Entitlements In the Neighborhood

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Tom Balek Standard 2

So I’m surfing through the neighborhood social media, and yet another thread is filling up about a locally owned bar/restaurant that has failed shortly after opening.

It saddened me for a number of reasons. I have been a small business owner, and I know the financial risk and hard work that a family takes on when opening a new venture, and how heartbreaking it must be to fail. This club was one that employed local musicians, which also hits home with me. A small business closure impacts many people – employees, vendors, neighbors and customers.

The bar/restaurant business is a tough gig. If the owner (or an extraordinary manager) is not on the premises at all times, profit seems to bleed out of the windows and doors. Bartenders “take care” of their friends, or pocket cash before it gets to the till. Finding and training good servers and cooks takes a lot of time and effort. The bad ones either don’t show up or kill your business when they do, and too often the good ones are lured away by a competitor for a few more bucks.

Stick with me, I’ll get to the entitlement part in a minute.

Some business owners shouldn’t be. While they may have a great talent and passion for a particular product or service, if they don’t understand the important basics of business – accounting, cash flow, managing employees, marketing and market differentiation, inventory control – they are unlikely to survive. Making the best cheesesteak sandwich in the world is one thing; making a profit is another.

Every day in the neighborhood social media, which is a pretty good indicator of the attitudes of the proletariat, I see a lot of whining about businesses, especially restaurants. “Why doesn’t somebody open a [insert name] restaurant here?” “I went to the new local bar but I didn’t like their nachos.” “The new sushi place is too expensive.” “I have to drive to the city to get a gourmet dinner.” Many of the folks in my neighborhood seem to think life owes them a world-class restaurant, on the corner of their block, that charges McDonald’s prices, pays its employees $50 an hour, and contributes to their favorite local charity.

The ability for customers to review businesses online is empowering. And dangerous. It feeds the expanding sense of entitlement that we see every day, fueled by the “free everything” political platform of the Democrats.

It’s getting harder every day to operate a small business. It’s do-able, but not for the faint-of-heart or one lacking serious business chops. Because of social media, all it takes is a couple of one-time correctable flubs, a dishonest customer or competitor, or a disgruntled employee to do serious damage to a business. Add to that high taxes and insensitive government decisions such as lengthy street closings for repairs and arbitrary zoning decisions. As a result, locally-owned businesses disappear as we see signs for the same national brands popping up in every neighborhood.

All we Americans are entitled to is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Despite the empty promises of Democrats, we are not entitled to total happiness and security. We are not entitled to free health care, free college, forgiveness of debt or guaranteed wages.

Supply and demand works. Many of my neighbors are all about demand, and never stop to consider how supply happens.

Stop whining, people.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You made me promises promises
Knowing I’d believe
Promises promises
You knew you’d never keep

Promises Promises – Naked Eyes

Are You a “Maker” or a “Taker”?

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

photo by Kenneth Song

There are “makers” in this world and there are “takers.” Some produce more than they use, and some don’t. We are at a point in our crazy history when the number of takers is right on the cusp of outnumbering the makers.

My father left me only a few gems of wisdom; here is perhaps the best: “Son, there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Sadly, half of our population believes it is possible for the government to provide free college, free housing, free medical care, free food, and even free spending money to anyone who wants it. Actually, the socialists (who have taken over the Democrat party) claim we all “deserve” free stuff.

No, there is no such thing as a free lunch, or free anything for that matter. If government gives something to one person, it must be taken – at threat of physical force – from somebody else. By definition, that is theft.

People are charitable by nature, and most will give some of their own property to someone who they feel is truly in need. But our Constitution does not say that the government has the duty or the right to force one citizen to give their property to someone else whether they approve or not.

Thank God there are people who care and give freely of their time and money to others. While many Americans (and many illegal aliens) sit and complain, demanding free stuff and benefits that they have not earned, a few “makers” are hard at work trying to make our nation a better place for the generations that will follow.

