What’s the Big Picture?

We have politicians that act and respond to issues by showing and telling us little about the ‘big picture.’

Many of us get caught in making decisions and forming opinions and taking actions based on the narrow interpretations and rhetoric flowing from government and the media.

What I’m talking about is not thinking a decision and an action through -basing decisions and opinions or half (or less) of the entire story. Worse is making your facts fit your action.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

When COVID-19 hit us, we listened to our public health ‘experts’ on what to do. They in turn seized the opportunity to give us the advice to stay home, quarantine ourselves, wear masks, social distance, shut down everything including our schools and ‘flatten the curve.’ The fear created contributed to the obedience that followed. Much of that still exists in some quarters.

But what was the big picture? Did our ‘experts’ consider the downside to their opinions and advice. The answer of course is “no.” They and we know now that staying home and limiting our public activity actually contributed to the spread of the disease – which caused death in less than 1% of the cases. But it goes much further. The impact on mental health has been significant. Humans are social beings. When we’re cooped up, we’re not happy for long. Senior citizens already isolated in nursing homes and other facilities were confined to their rooms with visits from their families and friends barred. The use and abuse of drugs and alcohol – addictions – skyrocketed. Unemployment and loss of income made for hard times for numerous families. School closings meant our children were cut off from development and learning – the full negative impact of that yet to be realized. Small business owners couldn’t financially bridge the time they were ordered to remain closed resulting in hundreds of thousands of businesses shut down and boarded up permanently. The big picture would have taken into account the potential consequences and repercussions of the actions taken.

Here’s another.

“Tax the rich and corporations!” For most people raising those tax rates doesn’t sound like they will be affected. That’s intentional on the part of the proposers and apparently adds to support – or at least less opposition to the proposition. But what’s the big picture?

When the government takes more money that means there’s less for the people paying it. In the investment world that translates to less incentive. There’s less capital for innovations and less for maintenance and updating of current facilities. Both disincentives impact the number of jobs which in turn affects the workers whose taxes were not specifically raised. Less capital in the market means fewer jobs. And corporate taxes impact where our global companies locate production facilities. We’re attacking investment – capital – which is the key to blue-collar middle-class living standards and incomes.

Then there’s border/immigration control. The argument the last decade or so is that the US has some moral obligation to accept all immigrants. That ‘high ground’ has resulted in an influx of foreigners entering the country illegally. Those that are caught, or report to authorities on their own, have been assured that if they use the magic word “refugee” they will have a scheduled court hearing and told to report for same later on. Most do not do so. BTW, “Economic refugee” is not a term in the law.

The big picture is the US has laws to control immigration. Those laws include people requesting ‘refugee’ status must do so from their own country or elsewhere if they are displaced by fear of persecution or worse – not here by crossing the border. Those laws also provide a path to citizenship for legal immigrants. Our national leaders – and states and cities – who defy the laws are in direct violation of the oath they took when assuming office. That’s wrong – morally, ethically and legally – and they need to be held accountable for that.

In other words: “What are we doing?” We’ve taken in millions of immigrants in defiance of the law. Are we supposed to feel good and justified? If our immigration laws need changing, we have a process called a two chamber Congress to change them. Period. It’s not up to anyone else to disobey the law, including the President, without consequence.

The big picture is not the narrow-minded, short-term but the longer term.

We, and our leaders, need to think through drastic actions through before pulling any more triggers. Knee jerks usually have unintended consequences. Sometimes they actually ‘kick the baby down the stairs.’

One of my favorite sayings is “You can’t do one thing.” If government mandates something it affects something else. The negative consequence of doing this thing needs to outweigh doing something else, or nothing at all.

“The Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions.”

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Have a great and prosperous week.

Hug somebody.

SPIDER Bites

Here’s what the administration’s goal of “equity” looks like in the real world. Chicago Mayor Lightfoot last week showed us by announcing she would only be giving interviews to non-white reporters. Simply stated, the Civil Rights Act says all persons must be treated equally without regard to their race, color, or national origin. In other words, it’s racist and illegal. And where do mixed race reporters stand in Chicago?

The administration continues its call for electric cars to save the planet. But I hear nothing about how we’re going to generate all the electricity it’ll take to charge them or the what the cost will be to do so. Additionally, the normal time it takes to recharge an EV is 4-8 hours, with most EVs having a 100-mile range while a few can now go 200-300 miles on a charge – 20% less if A/C is used and even less if a higher sustained speed is maintained. Further, EVs cost a lot more. Then there’s the temperature for charging. Anything below 20 degrees or higher than 95 significantly affects whether the battery will successfully recharge. ‘Little’ details nobody is saying anything about.

They’re calling it atypically uninformative. While that’s a mouthful, that’s what economic forecasters are calling the current signals of economic recovery, inflation, labor supply and government policy. The series of crosscurrents has resulted in a fog for investors who did not anticipate April’s zero increase in retail sales, an unemployment rate increase and 4.1% jump in the CPI.

Last week on the world currency exchange market, the dollar broke through the 90-cent mark and traded for 89+ cents on the dollar. The value of our currency is going down to the surprise of nary a one legitimate economist. Most journalists ignore this kind of stuff because they don’t have a clue about the negative impact on the common folk and on the country our government’s printing the money they’re spending has. You didn’t see or read this in the newspaper or the nightly news, did you? But, you should have.

Dr. Fauci again abandoned science last week by stating the worst effects of the COVID pandemic were the result of systemic racism. What’s he an expert at again? I’m waiting to see how many people might comply when he suggests we wear our underwear inside out to prevent STDs. Meanwhile, Speaker Pelosi is still enforcing her mandate that all Reps wear masks in the House chamber.