Early Rising, Exercising, Cut back the Spending

 During the major college football championship playoffs a couple of months ago, I adopted the posture that it was  okay if "my" team won...and okay if they lost.  This is the identical position I've taken regarding basketball, particularly men's basketball.  The Florida Gators, seeded #1 in their region, had folks in their corner confidently predicting double-digit wins for their tampa contest against #9 Iowa.  But the Hawkeyes managed a last-second unguarded three-pointer to surpass and beat Florifa 73-72, causing star starting center Rueben Chinleyu to bitterly cry over the heartbreaking, season-ending loss.  Well, better luck next year.  If today were 3/25/71, I'd still be getting myself up early to prepare for my long grind of a Nova High School 9th grade day. As for right now, I have all of today ahead of me, including more exercise, reading and studying.  I'll be rerturning to the back bedroom with some A.C. and our sweet pea Daisy as the new day slowly dawns on us.  I don't see any scheduled excursions for us anytime soon.  I'd also like to take it light and easy with the expenditures, too.No need to get carried away with laying out the dough unnecessarily. There is nothing pressing down on us to unnecessarily spend a lot of our saved money on "stuff" when I for one don't see the value in going down that road. I'm not looking to struggle against anyone determined to spend down our reserves of cash. I'm old, but i'm not at all in a big hurry to become poor, all for the very foolish sake of "stuff"...I'd like to believe that somewhere along the lines of my 69 years of age I've outgrown the need to be lectured about money by someone else like my father with important ideas on the subject that may diverge a bit from mine.  The last thing in the world I want is to be dragged down into poverty because I'm supposed to want something (and if I don't there's something wrong with me).  I'm still looking forward to doing well with my cancer treatment and recovery.  I think that's the area I should be focusing on...I think I'll stash away the petty greed: relaxing and taking it easy with my loved ones is a good thing...

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This was a "good" early morning for me,  Let me do a few little things and enjoy life for a while. and enjoy the down time as well. Nothing wrong with some contentment and gratitude, too,...

Up Early, Am-Way Presentation, Medical Visit, Later Plans

 Jane came to be one of my sweetheart wife Melissa's good friends in the 1990s.  She always had a sweet and gentle disposition.  One morning Jane invited me to attend a "recruitment" meeting regarding a multi-level marketing project called Am-Way, to which I complied and was shocked by its aggressive nature.  Turns out  that, starting out, I would be on the bottom, under other Am-Way members.  Over time my sales and recruitment efforts would pay off in my gradual elevation and enrichment, and my wealth and reknown had the potential of becoming possibly legendary, like that of "the" Bubba Pratt, the company's star multi-millionaire.  The not-so-subtle dig at those who choose not to engage with Am-Way is that they are hum-drum losers who are missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime...why, I could be off somewhere ice-fishing with my big-shot mentor instead of working shifts on the clock!  Ron, one of my former USPS co-workers who was eventually fired for insubordination, used to even insult me and colleague Rick about our so-called dead-end jobs.  I always believed that being a postal service clerk was an honorable undertaking, and over the years appreciated the respect and esteeem directed my way for consistently showing up and properly performing my duties.   Melissa and I both demurred on Jane's offer, but God blessed our humble little lives just the same...we still enjoyed that trip to Dahlonega, Georgia.  I never was very materialistic about wanting "stuff", and for me spending money was something I felt some caution about avoiding building up too much financial debt. Now it's nearly 3:30 on Wednesday morning, and I have an 11:00 appointment to see my prostate cancer oncologist at UF Health Davis Cancer Pavilion. After brewing some coffee I ran in place for 8 minutes and see myself extending that "run" a while longer.  Well, I still have that horrid Joshua Khan Shadow Magic book and want to read a little bit further into it before I lay it down in disgust.  Protagonist boy Thorn is always fighting and offending people, and the narrative never seems to have any "down" moments for folks to just get together and talk things out.  Let's see, I think I'll post today's article, shut down the computer, and head on back.  Good morning, all...   

Quote of the Week...from Bob Dylan

What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.                                  ---Bob Dylan

I quote Bob Dylan here with a little hesitation because I lifted it off Facebook...maybe he really said it or maybe not, but I don't think it reflects unfairly on him if he didn't.  I like it, but with one caveat.  You might say to yourself, sure, Bob, you have all that money, so it's easy for you to downplay its importance.  But I would disagree.  Dylan's gone through both lack and wealth and as such can make a better assessment of money's worth.  My possible difference with his above quote stems from his "wants to do" conclusion.  If what you want to do is avoid discomfort and just live life on an exclusively hedonistic level without regard to your health or the welfare of others, I'd hardly call that being a success.  But if you know what you stand for and incorporate some personal responsibility and social accountability into that "wants to do" in a balanced way, then sure, I'm all on board, Dylan: sign me up...