I have a friend who was diagnosed with a rare cancer several years ago and was given three months to live. He is no longer able to operate the business he built through years of hard work and risk. But he continues to work every day for conservative leaders and to promote legislation that will benefit all Americans. “I can’t just quit,” he says, and “leave a mess for the kids and grandkids.” Everything he touches ends up better than the way he found it. He is a “maker.”

Another friend has spent her entire life defending American traditional values, especially the rights of the unborn. Despite withering physical problems that would stop most people in their tracks, she still teaches and convinces and cajoles those who don’t understand the “free lunch” problem. Those who are lucky enough to meet her are inspired and blessed. She is a “maker”.

My adult son is totally blind. Despite his college degree, the job market has not exactly welcomed him with open arms. So he volunteers his time as a reading tutor for at-risk sighted kids, and works at a hospice soothing dying patients in their final hours with a little conversation, a magazine article, or a bible reading. He’s a “maker”.

President Trump left a lucrative business career, spent a huge amount of his own money, and has withstood inhumane abuse from the media and opponents from outside and within his own party. He could be multiplying his wealth and enjoying life with his beautiful wife and family. Instead, he works long hours and take all the heat his enemies can dish out, because he loves our country and knows what is needed to set us back on the course to prosperity and success. President Trump is a “MAKER.”

I, and most people who want the best for our nation and all of its people, celebrate President Trump and the other “makers”. And frankly, we are repulsed by the “takers” we see on our television screens and computers every day. There is no middle ground. Each of us must choose a side. Maker – or taker.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I hope you always forgive and you never regret
And you help somebody every chance you get
Oh, you find God’s grace in every mistake
And always give more than you take

My Wish – Rascal Flatts

Please watch this beautiful vignette of some American “makers”, Rascal Flatts.

What’s Wrong With You? Don’t You Care?

Posted on August 25, 2017 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

I’m glad that many people are generous and caring. I know that there are some among us who have problems and need help. I’m happy to help someone in need, like most Americans are.

In fact, statistics show that Americans are more kind and caring to strangers than pretty much any group of people in the world. When a disaster occurs in any corner of the globe, it is expected that the USA will be there to help pick up the pieces with military, financial, and humanitarian assistance. And at home we not only support charities, we also provide a safety net of food, housing, medical care and other benefits through our tax dollars.

Generosity was expected of the mostly Christian men and women who founded and developed our nation. Our pioneers valued hard work and honesty too. Anyone who took unfair advantage of this generosity was shunned by society. But as our government and our daily lives became more secular over the years, generosity has come to be viewed as a weakness by the unscrupulous, and the number of reprobates and schemes exploded as government officials learned they can build lucrative careers by giving away other peoples’ money.

We moan about our crushing national debt while politicians claim they can’t cut spending because it is mostly untouchable mandatory “entitlements”. How naïve or apathetic does one have to be to not see the enormous waste, fraud and abuse in these entitlement programs?

I remember my shock the first time a drug addict offered to sell me food stamps on the street at 50 cents on the dollar. It had never occurred to me that food stamps could be sold. Yesterday I was in line at the grocery store behind a veiled Muslim woman and her husband, both dressed to the nines, and venting their displeasure to each other (in Arabic) about the cashier who struggled to separate valid food stamp items from the others. The wife used her EBT card for the legitimate groceries, and the husband paid for the non-qualifying products with his American Express card. I didn’t follow them to the parking lot, but I would bet they loaded their groceries into a new luxury car.

One of many problems with ObamaCare is the costly expansion of the Medicaid program to include middle income Americans who can no longer buy health insurance through normal channels. Concurrent with the failure of ObamaCare is an epidemic of opioid addiction, overdoses, deaths, and the related social costs including unemployment and destroyed families. Some politicians claim that even more Medicaid spending is required to address the burgeoning opioid problem. In reality, expanded Medicaid has largely caused the opioid epidemic as millions of people now walk around with unlimited health care credit cards in their pockets and it is only too easy to report aches and pains and ask for opiates which can be easily sold for cash.

