There is no question, the retail environment is nothing like it was when are parents were growing up. In fact, it's completely different from when I was a kid. Fifty years ago, a large percentage of shopping was done at locally owned and operated businesses. If you look at almost all of the small towns across America, "down town" was the center of almost all commerce. As years passed, business experts discovered that manufacturers and suppliers were willing to give discounts to retailers who agreed to purchase large quantities of their products. This led to the birth of the franchise. It is because of these arrangements that the number of retail chains exploded. Looking back, I'm sure these retail chains weren't terribly popular with locally owned businesses nearby.
Since the world of retail is in a constant state of flux, even the most successful retailers have had to make frequent changes in order to compete in the global economy. Fast food chains are constantly changing the appearance of their buildings, their menus and their incentives to keep the customers coming. Insurance companies and airlines have spent billions in advertising and "perks" in order to compete. But it wasn't until the emergence of the big-box retailers that many small town business owners began to speak out.
The "big box retailer" concept really isn't very old. However, most consumers can't remember how they ever survived before them. Because of their growing popularity, the number of businesses have adapted to that big box retail model keeps growing. In fact, one chain in particular, has built so many stores that in many cases, their only true competition happens to be one of their own stores on the other side of town. Competing with yourself may seem like a silly thing to do but if you think about it, if you are going to lose business to someone, why not lose it to yourself.
On the dark side of big box retailing, some claim that big box retailers do more harm than good to the communities they inhabit. Many documentaries have been filmed that attempt to prove these retail giants are harmful by showing images of local businesses have been forced to close citing their inability to compete. Some opponents claim harm even when one of these retailers builds a larger store down the block. They claim harm by suggesting the closing of one location and opening a larger store down the street does grave harm to other retail establishments in the shopping center where the old store used to be. Joining small business owners in the fight against big box stores is the afl-cio. The reason they are involved is because most of the big box retailers in the country have found that there is really no need for third party representation. Most have made commitments to their workforce that eliminate that need.
Some argue that big box retailers cost jobs. How so? When a big box retailer comes to town and a local grocery store is forced to close their doors, the number of jobs lost when that local business closes averages between 35 and 40 workers. However, the new big box retailer will likely employ ten times as many people. Others claim that shopping at a national chain takes money away from a community. I say not true. Many national chains make huge contributions to local government as well as community based non profit organizations. Those contributions consist of tens of thousands of dollars each year.
As far as I'm concerned, people can fight about this subject all they want. To be truthful, I can see both sides to this argument. But, when the dust settles, it all boils down to one simple fact. What is the best way to spend my hard earned paycheck. Isn't it a no-brainer? The best way to spend my paycheck is to find a way to get the things you need and pay as little as possible to achieve that. Our economy continues to struggle. As a result, almost all Americans have had to make some tough choices. I think we'd all like to be able to buy all our groceries at our corner grocery store, but I can buy the things I need for less money at the chain store, you bet that's where I'm going to go.
It is sad to see local businesses close their doors. But unfortunately, that plan was set in motion more than 50 years ago. It wasn't until big box stores came to town that small businesses were dealt the death blow. Looking in the other direction, I predict the time will come when these big box stores will find themselves in the same place the small business owners are in today. When they do, they are likely to make the same arguments that the small businesses are doing today. When that happens, it's not going to be the fault of this next best thing in retail. It's going to be the fault of the customer, just like it is today. Big box stores are only as successful as the customers that shop there.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
What an Obama-nation
I think Glen Beck was right. I strongly agree that our president is a racist. The events of Cambridge Massachusetts being case in point. I'll agree the GOP has been fueling that fire, but isn't that, or shouldn't that be the least of our worries?
The campaign promises of the last dozen or so presidents has been health care reform. And why wouldn't it? It is in the top two most important concerns of must Americans. I was watching an unamed news channel that ran a story about campaign promises such as this one. The news anchor reporting the story, offered video clips of presidential candidates promising to fix health care in the united states. The last clip they showed was Barack Obama issuing the same promise. The reporter almost seemed to boast that President Obama is the only presidential candidate that offered any kind of time frame.
To paraphrase his speech, he stated that his aggressive health care reform plan will completely fix our health care crisis in 10 years. I think almost everyone who watched that speech live, sat in stunned silence, even by his own party. Banking on his promise, voters ran to their polls and elected our first African American President. He knew he could capture the baby-boomer vote with this promise, but his time frame clearly illustrates a deception.
Take a moment and think through this carefully. Why would he use a 10 year time frame? It's simple. Can't figure it out? Let me give you two words as a clue: term limits. By issuing a ten year goal, if health care is reformed in ten years, then he can take credit for putting the plan into motion. If it fails, it will do so long after Mr. Obama leaves the White House. If that happens, Obama can easily blame the next administration.
I encourage you to take this to heart. He does not care one little bit about this promise. Being independently wealthy and the result of his presidency, he will likely never pay another cent for health care as long as he lives. So, no matter what happens with health care, he will never be affected by it.
The campaign promises of the last dozen or so presidents has been health care reform. And why wouldn't it? It is in the top two most important concerns of must Americans. I was watching an unamed news channel that ran a story about campaign promises such as this one. The news anchor reporting the story, offered video clips of presidential candidates promising to fix health care in the united states. The last clip they showed was Barack Obama issuing the same promise. The reporter almost seemed to boast that President Obama is the only presidential candidate that offered any kind of time frame.
To paraphrase his speech, he stated that his aggressive health care reform plan will completely fix our health care crisis in 10 years. I think almost everyone who watched that speech live, sat in stunned silence, even by his own party. Banking on his promise, voters ran to their polls and elected our first African American President. He knew he could capture the baby-boomer vote with this promise, but his time frame clearly illustrates a deception.
Take a moment and think through this carefully. Why would he use a 10 year time frame? It's simple. Can't figure it out? Let me give you two words as a clue: term limits. By issuing a ten year goal, if health care is reformed in ten years, then he can take credit for putting the plan into motion. If it fails, it will do so long after Mr. Obama leaves the White House. If that happens, Obama can easily blame the next administration.
I encourage you to take this to heart. He does not care one little bit about this promise. Being independently wealthy and the result of his presidency, he will likely never pay another cent for health care as long as he lives. So, no matter what happens with health care, he will never be affected by it.
Monday, July 27, 2009
value of friendship
As I've gotten older, I am finding that true friendship is of value beyond measure. I'm not sure why; perhaps the reckless abandon of youth, friendships always came easy. There wasn't any sort of criteria or expectation involved in the birth of friendship which made them very easy to come by, but with life experience, we integrate a variety of subliminal checks and balances as a type of screening process that allow us to avoid poor choices that may have been made in the past. As a result, with fewer friendship options comes a greater value of the ones that remain. But, regardless of how careful we've become, occasionally friendships occur that result in heartache. My purpose for writing about one of these heartaches is multi-faceted. My primary purpose for writing about one of these heartaches is to better understand it all, another reason for writing about it is the hope that someone can read about my experience and avoid the kind of hurt I've felt and lastly, I hope these "friends" will finally learn; and take responsibility for, the hurt they have caused.
Having grown up in a family with 80's-era white-collar parents, we didn't live in the same place for more than 5 years at a time. As a result, my brother and I grew up among kids from a variety of social circles. On one end of the scale, we lived among some of the best examples of poor white trash and on the other end, we had friends who were from families with 6 and 7 digit incomes. Some kids criticized us for being spoiled rich kids while others saw us as lower class Indiana hillbillies. As a result, it was extremely rare for my brother and I to have friends from families like our own. I can't speak for my brother, but I spent most of my teens feeling like an outsider. I found it more difficult because I grew up without must self-esteem.
Because we moved around a lot, my brother and I went to several schools. The types of schools I attended offered less than desirable public education to private schools funded by some of Chicago's wealthiest and elite families. These education settings made the establishment of friendships even more difficult. I think all of these changes caused me to always feel like an outsider and an outcast which made me the target of a great deal of bullying.
By the time I reached high school, I lived in constant fear of being beaten up. I never had the opportunity to become involved in any extracurricular activities which made it even more difficult to identify with my classmates. I didn't play sports so I really didn't have any friends that were jocks. I didn't play an instrument so I didn't have much in common with any of the band kids and I was way too introverted to be involved in school government and all the bullying and moving around took it's toll on my grades so I didn't have much in common with the kids that excelled academically so the few friends I did have were usually social outcasts like myself. I just didn't fit in.
Before the start of my senior year, I remember going through my parents' yearbooks. What caught my attention were the kids that were seniors. Much like the yearbooks of today, next to the pictures of all the graduating seniors were the lists of accomplishments and the activities they'd been involved with. I guess you could say that I experienced an epiphany. I realized that if I didn't make some serious changes, I was going to be one of the kids that had nothing listed next to their picture. I became determined that I wasn't going to let that happen. So, I made up my mind, I was going to have to make some serious changes.
In addition to my new found determination, I think I was actually beginning to settle in to my own skin because once we settled in to our first grading period, I hit the ground running. One of the classes I took my senior year was called communications. In many ways, this class was my Dead Poet's Society. In addition to helping me feel more self-confident, it allowed me to nurture the talents that exist in each of us. This class broke open a floodgate creating only one regret: that I hadn't discovered this class sooner.