Podcaster Gives His Feelings about Money

Podcaster Rob Dial, on his show Mindset Mentor, recently gave his own take about the meaning of money for him...and naturally extended his conclusions to what attitudes each of us should have about the subject.  This in itself raises little warning alarms within me, for in our diverse society based in large part on economic freedom, that is, the liberty to decide what you do with your money, widely differing decisions folks make have combined to create the most prosperous economic culture in history.  Dial presents his own experiences...he makes no secret of the fact that he is one of those travel addicts, especially enamored with Italy.  I have no problem with this except that he seems to think we should all follow his footsteps in this regard, promoting his conclusions like a true evangelist.  The truth is that he found in his life a nice little money-making strategy for himself, worked very hard to achieve his goals and has become financially independent: good for him, nothing wrong with that!  I don't think, though, that his experiences are completely translatable to the population at large, even the much smaller body that tunes in to his podcasts.  Dial says that while being responsible about how we manage our money, we shouldn't be like Scrooge in treating it like wealth itself...by itself money is valueless, useful only in what it can bring us.  And to Rob Dial, whose financial blessings in his life have pretty much guaranteed him an easy retirement with plenty of moolah to fuel his every desire, he apparently interprets being careful with finances, to the extent that most of us are with more limited incomes and resources as we plan for our later years, as a mistake.  At least that's how I see it.  I travel, too, but I don't just pick up whenever I want and spend weeks somewhere across the world...if that's what you like to do and you have the resources to do it, then be like Rob Dial and do that: I'm happy for you.  This fits in with what I had earlier termed "our diverse society based in large part on economic freedom".  And I know of several people who have limited incomes and means and must be very careful about their finances.  So, although I deeply understand the "you can't take it with you" mentality of Dial's podcast about money, I felt he was a bit flippant and insensitive about the wide range of circumstances people find themselves in regarding it...

Follow-Up about Rob Dial's Podcast on Hobbies

The other day I wrote about podcaster Rob Dial's tips about hobbies.  He suggested that we each have different types of them, one hobby that brings in money, one that enhances physical fitness, one that provides a creative outlet, one that improves memory and intelligence...and one that challenges the mindset.  The only of these that I had an issue with was the first one...and apparently, I'm not the only one.  Yet if I go to an art exhibit or craft show in town, inevitably I will see price tags next to the items on display.  Do I begrudge the creators of these objects their putting a price on their artistic expression, which by and large the greater part of them do as a hobby, a labor of love so to speak?   No, actually I think more of it as an expression of confidence and a statement of quality about their work.  I absolutely recognize the excellence of my favorite athletes, musicians and actors...yet I doubt that their acceptance of millions of dollars for their achievements has tainted their chosen field for them: they still love what they do.  But if I do charge money for some hobby I already love doing, doesn't that also imply that I am committed to the benefited party that my product meets a higher standard than if I were just dithering around?  It's this imposition on my sense of freedom as well as a possible sense of insecurity that I am not up to the task or am undeserving of what I might charge that, at least to me, presents the main challenges I have to this notion of Dial's.  Now one objection I heard about it was that if you're retired you don't feel the need to try to make more money...enough is enough: I totally get that viewpoint and think maybe charity or philanthropy might be viable alternatives.  But Dial, who is 35 with a work history in sales, wasn't just speaking to retirees.  Nor was he suggesting that people's lives are so pathetic that they need to wheedle others out of their cash in a petty manner.  As I said before, the emphasis is on quality and confidence, and receiving a little dough in some area...just one, not everything...can enhance life.  Plus, it's not a bad thing to feel a little challenged and confronted about something like this: it makes me work to examine my own life and that is a good thing...

Quote of the Week...from Albert Einstein

If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?   
                                                                 ---Albert Einstein

