Suggested Strategy to Cain: Voter Registration

Herman Cain, I am not your strategist, but here is a thought that you should consider.

You are an outside the box thinker, always have been. That is why you are a success. No, I don't like any national sales tax plan that does not come with a constitutional cap. But I like your style and I think you are one of the folks that can whip Obama next year.

Here is your strategy to win. Voter registration.

Everyone wants to register voters, but you have the opportunity to do something groundbreaking and game changing. Go into black communities on intense voter registration drives. Emphasize individual choice over the mass mentality. Share your optimism and your belief in work, education, and drive. Sell them on registering Republican and backing your candidacy.

This is how you can win. Bring over tens of thousands of black voters into the GOP column in every state. Of course they are not voting for a Leader, but for themselves. Their votes and registrations tell the Democratic Party that they cannot be taken for granted. Maybe even the unions will someday learn that.

Young people are living the post racial society. It is they who you can bring aboard in the largest numbers. Your vision, even if you do not win, is key to countering the depressing and woeful victicrat line that dominates black political thinking. The Democratic race coalition is cracking anyway. J. C. Watts, Allen West, Condoleeza Rice all experienced racial prejudice when it was still a major problem in society and all turned out to be devotees of the free market and personal liberty. You can further that movement.

Just a thought, Mr. Cain. But you should definitely consider it.

Learning to Like Mitt Romney

I am learning to like Mitt. Why? Because odds are, he will be the nominee.

I don't dislike him personally. He seems to be a decent enough person. But he reminds me all too much of that Thomas E. Dewey northeastern establishment Republican set. Romney will not heartily embrace the kind of conservatism that galvanizes the rest of America outside of New England. Romney's positions, to put it mildly, seem to change a great deal over time. On one or two issues, that's fine. Doing that on several leaves him vulnerable. His Mormonism is not a concern for me, actually it is a plus. Mormonism requires a strong spirit and self-discipline. I respect the heck out of that. Romney also has administrative experience and seems to run his operations and communications fairly smoothly.

No, he is not a guy the conservatives love. But he could be what we have.

Instead of hating Romney and peeing in our own Corn Flakes if he wins, we have to strategize for success.

First of all, get the man elected president if we nominate him. He is not a revolutionary prophet of conservative change, but he is not the incompetent Il Duce that we have now. Romney's foreign policy speeches should bring comfort to anyone at home and abroad who understands that America has a positive mission in the world. Domestically, though, the right must hold Romney's feet to the fire and pressure him into supporting the shrinking of government. We can do that through the congressional Tea Party factions.

There is a potentially great president on the horizon who bowed out of this year's contest. Bobby Jindal has almost no negatives. He is experienced, has terrific conservative credentials, highly intelligent, and has shown strong leadership at crucial times for Louisiana. Jindal is what Palin could have been had she stayed at her gubernatorial post and worked at it aggressively. Getting to a Jindal, or some other strongly conservative administration without four more years of irreparable damage to our system is paramount. Romney may not have great conservative credentials, but I cannot imagine that he will make things a lot worse. We need to get rid of Obama and his leftist cadre first so that we can turn this thing around.

It looks more and more like the first step in turning this thing around could be the election of Romney as president.

Al Davis and Occupy Wall Street

I originally was going to use Mylan Puskar as a perfect foil for the anti-everything Occupy Wall Street Crowd. His story of work ethic, success, and generosity are shining examples of what the free market is all about. Then I figured, that's too easy.

So I picked a villain. Al Davis. Recently deceased owner of the Oakland Raiders.

Davis was a guy that everyone loved to hate, unless they played for him. He believed that he was the smartest man in the room. Every room. The Raiders and the old American Football League were his initial passions and he fought like the devil for both. Most other owners and commissioners thought that he was the devil.

Until his decline in the past decade, Davis bestrode his part of the NFL as a colossus. He dared to innovate and take chances, and Davis' mark remains strong. The vertical passing game evolved from simply a Raiders strategy to a league-wide norm. His habit of picking up odds, ends, and rejects lives on as the modus operandi of the Patriots organization.

Davis was an innovator and a competitor. He earned every accolade and treated almost all of his players (Marcus Allen excluded) like family.

Al Davis worked hard, like Mylan Puskar, in their respective fields. They were both ahead of their time and both showed what our economic system can do for anyone, if they are wiling to work and take some risks.

