Making Choices

I have a choice not to write this blog and to not take the time to put my thoughts to use. But I fear the consequences. Consequences that go beyond just a bad grade on my report card. And that fear drives me to do what I am supposed to do or won't do. Everything we do is an example of economics.

My personal choices affect my future and could affect those around me. If i decide to drink and drive, for example, I would put my life in danger and the other people on the road as well as face prison time. This is micro economics; a study of choices by individuals. And people everywhere are making choices that represent their intent to do something. One similar idea is called the Butterfly Effect, small changes can have large consequences. In the same way, the way our government goes can determine a lot of things.   

People respond to incentives. In order to get what they want, they will change their actions/ behavior to attain those things, and therefore achieve their goal. It could be a good or bad goal that changes the way something happens. Choices concerning the will and rights of America are the most crucial for our well-being. When the topic of economics was brought to my attention I began to think of money and finances that our country is in charge of; which isn't exactly wrong, but there is a much broader definition of my blog subject. From the definition of an economic website, it claims to be "the study of scarcity, the study of how people use resources, or the study of decision making."  It helps us portray historical trends and understand today's headlines. Economics can also make predictions for near decades.

Economics has an impact in every one of our lives because when you get back to the core of it, it lies on choices. The main parts of economics are based on scarcity, supply and demand, costs and benefit, intensives. An example would be gas prices. When there is a low supply, prices rise, and people have to plan on saving and using gas wisely. Or even the  "Hmmmm, should I drive that extra 15 miles just to get 50 cents cheaper gas." Of course that may not be a burden to some people and they could go to the most expensive place in town. See, decisions decisions.We thrive on using our minds, or whatever is up there, to create saving and spending arrangements.

"The world is wide with choices, so the field of economics is wide with theories, laws and concepts that explore those choices." We have to work with what we are given, that could go well or not so great. Over many years of developing our economy, we have set courses and experienced things that help us make our decisions. The chances of the average American not paying attention to our economy may seem high. But understanding the fundamentals creates a much more secure mindset of what goes on in the United States. 

Economy and Debt

We are aware of the debt that is in our country but we do not fully recognize the seriousness of this flaw. Obama's presidency has not contributed to the fixing of this problem; of course he proclaims to want to devote his time to ending the debt but that's easier said than done. In the near future, we hope to see Trump use his business management skills to help America and its money fiasco. 

Nothing is more important to people than money, and that tends to get us into problems that we didn't plan on. If you don't pay bills, you loose your belongings, (maybe your life if you get into other dumb things, ha). America's money management doesn't seem to be working out too well at the time, that's why it is important to see what tax payers money goes into for the government. There are three different parts of our country's federal spending: Mandatory Spending, Discretionary Spending, and Interest on Federal Debt. 
                                   
Mandatory spending takes up about 2/3 of the federal budget. And of that part, Social Security takes up more than 1/3 of this spending with Medicare as the second highest amount spent. Together, SS and Medicare make up about 38% of the total federal budget. Other parts of this category include food/ agriculture, veterans' benefits, transportation, and 'other'. 
"Discretionary spending refers to the portion of the budget that is decided by Congress through the annual appropriations process each year." Congress determines how much they will spend on each part of the budget. In this section, military and the Pentagon is the biggest group of money spent, (as well as other well-known programs).

For 2017, Obama's proposal "calls for $4.2 trillion in federal government spending." His plan insists that there will be more job opportunities for young people to have and start them off. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) combines with the health care system in order to lower costs and improve the methods of accessibility and distribution. "A clean transportation package totaling $32 billion per year over ten years that would create hundreds of thousands of middle-class jobs in an economy that still doesn’t provide enough opportunities for good-paying work."

His budget plan also includes proposals for increasing education funding by giving two free years of community college. This seems very generous but in reality it would cost the government $61 billion over ten years. In order to achieve this he would have to raise taxes to pay for something that not all people will go to. For example, public schools/teachers get paid by the people's taxes. My parents put me and my siblings in a private school and they pay for that separately; so it is like paying for something that I'm not using.

