“Next time you need to get here earlier!”…. the parting jab from my airline attendant sparring partner on this too-early Monday morning…. What the late middle-aged woman with the personality of a menopausal postal clerk didn’t know, nor I suspect wouldn’t care if she did, is the frustration a frequent-flier endures while hosing dog diarrhea out of his garage onto moonlit pavement 55 minutes prior to take off….
Rather than share the blow-by-blow with the American Eagle antagonist (I fear you’d think less of me) I’ll vent here on the virtues of competition (inspired by this morning’s encounter at the ticket counter) and limited government…
The beauty of free enterprise is choice… The curse of central planning is the lack thereof… I can choose a different airline, but I can’t choose a different DMV, I can’t choose to allocate that 15+% of my income (self employed), currently confiscated for Social Security, to a legitimate retirement plan… The DMV enjoys monopolistic luxury – knowing I’ve nowhere else to go, they can treat me as they will… As for Social Security… need I say more?
Ratings agency Moody’s suggests we do away with the whole debt ceiling concept altogether… Citing the unnecessary angst it inspires every time it’s breached… At first blush that sounds pretty darn good – August 2nd would be just another day… Just another day, that is, in a year when the world’s greatest nation will spend $1.6 trillion more than it brings in. When that nation’s debt will exceed $15 trillion (which exceeds its GDP by some $3 trillion)… When that nation already sports the second highest corporate tax rate on the planet… When policymakers conspire to increase regulations on key industries, as well as taxes on job makers (although I am in favor of closing loopholes [along with a lower corporate rate]), while their nation’s jobless rate pushes 10%…
And Moody