The difference was that Al Davis was not a personable guy. He was easy to hate to the point that too many overlooked his positive impact and influence over both the business side of football and over the many young men who wore the silver and black over the decades. But he was a gritty all American guy, a streetfighter in the boardroom. Al Davis was the kind of guy that the hippified protesters love to hate, but he helped to build a powerful and profitable business that puts a lot of food on a lot of tables. Davis was an honest capitalist and, regardless of how some feel about his attitude, or his teams, earned our respect.

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The F 35 remains a hot topic in Washington. An Air Force official noted that:

Air Force chief: F-35 'must succeed'

Let there be no doubt. The F-35 cannot be replaced. That is why Senators Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin should support funding the project.
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley recently called a new long-range bomber "essential" and said there is "no alternative" to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as he pledged to protect some major weapons programs from defense spending cuts.
Pointing to a fighter fleet that is on average 22 years old and a tanker force with an average age of 49 years, Donley used a speech to the Air Force Association to lay down markers on spending needs. "Simply put, there is no alternative to the F-35 program," Donley said of this advanced fighter jet. "It must succeed."
The $382 billion program is designed to replace older fighter jets for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps over the next 30 years.

Why Columbus Day?

Christopher Columbus gets a very bad rap. He is accused basically of causing every crime ever committed against Indians in North America, mostly by virtue of having shown up. Many want to downgrade his accomplishment because he did not come over first. Only the Italians and conservatives really stick up for the poor captain anymore.

If you are one of the anti-Columbus crowd, remember this. Christopher Columbus did know from his readings of the experts that the world, most likely, was round. Most people's estimates of that distance around would have put Asia around 3,000 miles away. To Columbus, however, all this was theory. It made sense, but was it accurate. He bet his life on it.

Imagine the trip. You assume that land exists 3,000 miles away and you pack provisions for the trip. But if you are not right, that 1,500 mile point in the voyage must be frightening. The courage to believe in the idea and the leadership to keep the expedition together marks Columbus as one of Western Civilization's great heroes.

Once he arrived, his leadership fell apart. The crew preferred to work the local Indians rather than themselves, and thus earned Columbus a tarnished reputation. His responsibility over them only goes so far. We ought to continue to remember his accomplishment and the courage that it took for one man to take a chance with the stakes so high.

The Hippies Do Have a Point Here, But They Protest the Wrong Villains

A Wisconsin judge, in a wonderful display of legal wisdom, ruled that people do not have the right to drink milk directly from their own cow if they board it on another farm.

Chalk another victory up for crony mercantilism.

State and federal health guidelines used to be used to protect the general public purchasing from major corporations. You really do need to trust that the food that you buy at a store meets some health and safety guidelines. Conversely, if you buy from a truck on the side of the road or a farmers market, there is a little more caveat emptor in this situation. You might get an ear of corn with a huge worm at the top, for instance. But that's OK, just cut the top off and you still have a better tasting ear of corn.

Under the guise of trying to protect us from ourselves, but, in reality trying to protect big connected businesses from competition, food regulations have increased dramatically, especially under Obama. They hit hard the small producers and their small scale operations. Add the Obama EPA's obsession with regulating dust on a farm and you practically have a recipe for killing off the small farmer and small businesses that sell their produce.

This is part of the hippie protest of Wall Street. They really need to understand that their enemy, as always, is Big Government. Companies can ask until the cows come home for special favors. It is the obligation of the government to refuse them in the name of the free market.

Hippies, protest the real villains. Don't clog up the streets and prevent people from going to legitimate private sector work. Protest government!

The Real World Dawns

It's a cold, cruel world because it's real.

We have a set field. Palin and Christie declined. Unless Rudy Giuliani unexpectedly steps in, we have a set field for the Republican primaries.

And no one is happy.

We do have a great field. A businessman with experience at the Fed, two former governors who enjoyed success in their own ways, the intellectual, and the others.

However, we're grumbling because we did not find Supercandidate. The person who combines perfect ideology with a perfect and extensive record.

Perry can't debate and is weak on immigration. Cain apparently backed TARP at the time (so did a lot of scared folks who have since regained their senses), Gingrich had that weird global warming moment. And Romney is health care challenged.