A short time after the class started, our teacher announced try-outs for speech team. One of the kids that I quickly became friends with, Nik, had been on the speech team the previous year and encouraged me to try it. My immediate feeling on the matter was terror. I had never been one terribly comfortable in front of people speaking, but I quickly remembered my experience with my parents' yearbooks. I saw this as an opportunity to have something by my name in my yearbook. During try-outs, Nik introduced me to the other members who had been on the speech team the year before and before I knew it, I found myself involved with like-minded kids for the first time.
During the very first speech meet, I had some serious doubts about being on this team. I remember before I went in to my very first round, I was so terrified that I went into the bathroom and vomited. Would I remember my lines? Would I make a fool out of myself??? I didn't know for sure, but I decided to throw caution to the wind and participated anyway. Typically, a speech meet lasts all day on each Saturday they are scheduled. During the meet, which ever categories you are involved in, meets three different times and depending on how well you score, you can qualify for a fourth and final round. After all of the final rounds are complete, all the students from all the schools meet in an auditorium and those that have attended a final round then learn how they have scored overall. That first Saturday, I didn't make it to a final round. And even though I was disappointed to have not placed, I experienced a personal victory for having accomplished something that I had previously been too terrified to do. That was reward enough.
There were around 20 kids or so on the speech team that year. The thing that meant the most to me about this group of 20 or so kids was that we were tight. Although there were occasional differences that occurred among them, we never lost focus of what we were doing and the personal relationships rarely got in the way of what we were there to do. I think this bond that we shared was the result of just one very important element. We drew close to each other because each one of us were outcasts. We were all castaways from the established social circles common in every high school. What was about to happen took everyone by surprise and once it occurred, none of us ever looked back.
In order to fully appreciate what happened, it's important to know a little bit about each of the kids that made us this unique force. It's important because up to that point, each member of this speech team were examples of kids that most often were the targets of some of the cruelest forms of bullying imaginable. I'm not going to mention these kids by name here, instead, I will give a description of them that will still clearly illustrate the malady. One of us didn't particularly like to bathe, a couple members struggled with their sexual identity, a few came from families where some of the darkest forms of abuse continued to occur, one fully resented one parent and played the role of parent to the other parent, a couple were unrealized geniuses and the rest were a culmination of backward, maladjusted introverts very fond of Dungeons and Dragons while the remaining few were academically brilliant while being socially retarded. But one commonality that we all shared was that we outcasts of mainstream high school culture.
The year progressed and as we became better at our craft, the closer we all became as friends. In addition to the time we invested in speech team, we all began socializing outside of school functions. And because many of them/us were uncharacteristically brilliant, the things we involved ourselves in away from school, were nothing like the things that I'd remembered my parents talking about doing when they were our age. Although we were these "outcasts", we didn't do most of the things that you might expect outcasts to do. We didn't do drugs (although some did privately) and for the most part, alcohol never really came up on our social radar. Where did we spend a lot of our time together? Hanging out with a larger group of outcasts. What does that mean......? Well, here's what we did.
During the 80's, punk and alternative music were still widely unknown. Although this genre of music had it's start in the mid to late 70's, it's popularity remained limited to large cities on either coast. The "large group of outcasts", I mentioned above was a small punk/alternative club housed in a small, run-down motel bar in Fort Wayne, IN called "Seventh Level". During the week, the bar sold drinks to cheap, weary travelers, but on Sunday nights, the fabulous freaks converged into an ever-growing collection of social outcasts such as ourselves. It was at Seventh Level where 2 foot tall purple mohawks, liberty spikes and gallons of black nail polish and eyeliner became an established norm. And like our speech team had been for us, "The Level", as it was known, was yet another place where you were accepted just as you are.
Most of the time, Nik and I were the ones that went to the Level almost every Sunday night however, it was not terribly uncommon for other members of our speech team to go along as well. This was the first time I had ever been this comfortable in a public group of kids in my life. And much like the investment we'd made with the speech team, we wanted to learn everything we could about this new niche we'd discovered.
As we became more familiar with the culture, so did our knowledge of it's music. Before long, our music collections changed from bubble gum pop and heavy metal to punk and alternative bands most had never heard of. That was ok by me. The less I am reminded of the groups that used to persecute me, the better.
A couple paragraphs ago, I mentioned that an event took place that surprised everyone. There came a time during my senior year when most of the teasing and bullying that we all had endured one time or another, stopped! The days of being threatened, tripped, intimidated, insulted and ganged up on, were no more. The small group that we had become in the beginning, was now a much larger, stronger and appealing force. This meant that for the first time, school royalty were forced to acknowledge us as a social class, something they never saw coming. If you ask me to identify the turning point, I'd have to say that it took place right around the time when the freshmen and sophomores began to express interest in what we stood for. If I were asked what I felt were the most significant events that took place that year, I would have to say it was this paradigm shift. We went from being one of the biggest groups of social outcasts to the ones who younger kids wanted to be like. I believe the culmination of our efforts occurred during the school dance where the dj agreed to finally play our music.
As quickly as it began, the school year ended. During that summer before college, most of us continued to hang out together. I remembered feeling fear because I was afraid that when school ended, so would the closeness I felt toward everyone that I'd grown to know that year. To my delight, the bond of friendship remained; stronger than ever. Eventually, everyone in the group graduated from high school and the group did everything it could to get together as often as possible. Weeks and months went by and the friendships we all shared remained stronger than ever. I thought it would last forever.
Although the friendship we shared was better and stronger than I'd imagined, there were elements of my life before I met them that went largely unresolved. Having gone fast and furious all year long, I'd never really dealt with the horrible, ugly things that we hope our kids never experience, but sadly, and all too often, they do. I feel it is those events that contributed to using alcohol as a means of coping. It was available and it was an easy way to deal with darkness, especially when you don't want others to see your weakness. I had never been a habitual drinker up to that point, but many of my friends/classmates began to sense that something just wasn't right about my way of dealing/coping with problems. And sadly, it was just the beginning of a very long battle for me.
Like many of the stories we've all heard throughout our lives, my use of alcohol grew steadily. In fact, I can recall times in my life where I was drinking very heavily. There were numerous times where it was not uncommon for me to drink a half gallon of hard liquor every couple of days. This pattern of abuse lasted for years. Having been an addict for so long, I guess I never really realized until later that almost every single time I would get together with all of my friends, I would be drinking. As is the case so often, my alcoholism resulted in a roller coaster of chaos in my life. Much of which was either witnessed by or involved my group of friends. For example, there were probably hundreds of times where I would make the drive between Kendallville and Fort Wayne with a blood/alcohol level two and maybe three times greater than the legal limit. I was all about taking risks. A gamble that nearly cost me my life more times than I care to mention. However, I was never the only one in the group who was dealing with demons in their lives. Each of us had our own unique way of coping; most of which were just as unappealing as my drinking. But, like our outcast creed to accept others as they are, we dealt with the problems among us in stride.
Several years after high school, my friend Nik married a fellow speech team member named Mandy. Coincidentally, at one point, my wife was as close to Mandy as I was to Nik. My wife Jodi told me that she and Mandy had had a huge falling out. Jodi told me that she'd been really hurt by some of the things that took place between she and Mandy, so she decided to write Mandy a letter years later, in an attempt to repair the rift that had been created between them. Jodi hoped to work through the conflict between them, and was really anxious to receive a reply from Mandy, but instead of receiving an olive branch in her reply, she received a letter that announced the permanent end of their friendship. Jodi allowed me to read the letter she'd been sent and I was furious! Mandy's reply cut Jodi to the core! But before I let it tear me apart, I began looking at the past and I realized, if I were in Mandy's place right now, I'd be drinking.
Thinking cooler heads would prevail here, I decided to write Nik an email asking him to basically help me sort through and attempt to understand the events that had just taken place. To my surprise, the response I received from Nik wasn't all that different from the one that Jodi had received from Mandy.
To paraphrase his response, Nik told me that all of my unpredictable behavior made me a force to be reckoned with. He also added that he regretted not getting involved and put and end to my drinking a long time ago. He basically ended the letter by stating that they (he and Mandy)finally reached a point where they decided to walk away from the chaos once and for all. I was devastated. I don't remember if I ever told Nik or not, but he is the only person EVER to have called me a best friend. I remember it in exacting clarity. I felt it was an incredible honor to have gained this title considering how many friends he had. I may have been older than Nik by a couple years, but in many ways I looked up to him. I have never met anyone who was not limited by surrounding and circumstance, or by the expectations of others. It was these strengths that drew people close to him; including myself.
Looking back at all the things that were related to or were the result of my drinking, I can't blame them for becoming overwhelmed by it. It reached a point where my drinking became a consideration in almost every instance where I was involved. I can't fault them for reaching a point where a difficult decision had to be made. People dealing with addiction lose friends in similar situations all the time. And although the contents of the letter hurt deeply, it's the principle of the thing that hurts the most.
It hurts so much because this was the same group of friends that back in high school accepted people just as they were. This is the same group that despised the popular kids bent on exclusivity and popularity. You didn't have to come from a wealthy family or wear designer clothing and listen to all the mind-numbing corporate rock. But now, it appears we have lost sight of our creed. But, 20 years is a long time and I can imagine it would be difficult to remember how hard it is to deal with rejection like that.
