The Colonel #51 Taxes and Slow Death

 

"No matter what anyone may say about making the rich and the corporations pay the taxes, in the end they come out of the people who toil. It is your fellow workers who are ordered to work for the Government, every time an appropriation bill is passed. The people pay the expense of government, often many times over, in the increased cost of living. I want taxes to be less, that the people may have more." ~ Calvin Coolidge

With endless trillion-dollar spending schemes in mind the President and Congress will have their minions out trolling for popular support for increased taxes on the rich and their corporations and we would all do well to heed the words of our 30^th President. Corporations and the richest of the rich do not pay taxes they pass the along to their customers, tenants, and trading partners resulting in a higher cost of living.

When the dubious pipeline incident occurred recently did you notice how the companies involved took the hit? Oh, so you didn’t go fill up your tank, just in case.

A lot of folks I know like to complain about price gouging by Big Pharma, but they say nothing about it as long as Medicare, Medicaid, or their insurance is footing the bill. They only become concerned when the money comes directly from their pocket. Where does Medicare and the others get the money to pay for drugs—from you!

It is well past the time when the people in this country need to be concerned about the real costs of “free” healthcare, government subsidies, student loan forgiveness, and unlimited immigration of non-taxpaying dependents. Cities like Detroit, Baltimore, and Los Angeles are not anomalies—they are the destination for the entire country.

If the government were truly to cut spending, it would financially impact almost every American and it would hurt. No one would be happy about it. But I wonder who is going to be dancing in the street when it collapses. Our debt payments alone are larger than the entire gross production of the economy. 

It is a problem that I believe can be solved, but not by ignoring it or making it worse by foolishly adding to it in the name of taxing the rich.

I’m unsure how many of you have fasted on purpose. Contrary to what the supermarket tells you, it’s a healthy thing to do. Yes, you get hungry, your stomach might complain, you might get a headache—but you live through it and feel better min the long run. Reducing government spending would be like that. It would be uncomfortable to say the least, but good it the long run. You want to do something for the “good of all” join the fight against big government before it kills us.

 

Maranatha

Know Jack #301 Advice and Instruction

 

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…”     2 Timothy 3:16

 

I try not to start off a lot of my blogs about my personal experience writing with scripture because it turns people away before they get started. This is not a complaint; I do the same when someone turns on a television to watch Chicago Fire.

But I chose this one because it jumped into my thoughts as soon as I typed the title of the blog. That’s because it illustrates for me the point I hope to make between advice and instruction. I’m going to use writing as my setting, but the principle applies to life in general.

I want to start with advice which can be properly defined as a recommendation or information given. Writers get all kinds of advice, none more heartfelt than: “You should stop this nonsense now.”

Advice properly given is a suggestion. It goes something like: “You should write a story about a mermaid in a castle by the sea who lures men to their deaths on the rocks.” When I hear advice like that, I think about it, weigh the possibilities against my abilities and inclination, and see if a story appears out of the brain fog.

I do the latter because you see, the advice is not a story—it is a setting, not a plot. I must be able to take the suggestion—the advice—and do something that pleases me with it. There is no time limit on the process. In fact, the advisor telling me to sit down and get started is the worst possible thing to do.

I have some unoriginal but worthy writing advice. Write what you know. Find your own voice. Find an editor who will be tough on you. Don’t break the rules until you are well versed in the rules. Write every day. Read a lot. Not everyone is going to like what you write.

Does anyone feel compelled to do these things simply because the are good advice? Not likely, especially at first. However, they may grow on you as you grow.

 

Now, Paul’s admonition to Timothy is not like that. It is a command based on the authority of scripture by his mentor/teacher. It is in itself an instruction—a direction calling for compliance.

You might be familiar with this kind of writing from school. “Write me a 500-word essay on what you did last summer.” You have some wiggle room to stretch the truth and make it fun, but you darn well better write it! Or else! And, of course, it came with all kinds of rules outlining how and when the instructor wanted it done.

Writing instruction covers the rules I spoke of a moment ago, things like grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and the king of them all submission guidelines. I promise if you break the rules, especially that last one, your work is bound for the trash.

Publishers besides looking for good writing want to know if you can follow their instructions. They want it their way or no way. And if you sell your writing to them, the work becomes theirs, they are the final authority.

As a nurse, I dispensed both advice and instruction on a regular basis. If I advised somebody to wear a mask and they chose not to, I was not offended by their decision even if they turned up sicker the next day. The mask was just a suggestion.

If I instructed someone to take one pill every four hours and they took eight over two hours and came back with an overdose That bothered the hell out of me because I trusted them to follow instructions—they did not comply with the rules.

 Either way, I took the best care of them I possibly could.

That’s not the perfect example but what I’m getting at is to be aware of whether you are advising or instructing. I don’t think I am unique in the fact that I take advice must better than instruction. Jesus might command, “If you love me, keep my commandments,” and have his hearers obey. People have a much harder time pulling it off with others. 

Maranatha