.
Bristol Palin, 19, and Levi Johnston, 20 seem destined to become the poster children for youthful mistakes. First, the unmarried couple had a child -- which we’ll have to assume was by mistake, not design -- and, now, the couple plans to compound their foolishness by getting married.
I’m all in favor of Palin and Johnston trying to be a couple in order to give their child a two parent home. That’s the responsible choice and responsibility has not been a key value for Johnston for much of his time in the public eye.
There should, though, be a few interim steps between “blasting your baby’s grandmother in the press” and marrying her daughter. How about dating, co-parenting and actually dealing with the reality of life instead of living in the short-lived media frenzy “hey, we’re on the cover of US Magazine,” whirlwind?
In being a parent and being in a marriage, the only two easy parts are getting married and creating the baby. Everything else takes effort and it’s hardly glamorous or exciting the way the initial rush of getting married or having a baby is.
At 19, you essentially know nothing. My 19-year-old self would disagree with that, but he would be wrong and he would still think “Rock Me Amadeus” was a good song, so nobody should be listening to him.
At 19, I had long hair and tended to wearing ill-fitting t-shirts with unbuttoned button-down shirts over them. Add in some too loose jeans, a few skinny ties, along with glasses that came right out of the Sally Jesse Raphael collection and I looked like a poorly-tailored rock and roll Muppet.
This was not a good look then, anymore than it would be a good look now, but to my teenage self my clothing choices -- like all my choices -- seemed well thought out. In fact, at 19, I was even more sure that I was right about everything than I am right now and that’s coming from a guy who writes a newspaper column mostly to tell you how he’s right about everything.
All 19-year-olds think their love will stand the test of time. It’s part of the foolishness of youth mixed with the complete lack of knowledge of the real world that most college age kids have.
Reality, however, says that teenage love with its giddy rushes and crazy highs rarely turns into the real thing. And, when it does, it takes time, life experience and the maturity to see beyond the surface.
My 19-year-old self dated my current wife. I loved her pretty much immediately, but had we gotten married or had a child at that stage of life, we would have been making a foolish decision that would have almost certainly ended in divorce.
Pretty much everyone over the age of 19 looks back on their teenage self with a mix of laughter and cringes. The teenage years are for experimenting, finding yourself and discovering what you want to be. Bad outfits, foolish pursuits and plain old mistakes mark these years, but most of us don’t make poor choices that threaten to set the rest of our lives on the wrong path.
Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston – despite their undeserved fame – are not so different than the rest of us and that’s why it’s a pretty safe bet to say their marriage will fail. In general, if you’re not old enough to be mature enough to tell your parents you intend to marry, then the odds of a successful marriage are pretty much zero.
Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. See new content daily at WorstIdeasEver.com and follow Kline on Twitter at @WorstIdeas.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Loyalty should still matter, even in sports
By Daniel B. Kline
Cleveland deserved better.
The long-suffering sports fans who fell victim to “The Drive,” “The Fumble,” “The Shot,” the loss of the Browns, the sad performance of the Browns since their return and years of futility from the Indians deserved a better man the Lebron James. They deserved for their hometown hero to go on ESPN and say, “I know it’s going to be hard, but this is my home, these are my people and I’m going to work as hard as I can to bring a title to Cleveland.”
At the very least the people of Cleveland deserved to not be blindsided and humiliated by one of their own on national television.
Sadly, James proved that while he might be a fabulously talented basketball player, he comes up short as a man. Loyalty matters and so does finishing what you started.
James had promised to win a title for Cleveland. He not only came up short in that quest, he didn’t actually seem to care very much as he let opportunity slip away the last two years.
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert was the loudest voice actually saying it, but anyone who watched James’ performance against the Celtics this season had to wonder if he actually cared. Maybe James quit or maybe he just played without passion, but the self-anointed “King” did nothing in that series to show that winning meant anything to him.
Sure, he wants to win, but not in the way the true greats burn for victory. James wants to win because it improves his legacy or grows his brand. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson wanted to win because the pain of not winning haunted them.
There’s honor in working your hardest but coming up short. Taking the easy way out and turning your back on a town that pinned its hopes and dreams on you stinks of cowardice.
Had James stayed in Cleveland and won even one title, he would go down as an immortal. Winning in a city that has historically loses means more to the fans in that city and in the history books.
Even without winning a championship, had James stayed a Cavalier, he would have remained a lifelong icon in the place he has always lived to the people who have always supported him. Instead, he chose to betray those fans by not just leaving the team, but by humiliating the Cavaliers on the way out the door.
