Veterans

When an active-duty military person dies they are eligible for government benefits and the amount depends on rank and time of service. For an E-3 with two years and a base salary of $2,836 per month the Disability and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) benefit is $1,700 for the spouse and $420 for each child. In addition, social security would provide $1,200 per month for the spouse and another $1,200 per child. For example, a young soldier age 30 with two years of service and rank of E-3 dies leaving a wife and one child. His family is eligible for $2,120 from DIC benefits and $2,400 per month from social security for a total monthly income of $4,520. The SS benefit ends when the child is 18 but starts up again when the mother is age 60. His family receives a onetime tax-free payment of $100,000. The family will continue to receive the other benefits associated with active-duty service things like subsidized housing and GI bill and most importantly healthcare. The GI bill is available for spouse and children. Veterans on partial disability can collect their disability checks and SS but not the DIC benefit. The disability benefit can be partial or full salary depending on the severity. Most of the other benefits continue other than the $100,000 tax free cash.

Work or not

What is life like in American for low-income families and zero income families. With zero income a mother with two children receives $250 per month from WIC, $785 per month from SNAP, TANF in MN $1,200 per month, SSI $2,000 per month, two meals per day during the school year, free healthcare through Medicaid. This comes to $4,235 per month or $50,820 per year. If the mother could get some help with baby sitting and earn $2,500 per year, she would be eligible for $2,000 per year from EITC and $4,400 per year in child tax credit so her annual income would be $59,720. Some mothers choose to take in a baby for 20 hours per week and they earn $400 per week. This would cause some of their benefits to be reduced but their EITC would increase to $7,000 per year which is designed to offset any loss of public assistance. This would bring her annual income to over $60,000 per year. There are also programs to help with utility cost. Some mothers can get Grandma to baby sit which allows them to work full time at Walmart earning $20 per hour or $40,000 per year. She would then qualify for $10,000 per year from EITC and child tax credit bringing her income up to $50,000. Even under these circumstances many would prefer not to work. This is why some say the only real poor in America are the people living on the street who mostly have drug or mental problems.

Misjudgements

Three times in the past 60 years, major misjudgments were made by elected officials because 95% of congress lacks any scientific background. This has allowed them to be misled and sometimes manipulated. The first started in the 1960’s with groups like Greenpeace. Using fear as their weapon, they convinced the general population that nuclear power was dangerous and had to be stopped. They used the fear of a melt down that could lead to a release of radioactive materials into the atmosphere, some even suggesting a possible nuclear bomb explosion. They followed this up with exaggerating the problem of storing waste material in unsafe ways across the country. This led to over regulation to the point where the 100 reactors that were scheduled to be built were cancelled and not one new site was constructed over the next fifty years. The activist had won. The second mistake was also promoted using fear and that was global warming. In this case, the activist joined forces with certain scientist who profited from the fear, to convince the people that fossil fuels were the cause and set a goal of zero carbon by 2030. The UN and the Paris Accords added to the fear and promoted the idea of zero carbon. Important elected officials led by Presidents Obama and Biden called climate change an existential threat and laws were passed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The experts saw the solution to the problem was to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar. This was pushed by the new green deal, that combined social programs with the production of solar panels which opened the door to campaign contributions by way of government subsidies. Once the program became political it automatically had support of half the population and the promoters were well aware of this fact. The third big mistake was the subsidizing of electric vehicles. Once again this became a political issue and government subsidies followed. The fact that the cars needed long charging times, that there were very few charging stations and that many of the stations got their power from fossil fuels did not dampen the enthusiasm for EV’s. The excitement caused car companies to invest billions before they realized the consumers did not want the hassle of dealing with these cars and they are now writing off loses totaling tens of billions. This was a classic case of putting the cart before the horse. Common sense is slowly taking over and nuclear power is seen as the solution to climate change. It has taken almost a hundred years to recover from these mistakes but help is on the way.

Virtue signaling

Virtue signaling is not limited to individuals but applicable to countries and even continents. Europe is in an economic decline that started 30 years ago. They decided to join the zero-carbon fad. The results can best be seen by looking at Germany and more specifically at BASF the largest chemical company in the world. Germany set upon a path of going green by closing down the coal plants, closing down the nuclear plants and refusing to frack. They believed they could survive on wind and solar using natural gas as a go between while they changed. The Ukraine War disrupted these plans and the cost of energy quadrupled. Now BASF is shifting production to China where energy costs are lower because China gets 60% of their energy from coal. This is a kind of bait and switch which allows Germany to say they are going green by shifting their air pollution to China. This is an example of corporate, country and continent virtue signaling. In order to save face Germany is secretly planning on reopening its coal plants. Interestingly enough Canada is now following the same path as they increase their wind and solar while exporting 4.5 million barrels per day of oil to the US.

Differences

Looking back over the last hundred years or so many cultural norms have changed. Not too long ago marrying outside the faith was traumatic for some families. The same was true for ethnicity. Remember the movie about the Greek Wedding. In time things progressed to interracial marriage and gay marriage. As these changes take place some people are more willing to accept the new ways than others. This is understandable as humans are that way. One area of concern is how people judge one another based on how far along they are in adjusting to the new ways. Often times people who view themselves as the more tolerant begin to feel morally superior. Sometimes a White couple can accept their daughter marrying a Black man without any reservation. Sometimes a straight couple can accept their son marrying another man without much concern. Other couples will have great difficulty in adjusting to these new circumstances. In many cases there are people willing to adjust without a full commitment but their love for their children allows them to except the change. In their hearts there is a small voice saying, I wish things were different. It is probably wise not to pass judgement too quickly. One way that some use to allay the stress with these types of circumstances is to follow the rule, hate the sin but love the sinner.

Thorium power

The most efficient path to carbon free transportation comes by way of small thorium reactors. These are built in factories, assembly style and shipped to the use point. At scale they produce almost endless quantities of electric power and at low cost. This power is used to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen and use the hydrogen for fuel, the only by product being water. Hydrogen can then be combined with carbon dioxide taken from the air to synthesize diesel and aviation fuel. When this is burned the CO2 returns to the air in a neutral cycle. Cars and trucks can still be driverless as technology allows. Thorium is four times more abundant than uranium, produces less dangerous by products and offers walk away safety which prevents melt downs. China has been operating a thorium reactor for the past two years.

EV's and weight

Most articles about EV’s, recognize that the power source must be green, or the whole purpose of the car is lost and they lead off with how the cost of solar panels have come down over the past 20 years and this is a fact. What they don’t write about is the materials needed to produce EV’s which include lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, graphite and copper along with rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. These are left out because of the environmental harm caused by the mining, processing and disposal of these elements. The second area left out is how airplanes and heavy equipment will operate on batteries. Both military and commercial planes are jets and ocean liners, tanks, bull dozers and large farm equipment need more power than batteries can supply. A Tesla long range semi-truck weighs 23,000 pounds including the 11,000-pound battery. An Abrams tank weighs 128,000 pounds and would require a 61,000-pound battery. When out on the battle field where would the charging station be. A diesel locomotive weighs 450,000 pounds and would need a 215,000-pound battery. When it comes to ocean liners and oil tankers the numbers are out of sight. Overwhelmed by the excitement of EV’s many of these problems are ignored. The problem of building EV’s before charging stations are installed and these cannot be supported without updating the grid is just putting the cart before the horse.