Quote from: triffid on September 26, 2011, 06:52:23 PM
Lee I don't know if you can profit from this but here it is:  Sliver                                                              a “sidebar” note, I also ran into an interesting approach to mining silver. ... I know that at one point the silver from millions of folks photographs was washing into the SF Bay in quantities high enough they warned about silver poisoning in the area around Alviso…
triffid

I did actually tell a German tourist not to eat seafood from the Bay, since there's still methyl mercury in the mud of the Bay that the fish and other life are depending on for survival.   The rivers should be dredged and the mud processed for contaminants.

--Lee

Quote from: triffid on September 27, 2011, 05:35:47 PM
Shame on you!  http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20110927/NEWS01/109270318/1060/news01


Pension perks aren't unique to legislators in South Carolina. More than 4,100 legislators in 33 states are positioned to benefit from special retirement laws that they and their predecessors have enacted to boost their pensions by up to $100,000 a year, a USA TODAY investigation found. Even as legislators cut basic state services and slash benefits for police, teachers and other workers, they have preserved pension laws that grant themselves perks unavailable to voters they serve or workers they direct.

In some states, lawmakers add expenses, per diem allowances and stipends to their base salaries. That inflates the compensation that's used to calculate retirement benefits, which are typically a percentage of final pay. In other states, legislators have written a special definition of salary that applies only to their pensions. Additional tactics include:

Basing pensions on salaries legislators are not paid or were paid in non-legislative jobs.

Collecting state pensions while also collecting legislative paychecks.

Overspending (spending more than a government receives annually in revenues) is definitely bad for the economy but an even equally important destroyer of the economy is outsourcing labor overseas.  Whenever a company leaves one country to begin production in another, they kill jobs in the country they leave. 

Too many companies are setting up production factories in China and other low labor cost countries in order to widen their profit margins.  American companies are finding it harder and harder to compete against companies who employ slave labor because they have moved to China. 

How can American companies compete against droves of communist slaves in China?  Companies who employ citizens of China:

•   Pay these people less than minimum wages here.
•   Have no labor board or employee rights organizations to worry about.
•   Don’t have to pay workers overtime after 40 hours.
•   Have no OSHA to worry about.
•   No EPA to worry about.
•   Don’t have to provide any benefits or safety equipment.

Unless we level the playing field now by imposing import tariffs on all foreign imported goods, ALL OF THE JOBS (with exceptions of jobs like McDonalds) WILL CONTINUE TO MOVE TO CHINA UNTIL EVERYTHING IS MADE THERE.  We need to reward companies who have resisted the temptation of relocating some of their plants overseas by avoiding the new imposed import taxes. 

After the import taxes are imposed, American made goods will be pretty much the same in price as Chinese made products thus making the market place even again.  One alternative to this plan would be for people to start being willing to work for less than minimum wage, without overtime pay, vacations, etc. (just like the communist slaves do)

You decide,

Chess 

I don't think they willingly do it.They are forced in similar ways that we are forced.We will be forced to accept less pay in many ways.Hopefully enough of us can be on a farm or somewhere we can grow our own food.My mother grew up on a farm during the great depression.They had no money but they grew their own food for the most part so they ate.They raised hogs,butchered them and salted the meat down to preserve it.My grandpa liked to drink so that took some cash.The family picked cotten by hand to earn some cash.I helped two days one time when I was in the fourth grade back in the 60's.To pick cotten that is,very hot work.Funny you should mention McDonald's in your post.At breakfast at McDonald's this morning they had a sign posted" now hiring".I said out loud I didn't know they had jobs in St.Louis!My two friends agreed with me.triffid

If we can eat we might make through whats coming.I saw about 50 pictures this morning on the riots in Greece
.Very bad when you can't kick the real people responsible like those in government.But you can kick the police officer who for the most part is a common joe like yourself.He did not make the law but it is his job to enforce it.So you take out the 20% loss of your pension on him.Its like being mad at the wife so you kick the dog.A lot of misplaced anger in Greece right now.If those in power are not listening vote them out of office!Very next elections!Keep a long memory like an elephant!triffid

I think wall street should move to china!So should fannie mae!Lets follow the GE model!Think of all the money we could SAVE!


oh I forgot Freddie Mac,Sorry.