New Years Resolutions AND Government

I'll talk about 2 things today - my New Years Resolutions and the government (essentially, what I would do if I could run the government myself).

First off, my New Years resolutions.

First and foremost, I would like to attempt to improve my body image. This will mainly take place in January, but I would like to focus on burning the calories I eat as opposed to just changing my diet. I also plan to eat healthier, but not reduce how much I eat or any bullshit like that. I think adjusting how much you eat, especially if you don't think you eat all that much to begin with, is the stupidest thing I've heard of. My roommate in my first semester would literally eat once a day and she was NOT skinny at all. Eating less forces your body to turn it to fat instantly because it thinks you're starving (and you are). Eating vegetables, fruit, and meats (mainly fish and chicken) instead is healthier.

As always, I would like to become more studious and less lazy. I'm angering myself at my laziness when it comes to classes.

I plan to study abroad by fall this year. In order to do this, I must earn a minimum of $1950 between now and September. Ideally, I would like to earn $4500, but that's the height of my goal. I may also, in my second semester in college abroad, take up a part-time job depending on how funds are running, but hopefully this is a last resort.

And finally - earn at least $5k in scholarships, preferably $15K or more.



Next Section - The Government.

For whatever reason, the majority of the cuts the Tea Party have pushed forward cut opportunities for MY generation (age group 15-25). Neither side of the budget debate really touched on Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid or even the Defense budget. I will state that sometimes things look better on paper and have issues being applied, but if you have a comment/disagreement, please post. I like discussing these things - not arguing over them.

First off, we need to focus on home. Pull completely out of Afghanistan - not only does our presence further incite hatred of the locals, but we are not the police of the world. It is not our job to dictate what government a country should have. We argue that the Taliban are a threat to national security, etc, etc, but what's the point if the government can't spend the money it needs to on it's own people? Our soldiers die for oil, not for a true cause. We have to leave sometime, might as well get it over with and stop wasting trillions of tax payer dollars.

I would like to further my commentary on military spending by stating that the government black-budgets the Department of Defense. Meaning there is considerable spending that goes unreported in the discretionary budget (military research and such). I also feel that the power of the TSA should be limited and their budget cut back a bit. They really pushed the expensive full body scanners and while they've published a bunch of reports on them, apparently several independent research agencies (the American Cancer Society and several universities) have said that the published reports do not have verifiable data or good comparisons. This leads me to believe that proper research on such machines hasn't been done, so why are we spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on things that have the possibility of giving citizens cancer? Plus, the TSA has NEVER caught a terrorist. They use what has been called "security theater", it makes you feel safe that they put certain measures in, but they're not actually effective. I feel like those hired for such jobs do NOT get proper background checks as well as being corrupt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_Security_Administration#Criticisms).

The tax-cut shit. Yes, people are hard pressed and everyone hates it when taxes rise. It's the most common theme across history. Budget gets low? Tax the poor even more! However - raise the taxes on those who make more than a certain amount. The rich don't even pay taxes on the full amount of their money anyway, using bank games and a large transfer network, most millionaires/billionaires avoid getting taxed for the full amount of their fortune. I would say to raise corporate taxes too, but I feel like that might have negative effects on the economy (essentially the consumer would pay for it anyway). Eliminating tax breaks for oil companies is a good idea, but again, I feel like it'll come back to the consumer anyway.

Require a means test for Social Security and Medicare. There is probably a large percentage of people that depend entirely on social security and medicare. They can keep it. It's the older folk I know that pull in a considerable amount in retirement that also collect both SS and Medicare that piss me off. We, the younger folk, pay for the older folk to retire. A lot of people argue that they paid into it, so they should get it. However, not only is it the LARGEST part of our nation's budget, but people who don't actually need it are able to get it because of the paid-in BS. I'm 19 and I pay for social security, an unsustainable program that will eventually need to be cut. I will likely never see the money I paid into it, despite that it's promised to me. Reduce it now, before it just needs to be straight up cut. Medicare too - reduce it based on a means test. I find it ridiculously that I'm paying for elderly individuals to get healthcare. I'm a healthy person - I only visit the doctor a couples times a year, if that. If they can afford it otherwise, they should, rather than depending on their grandchild to pay for them.

IMPROVE the Department of Education. I don't remember which GOP runner wanted to cut it, but that's the most annoying thing of all. Don't cut, improve, the department of Education. It should not be left entirely up to the states AND I feel that there should be certain mandates country wide. It would make it easier for students to transfer from a different state if the majority of core requirements (for instance, an improved version of no-child left behind) were the same. The NCLB act was a good idea, but put into poor action. Since I took the HSAs, which were required to graduate, I have found that they have made them increasingly easier. This I disagree with - graduating high school isn't required in life. I feel like they dumb everything down, even in the accelerated classes, in the majority of the country. I literally never had to try until my senior year of high school and even then, I still graduated with a 4.25 GPA. I do believe some requirements should be left up to the state, but schools should remain religion free. There is diversity in schools and teaching Christian beliefs to those who practice other religions is setting the school up for fights based on religion.

Either adjust financial aid requirements or eliminate the programs. We're already loosing this battle - my dad works with big brains and it is increasingly foreigners. The financial aid requirements haven't changed since the early 90s, but college costs have increased by at least 4X that. Student loans don't help either - having massive amounts of debt upon graduation prevents our younger generations from buying a house, a car and spending in general. I say if the financial aid requirements cannot be increased, then eliminate the program entirely. Yes, people would rage, but colleges would no longer be able to charge terrifying amounts of money because few could pay it. Supply and demand - if the supply cannot be afforded, the demand goes down and prices must go down to increase the demand again.


Ugh, when I start thinking about all the problems, it makes my head hurt. There is no one solution, nor is it as black and white as I have posted.