I’m at the airport again (lot of time spent here lately). I got my visa at the last minute for me to be able to make my flight today, so spent the morning rushing around trying to finish up last minute things around the house.
I’ll be spending the next 30 hours (minimum) in the air (or airport). I expect they will send me straight to work when I get there. I’m really not sure how they expect anyone to do a good job after being awake for 45+ hours.
Anybody have any ideas on that?
Do you work someplace where they don’t allow you to start work unless you’re awake and alert? What happens if they tell you that you could have slept on the plane? Anybody out there that can actually sleep on a plane (in anything but first/business class)?
There is actually a law out there that says we (mariners) are not allowed to go to work unless we have had at least 6 hours of REST beforehand. That was put into place because the investigators realized that the REAL cause of the Exxon Valdez oil spill was FATIGUE. NOTHING to do with the Captain (except that he should have insisted that his crew got some rest before departure- but we’re all just slaves to the companies now). 🙁
Fatigue is always at the top of the list, #1, 2 or 3 of causes of ALL accidents!
In the 20+ years since that law was passed, I’ve only ever heard of ONE company abiding by those rules.
ONE. 🙁
I’ll try to get online on my layover in Frankfurt. If I can’t, I’ll catch up again here when I get caught up at work.
I just got in from my regular Tuesday night meeting. Lately we’ve been going to the Mediterranean Gardens, a local Greek/Cajun restaurant. They have the best gyros in town (and really great French Dip sandwiches). Also, the baklava is really good.
But I don’t actually go there for the food. I go there for our weekly Campaign for Liberty meetups. I go there to get my weekly political fix. I can go out, have a good meal and talk politics with people who (mostly) agree with me. That’s a nice change. 😉
We talk about all kinds of things… The history of the United States, the proper function of government, the role of the Federal Reserve, the situation with our money/dollar/debt, who’s running for office (local, state, national) and do we like their plans or not…
Then we try to come up with projects to work on and things to do to increase our membership. We started a community garden (pesticide and GMO free), we’ve shown a couple of movies (Behold a Pale Horse, Atlas Shrugged), gone to a few rallies, etc. It’s really hard to do much if you don’t have a very large group of people involved. People are just so busy trying to survive now, they don’t have the time to get involved.
It’s a catch 22 situation. People are too busy to get involved, but if they don’t get involved, things will only continue to get worse and they’ll have even less time to do the things they would really like to. Instead they’ll be working harder and longer to pay the bills (and TAXES).
I have to admit. I don’t have the ability to do as much as some of the people that go. I just don’t have the energy, but I sure am glad that those other people are working so hard to keep it all going.
I wish more people really understood and took to heart the founding documents of our country. We are unique in the history of the world. These principles, that the government is made to serve US and NOT the other way around, are what made this country special. The Declaration of Independence says it perfectly…
I had hopes of getting a little rest after the first day of the Workboat Show, but that didn’t happen.
I went back to my hotel fairly early Wednesday, but made the mistake of stopping in the lobby and ran into an old friend. I wound up staying there with some new friends from the fishing side of the maritime industry (they don’t usually come to this show- it’s more focused on the oilfield). We hung out til they closed down the bar.
In the morning, I got over to the Workboat Show in time to meet my friend who was there especially to check out the “Military to Maritime” job fair. We had some lunch first and then went to see who showed up at the job fair. They had quite a few booths. A good variety of both inland and offshore boat companies (Kirby, HOS, Chouest, etc) and land based support (Stuart & Stevenson, etc).
I was surprised to see that they weren’t all mobbed all afternoon (but then I left by 1345). With all we hear on the news about the levels of unemployment, I would have thought there would be a much larger crowd. I think they need to advertise the job fair better. It really wasn’t promoted like the Show itself is.
My friend actually got a job while we were there so he had to take off. I stuck around to talk to people and try to figure out how much hiring they were doing and get some specifics. The USCG was giving a talk about how to get started in the maritime industry, (specifically for members of the military), in a room off to the side, so I went in to see what they had to say.
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After the presentation, it was just about time for the WISTA tea. I’ve been to a couple of them before as a guest, but I joined WISTA (Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association) as a member this year. I haven’t really done anything with them yet, but they do have some good programs. I love the tea, it’s such a nice atmosphere.
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After the tea, the Show was pretty much over for the day, so I wandered over to the French Quarter to see what was happening over there (there’s ALWAYS something). 😉
It was really nice. The fog was just coming in and it made everything look so atmospheric. You could barely see the ships on the river, but you could hear them coming.
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Now it was time for the party at the old JAX Brewery (sponsored by some of the companies at the WorkBoat Show). I had missed some good ones the night before, but I was going tonight! I met up with friends from C-Mar and Oceanwide (I worked for both of them in the past).
They had a fabulous (free) buffet and a great band for dancing. They rented out the entire place so we had room to spread out and the balconies if we wanted to smoke. Lots of people were dancing with the band.
We closed that place down and then hit Bourbon Street. We had a great time. I know I actually went home earlier than some others did. I guess I just ‘cain’t hang’ anymore. 😉
I drug myself out of bed again Friday morning and made it over to the Convention Center just in time for the seminar on ‘Training for the Mariner’. There was a panel of speakers representing different training providers and other interested parties (but very obviously NONE representing those MOST affected- the mariners).
I was hoping to hear some regards for the mariners who are the ones being forced into taking all this ‘training’, but nope, that didn’t come up. I was disappointed in the panel, it seems the focus is going to continue to be on more and more ‘training’ (most of which is going to be held on shore, at our expense).
I spent the rest of the day wandering around the show. I hung out with my friends from Oceanwide some more. Saw some other friends from Texas A&M. Stopped by a few more booths to say hi and see what they were doing.
I got to try out all the latest DP systems (that is my main interest now a days since I’m working as a SDPO). I also got to play with a tiny little ROV. That is a lot harder than it looks, but I think it would be a pretty cool deal to work with one of those too.
Kongsberg DP system
MT DP system
DP system by Beier Radio
I was about ready to check out and it was a good thing, since they were taking down the show everywhere around me. 🙂
mini ROV by VideoRay
I hope I can go back again next year! There’s always new stuff to see, more interesting people to meet, and old friends to catch up with. 🙂
After a VERY late night, I drug myself out of bed to check out the WorkBoat Show.
I didn’t really plan on staying up half the night, but I saw on Facebook that a friend and travel writer was going to be in town for a ‘comp trip’. I had met her at a travel writing workshop in Boston a couple of years ago. After messaging back and forth on Facebook before leaving home, we agreed to meet up here in New Orleans after she finished up her work.
