The New Dawn (2)

We left off talking briefly with my views/the current heading in U.S. Politics and the National budget crisis.   In this part, I would like to explain what I think we need to do as citizens and individual households.  It’s important, I feel, that when you are demanding a group (such as the Government) to balance their budget, that yours is under control first and foremost.  Stones and glass houses and all that.

As a nation we eat, drink, and breathe debt.  The credit card debt per household is $15,799, with nearly 610 million credit cards in circulation (http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-industry-facts-personal-debt-statistics-1276.php).  That’s a lot of debt.  This doesn’t cover the other types of credit like mortgages, student loans, bank/Credit union lines of credit, etc.  That’s a lot of debt, and for many people, they don’t have a strategy to get out on their own.  Minimum payments don’t get you out, statistically, they only drive you further in.

Some debt is good, some debt is bad.  Traditionally, owning a home and having a mortgage weren’t necessarily bad things.  In this market having a mortgage is akin to being under a guillotine.  Will the market drop further?  I know many people who have bought a house crica 2007-2008 who ended up gravely in the hole because of housing values just dropping.  Couple that with a handy (for the bank) adjustable rate mortgage and you can be in over your head soon after you’ve signed.  That’s not to say that buying a house is bad, but like any debt, it’s time to really reevaluate how much you can sustainably spend.

We’ve gotten into the trap of buying “same as cash!” from retailers for using a retailer branded credit card.  Done wisely, this can actually save money for you in the long run.  Being able to buy something on sale (Black Friday specials) can save you money coupled with no interest for x months.  It’s important to remember that you will be charged interest if you don’t pay it off in that time.  Ideally, pay it down/off very quickly, and avoid the temptation to charge charge charge.

I might have fallen down a rabbit hole there.  Back on track.  Getting out of debt can see insurmountable, especially difficult if you’re on one income (like us for the moment), or on a fixed income (unemployment, retired, etc).  Deep breaths.  Here’s some tips to get you started.

1) Write out your current debts.  Include information like interest rates, payment dates, and current minimum payments.

2)  Do your Budget.  How much are you bringing in?  How much is going for bills?  It’s important to include expenditures like gas, food, and your monthly allotment for fun (whatever it might be).  I almost always forget about food/gas.

3) If you’re able to make your minimums, great! you’re treading water, your feet can touch the bottom of the lake.  If you aren’t able to make your minimums, it might be worth talking to one of the many non-profit debt counseling agencies.  These agencies work as a middle man between you and your debt holders, often working out deals to lower your interest, and lower your monthly payment with the goal of getting you out of debt.

4)No new Debt!  George Bush (senior) had the saying No New Taxes!.  Well, we need no new debt.  This applies to both you the individual, and to the country.   You can’t swim to shore if the lake is constantly rising.  Try not to use your credit cards as much as possible, saving them truly for times of Emergencies.  At one point I kept my credit card in the freeze, in an 80z block of ice.  Yes, I literally froze it.  I had to think long and hard on what I needed it for before I could use it.

Debt isn’t inherently bad.  Miss managing it is.  It’s hard to get by in our modern society without any credit, as my wife can attest.  It can be hard to get an apartment, even a job, if you have no credit or poor credit.  A sound financial future is where you, me, and this country needs to be headed if we really want to make it through the next couple of decades.

 

The New Dawn (Part 1)

I would like to start with a heavy dose of full disclosure.  Beforehand, I should probably say that this grunt is going to be one involving politics, economics, and how they’ve incestuously intermarried.

I used to be a die-hard democrat and uber liberal.  It’s how my parents were, and I followed in their foot steps.  Flash forward to my now burgeoning self-awareness and my own studies on economics, social shifts, and politics.  I’m more of a moderationist now.  Left is left of center, right is right of center.  We need to be a centered, focused nation.

One of my friends is quick to point out that as a nation, we spend more than we make.  Thus, we charge the leftovers.  We pay the interest, not the principal, to stay in ‘good’ standing.  If you are I were to do what the country does, well, it’s impossible.  The country is asking to extended their credit limit from their credit card company, and has done so many times in the past.

You have probably figured out how insanely stupid this is as a business practice (as the Government is the largest employer, spender, recruiter, let’s treat it as such).  From a household perspective, you have three options.