The candidate so many want does not exist and never did. Even Reagan raised taxes in California.

We don't need The (Republican) One. We need the best person available. And we need a winner.

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Kudos to Bill Maloney. What a long, hard fight only to lose by a handful of percentage points. He really shocked anyone who was paying attention. However, it is more proof that shifts in demographics and the national Democratic Party are seriously eroding that party's hegemony in West Virginia

Are the Democrats Worried Yet?

Not too long ago, we secretly denied that it would be possible within a decade. Now it seems within our grasp.

A two party system may soon emerge in West Virginia.

The passing of Byrd has removed some of the powerful coattails that connected other Democratic candidates to voters. "Big Daddy" had big influence on state elections. Joe Manchin also has similar popularity, but he accomplishes this mainly by aping conservative positions in public while mainly voting with his party in the Senate. He who sits between two stools will someday have a hard fall.

Manchin's own race, plus the governor's race this month, illustrates the changes. Raese nearly knocked off Manchin. Tomblin goes into tomorrow essentially tied with Maloney. Independents and conservative Democrats in the north and east of the state are trending Maloney. Democratic registrations have fallen ten percent in the past eight years. This did not directly benefit the Republicans in registrations as much as campaigns.

Doug McKinney and Mike Stuart worked very hard to get the ship turned in the right direction. First the WVGOP paid off its debt under McKinney. Now Stuart has adroitly connected state Democrats with the sinking ship of Obama in key races.

The next few years needs to bring to West Virginia a true competitive party system.

Know Your Scandals

Watergate was a horrific abuse of presidential power. Nixon obstructed justice and acted as if he was above the law. He also got what he deserved, or perhaps less than he deserved......BUT

Watergate did not cost taxpayers a half a billion dollars in bad loans to presidential cronies.

Watergate did not result in the death of any law enforcement officers or contribute to the violent destabilization of a friendly democracy. Nor was it used to try to subvert the Constitutional rights of millions.

Obama's administration is the most dangerously corrupt and out of control in American history. He tried to get a news network that did not agree with his positions delegitimized by the rest of the media. He has unconstitutionally appointed, without the consent of Congress, over sixty executive branch officials. He has overturned Congressional acts with executive orders, again, in violation of the Constitution.

A vote for Obama is a vote for criminals.

The Left Has Met the Enemy, and They Think It Is Them

The refrain is familiar and bizarre at the same time. Leftists bash Tea Partiers as racist, violent, revolutionary, and dangerous. How could they come to such conclusions about a group that, even when it gathers by the tens of thousands barely even litters and also shows a strong affection for an actual American black, Hermann Cain?

Simple. The Left remembers their own period of protest, which was much different than now.

Left wing protests in the 1960s made a habit of race-baiting and used shockingly vile language against whites.

Left wing protests sparked actual violence in most major cities. It seems that they could not congregate at all without causing a riot.

The Left called for violent overthrow of the system and used the language of power, control, and even murder.

This is the Left's historical memory of protest. It is not surprising that they would assume that the Tea Party would behave as badly as them. It frustrates them that conservatives have not destroyed their own movement in the same fashion as the Left.

We Won't Let Campaign Spokespeople Speak Or Write With Horrific Sentence Structure

From the Tomblin campaign...

We won't let New York multi-millionaire Bill Maloney who made his money drilling and digging in other states, then investing it in West Virginia, then selling out somehow because he obviously sold out because he made this money on his own and not by an Obama Department of Energy handout win a campaign with crazy ideas, such as free market, non-crony capitalism, that will take power away from West Virgina Democratic multi-millionaires and union bosses who actually happen to be the same people in some instances.


O. K., maybe not from the Tomblin campaign, but it does sound a lot like their really, really strange talking points.

A Gingrich Role, the Ruin of Sarah Palin, and Approve the F 35 Already!

Conservatives love Herman Cain. He is a businessman, answers questions in regular talk and not politicianese. So why so little support for a guy who seems to have been preparing to be president at this point in history for much of his adult life?

Gingrich will probably not be nominated. But he is definitely a potential consigliere for anyone elected who may not bring a lot of experience to the job.

Is Bill Clinton prepping the country and the Democratic Party for another Hillary run? His criticism of Obama lately has been palpable. Sounds like he is almost begging someone to call for her to be a candidate.

