There was an interesting article about the secretary of state admitting that biofuels are contributing to the rising price of food items. It an be read in its entirety here.
Whats going on with the rising cost of food is people thinking ethanol is a viable source of alternative energy. If corn is going to keep shooting up in price because its worth more in gas tanks than people's stomachs then more farmers are going to switch to growing it instead of wheat and other major food items. I don't have backed up sources but I have heard that an entire year's supply of corn for 1 person will fill up 1 gas tank. I have also heard that although ethanol is cheaper you get worse gas mileage using it thus you have to fill up more. Again I'm not 100% certain on those two things but I am certain on the negative environmental impact the increased growing of corn will have in the Gulf of Mexico around the mouth of the Mississippi river. Its not the path we should be following and we are wasting time and valuable money even considering it. I don't know what the solution is but I am a supporter of electric vehicles. If we could actually put some real money behind development of electric vehicles then we will be good to go.
The oil prices are totally a scam and the reason your government isn't doing anything about it is because they are all lining their pockets off the increasing prices of oil. Just today I saw a story about a senator who was pleading with Washington to form an investigative committee to look into oil price fraud. Just the fact that we have to plead with our government just to LOOK INTO this is indicative to massive greed and corruption. Again at this point I still don't know if people even have any say in anything that occurs in our government anymore.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Generation Y Are a Bunch of Lazy Irresponsible Bums
MSN has an article about "Why Generation Y is Broke" which you can read in it's three page entirety here.
The first example of a person in this age bracket that they provide is a photographer with a $60,000 college debt who doesn't even open up her bills. When urged by her friends to see a financial advisor instead of going and actually seeing one she just tosses her unopened bills into a FedEx box and ships it off to have it looked at. Hardly an example of the majority is it? I hope not. The article goes on in this tone about how bad this age group is with money even going so far to point out how people aged between 25 and 34 make up 22% of all foreclosures. They even have a link where you can post comments titled "Is Generation Y just dumb or lazy? How about neither?
The article fails to ever mention the conditions this generation has grown up in. Where is this generation supposed to learn financial responsibility when their parents were so financially irresponsible to begin with? Schools certainly don't teach any applicable financial responsibilities. From my own experience I have never seen something like "How to manage your finances 101" or "Introduction to personal investments." So without courses like these where are people supposed to learn these skills? If Generation Y comprises only 22% of bankruptcies then guess who comprises the other 78%? Their parents.
Many middle aged families are currently directly involved in the current financial downturn our economy is experiencing. They are the ones with the ARM loans, the incredible amount of high credit card debt, and the fancy cars with the high monthly payments. Many baby boomers had help from their parents who had become financially responsible by surviving the depression.
Perhaps it was this reliance on their parent's money which has fueled the constant fire of debt. I don't know. What I do know from personal experience is that I did not receive the same help that my parents did nor did many other people I know around my age. I do have a few grand in personal credit card debt which I am constantly working towards paying off very soon (hopefully!). This debt did not come from frugal spending but rather from being laid off. I was forced to resort to credit cards while searching for another job. That was over two and a half years ago but I am still paying for that to this day. Both my girlfriend and I still drive our old beater cars to avoid being locked into an additional payments thus putting off our credit card debt even more.
So I took offense to this piece just because it pointed the finger at a single generation when really it is a combination of factors. Even in my own personal experience you can be financially responsible but in today's volatile economy of high college tuitions, gas prices, groceries, and other goods combined with low job stability, low job growth, and rock solid low wages which don't look like they are ever going to budge.
Its no wonder many younger people are having a hard time not going into debt. Most start off on a "bad foot" because they are basically forced to pay themselves through four years of college just to have access to the same entry level jobs their parents waltzed straight out of high school into. So right away many graduates come out of the gate with anywhere from $20K to $60K in student loan debt. Then all they find are low paying volatile jobs which are highly likely to just end up laying them off after a short period of time anyway.
The first example of a person in this age bracket that they provide is a photographer with a $60,000 college debt who doesn't even open up her bills. When urged by her friends to see a financial advisor instead of going and actually seeing one she just tosses her unopened bills into a FedEx box and ships it off to have it looked at. Hardly an example of the majority is it? I hope not. The article goes on in this tone about how bad this age group is with money even going so far to point out how people aged between 25 and 34 make up 22% of all foreclosures. They even have a link where you can post comments titled "Is Generation Y just dumb or lazy? How about neither?
The article fails to ever mention the conditions this generation has grown up in. Where is this generation supposed to learn financial responsibility when their parents were so financially irresponsible to begin with? Schools certainly don't teach any applicable financial responsibilities. From my own experience I have never seen something like "How to manage your finances 101" or "Introduction to personal investments." So without courses like these where are people supposed to learn these skills? If Generation Y comprises only 22% of bankruptcies then guess who comprises the other 78%? Their parents.
Many middle aged families are currently directly involved in the current financial downturn our economy is experiencing. They are the ones with the ARM loans, the incredible amount of high credit card debt, and the fancy cars with the high monthly payments. Many baby boomers had help from their parents who had become financially responsible by surviving the depression.
Perhaps it was this reliance on their parent's money which has fueled the constant fire of debt. I don't know. What I do know from personal experience is that I did not receive the same help that my parents did nor did many other people I know around my age. I do have a few grand in personal credit card debt which I am constantly working towards paying off very soon (hopefully!). This debt did not come from frugal spending but rather from being laid off. I was forced to resort to credit cards while searching for another job. That was over two and a half years ago but I am still paying for that to this day. Both my girlfriend and I still drive our old beater cars to avoid being locked into an additional payments thus putting off our credit card debt even more.
So I took offense to this piece just because it pointed the finger at a single generation when really it is a combination of factors. Even in my own personal experience you can be financially responsible but in today's volatile economy of high college tuitions, gas prices, groceries, and other goods combined with low job stability, low job growth, and rock solid low wages which don't look like they are ever going to budge.
Its no wonder many younger people are having a hard time not going into debt. Most start off on a "bad foot" because they are basically forced to pay themselves through four years of college just to have access to the same entry level jobs their parents waltzed straight out of high school into. So right away many graduates come out of the gate with anywhere from $20K to $60K in student loan debt. Then all they find are low paying volatile jobs which are highly likely to just end up laying them off after a short period of time anyway.
Introduction
This is just an experiment to see if anyone will actually read what I have to say about the crazy events that occur in the world around us. I am the type that creates long winded posts on message boards that seem to either piss people off or at least get them discussing a particular topic. I feel that what I see occurring around us isn't what everyone else sees. My goal with this blog is to just highlight things that seem interesting or incite some sort of emotion in me and provide my take on them to ultimately get people discussing the topic. I will rant, rave, and complain to no end in a futile effort to comprehend the madness that is life from my point of view. So on to the first real post!
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