Turns out, when I went to meet her, she was in the middle of dinner with the whole group of writers involved on the comp trip. It was an interesting evening, for true! 🙂
I got back to my hotel about 0200 in the morning, but for some reason I just couldn’t sleep. So it was pretty hard to get up and out. Once I did, I walked over to the Convention center for the WorkBoat Show.
In the same Facebook conversation, I learned there was another writer (and fellow blogger who I met at the same workshop) coming to town for the show. We planned to meet up too. The first thing we wanted to do was to hear Capt Phillips. He was the Keynote speaker.
Remember the Maersk Alabama, the American flagged ship that got attacked by pirates a couple of years ago? Tom Hanks played him in the movie? Yep, that Capt Phillips. He gave a good presentation and we got to ask questions and afterwards have pictures taken with him (I skipped that but my friend got hers done).
As the presentation was ending, I spotted another friend of mine from Kirby Towing. We stopped to say hi on the way out. That’s what I love about these events. I always wind up meeting so many of my old friends. It’s great to catch up and hear what everybody’s been doing. 🙂
I had a couple of hours before the next presentation. My writer friend was doing an interview with a guy from the Deadliest Catch, so I went to wander around a little bit and ran into some other old friends.
Father Sinclair and Doreen from the Apostleship of the Sea. They always have so many good projects going on to help the sailors and the maritime community. Sinclair still sails, but he somehow finds the time to get involved with all kinds of important stuff.
I went to the presentation on mariner health issues. I picked that one since I have a lot of concerns of my own about how the medical standards are getting harder and harder to meet and are being used to throw a lot of us sailors out of our jobs. It seems a lot of the companies want 50 years of experience in a 20 year old body. 🙁
Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the convention center and checking out some of the things there that I’m especially interested in. The latest DP systems from Kongsberg, MT, L3, etc.
I met a few more old friends. Hope to spend some more time with them tomorrow in between all the other events. 🙂
I’m off to New Orleans this afternoon. I’ll be there for a few days. I’m going to the WorkBoat Show. I try to go every year if I’m not offshore at work.
This year they’re having a job fair. I mentioned it to some people last year. I’m really glad to see they listened (I’m sure I’m not the only one). I think it’s a perfect place to have one. So many of these offshore companies say they can’t find the people they need to go to work. So many good people out of work. I hope it’s a success. 🙂
It’s being marketed towards military people, but I think it would be open to others too. Might take some talking? I’m not sure. This is the first one I’m going to where they’ve done it this way. The actual show is open to all and is FREE if you register online before it opens tomorrow. You can do it from the link (above).
I tired to vote on election day. I always try to (even tho I seriously doubt it does any good). Since I knew I would be at work on the ship, I filed for an absentee ballot. I sent it in. I even checked off the box for EMAIL. I had some slim hopes that the mail would deliver my ballot in time for me to vote in this election.
It seems they can’t get an envelope from Texas to Angola in 3 weeks, never mind that I never would have been able to mail it back to them in order to be counted before it was too late. So, NO, I did NOT get to vote in this election. 🙁
I am very disappointed, mostly because in contrast to the people who constantly tell me I’m wasting my vote by choosing to vote Libertarian, I am NOT wasting my vote at all. In fact, my vote counts 100 times more than theirs will.
By voting 3rd party, I am making my voice heard. I am emphatically stating that the way things have been going for the last 100 years is NOT acceptable!!!
I try not to pay any attention to politics. My friends will probably disagree with that statement. Especially since it may seem like that’s all they ever see me posting about on Facebook.
Sometimes I get carried away with it in personal discussions. Some have even accused me of ‘ranting’ on certain issues.
Yes, I have to admit, it’s almost impossible to avoid the politics any more in the USA. I have come to envy certain people. I really don’t know how they manage to do it. To completely ignore everything that’s going on in the world around them.
They’re happy to just live in their own little world and ignore all the continual and constant additional rules and regulations being piled upon us every day. The constant violations of our ‘god-given’, or as I prefer to call them, natural rights.
It helps to be retired, or otherwise not concerned with a job. It helps to not have to leave the house. I think even if I could live that way I would still be bothered just by the fact that any time they want, the government could choose to destroy you personally (KILL YOU on a WHIM, read up on the PATRIOT ACT and/or NDAA) and everything you’ve ever worked for in your life (Google asset forfeiture).
I’ll never understand how so many people just continue to totally ignore that fact and just go on with their lives like everything is perfectly fine.
Well, it’s over. My brain is overflowing with too much information from all the great presentations and interesting people I’ve met here in Las Vegas. I’ll be heading home tomorrow. Then heading back to work already on Tuesday. Wow! Time flies!!
When I came to the IL conference “Fast Track Your Retirement Overseas” this year, I thought I had my mind made up. I had pretty much decided on Panama.
The main reason is because I’m really not old enough (or rich enough) to ‘retire’ yet. I needed to find some place. ANY place, that would allow me to continue working so I could support myself outside of the USA.
Not many places offered that as an option. In fact, in over 7 years of looking, Panama was the ONLY place that I could find that would allow me to continue to work in my profession. Or even anything remotely resembling the profession I’ve spent over 30 years of my life becoming proficient in.
Most places would not allow me to do anything other than teach English (since I don’t know how to do anything else their own people can’t possibly do). The restriction is to keep me from stealing a job from a local. OK. I get it.
I was seriously thinking about teaching English. I still think I might do that some day. I think it would be pretty interesting. The thing is, I don’t want to have my work visa and ability to stay in country totally dependent on my job.
Lots of times I see language schools will give you a job and they will do all your paperwork for you. Then your work visa (and ability to stay in country) is tied up with that school! They sign you up and promise you health care, housing, etc. OK, all that sounds great.
What happens when you take them up on it? You show up in some foreign country, you’ve never been there before, you don’t know anybody, you don’t speak the language, and the housing they put you in looks NOTHING like the photos they sent you beforehand.
Are you expected to just shut up and live with it? You’re in some small town in China in some freezing cold, dirt floored hovel with a squat toilet. Or a tiny room in Thailand you’re sharing with another couple of teachers that has no AC.
Yeah.
Now what?
The whole idea of looking outside of the USA is to find OPTIONS!
I’m not saying things wouldn’t work out perfectly with a teaching job. I might wind up in the most beautiful situation ever. My point is, I don’t really have any idea WHAT I’d be getting myself into. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that level of risk at this stage in my life.
Soooooo…
I’ve been searching for years to find a country that would allow me to move there and continue to WORK as a mariner. It’s been a very hard thing to find. Panama recently started a program that would work so I figured I had better get down there and start the process.
