The American Dream

The American Dream is the reason people from all over the world flock to this country. There is no other place like it. Yes, there are other destinations; it's a big world, however the tide that rushes to these shores are like no other.

I had initial thoughts about what and how this post was going to be written, but then, the FIFA World Cip came to America. Hmmm, my thoughts have changed.

What FIFA brought to our shores was a chance to see our country through the eyes of others from around the world, and not just those that were hoping to move here or find a job. These are the citizens of other countries that were simply on a holiday and hoping to root on their team and have fun.

What we now saw were people from around the world expecting the worst that Americans could offer. For years they have been told the United States is a dangerous place. The people are rude and mean and don't walk the street night. Their own governments and press has driven this into their consciousness.

And what they discovered should make all Americans proud. Social media and news media exploded with video after video and story after story of how wonderful and kind the people of this country are. The citizens of the world were welcomed from coast to coast. They revelled in our culture and our food as well as the scenery and vastness of our country.

The American dream is still alive and well. Are we perfect? No. No place is. But one thing I do know is we as the populace routinely overlook the grandness and kindness we as a nation still hold. We focus too much on petty differences instead of our collective culture and what unites us as a people. Our 'leaders and our news organizations' are a primary cause of this dysfunction.

The American Dream is still alive and well and it is what you make it. That has always been the Dream.

Property Bucket

In my area of the country, there is a new political debate raging about property taxes. There is a new petition to put an amendment to the state constitution to abolish property taxes. If enough signatures are collected, this becomes a ballot issue for the state population to vote on.

On the surface, the arguments for and against are simple. To the abolitionists (not a word I thought I would be typing in this day and age), the owners, many senior citizens are being taxed out of their homes and are, or will be in the future, struggling to stay in the home they bought or built and raised families in because the tax rates keep going up.

To the pro-tax folks, property taxes are a significant source of income to the state that funds schools and city services such as police and fire. If those taxes are no longer collected, services will suffer and the money must then come from other sources which would require raising sales taxes or other income taxes. That would make the state harder to promote to bring in other businesses to the state.

Here is my take on this.

As a property owner, I know taxes on my home and land can be a burden. I have worked all my life to have a safe and stable place to live and protect my family. I am not fundamentally against some property taxes to fund services, however there needs to be a cap on how much homeowners should be forced to pay out. Property taxes continue to rise with nearly every election cycle; someone wants more from the property owners to fund services or another school levy. Politicians should not be able to use property owners as a piggy bank for every idea that comes down the pipe.

Here's an idea. How about politicians and school boards and everyone else who uses property tax money become efficient in the use of those dollars. Communities are continually threatened with "we'll have to make cuts" if the new levies aren't passed. "This will go away, or that will go away". It's always the same excuse. But you know what I have found? Every time some entity has to make cuts, cuts get made and there is generally little overall effect to the whole of the service or business. They adapt. And they adapt because most of these entities are bloated because we are weak as a voting populace. Not every new idea needs to be funded with new dollars. Use the dollars you already collect for this new position or idea. Not every new school building needs to be a massive, sprawling campus with every new technological gadget that even NASA would be envious of having.

It's time to cap property taxes; not eliminate them completely, and make those asking for money from the voters to DOGE themselves and their services for the good of the tax payers.

Over the Tip

Back in the day, okay, I'm old, tipping for service was a convention limited to certain areas of work and tasks. If you provided good or excellent service, the larger the tip given by the customer you served. Note, the word 'served'.

So, what has changed? Almost everything. The era of tip me for nothing has erupted in this country. In the before times, a server or waiter/waitress gave great service, they received a bigger tip. Poor service, little to no tip. Service provided was effort and a great attitude at the job. Service was something the customer couldn't do for themselves at the business. I can't go back and put the food on my plate and walk it back to the table. I couldn't drive your taxi to the airport to drop myself off at the gate.

In the past, with other rare exceptions, these were the primary jobs people were tipped for. Now, everyone wants a tip just for doing their job. If I order a sandwich standing at a counter and you do nothing but the bare minimum of your job to get it to me, you don't deserve a tip. The other day, I went through a drive-through to pick up a drink and the screen to tap wanted me to give a tip. At a drive-through? Really?

Now, I understand the outcry, "pay your people more", but as someone who worked a life in service, most of these outcries are ridiculous. Many of these jobs aren't mean't to be 'buy a house and raise a family' jobs. Some are entry-level learn how to show up on time jobs, or, I'm retired and need something to do jobs. Standing at a drive-through speaking into microphone asking if you want fries with that is not a $15 per hour job. If your life goal is to be a barista, you have set the bar for you life truly low. These folks strike for more money while you job entails holding a paper cup while a machine squirts fluid into that cup that you wrote someone's name on with a marker. They you move that cup to another machine to squirt another liquid in that same cup, put on a lid and hand it to the customer. Wow, that really labor intensive. I'll bet you go home and fall into your bed from sheer exhaustion.

If you want to make more money, improve yourself, get some marketable skills and go do it. Don't gripe and moan that your customer didn't give you a tip as you handed them their sub over the counter.

I tip well because I can, but you better earn it. I don't tip for nothing.