A few minor frustrations...
I (Tina) spend quite a bit of time on various news websites trying to keep abreast on current events. Several times lately, though, I leave these websites in a huff, an ever-increasing fury growing in my brain. Here are a few recent current events that have added fuel to my fire:
Frustrating Item #1
Octomom. For those of you living under a rock or if you are reading this at some point in the future and have forgotten who Octomom is...she is not a superhero with eight arms to help care for her children. She is Nadya Suleman, a single woman who had six children via in vitro fertilization and then went back for more and had octuplets. What's interesting about Octomom is that she doesn't have a job, allegedly lives off of student loan money and NOT welfare, and until recently lived with her parents and all those children in a run-down 2-bedroom house that was $23,000 behind in payments, facing forclosure. While there are several aspects of Octomom's story that bother me, I am most preterbed about the fact that Joe and I both work full-time jobs and, after paying all our bills, we don't have enough left over to be frivolous on much of anything. We don't buy clothing that isn't on sale. We don't go on vacations. We rarely eat out unless it's fast food. We cannot afford children on our income and so our adoption plans continue to sit on the back burner. And yet a woman with no income is able to afford to raise herds of children, pay for costly fertility treatments, pay for even more costly NICU care for weeks on end, and now is moving into a $560,000 home where she will be making monthly payments of approximately $3200. How is this possible? Why do her bad decisions lead to so many good things for her? Why does Entertainment Tonight herald her and her wee children as "stars" worthy of nightly coverage? Why do we live in a world that rewards poor choices?
Frustrating Item #2
AIG and the other big banks who have received bailouts and then used bailout money to offer bonuses to their senior level employees. First of all, why are these folks getting bonuses? Aren't bonuses meant to reward good work? Shouldn't these senior level employees be in danger of being fired for letting their banks/corporations get into such a terrible financial condition that bailout was necessary? Second of all, shouldn't these corporations use the bailout money to keep afloat so they can get back to making a profit on their own? Why, after one or two bailouts that have already failed to produce results, does our government think that ANOTHER bailout is going to do the trick? Are they hoping the old adage "Third time's a charm" will hold true? And, how hard is it to force AIG and others to accept regulations with their hefty bailout check? For example, to receive government bailout money Company A must agree to restructure senior-level salaries to be no more than 10 times what the lowest paid employee in their company makes and no bonuses will be paid out until such time that all the bailout money is re-paid in full. If they do not agree to or follow these restrictions, the government either doesn't pay-out or demands immediate re-payment in full. That's not too hard, is it?
Frustrating Item #3
Politics. We as a nation voted for "hope" and "change" and what we got was more politics. The first 50 days were filled with messages of doom and destruction. The financial situation was hopeless. We were swifly headed toward another "great" depression. The only solution was a giant stimulus package to be passed by Congress and signed quickly by the President. Pictures were painted of the Great Depression and FDR's New Deal. After the stimulus bill and all its juicy pork got passed, the message from the White House suddenly changed to a hopeful message of the strength of our economy. Guess what. That wasn't by accident. The market will continue fall if your national leaders erode confidence in it because all those investors hear the news and see the sky falling in front of them because that's what the President said on CNN or MSNBC. So, what's a nation to do if the economy seems to be spiraling toward despair? Of course we will support the only available option for recovery. Well, now the President and others are all sunshine and fields of flowers as they discuss the economic outlook for our nation. They speak favorably and the Market responds favorably. We are like puppets on a string and we're doing just what the politicians wanted us to do all along. They got their pork projects and we get a warm fuzzy feeling that makes us feel comfortable spending money and buying real estate and investing in the stock market again.
Okay, I feel better having gotten all that off my chest.
Frustrating Item #1
Octomom. For those of you living under a rock or if you are reading this at some point in the future and have forgotten who Octomom is...she is not a superhero with eight arms to help care for her children. She is Nadya Suleman, a single woman who had six children via in vitro fertilization and then went back for more and had octuplets. What's interesting about Octomom is that she doesn't have a job, allegedly lives off of student loan money and NOT welfare, and until recently lived with her parents and all those children in a run-down 2-bedroom house that was $23,000 behind in payments, facing forclosure. While there are several aspects of Octomom's story that bother me, I am most preterbed about the fact that Joe and I both work full-time jobs and, after paying all our bills, we don't have enough left over to be frivolous on much of anything. We don't buy clothing that isn't on sale. We don't go on vacations. We rarely eat out unless it's fast food. We cannot afford children on our income and so our adoption plans continue to sit on the back burner. And yet a woman with no income is able to afford to raise herds of children, pay for costly fertility treatments, pay for even more costly NICU care for weeks on end, and now is moving into a $560,000 home where she will be making monthly payments of approximately $3200. How is this possible? Why do her bad decisions lead to so many good things for her? Why does Entertainment Tonight herald her and her wee children as "stars" worthy of nightly coverage? Why do we live in a world that rewards poor choices?
Frustrating Item #2
AIG and the other big banks who have received bailouts and then used bailout money to offer bonuses to their senior level employees. First of all, why are these folks getting bonuses? Aren't bonuses meant to reward good work? Shouldn't these senior level employees be in danger of being fired for letting their banks/corporations get into such a terrible financial condition that bailout was necessary? Second of all, shouldn't these corporations use the bailout money to keep afloat so they can get back to making a profit on their own? Why, after one or two bailouts that have already failed to produce results, does our government think that ANOTHER bailout is going to do the trick? Are they hoping the old adage "Third time's a charm" will hold true? And, how hard is it to force AIG and others to accept regulations with their hefty bailout check? For example, to receive government bailout money Company A must agree to restructure senior-level salaries to be no more than 10 times what the lowest paid employee in their company makes and no bonuses will be paid out until such time that all the bailout money is re-paid in full. If they do not agree to or follow these restrictions, the government either doesn't pay-out or demands immediate re-payment in full. That's not too hard, is it?
Frustrating Item #3
Politics. We as a nation voted for "hope" and "change" and what we got was more politics. The first 50 days were filled with messages of doom and destruction. The financial situation was hopeless. We were swifly headed toward another "great" depression. The only solution was a giant stimulus package to be passed by Congress and signed quickly by the President. Pictures were painted of the Great Depression and FDR's New Deal. After the stimulus bill and all its juicy pork got passed, the message from the White House suddenly changed to a hopeful message of the strength of our economy. Guess what. That wasn't by accident. The market will continue fall if your national leaders erode confidence in it because all those investors hear the news and see the sky falling in front of them because that's what the President said on CNN or MSNBC. So, what's a nation to do if the economy seems to be spiraling toward despair? Of course we will support the only available option for recovery. Well, now the President and others are all sunshine and fields of flowers as they discuss the economic outlook for our nation. They speak favorably and the Market responds favorably. We are like puppets on a string and we're doing just what the politicians wanted us to do all along. They got their pork projects and we get a warm fuzzy feeling that makes us feel comfortable spending money and buying real estate and investing in the stock market again.
Okay, I feel better having gotten all that off my chest.
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