The media has won. They have effectively destroyed Sarah Palin as a serious presidential contender. Not because she was dishonest in office, not because she is a criminal, but because she dared to be a pretty, successful, conservative woman from Middle America. Media figures have figuratively ravished her family, not even sparing her disabled son. Her name, without cause, has been tarnished and her ideas ignored. Shame is too minor a word for what they should feel.

Would you rely on a 22 year old car with hundreds of thousands of miles on the odometer to keep you safe on a long trip? Would you bet your life on it? That is what we do with our aging fighter fleet. It is time to start production on the F 35

Earl Ray Tomblin Needs To Explain This Immediately

Earl Ray Tomblin wants to be governor, but he needs to explain or clarify some remarks that he wrote several years ago.

Tomblin wrote the foreword to the book West Virginia Tough Boys: Vote Buying, Fist Fighting, and a President Named JFK. The book, written by F. Keith Davis, details the career of several Southern West Virginia Democratic bosses, including Raymond Chafin. One scene in the book, originally described in Chafin's own autobiography, and later by former Gaston Caperton official Dr. Allen Loughry in his own book, portrays a $35,000 payoff from the Kennedy campaign. That money was meant to secure support of the bosses away from Humphreys. One of the bosses, Bus Perry, feared at the time that this act would put him back into state prison. Dr. Loughry, in Don't Buy Another Vote, I Won't Pay For a Landslide claims that the 1960 campaign started the era of big money political corruption in West Virginia.

Well, what does Tomblin say about this? Does he condemn the fixing of a presidential primary in the strongest possible terms? Does he call their actions disreputable and criminal, as Loughry does?

This is the response of the man who would be governor:

"As we reflect on our role in U. S. Presidential History and our own unique historical perspective, some might have legitimate reason to question the means, but no one can question the positive and outstanding contribution West Virginia has made in this venue of government and political development."

This was his one negative comment about the crimes detailed in this book. To him, this seems to be a matter of interpretation. Tomblin also seems to imply that the end of a Kennedy victory over Hubert Humphreys was worth subverting an honest vote. This shows an amazing lack of concern for democratic process and rule of law. So long as you get something good, it's O. K. to commit a slew of crimes to make it happen. And what of West Virginia's role? This travesty helped to cement our reputation for generations as a Hazzard County-like place where politics is shaped in back rooms with a wink, a nod, and an exchange of cash. Tomblin's foreward doesn't celebrate just one Boss Hogg, but a whole gaggle of them.

The man who would be governor needs to address this issue immediately. Perhaps he did not write this little piece with enough thought, or maybe he did not want to offend his friends and neighbors. In any event, West Virginia voters need to know where he stands on election corruption in the past, present, and future. If this foreword is any indication of where he truly stands, Tomblin cannot be trusted even with the office he has held for so long, much less that of governor.

This is not a hit piece. Lord knows that I have written enough over the years that if I ran for major office, my opponents would definitely ask me to defend some of the blogs and columns the I have produced over the years. Writings are a window into the mind of the author. Voters have grown aware of this passage in the past few weeks and have started talking all over the state. Tomblin should take the opportunity to explain why he wrote in this fashion and to clarify his position on the history of Southern West Virginia political fraud and corruption.

Larry Puccio Does Not Want to Go Down the "Big Money" Road

According to "Followthemoney.org" in 2010:

Trade unions were the second largest contributors to state candidates besides self-financing. They contributed $867,000. After them came public sector unions and lawyers' associations. Only after them came business contributors, whose contributions are often divided. The West Virginia Coal Association contributed a little over $40,000.

The top six contributors to state candidates, except for individual candidates, were labor and one lawyers' group.

Mr. Puccio. Are you sure that you want to bring up big money in West Virginia elections?

The Democrats' Missed Opportunity

Remember 2009? When stimulus was supposed to save us all? When we believed that it was all going to "shovel ready projects, and not ACORN? Looking back, the Democratic Party had in its grasp the possibility of ensuring popularity and success for years to come. And the screwed it up (thankfully!)

I am not saying that the stimulus would have successfully turned around the economy. It would not have done that any more than the New Deal helped in the 1930s. But people in the 1930s could actually see work and effort going on around them. Franklin Roosevelt and his economic team, for all their lack of understanding, or even belief, in prosperity, understood that actual work that actually improved communities had to be done.

