Maybe more like letting it out. Forgive the seemingly randomness of the following rant, but its easier (and quicker) to just jot this stuff down as I think about it, than to try and put together a more coherent post:
I believe the the “issues” of the day have begun to stamp their feet and scream ‘Pay attention to me!” Perhaps, in this age of stenographic “news” reporting, this must occur. Hard to care much about pregnant teens and pigs sporting Maybelline when you can’t buy gas, huh?
I believe we got a little preview of what the future holds with respect to both fuel availability and price this week. The bottom line: Drill, don’t drill, it won’t matter either way. The fact is, the rest of the world is and has been paying more to move about, and heat, cool, and light their homes than we have for a very long time. That is over. Even if there was a military-based solution to this “problem”, we no longer have the military to make it happen. You can’t bomb your way to lower prices, and invading and occupying takes money and manpower that we just don’t have. All of us must recalculate our budgets to adjust for at least a 20% increase in fuel costs, factoring in the increases in food prices due to higher shipping costs.
I worry that more and more family pets will be abandoned as the cost to keep them becomes prohibitive.
With all the talk of mortgage securities and sub-prime markets, it seems no one is talking about the other elephant in the room: Consumer debt. How many Americans re-financed their homes to pay off credit card debt? They have moved their creditors from holding unsecured debt to holding secured debt, and there will be a day of reckoning that will make the mortgage crisis look like a bump in the road. People with cash will be in a position to feast at the fire-sale, which is essentially what happened in the 30s. Some people think this is by design…I’m not quite ready to don that foil hat, but i could be convinced.
While we are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, spending our children’s money, Pakistan, Yemen, and North Korea and Iran are poised to explode. All we can do is watch.
Health care reform is dead for awhile. Ditto any kind of meaningful infrastructure and education overhauls. There is no money left. And that, my friends, WAS by design. A word of advice…next time someone talking to you tries to make the case to privatize Social Security, just punch them in the mouth.
The war on drugs should be stopped. Today. Its incredibly expensive, and incredibly ineffective. All it is doing is feeding one of the fastest growing industries in the country: Incarceration. Its morally reprehensible to deprive someone of their personal liberty due to drug use.
Naomi Klein rocked last night on Bill Maher. Pending the approval of The Primary Wife, i intend to make her an honorary Coyote Creek Wife. (Boy, Canada is a gift that keeps on giving, isn’t it? Seems all my favorite people come from there)
I think the events of this week tell us that financial literacy should be incorporated into our educational system, immediately. You know, it used to be so…at least i remember a High School class that taught us how to balance a checkbook.
I have been doing this for awhile, but it might serve us all well to acknowledge and indeed elevate those around us that really work for their living. They should feel like they are valued and that the work they perform is appreciated both by the wage they make, and maybe more importantly, by how they are viewed by the rest of us. Do you know your garbage man’s name? How about your letter-carrier? Sometimes, its the little gestures that can have huge pay-offs….many people wear name-tags at their job, so, use them. Call your cashier or stock-boy by name. I can’t tell you how many smiles I have received by saying ‘Thank-you, ______.”
I’ll end this here, and thanks for stopping by!