The president's budget plan is his vision for the country in 2017 and also for the future. "At a time of conflict over federal spending, the president’s budget is largely a political document... it shows the president’s priorities in detail." And his priorities are what keeps everything in order.

An Atheist Christmas

Over the years, Christmas has become nothing more than a commercialized holiday worshiping the 'art' of shopping and spending money till you're in debt. Sure there are still commercials that say spread good cheer and be happy, but a lot of those are to mainly sell the products. I mean, I for sure would love that cute puppy along with a coca-cola bottle, but that's probably not going to happen.

What I'm really going to be addressing is the lack of true Christmas meaning of Jesus Christ's birth. I know that most Christians understand what the season is for but even they can get caught up with the wrong intentions. Jesus competes with His own celebration. Around the world people celebrate this holiday without a second glance or thought about what it means. You don't even have to be Christian to be celebrating the birth of Christ, at least not intentionally. 

                                 

A blog on The Huffington Post is written about the true meaning of Christmas, but by an atheist view on it. His ideas are interesting in the sense that he has a completely non-Christian stance on the true meaning and that he argues his points with some true facts and maybe even the blunt truth. 

He starts by pointing out that Christians believe that the whole month of December belongs to them. I can see that as true, but I personally haven't felt that it belongs only to us. Jesus was born to save us and everyone else from their sins and He died fulfilling the purpose of true love. But he also says that atheists, humanists, freethinkers, etc. are coming together and forming traditions of their own. "Across the nation we are starting to celebrate things that matter to us." He claims that if some people want to celebrate the Pastafarian holiday or the humanist holiday of  "Human Light" they can go ahead and do that. But he was bold to say that some of these started out as jokes but "Atheists tend to have a good sense of humor." And they're nothing more than jokes! How could you take a religion seriously if it started out merely as a joke? It's only to mock the religions of others and make theirs seem like a good choice to follow. He makes a statement to say that "Christians and Jews aren't the only ones with a right to celebrate during the winter season."

We also know that Jesus wasn't born in December, we just 'celebrate' at that time. He states that the holiday was taken from pagan tradition and symbols. Well duh. Nowhere in the biblical passage of Christ's birth does it say, "and then, Mary and Joseph put up an evergreen tree that smells good along with decorating the stable they were in." Those are just the modern Americanized Christmas symbols that are for fun, unless you do things for other intentions. Usually the star on top of the tree represents the star that the wise men followed and gifts under the tree are the gifts that they gave baby Jesus. Heck, even Charlie Brown got it right. And of course the image of Santa, that's mainly for the amusement of kids. 

I looked up why Christians celebrate the birth of Christ in December and I got a very reasonable answer. Christmas was first recorded on December 25th 336 and years later Pope Julius 1 declared that date as the celebration of His birth. There are many theories as to when Jesus was born like the celebration of the day when Mary was told she would have a very special baby, or perhaps that the day Jesus died correlated with the day of His birth. 

So what the atheist article was stating is that Jesus is not the reason for the season. Based on his thoughts I could see that what he was really looking into was the current celebration of Christmas and what people do now. And I have to agree with him, Christmas is not celebrated as it should be, but when does that make it reasonable to start making up some religion to celebrate in rebellion against this season. Christmas is not Jesus, nor do people who twist the meaning of Christ define Him. We celebrate Christ because it's how we honor Him, He is our gift. If not, then why did Christians even start to celebrate Christmas in the first place?  

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao

This woman breaks the stereotype of white males in the  presidential cabinet. Born in Taiwan and moved to the United States with her family at age eight, Elaine Chao now works in the U.S. government for Donald Trump. Elaine is the first woman of Asian decent to be on the presidential cabinet. She is married to Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky; and this will be her second time being on a White House Cabinet. 

