Thus, let's start with the latest insanity from Reason:
- The Federal U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently posted a statement on its website that warned employers who require their potential employees have a high school diploma may be violating the American Disabilities Act (ADA).
That is right, if you are too lazy to get your high school diploma, you may now be an oppressed minority, entitled to the benefits and protection of the Federal government. Talk about encouraging sloth, laziness, and injecting another risk into hiring.
Just another way that the Obama administration introduces uncertainty into the business world, uncertainty that leads to business owners being cautious when it comes to business expansion and hiring. No wonder the unemployment rate stays persistently high.
- Many, if not most, times political class actions lead to unintended consequences, usually of the negative type. Consider the so-called "payday" lenders. These businesses typically offer high interest, short term loans, usually using a customer's future pay checks as collateral.
The political class at all levels of government decided that these lenders were being unfair to their customers, even though no one was forcing these customers to use these payday services. It was a free market transaction, usually with full disclosure on both sides of the transaction. Nevertheless, the politicians started imposing burdensome and business killing restrictions on the industry.
An unintended consequence was that Indian tribes, who are generally immune from these new government restrictions, have moved into the void left by the original payday lenders going out of business as a result of the restrictions imposed on them by government entities. However, the need for payday loans still exists and is now served by Indian tribes who cannot be restricted or regulated by the politicians.
Reason reports that these tribes have developed a very bad reputation regarding collection problems and other issues. However, the political class is currently powerless to force the tribes to play nicely with their customers. As a result, payday lender customers now get stuck with worse loan terms, worse customer service, and more inconvenience. The exact opposite of what the political class intended which was better terms, better service, and more convenience. A perfect example of the political class not understanding the root causes of the problem.
- Continuing with unintended consequences, if you live in Illinois and have a clogged drain, life has been made very complicated for you, courtesy of the Illinois political class. If you want to unclog your drain with an industrial strength drain cleaner or other "caustic or noxious substance," you have to register your name, your address, the date and time of your purchase, and the type, brand, and net weight of your purchase. This information will be entered into a government registry by the store clerk.
Stores who fail to comply with the regulations could get a fine of $150 for the first offense and up to $1,500 for each subsequent offense. The law has been such a hassle for both customers and stores that a local supermarket chain, Jewel-Osco, has responded to the hassle by no longer selling the affected drain cleaners.
And what was the cause of this explosion in bureaucracy and government intrusion? Bureaucracy that will affect hundreds of stores, thousands of homes, and thousands and thousands of citizens? Apparently, back in 2010, two Chicago women were badly injured by assailants who threw drain cleaner on them.
Now while I feel badly for the two women, this is a ridiculous reaction to only two incidents. First of all, passing a law like this will not eliminate the potential for this type of incident happening again:
- Drain cleaning liquid is still available (except at Jewel-Osco) so future assaults could still occur. Law enforcement authorities could never trace who bought the drain cleaner used in a future assault.
- If this was such a big problem, I am sure criminal elements could drive to neighboring states to buy drain cleaners. It does not appear to be a crime to transport drain cleaners across state lines.
- If a criminal wanted to repeat this type of assault, they could just as easily use household bleach for the same assault affect. It does not appear that bleach is a dangerous substance according to the law, requiring a registry and other such nonsense required of drain cleaner purchasers.
- Think about the major issues facing Americans: high unemployment, high gas prices, sky high national debt, no national or coherent energy policy, failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, leaky borders and the associated illegal immigrant problem. Serious stuff to most Americans, but apparently not to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.
The good Senator seems to have his britches in a knot about a product called Aeroshot. Aeroshot is a caffeine and vitamin product that is inhaled. Schumer believes that the product is dangerous and went to the trouble of holding a press conference to warn that "Aeroshot is nothing more than a club drug or a party enhancer, designed to give the user the ability to to drink until they drop."
Not only is the Senator, and his staff, wasting time on this but he also has gotten the staff of the FDA involved to investigate. Nowhere in the Reason article does it appear that Aershot is addictive. Nowhere in the article does it indicate it is seriously harmful. In fact, the article reports that one dose of Aeroshot contains only 100 milligrams of caffeine while research from the Mayo clinic found that on average, a 16 ounce cup of coffee has 330 milligrams of caffeine.
Apparently, the Senator has no problem with people drinking beer or other alcohol which can also be taken "until they drop." He also has no problem wasting government resources and taxpayer money on stupid priorities while the bigger issues of our lives go unattended to and ignored. Insanity.
- Reason reported that NYC teacher Alan Rosenfield was deemed a danger to children and was removed from the classroom. That's the good news. The bad news is that Mr. Rosenfield cannot be fired and refuses to retire so he continues to get the pay and benefits of a teacher without having to teach. The article quotes a friend of Mr. Rosenfield: "He's happy about it and very proud that he beat the system. This is a great show-up-but-don't-do-anything job." Insanity.
- When any type of human organization embarks on a major new endeavor, it is sometimes a good strategy to try out the program on a smaller scale (pilot programs or pilot tests) to identify unknown factors before implementing the whole program on a grander scale. These pilot programs can help improve the efficiency of the larger program, save money and time, and provide insights into whether the larger program has any chance of being successful.
Unfortunately, this last aspect of pilot programs, failure, seems to be the most significant characteristic of Federal government medical programs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report this past January which analyzed the results from 34 different cost management or cost reduction Federal programs related to disease management and medical care.
The CBO reported found that every single one of the 34 efforts did not reduce costs: "On average, the 34 programs had little or no effect on hospital admissions. In nearly every program, spending was either unchanged or increased relative to the spending that would have occurred in the absence of the program, when the fees paid to the participating organizations were considered."
It is pretty amazing that any human entity could be so incompetent that it goes 0 for 34 in attempts. If a major league baseball player goes 0 for 34, he is likely sent down to the minor leagues. If a basketball player shoots the basketball and misses 34 times in a row, he is likely to be benched for a long time. If the Federal government goes 0 for 34, nothing happens and taxpayer money continues to be wasted.
The really scary part of this whole analysis is that Obama Care is rife with these types of pilot and experimental programs. These Obama Care pilots are supposed to be critical to the overall success of Obama's health care reform effort. Do we think that the political class, when writing the legislation, put any more or better thought and analysis into these pilot programs than the bureaucrats put into the above mentioned 34 failed pilot programs? I doubt it.
So let's review. In the past month we found out that our political class wastes precious time and resources unnecessarily worrying about drain cleaners and caffeine, protects people that were too lazy to graduate high school, has a perfect record of failure when it comes to controlling health care costs, pays people to do nothing because they are a threat to children, and has caused more negative unintended consequences on the American public.
All without addressing the major issues facing all Americans. It has been a busy month for insanity and idiocy, so much so that we will have to cover the rest of the craziness in our next post.
We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:
http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com
The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.
The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/
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