Planting Trees of Money
Imagine for a moment, that you make say, $50,000 a year. Now, let's pretend you decide to spend $60,000 a year. That's 20% more than you make a year. In order to enjoy a more extravagant lifestyle, you apply for and receive, a couple of credit cards. After about year, you learn that both credit cards are maxed out and you can no longer use them. So, you apply for and receive two more credit cards. After another year, those are now all used up.
You look over your credit card statements to see where all of your money has gone:
Utlities
Rent
Car payment
Insurance
Eating in
Eating out
Helping friends
Entertainment
It dawns on you (a little late) that you have, for the past two years, been spending $10,000 a year more than you make and now you are in trouble. The credit card companies want their money, along with the landlord and others. Meanwhile, the friends you have been helping and entertaining, are asking for more help. What do you do?
Spend more money...in fact up your spending to 30% more than you make. Doesn't this make sense? If you pretend hard enough, you can continue spending more than you make for years and no one will notice. Right?
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Okay...
The news last night gave us several examples of common sense...or the lack thereof. Before I go further, allow me to introduce you to two new words - abnormal and benormal.
You're saying, "Wait, abnormal is not a new word!" For the purposes of this blog, abnormal now means ABove normal while benormal means, BElow normal. Got it? Back to the news...
Last night, there was a piece about dear ol' Octomom. Her story, in of itself, is a clear case of being benormal. On the common sense scale (CSS), where 10 is the tops, she ranks somewhere around two. I dunno... Anyway, while her story is absurd, at best, she did not take the cake last night. You see, the animal rights group, PETA, got involved in her case. What does a group like that have to do with a woman who has 14 kids? Glad you asked.
You see, PETA offered to pay her $5,000 to help her stay in her soon to be foreclosed home. In addition, it offered her a month's supply (I think it was a month) of veggie hotdogs (yuck) and other non-animal foods. In exchange, all she has to do is put a sign out in front of her house encouraging pet owners to spay and neuter their animals so they don't become Octopets. Yep, that's right.
CSS - 1.5
In closing, I love the bumper sticker I saw on a guy's truck the other day. It read:
So many cats, so few recipes.
The news last night gave us several examples of common sense...or the lack thereof. Before I go further, allow me to introduce you to two new words - abnormal and benormal.
You're saying, "Wait, abnormal is not a new word!" For the purposes of this blog, abnormal now means ABove normal while benormal means, BElow normal. Got it? Back to the news...
Last night, there was a piece about dear ol' Octomom. Her story, in of itself, is a clear case of being benormal. On the common sense scale (CSS), where 10 is the tops, she ranks somewhere around two. I dunno... Anyway, while her story is absurd, at best, she did not take the cake last night. You see, the animal rights group, PETA, got involved in her case. What does a group like that have to do with a woman who has 14 kids? Glad you asked.
You see, PETA offered to pay her $5,000 to help her stay in her soon to be foreclosed home. In addition, it offered her a month's supply (I think it was a month) of veggie hotdogs (yuck) and other non-animal foods. In exchange, all she has to do is put a sign out in front of her house encouraging pet owners to spay and neuter their animals so they don't become Octopets. Yep, that's right.
CSS - 1.5
In closing, I love the bumper sticker I saw on a guy's truck the other day. It read:
So many cats, so few recipes.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Common Sense...
The American Heritage Dictionary defines common like this:
widespread; prevalent; occurring frequently; ordinary.
It also defines the word "sense" like this:
an intuitive or acquired perception or ability to estimate; a capacity to appreciate or understand.
Mix the words up a bit and you derive a definition of common sense that reads something like:
The widespread, ordinary, and acquired perception to understand.
Now, I am probably stretching things just a bit, but I think it is important for people to pick up on the idea of common sense. Believe it or not, this concept actually ruled the roost at one time. It governed society, the courts, and even Congress (I know that's hard to believe). Somewhere, over the passage of time, we pushed common sense into the background in favor of "rights", "self-entitlement", and whining.