Lebron James did the equivalent of breaking up with his girlfriend by announcing it on stage at a pep rally the day before the prom. With the words “I’m taking my talents to South Beach,” James kicked his hometown fans in the teeth. Instead of taking the hard road and trying to bring Cleveland the title he had promised them, the young superstar turned his back on people who perhaps foolishly had held him up as their sports savior.
James might win in Miami, but stacking the deck with superstars and winning a title as Dwayne Wade’s Scottie Pippen does not make you an all-time great. “The King” had a chance to rule, a chance to matter in his community like few athletes do. Instead, he gets to hang out with his buddies in South Beach while Cleveland burns his image in effigy.
Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. See new content daily at WorstIdeasEver.com and follow Kline on Twitter at @WorstIdeas.
Cleveland deserved better.
The long-suffering sports fans who fell victim to “The Drive,” “The Fumble,” “The Shot,” the loss of the Browns, the sad performance of the Browns since their return and years of futility from the Indians deserved a better man the Lebron James. They deserved for their hometown hero to go on ESPN and say, “I know it’s going to be hard, but this is my home, these are my people and I’m going to work as hard as I can to bring a title to Cleveland.”
At the very least the people of Cleveland deserved to not be blindsided and humiliated by one of their own on national television.
Sadly, James proved that while he might be a fabulously talented basketball player, he comes up short as a man. Loyalty matters and so does finishing what you started.
James had promised to win a title for Cleveland. He not only came up short in that quest, he didn’t actually seem to care very much as he let opportunity slip away the last two years.
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert was the loudest voice actually saying it, but anyone who watched James’ performance against the Celtics this season had to wonder if he actually cared. Maybe James quit or maybe he just played without passion, but the self-anointed “King” did nothing in that series to show that winning meant anything to him.
Sure, he wants to win, but not in the way the true greats burn for victory. James wants to win because it improves his legacy or grows his brand. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson wanted to win because the pain of not winning haunted them.
There’s honor in working your hardest but coming up short. Taking the easy way out and turning your back on a town that pinned its hopes and dreams on you stinks of cowardice.
Had James stayed in Cleveland and won even one title, he would go down as an immortal. Winning in a city that has historically loses means more to the fans in that city and in the history books.
Even without winning a championship, had James stayed a Cavalier, he would have remained a lifelong icon in the place he has always lived to the people who have always supported him. Instead, he chose to betray those fans by not just leaving the team, but by humiliating the Cavaliers on the way out the door.
Lebron James did the equivalent of breaking up with his girlfriend by announcing it on stage at a pep rally the day before the prom. With the words “I’m taking my talents to South Beach,” James kicked his hometown fans in the teeth. Instead of taking the hard road and trying to bring Cleveland the title he had promised them, the young superstar turned his back on people who perhaps foolishly had held him up as their sports savior.
James might win in Miami, but stacking the deck with superstars and winning a title as Dwayne Wade’s Scottie Pippen does not make you an all-time great. “The King” had a chance to rule, a chance to matter in his community like few athletes do. Instead, he gets to hang out with his buddies in South Beach while Cleveland burns his image in effigy.
Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. See new content daily at WorstIdeasEver.com and follow Kline on Twitter at @WorstIdeas.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Lebron not the only free agent on the market
By Daniel B. Kline
Lebron James has shown me the way. Instead of considering myself a freelancer scrambling to make a living, I’m declaring myself a free agent.
Rather than hustling for jobs, sending out endless resumes and doing whatever potential employers ask of me, I’m now only taking meetings with select companies. This will happen on my timetable, at the location of my choice and mostly, I’ll be making people come see me to feed my ego, not because I will actually consider working for them.
Better still, I will release no actual information about what my future plans might be. Instead, I’ll have legions of friends, hangers-on and people who don’t actually know me give interviews about what they think I might do.
Just to keep people guessing, I’ll have lunch with other “free agent” writers/PR guys/Web consultants/op-ed columnists. I’ll also talk on my phone a lot to give the impression that I’m scheming, conniving and otherwise plotting some shocking career move, when really I’m either talking to my mother or leaving myself really long voicemail messages.
Of course, Lebron has every team in the NBA scrambling to claim his services because he’s the one of the best all time at what he does. And, while I might not be an all time great, neither is Chris Bosh or Joe Johnson.
