1. DVDs that only play in wide screen. My TV picture becomes 40-50% smaller as a result. I hate it. I don’t believe the bull about “art” as the reason. 99.9% of all movies don’t come close to being art. They are entertainment for the moment. Soon to be forgotten forever.
2. Restaurants that leave the tail shell on shrimp. You have to get them off in hot soups, sauces, and all kinds of food. It’s a nuisance, can be messy, and certainly is unattractive to watch or perform.
3. Traffic lights that turn from yellow to red too fast. Most are fine, but lately lights are being moved from the center of the intersection to the end of the intersection. For a six lane road with additional left turn lanes, there could easily be 80 feet or more from entering the intersection to reaching the light. Even when you cannot brake in time to stop before the intersection (which means you need to get through the intersection to avoid getting hit), the light can turn red before you drive through it at posted speeds. That’s a safety issue. No one should deliberately run a red light, but if you are so close to an intersection when the light turns yellow that it’s impossible to stop before the intersection, there should be enough time to drive through the intersection at posted speeds before the light turns red. Also, do not like worrying that my fast stop for a red light so as not to be caught by the camera threatens me with being rear ended by the vehicle behind me.
4. Professionals who don’t take responsibility for their own mistakes. Give you an example. I had a tooth that was previously given a crown by the dentist that decayed because according to the dentist, there was too much space between the crown and the tooth allowing bacteria to easily get in. Well who put the crown in and therefore made the mistake of leaving too much space? The dentist of course. So did he take responsibility for his mistake and replace it for free? No. I had to pay what the insurance company did not cover plus suffer the discomfort that came with the decay and the dental work. My appeals including those in writing were never responded to.
5. The inane, repeated usage by parents of the “good job” compliment to every minute action taken by their children. I know you’re trying to build the child’s self confidence and that is important, but when it is for every little thing and when it’s not balanced by constructive criticism where appropriate, these children are in for a big shock when they enter the real world of college or business. Articles I’ve read indicate how woefully unprepared they are for the reality of failure and/or criticism. Failure/criticism should help us grow, but for children over nurtured by their parents to think they are something very special, they may not be able to handle real life failures/criticisms very well. Rebounding from failure is every bit as important a trait children need as is building self confidence.
6. Parents who refuse to utilize corporal punishment when it’s needed.
7. People who believe that measured corporal punishment is child abuse. . The idiots that call cops in non child abuse situations where measured, controlled corporal punishment has been administered belong in jail.
8. Phone solicitations.
9. Email solicitations.
10. A Federal tax code that taxes all my net capital gains in any given year, but only allows me to deduct a maximum of $3,000 per year in net losses to reduce gross income. I’ll be dead before the net loss carryover from year to year is actually reduced to zero. So will some of you.
11. Estate (death) taxes. Doubly so on IRAs and 401Ks where your children under age 59 ½ must not only pay the estate taxes by selling the inherited retirement funds to raise the money but also pay ‘early’ penalty fees plus income taxes on the withdrawals needed to pay the Estate tax. What’s left could be only one quarter of the original gross amount actually inherited.
12. Tax cuts that expire.
13. University and Colleges that promote liberal politics to their students and force professors to hoe the liberal line to gain tenure and promotions. You are supposed to teach students to think for themselves, not enslave students and professors in one philosophy.
14. Political correctness. Is this finally dead or is the replacement euphenism now “inappropriate”? ‘One thought is right’ pronouncements smack at our freedom of speech.
15. Celebrities who make political statements and the news media that publish it. Most celebrities, whether actors, musicians, or sports figures, do not have the educational ‘heft’, nor business background, nor real world experience of earning a living the hard way like most of us to add anything correct or meaningful to a political conversation or idea. They really do live in ‘La La Land’. Without their celebrity status, no one would publish their thoughts (or lack thereof). Put a sock in it!
16. Hollywood and TV movies that portray America, American corporations and executives as the ‘bad guys’ and terrorists and dictators as the ‘good guys’. Once upon a time, Hollywood used to understand right from wrong. No longer.
17. Hollywood movies that portray premarital and/or perverse sex (including gay sex and lifestyles) as ‘normal’. Listen, if gay lifestyles/relationships are ‘normal’, the human race would have ceased to exist eons ago. Now if you are reading this, don’t over-react. Violence against gays (or anyone else you disapprove of) is and should remain a huge crime. Don’t do it!