Not being a research scientist myself, this is one of those articles in which my relative ignorance of the field is bound to shine through...so please bear with me.  But in today's world of massive public denial of science in the contexts of the ongoing pandemic, climate change, pop medicine...to mention just three areas...I feel it's important to note that the idea of "pure" science out there somewhere with only the motive of laying out the "truth" for us is not in itself "purely true".   Anyone with an eye on history knows of the Manhattan Project during World War II in which leading physicists and other physical scientists collaborated with engineers and the military to develop the fist workable atomic bomb...in other words, highly focused, agenda-driven research.  Although I still have in my mind the picture of the altruistic scientist driven only by his or her desire to learn the deep truths about the reality we live in, I have over the years learned that this is mostly a fantasy while the overwhelming number of scientists engaged in research are doing so at the behest of agenda-driven organizations, be they the military, businesses, non-profits...each group with its own goals that it wants the scientists working for it to advance. Even at a public university, scientists need to go outside their offices and laboratories and continually beseech monied interests to fund their research projects...this naturally in turn directs exactly what will be their research projects and how far their research will go.  The problem with all this is that although research for specific areas that have direct military, business or social applications can be very useful and important, it still is determined not by science itself but rather by the society's institutions.  So when people hear in the news that scientists support this or that take on an issue, those who would disagree with their conclusions often question the motives of those scientists...and sometimes this complaint, in my opinion, is legitimate.  The scientific method and pure science research are ideals that should be promoted...but the ones with the money to sustain that research have their own ideas about what kind of research it should be.  Back to Einstein's quote, having a definite, clear result in mind when doing research in itself implies that the researcher has already reached a conclusion before even beginning.  This may help to solve specific problems and publicly promote agendas but I don't see it going far to expand our fundamental understanding of the universe.  But I get it: research costs money, and if I had money why should I give it to somebody who plans to study an area that doesn't coincide with my own interests?  My only response to this question is that our government should be more generous with its own research funding with the grants not necessarily directed at areas with its own interests in mind...

Weekly Short Story: Cost of Living by Robert Sheckley

Robert Sheckley was one of the twentieth century's best science fiction short story writers...and one of the most overlooked.  His story Cost of Living, published in 1952 and appearing in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 14 (1952), was one of his first as well as being frighteningly accurate at predicting the current state of affairs in our early twenty-first century...

Carrin lives at some time in the not-so-distant future, when the life expectancy has increased to well beyond 100, the society has progressed into one almost totally oriented toward the consumption of creature comforts, and credit is nearly universally available and unlimited, transferable to the next generation upon one's death.  He and his wife spend much of their time buying stuff...always the latest and most expensive model...some of it they haven't even ever gotten around to unpacking.  His job is mind-numbingly simple, requiring simply pushing a single button on inspected washing machines.  He has already put his son Billy in debt for thirty years, but still feels that he is behaving responsibly...after all, one of his friends has grandchildren heavily in debt.  Carrin hears of another friend who committed suicide and can't imagine why he would do such a thing...and his son is starting to sound discontented...

The problem that Robert Sheckley exposes in Cost of Living is the dangerous disconnect in our society between one's attainment of money and his or her spending choices.  The notion of being able to charge on credit, combined with materialism intensified to the level of idolatry and the desire to "keep up with the Joneses", has resulted in debt being passed on to the future.  And look at our government with its compulsive deficit spending...a huge chunk of our national spending is now the simple payment of interest on our national debt, which is bound to keep increasing.  And that is too close to the author's nightmare scenario of debts being passed on to future generations.  The terrible irony, at least on the individual level, is that if people were to base their spending on what they actually had to spend, then most could fashion very comfortable lifestyles without feeling the need to resort to credit. But sadly, a lot of folks are badly stuck with the desire to collect "stuff"...and with that increased life span comes a higher, much more expensive level of medical care: how will we deal with this as a people without aggravating debt?

One other important thing that Robert Sheckley brought out in this story that came out 65 years ago is that the hedonistic, fanatically consumer-oriented society that he projected us degenerating into also resulted in us never ever having gone to Mars...the notions of real-time endeavor, risk-taking, and exploration had disappeared.  I see the same sad thing going on today: people would rather follow Star Wars than follow and support our REAL space program...

That venerated, ancient Internet website Project Gutenberg has Cost of Living on it...here's a link to it so that you can read it for yourself: [link]...

Tuesday's List: Ten Leading Causes of Bankruptcy

I was watching the U.S. Senate floor proceedings on C-Span2 this morning when Senator Dick Durbin (D, IL) spoke about the proposed Republican tax reform bill...specifically its provision eliminating deductions for medical expenses.  Durbin pointed out that many households have large accrued medical expenses and need this deduction to keep themselves afloat...he said there were more than 300,000 in his home state of Illinois alone.  This is nothing minor: as the senator stated, medical expenses account for the number one cause of bankruptcies in this country...and it's not even close.  Well, Durbin's speech made me wonder exactly what are the primary causes for bankruptcy, so afterward I did a search and quickly came across Clear Bankruptcy, which seems to be designed to help people in tough financial straits: good for them, I suppose...there are other sites that have similar lists.  On their webpage they listed the top ten causes of bankruptcy, which I've listed below:

1 MEDICAL EXPENSES (42%)
2 JOB LOSS (22%)
3 UNCONTROLLED SPENDING (15%)
4 DIVORCE (8%)
5 UNEXPECTED DISASTER (7%)
6 AVOIDING FORECLOSURE (1.5%)
7 POOR FINANCIAL PLANNING (1.5%)
8 PREVENTING LOSS OF UTILITIES (1%)
9 STUDENT LOANS (1%)
10 PREVENTING REPOSSESSION (1%)

