We are wealthy

Standing on a street corner - watching cars go by, I realized we are a wealthy country.  The age, quality and condition of our cars shows that.  For the most part we have very new cars in very good condition.  The "rust buckets" and smoking junk I remember in my youth have pretty much been replaced by very efficient safe transportation.  But at what cost?  One of the reasons we are in the predicament we are in today is that most of these nice cars are on credit, borrowed against a future that is not materializing.    30 years ago, you borrowed for a new car, gambling in a sense that inflation would increase the value of your house, the wages your were paid, while making the dollars you paid to your bank cheaper.  However, with inflation at a standstill, wages frozen or dropping and house values plummeting, this system is no longer working.  My feeling is that the cars will start to fall apart, the air conditioners will stop working, cell phones sales will slow down... or maybe we are so addicted to these items that we will stop investing in the future to pay for the present.

ChrisZ

Achievement

Pros and Cons

Pro - You can be anything in life you want to be

Con - You cannot be everything in life you want to be

ChrisZ

Were's Woodward

40 years since Watergate - where are the investigative journalists?  Fast and Furious - surely someone in the press can work on finding out the truth.  Wall Street meltdown?  Why are we not flooded with stories from the inside.  Health care law - by now someone could have read it and told us what is in it.

People are lazy - why do I have to do all the work for them?

ChrisZ


PS - Here is one that is getting alot of flack: http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/

Health Care Debate

I am watching a debate on health care and want to give you two things to think about.  When thinking about then remember virtually all health care is arranged through your work and private instance (like when you buy auto insurance) is virtually non-existent).

Preexisting conditions - this show compared preexisting conditions to a rickety old house vs a new house.  The proper analogy is you loose your house and the insurance company for your new employer refuses to cover you because you have high blood pressure or are overweight.  This would be like the auto insurance companies only deciding that you cannot have coverage after having an accident, whether it was your fault or not.  Having more people in the insurance pool is the purpose of spreading the risk around.

Keeping kids on insurance until they are 26.   The reason for this is not to soak insurance companies, but rather to insure a group that is not in the job place.  Right now, these people get thrown of their parents policy at 21 and unless they are able to get student insurance, often work part time or minimum wage jobs were they cannot get insurance.  Both of my children are are under 26 but have found a way to be insured, but if they were unemployed then how would they get coverage?  This is not free, the parents have to have them on a family policy and and pay extra.  Since young people have lower claims for the most part this is where insurance companies may be making more money - money that can balance out the older population.

So think twice when you here people talking about health care reform and how some of these changes are detrimental the people they are trying to help.

BTW: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/14/business/14health.html?_r=1

ChrisZ

Who volunteers?

Now that I am on the road working, it has given me a new perspective on who volunteers. When I was a Cub Scout leader, Little League coach, Religious Education teacher, I was always frustrated in getting more volunteers. I think I have the answer. In the 50's and 60's most people workedm either in factories or offices. They worked normal 9 - 5 jobs and were home for dinner. This was the peak time for volunteers. People worked 40 hour weeks and had spare time. Today, with downsizing and technology, people are working odd hours and are always reachable. People cannot dedicate the time to volunteering when they don't know when they will have free time. We are either going to have to change our expectations on traditional volunteer jobs, or change our economic system to accommodate them. Ironically, it was predicted that by this time we would all be working less than 40 hours and flex time would allow us to participate more in activities serving our communities. Stop and think about when you were growing up and will your children and grand children have the same experiences. Chris Z

Why there is more oil drilling

Times Article:

"And not just here. Across the country, the oil and gas industry is vastly increasing production, reversing two decades of decline. Using new technology and spurred by rising oil prices since the mid-2000s, the industry is extracting millions of barrels more a week, from the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the prairies of North Dakota."


"At the same time, Americans are pumping significantly less gasoline. While that is partly a result of the recession and higher gasoline prices, people are also driving fewer miles and replacing older cars with more fuel-efficient vehicles at a greater clip, federal data show."


"How the country made this turnabout is a story of industry-friendly policies started by President Bush and largely continued by President Obama — many over the objections of environmental advocates — as well as technological advances that have allowed the extraction of oil and gas once considered too difficult and too expensive to reach. But mainly it is a story of the complex economics of energy, which sometimes seems to operate by its own rules of supply and demand."


The higher the price of oil, and the more stable that price is, the more technology and investments will go find that oil that was either abandoned or perceived too expensive to recover.


ChrisZ

Peak oil or Peak Economy

After reviewing the statistics on oil reserves and prices, I want to put forth the the following observation:

If US oil production peaked in the 70's, that probably meant that our control over oil ended shortly after that - probably after the fall of the Shah of Iran.  With the loss of control over the price of oil, came the world economic competition we find ourselves in now.  Thus the US "Golden Age" might have passed with this event.

"But we are not out of oil - what about all the oil that is still in the ground?"  There is more oil in the ground, and technology will allow us to recover more and more of that - the question is at what price.  With many other countries having greater known reserves of conventional oil, it is hard to justify spending the money to drill or extract our own oil, unless there was a strategic reason like a world war or embargo (this is the reason for the Strategic Oil Reserve).

Right now energy costs are taking a greater toll of the middle class budget.  Energy cost affect everything from food, to transportation to wages.  The upper class has seen wages and other income climb faster than energy costs so they have not been as affected.  So you can add energy costs to the problems today, along with the decline in unions, technology changes and international competition.  All are related and inseparable.

We will of course attain a sense of balance.  That balance will be a new reality of what makes someone prosperous and economically comfortable.   The struggle will be between forces trying to decide if this balance is natural or has to be legislated.

ChrisZ

The lost art of communication

As technology gives us more ways to talk to each other, I wonder if it is having just the opposite. Instant messaging, e-mails, texting, Facebook - maybe the only technology that actually enhances communication is face to face conversation like Skype and Facetime.

Consider the other forms of communication - words with no sound, no meaning, no inflection.  No reading of the other person's facial expression or body language. How much misinterpretation comes from reading an e-mail and assuming you understand the person's intentions.

As we text and twitter, we are in such a hurry to get our message out, that we don't spend the time to choose the correct words, or write in complete sentences so that we can properly communicate.

How are you using the new tools to communicate?  Are they having the intended effect?

Trip to Chicago Auto Show

Things I learned from my trip to the Chicago Auto Show:
1. Metra stations - you do pay for parking - $1.50 a day - remember your parking number
2. Train stations are not open on weekends for the most part so you end up buying tickets on the train (weekend pass is $7.00 in 2012)
3. Buses are tough to understand - Chicago streets are no like NYC - I looked for the AutoShow shuttle and followed the crowd - $2.25 (exact change for the bus unless you get a transit card. NOW I find out the CTA machine was in the Metra Ticket area in Union Station. You can order on line - just need to order 10 days in advance.
4. After show, the shuttle is at one of the gates underneath - don't go outside and try to find the bus.
5. The ride home on the train - get there early to get a seat down in the lower level.

D$@&/:?(:/

Curse words are nothing new. The problem today is that they are used so commonly that they lose their meaning and just become obnoxious.

During the 60's and 70's certain words had an enhanced effect. When they were used, you realized the seriousness of their use. Now, these 4 letter words are thrown out like salt on the ice, random and more than is probably needed.

As words losse their meaning, something else has to take it's place. I am not sure the physical violence is directly related, but once at a loss for words,
Maybe the only thing left is physical.