Apple Runs Out of iPads...

So, if you thought you were going to get your iPad on April 3rd, you won't get it till April 12th. So what?? Get over it!!!! Geezzzzzzzzz...... it's a frigging toy. Another example of what's wrong with our priorities. Why is this big news??

I'm not saying an iPad wouldn't be cool. I'll probably get one. But, I can wait. Chill people.... relax. We've got a lot. We can wait for our iPad.

The Great Gift Card Conundrum

Will someone please tell me why we need the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to protect us from gift cards?

First of all, why do we even need gift cards? What ever happened to selecting an individualized gift for a person? Or, what's wrong with cash or a check if you really don't have time to pick out a gift?

If you really can't trust the person to shop where you want them to shop, go ahead and get a gift card, BUT....... take responsibility for reading the terms and conditions yourself!!! If you don't like them, don't buy the card. It's as simple as that. You might even want to tell the store personnel why you are taking your business elsewhere. The policy will change if people move their business someplace else, that's how the free market economy works.

Getting the government involved to protect us from ourselves is total nonsense. We are taking up far too much of our elected officials' time with frivolous issues like this.

Take responsibility. Read the fine-print. Be a skeptic.

FarmVille - Will We Ever Learn?

I just read an article in Business Week the growth of the business of buying virtual goods for social network games such as FarmVille, FishVille and Mafia Wars. In principle, I have nothing against buying virtual goods if that's what floats your boat. I buy loads of real golf balls for real golf, however, for as long as I keep them, they may as well be "virtual".

What really got me about the article was that there are companies out there (Boku, Zong, Kwedit) who are targeting people who don't have the money to pay!

Business Week reports: "Boku and Zong have created applications so gamers can easily pay for virtual goods via a mobile phone. They are appealing to kids who don't have bank accounts or credit cards.." Just maybe the kids should GET a bank account BEFORE they worry about buying a virtual helicopter for Mafia Wars.

Even more disturbing is that Kwedit, a Mountain View CA startup, has developed software that allows users to get game currency IMMEDIATELY, if they promise to pay for it later.

Whatever happened to good old fiscal restraint. Where did we loose sight of the idea that we just have to wait for some things. Put a dollar a week away and in 6 weeks I can buy a Helicopter. In the mean time, fantasize about how great it will be to have it, how you will use it, what you will save for next.

Greed and the desire for instant gratification (also spelled "overextended credit") to a large degree are what got us into the global economic mess we find ourselves in. When will we ever learn?? If corporate America won't take responsibility for reducing the glamor and ease of credit, we should take the lead ourselves, both in how we manage our desires and how we teach our children.

How Did We Get In This Economic Mess?

There has been a lot written over the past year about who is to blame for the economic distress we are experiencing. I would like to propose that GOD, whoever or whatever that is to most people, is to blame.

A peculiar aspect of our civilization is that we begin to indoctrinate our children in the belief of the god fairytale almost from birth . This indoctrination is primarily performed by someone on whom they are completely dependent, the parents. In all other cases, from Alice in Wonderland to The Wizard of Oz, we teach our children that they are just stories. Yet we teach them that the God Story is real, not imaginary, not a fable with a message.

There are two main effects of this. First, we teach our children that their senses and ability to reason are defective. Even though the concept of a supernatural god makes no sense, they are asked to suspend our disbelief and have "faith". Second, we teach them to place an inordinate amount of trust in the leadership of whatever religious organization we belong to.

There is a third, but more subtle issue as well. This is that, because of our early training, we are predisposed to ignore the facts when they do not correlate with what we want to believe. For example, if our religion says that the earth is less than 5000 years old, we look to our religious leaders to provide an explanation that twists the scientific facts around in totally irrational ways to show that the young earth claim is valid. And millions of people believe it! On the other hand, many religions simply change their dogma to be consistent with the science and millions of followers nod their heads and pray. Don't they realize that yesterday they were claiming that god told them the earth was created 5000 years ago? Did god change his mind? Did he make a mistake? Did the people interpreting "god's word" make a mistake? How many more mistakes are they preaching?

My point is that our training to ignore facts that aren't consistent with what we want to hear flows into other areas of our lives besides religion. We see a house that we really want. The facts are that it's over priced and it costs far more than we can afford. We are offered a variable rate mortgage with an initial payment that we can afford. What do we do? We ignore the "facts", just as we have been trained to do since birth, and we buy the house. Unfortunately, when the payment is adjusted 5 years down the road we can't afford it anymore.

Oh, so the banks are the bad guys for offering this low introductory rate. Remember, most of the bankers, from the clerks to the executives, have been indoctrinated the same way from birth. When the Rev. Rick Warren tells them that god wants them to be successful so they can give mega-bucks to the church, they take it to heart. So, the banker understands the fact that he is overextending credit, yet he sees himself becoming more "successful" and he is blinded to using reason and he reacts based on his early childhood indoctrination.

Until we begin the education of our children with a respect for understanding and reason rather than wishful thinking, we will continue to struggle with making decisions in a rational manner. I think most humans are intelligent enough to be able to think through fundamental day-to-day moral issues within the framework of the human species and the environment that surrounds us without the need for fabricated sacred stories that are interpreted by a special few.

Perhaps if we teach our children to think for themselves, they will become more responsible consumers and distributors of information and resources.

If you are one of the many who have doubts about your religion and are seeking a change, you might want to check out a Reasonable Alternative.

Not In My Backyard

Every time there is a disturbance in the Middle East and the price of oil goes up, we get up in arms about achieving energy independence. "Let's exploit our own resources", goes the cry. We've got coal, wind, oil, gas, geothermal, solar and waves, all in abundance!! We don't need to be dependent on people half way around the world who don't like us much in the first place.

