I received an email this morning from my Visa Card company with this advise on how to pay “almost all” my bills with my credit card:
1. Contact the companies that bill you via their website or by phone 2. Pay your bill with your *** Visa Card
Really? Is that the secret? Thanks for clearing that up for me.
My dad and I got into a discussion about the current crisis. My argument is that we don’t teach people how to be financially responsible. When I was in school (a long time ago), we got a quarter’s worth of financial training. That was it. It taught us how to balance a checkbook, how the stock market worked (not really), and some other miscellaneous money related topics. But there was no meat to the course and as a result I, like many others, went quickly into debt once I became an adult. It was a hard taught lesson, but one I try to keep in mind.
But I still don’t see “financial responsibility” being held up. People on TV who live below their means are viewed as penny pinching. TV shows show you the “good life” of famous people with all their toys, while the commercials offer credit cards and same day loans. A credit company’s commercial even says the days of saving to buy a car are over and you can buy a new car via their loan process. It’s no wonder we’ve got a country of debt and a credit crisis. And our leaders aren’t exactly helping with massive debt spending and zero accountability.
But Senator Obama spoke yesterday and I was impressed. Here’s the part I especially liked
It also means promoting a new ethic of responsibility. Part of the reason this crisis occurred is that everyone was living beyond their means – from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street. CEOs got greedy. Politicians spent money they didn’t have. Lenders tricked people into buying home they couldn’t afford and some folks knew they couldn’t afford them and bought them anyway. We’ve lived through an era of easy money, in which we were allowed and even encouraged to spend without limits; to borrow instead of save. Now, I know that in an age of declining wages and skyrocketing costs, for many folks this was not a choice but a necessity. People have been forced to turn to credit cards and home equity loans to keep up, just like our government has borrowed from China and other creditors to help pay its bills. But we now know how dangerous that can be. Once we get past the present emergency, which requires immediate new investments, we have to break that cycle of debt. Our long-term future requires that we do what’s necessary to scale down our deficits, grow wages and encourage personal savings again. It’s a serious challenge. But we can do it if we act now, and if we act as one nation. We can bring a new era of responsibility and accountability to Wall Street and to Washington. We can put in place common-sense regulations to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again. We can make investments in the technology and innovation that will restore prosperity and lead to new jobs and a new economy for the 21st century. We can restore a sense of fairness and balance that will give ever American a fair shot at the American dream. And above all, we can restore confidence – confidence in America, confidence in our economy, and confidence in ourselves.
That just speaks to me personally. It tells me he understands the fundamental problem and wants to fix it. For a Presidential candidate to stand in front of people and say “times are tough and you can’t have everything you want” is a tough call. The guy has guts.
My dad has two phone numbers for his house. He has this fancy setup where there is only one line, but it rings one way for one number and differently for the other. This setup is to allow him to receive faxes. Faxes? Yes, faxes. In this day of email, scanners, and the Internet my father still receives (and occasionally sends) faxes. Why? Because there are companies that insist on using the fax for important document exchange. To be sure, they are fading, but they are still around.
Recently I needed to get a document from a company. They didn’t have it in email form, but they could fax it to me. Since I don’t have a fax (or for that matter want one), I had to scramble to find a solution. I had them fax it to my dad, who then emailed it to me (his fax is on his computer). Then I filled out the form and sent it back to him so he could fax it back.
But it got me thinking. Why can’t I receive faxes on my cell phone. I’m not talking about the phone actually receiving a fax. Instead AT&T would handle the fax processing. Here’s the scenario. Company X wants to send me a fax. I give them my cell number. It rings and I pick up. I hear the familiar tone of a fax and then I hit a button on my phone that “sends to fax”, which is really just AT&T redirecting the call to their new fancy fax service. Once the fax is done, it’s treated like a voice mail and stored for me to retrieve latter. Better yet, it’s autoatically sent to me via email.
Fax is a dying technology, but it’s kicking and screaming all the way down. It’s going to be around for at least another 5 years given how slow companies are want to change. Since it’s so easy to handle, why not?
Then again, why is any company still using a fax?
The McCain-Palin campaign has released a report on Troopergate. It declares her innocence of any wrong doing. Is that really a surprise? It would be like the Bill Clinton releasing an investigative report on Monica Lewinsky declaring his innocence. Oh, wait, he did that on TV.
Of course they are going to declare her innocence. The thing I find amusing is that they released it before the official, Republican sponsored, report was released. They don’t know what it will say, though they probably assume it will not be favorable. Then again it could exhonerate her of any wrong doing, at which point I have to wonder what they thought it would say.
Politics is crazy.
You can always tell who won a debate by how quickly the partisan sites stop talking about their canidates performance. Both sides will say their candidate won, but the first to stop talking about it is the one who wants to move on.
Evolution is a slow process. Over generations, small mutation give some in a species an advantage over others, allowing them to replicate slightly more then others. Some are slightly faster, capable of out running a predator. Others are capable of clotting a bit faster, giving them a higher survival rate. These benefits allow for the gradual change of a species over time. This is the process of Natural Selection. It’s a remarkably simple process that results incredibly complex forms.
And one of these is the human form. Despite all its flaws, the human body is a remarkable machine. And it continues to change.
At least that’s the theory. But one scientist says that’s all changed. The theory is that modern day conveniences and a lack of isolation is slowing evolution. Technology has replaced the randomness of natural selection, which could theoretically slow evolution.
But the thing is that this isn’t true. Our technological innovations have created a new environment in which humanity will evolve. Just like our technology has created an environment where rats, roaches, and pigeons (among others) thrive, our technological environment has create a new arena in which humanity can evolve. Additionally, the world changes every day, with some people excelling, reproducing faster then others. These people contain advantages others don’t. They represent the next step in our evolution.
It’s a sad commentary on the current state of politics when a VP Debate draws more viewers then just about any other debate in television history. At just under 70 million viewers, the Biden-Palin debate was second to only the Clinton-Bush-Perot debate of 1992. It’s testiment to Sarah Palin drawing power. Most were probably there to see if she would repeat her performance with Couric, but I’m sure there was a good portion that wanted to learn more about the woman.
Overall I thought she did fine. She didn’t really falter at any question, which is what most people probably expected. She did tend to provide answers to questions she wanted vs. what was actually asked. It’s an old interview technique where you hide your ignorance of the subject matter behind your knowledge of another. I’ve interviewed a number of job candidates and had them try this on me (I’ve also done it in the past). Unlike the interviews I give, the moderator could follow up or focus her back on the question due to pre-arranged debate rules. She didn’t come off as someone I’d like to be President. Too many times it seemed like she was reciting talking points rather then knowing the subject.
Biden also came off well. He seemed knowledgable, thoughtful, and almost fatherly. He seemed like he could be President. His experience should through.
Time will tell if the debate meant anything. I’m not even going to hazard a guess given my poor track record.