Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Poverty becoming the majority?

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Is it just me or is most of the population facing a ton of debt in their lives? I recently read an article that explains that the average person owes about $47K in outstanding debt. I assume this number is not including good debt like mortgages or education loans. Recently, the federal government has changed some policy in order to deal with household debt

When I researched debt, there seemed to be a difference between good debt and bad debt. An example of bad debt would be credit card payments or a car loan. In order to figure out your bad debt to income ratio, add up your monthly payments on bad debt and divide it by your monthly income. Take that number and times it by 100 to get a percentage. This percentage will help you define whether you are carrying a huge bad debt load. We all have good debt load so it is important to keep bad debt under control.

Even though it is common and acceptable to carry education debt, I and many others can’t help but question whether or not the stress of it all is really worth it in the end. Yes a lot of people do work at lucrative jobs that are correlated with their educational accomplishments; however on the flip side, there are more people who have one and two degree designations and are receiving less monetary gain a year than their outstanding accumulated student loans.
We do live in a time where it is absolutely normal and expected to go to college or university, or both, in order to land a job let alone a lucrative one. Twenty years ago and beyond, the job market didn’t seem so segregated, competitive and exhausting. People didn’t need the same credentials that they do now to receive opportunity in the working world. More people hired to companies were given the opportunity to learn and grow with the business and step into other career paths within. Things have changed so much and because of this, we have a huge divide between the classes. We all can’t be lawyers, bankers and doctors and CEOs. It takes us all and many different roles to make the world go around. The average cardiologist makes about 600K/yr and the average merger banker makes about $2M/yr. It seems that big business and life are grossly out of balance. Does this comparison seem fair? I have some real moral red flags going up for me here.

Yes, money makes the world go around but don’t people do a better job of that than money? Near proverty, in poverty and below poverty seem to be rearing its head and is jockeying for position as a top of mind issue for humanitarian and the media. More and more, you see articles in the media stating that the middle class as we know it is in fact disappearing.  I know opinion will differ between the corporate minded and for the humanitarians. If poverty isn’t a hot topic, it surely should be. Seemingly, we care less and less about humanity and more and more about money, business and the huge corporations. 

Life is hard, plain and simple. Big business is closing in on us all. They are buying more and more small to large businesses resulting in a big business acquisitioning all areas of business. I’m not sure this is the smartest thing for the rest of us. We are led to believe that the more powerful a corporation is the more they will create economic stimulus. I question this claim and more rather believe the opposite. The more they get, the more they want. This in turn makes them hang onto what they have more tightly and makes it more expensive for their product or service falling on the shoulder of the average person.

 Product and service have less quality and choice is limited. Customer service is definitely not what it used to be or should be.  We are controlled by merchandising. Just for an example, I spent years building up a movie library and then technology changed and made my collection irrelevant. I realize innovation is important in life but, it seems more like insanity that continues to  increase. Who can keep up?  Doesn't anyone get tired?

How many people do you know that lives from paycheque to paycheque? In 2010, a poll done by The Canadian Payroll Association published by the CBC revealed close to 60 percent of people live this way. Probably more than you even realize. No wonder we are living with more stress, more illness, more suffering. How long can we all go on living like this? There is no hiding from debt for the average person.

Yes there are the people who make and come from money and those of you that do, I hope you consider yourself blessed. I do believe that many of us do need to stop and evaluate our ways and could even possibly loosen the shackles of humongous debt. It does take a budget and some big lifestyle changes, but I believe it can be wrangled back in. Now is the time to cut the spending and help the stress. Face it - living in debt does create a lot of stress.

In the 1940s, Maslow explained that all humans need  five basic things in order to survive in life.  In this material world, how much do we really need? Exactly when did we stop sticking to the basics? Is it time to go back and better yet, can we go back?

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Changing the Past – Truly we are in Dire Straits

Dire Straits: http://www.lemec.net/direstraits.html

The recent announcement by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) to censor the word faggot (slang – used to describe a homosexu-al) from the 26 year old song performed by Dire Straights called “Money for Nothing” has caused quite a stir among the special interest groups.  Did you know the word faggot also refers to food (a kind of a meat-ball)?  I  remember my Welsh grandmother making faggots and peas for dinner.  Not one of my favourite dishes because the patties or meatballs are made of liver.  I am not a fan of liver.  Should we ban faggots and peas too?  The word faggot is being banned from being played in the Dire Straits song and will be deleted out when played over the radio according to the CBSC.  By doing this, they are: insulting the artist, misunderstanding the context of the song and are opening up a whole gamut of songs, books and quotes to discussion and to possible censorship in this country. Censorship and history changed.  This to me is such a slippery slope.

The lyrics of “Money for Nothing”, if really studied, are nothing more than satiric words depicting the jealous types who basically did nothing with their lives. “I want my MTV” is the first line of the song.  If you really want to go down this path, while they can ban the word faggot, they can condone the derogatory images and remarks of the women in the video.  See where I am on this?  Where does it end?  

I actually do get the context of the video and would never judge it to be intended to be racist. Satire is a way to make fun of many touchy subjects. The video characters remind me of the Archie Bunker type with the cigar hanging out of this mouth. Realistically, the video is well done and definitely delivers on the parody of the song’s meaning.


I can’t help but think about why we are changing this and changing that? The notion of changing words in books (specific to the word nigger) such as Huck Fin, another example we could examine. Do you think that history should be changed? I don’t. This is how we learn and grow. History teaches us where we have come from. Is it okay for the Afro-American people to still use the word amongst each other and it can’t be kept in a book written countless years ago (circa 1876)? I think not. It is a double standard. You can’t have it both ways. The written word is in fact art. Art is what it is - a story that is being told, heard or shown depending on what kind of art we are talking about. We are going too far and pretty soon, we will not be able to look at another person without worrying about whether or not they may claim that you looked at them the wrong way.


I’m opposed to the fact that we can just change something that has been around for a long period of time that is meant to entertain. Anyone with half a brain can figure out that satire is the now, just as much as it has always been intertwined in life. There is a difference in deliberate bigot-ism. Entertainment is always blown to proportion


I think we need stop complaining and being so sensitive to many things and just instead choose to be confident. A majority of people can look at things and rise above them. Most people are accepted on every level and diversity is a common practice. Everyone can be an equal and treat others the same.


Censorship seems to be growing more and more. The last time I looked at the constitution, freedom of speech was a part of it. This seems to be losing its momentum.


I believe both this particular incident and the Huck Fin censorship are laughable. Get real people, we have far bigger things to worry about in this world like: Family Guy, All in the Family, and The Simpsons.  The preceding statement was me using satire.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

2011 Looks Prosperous - Atrologically Speaking

In my previous blog, I stated that I am glad to see 2010 go in the past and look forward to 2011 in hopes that a better year unfolds.
 
If you follow astrology, you may have already checked up on the year ahead.  My forecast was inspiring and predicts a very prosperous financial time.  There seems to be an opportunity for me to use my skills to do something that I love to do and turn it into a monetary gain. 

Imagine work becoming something I actually enjoy to do.  I really hope that this forecast is on the mark.  I have worked very hard to educate myself, work different jobs, volunteer my time and gain valuable experience.  If this year brings a bearing of the fruits of my labour, I welcome it with open arms.  Bring on the prosperity - I've been waiting for this.

Check out your own forecast by Nadiya Shah.

Cartoon from Google Images found here.