Tuesday 17 June 2008

Immensely Interesting

Read This!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Immensely Interesting, not so sure, long read... Absolutely. I will immediately concede that there are some facts in this article, but the interpretation is completely one sided and pessimistic at best. Shall I slit my wrists now or wait for the depression to happen? I may be a cushy job, condascending idiot, but here is what I think. A lot of the things he says sound good and read good, but when you really disect its all a bit mis-leading and some of the suggestions are crazy.

---There is A reason we conceal our salaries at work, its done in the private sector and public sector. Just off the top of my head, no one should be earning the same. Not everyone works as hard, people have different levels of education. Would you want to know exactly what the person sitting next to you earns? Would you want them to know what you earn? My answer is NO to both. I am Not ashamed of What i have, but this info being public would cause friction in the work place. One principal reason, everyone thinks they deserve more. While many people deserve more, everyone has a limit to what they can earn. Some peoples limits are higher than others.
--He failed to mention the State tax rate in California is 9.3% for anyone making over 48k (roughly) per year. I would know, I almost moved there. That's the highest in the country!
--The US economy has not recessed! It Grew in the 1st qtr, slowly I'll admit, but it grew none the less. The bar has been raised, anything less than 1% growth is now considered a recession.Even if we did recess, which we did not, it is not caused by sending troops to Iraq. If anything, its common economic knowledge that a war (of course unjust and based on a lie of course, blah blah blah) would actually help the economy. World War II actually lifted the US, and world, out of the great depression. A principal argument of the left is that "Bush went to war for profit", well how could he profit if "his war" wrecked the economy? Eventually, the economy will recess. There is actually relatively little any individual presdent can do to stop it. Clinton was no more responsible for his recession in 2000, than Bush was for the recession after 9/11 and the economic slowdown (not recession!) of this year. The only thing a president can do is limit its impact and create economic policies to encourage growth. This guy ridicules the stimulous package. How could any president, repub or dem, not do it. Every politician, federal, state, local and everyone inbetween was beating that drum and making it seem like soupline america out there. In fact, Bush's 145B stimulous package was ridiculed by the right for being too big (myself included, especially sice we didn't recess) and not enough by the democrats. They wanted mortgage bailouts and foreclosure freezes!
I work for big companies, some years are good, some not so good. Its part of the natural business cycle. Our economy should recess approximately every 20 years.
--Spending money does help the economy, simply spend what you have. Debt and leverage is a good thing, its has an impact on how wealth is created. I had plenty of debt in college, all my twenties.
--I finally agree with something, kids today are too soft and are financial idiots. Nobody teaches checkbook in college, something mom and dad should pickup. But of course, Mom are too busy slaving away trying to pay for college, healthcare, dog food and daycare. By the way, the average salary for college graduate jobs in 2008 is $46,000. Average college graduate salaries can vary greatly due to company, location, industry, experience and benefits. i.e. psyche majors don't really earn much!
--Bankruptcy rates, like business cycles, should increase and decrease, Its actually a lagging economic indicator. By the way, they went up despite congress changing the law making it harder to go bankrupt. I have no less than 3 friends and 2 family members who went bankrupt (that's pretty good for a snob like me). Now this data is anecdotal, but two of them simply went bankrupt because they made stupid decisions. Economic policy had nothing to do with it. One of them, despite bankruptcy, actually kept their rental properties!
--The average salary of a google employee is about 110,000 per year where as the average for a product manager there is 220,000 per year. Hardly a shining example of a corporate town of panicked oppressed workers. This figure excludes benefits.
-- From an article... "We are always hearing about the negative US Savings Rate and how we are "living on credit." It is only a matter of time before our bubble bursts and we are plunged into recession / depression or what ever else negative "ssion" they can come up with. 1- Excludes capital gains 2. includes all federal taxes, 3. Excludes income from 401K's. 4. Increase in housing value or home equity is not counted in savings rate. Our negative saving rate as a nation is offset a different term. Wealth.

Why didn't he just say it.. some how, all of this goes away under Barack Hussein Obama's leadership. Because he is about change, and he believes in whatever I believe in. Obama believes that the past is history and that the future is ahead of us.

Anonymous said...

Immensely Interesting, not so sure, long read... Absolutely. I will immediately concede that there are some facts in this article, but the interpretation is completely one sided and pessimistic at best. Shall I slit my wrists now or wait for the depression to happen? I may be a cushy job, condascending idiot, but here is what I think. A lot of the things he says sound good and read good, but when you really disect its all a bit mis-leading and some of the suggestions are crazy.