Signs appear on the street offering to buy diabetes supplies for cash, next to signs in Spanish advertising tax filing help and promising large refund checks for merely listing dependents. Education grant checks go to people who never appear on campus. Couples live together and raise families but never marry because they would risk losing earned income credit and other entitlements. I could list schemes and scams for the rest of the day and not even scratch the surface.

The Tin Man wanted a heart. The scarecrow wanted a brain. The cowardly lion wanted some courage. There’s no reason why we can’t have all three. We should all care about others, but we have to be smart enough to avoid abuse, and strong enough to say no once in a while.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ on the Right Side

Don’t you see
You’re hurtin’ me
Don’t you care?
Don’t you care?

The Buckinghams – Don’t You Care

EBT – Our Government “Fatness” Program

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 2

EBT card This from USA Today, today:

“Food stamp benefits to 47 million Americans were cut starting Friday as a temporary boost to the federal program comes to an end without new funding from a deadlocked Congress.

Under the program, known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP, a family of four that gets $668 per month in benefits will find that amount cut by $36.

“It may not sound like a lot but to a person like me, it is,” says Annie Crisp, 30, a single mother of two girls in Lancaster, Ohio. “It’s not just a number.”
She says she received a little less than $550 a month in food stamps and now will receive $497. Crisp, a babysitter who brings home about $830 a month, says the food stamps help her buy her family fresh fruits, vegetables and meat.”

Let me get this straight . . . a single mom, with two girls, can’t survive on $497 a month worth of groceries?

Once again, I am forced to do the simple math exercise (remember, I went to school before Common Core).

30 days x 3 meals a day x 3 people = 270 meals a month. The two girls get “free” breakfast and lunch (actually paid by taxpayers) at their government school. There are 19 school days in November, so subtract 76 meals. That leaves 194 meals at home per month for the taxpayers to buy. $497 divided by 194 meals = $2.56 per meal.

Now if you eat most of your meals at Olive Garden, that doesn’t sound like a lot. But who eats 194 meals a month at a restaurant? These are two schoolgirls and a single mom who can pack a lunch when she babysits (I’m guessing Annie scores a few free meals while babysitting.)

My family can afford to eat anything we want. Like most Americans, we eat too much, and our profiles reflect it. Here are some typical menus at our house (my wife helped me calculate the per meal costs):

Typical breakfast: yogurt, OJ, cereal, milk = $1.50 per meal. Or 2 eggs, toast, OJ, banana, milk = $.90 per meal.

Typical lunch: ham sandwich, fruit, cookies, iced tea = $1.90 per meal. Or tuna salad w/dressing, crackers, cheese and boiled egg, iced tea = $1.95 per meal.

Typical dinner: our favorite beef goulash, with veggies, drinks and brownies for dessert = $1.58 per meal. Or pork chops, baked potato, veggies, and ice cream = $1.50 per meal.

An average meal costs my family $1.56 for each of us. We don’t consider this a “subsistence” diet at all; in fact, we really need to cut back.

Now, back to the simple math. If the Annie Crisp family ate meals like us, they would have about $194 a month left over from the taxpayers. They could easily go out to Olive Garden once a week, or eat steaks at home twice a week, or enjoy 50 items each from the dollar menu at McDonald’s and still have money to spare.

Am I missing something here?

I am not a grinch. I don’t want kids to starve, and I understand there are families in trouble through no fault of their own. But it gets harder every day to stand in line behind the 350 lb. mama in the Wal-Mart checkout line, whipping out her EBT card to pay for basket loads of junk food. And never – ever – ever saying “Thank You.”

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

I was travellin’ down the road feelin’ hungry and cold,
I saw a sign sayin’ food and drinks for everyone,
So naturally I thought I would take me a look inside.
I saw so much food, there was water coming from my eyes!

Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance) – Leo Sayer