Imagine if Obama and Congress had taken half of what they spent and used it on actual infrastructure projects? What if they built a new water plant for Keyser and a new sewage plant for Westernport? What if they worked on roads, bridges, existing schools, sidewalks, and the like? What if they went into towns with century old sewer systems and rebuilt them? What if they emphasized long neglected rural development instead of dumping money into Obama's base and the federal bureaucracy?

The Democrats would have made substantial inroads into Republican country. Rural folks are grateful for recognition and help. They will vote for you if you deliver something helpful even if they do not share your ideology. Obama and his brand of Democratic Party never had any connection with Middle America. If they listened, they would know, but they barely speak our language, much less understand us. Obama approached the recession/depression with the idea of reforming America to fit his radical agenda. If he had just helped to rebuild it, without the radical leftism, thank you very much, he would have done a lot more good.

The Death of Eastern Football

It's pretty much a done deal and in many ways the future looks bright for West Virginia athletics. The SEC is the king of football, just as the Big East was in basketball. What Bobby Huggins did to take West Virginia to the top echelon in that league can be mirrored by Dana Holgerson in football. If he is successful, this could mean that he remains here for a long time instead of looking for greener pastures as his teams do better and better. But we have lost something important along the way. Eastern football.

A long, long time ago, and not in a galaxy far away, and not when the music made me smile, Eastern football challenged the South and Midwest for supremacy among the college regions. Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, and, sometimes, West Virginia made a lot of noise in the college football world. Eastern football gave us Joe Paterno, Jim Brown, Doug Flutie, Major Harris, and countless players and memories that resonate nationally.

Back then, eastern colleges played as independents. Penn State tried to organize an eastern conference, but could not get everyone to play along. Finally, in frustration, they accepted an invitation to join the Big Ten. This move started the slow seismic changes that erupted in the college football landscape and led us here.

As it turns out, the Big East conference only represented a temporary reprieve. It was too small, too dominated by Miami. too poor, too traditionless to succeed. Had it attracted Penn State and Notre Dame, it could have rated alongside of anyone, but such moves never happened. Over the past ten years, West Virginia has carried the banner. It has remained the most consistently successful and most interesting team of the bunch.

Had the ACC thought ahead and foreseen the advent of 16 team conferences, it might have saved Eastern football by bringing in all the remaining traditional eastern teams as a unit. This would have preserved rivalries such as Boston College and West Virginia that sustained the former team. BC lost to Duke last week; how far they have fallen. This move did not happen either.

And now Eastern football divides. West Virginia (I want to emphasize likely, since nothing has been confirmed) initiated the final death by entering into unreported discussions with the SEC that prompted the quick moves of Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC. At this point, with even venerable conferences, such as the Big 12, dying, WVU found its long term position in the Big East untenable and made the best move possible. The ACC and Big Ten will pick up the usable pieces of the shattered Big East football schools while the basketball only schools likely shrink into an Atlantic 10 calibre league.

This is ugly and to be regretted, but WVU AD Oliver Luck cannot be the only one to cling to a fading tradition while everyone else moves along.

American Flags: The New Lawn Darts

Remember back in the 1980s when thousands of people worldwide succumbed to the terror of "death by lawn dart?"

Well, I don't either, but that did not stop the federal government from outlawing the toys for use by anyone, not just children. Think of the children. We have to keep them safe.

Two, not one, but (at least) two separate so-called institutions of learning have deemed American flags to be safety hazards. Conservative clubs found their requests to place flags for 9/11 commemorations denied on safety grounds. Now a New Hampshire middle school has denied an autistic student the right to carry a small flag because the rod might be a safety hazard.

I am certainly glad that educational institutions are finally waking up to the mortal dangers posed by American flags. They have killed and maimed so many students in the past, it is a wonder why they waited this long to act.

Dumb Security, Brought to You By the Left

Wednesday morning, Democratic congresswoman Lynn Wolsey (from California, of course) rose to speak. She had five minutes to speak to the Speaker Pro Tempore, some cameras, hundreds of seats, and whoever else happened to be there. She gave an impassioned speech about what she called "Smart Security."