Too bad my new job switched around my schedule and I had to cancel my trip to Panama.
Over the last couple of days here at the conference, I’ve learned that there might be other options. I’m almost certain someone told me that Mexico has some new programs. Uruguay too.
I’ve signed up for more information from all of those places, along with Belize, Philippines, and even Malaysia.
If nothing else, maybe with this new job I can FINALLY move out of the USA. At the very least escape obamacare before I get sucked into that humongous trap!
I’ll be heading back to the ship on Tuesday. I hope I can work out some kind of schedule with work so they can get their ‘training’ done so I can have the time off I’ve earned the next time home.
That’s a whole nother issue I don’t really want to get started on right now. I think I’ll go enjoy my last night in Vegas and try my luck on a few games.
The IL Conference starts this afternoon. This is the real reason I came to Las Vegas.
I sure hope I can get some useful information. Enough good info so I can FINALLY make the move!
Work is driving me CRAZY! Even on vacation these people bother me. Usually, when I’m off work, I’m OFF. No one bothers me at all. Never hear from them til I get my plane ticket.
I was OK with my previous job. Too bad obamacare forced me into taking a permanent job. I HAD to do it in order to get insurance. What a SCAM!
The definition of the word Conundrum is: something that is puzzling or confusing.
Here are six Conundrums of life in the United States of America:
1. America is capitalist and greedy – yet half of the population is subsidized.
2. Half of the population is subsidized – yet they think they are victims.
3. They think they are victims – yet their representatives run the government.
4. Their representatives run the government – yet the poor keep getting poorer.
5. The poor keep getting poorer – yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.
6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about – yet they want America to be more like those other countries.
Think about it! And that, my friends, pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century.
Makes you wonder who is doing the math.
I didn’t come up with the above, a friend sent it to me in an email. I thought it was worth putting it out there for a few thoughts from the rest of you out there. This part is all mine. 🙂
How did we turn into such a socialist country from what was once the most free country on the planet? How did we turn from a country founded SOLELY to support and protect INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY into this mess we have now?
When working for American companies, there are usually only Americans on board. Every once in a while you might see a Brit or a Filipino. Probably because of the Jones Act and other rules and regulations.
The Jones Act is one of the most important of the laws regulating the American Merchant Marine. One of the provisions of this law for US vessels is that the Master and crew must be Americans. Of course, there are exemptions. Lots of them, really probably too many.
But that’s another story for another post.
The ship I’m on now is not American. The company I’m working for is based out of Athens. It was out of Norway but it has been taken over by the Greeks. I’m not sure yet how that is going to work out. It seems already to be bringing unwelcome changes.
But it is a nice change to have people from all over the world to work with instead of mostly just from the southern US. When I’m working in the Gulf of Mexico, most of the people I work with are from Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. Maybe we get a few from Florida and Georgia. A very few from the other states.
The reason for that is that the companies we work for do not want to pay for our transportation to and from the boats/rigs so most people they hire have to live close enough to drive to/from work in a reasonable* amount of time.(*What the companies think is reasonable is not necessarily what any reasonable person would think is reasonable.)
Since I’m now working for a company which is not based in the USA and we’re not working in the Gulf of Mexico, there is no restriction on who they can hire or where they can come from. I really like that. I love meeting people from all over the world. 🙂
On my last rig, the DPOs were from Ireland, Croatia and the Netherlands. Here, they are from Poland and Canada. The last rig had lots of Brits. There were people from Ireland, Scotland, England. There were people from South Africa and from all over Europe (Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium, Lithuania, Italy, France, Spain).
Here, we have lots of people from Poland. We have people from Portugal, Brazil, Croatia, France, etc. We have lots of Canadians. We even have a couple of other Americans. I’ve met a guy from Azerbaijan and another from India. Some from the Philippines.
Of course, we have people on both rigs from Angola and all over Africa (Ghana, S. Africa, Liberia, Guinea, Libya). We are required to have a certain amount of our crew hired locally. We are supposed to train them up to take over eventually. I’m not sure of the time frame for that but it will probably take a while.
So I hope that will allow me to keep my job and they won’t take over from me for a while. Let me keep doing my job here a few more years til I’m ready to retire. 😉
So much of what goes on out here now is extremely complicated and complex. It takes a long time to learn the things we need to know to do our jobs. I know I am always having to go to classes. This place will probably be sending me to classes every time I get off the ship for the next year or so.
I’m not really looking forward to that. I used to really look forward to going to work. I used to really enjoy my work and loved looking forward to joining a new ship and seeing all the new places we would go. But they’ve taken all the fun out of the job. It’s not at all like it used to be out here. To me, at this point, the best part of the job is the time off!
Yep, let me keep working overseas until I’m ready to retire, that idea is getting better looking every day.
I thought this photo would be a good choice to illustrate the Weekly Photo Challenge from the Daily Post. This week the subject is “silhouette”.
I took the photo a while ago when I was working on board the Pacific Breeze. It’s a tuna boat, a purse seiner. We were fishing around the Solomon Islands at the time.
I was on board as captain (regardless of how many locals refused to believe that there ARE women captains).
I watched the guys set and haul in the nets and sometimes could get some great shots!
Things will probably be a little slow around the blog for the next day or 2. I got off the rig yesterday (NICE birthday present) on the helicopter and have been traveling since last night.
The company was nice enough to arrange hotel rooms for us (at the same place I stayed when I came out to work). The problem was, we got there at around noon and they didn’t have any rooms available til earliest 1400. 🙁
I was already tired, since I’d been up since 2200 the night before. I have been working the midnight to noon watch the past week or so. I went to eat lunch while waiting for the room to get ready.
At least the food was decent.
I went back to the front desk a little after 2, hoping they were going to have rooms ready. To my surprise, they did. 🙂
They had a porter help me bring my bags to the room. First thing we noticed was the smell. Disgusting! Like old socks, dirty laundry, moldy old basement. Yuk! His shoes squished through the carpet when he walked into the room and flipped on the lights to show me the bathroom.
OK, so he called the desk and they set up another room for me. We went back down there to trade keys, went back up to the room and… the new key didn’t work. 🙁
The porter found a maid cleaning rooms down the hall and got her to open the room with her passkey. At least I could check out the room and get settled a little bit. The porter showed up in just a few minutes with a new (working) key. 🙂
By this time it was after 3, and the driver was coming to pick us up for our flight at 2000. I figured I had better get up by 1800 so I could have a shower and a cup of tea.
I had already tried to check my email and it was impossible to connect to the internet in the room (again). I was really too tired to get dressed again and go down to the lobby to check email (or work on the blog).
