What Is Your Happiness Index?

Posted on 04/09/2012 by Grumpa Joe

2012 Monet Vision

This data came to me from a friend by e-mail. I’ve seen it many times before, but this time it struck me funny. Do people really understand what they are doing to their cities? Do they care, or do they move to the suburbs to get away from it? Running isn’t the fix to the problem it is a part of the problem. We must stay and defend our turf. It has taken me sixty years to understand this phenomenon.

I ran from my childhood neighborhood to a more modern neighborhood thinking I was better than old houses and small lots. I wanted fresh air and the country, so I moved to a suburb where the lot sizes were barely double what they were in the city neighborhood. The closest shopping was three miles away. There were no public buses, and worse yet, the distance  between taverns was five miles. The small town politics rivaled those of Chicago. There really wasn’t any difference in graft. The tax rates were higher than Chicago, the services were fewer.  It took me twenty-nine years to move from that town.

Now, I live in Frankfort. I don’t really care how big my property is, big or small is okay, The taxes are gigantic, the rules are stupid and many. The town is designed for travel by car with little regard for pedestrian traffic. Shopping is central with one super market within a 2 mile drive. It is nice, but is it worth a thousand dollars a month in tax to live here?  Not really. I could just as well live in the 100-year-old house I was born in, or in the second house where we raised our kids, and be just as happy. In the meantime, I abandoned two really close-knit neighborhoods for a third really expensive one without advancing my happiness index one iota. So look at the data below and analyze where you fit today. What would have happened had you not abandoned the town where you grew up?

TEN POOREST CITIES

City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level
1. Detroit , MI 32.5%
2. Buffalo , NY 29.9%
3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8%
4. Cleveland , OH 27.0%
5. Miami , FL 26.9%
5. St. Louis , MO 26.8%
7. El Paso , TX 26.4%
8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%
9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%
10. Newark , NJ 24.2%

What do the top ten cities (over 250,000 population) with the highest poverty rate all have in common? 

Detroit, MI (1st) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1961.

Buffalo , NY (2nd) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1954.

Cincinnati , OH (3rd) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1984.

Cleveland , OH (4th) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1989.

Miami , FL (5th)has never had a Republican mayor.

St. Louis , MO (6th) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1949.

El Paso , TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor.

Milwaukee , WI (8th) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1908.

Philadelphia , PA (9th) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1952.

Newark , NJ (10th) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1907.

Einstein once said:

‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’

It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats yet they are still POOR!

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.”

I am Grumpa Joe and I approve this message!

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Tea Party Ahead of Obama

Posted on 12/05/2011 by Grumpa Joe

During his recent speech in El Paso, President Obama thought he was being funny when he stated the Republicans want him to “build a moat along the Mexico-USA border, and, they want to put alligators in it.”

Maybe the President reads chain e-mails because I received this suggestion many times from my Tea Party friends for two years. What he fails to realize is that building a moat would bring the economy back by putting millions of people to work. It would be a joint venture with Mexico and the U.S.A. Think about the number of Mexicans that would stay home to work on the moat. The economy of the world would improve. How?  I suggest the moat be expanded into a canal connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. What a bonanza to shipping that would become. Oil being shipped to the Gulf refineries and to the Eastern U.S. would save hundreds of miles and save thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, thus reducing the carbon footprint and guaranteeing the end of man-made global warming.

This supposedly intelligent man fails to see the wisdom of this idea. It is a win-win situation. Implementing this plan would guarantee his second term. He can then steer his excess campaign funds to a Swiss bank for later retrieval. During his retirement he can use the Swiss account to buy Saudi Arabia and rule the Mideast as the true muslim he is.

By the way, this is my second serious proposal for solving the illegal immigration problem. I posted a piece titled Shovel Ready in October of 2010. Follow the link.
Obama will get a bill for a trillion dollars for my consulting services. I will put the money into a trust for all the grandkids he stole it from.

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