A) You begin spending less than you’re bringing in.  This allows you to stabilize your debt, and begin paying down your bills.  We need to do this, as our level of debt is not sustainable and partially the cause of such a weak dollar.  My wife and I have had to do this after I lost my job.  It wasn’t easy to tighten the proverbial belt, give up in part the lavish (from our perspective) life style we have lived.  Thrift shop and buy bulk foods, and focus on buying more durable products where at all possible.  The republicans are happy to cut spending (except military spending apparently, which I’d like to say is 1.4 trillion for the 11-12 calender year).  I’m ambivalent on budget cutting.  I can see where somethings could be cut (we need to build more sustainable and durable infrastructure rather than the crap the Wildish company makes).

B) You make more money.  We all wish we could just say this and have it magically happen (yes I do understand that positive self motivation has positive results on your career/job/etc).  The Government could raise taxes to exceed what their spending, covering their liabilities and still paying down the debt.  They could also save money for a rainy day (Social Security was not meant to be this fund).  Most people don’t want to raise taxes, and I get that–it’s a hard sell.  Yes, I’m taking more of your money.  There is the argument that the tax system is currently disproportionate, and I don’t want to belabor that point.  But I will say this–more money in the hands of 99.5% of the country makes more sense than more money for .5%.

C)  The last option is a combination of the two.  We raise some taxes, and cut spending.   This is perhaps just as hard a sell as raising taxes in general.  Who’s getting taxed? The rich, the poor, corporations?  (I would like to point out the example that GE netted 14 billion, and managed to get a tax kicker of 2 billion.  Sign ME up for that!).  What programs get cut? How much, etc.

The end result needs to be that we make a sustainable budget.  And not just ‘hey, look, the books are zeroed’ but paying down the debt.  This would do wonders to the global market place.  People would see the US managing fiances how they should be, debt would DECREASE, and the dollar would hopefully start to recover.

In my next part of this series I will discuss finances on a more personal level, what each of us needs to do (and demand) for the this country to turn around and bail itself out.

An Adjustment and the Religion of Stuff

I can safely say I have learned more in my time of unemployment than I have in the entirety of my life so far.   With so much free time, I’ve read a lot of books I had been meaning to read but “never had the time”.  I (and my wife) had also had to make changes in how we purchase, where, when, and why.  In a word, we’ve become more efficient.

We have this idea in our society that we don’t have the time to do things.  That’s bs.  We make time for whatever we want to do.  Granted, most of us, desire to work for a large portion of our weekly/daylight time.   We chose (or are lucky and have) the ability to work because we like money.  We like money, because it affords us to buy stuff.

The Religion of Stuff.

I used to be a pious member of this religion.  The joy of buying something new, grabbing, and indiscriminately buying it.  I took for granted in my daily purchases for what in some parts of the world is a weeks/months worth of income.  Now, I buy only the luxury items that I know I will enjoy, for a long time.  Gone is the impulse buy.  We can survive on one income.  It would just take an adjustment.

But it’s an adjustment we need to make as a country.  We don’t need two incomes.  We don’t need everything new, we don’t need to buy shiny stuff.  Sure, there’s a time and a place, but the problems arise because the things we either have to (or choose to) replace aren’t made for longevity.

Be thrifty, don’t buy into the keeping up with the Jones.  Live within your means, and live the best you can within those means.  I have many friends who feel the need to constantly make more and more money.  When really (and perhaps its critical of me) but what they are trying hard to do is live outside a sustainable way of life.  Maybe they bought a house that, though large and really nice, wasn’t fundamentally necessary to their life.  Or maybe you have two brand new cars.  I can appreciate having one new car, as constant repairs can be a real drag on your financing.  But buying two cars on credit seems a little absurd now.   To be fair, when I’m able to, I do plan to buy a new car.  But It’s not going to be some fancy shiny thing.  I want something with four doors, a wheel, and maybe a stereo.

What would I recommend?  If you’re shopping for the big ticket items, like a house, look around, find a deal.  Find something that needs some tlc.  A good roof and a solid exterior without rot is a great place to start.  A starter home is called that because it’s where you start.  Don’t buy the house you want to end up in right off the bat, even if you can afford it (or think you can).  Better to live somewhere where if there’s an unexpected bill, you aren’t having to worry about a roof.

Buy a newer, but still used, car.  A lot of dealers will sell a warranty on “certified” preowned (used) cars.  You aren’t paying for the initial depreciation that happens when you buy a new car (when you buy a new car, you’re immediately in the whole for quite a bit once you drive it off a lot).

If you feel that need for impulse buying on something.  Perhaps a new dress, new pair of shoes, stop and wait a week.  We’ve been trained that “it could be gone if you don’t buy it now”, but frankly, the extra time to think is good for you.  Maybe you don’t really need it, or perhaps you were just having a really bad day and only would have purchased said item  because of the mood you are in.