I did get to sleep a couple of hours. I think I probably got 1-2 hours total on the flight to London this morning too. Im hoping I can get at least a little bit more on the way to Houston. It’s another long flight and I’ll be in the window seat this time. Last one I was in the middle (which I hate- doesn’t everyone?).
I should be home by dinnertime tonight (Houston time). I doubt I’ll manage to do anything tonight but pass out as soon as I get in the door.
I HOPE my luggage makes it this time. I’ll only have about 2 weeks at home before I have to be back onboard the ship again. I’ll have only 12 days at home to get everything done and rested up to go back over to Angola and start this trip all over again (in reverse).
I recently did. I flew from Aberdeen to Angola to join a ship. I was lucky the company I’m working for got me a room for the night in Luanda. Here’s a picture of it.
What do you think? Worth it? Maybe it’s the view that makes it all worthwhile…
Maybe it’s the food? I have to admit, the food was pretty good. 🙂
It was extra. 🙁 The food and drinks were very expensive, just like the hotel room itself was. I could hardly believe it when I took a look at the menu!
The food was good, but not THAT good! I mean, really, $28 for a club sandwich? How can they justify $10 for a cup of (white) coffee? No, NOT in some fancy, hyped- up Starbucks clone, just the hotel restaurant. Maybe it was the milk? No, a cup of tea cost the same $10.
I guess I could save money and drink beer, it was only $7.50. 😉
I took a trip to Indonesia a couple of years ago to look into having a sailboat built for me. I have been trying to find a way to move out of the USA for years.
The main hold up has been that no other country will give me a work visa (unless I can do something no one else in their country can do). I thought about teaching English (TEFL) and I still think about doing that sometimes (maybe I will one of these days, but I hate to put myself in a situation where that is my only option. I started writing and blogging as another option to hopefully help me make a living without being stuck in the USA.
I am looking for more freedom. I don’t want to jump from the frying pan of the USA (which is rapidly becoming a police state) into a situation where I don’t really know the rules and have restricted myself by not having the finances (because I had to take a low paying job) to get out of any trouble I don’t know enough to stay out of.
So, maybe I’m trying to have my cake and eat it too, but I really think we all deserve to live a wonderful life. The life WE choose. Free to do the things we enjoy, in the physical location we want to be.
I don’t agree with borders in principle. I don’t agree with the idea of any political authority. “Leaders” are just regular people and governments are just groups of people. None of them are any more special than you or me. I believe we are ALL equal under the law (natural law) and we should ALL have the same opportunity to live our own lives without interference.
I think we ALL have the inherent right to do anything we want as long as we don’t hurt anyone else (who has the same rights as we do). The founding fathers of the USA enshrined that principle in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (Bill of Rights), but the government we have now has corrupted that ideal beyond belief.
We are already FAR beyond the point where the original colonists revolted. I keep wondering WTF has happened to the American people that they submit without question to things like the TSA groping their children in the airports.
We have gone from a country where we had a revolution over a 4% tax on TEA, to a country where the government routinely locks up people for LIFE for mere possession of a harmless plant!?!
OK, enough with the politics (for now). 😉
I went to Indonesia look into buying a boat. I thought I could build a business with it that would allow me to live in a foreign country. I thought if I had a means to support myself, I could make the move. Too bad the price of the boats had gone up so much since I first heard about them. There was really no way I could afford one.
Unless it was one like the ones in these pictures. 🙁
I thought this was a pretty interesting question and the comments really caught my eye. I think if the SHTF I would probably NOT survive. Not for long anyway. Yeah, I always keep plenty of stuff around the house in case of a hurricane. I have enough food, water and other supplies to last me for a while. But if the shit REALLY hits the fan, I don’t think I would last for long. I mean really, how would I be able to hold off an armed mob?
It’s still on my mind since I just got done watching the new show “The Last Ship”. I read the book years ago. I liked it then. I have a feeling it’s going to have a different ending, but I won’t spoil it for you. I thought they did a pretty good job of putting it on TV tonight. I’d like to watch the rest of the series, but I already know I won’t be around to watch TV for a few weeks.
It’s interesting because I’ve been going to meetings of the Campaign for Liberty on Tuesday nights for quite a while. Most people there are also very concerned about the way things are going. We’ve been talking about this kind of thing for a while. So, we started a garden. We’re looking into water supplies. We’re looking into how to keep a line of communication going. We’re looking into alternative power sources. All kinds of things like that.
I do love to read disaster stories (including zombie stories). I like to see how the people in them react to the situation. In most of them, most people die, pretty much right off the bat. The story is about how the survivors manage to survive. THAT is the really interesting part to me. Physical, emotional, sociological, spiritual survival. All of that. How do you think you would do? What do you think would happen to society in general if a disaster happened? I’m just wondering if many people even think about this kind of stuff.
Well, I thought the article I wrote about the other day had a pretty good explanation of why it was not such a good idea to raise the minimum wage.
It looks like at least some people still don’t get it, so I’ll try again. 😉
I think a lot of people probably still have the mindset that there’s a simple solution to the problem of poverty. Just give poor people enough money to raise their income higher than the poverty level and then everything will work out fine.
Sorry to say it, but it’s not really that simple. If it was, we would have eliminated poverty a long time ago.
There are so many things that contribute to the problem of poverty (poor education, bad attitudes, destructive family life, etc). I don’t know if we will ever be able to solve it completely.
I think we have done a pretty good job here in America. The poorest people here are better off than the richest kings were 100 years ago. They’re richer than billions of people in the rest of the world.
So, poverty is a relative thing. No one here in America really has to worry about starving to death. There ARE ways for them to get help.
As for the minimum wage laws, they are not going to help anyone for more than a short time. These laws have been tried in the past and they have failed. The main thing they always do is to keep the most vulnerable people (those without much experience or job skills) out of the job market. Without that foot in the door, they can’t ever move up out of poverty.
The unemployment level rises. More people go on welfare and other aid programs. More people get used to the idea that they can get by that way (NOT having to work) and so they’re worse off in the long run. So are the rest of us.
Personally, I think it’s a bad idea to have large numbers of people living on ‘charity’ (government aid or private aid). I think it encourages a bad attitude towards other people and about life in general. I think people do better when they have some sort of goals to work towards, some purpose in life. Maybe working at a minimum wage job isn’t the BEST way to live your life, but it does give you a decent way to start down the road to your chosen path in life.
As for the remaining low skill workers, the ones who did manage to keep their now higher paying jobs, they will not be better off for very long either. You raise the minimum wage and pretty soon all the rest of the wages will rise too.
