Some stuff mixed together. When I start to see chrome on chrome at the quick stops in Winner, SD, I know that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is coming on. Lots of chrome domes riding well-chromed Harley cycles and a few sun-bleached and burned blonds on the road to skin cancer.
In that transportation vein, saw a car ad a week or so ago. Don't remember the ad, but it had a very good slogan, "Audi, Truth in Engineering". At least it appealed to me. I can sort of remember when Chrysler took pride in engineering.
Moving along, this morning on CBS Morning Dreck, they started noting that there was economic and health news, but first the latest on doctors and Michael Jackson. That drivel went on for several minutes. Don't remember anything they said about economy or medical insurance issues.
CBS Early then moved right on to some of the most inane, insipid drivel I have ever heard even on that show. They spent several minutes interviewing a 10-year-old boy and and 85-year-old man about dating. They pumped both for embarrassment purposes and it mostly seemed the young boy was clueless and the old man had forgotten a lot. So much for my age prejudice.
Then CBS did sort of get to something serious for far too many people. Divorce and separation as viewed by the former wife of Joey Buttafucco. After being shot by a 17 year old who was infatuated with Joey, she stayed with him for something like 10 more years. After her son said he thought his father was a "sociopath", she finally got a divorce. She has a book she is promoting ..something like "Getting it through my Thick Skull" ..meaning she finally figured out her ex-husband was a smooth manipulator without remorse or conscience. Read more if you want to know about this on CBS
CBS Early Dreck with "My Thick Skull"
Or if you are putting up with a "sociopath", you might have trouble finding a good definition of that term, but perhaps "aggressive narcissism" might fit better.
Some comments and definitions of mental problems
Well, enough on that...but wait there is more.
On SDPB radio "Noon Forum", the topic was minimum wage. Apparently Governor Rounds in a fit of worry decided that a couple of USD former and current perhaps Economics profs should study the possible impact of raising the minimum wage on South Dakota economy.
A woman supporter of a national $10 per hour minimum wage provided some counterpoint to the professors of the dismal science.
The ideological predilections of the profs came through loud and clear. The minimum wage had never done anything to help workers since it was 25 cents per hour when first instituted by Franklin Roosevelt administration.
Cory Heidelberger of Madville Times blog fame called in to ask what the profs thought about the moral implications of hiring somebody to work for a year at a wage an employer knew was not a living wage. Seems to me they sort of punted that one.
I was thinking that perhaps if Gov. Rounds worries about raising the minimum wage, he should also have them look at the highest wages and salaries and their implications for the economy. A quick rough calculation suggested that even raising the minimum from around $7 to $10 could be turned into something interesting.
Kelby K. of Sanford health pulls down something like $1,200,000 per year in salary and benefits. That single salary would pay the $6000 per year increase of about 200 workers. Or, if just considering the recent actual increase amount, would pay the 70 cent per hour increase for about 800 minimum wage workers.,obviously some rounding distortion there, but the point seems plain enough.
It is time government stopped fretting about the minimum wage and started considering what absurdly high wages and salaries at the upper end of the scale do to drive up consumer costs and hold down wages of the lowest paid workers in society and contributed to the current near financial crash. The greed and vanity generates a double whammy on the less than rich..by unnecessarily driving up costs and making the low minimum wage worth even less.
It might be interesting if Senators Johnson and Thune and Rep. Herseth-Sandlin provided us with the total amount of money paid to health insurance and hospital executives in a year and what percent part that relative handful of people suck out of actual health care.
I don't think we want to hold our breath waiting for that information from them since most of us don't contribute enough to political campaigns to get their serious attention on anything.
Well, enough miscellany for the evening.
**Stay tuned for less chrome on chrome or blue on blue and heartaches--- Doug Wiken
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