Word Budget

Sometimes I feel like I only have a certain number of words allotted to use a week. It's a little bit like a budget and only having a certain amount to spend. I get a lot of words to use but I run out after a while. When I use up the words I have available, I quit talking much. It's not hard. I have lots of family and friends in my life who love to talk and don't notice when I don't have much to say. They have a much bigger word budget than me. It works out very well.

Sometimes I just get tired of talking and of writing and prefer to let others do it all. Sometimes, silence is nice too.

Sales Tax

The economy is down, a percentage of people are either losing their jobs when businesses close or getting less hours. Many are underemployed, which is employed, but at lower paying jobs that hopefully cover the bare necessities. The stock market is down so lots of people have lost lots of their retirement investments. Those who are close to retirement or who are retired may have been hit the hardest. Normally, that means lots of people are buying less. That means less sales tax revenue, mainly sales tax.

With less tax income, some federal, state and local programs and services must either get less money or be cut. The government's solution to this is to raise taxes and tax rates to get more money so programs can be funded as before. It's a vicious cycle. The more taxes are raised, including sales taxes and luxury type taxes (and "sin" taxes) the less people will buy because everything costs more. The people buying are not necessarily making more money and a percentage are still making less and less. It looks like it could be a vicious cycle.

There is an upside in one sense. When "sin" taxes go up, people buy less of those items too. Generally, "sin" taxes are taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. If people used less of both they would be a lot healthier. Our state uses "sin" taxes to pay for basic things like public schools, health and children's programs. It seems ridiculous to me that we need people to do unhealthy things in order for our children to get an education. Wouldn't it make more sense to tie education and other programs to something much more wholesome? It puts the government and schools in the business of promoting unhealthy practices in order to get funding. Gambling profits go under this nonsense too, but that's a whole different area. The more people smoke, drink and gamble, the better off the children are? Wow!

Our city keeps coming up with new ways to tax people these days. Restaurants now have to pay a "fee" (tax) for their mandatory inspections to stay in business, as of this week. The extra tax expense will be passed on to the consumer.

Special higher tax districts are springing up all over town. They use that tax to improve the immediate area. Those who are watching their pennies will simply choose to shop someplace else, especially for the higher priced items where taxes make a more significant difference. Little businesses vote for it in the hopes the high volume guys will bear the majority of the load of expense. Really, it is the customer who will pay the extra dollars for the same thing and customers are free to go wherever they like. An extra 1% is a penny on a dollar, $1 on a hundred and $100 on $10,000. $100 means something to many, especially if they are getting nothing extra for their extra expense. The high volume business person will either decrease in volume, lose customers to a point where they go out of business or have to relocate. Anybody who thinks the majority of people will gladly pay more if it amounts to more than a few pennies total is not living in reality. In a good economy, people do not pay as much attention to pennies, but they do in a difficult economy like ours.

Enough people will avoid CID's (city improvement districts with their higher sales taxes) that those hoping to bring in more revenue will be disappointed.

Restaurants are having to lower prices and do special promotions to bring people in because more people have less discretionary income. Sales are still down quite a bit overall, even with the slaes and promotions. The new tax on mandatory inspections, on top of the CID's in some areas, will raise consumer costs. If they raise their prices 25 or 50 cents or more, it will discourage those on the margins and sales will go down even further. We are still in a bad economy.

It doesn't matter to me if they keep raising taxes. I will vote against it but when they do it anyway, I just quit buying or buy less. So will most other people. Increasing the tax rates is not going to increase the income of the city, state or federal government over the long haul. Eventually the majority will develop a depression era mentality. Repair it, use it up, wear it out, make do, share with others or do without. To a degree we are seeing the beginnings of that.

I wonder what they are going to come up with next to tax extra? I heard there was some kind of energy bill that was passed last week that is going to cost everybody a lot of extra money every year. Dandy. The promoters say it is worth it. Everybody who wants a tax always says the extra expense is worth it. Maybe, but what about the total accumulation of taxes coming out of all but the poorest people's paychecks? At what percentage is it no longer "worth it"? When the total taxes hit 50% of everything we earn? (we are past that already if you include the hidden taxes such as licensing fees, phone fees and fees for any little things plus sales taxes, property taxes, etc) 60%? 75%? 90%? Looking at the aggregate tax rate, it seems a bit absurd to me.