Maybe you think that’s a great idea. Your paycheck will have more dollars in it! Yes, it will, but there’s a little thing called “inflation” that comes along when wages rise. That inflation will not only give you more dollars in your paycheck, it will make everything you want to spend those dollars on cost more!
How many people really think they will wind up better off once that starts? I’m pretty sure I won’t be. I know from past experience that most people are worse off than they were before they got that raise they wanted so badly.
Maybe the little video will help convince you. I know these guys (Thomas Sowell, Peter Schiff) are much more informed than I am, they’re experts on this kind of thing.
Maybe I’m not an expert, but I can extrapolate a few things. I read a lot. I listen to people who have been there, done that. I try to learn from other peoples experience.
I totally agree with the comments in the video and the well meaning people who say that a person shouldn’t have to live in poverty while they’re working a full time job. My objections are only about how to make things better for them. I don’t think raising the minimum wage will help.
I hope to start a discussion here along with the one that we should be having nationally. It would be nice if we could do something effective to help people instead of just try one more time to do what has already failed numerous times in the past.
How about we try to come up with some different solutions to the problem of poverty? Instead of the simple answer of raising the minimum wage, (that has already been proven a failure), we try to come up with some other ideas? Something that might WORK?
Here’s another good article from Doug French at Laissez Faire. He does a pretty good job of explaining (in simple terms) how the free market works in the job market. He could do a better job of explaining how government interference through regulations always screws things up, but overall he does OK.
I am simply amazed at the numbers of people in America (and around the world) who don’t have even this most basic level of understanding about economics. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at Americans, considering that most of them are stuck in government schools.
For anyone who doesn’t know the history of government schools in America, the purpose of those schools is NOT to educate the children, but to turn them into ‘cogs in the wheel’. Mould them into compliant workers to fill the factory jobs that we used to have.
Now that we have destroyed those jobs through over-regulation, we have a nation full of people with just enough education to fill those kinds of jobs and none of those jobs to give them.
Along with a number of other subjects, economics was not one of the ones thought important enough to spend any resources on for people intended to spend their entire lives working for GM. 🙁
Our ‘public’ (government) school system has not changed with the times. We are still training people to work in factories when we need to be educating them so they can be entrepreneurs!
In the meantime, because we have not educated them to understand the basics of economics (or much else), we have the situation going on right now (again) where people are clamoring for (another) rise in the minimum wage.
Because they don’t understand basic economics, they think that will improve their standard of living. It won’t. 🙁
Read the article again…
There are so many levels of ignorance and wishful thinking going on in this country, it’s sad really. Yes, it’s true, the poor and middle classes here are not doing as well as the upper class. But the reasons for that are mostly to do with the government and NOT wage rates!
We are all going into debt. More and more and more! THAT is a huge impediment to a high standard of living (no matter what your income). The money supply continues to increase, causing inflation, which steals more of our income every day. Our government keeps on spending money like there’s no tomorrow and raising taxes in order to try to keep that up.
THOSE are the things that are hurting our standards of living. I could go on, but I hope you get the point I’m trying to make. Raising the minimum wage won’t really solve anybody’s problems, it will only delay the inevitable and make it worse in the long run.
I read a post, (“Dead Broke”), this morning by Joseph Rathjen. He writes the “Political and Social Chaos Blog”. It ties right into what I’ve been talking/thinking about. Economic illiteracy. Elites vs the rest of us. Amount of income a person has vs standard of living (personal happiness level).
The fact that ANYONE could believe the Clintons were “Dead Broke” (the way WE mean it when WE say it) says it all. I’m not sure how many people really believe it, or if it’s all just the usual media propaganda, but it seems at least a few people fell for it.
You ought to read Rathjens post. He makes some good points. I would take it even further. People like the Clintons belong to the class of the ‘global elites’. They are not JUST rich. They are rich and POWERFUL.
There is a group of people who are very rich and powerful and THOSE people do NOT care one whit for the rest of us!
THAT is why it is SO important for the rest of us to be educated! We need to know enough about how the world really works so that we don’t fall for their BS! We need to know enough to fight back when someone proposes a plan that might look good on the surface but will eventually work against OUR interests.
The latest minimum wage proposals are just one more example of this. It’s sad. Most people still don’t understand how things work. 🙁
I agree with most of what Chris says in this video. He makes a lot of good points.
We need to make get our heads straight. We need to learn what’s really going on in the world and not just believe what’s on TV! We need to do whatever we can to improve ourselves to enrich and improve our lives.
Get out of any ‘toxic environment’ you happen to be in. Start working on SOMETHING (anything) to improve yourself (your life).
Get out of debt. “Debt is slavery of the free.”
Start doing something that you really love.
“Stop trying to change the world to make yourself happy or free. Start changing yourself to make the world happy and free.”
That’s all great advice! I’m working on it myself. I admit it’s not easy. I’m especially stuck on the part about changing myself instead of trying to change the world. 🙂
I just don’t have the slightest idea of what I could or would possibly change in myself in order to make myself more happy and free (other than what I’m already doing).
I’m working hard to be debt free again. I’m taking courses to improve my writing/photography/blogging. I’m doing something I love (traveling) as often as I can. I’m trying my best to physically leave this toxic environment the USA has become.
No, it’s not easy. All I can do is the best that I can do. That is what I’m doing. 🙂
I haven’t mentioned much about politics on here lately. Maybe it’s because I’ve been traveling outside of the country (I was in Korea for a month).
It’s nice that I can get out of the US occasionally. I would love to leave more often for longer periods of time. I’m even thinking I might want to leave permanently. It’s SO nice to get away where the politics isn’t constantly in my face.
Sometimes I wonder if there’s something ‘wrong’ with me. Most of my friends don’t really care about what’s going on around them. They always tell me to ‘just chill out’, or ‘just ignore it’, or best of all ‘just do whatever you have to do to get around it’.
I wonder “WHY should I have to do any of that”? Why should I have to leave to find the freedom I was guaranteed at birth? I was born and raised here.
I was brought up to believe that THIS country was formed specifically to PROTECT our rights! WHY should I have to try to ignore it when I see our government doing the exact opposite more and more often?
People call me crazy (paranoid) because I’m always aware of how much freedom we have lost in this country, even just in my lifetime. They say I’m crazy to think the things that have happened in other countries (Germany, USSR, N Korea, China, etc) could ever happen here.
But I see that we are following the same footsteps that led those other countries down the path of socialism/communism/tyranny. Why COULDN’T it happen here?
I wonder what’s wrong with everybody ELSE, that they DON’T care what’s happening in this country?
