We hold these truths to be self-evident. Life, Liberty, and a Smart Phone? Is it me, or are other people wondering why everyone has to have a Blackberry, or iPhone, or whatever is the smart phone du jour. For crying out loud, the pizza delivery guy is tapping away on his Blackberry. 10 year old kids are tapping out messages by the hundreds on their iPhones.
To get one thing clear, I love my iPhone. I'm a techie. I write software for a living, and need to have all the different devices and gadgets out there. So obviously I firmly believe in the value of these devices.
What I can't fathom is how everyone can justify paying for the requisite data plans. If you make $30K per year, should you really be spending $100 per month on cell phone service when you can just use the free phone and pay $50? This continues my point from yesterday on "fiscal responsibility". Before people complain about taxes, the rich, the banks, etc., perhaps trim your cell phone bill in half. Save yourself several hundred dollars a year ... and then you can complain about everything else. However, I guess you won't be able to complain via an email sent from your Blackberry/
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Please Mayor Bloomberg, Use Your Credit Card
OK ... here's the first tidbit about me. I'm an "evil" New Yorker. From Brooklyn (where I was born), to Queens, to Long Island, and now Manhattan. I've lived else, but through and through I feel like a New Yorker. As I explain to my wife, on way too many occasions, while we are poor for Manhattan-ites, we are obviously not poor in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes I think everyone, the poor, the rich, the middle (I feel middle-ish), need to step back and reflect on their respective situation.
I'm not going to get on a pulpit and preach the plight of the rich and try to convince everyone that wealthy people are getting a raw deal. The selfish side of me would love to make that argument. Tax me less. Please tax me less. Who wouldn't say that? Hell, who wouldn't ask the phone company or the power company to leave them off the rolls. But obviously, we all want our phones and our electricity.
And to the middle class... I think we need to accept that it's tough. Stop complaining about it. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was a middle child. I guess I'm used to the plight of the middle. Overlooked. Under appreciated. Honestly, get over it!
Alas, to the have-nots, the target of today's rant. I'll preface with this. I do wish I could help you all out. My wife asks me why I get so sad when I pass someone homeless or disabled on the street. Why I tend to pull a dollar, or two, or ten from my wallet and fork it over. I believe that most people are good. Most people want to help.
But, to the lower class, put your hand back in your pocket!!! Now!!! If you happened to catch the local news here in New York recently, you've probably seen protests by New Yorkers against the budget cuts at both the state and city level. Citizens pleading to the mayor, don't cut this entitlement program. Don't cut that entitlement program. News flash to the poor: there is no endless pot of money that the government, and the wealthy, and the middle class, and the corporations, etc. are keeping secret. I'm not going to deny that you can increase the cash available by raising taxes. That's a different point for a different post (and I will get there ... for sure). However, at this moment, you need to look at what you have and spend appropriately. Dare I make a politically incorrect comment, of which I'm sure I will make many from here on in. One of the reasons the poor are poor, or the poor stay poor, is for the most part they don't seem to get fiscal responsibility. If you make "N" dollars you shouldn't spend more than "N" dollars. While a society raised on credit seems to think differently, there is a reason we make our local governments balance their budgets. Living within your means is a necessity, not an option.
So far all the New Yorkers out their angry about cuts to various social services please open your eyes and realize this ... New York is out of cash!!!
Then again, Mayor Bloomberg, if you wouldn't mind sir, I'm sure you AMEX can cover the difference.
I'm not going to get on a pulpit and preach the plight of the rich and try to convince everyone that wealthy people are getting a raw deal. The selfish side of me would love to make that argument. Tax me less. Please tax me less. Who wouldn't say that? Hell, who wouldn't ask the phone company or the power company to leave them off the rolls. But obviously, we all want our phones and our electricity.
And to the middle class... I think we need to accept that it's tough. Stop complaining about it. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was a middle child. I guess I'm used to the plight of the middle. Overlooked. Under appreciated. Honestly, get over it!
Alas, to the have-nots, the target of today's rant. I'll preface with this. I do wish I could help you all out. My wife asks me why I get so sad when I pass someone homeless or disabled on the street. Why I tend to pull a dollar, or two, or ten from my wallet and fork it over. I believe that most people are good. Most people want to help.
But, to the lower class, put your hand back in your pocket!!! Now!!! If you happened to catch the local news here in New York recently, you've probably seen protests by New Yorkers against the budget cuts at both the state and city level. Citizens pleading to the mayor, don't cut this entitlement program. Don't cut that entitlement program. News flash to the poor: there is no endless pot of money that the government, and the wealthy, and the middle class, and the corporations, etc. are keeping secret. I'm not going to deny that you can increase the cash available by raising taxes. That's a different point for a different post (and I will get there ... for sure). However, at this moment, you need to look at what you have and spend appropriately. Dare I make a politically incorrect comment, of which I'm sure I will make many from here on in. One of the reasons the poor are poor, or the poor stay poor, is for the most part they don't seem to get fiscal responsibility. If you make "N" dollars you shouldn't spend more than "N" dollars. While a society raised on credit seems to think differently, there is a reason we make our local governments balance their budgets. Living within your means is a necessity, not an option.
So far all the New Yorkers out their angry about cuts to various social services please open your eyes and realize this ... New York is out of cash!!!
Then again, Mayor Bloomberg, if you wouldn't mind sir, I'm sure you AMEX can cover the difference.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Can We Opt Out Of The Global Economy?