The taxes on taxes are based on the premise that our behaviors will not change with the times. It is erroneous to believe because we spent freely before, in a good economy, that we will continue. The rate of unemployed is at 10% and those are just the ones looking actively. There are others who are not officially looking, experts say up to 15%. The percentage of sick, significantly mentally challenged and disabled people is at a similar rate, around 10%. Possibly a larger percentage is underemployed at low paying jobs that barely pay the bills or worse. I read that one person in 7 is incarcerated right now. That seems awfully high. That would add a bit over 14% to the number of citizens not working. A percentage are children, maybe 18%?, and a percentage are senior citizens who are no longer working, maybe 18%? There is even a percentage of illegal immigrants who pay no taxes at all, maybe 2%-4%?

That makes it look like only 15%-30% of the population is gainfully employed and lots of those work at minimum wage jobs. That can't be right. It seems like it should be more than double the top number, but maybe not.

Anyway, I think our government officials need to rethink some of what they do. It should be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Rejoice

This is the day that the Lord has made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it!

The weather is beautiful. The dog is cute. God has blessed us.

Penny Update

Since the last time I posted about the penny quest 15 days ago, I have found $1.39 in pennies nickles and dimes. It really beats the few pennies interest I get a month! Either way, I will never be rich off it. That's okay. Rich comes at a price. I have enough and I am blessed. I have my family, my friends, the Lord and the church. My health is fine. And I have a good roof over my head (now that we replaced it). I love the simple things like birds, walks, coffee and tea, reading and studying and that sort of thing.

Names and Perceptions

It is cute how easily some people get upset. We have a little bitty church, approximately 1/1,000 of the denomination. Sometimes I have commented that we would like to be the denominational headquarters and the center of the denomination. Now who would take that seriously? It sounds good to me because I live here and it would not be so far for me to travel. I like this city. There is less crime here than the city where the headquarters is now and prices are lower. The Assembly of God International Headquarters is already here and seems to do just fine and they send out many, many times more missionaries than our denomination ever thought of doing, so our airport is fine for travel anywhere. And, we are in the center of the US. In my mind, it is a good thought. Nobody else has to agree with me.

The name of our church is Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It has a "first" in front of it but nobody uses it. Since we are the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, it only makes sense that the denomination would center around us, right? Forget how small we are, how few financial resources we have (all of the money in all of the Presbyterial accounts magically vanished last year and our offerings are nothing to write home about) and how few of our denomination are in the state. We are less than a little hankie to a kingsize quilt or an ant next to a tree.

We plan to build a new church building soon and are adding a new name, in addition to Cumberland Presbyterian, like most other CP churches do. (White Oak Pond, New Hope, Orange, etc) That way, if there are several churches of our denomination in the area some day, (another dream) it would be possible to tell one from another by name.

I was at first surprised and then amused at a person who was worried that, if by adding more words to our name we would lose our Cumberland Presbyterian identity. Around here, very few people know that Cumberland Presbyterian is a denomination. They think it is the name of our church, named after either a road, a family years ago, something in the Bible they have never heard about or some other thing. Most people think we are just Presbyterian (PCUSA) with a quirky name, if they think about us at all. We are so small we do not make the radar of most people.

I guess the person, I can't remember who it was now, had a point (but they would not have been aware of it). If we are going to be the center of the denomination and the denominational headquarters, then we should remain THE Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Somehow, it isn't very likely that's going to happen but who knows? All things are possible with God. If it is His will, it will happen. Personally, it sounds like a lot of extra work to me. If it should ever turn out that God does this, that means He has work for me to do, and not something small. I will do whatever He wants but do I really want a lot of extra work?

In the meantime, we are THE Cumberland Presbyterian Church and life is interesting.

A Drama That Did Not Happen

Once upon a time there was a little rabbit named Bunny who lived in a beautiful meadow with lots of friends and family. Bunny was happy.

Bunny sometimes got allergies from the pollen in the air or the food she ate. Dr Rabbit did tests and said they weren't so bad. Bunny would just have to live with it. He did not have tests for every problem but he had medicine. Some medicines worked and some did not. One medicine worked but it made Bunny very sleepy, the worse the allergy, the sleepier it made Bunny.

When Bunny got allergies, it would make her skin kind of itchy and things that normally did not hurt would hurt Bunny, like rabbits touching too hard. If they gave her a friendly thump, it sometimes left a bruise. Not all the time. Only with the allergy.

Bunny's allergies sometimes made her head hurt and made noises seems very loud and painful. Allergies made everything uncomfortable.

One day Bunny's rabbit friends wanted her to go with them to an activity with lots of other rabbits. Bunny said no, she did not want to go. Maybe another time. The rabbit friends did not understand allergies and how Bunny felt because it had never happened to them. So the rabbit friends kept asking why over and over.