18. Comedians who cannot tell a joke without cursing.
19. Churches that tell you how much money or percent of income you should give to charity. One had the gall to give me a percent (20%) and emphasize it should be calculated against gross pay and not net pay after taxes (in other words, they wanted about a third of my actual net income). Maybe they should go out and earn a living in the real world first for 10 years before they are allowed to run a church..
20. Religious leaders that steal or just pay themselves exorbitant salaries and benefits.
21. Religious leaders that have sex with children (and/or their parishioners).
22. Religious leaders that seem to delight that some/many people will/should go to an eternal, burning, painful hell. I could never understand how people refuse to accept atrocities on earth, but delight in the punishment of others in hell. Any earthly atrocity (and I abhor them and believe in punishment including death) you can imagine is a ‘picnic’ compared to the religious vision of what hell is. How can you abhor atrocities on earth and approve of it in the after-life?
23. Politicians who loudly claim they want America to be energy independent, then do everything in their power to stop it from happening by blocking legislation allowing domestic drilling where big oil discoveries are likely to be such as in our oceans’ continental shelves, in Alaska, in our rock shale, and in our Federal lands. In case you haven’t noticed, the overwhelming majority of these politicians are Democrats and they have been blocking oil development at these sites for 30 years. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, and the rest of our foreign suppliers of oil are indeed very grateful to Democrats for making them rich at our expense.
24. Individuals who are too stupid to realize the truth of point 23 plus fail to recognize the great expansion in worldwide demand for oil without a corresponding increase in the oil supply reserves and continue to falsely blame ‘Big Oil’ for our high energy prices.
25. Democrats who falsely promote the false slogan that the Republican Party is the party for the rich as they invent more ways to take more taxes from the poor and middle class.
26. People who don’t show up on time (or anywhere close to on time) and do it repeatedly but never let you know in advance that there’s a problem.
27. People with cell phones who answer them at movies, plays, and restaurants so that they disturb others trying to have a good time.
28. People with cell phones who use them while driving and consequently are distracted enough to drive poorly and/or dangerously.
29. Waiters who allow me to completely finish my drink before refilling the glass.
30. Judges usurping the powers of our legislators by making and/or overriding new laws instead of interpreting current laws.
Getting it Right - Welcome
The goal of this blog is to publish my thoughts on a variety of economic and political topics in the hopes that people who find them educational or beneficial will utilize them and/or forward to others who might find them interesting and/or worthwhile to promote to others, possibly including politicians who can push some of these ideas to fruition. The topics in my blog are meant to be of value on a long term basis, not a daily diary or political issue of the day log. If the information posted is useful to you, by all means utilize it and/or forward it as you see fit. If not useful, then merely ignore it. There are no universally agreed upon truisms and too little tolerance between some of those with opposing viewpoints to successfully convince the people with hardened opinions to move away from them. I am an analytical type person who will try to be as factual as I am able.
I disdain the current popularity of name calling and condemnation of viewpoints with no factual alternatives or logical solutions given that I see so often. If you don't have a solution based on fact and logic, then opt out of the discussion because you have nothing to contribute. My background is a degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and 39 years working in middle management jobs for a major retailer. My opinions are forged on the personal experence of life, family, friends, and work as well as triumphs and mistakes that I have made and hopefully learned from. My hope is that this blog helps you.
My first topic will be about personal finance. I chose that one first because most of us work long and hard just to survive but not all of us realize our dreams of becoming financially independent from the labors of our work. Much of our political votes/thinking also focus on the economy and in particular how well we are personally doing financially.
It is relatively simple, without sacrificing the enjoyment of living for 'today' and even at moderate incomes, to retire as a millionaire or multi-millionaire, if you focus on that goal consistently from a young age. It is also simple to ensure that your child or grandchild retires rich. It merely requires a one time gift of just $2,000 invested wisely and the passage of time. Please read my first post on this blog to learn more.
An index/schedule of past and future posts and their dates will always be updated so that it becomes the first post that you see below. If the date of a post that you wish to read is preceded by the word "Posted", then find it below or click on the title in the Blog archive to review.
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