There’s some logic to credit.  Buying a new washer, dryer, and other energy efficient appliances can save you money in the long term–especially if you are a home owner.  Try to have 25-50% of the cost up front, and look for financing offers.  Yes, they tend to be in 6-12 months, but really you should have your debts paid off quickly, they aren’t something you want to hang on to.

Live well and within your means.  We get trapped by the ideals of consumerism, and seek for greater levels of employment, for little or no real gain.  Will that promotion for 2.5% really bring an increase of 2.5% or more of happiness to your life?  Most of the people I know who “climb” the ladder, get more and more haggard the higher they climb.  Don’t sell your happiness, there’s no price high enough.  And no one is willing to pay for it if it’s something your losing on a daily basis.

SGU-The Nerd Rage holocaust (spoilers)

*I will open that this rant will contain expletives.  I know, it’s very base of me and I do actually have the lexicon to overcome the common for letter word.  But there is a visceralness to the expletive that means it must be used to convey the sheer depth, loathing, and soul wrenching screaming that I must let out*

SGU had promise.  It had the backing over ten years of sci-fi nerdom behind it.  My fellow nerds we’re foaming at the mouth, and yes a few of us were even doing inappropriate things to stuffed animals in sheer excitement.

The premise was kind of phenomenal and revolutionary to the franchise of Stargate–that a new team unlocked the last digit of the infamous Gate and dialed into an Ancient ship.

But the real kicker was that the ship was actually ancient.  Like, archaic.  Jankity.  Broke-ass.  Yeah, up until this point Ancient technology was like a finally tuned relic.  Sure it was old, but it always looked shiny and it generally tended to work within 30 mins.

No, the Destiny was broke as hell.  And I loved it.  It made sense, it was beautiful, and there was an air of survival (survivor?) to it.  No way home, and the ship they were on literally had pieces falling off.

How could you fuck it up?

I must pause for a moment in my rant to explain, in what I think at least, is the some genius of the original Stargate franchise.   In the first episode (technically two, for anyone who wants to split hairs), we find out every pertinent story element.

You know who the good guys are.  Space MacGyver, the perky intelligent blond, the witty-know-it-all, and the renegade alien.

The bad guys.  Tyrants enslaving space humans hell bent on intergalactic domination.

And a StarGate.  A mythical device that let people travel through space (and in time, in a couple of episodes).

Done.  First episode (Children of the Gods) is still one of the singular greatest sci fi tv ever.  Outside of the Entirety of Battlestar Gallactica.

However, Sgu deviates entirely from this tried and true method.  We have no clue who the hero is.  The know-it-all is an asshole who vascilates between good guy and bad guy I kept hoping he died horribly in every episode.  I one he gets his ass left on a planet, a la Khan from Star Trek.

We didn’t even know entirely what the premise of the show is (you find it mid way through season 2 btw, so if you’re just starting out with the series you have a long way to go).

They rested everything on the fact that they could sell a show to fanboys of the franchise.  And, honestly, that’s all the show had going for it.  There really wasn’t a lot of StarGate involved.

Now, I still think the premise the used in season 2 for motivation could have made a decent show.  We needed to have found it our around episode 4.  The first three episodes were good (they stabilized life on the ship).  I would have liked to have seen more exploration of this ancient ship that had been around for millions of years.  But they dropped the ball on nearly everything else.  Protagonist, antagonist, aliens, too many subplots, and the ancient speaking-stones were used but they detracted from the whole concept of being lost in space.  If you can make a long distance call home, there’s no real sense of urgency

Argh, I can’t even finish this coherently I’m filled with so much nerdrage.  My wife was begging me to stop watching the show.

On various forms of Foodism

I think I should formally declare, and perhaps clarify (if at all possible), my position on Foodisms.  Veganism and Vegetarianism in particular.

If you have some higher calling to avoid meat, as is the case of most Buddhist and Hindu persons (as my understanding), I hold no malice toward your choice at all.  On the contrary, as a virtue of their (your?) faith, it makes sense to me.  I know quite a few monks who are vegetarians, and they’re generally well adjusted and content people (oneness with you universe? who doesn’t want that! think of the social change!).

I also hold no contention for someone who is unable, horror of horrors, to digest or consume meat product.  One of life’s great tragedies has befallen you, and I weep for you. Here I’m just allergic to onion and ginger, but I know people who cannot actually digest meat.  Tragic.

No, its the patchouli smelling hippies in the town that I grew up in that made me detest and loathe the words “vegan entree”.  It’s a base choice around the idea that somehow killing an animal purely for consumption is wrong.   I try before any delicious meal involving meat to think of the animal, find gratefulness in its life, that it is now completing the circle of life (do I need to give credit to Disney in order to escape a reaming?).