Of my speech team family and those in our extended family, only one of them was there for me when I was at my worst. In fact, that person I am extremely close to this very day. At a point when I was living in Florida, I had hit absolute rock bottom. Drugs and alcohol had taken their toll on me, I'd lost my job, my car and was on the verge of homelessness, when one from this large family of friends, took vigil by my side. That person happens to be the woman I eventually married. I reached out to her when my life was in a death-spiral. And no matter what it took, she was determined to help me get my life back in order. The amazing part about this is the fact that Jodi wasn't part of the speech team gang. In fact, I really didn't know her all that well. She was in our extended family and of the hundreds of times I got together with the whole gang, Jodi was present for fewer than a dozen. Nevertheless, she was there for me.
I'd like to say the drugs and alcohol problems went away when I moved back home to Indiana, but they didn't. In fact, the first couple of years we were married, I continued to struggle with addiction. And instead of throwing her hands in the air and say, "that's it, I've had enough !" She has continued to be there for me, to love me and to do whatever it took to see me through it.
After a number of years, I have finally conquered these problems and have established normalcy in life for the first time. She is the embodiment of what true friendship is all about. I still see members of the old speech team gang every once in awhile, but the adhesive that held all of it together is long gone. I have been invited to get together with the whole gang on a few occasions, but I think it was extended to me because it was the polite thing to do. I'm sure they knew I would not attend.
It is this experience, and many like it, that have allowed me to become a better judge of character. It has also allowed me to appreciate and value the true friends I do have. I would also like to add that I am not trying to trivialize alcoholism. It continues to destroy families and friendships all the time. And when I look back to the letter I received from Nik, I keep going back to the part when he told me he regrets not having become involved and put an end to the problem long ago. He should! If I had a friend that I was close to like Nik and I were, I would do everything in my power to see them through. But, I guess that is just the way I value friendship.
Having grown up in a family with 80's-era white-collar parents, we didn't live in the same place for more than 5 years at a time. As a result, my brother and I grew up among kids from a variety of social circles. On one end of the scale, we lived among some of the best examples of poor white trash and on the other end, we had friends who were from families with 6 and 7 digit incomes. Some kids criticized us for being spoiled rich kids while others saw us as lower class Indiana hillbillies. As a result, it was extremely rare for my brother and I to have friends from families like our own. I can't speak for my brother, but I spent most of my teens feeling like an outsider. I found it more difficult because I grew up without must self-esteem.
Because we moved around a lot, my brother and I went to several schools. The types of schools I attended offered less than desirable public education to private schools funded by some of Chicago's wealthiest and elite families. These education settings made the establishment of friendships even more difficult. I think all of these changes caused me to always feel like an outsider and an outcast which made me the target of a great deal of bullying.
By the time I reached high school, I lived in constant fear of being beaten up. I never had the opportunity to become involved in any extracurricular activities which made it even more difficult to identify with my classmates. I didn't play sports so I really didn't have any friends that were jocks. I didn't play an instrument so I didn't have much in common with any of the band kids and I was way too introverted to be involved in school government and all the bullying and moving around took it's toll on my grades so I didn't have much in common with the kids that excelled academically so the few friends I did have were usually social outcasts like myself. I just didn't fit in.
Before the start of my senior year, I remember going through my parents' yearbooks. What caught my attention were the kids that were seniors. Much like the yearbooks of today, next to the pictures of all the graduating seniors were the lists of accomplishments and the activities they'd been involved with. I guess you could say that I experienced an epiphany. I realized that if I didn't make some serious changes, I was going to be one of the kids that had nothing listed next to their picture. I became determined that I wasn't going to let that happen. So, I made up my mind, I was going to have to make some serious changes.
In addition to my new found determination, I think I was actually beginning to settle in to my own skin because once we settled in to our first grading period, I hit the ground running. One of the classes I took my senior year was called communications. In many ways, this class was my Dead Poet's Society. In addition to helping me feel more self-confident, it allowed me to nurture the talents that exist in each of us. This class broke open a floodgate creating only one regret: that I hadn't discovered this class sooner.
A short time after the class started, our teacher announced try-outs for speech team. One of the kids that I quickly became friends with, Nik, had been on the speech team the previous year and encouraged me to try it. My immediate feeling on the matter was terror. I had never been one terribly comfortable in front of people speaking, but I quickly remembered my experience with my parents' yearbooks. I saw this as an opportunity to have something by my name in my yearbook. During try-outs, Nik introduced me to the other members who had been on the speech team the year before and before I knew it, I found myself involved with like-minded kids for the first time.
During the very first speech meet, I had some serious doubts about being on this team. I remember before I went in to my very first round, I was so terrified that I went into the bathroom and vomited. Would I remember my lines? Would I make a fool out of myself??? I didn't know for sure, but I decided to throw caution to the wind and participated anyway. Typically, a speech meet lasts all day on each Saturday they are scheduled. During the meet, which ever categories you are involved in, meets three different times and depending on how well you score, you can qualify for a fourth and final round. After all of the final rounds are complete, all the students from all the schools meet in an auditorium and those that have attended a final round then learn how they have scored overall. That first Saturday, I didn't make it to a final round. And even though I was disappointed to have not placed, I experienced a personal victory for having accomplished something that I had previously been too terrified to do. That was reward enough.
There were around 20 kids or so on the speech team that year. The thing that meant the most to me about this group of 20 or so kids was that we were tight. Although there were occasional differences that occurred among them, we never lost focus of what we were doing and the personal relationships rarely got in the way of what we were there to do. I think this bond that we shared was the result of just one very important element. We drew close to each other because each one of us were outcasts. We were all castaways from the established social circles common in every high school. What was about to happen took everyone by surprise and once it occurred, none of us ever looked back.
In order to fully appreciate what happened, it's important to know a little bit about each of the kids that made us this unique force. It's important because up to that point, each member of this speech team were examples of kids that most often were the targets of some of the cruelest forms of bullying imaginable. I'm not going to mention these kids by name here, instead, I will give a description of them that will still clearly illustrate the malady. One of us didn't particularly like to bathe, a couple members struggled with their sexual identity, a few came from families where some of the darkest forms of abuse continued to occur, one fully resented one parent and played the role of parent to the other parent, a couple were unrealized geniuses and the rest were a culmination of backward, maladjusted introverts very fond of Dungeons and Dragons while the remaining few were academically brilliant while being socially retarded. But one commonality that we all shared was that we outcasts of mainstream high school culture.
The year progressed and as we became better at our craft, the closer we all became as friends. In addition to the time we invested in speech team, we all began socializing outside of school functions. And because many of them/us were uncharacteristically brilliant, the things we involved ourselves in away from school, were nothing like the things that I'd remembered my parents talking about doing when they were our age. Although we were these "outcasts", we didn't do most of the things that you might expect outcasts to do. We didn't do drugs (although some did privately) and for the most part, alcohol never really came up on our social radar. Where did we spend a lot of our time together? Hanging out with a larger group of outcasts. What does that mean......? Well, here's what we did.
During the 80's, punk and alternative music were still widely unknown. Although this genre of music had it's start in the mid to late 70's, it's popularity remained limited to large cities on either coast. The "large group of outcasts", I mentioned above was a small punk/alternative club housed in a small, run-down motel bar in Fort Wayne, IN called "Seventh Level". During the week, the bar sold drinks to cheap, weary travelers, but on Sunday nights, the fabulous freaks converged into an ever-growing collection of social outcasts such as ourselves. It was at Seventh Level where 2 foot tall purple mohawks, liberty spikes and gallons of black nail polish and eyeliner became an established norm. And like our speech team had been for us, "The Level", as it was known, was yet another place where you were accepted just as you are.
Most of the time, Nik and I were the ones that went to the Level almost every Sunday night however, it was not terribly uncommon for other members of our speech team to go along as well. This was the first time I had ever been this comfortable in a public group of kids in my life. And much like the investment we'd made with the speech team, we wanted to learn everything we could about this new niche we'd discovered.
As we became more familiar with the culture, so did our knowledge of it's music. Before long, our music collections changed from bubble gum pop and heavy metal to punk and alternative bands most had never heard of. That was ok by me. The less I am reminded of the groups that used to persecute me, the better.
A couple paragraphs ago, I mentioned that an event took place that surprised everyone. There came a time during my senior year when most of the teasing and bullying that we all had endured one time or another, stopped! The days of being threatened, tripped, intimidated, insulted and ganged up on, were no more. The small group that we had become in the beginning, was now a much larger, stronger and appealing force. This meant that for the first time, school royalty were forced to acknowledge us as a social class, something they never saw coming. If you ask me to identify the turning point, I'd have to say that it took place right around the time when the freshmen and sophomores began to express interest in what we stood for. If I were asked what I felt were the most significant events that took place that year, I would have to say it was this paradigm shift. We went from being one of the biggest groups of social outcasts to the ones who younger kids wanted to be like. I believe the culmination of our efforts occurred during the school dance where the dj agreed to finally play our music.
As quickly as it began, the school year ended. During that summer before college, most of us continued to hang out together. I remembered feeling fear because I was afraid that when school ended, so would the closeness I felt toward everyone that I'd grown to know that year. To my delight, the bond of friendship remained; stronger than ever. Eventually, everyone in the group graduated from high school and the group did everything it could to get together as often as possible. Weeks and months went by and the friendships we all shared remained stronger than ever. I thought it would last forever.
