Those young individuals inhabiting the OCCUPY DC, New York, Atlanta and other locations are reflected in this young man, the prototypical representative of the philosophy behind not only the movement but youth itself: give me something for “free.”

I write the word free in quotation marks because any clear-thinking person realizes there is no such thing as “free.” The government does not create that money — except to inflationarily print it. It’s created by all the people that work and pay taxes who enable the government to possess and dispense that money back as they see fit — not necessarily as the taxpayers themselves see fit.

The money those people want for themselves — for “free” — is that money which was earned and then confiscated from their government by payroll and a myriad of other obvious and hidden taxes through multiple levels of governments and agencies.

I too wouldn’t mind having “my share” of “free.” Except that I am cognizant of one fatal flaw: if every other taxpayer were like me, demanding his or her share of the same “free” so demanded by the youth of today (something they were taught by American education and their parents — but that’s a post for another time), there would be no sustaining that paradigm; my “share” of “free” would diminish and stall.

And yet, the Demorats have done this to the Occupy movement:

Please allow me to ask a final question, if I may:

Do you think that any of the involved government agencies, local, city, county or state, would have allowed any physical occupation of any given area for any slightly-extended period of time whilst simultaneously producing tons of trash, feces, urine, loud continuous noise like drumming, banging, amplified music, amplified chanting and speeches, naked and crazy persons, insulting signs, assaults, rapes and other crimes if the movement had been even remotely associated with anything resembling a vestige of the TEA Party?

I think I know the answer. And how long anything negative, involving the TEA Party, would have been pounded down the throats of American viewers 24/7 by the DEM/MSM.

BZ

P.S.
From The Daily Caller, here is how lovingly the Occupy movement treats not only a black man with his two-year-old in the car, simply attempting to go home, but how Occupy treats a black law enforcement officer in DC:

BZ

“They completely control the government.”

The Evil Jews. Jews make money. Jews are greedy. Jews represent Capitalism and corporations. Jews control the purse strings. Jews make everyone dance to their money-grubbing tunes.

Now we have college-aged kids believing the Jews are responsible for all the ills of their world and the rest of the planet.

It’s clear that anti-Semitism is rising in the US. So are we starting a pogrom all over again?

And do we learn absolutely nothing from the past?

BZ

Is it time to privatize law enforcement?

Though the concept has frustrated me for the past two years, I’m beginning to thaw to its consideration.

As long as I’m gone and I don’t have to partake.

LE agencies are tasked with having to discover new revenue sources and streams. Local taxes are no longer sufficient when the growing bulk of citizens, legal and illegal, are demanding — in conflict — both greater services, fewer intrusions, and fewer applications of the actual laws on the books and — an ever-expanding service base.

Now, Fornicalia’s Riverside County is considering the charging of inmates whilst in jail. And I say: EXCELLENT!

From CBS.Los.Angeles.com:

Supervisor Jeff Stone introduced an ordinance this week seeking reimbursements for the cost of jailing inmates that an estimated $143 dollars per day.

Stone told the Riverside Press Enterprise the county could reap as much as a $5 million windfall from the move.

If an inmate is unable to cover the costs, the county would put a lien against any real property they may own.

“And we have probably about 25 percent of people that do white-collar crimes in this county, and those are the ones that are going to be put in the county jails, they’re going to be required to pay for their costs,” said Stone.

Why stop there? – I say.

From a February 2011 post:

I hope to be retiring soon. It will be incredibly interesting to see the quality of law enforcement we will get in the future. But first you even have to find people interested in making the kinds of sacrifices demanded by the job. On both fronts: good luck with that.

Perhaps we should privatize all cops. You could pay per call. Those using lots of LE dollars on calls could be tossed into debtors’ prisons because, of course, they’re the ones producing the greatest amounts of problems. We could run a ticket, like a private box medic rig:

-First, taking the call: $190

-Processing and dispatching the call: $100

-Start Fee for responding vehicle: $50

-Plus mileage

-Plus idling/dwell time: $5 per minute (no charge if vehicle shut off)

-$250 per officer for first officer; subsequent officers @ $200 each for first hour

-Each additional hour, per officer, @$300

-Rounds fired from weapons, LTL weapons loads per unit, billed at replacement costs + 10%

-Injuries to officers billed at medical rates + time off + potential rehabilitation + 25%

-Damage to vehicles assessed at replacement/repair costs +10%

And so on.