She tried to tell them about allergies and being very sleepy fi she took the medicine. They wanted to know what it felt like. Bunny told her friends that Gabby rabbit's talking was loud and hurt her ears sometimes when she had allergies. Rabbits did not understand that it was not Gabby's fault. It was an allergy. So Tattletale rabbit ran and told Gabby rabbit that Bunny said she was too loud and didn't want to be around her. Of course this hurt Gabby and made her unhappy at her friend Bunny. Bunny was not mad at Gabby and knew the allergy had nothing to do with Gabby. On days there was no allergy, Bunny liked being around Gabby.

Tippy rabbit decided that Gabby was too loud too, and proceeded to tell others. Poor Gabby! Gabby was not too loud. Bunny had an allergy.

Bunny told the rabbits that it hurt when Bear hug rabbit thumped her playfully and hugged her when she had allergies. So Tattletale rabbit ran and told Bear rabbit that she was too rough and Bunny was mad at her. Then all the other little rabbits decided Bear rabbit was too rough too. Bear rabbit was not too rough. Bear rabbit was sad that everybody was so critical of her all of a sudden. Bunny had allergies and some things hurt when she had them that did not hurt normally. Other bunnies who gave big bunny hugs hurt too.

Hearty rabbit decided that Bunny must be sickly all the time and started treating her like she was an invalid. That was annoying because everything was fine when there were no allergies.

Skeptic rabbit decided that, since Bunny did not have allergies every day, she must be making it up. She got together with a few other rabbits to lecture Bunny on how she was just a hypochondriac, and a wimp and a liar. They didn't believe it at all. Rabbit hollow was not a happy place.

There is not always somebody at fault when things do not work right.

If Bunny had not told what hurt her, it would have saved the feelings of several rabbits. The only one any rabbits would have been upset with was Bunny for saying no.

Real life is much more complicated than a Bunny story (based on someone I am related to and known many years). We do not know what is going on for other persons. We need to be kind and assume the best, just as we hope others will assume the best about us.

Is that car that is swerving in front of us because of a drunk driver or a toddler who got loose and is trying to escape the driver, or a person who had a momentary lapse,as we all have, that was unintentional?

Kindness and grace, something we can all use and give.

Thinking

Those who have known me a long time wonder why I do not post as much as I used to about what is going on. Others just wonder why I post less. Life is still busy and getting busier all the time.

It's different now though. I know who is sick, who is in crisis, who has issues, who is mad and who is happy, who is broken hearted or struggling and all sorts of things, but to tell most of these things amounts to gossip. Each person has their own story to tell and it is not my place to tell it unless they want me to or say it is okay. Even then I hesitate. While some things are fine to tell one on one, they are not appropriate as front page news. Much of my life right now centers on people. And it is quite an adventure! Things have happened that I never expected to happen.

When I am writing about people blog readers do not know, it is just a story about an anonymous person. It's different if many know them. It can become gossip. There are those who feel it is their job to question others. There are those who judge and act judgmentally. There are those who feel their job is to confront. There are those who will ridicule. There are those who will take on a condescending attitude. There are the phonies with all their creepiness. There are the saddists who will try to make it worse. There are those who take advantage of others. There are those who say hateful things. There are those who get their jollies out of rubbing salt in other people's wounds. There are people who like to blame. There are people who use things as an excuse to exclude others or to look down on them. They humiliate and upset others without much empathy or conscience. (This is all sin but those who do it often do not recognize it. They see the splinter in the eye of the others and not the log in their own.)

I am not a private person but I understand those who are. After a few attacks, I have become a little more private too. (I'm not going to tell you who attacked. That's gossip and one might have been you??)

Every so often someone has said to me that they have said something to a pastor only to hear it come back in a negative way hours, weeks or months later and it is upsetting to them. It becomes a breach of trust in their mind. I want to avoid that. If I wrote what was going on in my daily life, much of it would sound like a soap box series or a gossip columnist. Everybody has issues but most of the time it should stay between them and God and the others involved.

Many people have things happening in their lives that are not exactly secret but they do not want announced either. We need to respect those wishes.

And now, it is a beautiful day. Time to attend to tasks and enjoy the sunshine.

Really?

James 2:18-19 This scripture is bad news for some who claim to be believers. I think some have been deceived. What's the fruit?

Penny Update

I have now collected 50 plus pennies and rolled them to deposit in my bank account to help out the pathetic interest. I found another penny today. Eccentric is amusing.