Why don’t THEY get upset that they have lost the same freedoms I have? Why do they clamor to give theirs away (and mine along with theirs)????
I feel more and more like an outsider in my own country. I feel like most of the people in this country have completely abandoned the ideas and ideals that our country was founded on. What made this country so unique in all of history…
The idea that “we the people”, (ALL people), have certain INALIENABLE rights. Rights inherent to us, that belong to us simply because of the fact that we are all human beings. We are all equal under the law (supposed to be here). That our government’s main job, (its’ only legitimate function), was to PROTECT those rights (it did NOT create or give us those rights).
Most people have been distracted and disoriented by the corruption of the language and twisting of the meanings of the words. Rights for example, there are those basic human rights that we are all born with, part of our nature as human beings. Then there are government created rights like voting rights for example. People treat them as interchangeable. They’re not.
People are busy arguing about media created hoopla over free speech (political correctness) and racism (freedom of association) and on and on and on. Too caught up in the small issues that tear us apart instead of fighting together for what’s really important. Our FREEDOM as individual human beings!
Yes, I realize that we are all very busy. I understand that most people have so many things taking up their time and energy now a days.
Most people are so exhausted by the time they get home at the end of a long day, all they want to do is chill out in front of a TV set. They don’t want to think, they want to vegetate til it’s time to go to bed.
Maybe as a sailor, I’ve had too much time to think in my life. Maybe it’s because I’ve always loved to read. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been an explorer. Maybe it’s because I’ve always been a skeptic.
But for whatever reason, I do think and I do care. What I see happening around me here flat ass scares the SHIT out of me.
OK, now before you all go running for the doors, please stick with me just a little longer.
Yeah, I’m fishing for comments here. I’d really like to hear from a larger sample of people around the world than just my personal friends and friends of theirs I’ve been arguing with on Facebook. 🙂
OK, just one simple question to start off with…
What do you know about the principle of self-ownership?
Have you heard of it before? Where? What do you think it means? Do you think it’s valid? How would you go about justifying it? Do you think principles like this one change with the times? Should they?
Here’s another one to go along with that, it’s really part of the same question… If you DON’T own yourself, who does?
OK, I’ll leave you all to think on that for a while. PLEASE comment with your thoughts here!
If you’re wondering why I put that video on the top of the post, here’s why. I love that band! I really like this song.
I also think it’s relevant to this conversation I’m trying to start. I do think there’s a war going on. It’s a war for our hearts and our heads. It’s a war for the principles we’ll stand and fight for. It’s a war between the great masses of “we the people”, the common people, (you and me), and the elites.
It’s a war between freedom and tyranny. YES, it really is. So far, it’s happening mostly in the background, behind the scenes. You can see it easily if you look around (don’t count on the mainstream media for your information).
“This is Why We Fight”: “When we die, we will die with our arms unbound.” THAT says it all to me.
“This Is Why We Fight”
Come the war
Come the avarice
Come the war
Come hellCome attrition
Come the reek of bones
Come attrition
Come hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
And this is why
This is why we fight
When we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why
Why we fight
Come hell
Bride of quiet
Bride of all unquiet things
Bride of quiet
Bride of hell
Come the archers
Come the infantry
Come the archers
Of hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
And when we die
We will die
With our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
Come hell
Come hell
This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
This is why
This is why we fight
When we die
We will die with our arms unbound
And this is why
This is why we fight
So come to me
Come to me now
Lay your arms around me
And this is why
This is why
We fight
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
Come hell
I got this in my email today, I just HAD to check it out. This film looks like it will be a real eye-opener and I sure hope it gets the attention it deserves.
The email (from The Dollar Vigilante) said that the first official screening of the film will be at the Freedomfest (Las Vegas Jul 9-12).
I went to Freedomfest a couple of years ago and had a great time. I hope to go again this year. I’m not sure of my schedule yet, so I haven’t made plans. I definitely recommend it for anyone who is into freedom and individual liberty. There is SO much good information there, SO many interesting people, and the atmosphere is just amazing!
Positive energy for a change. 🙂
Here’s what Jeff Berwick (the Dollar Vigilante) has to say about Freedomfest and the new film… “… Freedomfest is probably the largest conference on freedom in the world and so I decided I couldn’t pass it up. Also, at Freedomfest, they will be screening the first public airing of “Freedom From Choice” a film on the state of the US tyranny today with appearances by Peter Schiff, G. Edward Griffin, myself and many more.“
I checked out the link on the email from TDV and liked what I saw. I can’t wait to see the full movie. I even donated a few bucks to help make that happen. (You can too if you want). I think Kickstarter is a great idea (and another example of the free market at work)!
Check it out and let me know what you think. Do you like stuff like this? Do you care about these kinds of issues? Are you concerned about the way things are going in the USA (or the world)? Are you involved in any projects to help change things? I’d really like to know. 🙂
I was just really missing my job. Yeah, I know that must sound really weird. Crazy even. But I’m not crazy! Really!!
I don’t miss the work I do NOW, right at this moment. I DO miss the work I’m still sometimes able to find. Those few jobs that allow me to do what I’ve trained all my life to do. To sail the seas AS A SAILOR.
I went to sea for the FREEDOM it afforded. Freedom to just do my job (no worries), and enjoy life at sea with an occasional port call (with enough time to go ashore). Not much paperwork, no one really bothered us. We literally were in our own little world out there. Our own community. We all did our jobs yet worked together as a team.
OMG have things changed!!! (NOT for the better)
It seems like it’s almost impossible to find that sort of employment any more. You’ll take a job that’s totally confining, one almost as bad as if you were working on the beach. Paperwork out the ying-yang. Do a JSEA before you even get out of your bed (seriously, on one boat they actually wanted us to do that!). The only advantage is you don’t have to commute every day.
They micromanage every tiny little detail of your life, even to the point of telling you how to dress yourself every day.
WTF??? They hire us to run a multi-million dollar vessel with hundreds of peoples lives in our hands, but they think we’re too stupid to know how to dress ourselves? What’s UP with that?
At least the money’s decent. Not enough for the BS they put us through, but decent.
The other option is to find an interesting job. An enjoyable job. A job that actually lets you use the skills and knowledge you’ve worked so hard to gain. One that might actually GO somewhere INTERESTING at least every once in a while.
But it seems that every one of THOSE types of jobs entail working for people who think that their company is just SO wonderful that we’d just all love to work there for free and they don’t even want to come up with the minimum wage! 🙁
I’m still looking to find that happy medium. A job that lets me be a sailor that actually pays the bills at the same time! 🙂
Those tuna boats were close, I really enjoyed my time there. Take a look at these pictures and tell me you don’t understand my craving for adventure, don’t get it just a little bit, don’t wish you could be doing something like this instead of wasting hours in traffic everyday to get to a ‘regular’ job?