Although the friendship we shared was better and stronger than I'd imagined, there were elements of my life before I met them that went largely unresolved. Having gone fast and furious all year long, I'd never really dealt with the horrible, ugly things that we hope our kids never experience, but sadly, and all too often, they do. I feel it is those events that contributed to using alcohol as a means of coping. It was available and it was an easy way to deal with darkness, especially when you don't want others to see your weakness. I had never been a habitual drinker up to that point, but many of my friends/classmates began to sense that something just wasn't right about my way of dealing/coping with problems. And sadly, it was just the beginning of a very long battle for me.
Like many of the stories we've all heard throughout our lives, my use of alcohol grew steadily. In fact, I can recall times in my life where I was drinking very heavily. There were numerous times where it was not uncommon for me to drink a half gallon of hard liquor every couple of days. This pattern of abuse lasted for years. Having been an addict for so long, I guess I never really realized until later that almost every single time I would get together with all of my friends, I would be drinking. As is the case so often, my alcoholism resulted in a roller coaster of chaos in my life. Much of which was either witnessed by or involved my group of friends. For example, there were probably hundreds of times where I would make the drive between Kendallville and Fort Wayne with a blood/alcohol level two and maybe three times greater than the legal limit. I was all about taking risks. A gamble that nearly cost me my life more times than I care to mention. However, I was never the only one in the group who was dealing with demons in their lives. Each of us had our own unique way of coping; most of which were just as unappealing as my drinking. But, like our outcast creed to accept others as they are, we dealt with the problems among us in stride.
Several years after high school, my friend Nik married a fellow speech team member named Mandy. Coincidentally, at one point, my wife was as close to Mandy as I was to Nik. My wife Jodi told me that she and Mandy had had a huge falling out. Jodi told me that she'd been really hurt by some of the things that took place between she and Mandy, so she decided to write Mandy a letter years later, in an attempt to repair the rift that had been created between them. Jodi hoped to work through the conflict between them, and was really anxious to receive a reply from Mandy, but instead of receiving an olive branch in her reply, she received a letter that announced the permanent end of their friendship. Jodi allowed me to read the letter she'd been sent and I was furious! Mandy's reply cut Jodi to the core! But before I let it tear me apart, I began looking at the past and I realized, if I were in Mandy's place right now, I'd be drinking.
Thinking cooler heads would prevail here, I decided to write Nik an email asking him to basically help me sort through and attempt to understand the events that had just taken place. To my surprise, the response I received from Nik wasn't all that different from the one that Jodi had received from Mandy.
To paraphrase his response, Nik told me that all of my unpredictable behavior made me a force to be reckoned with. He also added that he regretted not getting involved and put and end to my drinking a long time ago. He basically ended the letter by stating that they (he and Mandy)finally reached a point where they decided to walk away from the chaos once and for all. I was devastated. I don't remember if I ever told Nik or not, but he is the only person EVER to have called me a best friend. I remember it in exacting clarity. I felt it was an incredible honor to have gained this title considering how many friends he had. I may have been older than Nik by a couple years, but in many ways I looked up to him. I have never met anyone who was not limited by surrounding and circumstance, or by the expectations of others. It was these strengths that drew people close to him; including myself.
Looking back at all the things that were related to or were the result of my drinking, I can't blame them for becoming overwhelmed by it. It reached a point where my drinking became a consideration in almost every instance where I was involved. I can't fault them for reaching a point where a difficult decision had to be made. People dealing with addiction lose friends in similar situations all the time. And although the contents of the letter hurt deeply, it's the principle of the thing that hurts the most.
It hurts so much because this was the same group of friends that back in high school accepted people just as they were. This is the same group that despised the popular kids bent on exclusivity and popularity. You didn't have to come from a wealthy family or wear designer clothing and listen to all the mind-numbing corporate rock. But now, it appears we have lost sight of our creed. But, 20 years is a long time and I can imagine it would be difficult to remember how hard it is to deal with rejection like that.
Of my speech team family and those in our extended family, only one of them was there for me when I was at my worst. In fact, that person I am extremely close to this very day. At a point when I was living in Florida, I had hit absolute rock bottom. Drugs and alcohol had taken their toll on me, I'd lost my job, my car and was on the verge of homelessness, when one from this large family of friends, took vigil by my side. That person happens to be the woman I eventually married. I reached out to her when my life was in a death-spiral. And no matter what it took, she was determined to help me get my life back in order. The amazing part about this is the fact that Jodi wasn't part of the speech team gang. In fact, I really didn't know her all that well. She was in our extended family and of the hundreds of times I got together with the whole gang, Jodi was present for fewer than a dozen. Nevertheless, she was there for me.
I'd like to say the drugs and alcohol problems went away when I moved back home to Indiana, but they didn't. In fact, the first couple of years we were married, I continued to struggle with addiction. And instead of throwing her hands in the air and say, "that's it, I've had enough !" She has continued to be there for me, to love me and to do whatever it took to see me through it.
After a number of years, I have finally conquered these problems and have established normalcy in life for the first time. She is the embodiment of what true friendship is all about. I still see members of the old speech team gang every once in awhile, but the adhesive that held all of it together is long gone. I have been invited to get together with the whole gang on a few occasions, but I think it was extended to me because it was the polite thing to do. I'm sure they knew I would not attend.
It is this experience, and many like it, that have allowed me to become a better judge of character. It has also allowed me to appreciate and value the true friends I do have. I would also like to add that I am not trying to trivialize alcoholism. It continues to destroy families and friendships all the time. And when I look back to the letter I received from Nik, I keep going back to the part when he told me he regrets not having become involved and put an end to the problem long ago. He should! If I had a friend that I was close to like Nik and I were, I would do everything in my power to see them through. But, I guess that is just the way I value friendship.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Like Pushing Water Up a Hill
This latest attack on the pharmaceutical industry, sadly, is too little, too late. Placing limitations on over-the-counter pain relievers and banning certain narcotic pain medications will prove to be a waste of tax payer dollars. These measures have as much of a chance at success as someone trying to wipe out the lightning bug population by going after the ones that blink.
There has been a great deal of debate in Washington DC regarding the limitation and elimination of a number of over-the-counter pain medications as well as some popular narcotic pain relievers. The FDA suggests that by reducing the strength of over-the-counter meds, it will sharply reduce the number of overdoses that occur each year.
Before we can proceed with this line of thinking, I think it would help to better understand why OTC pain relievers are abused in the first place. The first thing we can rule out is that aspirin, Tylenol and Ibuprofen have a nonexistent risk for abuse. None of these medications, when used alone, create any sort of pleasant euphoric effect no matter the dosage. However, there are many prescription medications that contain NSAIDS and many of the NSAID overdoses treated in hospitals are the result of poisoning from the abuse of these medicine's narcotic components.
A few years ago, I confronted my pharmacist wondering why most narcotic pain medications contain either acetaminophen, aspirin and ibuprofen. He explained there were two reasons. The first reason was that drug manufacturers found that by adding NSAIDS to narcotic pain meds, they were able to reduce the amount of the narcotic without reducing the medicine's effectiveness. The other, and not widely discussed, is that drug companies added NSAIDS in an attempt to limit it's abuse potential. Ask the FDA and these drug companies how this plan has worked out for them. The only thing that changed was the number of NSAID overdoses that were being treated in hospitals around the country.
Before we continue, we need to look at this whole thing as seen and heard by the eyes and ears of someone with an addictive personality. If these measures are approved, it will only exacerbate the problem. Addicts believe that if taking one pill helps, taking two pills will work even better. The same also applies to OTC medications. This is especially the case among drugs that have gone from being just a prescription medicine to one that can be purchased over the counter in a reduced strength. In fact, drug companies encourage this line of thinking by offering these medications at exactly 1/2 the strength of their presumption only counterparts. By marketing these OTC variations at exactly half the prescription strength, this tells consumers that taking two of the OTC drug is equal to 1 dose of the prescription strength version of the same drug. This only serves to reinforce the myth that states the more you take the better it works.
If this legislation is approved, an even bigger mistake would be if in addition to reducing the amount of NSAIDS in pain relieving drugs, they also reduce the strength of the narcotic component. Drug companies will likely approve such a measure because they understand their customers better than the FDA. They know that if such a measure is passed, their customers will be forced to buy more of their product in order to maintain the same dosage.
If we support this measure, it is going to become even harder for patients with pain to receive the medications they need to obtain any kind of quality of life. I think the only change that will take place is drug companies are going to see a sharp increase in annual sales. Hardest hit of all are the tens of thousands of Americans living with horrible pain every day. This pain, the result of botched surgeries has resulted in a cocktail of powerful narcotics that would likely kill anyone not used to the dosage. Although deadly to most, this miracle of modern medicine has proven to be the only way this loved one can do things like walk, climb stairs, and do most other daily tasks that are often taken for granted. Maintaining care for our loved one has not come without a price. Insurance companies, doctors and even the U.S. Government has made several attempts to reduce or even eliminate the dispensing of these controversial medicines. We fear that if this pharmaceutical witch hunt continues, what life for our loved one remains, will be drastically cut short.
