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I was looking at my egg carton the other day and I saw these words printed on the inside cover in bold type:
"If you want to recycle this carton we have some good news!"
Thinking there was now a place I could locally recycle the polystyrene carton, or better yet, I could put it in my mixed recyclable bin, I scrambled to read on.
The next line was a little disappointing. It said:
"Egg industry statistics show that an average household of four consumes the equivalent of 50 dozen eggs per year...that's less than 1.8 pounds of polystyrene per year."
So the good news is, the packaging doesn't weigh that much anyhow? Pardon me for not keeping my sunny side up, but my cynical side says that sounds like the implication is I might as well just throw it away.
"Only 1.8 pounds for a family of four a year, don't be obsessive dude, pitch it...who cares...it'll be over...easy..."
So naturally, egg-sited as I was, I did the math. 310 million folks in the US divided by four. That’s 77.5 Million families at 1.8 pounds a piece. That’s 139,500,000 pounds. At 2000 pounds per ton that’s 69,750 tons of un-recycled egg cartons headed for the landfill.
Now I was really fried. 70,000 tons? That's like 35,000 cars!
The egg carton had more good news. It said:
"Of course you don't have to store them all year...you can mail them to us anytime and we'll make sure the box and the cartons get recycled. Please ship to:..." and then it gave an address.
Translation. "Save your eggs cartons for a year and then pay to ship them to us you green wingnut!
If you want to break the egg carton waste cycle, you'll have to shell out."
America, ya gotta love it.
Friday, April 29, 2011
1483 Healthy Cut
One of the big items in Paul Ryan's new deficit reduction plan, that will supposedly cut $6 trillion, is a revamping of Medicare. Congrats to him for taking on the monster, but I think he may get some resistance to his ideas. And from quarters he may not expect.
Some of the forgotten rigid backbones behind the Tea Party may be upset. And by rigid I mean ossified, swollen, and arthritic. The grey panther person. The oldster that was inflamed that Obamacare was, "messing with my Medicare."
Remember the outcry? The fear? Oldsters across the land were alarmed at the prospect of diminished benefits, managed care and yes, death panels.
Now, in a stunning betrayal, Tea Party darling Paul Ryan is messing with Medicare. His proposal is to stop it being a government program and give seniors $15000 vouchers to purchase private insurance.
Only one problem. He'd better check with the insurance companies first. Because they may not want the business. The key to insurance being profitable is having lots of people who don't make claims. Insurers don't want to issue flood insurance to people who live along rivers, or earthquake insurance in San Francisco.
Those folks may actually have to make claims.
That’s why insurers fought healthcare reform's elimination of the pre-existing condition. Well guess what? Old Age is the ultimate pre-existing condition. And it carries with it a host of ailments that insurance companies would much rather the government pay for.
Just like the government subsidizes disaster relief. If you've ever had to dicker with your insurance company about what medical expense they'll cover, you know what I mean.
Paul Ryan is at least ideologically consistent. Republicans love to privatize things. But don’t look now, his plan may just privatize the, um, death panels.
America, ya gotta love it.
Some of the forgotten rigid backbones behind the Tea Party may be upset. And by rigid I mean ossified, swollen, and arthritic. The grey panther person. The oldster that was inflamed that Obamacare was, "messing with my Medicare."
Remember the outcry? The fear? Oldsters across the land were alarmed at the prospect of diminished benefits, managed care and yes, death panels.
Now, in a stunning betrayal, Tea Party darling Paul Ryan is messing with Medicare. His proposal is to stop it being a government program and give seniors $15000 vouchers to purchase private insurance.
Only one problem. He'd better check with the insurance companies first. Because they may not want the business. The key to insurance being profitable is having lots of people who don't make claims. Insurers don't want to issue flood insurance to people who live along rivers, or earthquake insurance in San Francisco.
Those folks may actually have to make claims.
That’s why insurers fought healthcare reform's elimination of the pre-existing condition. Well guess what? Old Age is the ultimate pre-existing condition. And it carries with it a host of ailments that insurance companies would much rather the government pay for.
Just like the government subsidizes disaster relief. If you've ever had to dicker with your insurance company about what medical expense they'll cover, you know what I mean.
Paul Ryan is at least ideologically consistent. Republicans love to privatize things. But don’t look now, his plan may just privatize the, um, death panels.
America, ya gotta love it.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
1482 Taxless
I'm a big advocate of small business. Partly because I'm always pulling for the little guy. Rooting for the underdog. Betting on David versus Goliath. And getting annoyed at the 900-pound Gorillas.
Which in the business world means disliking the large bullies too. A study awhile back showed that large corporations, more often than not, welcome regulations—because they overtax the efforts of smaller competitors.
Which makes sense. Your average small business with 10 employees doesn't have enough personpower to have an HR department, an accounting department, and a compliance department. They barely have enough money to keep on the lights.
So when it comes to tax breaks, I say give them to small businesses. Reward those intrepid entrepreneurs with the fresh ideas. The ones hiring your Aunt Maybelle and your friend's teenager. Not the one hiring the overseas laborer for 10 cents an hour.
As plans move through congress to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25%, let's look closely at who benefits. CEOs are currently sitting on a record 940 Billion in cash reserves. During 2010, US corporate earnings increased more than they had since 1988.
Pity they didn't use a few of those dollars to create a factory or two...and a few American jobs. General Electric made 14.2 Billion in worldwide profits. Not bad. Then, exploiting tax breaks, they claimed a 3.2 Billion dollar tax refund from Uncle Sam.
The trick? Hire a good accountant? Partly. But also spend 200 billion lobbying over a decade. It's probably deductible too. But you can't deduct it if you don't have it to spend, so that's another perk unavailable to small, local, job-creating business.
I don’t care if the corporate tax rate is 25% or 35%. I just want it to end up being something over zero...
America, ya gotta love it.
Which in the business world means disliking the large bullies too. A study awhile back showed that large corporations, more often than not, welcome regulations—because they overtax the efforts of smaller competitors.
Which makes sense. Your average small business with 10 employees doesn't have enough personpower to have an HR department, an accounting department, and a compliance department. They barely have enough money to keep on the lights.
So when it comes to tax breaks, I say give them to small businesses. Reward those intrepid entrepreneurs with the fresh ideas. The ones hiring your Aunt Maybelle and your friend's teenager. Not the one hiring the overseas laborer for 10 cents an hour.
As plans move through congress to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25%, let's look closely at who benefits. CEOs are currently sitting on a record 940 Billion in cash reserves. During 2010, US corporate earnings increased more than they had since 1988.
Pity they didn't use a few of those dollars to create a factory or two...and a few American jobs. General Electric made 14.2 Billion in worldwide profits. Not bad. Then, exploiting tax breaks, they claimed a 3.2 Billion dollar tax refund from Uncle Sam.
The trick? Hire a good accountant? Partly. But also spend 200 billion lobbying over a decade. It's probably deductible too. But you can't deduct it if you don't have it to spend, so that's another perk unavailable to small, local, job-creating business.
I don’t care if the corporate tax rate is 25% or 35%. I just want it to end up being something over zero...
America, ya gotta love it.
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