I agree! It’s a good video, a good advertisement for the Houston Pilots.
I almost don’t even think about it any more; what a pilot does, what it takes to become one, what it’s like to be one, how much we depend on them.
I’ve sailed on dozens of ships when we’ve used pilots. I’ve been on the helm entering Cape Hinchinbrook going to Valdez, AK. I’ve been on the helm entering San Francisco Bay heading up to Benicia. I’ve been on the helm passing through New York Harbor. I’ve been on the helm transiting the Houston Ship Channel.
I’ve always admired the skill, experience and local knowledge the pilots have. They’re a fantastic aid to any ship passing through an unfamiliar port.
I’ve never really wanted to be a pilot myself, tho it is definitely a challenging job. I still like traveling and HOPE to be able to go somewhere interesting again one of these days. Pilots are experts on their port and they stay in one place.
It seems the pilots job is one most captains hope for one day but not me. 😉
Thanks to Mr Jeff Reed for posting this to Oilpro! That’s where I saw it posted. It’s a pretty neat video of the new drillship Maersk Viking.
I’ve been spending a lot of time (as mate/DPO) on very similar ships in the last couple of years. The drillships Pacific Santa Ana, DS-5 and DS-3 are all a lot like this one.
This one will be coming to the Gulf of Mexico soon. I keep trying to find a position on something working somewhere other than the GOM, but it seems all the work is here. I guess I’ll be stuck here til things change and there’s a boom somewhere else in the world.
You can take the virtual tour and get an idea of where I’ve been spending a lot of my time lately.
Here’s a link to a cool post on gCaptain. It has photos and stories from all the headline news from the maritime industry over the past year. I thought it would be interesting for a New Years type post.
Here they have everything from the fire on the cruise ship Carnival Triumph and her subsequent adventures as a “floating toilet” to the Costa Concordia disaster.
The grounding/salvage of the navy minesweeper USS Guardian and the delivery of the USS Freedom and the very first Mobile Landing Platform (MLP1) USNS Montford Point.
The break up of the MOL Comfort containership and the sinking of the MV Albedo after she was hijacked by pirates.
The slow speed chase of the smoke ship MV Gold Star in the Mediterranean and the antics of the Sea Shepard ships in the Southern Ocean.
The sinking of the in/famous sailing ship Bounty as she tried to outsail a major hurricane in the Atlantic ocean.
My favorite was the story of the rescue of the cook from the tug Jascon 4 after she sank. The man survived for over 2 days under the sea!!
Check it out, there’re lots of interesting stories. I’ve written about a couple of them here already,
Here’s another excellent article from The Dollar Vigilante. It was written by Latin America Editor Adil Elias (check the link, you can read it in English or Spanish). I’ve subscribed to TDV for a while now and I always enjoy reading their articles. I like to hear from all of their writers and enjoy hearing about their adventures.
Sometimes reading a post makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me cry (seriously), sometimes it infuriates me, but it always holds my attention and makes me think.
It usually makes me think about how the HELL did we allow our freedom to disappear? Yes, the foreigners still flock here, they believe our propaganda. And yes, we are better off and more free here than if we lived in Somalia or North Korea. But we have lost SO MUCH. We were once the envy of the world. Now, not so much. 🙁
I know what’s happening, it’s like the story about the frog in a pot of boiling water. Throw him in when the waters at room temperature and he’s just fine with it. Turn up the heat very gradually and by the time the water’s hot enough to concern him, it’s too late and we have frog legs for dinner.
That is exactly what has been going on here in America with regards to our freedom. I know in some ways our freedom has been increasing. I can say that about communications for example. In lots of ways, things have improved in the last 100 years. We have telephone, fax, mobile phones, TV, computers, and internet.
All of those things have given us so many choices and improved our lives. Those things have increased our personal liberty. But that same technology is also being used against us in a lot of different ways.
Most people paid no attention to the fact that the US government has been increasingly violating our privacy. Edward Snowden took huge risks to break the news (again, since nobody paid attention any of the other times these spy programs have been reported).
No one had any major problem with the FBI wiretapping criminals, but now the ‘authorities’ capture EVERY SINGLE PHONE CALL from EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US! Same with everything you ever do or ever have done online. Same with tracking everywhere you go and everything you do. Everything you buy and everything you read. What you do at home and who you do it with.
We are living in a world to rival the worst nightmares of George Orwell and Franz Kafka. Yes, seriously! We have the technology, the money and the means to allow ‘our’ leaders to transgress against us in the most invasive ways.
1984 was supposed to be a WARNING, not a road map!!!
Our ‘leaders’ have decided it’s right and proper that they spy on EVERYTHING WE EVER SAY OR DO or even THINK! They are even collecting our DNA!! Of course, it’s all for our ‘own good’.
Really?
And do you REALLY want to live in a society where the people ‘in charge’ have access to all that information? To be used for any purpose they desire, to sell it to whoever they feel like, or to use it against us? The way I look at it, it is OUR information, it belongs to US and I did NOT give permission for anyone to use ANY of my information other than the people I specifically give it to.
I do NOT want my location tracked with cameras in every store, bank, street corner, and public place, cel phone triangulation programs and RFID chips! I do NOT want red light cameras, toll booths, license plate scanners, and black boxes (now required to be installed in all new vehicles) tracking every trip I make!
I do NOT want every conversation I make, every comment and keystroke I make, every item I buy, every person I associate with, every book I read, every club I join, every show I watch, etc. recorded and stored for all time!
I do NOT want my medical records spread about the internet for anyone to see, just because some kid with a bug up his ass wants to pay me back. I do NOT want my credit screwed up for years because (even) one bad apple in any of the dozens of companies I deal with abuses my social security number!
I do NOT want to live in a society where people have to think about ANY of these things going in in their lives. I could not call anyplace that did that kind of thing a civilization, it is the complete opposite of a civilized society!
I do NOT want to live in a place where people censor themselves and live in fear of being caught out, violated, spied on and blackmailed over any little thing. That IS what happens when people have no respect for personal privacy. Look at the historical record.
Take a good look at Nazi Germany. Take a good look at the Soviet Union. Take a good look at the Chinese and their Great Leap Forward. There are many, many examples.
I hope you’ll read the article in the link. I really can’t do it justice. I hope you’ll think about what he says about the organization of society and the way our ‘leaders’ function. I hope more and more and more people will think it over and decide to take back their lives and their freedoms from the power hungry thugs who somehow have managed to take over almost the entire world.