Previous to working under president-elect, Trump, Elaine Chao was the former secretary of labor under George W. Bush. "She is the longest tenured Secretary of Labor since World War II." She has proven herself worthy of being on the White House cabinet, lasting eight years of a presidency and working a bureaucracy. Being an immigrant from Taiwan, Elaine Chao creates a different look and atmosphere to the 2016 appointed cabinet. I believe that her partnership with Trump will give him a better image because of the 'racist' status America has given him. 


On the racial note, Elaine has been accused that she was connected to the flight of American jobs to China; and her Asian-American decent could be part of the jabs at her. It was meant to question if her husband was being to relaxed with American business interests. But she did not cower down, instead, she attacked the source of the gossip. “Far-left special interests are also attacking my ethnicity, even attacking Mitch’s patriotism, because he’s married to me, that’s how low some people will stoop.”  

Elaine has worked in other government positions in past presidencies such as being a "White House fellow" under Ronald Reagan, and the director of the Peace Corps under George bush. She is known to take any task head-on with tenacity. This is what made Trump interested in her from the start and thus created their collaboration. 

She has been noticed by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the democratic leader. He was very satisfied by the work she's been involved in and praised her on behalf of her success. He even hopes to do work with her along with Trump on an infrastructure plan. This could create ties with the democratic party and make some much needed unity among the nation.

Elaine used to be a banker at Citicorp and her knowledge of money transactions can be useful to Trump and eliminating the debt problem. She helped close transactions that involved transportation financing which is vital for her current position as transportation secretary. And although America's debt problem is a much bigger and much more complex deal, her experience is needed right now.  

My hope is that Elaine Chao will influence Trump and that they will work together to bring this nation to a financial peace. She already is a huge influence to those whom she worked for in the past and for those looking up to her to help us out. A woman of great influence inspires other women and people to be great just as she is and work with others.

The Electoral College

From the uproar of millions of Americans, we can tell that the Electoral College has become much more of a problem than it has been over the past election years. People claim that this is taking away their rights as citizen, and we should consider this as an important matter in our understanding of the government. I do think that we should speak our minds and have power as a group of people in our country, but it all depends on if we deserve that power to change the Electoral College.
                                       
Being on of the people's favorites, Hillary Clinton has stated that, "I believe strongly that in a democracy, we should respect the will of the people, and to me that means it’s time to do away with the Electoral College and move to the popular election of our president.” In our recent election that surely was an argument between Hillary supporters and Trump supporters. Although Clinton won the popular vote, Trump seemed to have won the electoral vote overall. 

The Electoral College was made to give smaller states a chance to represent and to be fair to their size. It was also created for the reason that they didn't think, "The common man was informed enough to pick a suitable president," so the electors would "stand in for them." Its an all or nothing vote for the candidate that the state's representative has picked. This exact event happened back in 2000 against George W. Bush and Al Gore in which Gore won the popular vote but Bush won the electoral vote, therefore having won the presidency. 

                                          

This conflict has only happened about five times since we began electing presidents for our country. A democrat had won the popular vote but in the end lost the electoral vote to a republican. That seems to be a great victory for republicans, but that didn't stop Democrats from saying that the Electoral College should have been thrown out years ago. They attack the method on which the president is elected because they are upset that things didn't go their way. The losers of the 2016 election fight for the destruction of the Electoral College in order to restore true democracy to everyone.   

Some states have already made a system where they do not get rid of the Electoral College but they twist it in a way. "A single candidate is awarded all of a state’s electoral votes — regardless of the popular vote — and instead apportioning them to reflect the breakdown of each state’s popular vote." This awards the candidate of their popular vote the Electoral vote as well, without the hassle or confusion of what has recently happened. And I'm sure they want this to spread among other states as well. This can become reality when enough states are in agreement with this change.

The power has been left to us to vote and choose our candidate, and if we want, we could truly take out the Electoral College of our government system. But we have to realize the pros and cons of each choice we make that we think is for the betterment of America and her people.



(An Electoral College Definition)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/what-is-the-electoral-college_n_2078970.html