I think we need to remind ourselves that addicts will take extraordinary measures to maintain their habit and likewise, people living with chronic pain will do almost anything to obtain relief from it. The last ten years have seen the largest increase in the cultivation and manufacture of high grade opium; the organic narcotic ingredient in such things as heroin, Oxycontin and Vicodin, in decades prior. In fact, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan reports that an estimated 500,000 acres of drug-producing opium poppies were grown last season and that Afghanistan now accounts for more than 92% of the world's opium. As a result of this alarming growth, the price of heroin on the street has dropped sharply. Right now, the price of 1 Vicodin ES tablet (which contains 7.5 milligrams of hydrocodone) averages about $6.00, or about 80 cents per milligram. On the other hand, heroin; three times more powerful than morphine, sells on the street for about 18 cents per milligram. If addicts and persons living in terrible pain can no longer obtain federally regulated prescription medication, where do you think they will turn to improve the supply line?
The more I thought about this subject, the more I began to suspect that drug companies true motivation had nothing to do with public safety. Imagine you are a top executive for a company that manufactures and distributes narcotic pain medication. Let's say your main competitor is able to sell their products at a price you know can never meet let alone beat. What would your strategy be? I believe these drug manufacturers realize the end is near and will do anything it takes to earn as much as they can until their market disappears. And so, they devise a plan that will allow them to lower the amount of the ingredients but will still charge consumers the same price as the full strength drugs available today.
All speculating aside, what can be done to fix this? I think we need to focus more on education programs pertaining to fitness, nutrition and counseling.I think doctors should also improve their ability to spot potential abuse among their patients. These suggestions will not be the magic bullet needed to fix this problem. But they would be a good start. I am all for a drug program that reduce the number of drug related illness and death, but at what expense? Sadly, as we have seen over and over in our culture, it's always the honest, law-abiding citizens that are forced to pay for the poor choices made by criminals.
There has been a great deal of debate in Washington DC regarding the limitation and elimination of a number of over-the-counter pain medications as well as some popular narcotic pain relievers. The FDA suggests that by reducing the strength of over-the-counter meds, it will sharply reduce the number of overdoses that occur each year.
Before we can proceed with this line of thinking, I think it would help to better understand why OTC pain relievers are abused in the first place. The first thing we can rule out is that aspirin, Tylenol and Ibuprofen have a nonexistent risk for abuse. None of these medications, when used alone, create any sort of pleasant euphoric effect no matter the dosage. However, there are many prescription medications that contain NSAIDS and many of the NSAID overdoses treated in hospitals are the result of poisoning from the abuse of these medicine's narcotic components.
A few years ago, I confronted my pharmacist wondering why most narcotic pain medications contain either acetaminophen, aspirin and ibuprofen. He explained there were two reasons. The first reason was that drug manufacturers found that by adding NSAIDS to narcotic pain meds, they were able to reduce the amount of the narcotic without reducing the medicine's effectiveness. The other, and not widely discussed, is that drug companies added NSAIDS in an attempt to limit it's abuse potential. Ask the FDA and these drug companies how this plan has worked out for them. The only thing that changed was the number of NSAID overdoses that were being treated in hospitals around the country.
Before we continue, we need to look at this whole thing as seen and heard by the eyes and ears of someone with an addictive personality. If these measures are approved, it will only exacerbate the problem. Addicts believe that if taking one pill helps, taking two pills will work even better. The same also applies to OTC medications. This is especially the case among drugs that have gone from being just a prescription medicine to one that can be purchased over the counter in a reduced strength. In fact, drug companies encourage this line of thinking by offering these medications at exactly 1/2 the strength of their presumption only counterparts. By marketing these OTC variations at exactly half the prescription strength, this tells consumers that taking two of the OTC drug is equal to 1 dose of the prescription strength version of the same drug. This only serves to reinforce the myth that states the more you take the better it works.
If this legislation is approved, an even bigger mistake would be if in addition to reducing the amount of NSAIDS in pain relieving drugs, they also reduce the strength of the narcotic component. Drug companies will likely approve such a measure because they understand their customers better than the FDA. They know that if such a measure is passed, their customers will be forced to buy more of their product in order to maintain the same dosage.
If we support this measure, it is going to become even harder for patients with pain to receive the medications they need to obtain any kind of quality of life. I think the only change that will take place is drug companies are going to see a sharp increase in annual sales. Hardest hit of all are the tens of thousands of Americans living with horrible pain every day. This pain, the result of botched surgeries has resulted in a cocktail of powerful narcotics that would likely kill anyone not used to the dosage. Although deadly to most, this miracle of modern medicine has proven to be the only way this loved one can do things like walk, climb stairs, and do most other daily tasks that are often taken for granted. Maintaining care for our loved one has not come without a price. Insurance companies, doctors and even the U.S. Government has made several attempts to reduce or even eliminate the dispensing of these controversial medicines. We fear that if this pharmaceutical witch hunt continues, what life for our loved one remains, will be drastically cut short.
I think we need to remind ourselves that addicts will take extraordinary measures to maintain their habit and likewise, people living with chronic pain will do almost anything to obtain relief from it. The last ten years have seen the largest increase in the cultivation and manufacture of high grade opium; the organic narcotic ingredient in such things as heroin, Oxycontin and Vicodin, in decades prior. In fact, the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan reports that an estimated 500,000 acres of drug-producing opium poppies were grown last season and that Afghanistan now accounts for more than 92% of the world's opium. As a result of this alarming growth, the price of heroin on the street has dropped sharply. Right now, the price of 1 Vicodin ES tablet (which contains 7.5 milligrams of hydrocodone) averages about $6.00, or about 80 cents per milligram. On the other hand, heroin; three times more powerful than morphine, sells on the street for about 18 cents per milligram. If addicts and persons living in terrible pain can no longer obtain federally regulated prescription medication, where do you think they will turn to improve the supply line?
The more I thought about this subject, the more I began to suspect that drug companies true motivation had nothing to do with public safety. Imagine you are a top executive for a company that manufactures and distributes narcotic pain medication. Let's say your main competitor is able to sell their products at a price you know can never meet let alone beat. What would your strategy be? I believe these drug manufacturers realize the end is near and will do anything it takes to earn as much as they can until their market disappears. And so, they devise a plan that will allow them to lower the amount of the ingredients but will still charge consumers the same price as the full strength drugs available today.
All speculating aside, what can be done to fix this? I think we need to focus more on education programs pertaining to fitness, nutrition and counseling.I think doctors should also improve their ability to spot potential abuse among their patients. These suggestions will not be the magic bullet needed to fix this problem. But they would be a good start. I am all for a drug program that reduce the number of drug related illness and death, but at what expense? Sadly, as we have seen over and over in our culture, it's always the honest, law-abiding citizens that are forced to pay for the poor choices made by criminals.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Cost of Living: at great cost, without a lot of living.
With the current state of the economy, I've become very concerned about life after retirement. Trustees of Social security report that Social Security will be completely depleted by 2040 and Medicare will be depleted by 2018. That is less that 10 years from now. Since this announcement, those of us who are planning for our retirement have had to shift gears. Many investment professionals are advising their clients not to include Social Security and Medicare benefits as part of their investment strategy. As a result, many investors turned to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, IRA's and 401k's. Unfortunately, with the wall street free fall, Ponzi schemes and empty 401k coffers, many are left scratching their heads wondering how they are going to make it. As a result, many retiree's have been thrust back into the workforce just to make ends meet.
In a similarly difficult position are those of us who have a decade or two before retirement. Our investment strategy is that there isn't money there to invest. In fact, the investment landscape has become so volatile that some people; having moved out of mom and dad's house decades ago, are forced to move back in with their parents just so they can get ahead. Why is this happening? Are people just making poor investment choices? Are extravagant lifestyles to blame? I'm sure there are many reasons why this happens, but I intend to shed some light on what I think is happening. I think a good place to start is the statistics. I've chosen to make a comparison of life in 1980 to life in 2009. I will be using a simple inflation calculator to illustrate my point.
The first category I want to compare is income. In 1980, the average income in the United States was $19,500/yr. Plugging that figure into the inflation calculator shows us that $19,500 in 1980 dollars is $53,448.31 in 2009 dollars. Unfortunately, the U.S. Census bureau lists the average U.S. income is only $48,934.00 or 10% lower than projected. Many blame skyrocketing health insurance premiums as the primary reason for this lower than expected income growth. I will address health care issues later. So, this tells us that Americans are earning 10% less than they did almost 30 years ago.
The next comparison I'd like to make is residency. According to usgovinfo.about.com the average single-family home was valued at $56,300.00 in 1980. According to our inflation calculator, buying that same home in 2009 should cost $154,314.85. In 2009, the average price for a single-family dwelling is more than $260,000.00.That means American's are spending 40% more on their primary residence than they did in 1980. Now that we have established that American's are earning 10% less and spending 40% more for their homes, let's look at how John Q Public gets to work each day.
In 1980, a Buick Le Sabre with a V-8 and moderately optioned, had a sticker price of 7,088.25. Our inflation calculator tells us that in 2009 dollars, that same car should cost $19,428.46. According to the Buick website, their entry level automobile starts at $26,390.00 without options. Auto makers claim that better quality products and state of the art safety features justify the increased cost. I disagree. Statistics show the average U.S. car costs roughly $63.00 per labor hour to build. On the other hand, Japanese automakers build cars at a cost of about $36.00 per labor hour. U.S. automakers should be ashamed! Not only do Japanese automakers build cars for about $27.00 per man hour less that U.S. automakers, they also build better cars. Why is there such a huge gap in these numbers, the UAW, plain and simple.