I’m an apex predator.  You are too, it’s why you have those nice flesh cutting teeth in your jaw, and a brain that lets you understand the rudimentary workings of a gun.  It’s this last part that the mighty tiger or raptor  failed to learn.

It’s some sort of fad.  I understand that eating a lot of meat is not healthy.  That human kind was not meant to subsist solely on bacon and pork product alone.  But have you seen how yellow they look? It’s just not normal.  Let alone not many of them or going to be getting into an MMA competition anytime either.

Moral obligation via Divine Purpose or gastronomic incompatibility.

Otherwise, order a steak.  Medium-rare please.

It was a logical Step

It has been awhile since I posted, much to the dismay of the Wife Unit.  I will, since I have the free time, hope to elaborate my thoughts here (more than I have been).

So I will continue my grunting with something that has been on my mind, or rather, is now off my mind.  I am now bald.

No, it was not some freak and horrible science experience gone wrong.  Perhaps it was the inner Lex Luthor in my crying to be free, to seek my revenge against the proverbial “super men” in our daily lives.

The story must begin with something I hold very dear, taught to me by perhaps two of the greatest teachers the world has ever known.  I’m speaking of course of Bruce Lee and Yoda (If you really don’t know who these persons are, I can’t help you here).  Do or do not, there is no try.  And don’t do something by halves, but commit to it fully.

With that in mind, it was in fact a logical step to come to.  See, I had long hair.  Mid-pectoral length hair, if length needs to come into account (insert 12 year old pun here).  I have been told by numerous persons/organizations/business that it simply just wasn’t the proper length of hair to have to “be taken seriously”.  Be damned if it had significant meaning to me!  To be an orderly cog in the machine, one must yield to societal pressures.  To some degree right?

Ergo, baldness.  It was the logical step.  To illustrate, I will use (hopefully not erroneous) logic.

If one must do or not do, Then one must  commit to an action in fullness(clause a)

If long hair is unaccetable, then a haircut is required to make one’s hair acceptable (clause b)

a+b=baldness.

Pseudo nazi name calling aside, I happen to enjoy it immensely.   The wife unit likes it as well, though it has taken a little adjustment (last haircut was three years ago before we got hitched).  Somehow I still can’t escape nagging social pressures.  Now I must, be default that I’m bald, white, overweight and with a tattoo, be involved in either a nefarious biker gang or hate some ethnic group.  My scathing bitterness and general misanthropia of humanity aside, I’m not a very hateful person.

Accept vegans.

Eat meat.

I guess, gruntlings, what I mean to say is that you can’t ever escape societal pressures.  There’s one mold, and chances are beyond astronomical that your genetics won’t allow you to fit easily into it.  As the Wizard Merlin told me this week, after seeking wise counsel, you can conform or you can be happy.  In the end, the choice is only yours to make.

The Saga is far from over…and just beginning

E-books.  I think they are great in theory, but the development and release of the idea is premature.   Having hundreds, thousands (dare I say, millions?) of books in the palm of my hand touches my technophile happy places.  The ability to share your stash of books with others, presumably friends if you have them (or if you have them, friends with money and gadgets).   The Nook is drawing my attention more than any ‘reader out there.  So what’s my issue?

Price.  Not of the reader itself, that can be justified,  explained, merited…etc.  But the price of an ebook.  For example, Jim Butcher’s Turn Coat in paperback form I purchased for roughly $7.50  (And it was worth every penny, love the Dresden Files).  But to get it in ebook form, would cost $7.99 and $8.99 in book form from bn.com.   So.   It costs one dollar to print and deliver books, maintain a store to hold said book, and pay a staff?   Now I’m not against a writer making a profit, or people having a job in a bookstore (for the record, bookstores out there, I WANT to work around people and books all year long).   But, that doesnt make sense.  I’d expect $3-5 dollars to be reasonable for an ebook.   The cost of distribution of an ebook versus a regular paperbook is monumental.  Server fees, maintaining servers, offering a way to connect to those servers, and paying the writer and making the book into a file.

You also cannot justify the price of ebooks via traditional supply/demand–you cannot sell out of ebooks.

I’ll reiterate and make this a short rant.  I want it, crave it, and pretty much need an ebook reader.  But I’m not thrilled at the price.

In ending, talk to Apple.  They’ve worked out the whole “cost/delivery=happiness” equation pretty well.

Talk to Apple, their delivery system has been working pretty good.