A Presidential Prosody dedicated to Bush 43

The Beast came among us.

He stared.

He ravaged.

He left us naked and bleeding.

And then he moved on in his self-constructed glory.

Elgut Dlareg

Mr. Speaker

And God said, “John, let there be jobs.”

And John said, “God, we need to stop abortions first.”

And God said, “John, if people have jobs, there will be fewer abortions.”

And John said, “God, we need to defend heterosexual marriage first.”

And God Said, “John, if everybody can marry, there will be more jobs.”

And John said, “God, we have to get rid of collective bargaining first.”

And God Said, “John, I like unions, they help job security.”

And John said, “God, dammit, I thought you were on my side.”

And God said, “John, I haven’t registered to vote yet.”

Elgut Dlareg

Foreclosure Solution

The number of foreclosed properties on the market and waiting to come on the market has contributed to a downward trend in home values and it appears that the incidence of foreclosures may be further fueled by the downward movement – a classic spiral which requires an outside event or intervention for its interruption.  The federal effort to offer a tax incentive for new buyers was effective but short-lived and the effort to force lenders to renegotiate loans never reached a sufficient volume to impact the market.

It seems to me that it would require at least half of the existing foreclosed properties to be removed from the market to create a sufficient interruption to change the downward spiral.  How to accomplish this is problematic and requires that financial institutions institute significant creativity which seems to be something that they do very well in the capital markets (i.e. derivatives), but at which they have been totally impotent in the mortgage arena. Even in the face of significant losses on mortgage portfolios, it seems that they are in total paralysis, having cranked the foreclosure machine to maximum speed and unable to see any other solutions.

It seems to me that the solution is at hand and available by use of the oldest principle in commerce – supply and demand.  By all accounts extant in the media, Americans are turning from home owners to renters.  It would follow that lenders could turn part of their inventory of “for sale” homes into “for rent” homes, thereby removing product from the oversupply of “for sale” and putting it into “for rent”.  Lenders could use this same mechanism to allow persons in, or close to being in the foreclosure process to remain in their homes as renters, thereby keeping the home from entering the "for sale" market.  Lenders could even use a “rent-to-own” option as one part of the operation.

I would even suggest that the major lenders in possession of foreclosed properties could put together a consortium that would assume the day to day operation of the rental process.

I am sure that there are many perfectly reasonable objections to this idea; however I do believe that there are sufficiently manipulative minds on Wall Street to create a way that this could work effectively and profitably.

Elgut Dlareg

A Job Model for the 21st Century

The traditional big company job model wherein the employer takes on the role of parent, teacher and health provider and the traditional small company job model which typically has a similar role but lacks the health provider portion are in need of a third and co-equally legislated counterpart to enable our economy to flourish in the 21^st century.  The employee status shifted from being “slave like” in the nineteenth century to that of “prima donna” in the twentieth century with so many entitlements having accrued to the label.  I believe that employers both large and small will, absent a great need, be increasingly unwilling to take on new employees.

The problem as I see it is that the act of hiring an “employee” (employee will hereinafter mean a statutory employee with all the rights guaranteed by whatever laws govern) requires an employer to be prepared to furnish care and feeding of the employee for the term of the employment without regard to the productivity of the employee.  The employer does have the ability to sever ties with the employee after a time; however the severance can be costly and time-consuming.

I would suggest creating a new legislated category of employment that for want of a better term would be called a “rover”.  From a federal tax standpoint, this person would become a 1099 employee – the difference being that the definition would not be limited as it is now in the independent contractor classification.  Alternatively, the independent contractor classification could have all the qualifications stripped away allowing any person to register as a rover.

The rover would be:

1.  Hired for a period of time, a specific project or on a day-to-day basis.  The hiring document would set out the conditions.

2.  Paid so much per period (i.e. hour, week, month), for a project, for specific results, or any manner which is agreeable to the parties.

3.  Responsible for any and all tax payments, health care, travel expenses.

The company would be:

1.  Responsible for payment per the agreement.

2.  Work related injury coverage.  (In the long term, this should be covered by a universal health care program administered by the Feds.)

Where other technical licensing is required, this classification would not exempt the rover from satisfying those requirements, however states would be prohibited from requiring the rover to be licensed if an employee doing the same or similar job would not be required to be licensed.

There are reports of a “gig” work force emerging as the economy deteriorates and I myself have always been self-employed.

For this to work would require legislation but the passage of a universal single-payer healthcare system run by Medicare would make this very easy to implement.  I believe that the resulting increase in worker productivity would be large.

Registration could be as easy as utilizing the current State Corporation Commissions to register individuals under the new category or the existing category of LLC could be used.

Elgut Dlareg

A White Man’s Lament

I am sad

We fear brown

We fear black

We fear red

We fear yellow

I am sad

I am sad

We fear Catholic

We fear Jew

We fear Muslim

I am sad

I am sad

We fear competition

We fear sharing

We fear cooperation

I am sad

I am sad

We fear different

We fear intelligence

We fear knowledge

I am sad

I am sad

We fear women

We fear gays

I am sad

Elgut Dlareg

Myth #1 - The Trickle Down

Myth #1 – The Trickle Down

Give rich people more money and they will use that money to plow back into their small businesses to create millions of jobs.

Reality of the Trickle Down

Give rich people more money and they will use that money to plow into commodity speculation which will cause food and gasoline to cost so much that commoners cannot eat or commute.

Elgut Dlareg

Respect

Respect

It is a heady feeling to be respected financially.

It is a heady feeling to be respected as a human being.

If I had to choose between the two, I would pick the latter.

Elgut Dlareg