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Whenever the economy starts to go south policies such as welfare, extended unemployment assistance and food stamps come under attack.  The problem isn’t because we don’t want to feed or house our neighbors but rather there is a perceived unfairness in it all.  It takes relatively few abuses for people to think that all welfare recipients cheating the system.  Like wise the number of people out there who believe people are getting fat while eating filet mignon they bought with the food stamps is also way too high.  Issues such as this are compounded by the perceived unfairness of how these programs are implements.  We see someone getting food for free and we want the same benefit.  We don’t see it as a system giving help to people who need it.
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Apple, as it is with most of it’s products, has not been very forthcoming with details about it’s expected touchpad device.  Speculation has abounded about the software it will use, the size of it’s screen and it’s other capabilities.  However, to Apple the iPad is all about capturing a new market it has not ventured into very much, that market being books and other written media traditionally delivered to us in hard copy printed form.  To put it more succinctly, the iPad will be the device which launches the iTunes Bookstore.

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Since the election of President Obama the word “Socialism” has been on the tongue of many Americans.  Socialized health care, socialized retirement, socialize anything you can get your hands on.  After all health care should be free and universal right?  No one should ever go hungry or be homeless.  Let’s not forget that no matter how you may have wasted your life away you should be entitled to receive money when you get older so you can retire.  You’re an American after all, retirement is your God given right.

The problem is as Americans we want a great deal but when it comes time to pay up, no one wants to do so.  We need to decide, do we want lower taxes or do we want more services?  There is a trade off between the two.  If you want “free” health care for everyone then be prepared to pay for it.  If you want Social Security then be prepared to really pay for it.  Recently the Peterson Foundation calculated the federal government accumulated $56.4 trillion in total liabilities and unfunded promises for Medicare and Social Security as of September 30, 2008.  That is $184,000 for every man, woman, and child here in the US.  To put it another way that’s $483,00 per household.  Do you have that kind of money?  That money is going to have to come from somewhere so be prepared when your taxes start to go up.

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GM recently announced a new partnership with Segway under which they built a new concept people mover the “PUMA”.  With any luck it will hopefully never see production.  One look at this bizarre vehicle will have you wondering what they are thinking.  An informal survey on CNN.com showed that over 70% of the people polled said they wouldn’t be caught dead driving around in it.  The PUMA is designed to be piloted around cities and is not intended for highway use.  Although it is capable of traveling 35mph.

Considering GM is on the verge of bankruptcy one has to wonder why GM would even contemplate such a vehicle.  Concept vehicles have their place and in many cases they stir up some positive PR for the company.  However, in the case of the PUMA it just goes to show how out of touch GM has become with their consumer.  They are designing concept vehicles which have no future, hopefully zero possibility of being built, and that give GM an even worse name.

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How often in the last six months or so have you heard your local newspaper or news station proclaiming that the sky was falling down on the economy? Probably more often than you would have liked. Certainly the global economy is in turmoil but at least in the beginning it wasn’t as bad as it was being reported to be. Unfortunately, news companies see bad news equaling high ratings in this country. So it was in their short term interest to make the economy seem as bad as possible in order for them to drive up ratings. (Read On…)