For example, we have taught a number of generations of young people that they are entitled to everything. Children rarely get flunked anymore because it would be too hard on their young minds. Consequently, more and more children are going through school unable to carry on an intelligent conversation (without a dozen "you knows"), who cannot add worth a darn, and who took English but still can't spell it. If these kids are able to graduate, they are thrust out into the business world where life is harsh. Employers want people who can think for themselves and work hard. They can ill afford a lazy, slothful employee because competition is fierce. A young adult who never felt the sting of having to repeat a grade due to lack of effort, will not be capable of understanding why he was fired from his job for not working hard. "It's not fair!" he will yell.
Whatever.
Common sense would dictate that if he works hard, does his job, and is faithful to his employer, he will eventually be rewarded with a raise. But wait, the poor young man never learned these concepts in school ( or at home for that matter) so he finds himself unemployed and cannot figure out for the life of him why. Common sense would dictate that these important business ideas should be engrained into the hearts and minds of young people by their parents and teachers. Alas, clearly this is not the case anymore.
In upcoming articles, I will mention actually incidences found in newspapers and on the news to illustrate the lack of common sense in America today. One easy topic will be our national and state leaders who think throwing money at every problem fixes them. Yikes! Education is always a fun topic to address along with the lack of discipline in families and.... well, I could go on and on. If you hear of something interesting along this line, feel free to write me and I will be happy to post it on this blog.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines common like this:
widespread; prevalent; occurring frequently; ordinary.
It also defines the word "sense" like this:
an intuitive or acquired perception or ability to estimate; a capacity to appreciate or understand.
Mix the words up a bit and you derive a definition of common sense that reads something like:
The widespread, ordinary, and acquired perception to understand.
Now, I am probably stretching things just a bit, but I think it is important for people to pick up on the idea of common sense. Believe it or not, this concept actually ruled the roost at one time. It governed society, the courts, and even Congress (I know that's hard to believe). Somewhere, over the passage of time, we pushed common sense into the background in favor of "rights", "self-entitlement", and whining.
For example, we have taught a number of generations of young people that they are entitled to everything. Children rarely get flunked anymore because it would be too hard on their young minds. Consequently, more and more children are going through school unable to carry on an intelligent conversation (without a dozen "you knows"), who cannot add worth a darn, and who took English but still can't spell it. If these kids are able to graduate, they are thrust out into the business world where life is harsh. Employers want people who can think for themselves and work hard. They can ill afford a lazy, slothful employee because competition is fierce. A young adult who never felt the sting of having to repeat a grade due to lack of effort, will not be capable of understanding why he was fired from his job for not working hard. "It's not fair!" he will yell.
Whatever.
Common sense would dictate that if he works hard, does his job, and is faithful to his employer, he will eventually be rewarded with a raise. But wait, the poor young man never learned these concepts in school ( or at home for that matter) so he finds himself unemployed and cannot figure out for the life of him why. Common sense would dictate that these important business ideas should be engrained into the hearts and minds of young people by their parents and teachers. Alas, clearly this is not the case anymore.
In upcoming articles, I will mention actually incidences found in newspapers and on the news to illustrate the lack of common sense in America today. One easy topic will be our national and state leaders who think throwing money at every problem fixes them. Yikes! Education is always a fun topic to address along with the lack of discipline in families and.... well, I could go on and on. If you hear of something interesting along this line, feel free to write me and I will be happy to post it on this blog.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thomas Paine Had it Right
I have noticed, when reading the newspaper or watching the news on television, a striking characteristic of America today - the near total lack of common sense. Democrats claim this is the way to fix problems. Republicans claim that is the way to fix problems. People get away with suing companies because the word "hot" was not on a coffee cup (hello). Others try to sue cigarette companies because smoking turned out to be bad for their health. What the heck!
Kids who choose not to do their school work, somehow manage to graduate from high school anyway and then cannot figure out why, as adults, their employer fires them due to unproductivity.
The purpose of this blog is to comment on weekly examples of our lack of common sense in America. Perhaps, by it, others will recognize the same problem and bring a sense of sensibility back to our society.
Kids who choose not to do their school work, somehow manage to graduate from high school anyway and then cannot figure out why, as adults, their employer fires them due to unproductivity.
The purpose of this blog is to comment on weekly examples of our lack of common sense in America. Perhaps, by it, others will recognize the same problem and bring a sense of sensibility back to our society.
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