Speaking of the UAW, I want to talk about NAFTA. I'll admit, on paper, NAFTA seemed like a great idea. I think it was believed that by loosening import/export policy, it would be an incredible boost to our economy. Sadly, it's intended purpose was exploited. Instead of removing obstacles on trade-routes and improving our economy, employers found loop holes that allowed them to send high-paying jobs to countries who pay laborers a fraction of what employees are paid in the US. According to fair.org, 400,000 U.S. jobs have been lost to foreign countries and the U.S. went from a 1.7 billion dollar trade surplus with Mexico to a 15 billion dollar deficit just 5 years later and that includes the devaluation of the peso. There's no guessing here, the only reason why these jobs are going over seas is wages. And who is at the forefront of higher U.S. earnings? The afl-cio.
Organized labor played an important part in championing fair wages and a safe working conditions, but this need has slowly diminished over time. For those of you that still believe labor unions are looking out for your best interest, understand you are being deceived. Labor unions are like any other business, they are in this to make money for themselves. If unions have your best interests in mind, then why would they continue to push employers to pay workers higher wages right up to the point where employers can no longer afford to pay their labor force. They aren't looking out for you at all. What they are pushing here is your eventual unemployment.
Now let's talk about food. According to the bureau of labor statistics, in 1980, the average person spent around $87.00 per month for groceries. When you plug that $87.00 per month into our inflation calculator, that same $87.00 would cost over $225.00 in 2009. However, the BLS states that $87.00 worth of groceries would now cost a little more than $210.00. Although that is less than predicted by our calculator, remember, families are making 10% less and paying 40% more for their homes. There are so many other items and so many variables in a monthly budget, but the expenses I've covered above are the core expenses of most U.S. households.
Now that we have established basic input/output, let's look at how well or how poor a fictional family would live based on the data above. According to our data, the average family income is $48,934.00 or $4077.00 per month gross. Once you take away all the usual deductions, our net income is actually $3098.52 Based on the data above, the median home price in 2009 is $260,000.00. If the loan is financed at 30 years and 6% interest, the monthly mortgage payment is $1,671.50. Most professionals will tell you that as a rule of thumb, you should spend no more than 30% of your monthly income on your mortgage. Unfortunately, our fictional family is spending 41% of their income on their house payment. As it stands, after we make our house payment, we are left with $1,427.02
Now that our house payment is paid, the next bill we are going to pay is our car payment. Our family financed their new Buick with no money down for a term of 5 years with about 9% interest. That makes our monthly car payment $479.42. If you factor in the amount of gasoline the average American spends each month ($169.92) and the average cost for car insurance each month ($78.00), Americans are spending $726.71 on transportation. This leaves us with $700.31. Now that we've made our house payment and our car payment, it's time to go buy our monthly groceries. Like we said above, the average family spends about $210.00 each month for groceries. Once we've bought our groceries, we are left with $490.31. The next checks we need to write are for our utilities. The average electric bill is about $120.00 per month, natural gas usage averages about $110.00 per month, the average phone bill is a conservative $80.00 per month, and cable and internet total about $100.00 per month. And so, that means the average American is spending about $410.00 per month on utilities. That leaves us with $80 and some change. At this point, most people would look at their budget and decide it's necessary to make some sacrifices. And so, our family concludes that since cable and internet aren't "vital", most families would dump those services. This adds $100.00 back into our budget and now instead of just $80.00 surplus, we now have $180.00 left.
According to U.S. government statistics, in 2009, U.S. households should expect to pay an average of $2,500.00 each year in out of pocket medical expenses. That breaks down to $208.33 per month. Plugging that figure into our budget, once the most basic monthly expenses are paid, we are left with a negative balance of $28.33. We're not done yet. There are still quite a few monthly expenses that haven't been mentioned yet. We still haven't considered, clothing, household items, home repairs, car repairs, license plates, trash collection, education expenses, personal care, child care, gifts and charitable contributions. Even if we estimate each of those expenses at a ridiculous amount of ten dollars per month each, we are still looking at being in the red $148.33.
For the sake of space and time, I have gone back and plugged our 1980 figures into our budget equation and instead of a negative balance of $148.33, we have a surplus of $376.66. For the sake of effect. When we plug our $376.66 surplus into our inflation calculator, our $376.66 1980 dollars becomes $971.89.
I wish I could say there is light at the end of the tunnel, but I can't. Unfortunately, things are going to get worse. Insurance premiums are going to continue to rise as will our out of pocket expenses. Secondary education is going to cost more and more and once we have depleted social security and medicare, households on fixed incomes are going to get hit the worst.
In a similarly difficult position are those of us who have a decade or two before retirement. Our investment strategy is that there isn't money there to invest. In fact, the investment landscape has become so volatile that some people; having moved out of mom and dad's house decades ago, are forced to move back in with their parents just so they can get ahead. Why is this happening? Are people just making poor investment choices? Are extravagant lifestyles to blame? I'm sure there are many reasons why this happens, but I intend to shed some light on what I think is happening. I think a good place to start is the statistics. I've chosen to make a comparison of life in 1980 to life in 2009. I will be using a simple inflation calculator to illustrate my point.
The first category I want to compare is income. In 1980, the average income in the United States was $19,500/yr. Plugging that figure into the inflation calculator shows us that $19,500 in 1980 dollars is $53,448.31 in 2009 dollars. Unfortunately, the U.S. Census bureau lists the average U.S. income is only $48,934.00 or 10% lower than projected. Many blame skyrocketing health insurance premiums as the primary reason for this lower than expected income growth. I will address health care issues later. So, this tells us that Americans are earning 10% less than they did almost 30 years ago.
The next comparison I'd like to make is residency. According to usgovinfo.about.com the average single-family home was valued at $56,300.00 in 1980. According to our inflation calculator, buying that same home in 2009 should cost $154,314.85. In 2009, the average price for a single-family dwelling is more than $260,000.00.That means American's are spending 40% more on their primary residence than they did in 1980. Now that we have established that American's are earning 10% less and spending 40% more for their homes, let's look at how John Q Public gets to work each day.
In 1980, a Buick Le Sabre with a V-8 and moderately optioned, had a sticker price of 7,088.25. Our inflation calculator tells us that in 2009 dollars, that same car should cost $19,428.46. According to the Buick website, their entry level automobile starts at $26,390.00 without options. Auto makers claim that better quality products and state of the art safety features justify the increased cost. I disagree. Statistics show the average U.S. car costs roughly $63.00 per labor hour to build. On the other hand, Japanese automakers build cars at a cost of about $36.00 per labor hour. U.S. automakers should be ashamed! Not only do Japanese automakers build cars for about $27.00 per man hour less that U.S. automakers, they also build better cars. Why is there such a huge gap in these numbers, the UAW, plain and simple.
Speaking of the UAW, I want to talk about NAFTA. I'll admit, on paper, NAFTA seemed like a great idea. I think it was believed that by loosening import/export policy, it would be an incredible boost to our economy. Sadly, it's intended purpose was exploited. Instead of removing obstacles on trade-routes and improving our economy, employers found loop holes that allowed them to send high-paying jobs to countries who pay laborers a fraction of what employees are paid in the US. According to fair.org, 400,000 U.S. jobs have been lost to foreign countries and the U.S. went from a 1.7 billion dollar trade surplus with Mexico to a 15 billion dollar deficit just 5 years later and that includes the devaluation of the peso. There's no guessing here, the only reason why these jobs are going over seas is wages. And who is at the forefront of higher U.S. earnings? The afl-cio.
Organized labor played an important part in championing fair wages and a safe working conditions, but this need has slowly diminished over time. For those of you that still believe labor unions are looking out for your best interest, understand you are being deceived. Labor unions are like any other business, they are in this to make money for themselves. If unions have your best interests in mind, then why would they continue to push employers to pay workers higher wages right up to the point where employers can no longer afford to pay their labor force. They aren't looking out for you at all. What they are pushing here is your eventual unemployment.
Now let's talk about food. According to the bureau of labor statistics, in 1980, the average person spent around $87.00 per month for groceries. When you plug that $87.00 per month into our inflation calculator, that same $87.00 would cost over $225.00 in 2009. However, the BLS states that $87.00 worth of groceries would now cost a little more than $210.00. Although that is less than predicted by our calculator, remember, families are making 10% less and paying 40% more for their homes. There are so many other items and so many variables in a monthly budget, but the expenses I've covered above are the core expenses of most U.S. households.
