Tax Rebate Incentive Checks

[GusGus]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

[/indent]What choice have you* made today?
What choice will you make tomorrow?

I chose to read LOT today.
Perhaps I will again tomorrow.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by GusGus

I chose to read LOT today.

Has that made your life better or worse?

[GusGus]

Hmmm... how do I respond without kickin' your ass?

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by GusGus

Hmmm... how do I respond without kickin' your ass?

I'm just sitting here...

[GusGus]

shouldn't you be working?

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by GusGus

shouldn't you be working?

Probably

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

And it is all part of evolution.

A brush fire is a disaster. Yet, it is part of the evolution of the land. Brush starts getting too thick and it starts choking itself to death. A fire comes through and returns the soil to a more nutritious state so that the plants can come back healthier than they were before the fire.

The flood had to go through. The waters could not run that swift that long. Yes, it is unfortunate, and yes, there may be some casualties. If you planned for the possibility: good for you. You probably survived with minimal impact. If you thought you could just blindly jump into the middle of it without considering the consequences, I have little sympathy for you. You've been washed out to sea and can swim back and start over. But most can just mop up and move on.

We cannot protect a society against itself: it WILL be destructive to itself. Yes, there will be sob stories (I have been one of them). But society (and the economy) will come back stronger and smarter than it was before. And yes, there will be more disasters again in the future - you can plan on it!

There are no get-rich-quick schemes. One gets ahead - be it personally, fiscally, professionally - through hard/intelligent work.

A little saying that I try to live by is:

You get better or worse each day: it's your choice.

What choice have you* made today?
What choice will you make tomorrow?





*And by you, I am not directing this to CP specifically - it applies to the reader, whoever they happen to be.

Dig. I must still maintain though that I'm pissed that someone else's manufactured flood has to get my shoes wet, even if I don't drown in it.

[€uroMeinke]

I suppose it's a bit of a prisoner's dilemma - if everyone's virtuous every one gains a bit. if no one is virtuous, everyone looses - but if there's a mix, it's at the virtuous one's expense.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

And it is all part of evolution.

Sorry, but I can't agree with that analogy. The economy is NOT the same as a natural occurance. The economy is 100% artificial, existing entirely within our heads. It is an immensely useful and powerful artificial construct that certainly allows for vast, beautiful human interaction, but it is not a force of nature, it is purely a result of human action. Ebbs and flows are caused by humans, not some outside force of nature. We created it, we control it, we ARE it. So I do think we have a responsibility to attempt to administer to those ebbs and flows so as to minimize the negative impact to living, breathing human beings as much as possible while still retaining its usefulness as a tool for human interaction.

In my partially educated, and not very humble opinion, there are 2 major contributors to the state the economy is in.

One is an unhealthy obsession with the stock market. It's to the point where the only thing that matters is for a company to increase its stock in the short term. Every decision is made to appease the short-term interests of the stock holders. Decisions that would be better for the long term health of a company are routinely passed by for fear of hurting their immediate stock price. That leads to MASSIVE volatility.

The other is the impunity with which a select few people who have the most direct influence on the economy have. Heads of major investment firms, through whom the vast majority of money eventually flows, are free to gamble with that money as they please, knowing that their absolute worst case scenario is a couple weeks in the headlines and multi-million dollar retirement package. Their cavalier miscalculations, mistakes, and wild ass guesses unquestionable have the power to move markets and ruin lives, and they can do it consequence free. Until that changes, we will always be on the brink of disaster.

[wendybeth]

Great post, GD, and I agree. Not only do I agree, but I've seen that scenario played out at a local level and it wasn't pretty. (The place where Eric used to work). It's all about greed, instant gratification for the privileged few, and damn the costs to anyone else. Economies are constantly being manipulated by special interests- look at OPEC. There is no shortage, no excuse for the marked increase in crude oil excepting profit motive. They'll do it as long as they can get away with it, and never mind that it is leading to massive food shortages and privation for many of the world's people. I'm all for getting a good return in business, but this is something different. It's a bit sinister, the timing is very suspicious, and one can't help but wonder wtf the cartel is trying to pull off. Yet Bush would have you believe that these people (excepting Venezuela) are our friends. No, they are not- they are business people manipulating the world economy into a very precarious state and I think we need to do what we can to counteract that. If we just sit back and let the fire burn, we will burn as well.

Lots of people who have been very careful with their money are in trouble now, not just the high rolling speculators. We had credit controls in place to prevent usurious and unscrupulous lending practices from occurring, but that all went to hell with this administration. Same goes for the energy deregulation- look how well that turned out. Anyone remember the savings and loan fiasco? The list goes on and on. Things that are regulated are often that way because of past abuses with catastrophic consequences- many of our banking rules stem from the Great Depression era, and with good reason.

Oh, and to get back on topic.....We got our 'rebate' today. It went to bills.