I just listened to this song and remembered how much I love it. Enjoy.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Thursday, July 03, 2008
"... with the way the economy is."
"...with the way the economy is." Is becoming the tag line of choice. It
is outrageous. It makes me want to say, "What WAY is the economy?" What
economic indicators are people using to determine the WAY of the economy?
My feeling is most people hear the tag line, and then use it themselves as
a sort of solution to hardship. I want to hear someone say, "I got a great
deal on a computer, with the way the economy is." Or "Interest rates are
at a historic low, thanks to this economy."
I saw a huge headline in a national newspaper that said, "stock market
loses 2.1 (billion or trillion I forget) for the first time since the great
depression. They are trying to pull on the emotion of our thoughts of the
great depression. What they failed to mention is the market as about a 100
times market capitalization as it did 70 years ago. In other words the 2.1
billion (trillion) drop in over all stock value is a drop in the bucket
relatively. I'll listen to what people say about ...with the way the
economy is. when they tell me which way it is, and don't say down. Give me
statistics that tell me my life is qualitiatively worse than it was 4 years
ago. The iphone is 199, I would say my life is quantitatively better!
is outrageous. It makes me want to say, "What WAY is the economy?" What
economic indicators are people using to determine the WAY of the economy?
My feeling is most people hear the tag line, and then use it themselves as
a sort of solution to hardship. I want to hear someone say, "I got a great
deal on a computer, with the way the economy is." Or "Interest rates are
at a historic low, thanks to this economy."
I saw a huge headline in a national newspaper that said, "stock market
loses 2.1 (billion or trillion I forget) for the first time since the great
depression. They are trying to pull on the emotion of our thoughts of the
great depression. What they failed to mention is the market as about a 100
times market capitalization as it did 70 years ago. In other words the 2.1
billion (trillion) drop in over all stock value is a drop in the bucket
relatively. I'll listen to what people say about ...with the way the
economy is. when they tell me which way it is, and don't say down. Give me
statistics that tell me my life is qualitiatively worse than it was 4 years
ago. The iphone is 199, I would say my life is quantitatively better!
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Free To Choose
I've been trying to grown my knowledge when I can, and the most recent endeavor is in my reading of "Free to Choose" by Milton and Rose Friedman. Please find my thoughts, and the thoughts of those I respect under the link to the left by the title of "Book club".
Friday, May 02, 2008
Social Security
I have a bit of a gripe. I'm not a proponent of social insurance, so keep that in mind, and I know there are great reasons to have it and many people really NEED it, but my gripe is when people abuse it. More specifically when we allow them to abuse it. With something as big as social security there can be no real accountability, there can be no real efficient way to manage that money.
Let me get to my point. This week I overheard a man in the bank talking about when he is going to start collecting social security. He said that some time in the fall he will really start to hit his stride on the amount of SS he can collect. This is, of course, contingent on the fact that his income does not exceed a certain threshold. So, come October, Dave will reduce his hours to about 15 per week from 40. Long story short we will pay him more to work less. He is healthy as a horse (and he'll tell you all about it, even if you don't ask), likes to work, and still does a good job. Our system nearly forces this man to stop helping out our society by contributing by working. I really hope that in 40 years S.S. is a thing of the past and people are made to pay attention to their futures and save NOW so they can retire if they so chose.
Let me get to my point. This week I overheard a man in the bank talking about when he is going to start collecting social security. He said that some time in the fall he will really start to hit his stride on the amount of SS he can collect. This is, of course, contingent on the fact that his income does not exceed a certain threshold. So, come October, Dave will reduce his hours to about 15 per week from 40. Long story short we will pay him more to work less. He is healthy as a horse (and he'll tell you all about it, even if you don't ask), likes to work, and still does a good job. Our system nearly forces this man to stop helping out our society by contributing by working. I really hope that in 40 years S.S. is a thing of the past and people are made to pay attention to their futures and save NOW so they can retire if they so chose.
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