Financial Problems
I was reading today that lately more Americans have been getting behind in their payments. As a consequence, centers that offer free financial consulting and offer help in consolidating debt and working with creditors to reduce payments have been at an all time high. Even most companies that are in the business of lending money offer some sort of easy to go payment reschedueling. This is a national trend that has been on the rise. Most experts blame the current economic trends or individual problems or poor planning on today's generation in general. I have my own theory. Today's generation has a lot more bills to pay. Fifty years ago there was no cable bill, no internet bill, less people owned cars and there were no cell phone bills and roaming charges. In addition, America has lost most of it's manufactoring jobs which were good paying jobs leaving most factory workers to find lower paying work. If you want a good job in today's society secondary schooling, which is free in most European countries. The cost of college is going up leaving most college graduates with large student loans to pay off. Finally, the job market just can't support the population. Lets face it, in a capitalist economy it would be impossible to employ 100% of the population. It may be impossible to employ 100% of the population with any monetary based economy. I'm tired of hearing that the financial problems people are facing are their own fault of the fault of the current interest rates or the "current state of the economy." The answer is simple: the system sucks and this is probably as good as it gets.
Fog of War
Here's another interesting movie. It's an interview with Robert S. McNamara the secretary of defense under Kennedy. He begins by talking about mutual annihilation. He goes on to say that the mix of human error and the power of nuclear weapons will lead to the destruction of nations. I really enjoyed listening to what he had to say over the Cuban missle crisis. It wasn't until the 1990's that he learned, when he went to visit Cuba, that the Soviets did have nuclear missles on the island. He asked Castro three questions, 1)Did you know they were there at the time 2) Would you have recommended to Krustchev that he use them if Cuba was attacked and 3)What would the consequences be? Castro responded, Yes I knew: I did recommend he use them: It would have meant the destruction of Cuba. He uses this point to say that rational people will not be able to stop nuclear war. Where does that leave us now? A shoot from the hip Texan in charge of our nuclear weapons. A crazy recluse in North Korea egging him on. Hmmmm, I don't like this one bit.
To the City of North Adams
Here's a big thanks for nothing. Thanks for making my family along with thousands of others to sit and wait for the start of the 4th of July fireworks only to be left sitting in the rain. Unlike years passed, the fireworks would start on time with the citizens able to sit in the stands of the Joe Wolfe baseball field. Not able to leave well enough alone, we now have to wait for the end of a baseball game before the fireworks can be lit off. I don't know who came up with this ridiculous idea. Somebody thought that since people like baseball and since they like fireworks, baseball + fireworks would be even better without running the logistics of an 11th inning game and late night downpours. Go back to the old system. The Steeple Cats can play an afternoon game or none at all. When the fireworks don't start until 10:30pm when they were schedueled for 9:15pm it's parents and children that suffer. I can't expect my 5 year old, let alone my 2 year old to stay awake until 10:30pm. My son fell asleep in the car on the way home- we didn't wait for the fireworks to end once it started raining, and we weren't in the car for more the five minutes. I was hoping to share a great evening with my family and what should have been the first time my son was able to see fireworks and know what was going on, but instead I come home wet and irritated at poor planning.
Estate Tax
The Democrats have so far managed to filibuster the Republican's attempt to lower the current estate tax to almost nothing. Estimates on the loss of money the treasurey will recieve ranges from 612 billion to 900 billion over 25 years. The Republicans are doing what they're good at- serving the interests of our nation's elite while eliminating the funds for services for the poor. The way the common person should look at this law is that it will take away money from our social services programs. The elite will not suffer from these services becuase they don't need them. What the republicans are saying while they are trying to pass this bill is, "Why should we pay these taxes? We're rich." I'm happy to see the Democrats killing this bill the only way they can and I'm happy to see the general support they have recieved.
