Thoughts on Obama

This past Tuesday the US did something we've never done before, we elected a man in an election that a lot of people thought he could never win. Me & my brother included. I've thought about this for several days and have drawn some conclusions.

• Race. I'm proud of my country for surprising me. I thought that race would be a bigger factor than it was, but even in southern states Obama did well. I was worried that he might lose due to this factor, and expected to be somewhat embarrassed by it if he did. I'm glad this didn't come to pass.
• Religion. I don't quite understand how religion plays such a huge factor in any election to office in a supposedly secular country. I find it difficult to believe that Obama hasn't been affected by listening to rants from his clergyman, and I worry about it's influence on his thinking process. I can't wait for the day when the first atheist gets elected to high office, maybe they'll be a scientist too. I'm sick of fighting about who has the best imaginary friend, be it in an election or world politics.
• Electioneering. This is just a general rant about the advertising of politics. I wish there were some way of being able to screen out commercials, radio ads, and there's a special hate for the signs along the road. I have considered putting together an initiative to require a bond for placement of the signs, and a requirement to account for them w/in 72 hours of the polls closing, or forfeit the bond, and pay for the collection of their signs over and above the bond. Maybe a bounty. This has obvious problems (Joe-bob going around collecting signs all during the election & then presenting them for payment, however, this does suit my requirements, there will be less signs). It's an idea in the formative stages, got any suggestions? Back to electioneering, I wish candidates would focus on what they plan to do, how they're going to do it, and how they're going to pay for it. What I don't want to hear is how bad the other candidate is, or their lack of education, scruples, whatever. I simply don't care and don't want to hear about it. In the end, all politicians are crooks of some sort or another, as paraphrased from The Hunt for Red October "I'm a politician, that means when I'm not kissing babies, I'm stealing candy from them." On this count I have to give Obama high marks, he struck out at McCain about his record, etc. but he managed to run a pretty decent campaign, and I thought some of his steps here were particularly classy, like staying away from Sarah Palin's daughter's pregnancy story. It was very nice to see him not only keep his campaign workers away from the story, but to go out of his way to publicly state his stance so there was no question.
• Organization. High marks here as well. Obama gets the power of the internet, which means that the Democrats had an edge over the Republicans who don't seem to understand the power. This is a lesson they need to learn, and quickly, or they face continued domination by the Democrats.
  
• Socialism. This is probably my biggest complaint with Obama's platform. His Robin of Loxley complex. While I make nowhere near his $250k lower threshold, I don't see the benefit of taxing the rich at a higher rate simply because they've done well for themselves. This has three deleterious effects as far as my economics education goes:

1. Taxing someone or their corporation at a higher rate because of same random cut off point discourages growth. If I had a company that had been creeping towards the quarter million/year point, it would be advantageous to stay below that threshold simply to avoid the higher taxes.
2. This leads to fewer jobs. If I'm trying to stay below the threshold, I'm not going to hire more people to push my business across the line unless I can step boldly across that line to support the new tax rate & make enough more money to afford it. This is similar to how over time works, there is a break over point where it costs you more to work more, so you get paid less for working more because the rate at which you get taxed changes. When I was working tons of hours at MSFT as a contractor, I calculated this breakover point at 63 hours, and I had to work another nine hours before I started making money again. This leads to:
3. Take my ball & go home. If they're going to be taxed out of step with the rest of the country, why work at it so hard? In fact, why work at it at all? Why not retire early & see the world? In doing so they're relieved of the tax burden, they're no longer paying for medical insurance, or any other benefits they might have offered their erstwhile employees, no leases, no nothing except do I want a Mai Tai or a Pina Colada for breakfast?
   
   Obviously these are generalizations and a lot of people would stay in business simply out of loyalty to their employees and customers. But if enough do take their ball & go home, it'll hurt the economy. Also, I'm not an economics major, these are just my observations and leanings from a Republican upbringing. However, I still feel angered to think that my taxes are going to pay for other people's benefits who are too lazy to get up and work for themselves. I don't mind paying taxes for a number of social programs, especially schools, teachers, preschool, tutoring, free lunches & books. I view all of these as beneficial to everyone. A well educated populace is far less prone to crime, makes far more money, and hence pays more taxes, and benefits everyone. I don't see the same benefit for socialized medicine, if you've got the education, you don't need to have socialized medicine, the economy can support the expense as provided by your employer who passes on that expense to their customers. In the end, we all pay for each other's medical expenses simply by existing in a given economy, there's no need for the government to provide it for you simply because they can. Use the money instead for better teachers, schools, etc. I also don't mind paying for infrastructure, in order for me to pay for my family's expenses, I have to drive fifty two miles round trip each day, to do that, I have to drive on roads that were paid for out of the public coffers. If instead I had to go overland in my 4x4 to get there each day, well, I probably wouldn't be working there, it would simply cost too much in fuel, repairs, and beat up kidneys to do so. So I'm glad there are fairly nice roads to drive on that we, the taxpayers paid for.