Ski Trip

I was away last week skiing and I thought I would be able to upload the blog but I couldn't so I skipped the week. Anyway, I have to report that I had a wonderful time skiing with my son. I haven't skied in 3 years and forgot how much fun it is and how exhilarating it is to ski down the slopes. It is a great family vacation and hopefully will do a yearly ski vacation. The last few years we did sun vacations and they were fun but I think skiing beats the sun. Definitely much healthier as long as one doesn't get injured. My son was in ski school all day and I skied alone but I met several people and of course this fed ideas for the blog.

I met three people in particular that demonstrate a point. I took a lesson the first day and the instructor was a fifty something year old man who told me he teaches skiing in the winters and goes sailing in the summers. I asked him how he manages to support himself and he told me he retired from a job and now is able to ski and sail. I jokingly responded that he must have worked for the government to get such a great package to which he said he taught seventh grade for 20 years.

The next guy I met on a chair lift going up the mountain and usually a conversation is started out of courtesy. It was about noon and he told me he had to leave after the next run. I asked him why he was leaving on such a beautiful day and he responded that he had to go back to work. He told me he was a school bus driver and after dropping the kids off at school in the morning comes out to ski for a few hours and then returns to work to bring the kids home.

The last woman I also met on the lift. She is a school teacher who was off that day because school was canceled due to a snow day. So the school could not be opened due to snow but she was able to drive to the slopes, no problem.

So I think the point has been made. Public employees, those that work for the taxpayer, have better retirement packages, better work hours, and easier work demands than those of us that pay their salaries. It is an insane upside down world that this has been allowed to develop. I don't blame these fellow skiers but the irresponsible criminal politicians that let the unions dictate unsustainable benefits. Fortunately, the tide is turning and these ridiculous contracts are going to be renegotiated.


P.S. Just wanted to comment on the Egyptian uprising. I just blogged a couple of weeks ago about the results of overpopulation. This perfectly demonstrates what happens when resources are limited and population explodes. Egypt has a very high birth rate and a limited water source as well limited wealth. Many people live in poverty and there are not enough jobs for all people. The young people are rising up because food prices have risen and future prospects are dim. This will continue and spread wherever population growth outpaces available resources. Popular uprisings, violence, extremism, and desperate measures will surely increase.