Fewer Young Adults motivated to become educated, productive

Kids these days! The phrase was usable in any past time period to indicate that they don't think like we do. But I don't disparage them, I believe they act differently from their older counterparts for rational reasons.

Take living at home longer than their parents: The economy is unfriendly to new workers. The pay gap between the many and the few has grown. More young people cannot make a living on the pay that's out there. And what few dollars they get do not go as far for rental or purchased property. Real estate is in a severe downturn and there are some bargains now but this only turns back the clock a few years.

Take mapping out a career: When I grew up, jobs in science and engineering were encouraged. NASA was a source of pride, and excitement. Now they help the Climategate cap and trade government by supressing research that shows that the greehouse gas theory does not hold true on other planets.

Now the media, including Hollywood almost universally paints technology as evil. The same anti-technology message in Avatar was in Star Wars three decades earlier. Swear off these trappings, the message goes, and live a more pastoral life.

The dynamics of the world economy makes it harder to choose a career, but easier to choose a job. A couple of decades ago, I was hearing that the manufacturing economy was being replaced by a service economy that would pay less. I wondered, how would that look in a couple of decades? Look around. Kids don't mind working toward something but when they can't see a clear goal, they turn their attention elsewhere. Hobbies, games, loopholes in public aid. These are rational choices but they are damaging the economy.

The old guys rule the world. You work hard, you expect to build something, reap rewards. Eventually, you have it made so that all the money goes to you. It would be the job of government to maintain some balance, for example keeping wage disparities to a more manageable level, eliminating the wide chasm between low pay and high paying jobs. But government cannot keep their hands off the money. We ask them to represent the people and all they can to is split the difference: give people something and take something for themselves. Only over time, this formula has been applied again and again. The government is the big winner after all these years and the people and the economy are the big losers.

Start a Tax Revolt! Deduct more money from your 401K!

That's right, refuse to pay a larger portion of your taxes. And it's legal. With Gov Quin and the Illinois congress raising income taxes, now is a good time to say, "I'm not going to take it any more!" The same is true in other states. If the gov cannot do any belt tightening, maybe they should wear the belt a little higher: Let's choke off their air supply. By increasing your 401K deduction by several percentage points, you reduce your tax deduction to both state and federal governments, while putting away a nice bit of collateral all for you. It's now a larger nest egg, compared to income after taxes and it grows. Not a bad tradeoff. Keep more of your hard-earned wealth while increasing the pressure to make spending reforms.

Whether you're a democrat or republican, there are two realities: High unemployment is undesireable and negative cash flow in the government is unsustainable. Depending on who you ask, we are past, at or very, very near the limit of how much more can be spent on public projects, so it no longer makes a lot of sense to be either democratic or republican.

The government doesn't produce any products, so every headcount in public service has to be supported by many workers that do make and sell products in the private sector. Some retired former state employees make $100,000 per year pensions, how many productive private workers does it take to pay for each of them in the form of taxes while at the same time funding active programs? 10? 20? 50? 100 workers? It's a big burden and it's growing. We can't keep paying more and more for something we don't even need.

Can you picture the negotiations that led to this? The unions must have demanded $100K pensions. The legislators feebly protested. But it wasn't actually their money, and they didn't even have to raise taxes at that time, so they could shorten the unpleasant confrontation. And they get many guaranteed votes. Quite a pyramid scheme. They caved in no time. Stuck it to the taxpayers because that was easier than standing up for reasonableness.

Increase your 401K. It's good for everybody.

There you go again Governor Quinn. Went ahead and raised taxes instead of looking for cuts like the private sector

Illinois state income taxes just rose 40%. Quin raises my ire. He puts off the inevitable: Cutting the size of government. And he does this on the heels of a federal tax reduction on paychecks, as if to steal whatever stimulus was supposed to take place.

Take the money out of consumers and put it in the hands of big government to pay outrageous pensions that people like him approved in the first place. These pension plans are so far ahead of what people in the private sector get, it shows what amazing things you can do when you can tap into other people's money. On the Kudlow Report, Larry Kudlow proposed letting the states go bankrupt, then using this protection to renegotiate pension and other contracts. He says its going to happen anyway, why pour good money after bad while postponing it?