We will never have a decent world until we deal with these people. We all deserve to live in a world of peace, prosperity and freedom. I see some signs of change. The internet is a huge help in spreading the word, that YES, it IS possible! Let’s make it happen!!!
Check out this video from gCaptain of Shells Prelude FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) plant. It was built in the shipyard in Geoje, South Korea and will be headed to work in the Prelude gas fields in Western Australia. Interesting vessel! 🙂
It took a little over a year to build and they’re not expecting it to be operational until 2017. So far, they’re saying it’ll cost around $12 BILLION to build it! Expecting it to work for 25 years, that’s still a LOT of money! Personally, if I had a billion dollars to spend, I would want something to last longer than only 25 years!
People are always griping about how expensive gas is. This kind of cost for the equipment they need to get the basic resource out of the ground is PART of the reason for that.
I thought it was a pretty cool video and the ship itself is another milestone as far as what we are doing offshore around the world. Check out the link and the video! 🙂
This is a link to a post on a blog I follow. The blog is by Paula Pant and is called Afford Anything. Paula is the one who taught us about blogging at the AWAI Boston workshop I went to back in August. She was very helpful to me in getting this blog of mine started.
I am always trying to find ways to save money. My goal is to save enough so I can ‘retire’. I want to move overseas somewhere. Somewhere I can afford to live the way I want to. Somewhere more affordable. Somewhere more free (since we have lost SO much freedom here in the USA). 🙁
So I’m always looking for ways to save more money, earn more money, etc. That would help move me further toward my goal. Paula has some good suggestions in her post. I love it that she always encourages us to think outside the box.
I’m not really into budgeting so I agree that putting saving first is a great idea. A lot of financial advisers say the same thing.
If you’re lucky enough to have a 401-K, put at least enough to get the company match in there. It might not be enough to retire on, but it’s a good start. Since you never see it in your checkbook, you’ll never miss it. I always sign up first thing at a new job now. 🙂
Maybe some of you are good at saving? I have to admit, I’m not that great at it. I try and I manage to save a little, but not enough to get me where I want to be. I don’t spend much on clothes, I live in shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops. ALL the time. 😉
I spend my income on vacations. I LOVE to travel. I go somewhere interesting EVERY chance I get! I try to go someplace where there is something in particular I want to learn about. For example, I went to the Freedom Fest in Las Vegas, the AWAI workshops in Chicago, Miami and Boston, the Live and Invest Overseas with International Living in the Rivera Maya Mexico, the Workboat Show in New Orleans.
I took all those trips in the last couple of years. I didn’t spend a TON of money, but it didn’t help my savings plan at all either. 😉
So, according to Paula I need to ‘earn more’!
I’m trying!! OK, to be honest, I hope to find some way to earn some money from this blog. I’m hoping to get my writing and photography out there to the world. Maybe someone will like it enough to be willing to buy some of it from me. 🙂
I’m also doing the same thing Paula is doing with real estate. Very similar at least. I started buying old houses and fixing them up to rent out a few years ago. I like the whole process of hunting down a good deal, improving on what was there, and then meeting all the interesting people that I have to deal with. From the technicians to the tenants, they’re ALL interesting. 😉
I’m glad to learn from Paula that I’m on the right track. She’s been very successful at living her life the way she’s dreamed. I hope to be able to break free and live MY dreams too one of these days. 🙂
I liked this article by Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org). I used to belong to them and got these neat little books every month. They always had some great essays by Hornberger, Sheldon Richman and others. I still have a few around the house.
Hornberger is a great advocate for freedom and this short little essay of his is an example. It asks some good questions and at least gets you thinking. At least it did me and I hope it will others. 🙂
You must know enough about me by now to know that I am VERY much in favor of a free society. 😉 I have been a Libertarian for years, working to restore this country to some semblance of the free society we USED to have. I would REALLY like to see the USA return to its founding principles of freedom and liberty for all.
No, we were never perfect, but our principles were (are) sound. Our most basic principle is that of self ownership. Freedom to decide how YOU want to live YOUR life! Since we fought the American Revolution to ensure that one basic human right, our people have fought constantly for freedom.
We have fought against slavery, for womens’ rights, for workers rights, for minority rights, etc. Even today, our soldiers are fighting for what they were TOLD was someones freedom (regardless of whether what they were told was a lie, those soldiers believed it when they left home to fight).
These principles, which hold that the individual is important, are no longer respected in America. Even though it was our support for individual liberty that formed the basis for the most free and prosperous country in the history of the planet. 🙁
Since we stopped following those principles and no longer have any respect for individual liberty, we’ve been going backwards in every way. Most people here don’t agree with me.
They’ll come up with all kinds of excuses and false premises as to what’s wrong with this country. They’ll grasp at any straw to avoid the fact that we have lost most of our liberty already and what’s left of it is fading fast.
They have been manipulated by the government and the media to believe that they are better off trading their freedom for security.
Ben Franklin said it best over 200 years ago…
“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
I agree with Ben! He was a pretty sharp guy and he sure as hell knew what he was talking about when he made that statement!
I am NOT willing to trade my freedom for any kind of security, it’s NOT worth it! I will take my chances with whatever the world brings my way. I only want the FREEDOM to be able to live MY life the way I choose, just like everybody else should be able to do.
I can think of SO many things I could do if our government had not grown so big. Rules and regulations everywhere. Nit picking and harassing me every time I try to break out of the mold and try to do something different. New ideas for businesses, etc. I can imagine that expanding to all the other people around me and the absolute explosion of creativity, which will foster prosperity, which will foster peace.
I can imagine with that freedom that people would be much happier, much more productive, much more friendly open and caring. Just think for a minute what would you do if you had a 30-50% raise.
Would you spend the extra money on something useful or enjoyable? Go back to school, take a trip, buy a bike, etc? Would you spend it on charity? Would you use the TIME instead to spend more time with your friends and family? Would you take the time to relax and just enjoy life?
Just think how much better off we’d all be with less stress in our lives! I’m pretty sure a LOT of that stress comes from work. How many people are just working for the money? I know plenty of people like that. They HATE their jobs, they’re miserable but they can’t quit. They need the money.
Wouldn’t it be great if we all could work at something we loved and didn’t need to worry about the paycheck? If we cut government back down to its constitutional limits, you would GET that raise! We might even be able to stop choosing jobs only for the money. Imagine!! 🙂
What do YOU think a truly free society would look like? Would you like it? Or do you think you wouldn’t like it? Why?
