Everyone that I know is against my position on this and I don't care because AMERICA, YOU ARE NOT BEING SMART! We are 7+ trillion dollars in debt, and running a budget deficit this year of another trillion dollars. We are borrowing money from the Chinese and the Russians. And then spening a billion dollars a month in Iraq! This is an impossible financial situation. The reason for this economic slowdown is simple. The world economy is held up by the American consumer. The American consumer relies on credit to buy the world's goods and services. I've said it time and time again Americans are in pain and one of the ways that they soothe that pain is to spend. Credit is just a nice name for debt and the American consumer is now tapped out. We had decades of economic prosperity based on Americans spending themselves into debt. Now the cloak is thrown off and the problem is correcting itself. Banks that were carefree in lending to high risk borrowers, are now out of business. Automakers that were producing more cars than they can sell, are now out of business. People who bought houses that they couldn't afford, are now being put out of them. Companies that had more employees than profits are now laying off. Those who were underqualified for their jobs are now being put out of work. Inflated home prices are coming down. Retail is being forced to cut its margins. The stock market which hit ridiculously high levels is now slowed down to would have been normal growth. The problems are correcting themselves. The American bubble has burst and no amount of money that the governement wants to put into it will reinflate it. Americans are going to stop spending themselves into the hole and start saving as they did this past Christmas season.
My point? The government is drowning future American taxpayers in debt. And honestly the next generation is not going to pay for it. They'll refuse and what will that mean ? War with China? Oh, I know that there will be a stimulus package on the table. But its a bad idea, especially because it has no chance in hell of stimulating an economy back into false prosperity.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
On Being Lonely . . .
We're watching too much Oprah and Dr. Phil. True Americans are in pain. The addictions to debt, food, liquor and crystal meth are all tell tale signs. But not everyone who is lonely and looking for a relationship has low self esteem. That's what every counselor and psychiatrist will have you believe. Let me put it to you this way. I know I'm good looking, look at the face in the title bar, it's undeniable. I know that I have a great career. I know that I was born into this world by myself and I will die alone. I also know that having a girl is not the answer to all my problems. I'm pretty smart right, I mean I waited until 29 to start my Master's program, but I have a basic understanding of myself and the world around me. So I know that I can live alone. I mean I have for the last 11 years and have not broken out with a terminal illness. But I don't believe that GOD put us on this earth to be single. One should have companionship. Why do you think so many movies and songs are made about love? It's a human desire to love someone and be loved romantically.
One of the biggest issues that has cropped up as of late is the insane amount of time that passes after puberty until the average marrying age, which is now 26. In the 1800s you were married between 14 and 16 so therefore once you hit puberty you got married. You didn't have to worry what to do if you got wet or hard. There was someone forced upon you. Now there's premarital sex, teenage pregnancy, casual dating, internet chatting, meeting parents, extrimarital affairs, homosexuality and a whole host of experiences to be had between puberty and marriage. I love dating. I love casual sex. The issue is that starting around 23 I began to long for a partnership. One where we go out on dates still. Where we don't have to make love all the time, we can still have the roughness from casual sex. I also want the butterflies that come after you realize she is special. Calling her to tell her you miss her on the way home from her house. Neither one of you wanting to hang up the phone first so you stay on an extra 10 minutes. Arguments over the remote control, the way you eat, the bathroom sink and what movie we should go see are all pleasureable and you know why? Because it proves someone cares. Someone besides your mama, somebody besides Jesus (even though that's all you NEED) cares enough to stay in your presence although you aggrivate them.
I'm sounding mushy, but being single aint nearly half as fun as it used to be. The more I try not to think about it, the more I think about it. It's not low self esteem, that I suffer from, it's an abundance of life. So many things are going well for me right now, I have time to be lonely. When you're sick or broke, love is the last thing on your mind. It's on my mind because everything is fitting together so well in my life and this is the missing piece.
The puzzle is almost done.