Now that we have established basic input/output, let's look at how well or how poor a fictional family would live based on the data above. According to our data, the average family income is $48,934.00 or $4077.00 per month gross. Once you take away all the usual deductions, our net income is actually $3098.52 Based on the data above, the median home price in 2009 is $260,000.00. If the loan is financed at 30 years and 6% interest, the monthly mortgage payment is $1,671.50. Most professionals will tell you that as a rule of thumb, you should spend no more than 30% of your monthly income on your mortgage. Unfortunately, our fictional family is spending 41% of their income on their house payment. As it stands, after we make our house payment, we are left with $1,427.02
Now that our house payment is paid, the next bill we are going to pay is our car payment. Our family financed their new Buick with no money down for a term of 5 years with about 9% interest. That makes our monthly car payment $479.42. If you factor in the amount of gasoline the average American spends each month ($169.92) and the average cost for car insurance each month ($78.00), Americans are spending $726.71 on transportation. This leaves us with $700.31. Now that we've made our house payment and our car payment, it's time to go buy our monthly groceries. Like we said above, the average family spends about $210.00 each month for groceries. Once we've bought our groceries, we are left with $490.31. The next checks we need to write are for our utilities. The average electric bill is about $120.00 per month, natural gas usage averages about $110.00 per month, the average phone bill is a conservative $80.00 per month, and cable and internet total about $100.00 per month. And so, that means the average American is spending about $410.00 per month on utilities. That leaves us with $80 and some change. At this point, most people would look at their budget and decide it's necessary to make some sacrifices. And so, our family concludes that since cable and internet aren't "vital", most families would dump those services. This adds $100.00 back into our budget and now instead of just $80.00 surplus, we now have $180.00 left.
According to U.S. government statistics, in 2009, U.S. households should expect to pay an average of $2,500.00 each year in out of pocket medical expenses. That breaks down to $208.33 per month. Plugging that figure into our budget, once the most basic monthly expenses are paid, we are left with a negative balance of $28.33. We're not done yet. There are still quite a few monthly expenses that haven't been mentioned yet. We still haven't considered, clothing, household items, home repairs, car repairs, license plates, trash collection, education expenses, personal care, child care, gifts and charitable contributions. Even if we estimate each of those expenses at a ridiculous amount of ten dollars per month each, we are still looking at being in the red $148.33.
For the sake of space and time, I have gone back and plugged our 1980 figures into our budget equation and instead of a negative balance of $148.33, we have a surplus of $376.66. For the sake of effect. When we plug our $376.66 surplus into our inflation calculator, our $376.66 1980 dollars becomes $971.89.
I wish I could say there is light at the end of the tunnel, but I can't. Unfortunately, things are going to get worse. Insurance premiums are going to continue to rise as will our out of pocket expenses. Secondary education is going to cost more and more and once we have depleted social security and medicare, households on fixed incomes are going to get hit the worst.
There are no simple solutions. What we need to do is just accept the fact that the glory days are over. We need to accept the fact that life could return to what it was like during the great depression. In fact, I think it is at least possible that life may actually become a whole lot worse. The days of careless spending are over. No more can we casually sit with a credit card watching the home shopping network. No more can we watch "My Super Sweet Sixteen" and not be nauseated by such blatant displays of entitlement. The days of excesses are behind us.
If there isn't a turn around soon, it is safe to say that we can expect to see a rise in corruption. A troubled economy means less taxes, less taxes mean less money to pay our police officers, fire fighters, our paramedics. Less pay for our police, fire and EMS services can lead to a need for other forms of income. Drugs, protection, pay-offs etc. And where there is corruption like this, that's when citizens will do whatever it takes to protect what is theirs. I think we are going to see a sharp rise in crimes such as robbery, burglary, assaults, rapes, muggings, drug and alcohol related crimes. We are going to see an explosion of identity thefts and scams. We will likely see public assistance coffers run dry. And sadly, we should also expect to see the number of homeless shelters, food banks and soup kitchens skyrocket.
I don't think there is an easy solution to this problem and unfortunately, even direct efforts to prevent this from happening may already be too late, even if something is done to correct it today. The only thing I can offer is to tell you it is time to accept what is happening. It serves no good purpose to lie to ourselves that the worst is behind us and in just a few short months we will be living the good life again.
I have toyed with the idea of owning a handgun for quite some time. Each time I've considered it, I've never able to get past the incredible risk involved with owning and keeping a gun in a home with children. With the way things are going in the world today, my daughter has become one of the reasons why I feel I need a fire arm. The jury is still out on that one, but I'm hoping to resolve this issue once and for all.
I know some of you see this blog as the proverbial sandwich board that says "the end of the world is near." if that is how you see it, it was never my intention. What I was attempting to do is shake people loose from their ambivalence. The more prepared we are collectively, the better chance we have to weather this storm.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The chalk dust that never settled, at least not for me
American Heritage Dictionary defines "relationship" as "The condition or fact of being related; connection or association." Under the same heading, relationship is also defined as, "A romantic or sexual involvement." It is this second definition that I would like to place emphasis upon.
Now before you click away from this blog in disgust, know that what is contained here isn't some sort of pornographic depiction, but rather an unfortunate outcome based on events that may or may not have happened. This may sound cryptic, but I assure you, what I am about to share with you shocked a rural Indiana town and still conjures a myriad of emotion even after more than 20 years.
Now before you click away from this blog in disgust, know that what is contained here isn't some sort of pornographic depiction, but rather an unfortunate outcome based on events that may or may not have happened. This may sound cryptic, but I assure you, what I am about to share with you shocked a rural Indiana town and still conjures a myriad of emotion even after more than 20 years.
During my senior year, I was involved in a few after school activities. Although I enjoyed all of the activities I participated in, the one that gave me the most satisfaction was our school's speech/forensics team. Not only was it my favorite, it was also the most difficult. Up to that point, I was terrified by the thought of public speaking. When I joined, I knew getting up in front of others was going to be my biggest challenge. Fortunately, within the first few weeks, I had become more and more confident. I credit this turn around to the students who encouraged me and my coach, Dorana Pethtel who mentored me.
Not only was I able to thrive under her guidance, many of the students she taught credit her much the same way. I can say with all honesty that had she not been my teacher and coach, I would not have achieved nearly as much. I think one of her best qualities is that she didn't establish a classroom hierarchy, instead she chose to view her classroom and speech team as more of a partnership.
In the winter of 1986, our community was rocked to learn that this same speech coach/teacher and her husband; also a school teacher, had been arrested and charged with child molesting. As you can imagine, when they were officially charged, the school board suspended them from teaching pending the outcome of this investigation. As time passed, we learned more and more about the charges that had been filed against them. . It was later learned that they were accused of molesting two students. The students claimed they had been invited over to the Pethtel's home where they had been provided with alcohol and then became involved in a sexual encounter with Dorana and her husband Steve.
The trial lasted for several days and their attorney felt confident that they would be acquitted on all charges. To every one's disbelief, they were found guilty on all charges. However, during the last couple of days of the trial, the Pethtel's attorney told us that the two students who had accused them of child molesting, admitted to the prosecutor they had made the whole thing up. He went on to say that the prosecutor blew up at them and told them that if they took this revelation to the judge, they would likely go to jail longer than the teachers they had accused.
When it was over, Dorana had been sentenced to 4 years in prison and Steve had been ordered to serve 5 years. The day of their sentencing would be the last time I would see them before they were sent off to prison. No matter how hard I've tried, I still haven't been able to get my head around this whole thing. When Dorana was taken away from us, all of us on the speech team felt as if we'd just been orphaned. Sadly, we weren't able to end our year on the high note that all of us so richly deserved. Our year-end banquet wasn't the celebration that we'd hoped for. No words of gratitude to our coach who encouraged us and taught us to push beyond our personal limitations. And no special congratulations from a coach to those who'd performed admirably. Nothing but a tear-stained letter of thanks from our teacher who was forbidden to attend.
Now, before you go get your nunchaku, I don't intend to prove whether they are guilty or not. I graciously acquiesce. I admit that I am not at all qualified to pass judgement upon them for the crimes they were accused. Sadly, neither were the legal "professionals" given the task of discovering the truth in their case.What I do intend to do is illustrate simple cause and effect.
First of all, what made Dorana such a damn good teacher and speech coach? Number one, because she truly listened. Secondly, because she spoke to the kids in their language. I'm not saying she talked like a teenager, rather she knew how to get through to her students in the language they understood. As I mentioned before, had I been coached on the speech team by any other person, I would likely have achieved much less than I did. She knew what my insecurities were and taught me to overcome them. I feel she was an extraordinarily gifted educator. I don't base that assessment on any academic credential, I base it solely on how much it allowed me to thrive.
Do I think they were capable of committing the crimes they were accused? Given the right circumstances, any one of us are "capable" of committing unthinkable crimes. We are flawed, fallible creatures.
One of the arguments the prosecutor used against them was the fact that students regularly visited the Pethtel's at their home. He suggested the Pethtel's used these invitations to their home were a vehicle for coercion. It is this line of thinking that suggests the prosecutor thought that perception is 9/10ths of the law.
I've remained in contact with quite a few of my old speech team friends and every once in awhile, the subject of their trial comes up and I'm asked if I think they did molest the two students. In my heart I don't believe they did it. In fact, none of the students I've remained friends with ever came forward admitting they had been involved in any kind of illicit behavior with the Pethtels. Many of my old speech friends have gone on to be very successful people. Among the students on the speech team during the 1986/1987 school year, there is a forensic pathologist, an engineer, a police officer and published writer, a deputy prosecuting attorney, 1 or 2 lawyers,Technical Support Consultant/Analyst 2 at the Notre Dame University academic library, and a hugely popular Florida radio personality just to name a few. In fact, Chadd Thomas; the hugely popular Florida radio personality states on his my space page that one of his heroes was Dorana Pethtel. He writes, " And my freshman Speech teacher, Doranna Pethtel, for bringing me so far out of my shell that I can never go back."
