Something To Think About Archive

Playwright George Bernard Shaw said: “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.”

Some of the current crop of political candidates at the state and federal level must be taking Mark Twain’s advice to “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”

Pastor and motivational speaker Robert Schuller asked us: “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

Ronald Reagan believed that “We don’t have inflation because the people are living too well, we have inflation because the government is living too well.”

Gary Cohn, former chief economic advisor in Donald Trump’s first term, notes that tariffs should be placed only on goods that are made in America and that face unfair competition from goods imported from countries, like China, that subsidize their manufacturers to the point of unnaturally low prices. According to Cohn they do not belong on goods that are not made in America, like lightbulbs and smartphones, that Americans need. That is counter-productive and costs the American consumer unnecessarily.

Sir Barnett Cocks defined a “Committee” as “… a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.”

Babe Ruth advised us to “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.”

Josh Billings claimed that “As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.”

According to Victorian Era Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: “When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.”

Senator Eugene McCarthy once noted that “The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.”

Uncle Sam’s interest-rate bill alone will exceed a trillion dollars next fiscal year– more than all discretionary, nondefense spending. And the latest report from the trustees of the Social Security fund calculates that monthly benefits will have to be reduced by 21% in nine years when the trust fund is depleted. Meanwhile, neither candidate for President has expressed any interest in fixing the looming fiscal debacle.

Groucho Marx defined “Politics” as “… the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy.”

Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser advised us that “When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.”

Author Susan Ertz once observed that “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”

Channeling her inner Richard Nixon, Kamala Harris is proposing to go after “price-gouging” grocery stores by implementing price controls when it’s obvious that high prices are due to inflation caused by the Biden-Harris Administration’s flood of federal dollars into the system, and NOT by the average net profit a grocer earns of 2.5%. Price Controls only guarantee one thing – shortages of goods and services as they did in 1971 under Nixon, followed by rampant inflation.

Author Robert Byrne believed that “A promising young man should go into politics so that he can go on promising for the rest of his life.”

Economist and former Senator Phil Gramm writes that “Tariffs imposed in the name of revitalizing American manufacturing have, over six years, been followed by slightly decreased manufacturing output, reductions in (the number of those) employed in manufacturing and significantly higher trade deficits.”  Gramm goes on to note that “When protectionists and industrial-planners make mistakes they often mask them with subsidies and tariffs – at taxpayer’s expense.” In other words, tariffs, as proposed by Donald Trump, in the long run: cost jobs, raise prices and are paid for by taxpayer financed subsidies.

Albert Einstein once observed that “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former;” said Einstein.

Writer Markus Zusak says that “Big things are often just small things that are noticed.”

Benjamin Franklin said: “I’d rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.”