First, she called for the removal of all troops from Afghanistan. Pretty typical anti-war stuff, really. And, honestly, since Obama won't let our troops fight and win, maybe that is an alternative. But Wolsey understands that this is a dangerous world that we cannot disengage from. So far, so good. But this IS a Leftist, so you know something crazy is coming.

She proposes that, once the troops are out, that we send in a "civilian surge" to build roads, power infrastructure, and other big ticket, demand side investments. Lyndon Johnson figured that such programs would save South Vietnam forty years ago.

But even LBJ was not naive enough to propose taking the troops away first! Wolsey has never heard of the term "soft targets." Nor does she understand that the Taliban want to kill Americans and destroy whatever we build. They would love a surge of unarmed civilians on construction projects to kidnap or just kill outright.

Wow, Congresswoman Wolsey. That's real smart.

Debating Debates

Personally, I am sick of debates.

Debates mean nothing. They are highly artificial and stylized dog and pony shows that pass for real and reasoned argument. They pander to our love of competition and the media's desire for a quick, witty, or dumb sound bite.

Debates emphasize shallowness over substance. How does a person quickly and smartly answer a question? Does this really have anything to do with a man or woman's capacity for leadership? Does it tell us anything about whether or not these people can make sound decisions at crucial times? No. So why even watch them? Why even hold them?

A better format would be to put the candidates into enclosed rooms and hand them questions. By themselves, with no assistance from staff, they should formulate their answers. Then the debate should be their defense of, and questions about, the answers from the other candidates. This encourages judgment and reason over glibness and might even give us some real insight into their principles and ideas.

Of course there will be fewer gaffes, fewer mistakes, and less overall silliness. Or maybe more, actually, because the candidates have to answer on their own without help. In any event, they would be a vast improvement over what we do now.

"I Have Serious Concerns About the Level of Spending"

This was not John Boehner, Rush Limbaugh, or Ann Coulter. This was freshman West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin's take on the proposed $450 billion in new stimulus spending. It is also bad news, because Manchin has become a bell cow for the moderate Democrats in terms of Obama proposals.

Obama proposed vast sums for infrastructure improvement, payroll tax cuts, and other measures designed to prime the economic pump. But most remain wary because he promised this before. To be honest, had he actually spent the last stimulus on the "shovel ready" jobs that he claimed it was for, that might have actually worked and benefited communities at the same time. Instead, it went to groups that supported Obama and bureaucrats.

Obama's proposals were promised serious merit by Speaker Boehner, and Obama must be prepared to see House Republicans and Senate Democrats tinker and hash over his ideas. Republicans will likely push to divert money from other areas to cover the bill as much as possible. I would not be surprised to see Postal Service relief become part of this measure at the end of the day, although that needs to come with serious changes, if not complete privatization.

Of course, Obama would not be Obama without moments of condescension, as when he lectured everyone that they had to "step their game up," whatever that means. It is not the private sector that he needs to lecture. If government would remove the weights and shackles from our private sector, particularly energy production, we could compete much more effectively in the game of commerce and manufacturing. We still wait to hear him propose total relief from the regulations that his administration is using to strangle our economy.

What Have We Lost?

Adam Smith describes the capital of a country in terms of its labor, land, structures, and productive capacity. Countries that can enhance production by necessity enhance their capital.

In the 1930s and thereafter, the federal government introduced programs to keep food prices at a certain level. Milk, orange juice, and a wide variety of other products are priced higher than they should be. One of the programs that keeps prices for the American consumer high is that which pays farmers to not produce.

The Conservation Reserve Program pays farmers rent to do nothing with their land. It costs $2 billion, at least as of 2005, and accounts for 8% of all farm subsidies. The program started as erosion control and ended up as price support.

Here is the question. How negative of an impact does this program produce? By paying farmers to not farm, we place a triple burden on the private sector. First, we use taxpayer money to prevent production and keep prices high. Second, where land is not productive, farmers do not purchase tools, fertilizer, or other agricultural necessities. They also do not employ labor. So the private sector is triply impacted by this program that harms everyone except farmers that want to live off of rent and not their own sweat. To be fair, commercial farmers face more obstacles now than ever before, including a proposed EPA regulation against dust that could wipe many out.

However, we should not be paying anyone to not work. We would be better off buying the produce and throwing it into the ocean than paying people to not work.