Monthly Archives: October 2021

Reviews

Now Hear This…Don’t Listen To Critics

I find it hard to listen to critics. Not because they don’t know what they are talking about, but because they are so professional. What I mean is that they are too professional. So, what exactly do I mean you ask? Let me explain.

There are tons of critics out there. Some for movies, some for cars, some for products. There are just a ton of them. You can find them just about anywhere. On TV. On YouTube. On commercials. They’re everywhere. So, what’s wrong with them? Nothing…and everything. The way that I see it is that these people, for the most part are professionals. They have a job of reviewing a certain item, for example, like cars. When a new car comes out, they review it. They give you their best opinion of that car and tell you whether you should buy it. If they review movies, they also give you their best opinion and tell you whether you should go and see it. Problem is that most are so professional that we as regular consumers don’t have the faintest clue on what they are talking about.

To many critics are too critical on the things that just don’t matter to me. However, this is just my opinion. If I am looking at a car for example, I do look at reviews, but I only pay attention to the things that matter to me, because to be honest, the other part of the review really doesn’t matter to me. I really don’t care if the car has the latest and greatest fuel injection system or not or if it has halogen bulbs or not. I don’t care. My concern is whether the car will hold up. Will it get me to work and back? Does it have enough power? How good do the brakes work? Stuff like that. I really don’t care if it doesn’t have the best spark plugs on the market or not. It amazes me when critics give cars bad ratings simply because they don’t have the latest and greatest things available on the market. I have seen cars get bad rating and gone out and tested them myself and thought that they were great!

Movies are another thing. Critics are too picky when it comes to movies. I remember when the movie Pearl Harbor starring Ben Affleck came out. I saw Ebert and Roeper do a review on this movie, and they gave it horrible reviews. At least Ebert did. I remember him saying that in the movie, they only used 3 WWII planes for the whole movie. They just used digital copies of the three planes to make it look like there were several hundred planes. He said he could tell and that the digital copies were horrible. I tried my best to see what he was seeing and for the life of me I just couldn’t see it, and to be honest, I thought Pearl Harbor was a good movie.

The website Rotten Tomatoes is a good place to go if you want to get a good review on a movie you want to see. They show you what the critics say about it and the general audience. In most cases, there is a dramatic difference between what the critics think and what the audience thinks. It really shows you the difference between the two.

Simply put, just because a critic says that a car is bad, doesn’t mean that it is. Just because a critic, says that a movie is horrible doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go see it. It’s simply their opinion. The best way, and only way, to find out is to go and see it yourself. That’s with anything. Just remember that critics are professional. They see things that may matter to them, but in most cases, not the public.

Standard
Business, Politics

Mandating Disaster

Getting fired isn’t easy. It puts a person into self-doubt that can lead to depression. The future can be uncertain. Where do you go from here?  How are you going to pay your bills?  Where is your next meal coming from?  In extreme circumstances, getting fired can lead a person to suicidal thoughts or even suicide.

Ronald Reagan once said, “Governments first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”  However, here in 2021, the tides seem to have turned.  With the Covid-19 pandemic going on, many people have chosen not to get the vaccine. To combat this and try to get people vaccinated, many businesses have started terminating employees that are not vaccinated. Some have chosen to quit their jobs rather than be forced to receive a vaccine that they don’t believe in.  With so many people out of work, this has caused a huge strain on the labor force. Drive around your own town or city and almost every business has a “now hiring” sign in the window.

With the recent push by the Biden administration to get Americans vaccinated, he has introduced what he calls a “a six-pronged, comprehensive national strategy” to combat Covid-19. In it, he says that this plan will ensure that they are using every available tool to combat COVID-19 and save even more lives, while also keeping schools open and safe, and protecting our economy from lockdowns and damage.  While I can admire the administrations attempt to combat the virus, I believe this plan will do more harm than good.

The reason that I believe that this plan will backfire is because of the mandate that is requiring all employers with 100+ employees to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated or tested weekly or else pay a fine of $14,000 per violation.  While this mandate will not affect business like Wal-Mart, Amazon, Costco, Lowe’s Home Depot, or any other big businesses, it has a detrimental effect on small businesses. According to the Small Business Administration or SBA, a government entity, in a 2019 report said, “Small businesses are the lifeblood of the U.S. economy: they create two-thirds of net new jobs and drive U.S. innovation and competitiveness.”  They also account for 44 percent of U.S. economic activity and produce 43.5 percent of the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP). That’s huge. 

Most, if not all, small businesses cannot afford a $14,000 fine for every single violation. A small business may not even make that kind of money on a daily basis. So, this leaves the small business with a dilemma.  Either they can shut down completely or they can start to lay off employees until their total staff is at 99 employees or less.  I can only assume that closing a business is off the table.  No one wants to close a business that they started from the ground up.  This leaves only one alternative which is to lay off employees. Once a small business owner can get their employees below that 100 employee mark, then they will be free of any fine or mandate that the Biden administration can put on them.  Another, not so desirable, outcome is that many employees have already vowed to quit their jobs if such a mandate is pressed upon them.

Whether people decide to quit their jobs, or a small business feels it is being forced to terminate employees just to stay open, this will have a huge impact on the US economy. With more people out of the work force, the labor crisis will continue to grow ever so scarce, and inflation will continue to skyrocket.

While Biden touts that his plan will boost the economy and save lives, I honestly think this plan will have just the opposite effect. While it may save lives, it will in no may boost the economy.  I predict that it will only make it worse.

Standard