One of the biggest issues that has cropped up as of late is the insane amount of time that passes after puberty until the average marrying age, which is now 26. In the 1800s you were married between 14 and 16 so therefore once you hit puberty you got married. You didn't have to worry what to do if you got wet or hard. There was someone forced upon you. Now there's premarital sex, teenage pregnancy, casual dating, internet chatting, meeting parents, extrimarital affairs, homosexuality and a whole host of experiences to be had between puberty and marriage. I love dating. I love casual sex. The issue is that starting around 23 I began to long for a partnership. One where we go out on dates still. Where we don't have to make love all the time, we can still have the roughness from casual sex. I also want the butterflies that come after you realize she is special. Calling her to tell her you miss her on the way home from her house. Neither one of you wanting to hang up the phone first so you stay on an extra 10 minutes. Arguments over the remote control, the way you eat, the bathroom sink and what movie we should go see are all pleasureable and you know why? Because it proves someone cares. Someone besides your mama, somebody besides Jesus (even though that's all you NEED) cares enough to stay in your presence although you aggrivate them.
I'm sounding mushy, but being single aint nearly half as fun as it used to be. The more I try not to think about it, the more I think about it. It's not low self esteem, that I suffer from, it's an abundance of life. So many things are going well for me right now, I have time to be lonely. When you're sick or broke, love is the last thing on your mind. It's on my mind because everything is fitting together so well in my life and this is the missing piece.
The puzzle is almost done.
Good Riddance To The Music Industry
In 2000 the bigesst sellng album was NSync's No Strings Attached. It sold 10 million copies. In 2005 the biggest selling album was Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi. It sold 5 million copies. Last year's biggest seller was Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III selling 2.8 million copies. See a trend? For decades, since the rock era started, major record companies have been taking advantage of artists and fans alike. And everyone knew it. The average take on a record for an artist during the 90's, at the height of its greed, was 4-7 % of the album's profits. Then the record company had the audacity to subtract recording costs from that 4-7 % before the artist could see a penny. How greedy, right? Well, how satisfying was it to see Tommy Mottola fired from SONY earlier this decade? How wonderful to see LA Reid outed from ARISTA two years after he replaced Clive Davis (who has since replaced him) and now Reid is at ISLAND DEF/JAM shaking in his boots. To see ARISTA chained to Whitney Houston's 100 million dollar contract and trust me her comeback won't earn them back nearly that amount of money. The decline of the CD has been an amazing feat to watch. Seeing Sam Goody and Tower go down when at their height, they were selling CD's at 18.98 a pop. To watch the labels accept lower profits when Best Buy and WalMart were selling them as low as $9.99. Now Best Buy and WalMart have both shrunk music retail space in all of their stores. It's a great terminal illness to watch.
If you feel sorry for SONY/BMG, WARNER, EMI etc . . . dont! They brought this on themselves. The death of the music industry has been caused by illegal downloading but let me tell you where that comes from. In 1998 the intelligent CEOs sat down and said "sales from singles are cutting into CD profits, if we stop issuing commercial singles in stores, then the consumer will be forced to buy an entire CD." Consumers were duped into buying Chumbawumba, Natalie Imbruglia and a whole host of other CDs for one song. So when the internet became fast enough for file sharing, people ran with it. Now the record companies are losing profits and are being forced to merge. The one sad spot in all this are the artists who have been cut from rosters and it would break my heart if Billboard Magazine ceased to exist. One last problem with all of this is how is the mainstream gonna be exposed to new music and artists? The only artist to break into the mainstreamfrom Myspace is Cassie. That doesn't look promising. But whatever the case, whatever replaces the current music industry will hopefully be fair in compensating the artist and delivering to fans.
If you feel sorry for SONY/BMG, WARNER, EMI etc . . . dont! They brought this on themselves. The death of the music industry has been caused by illegal downloading but let me tell you where that comes from. In 1998 the intelligent CEOs sat down and said "sales from singles are cutting into CD profits, if we stop issuing commercial singles in stores, then the consumer will be forced to buy an entire CD." Consumers were duped into buying Chumbawumba, Natalie Imbruglia and a whole host of other CDs for one song. So when the internet became fast enough for file sharing, people ran with it. Now the record companies are losing profits and are being forced to merge. The one sad spot in all this are the artists who have been cut from rosters and it would break my heart if Billboard Magazine ceased to exist. One last problem with all of this is how is the mainstream gonna be exposed to new music and artists? The only artist to break into the mainstreamfrom Myspace is Cassie. That doesn't look promising. But whatever the case, whatever replaces the current music industry will hopefully be fair in compensating the artist and delivering to fans.
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