In the somewhat less covered by the press than basketball world of writer/PR guys/Web consultants. I may not be James, but I’m at least the equivalent of second tier guys like Bosh. And, of course, if you’re looking to hire me as a fairly witty columnist, I may not be Joel Stein, but given the lack of options, I’m certainly max money.
Realistically, having held a dozen jobs at the age of 36 ranging from newspaper editor to toy store manager, Internet executive to scaffold salesman, I am the best at what I do. Never mind that nobody else does what I do, I think most companies could use a guy who can do just about anything.
I’m the Swiss Army knife of employees, just as comfortable at a meeting with the CEO as I am loading a truck or going on a sales call. Currently, I do PR for a non-profit, consult on marketing for a toy store, have a book deal and am under consideration to run a trade association, overhaul a news-based Web site and deliver Web 2.0 services for a trade show company.
To further confuse matters during my self-declared free agency, I won’t be giving any interviews and I won’t be offering any hints as to what I might want to do. One company, knowing I like Star Wars might hire Mark Hamill and Chewbacca to make a video recruiting me, while another that knows how much I like dry rub barbecue might sign Bobby Flay to run the company cafeteria.
I’m from the Boston area, but live in Connecticut, so hometown loyalty might come into play. Perhaps I’m looking for a big city, or maybe I want rural. Nobody knows but me and I’m not telling because if I don’t say what I want, maybe someone will offer me something I never thought to desire.
So, as America’s premiere free agent writer/PR guy/Web consultant/op-ed columnist, I’m sitting back and waiting for the offers to come in. You can reach me at the contact info below, but I’m not promising anything.
Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. See new content daily at WorstIdeasEver.com and follow Kline on Twitter at @WorstIdeas.
Lebron James has shown me the way. Instead of considering myself a freelancer scrambling to make a living, I’m declaring myself a free agent.
Rather than hustling for jobs, sending out endless resumes and doing whatever potential employers ask of me, I’m now only taking meetings with select companies. This will happen on my timetable, at the location of my choice and mostly, I’ll be making people come see me to feed my ego, not because I will actually consider working for them.
Better still, I will release no actual information about what my future plans might be. Instead, I’ll have legions of friends, hangers-on and people who don’t actually know me give interviews about what they think I might do.
Just to keep people guessing, I’ll have lunch with other “free agent” writers/PR guys/Web consultants/op-ed columnists. I’ll also talk on my phone a lot to give the impression that I’m scheming, conniving and otherwise plotting some shocking career move, when really I’m either talking to my mother or leaving myself really long voicemail messages.
Of course, Lebron has every team in the NBA scrambling to claim his services because he’s the one of the best all time at what he does. And, while I might not be an all time great, neither is Chris Bosh or Joe Johnson.
In the somewhat less covered by the press than basketball world of writer/PR guys/Web consultants. I may not be James, but I’m at least the equivalent of second tier guys like Bosh. And, of course, if you’re looking to hire me as a fairly witty columnist, I may not be Joel Stein, but given the lack of options, I’m certainly max money.
Realistically, having held a dozen jobs at the age of 36 ranging from newspaper editor to toy store manager, Internet executive to scaffold salesman, I am the best at what I do. Never mind that nobody else does what I do, I think most companies could use a guy who can do just about anything.
I’m the Swiss Army knife of employees, just as comfortable at a meeting with the CEO as I am loading a truck or going on a sales call. Currently, I do PR for a non-profit, consult on marketing for a toy store, have a book deal and am under consideration to run a trade association, overhaul a news-based Web site and deliver Web 2.0 services for a trade show company.
To further confuse matters during my self-declared free agency, I won’t be giving any interviews and I won’t be offering any hints as to what I might want to do. One company, knowing I like Star Wars might hire Mark Hamill and Chewbacca to make a video recruiting me, while another that knows how much I like dry rub barbecue might sign Bobby Flay to run the company cafeteria.
I’m from the Boston area, but live in Connecticut, so hometown loyalty might come into play. Perhaps I’m looking for a big city, or maybe I want rural. Nobody knows but me and I’m not telling because if I don’t say what I want, maybe someone will offer me something I never thought to desire.
So, as America’s premiere free agent writer/PR guy/Web consultant/op-ed columnist, I’m sitting back and waiting for the offers to come in. You can reach me at the contact info below, but I’m not promising anything.
Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. See new content daily at WorstIdeasEver.com and follow Kline on Twitter at @WorstIdeas.
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