Then reality sets in. Mine the coal, but don't alter the landscape. Put up windmills or solar farms, but not where I have to look at them. Tap the massive gas reserves in the Marcellus shale, but don't let drilling trucks drive on the roads, risk pollution or contaminate the countryside with unsightly wells. Build more nuclear power plants, but don't put one where I might be in danger if an accident should occur.

Is it any wonder why so many foreign countries hate us when we are perfectly willing to ravage their countryside in order to preserve the quality of our own?

Let me suggest the following:

1. The first step to energy independence is to reduce consumption. Do it! I live in the northeast USA. How much do homes REALLY need air-conditioning? Sure, it's more comfortable on those few very hot days, but most of the time a whole house fan can do just as good of a job for a fraction of the cost. Wherever you live, if you stop and think, there is something you do that consumes energy that you could do without. No matter how small, just do it.
   
2. The next time someone wants to exploit a resource in or near your community, think about the steps that need to be taken to ensure that is done in a reasonably safe and aesthetic manner. Far too much time is spent just killing these projects rather than coming up with creative ways to make them work. Don't listen to the hype in the media. Do the research, find out what the real risks are and participate in getting the risks resolved in a cost effective manner.
   
3. The next time you feel like your quality of life is being threatened by an energy development that you are concerned about, also think of where your current energy comes from and who is sacrificing their quality of life so that you can enjoy yours.

Nothing is free in this world. It doesn't do any good to say DO reduce our dependence on foreign oil but DON'T do anything that costs me money, time, comfort or environmental impact. Unfortunately we can't have it all ways.

Too Many Choices?

In the movie "The Hurt Locker" Sgt. James returns home from a tour in Iraq as the leader of an Explosive Ordinance Disposal team. One scene finds James standing in the cereal aisle of a grocery store, apparently bewildered by the endless choices. Recently I had a similar feeling standing in the potato chip aisle. From the front of the store to the back, a good 150 feet, nothing but potato chips, pretzels, tortilla chips and popcorn.

As Americans, we expect choice. Choice in chips, cars, computers.... almost everything. Furthermore, it is choice that drives innovation and competition. What motivation would there be to make a better (well, at least different) potato chip if it weren't for the opportunity to increase market share.

On the other hand though, the choice does not come without a cost. Some amount of choice provides competition, which, hopefully, keeps prices down. However, each time a product or service is replicated in the name of choice/competitition, several parts of the costly infrastructure are also replicated. Design, development, HR, procurement, transportation and manufacturing to name a few. So, while some amount of choice is good for innovation and cost control, too much leads to unnecessary replication of costly infrastructure.

In the long term, this excess "choice" is not sustainable. We recently found out we really didn't need so many car choices. We really didn't need Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth did we? But where do we draw the line and how is it drawn? While it seems extremely wasteful to me to have an entire grocery store aisle dedicated to snack foods, apparently the manufacturers of these different varieties are just responding to the wishes of the market. My gut feeling is that we could be perfectly satisfied with half as many kinds of snack food and cereal. Assuming consumption stays constant, the remaining half would have to ramp up production and perhaps become more efficient, while duplicated infrastructure of the removed half would reduce cost. In other words, surviving providers would sell twice as much product for the same design and development cost.

Which products should we eliminate and what should the displaced personnel do? Well, the answer to the first will have to wait for future blog posts because, as with many things, we humans seem to be able to agree that reducing cost is good, as long as I am not the one inconvenienced. Think of energy independence, health care and budget cuts resulting from falling tax revenues.

And what should the displace personnel do? I might be a little over optimistic, but if we spend less time, money and effort searching for the next best potato chip, perhaps we can spend more on how to reduce energy consumption while maintaining a high standard of living.

Health Care I

Most of the people I know have health insurance.... and pretty good health insurance at that. While they might grumble about the cost, they are getting pretty decent coverage for the cost (assuming they don't consider how much their employer is contributing). Unfortunately, not a one of them sees the train wreck on the way. Insurance is really pretty simple; everyone puts money in the pot and those who need it take it out. If you don't need it (e.g. you're healthy) you're paying for peace of mind, nothing more.

Unfortunately, we've lost sight of that fundamental principle. In the name of providing "choice", we've allowed younger, healthy people to go uninsured, or buy insurance policies with minimal coverage. Without these people in the pool, the rates for those in the "not so healthy" category have soared. This, in turn, causes even more people to be unable (or unwilling) to pay the cost of health insurance, which shrinks the pool even more and tips the bias even more toward people who need to use the insurance rather than just pay for it.

How does it all end? Why does this need to be so difficult. Let's put EVERYONE in the insurance pool and have ONE insurance company that negotiates rates. We'll decide how much of the budget we want to spend on health care and we'll tax everyone appropriately. It works people. Don't listen to the hype. It really does work. No, it's not perfect. But if we don't do it, we're headed for a cliff. And oh, by the way... in case it matters to anyone, the 30+ million people that currently don't have health insurance will be covered. No, this isn't welfare. Most of these 30 million are hard working people who simply can't afford or qualify to get insurance. Don't forget, we already cover the poor with Medicaid.

I really think the half-assed compromise politically motivated non-legislation being floated around Washington needs to be killed. We really do need to start over, BUT, we need to start by resurrecting H.R. 676 and get everyone behind a Medicare-for-All, single payer system. If you agree, please write your congressman. If you don't.... think it over again. You're not feeling the pinch nearly as much as you're going to in the not so distant future. You may soon be one of the ones on the outside looking in.