All fees to be adjusted whenever necessary, so that the private provider doesn’t bear the fiscal burden of additional taxes, fees, fines, and living costs by itself only. The private company will have a bottom line and stockholders to please, as you well know.

Private police should also logically be incentivized such as the private sector. More money for more citations, more money for greater number of arrests, bonuses for solving community problems, bonuses for reducing calls for service in given geographical areas.

This privatization thing for cops could work out well, it appears.

On the other hand, like everyone else, they could be RIF’d during tough times and, like the private sector, strike and walk out if they can get away with it.

They can also leave at any time and join another department at a moment’s notice if it pays better and/or conditions are better.

Good luck getting people to work in high risk/low gain places like NY, LA, Detroit, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, etc. Private cops would, naturally, want to work for Honolulu or Capitola or New Bedford or Coronado or Beverly Hills — or not work in the field at all. Let someone else make poor pay, few benefits and be shot at, stabbed, spit upon, etc.

I’m starting to like this private sector thing. Yes, high risk but, potentially high gain with bonuses, 401Ks, paid incentives, etc. Otherwise: leave the job and find another.

I am clearly too old for this new paradigm. But I, whilst being thrust aside, readily acknowledge that — at first — it will be a bonus for taxpayers.

One final clue:

You get what you pay for.

BZ

Actually, I seldom listen to Rush Limbaugh.

Earlier this week, however, he brought out an excellent point based in truth — and the truth, in this case, very much hurts.

He noticed the photo of a notebook displayed at Occupy Wall Street, written by a female college graduate complaining that her Classical Studies degree did not equate to an immediate good-paying job. Specifically, what was written is this:

I graduate college in seven months with a useless degree in Classical Studies. I have worked very hard and am on track to graduate with Latin. I am in a Greek organization with many volunteer hours under my belt. My job prospects, zero.”

Imagine that. She even has a website.

Let’s take it farther. Let’s do what I call the Logical Extension. Because this topic absolutely begs the Logical Extension.

Perhaps, dear vacuous student, your college or university just took massive advantage of yourself and/or your parents. Perhaps they saw you coming from a mile away, someone ill prepared to deal with the realities of our current budgetary times and who filled you with a faux sense of importance and immediacy.

Fostered initially, of course, by your Helicopter Parents.

Not only intimating but outwardly saying that your mere presence was akin to the Second Coming.

A 13-year-old writes a response to you:

My very own nephew would be a perfect example. He “studied” at numerous universities from San Diego to San Francisco, financed by my brother (not his father) so that he could “take” his degree in Philosophy. That and a few dollars equated to his being a barista and then the equivalent of a secretary. He’s not a bad kid. He’s just a product of today.

My guess? His degree tacked over $100,000, minimum. But I would never be told the amount. Because that would be, well, insensitive. And my brothers simply paid it. Or they have debt in their dotage.

My summary? Kids and parents: universities SEE YOU COMING. And they’ll FLEECE YOU to the best of their ability. Because they know that, mostly, each child comes attached to an application for funding. NOW CONTROLLED BY YOUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.

And, in an environment where Real Life is absolutely SCREAMING for auto mechanics, HVAC technicians, plasterers, drywallers, plumbers, electricians, welders, metallurgists, woodworkers, cabinet-makers, electrical engineers, scientists —

Kids expect their ridiculous and — frankly — USELESS– “Classical Studies” degree to open a door? Like a degree in “philosophy”?

In this environment, in this economy, what door precisely?

Further, when pressed to their “limits”, what does our current generation do?

It goes here:

Or it goes back home to Mommy and Daddy. Who will still take them because of guilt on various and sundry levels. But that’s a post for another time entirely.

How to stop the fleecing of Americans in terms of “upper education”?

Stop paying for it.

Once the funding dries out, once the easy government checks cease, American universities and colleges will be absolute scrambling for your dollars, at any rate.

STOP FUNDING COLLEGE TUITIONS.

Nothing more obvious than that.

Government-funded now. Too late.

Your $100K degree and $3 will get you a venti at Starbucks. And that’s cheap.

Reality. Deal with it.

BZ