Time for gasolin summer mix yet?

Right, and a handsome living it is, too!

How do we (voters) take that power away from them (politicians)?

Isn't this point the very essence of politics, i.e., deciding where to
expend public funds? If they didn't make the call, who would?

Well, I was joking about that.

Thanks for your reply.

 

"GrumpyOne" wrote in message

Time to make ready the pitchforks and torches...

 

well, i have an idea. it's crazytalk, but let's face it - the system we
have now isn't working. not for any but a small cabale at any rate.

Increase their pay. increase their pay a lot - to something like $5MM
to $10MM a year.

here's the rationale: politicians are in it for the money. plain and
simple. but paying someone with a reasonable social skill set, who is
dedicated, hard working, and above all ambitious, what we do now,
something in the range of only $150k??? there are some supermarket
managers earning more than that. no, politicians could get other jobs
earning /WAY/ more if they wanted.

so why do they go into politics? for the money! the opportunity to
earn money outside their pay, is colossal. that's where the lobbying
dollar comes in. and the fact that you can't support two houses, pay
for parties and social functions, taxis, travel, restaurants and the
d.c. and home state social whirls on that money. absolutely no way. so
they /have/ to take the lobbying dollar. and once they take it, they're
owned.

if "we the people" pay these people enough, two things will happen:

1. i think it will attract a much better class of politician. people
that can earn millions running an organization could now earn millions
doing something with bigger picture impact. i think it will attract a
much better and more effective class of applicant.

2. given that politicians have proven themselves to be highly responsive
to whoever pays them, if /we/ pay them, they'll respond to us. the
dollars they're responding to right now aren't coming from us - and that
is the #1 problem.

anyway, crazytalk.

your turn.

 

what's "MM"? do you mean million? one "M" suffices for that.

that was said about teachers,that paying them more would mean kids would be
taught better. didn't happen.

Better that we have TERM LIMITS and end the "career" and retirement
benefits of Congress. No more "career" politicians. Serve a term,then back
to a real non-government job,for at least 10 years.
If they don't get established and esconced in power,perks and prestige(and
above the law that the rest of us have to live under),they don't get
corrupted.


--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

 

what's "MM"? do you mean million? one "M" suffices for that.[/QUOTE]

no, "M" means thousand. "MM" means million.

 

Money is not at all why people go into politics. There's something a lot
more potent than money, and which IS the real reason people get into
politics.

 

Power and control not to mention inflated ego(s).

I really do not know of any bad situation that was remedied by simply
pouring money on it...

JT

 

no, "M" means thousand. "MM" means million.
[/QUOTE]

Kilo,abbreviated as "K",is generally used for thousand,and "M"(Mega) is
used for million. "G"(Giga) is used for billion.

What country are you from?
I'm in the US.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

 

that's engineering. unfortunately the financial world has it's own
rules [sic] and M is thousand, MM is million, etc.

 

Kilo,abbreviated as "K",is generally used for thousand,and "M"(Mega) is
used for million. "G"(Giga) is used for billion.

What country are you from?
I'm in the US.[/QUOTE]

I'm in the US too, but financial documents and statements use M and MM.
Not K.

 

Bingo. It's all about power, getting it and keeping it, for as long as
possible. Money is very much secondary to power.

My personal experience is that those who run for political office tend to
be nosy, meddlesome, egotistical, exhibitionist busybodies; they love to be
able to tell other people how to live their lives. Ordering people around
is ultimately what drives them, not money.

Next time you have one of those "saving the world" type conversations with
somebody, listen carefully. You will find that just about everybody has an
idea of how to make a better world, and it /always/ involves some sort of
control over others ("I'd force them to..."). Those who go into politics
are no different from the average, except that they put into action what
others simply talk about.

Power and control bring their own money.

Lobbyists' cash does not go to the politicians, but to their campaigns or
their party; politicians legally can't even accept gifts, or free airplane
travel. But once in power, politicians can easily vote themselves their
jackpot out of tax funds, which they do, in abundance.

 

Who is John Galt?

 

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/60697.html

 

A math instructor would think that "M" and "MM" are "fairly recent". He
has a math-centric view of the world, and has never worked in the
financial world where M and MM have always been thousand and million.

 

well, i am of the opinion that the financial world should stop playing
by their own rules, something fundamentally problematic as we've been
seeing lately, and get with the engineering program.

but i don't see that happening. finance people seem to regard
percentages and maybe a little retard-grade stats as "challenging" -
something that simply fails to garner either the respect or interest of
anyone with an engineering/scientific math background sufficient to try
to do anything about it.

 

Yes we import a fair amount of oil. It's a long way from
the oil producing regions regions to some markets. It makes more
sense to pipe oil south to areas in the US, and import into
areas more cheaply supplied from the ocean.

 

That makes economic sense. As long as Canada is a net exporter then it's
more than self-sufficient.

 

well, i am of the opinion that the financial world should stop playing
by their own rules, something fundamentally problematic as we've been
seeing lately, and get with the engineering program.

but i don't see that happening. finance people seem to regard
percentages and maybe a little retard-grade stats as "challenging" -
something that simply fails to garner either the respect or interest of
anyone with an engineering/scientific math background sufficient to try
to do anything about it.[/QUOTE]

Every profession has and uses its own language--partially for
convenience, partially to exclude outsiders.

 

I believe the Venezuela is way ahead of Saudi Arabia with respect to
supplying the US with oil...

JT

 

Yup. Proximity is everything when shipping a commodity.
Saudi Arabia is a long ways from the USA.

Lynn