Now I believe that for many of the bankruptcy cases the causes are probably a mixture of different factors coming together for a "perfect financial storm", but it is inarguable that medical expenses present a very big problem for Americans, regardless how well they plan their finances and handle their money. And it's because of our health care system here that, Obamacare notwithstanding, still regards medical treatment more as a privilege than a right.  It is almost academic that as people age their health will decline and more and more serious medical problems will present themselves.  And with the improvement of the medical community's means to handle those problems with often very expensive treatments comes a drastic increase in the costs, which can devastate people's finances, often just as they are either preparing for retirement or already there.  And now one of our political parties apparently wants to aggravate the problem by eliminating medical tax deductions. If this provision of the tax reform bill becomes law, expect that "42%" figure to get higher (other sources already have it as high as 62%)...

Rep. Mulvaney's Senate Hearing for Budget Director

This morning I was watching on C-Span the Senate hearing for Trump's Budget Director nominee, Republican Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina...appropriately conducted by the Budget Committee.  Mulvaney is a Tea Party conservative who entered Congress on that movement's popular momentum in the elections of 2010.  He is described as a hawk on fiscal restraint and has expressed concern about the federal government's ability to financially make ends meet in the not-to-distant future.  These concerns were repeated during today's hearing as Rep. Mulvaney mentioned that the trust funds for Medicare and Social Security would dry up in nine and seventeen years, respectively, if nothing were done about them.  And that, if nothing is done to change our spending practices, the entire federal spending would be going to paying the interest from our accumulated national debt and nothing else by around 2044 or 2054.  So how does one go about fixing things?  The nominee explained that there are five "levers" in Social Security that could be pulled in small degrees that, when done together, would make a major difference in the program's total cost, including things like raising the minimum age and imposing income caps for receiving benefits, to mention a couple.  The panel also asked Rep. Mulvaney about Donald Trump's repeated avowals during the campaign that he would not cut either Medicare and Social Security, and how would that square off against the nominee's views in favor of reform...after all, hadn't he once described the Social Security system as a "ponzi scheme"?  Mulvaney pointed out that the troubles with these programs have intensified because the ratio of people paying into the system to those receiving benefits has drastically gone down...now it's 2:1 and continuing to dwindle...and that is what's making it unsustainable, especially as the massive baby boomer generation ages and goes into retirement.  Also, people's increasing life expectancy, while generally speaking is a great thing, at the same time is placing a much heavier burden on Medicare and Social Security...

I just turned sixty last October and my wife is just a few years behind me, so we are very much concerned with what will happen with Medicare and Social Security during the next few years.  Everyone agrees, both Democrat and Republican, that something needs to be done...but the latter have pretty much forsaken the notion of raising taxes in order to adequately maintain their funding.  I'll continue to follow how these programs are changed over this Republican-controlled Congress and Presidency.  I will say that Mick Mulvaney did an excellent job of presenting and expressing himself...although the committee's ranking member Senator Bernie Sanders described him as being "out of touch" with his views, he also complimented him by calling him a "straight shooter".  With the amount of "alternative facts" being pushed by the new administration, this is refreshing to hear...

Starting to Study About Federal Spending

Now that the new Congress is in session...along with the new administration...they are beginning to get down to crunching numbers and deciding how to spend our dollars...hopefully on our behalf.  Federal spending is an area that I admit to being pretty ignorant about...but that's about to change, for I am embarking on a self-education project over this extremely important subject.  You see, I have watched countless floor speeches over the years (using the C-Span channels) in both the U.S. Senate and House, as well as different committee hearings when they are debating legislation designed to direct money to different areas.  But rhetoric in of itself, while helpful in sorting out our priorities and values, does little to address the actual problem of making the numbers all fit together into a cohesive national fiscal policy that works both for the country at large and its individual citizens.  Therefore, I'm combing the Internet to try to make sense of it all.  One site I found seemed helpful for a novice like me: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/, which explains basics about our federal budget, distinguishing between discretionary and mandatory spending and showing, in general terms using pie charts, where the money is going...or I should say went, in 2015...

Of course, federal spending is only one half of the process: after all, there must be revenue collection in order to be able to spend all that money, as well as a borrowing process that can account for deficit spending.  I'm going to look into all these areas...because I no longer feel comfortable just sitting there listening to my elected officials twisting around the English language in order to persuade each other...and you and me...to their positions.  I want a solid background and understanding on the topic...and to be able to discern when someone is speaking correctly to the point or is engaging in demagoguery or...using a newly coined term I'm starting to hear lately, employing "alternative facts", which to me just sounds like a fancy way of saying "lies"...

Of course, as I learn more and more about how our government goes about its fiscal policies, I'll share some of it on this blog.  And who knows, maybe some of you out there can help me to better understand this complex matter...