News Flash: United States opts out of Global Economy
I apologize in advance for any slight misstatement of the facts, but this is pretty much how I see things. For a bit of background you can read this article (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/foreign-banks-tapped-fed-s-lifeline-most-as-bernanke-kept-borrowers-secret.html), but here's the recap.
Back during the height of the banking crisis, the Federal Reserve loaned money to foreign banks. Oh my god!!! No Way!!! How could we do that you ask? There's a banking crisis. Stock prices are plummeting. Foreclosures are on the rise. And we do WHAAAAAT? We loan hard earned cash to foreign banks.
Ron Paul, the somewhat of a maverick Texas Republican Congressman, points out that Americans will be outraged. We need that money at home. How could we loan it to foreign banks. Some might say, how un-American!
After thinking long and hard, I realized, I'm outraged too. Why would we loan our money to banks in Belgium, France, and Japan? We've "gotta" take care of our own. If these foreign banks fail, tough break. It's of no consequence to US interests, right?
Hmmm. Wait just a minute. The US is part of this thing known as the "Global Economy". American companies, multi-national companies, use banks here, there, and wherever. Some of these banks even have offices, employees, operations, etc. right here in the good old U.S. of A.!!! If we let a major European bank or a major Asian bank fail the ripple effects at that time of crisis would've been disastrous.
As participants in the global economy, we can't just ignore problems else where. I am not advocating being the banker to the world. I am advocating doing what is in America's best interest. At that time, doing whatever we could to stave off the domino effect of a credit crunch and liquidity crisis seemed to be prudent. Perhaps there were other options. Perhaps with more time a better idea could've been formulated. Perhaps not. Unless we can find a magical way to isolate and withdraw from the complex network that makes up the global economy, we need to accept that we are going to have to play a prominent role whenever a crisis rears its ugly head.
So to all you people out there angry at our Federal Reserve for loaning cash to foreign banks, I implore you to answer my question, "Can we opt out of the global economy?"
I apologize in advance for any slight misstatement of the facts, but this is pretty much how I see things. For a bit of background you can read this article (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/foreign-banks-tapped-fed-s-lifeline-most-as-bernanke-kept-borrowers-secret.html), but here's the recap.
Back during the height of the banking crisis, the Federal Reserve loaned money to foreign banks. Oh my god!!! No Way!!! How could we do that you ask? There's a banking crisis. Stock prices are plummeting. Foreclosures are on the rise. And we do WHAAAAAT? We loan hard earned cash to foreign banks.
Ron Paul, the somewhat of a maverick Texas Republican Congressman, points out that Americans will be outraged. We need that money at home. How could we loan it to foreign banks. Some might say, how un-American!
After thinking long and hard, I realized, I'm outraged too. Why would we loan our money to banks in Belgium, France, and Japan? We've "gotta" take care of our own. If these foreign banks fail, tough break. It's of no consequence to US interests, right?
Hmmm. Wait just a minute. The US is part of this thing known as the "Global Economy". American companies, multi-national companies, use banks here, there, and wherever. Some of these banks even have offices, employees, operations, etc. right here in the good old U.S. of A.!!! If we let a major European bank or a major Asian bank fail the ripple effects at that time of crisis would've been disastrous.
As participants in the global economy, we can't just ignore problems else where. I am not advocating being the banker to the world. I am advocating doing what is in America's best interest. At that time, doing whatever we could to stave off the domino effect of a credit crunch and liquidity crisis seemed to be prudent. Perhaps there were other options. Perhaps with more time a better idea could've been formulated. Perhaps not. Unless we can find a magical way to isolate and withdraw from the complex network that makes up the global economy, we need to accept that we are going to have to play a prominent role whenever a crisis rears its ugly head.
So to all you people out there angry at our Federal Reserve for loaning cash to foreign banks, I implore you to answer my question, "Can we opt out of the global economy?"
Might I Be A Hypocrite
Staring at the screen, preparing to compose my first post, and I must accept that I might be a hypocrite. Am I writing just to complain? Doesn't that make me a hypocrite? I am flat out tired of the "moaning and groaning" that comprises the overwhelming majority of our news. The "have not's" complain about the "have's". The "have's" complain about the "have not's". Yet, here I am complaining about both. So perhaps yes ... I am a hyprocrite. Maybe that is just the 21st century American way. (What a sad thought!)
Have you ever felt like your voice isn't heard. Maybe it is middle-child syndrome. Maybe it is middle-class syndrome (I think I'm middle class but I guess that depends if you ask someone who earns more or less than me). Whatever it may be, I feel lost. I read the news. I watch the news. Most of the time I am just disgusted. I want to scream at the television.
Well, welcome to my scream. A scream of words, banged out by my fingers, digitized for all to see. My scream. My rant of thoughts and observations. I imagine it won't be read by anyone. Perhaps a few people will stumble upon it. Either way, a hypocrite needs to get some things off his chest.
Have you ever felt like your voice isn't heard. Maybe it is middle-child syndrome. Maybe it is middle-class syndrome (I think I'm middle class but I guess that depends if you ask someone who earns more or less than me). Whatever it may be, I feel lost. I read the news. I watch the news. Most of the time I am just disgusted. I want to scream at the television.
Well, welcome to my scream. A scream of words, banged out by my fingers, digitized for all to see. My scream. My rant of thoughts and observations. I imagine it won't be read by anyone. Perhaps a few people will stumble upon it. Either way, a hypocrite needs to get some things off his chest.
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