---There is A reason we conceal our salaries at work, its done in the private sector and public sector. Just off the top of my head, no one should be earning the same. Not everyone works as hard, people have different levels of education. Would you want to know exactly what the person sitting next to you earns? Would you want them to know what you earn? My answer is NO to both. I am Not ashamed of What i have, but this info being public would cause friction in the work place. One principal reason, everyone thinks they deserve more. While many people deserve more, everyone has a limit to what they can earn. Some peoples limits are higher than others.
--He failed to mention the State tax rate in California is 9.3% for anyone making over 48k (roughly) per year. I would know, I almost moved there. That's the highest in the country!
--The US economy has not recessed! It Grew in the 1st qtr, slowly I'll admit, but it grew none the less. The bar has been raised, anything less than 1% growth is now considered a recession.Even if we did recess, which we did not, it is not caused by sending troops to Iraq. If anything, its common economic knowledge that a war (of course unjust and based on a lie of course, blah blah blah) would actually help the economy. World War II actually lifted the US, and world, out of the great depression. A principal argument of the left is that "Bush went to war for profit", well how could he profit if "his war" wrecked the economy? Eventually, the economy will recess. There is actually relatively little any individual presdent can do to stop it. Clinton was no more responsible for his recession in 2000, than Bush was for the recession after 9/11 and the economic slowdown (not recession!) of this year. The only thing a president can do is limit its impact and create economic policies to encourage growth. This guy ridicules the stimulous package. How could any president, repub or dem, not do it. Every politician, federal, state, local and everyone inbetween was beating that drum and making it seem like soupline america out there. In fact, Bush's 145B stimulous package was ridiculed by the right for being too big (myself included, especially sice we didn't recess) and not enough by the democrats. They wanted mortgage bailouts and foreclosure freezes!
I work for big companies, some years are good, some not so good. Its part of the natural business cycle. Our economy should recess approximately every 20 years.
--Spending money does help the economy, simply spend what you have. Debt and leverage is a good thing, its has an impact on how wealth is created. I had plenty of debt in college, all my twenties.
--I finally agree with something, kids today are too soft and are financial idiots. Nobody teaches checkbook in college, something mom and dad should pickup. But of course, Mom are too busy slaving away trying to pay for college, healthcare, dog food and daycare. By the way, the average salary for college graduate jobs in 2008 is $46,000. Average college graduate salaries can vary greatly due to company, location, industry, experience and benefits. i.e. psyche majors don't really earn much!
--Bankruptcy rates, like business cycles, should increase and decrease, Its actually a lagging economic indicator. By the way, they went up despite congress changing the law making it harder to go bankrupt. I have no less than 3 friends and 2 family members who went bankrupt (that's pretty good for a snob like me). Now this data is anecdotal, but two of them simply went bankrupt because they made stupid decisions. Economic policy had nothing to do with it. One of them, despite bankruptcy, actually kept their rental properties!
--The average salary of a google employee is about 110,000 per year where as the average for a product manager there is 220,000 per year. Hardly a shining example of a corporate town of panicked oppressed workers. This figure excludes benefits.
-- From an article... "We are always hearing about the negative US Savings Rate and how we are "living on credit." It is only a matter of time before our bubble bursts and we are plunged into recession / depression or what ever else negative "ssion" they can come up with. 1- Excludes capital gains 2. includes all federal taxes, 3. Excludes income from 401K's. 4. Increase in housing value or home equity is not counted in savings rate. Our negative saving rate as a nation is offset a different term. Wealth.

Why didn't he just say it.. some how, all of this goes away under Barack Hussein Obama's leadership. Because he is about change, and he believes in whatever I believe in. Obama believes that the past is history and that the future is ahead of us.

Anonymous said...

thought I hit pre-view, guess I published twice. Sorry.

Shirley said...

J- I think you can delete the extra comment if you are the author.

Shirley said...

The article is interesting. Debt is a big trap. Being in over the head limits all options -- like location changes, job changes, etc. It really is freeing (if there is such a word) to limit the use of credit.

I zone out when people start throwing numbers around in paragraph form. I have to have columns for comparison. Decisions are easier to make when the info is black & white or red.

Thanks for the link.

Anonymous said...

didn't even notice the delete optioin. But I guess that's obvious along with my lack of spell checking. :-)