In summary, I would like to make a couple of things perfectly clear. Even though I have listed a number of examples of successful students under her direction, that is not to suggest that ANY crime should be excused based on professional success. None of us are above the law. I would also like to make clear that I am not suggesting they were guilty for the crimes they were charged. I've simply never doubted their innocence. What I am saying is that it saddens me to think of all the students since my senior year of high school whose lives could have been changed as profoundly as mine.
It is my sincerest hope that the two students who accused Dorana and Steve Pethtel of molesting them, read this post. If Dorana and Steve were wrongly accused, I can't imagine the guilt you've had to live with for more than 20 years. I encourage you today to set the record straight. I know the events of the past cannot be undone, but it's never to late to do the right thing. I'm sure Dorana and Steve have tried very hard to put the past behind them. But I believe they will never experience complete closure until you acknowledge the truth.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Current economic climate calls for major changes in the customer service industry
Some economists suggest that we are not even close to reaching rock bottom of this horrific financial catastrophe. In fact, it would be very difficult to find many families who have not been deeply and profoundly affected by the current economy. Some experts suggest that in some ways, this current economic nightmare is worse than the events that took place during the great depression. That is difficult to confirm since only 3% of Americans; or less than 13,000,000 people alive today were born before 1929. And an even fewer number in this group were old enough to remember what life was like then.
Although there aren't many people alive today that experienced life during that dark time in our history, the stories of how families survived the depression have been passed down through the generations. If we are to emerge from this crisis intact, we may find ourselves turning to these stories of survival as a reference for our survival now. In fact, I sure could have used one of those depression-era survival tactics last week, but unfortunately, I was not able to find one.
Over the course of the last 18 to 24 months, my family has had to make several significant sacrifices. Vacations have been postponed; some indefinitely, we got rid of cable tv and the internet. We went from 2 vehicles to 1, and great effort has been made to spend every grocery dollar wisely. Despite all these sweeping changes, we have never been able to be more than one paycheck away from homelessness. One of these sweeping changes involved a drastic decrease of the amount of electricity we were using. One of these changes involved the thermostat. Instead of setting it at 68 to 70 degrees, we decided to maintain it at 63 to 66 degrees. We also made serious effort to turn off unnecesary lights and even reduced our hot water useage significantly. Although it was a struggle for us at first, seeing the electric bill that reflected our savings made it worthwhile. We were so proud of our accomplishment. And so, for the next three months, our electric bill remained more than 50% bellow what we had paid for each month in previous years. We felt all of our efforts to our reduce our useage had really paid off. We could not have been more wrong.
Back in March, we received our monthly electric bill and when we opened it, we were in shock. We had gone from being billed an average of about $50.00 for each of the three previous months, to a bill showing charges of nearly $600.00. At first we were shocked and angry, but the more we thought about it, we just knew this bill must have contained an error. I called American Electric Power the next day in an attempt to get this problem straightened out. To my shock, I was told the bill we received was completely accurate. I was told that the reason behind this extraordinary bill was due to bad winter weather. AEP went on to explain that because of "bad weather" they were unable to send someone to take an actual reading of our useage meter so an estimate was made. When AEP was finally able to take an actual reading from our meter, it was learned that they had grossly underestimated our useage and we were now being billed for the difference. I explained to AEP that there was no way I would be able to pay that bill in full and added that this particular electric bill was more than our monthly mortgage payment.
Although we were able to make our first payment of the arrangement we'd made with AEP, life happens and we were forced to use the money we'd saved to make our second arranged payment to AEP on something else. A short time later, we received the next AEP bill with the total amount still due, minus our first arranged payment and a notice to disconnect if the total bill wasn't paid by a certain date. Immediately upon receiving this notice, we contacted AEP again and asked them to work with us. We were told that if we did not pay the complete bill within 3 days, our power was going to be turned off. End of story.
The next step I made was to contact the Utility Regulatory Commission and find out what my rights were as a consumer and to attempt to prevent this kind of thing from happening to other AEP customers as well. Sadly, the URC did little more than to put AEP's explanation of events in their own words. In the end, either we pay the entire amount owed or our electricity would be turned off.
Tens of thousands of businesses and organization around the country have launch never before seen programs and incentives to help struggling American families. Food retailers are launching huge campaigns aimed at the dwindling family food dollar, car companies are offering to make your car payments for you if you loose your job, food banks are sprouting up across the country by the thousands. What I want to know is what roll is AEP going to take to assist struggling families? Probably nothing.
This may seem pessimistic, but why would AEP want to launch a similar campaign? What would be the incentive? Grocery stores offer lower prices to keep you from shopping their competition. The auto industry is offering huge incentives simply as a means of survival. No matter the industry, business MUST take drastic measures to retain the consumer base.
AEP will never offer any such program because they don't have to. On the Corporate Citizenship page of their website, AEP states they are concerned about their customers experiencing hardship during these dark economic times. They claim to have access to more than 45 million dollars to assist customers suffering financial hardship. If you read closely, you'll find that of the $45,193,999 they say is available to consumers, only $300,000 of that is contributed by AEP. The remaining 44.9 million come from U.S. government programs. Of all funds available, AEP's contribution consists of only .6% of total funds available.
If that isn't frustrating enough, AEP's P&L for 2008 reports revenues exceeding 14 billion dollars. Sadly, their $300,000.00 contribution to families in need is only .002% of their 14 billion total revenues for 2008. Their P&L also listed AEP's CEO Michael Morris' total annual compensation for 2008 was 9.7 million dollars. But, despite the fact that his annual salary falls just bellow the national average, while blue collar families were facing lay-offs, part-time employment and in some cases, lower wages, Mr. Morris was given a 7% increase.
With the number of unemployment claims increasing sharply, more and more struggling families are going to lose their homes to foreclosure. AEP's rigid inflexibility will continue to play a significant role in these events. AEP, you need to fix this. You need to fix this not because you have to, fix this because you know it's the right thing to do.
Although there aren't many people alive today that experienced life during that dark time in our history, the stories of how families survived the depression have been passed down through the generations. If we are to emerge from this crisis intact, we may find ourselves turning to these stories of survival as a reference for our survival now. In fact, I sure could have used one of those depression-era survival tactics last week, but unfortunately, I was not able to find one.
Over the course of the last 18 to 24 months, my family has had to make several significant sacrifices. Vacations have been postponed; some indefinitely, we got rid of cable tv and the internet. We went from 2 vehicles to 1, and great effort has been made to spend every grocery dollar wisely. Despite all these sweeping changes, we have never been able to be more than one paycheck away from homelessness. One of these sweeping changes involved a drastic decrease of the amount of electricity we were using. One of these changes involved the thermostat. Instead of setting it at 68 to 70 degrees, we decided to maintain it at 63 to 66 degrees. We also made serious effort to turn off unnecesary lights and even reduced our hot water useage significantly. Although it was a struggle for us at first, seeing the electric bill that reflected our savings made it worthwhile. We were so proud of our accomplishment. And so, for the next three months, our electric bill remained more than 50% bellow what we had paid for each month in previous years. We felt all of our efforts to our reduce our useage had really paid off. We could not have been more wrong.
Back in March, we received our monthly electric bill and when we opened it, we were in shock. We had gone from being billed an average of about $50.00 for each of the three previous months, to a bill showing charges of nearly $600.00. At first we were shocked and angry, but the more we thought about it, we just knew this bill must have contained an error. I called American Electric Power the next day in an attempt to get this problem straightened out. To my shock, I was told the bill we received was completely accurate. I was told that the reason behind this extraordinary bill was due to bad winter weather. AEP went on to explain that because of "bad weather" they were unable to send someone to take an actual reading of our useage meter so an estimate was made. When AEP was finally able to take an actual reading from our meter, it was learned that they had grossly underestimated our useage and we were now being billed for the difference. I explained to AEP that there was no way I would be able to pay that bill in full and added that this particular electric bill was more than our monthly mortgage payment.
Although we were able to make our first payment of the arrangement we'd made with AEP, life happens and we were forced to use the money we'd saved to make our second arranged payment to AEP on something else. A short time later, we received the next AEP bill with the total amount still due, minus our first arranged payment and a notice to disconnect if the total bill wasn't paid by a certain date. Immediately upon receiving this notice, we contacted AEP again and asked them to work with us. We were told that if we did not pay the complete bill within 3 days, our power was going to be turned off. End of story.
The next step I made was to contact the Utility Regulatory Commission and find out what my rights were as a consumer and to attempt to prevent this kind of thing from happening to other AEP customers as well. Sadly, the URC did little more than to put AEP's explanation of events in their own words. In the end, either we pay the entire amount owed or our electricity would be turned off.
Tens of thousands of businesses and organization around the country have launch never before seen programs and incentives to help struggling American families. Food retailers are launching huge campaigns aimed at the dwindling family food dollar, car companies are offering to make your car payments for you if you loose your job, food banks are sprouting up across the country by the thousands. What I want to know is what roll is AEP going to take to assist struggling families? Probably nothing.
This may seem pessimistic, but why would AEP want to launch a similar campaign? What would be the incentive? Grocery stores offer lower prices to keep you from shopping their competition. The auto industry is offering huge incentives simply as a means of survival. No matter the industry, business MUST take drastic measures to retain the consumer base.
AEP will never offer any such program because they don't have to. On the Corporate Citizenship page of their website, AEP states they are concerned about their customers experiencing hardship during these dark economic times. They claim to have access to more than 45 million dollars to assist customers suffering financial hardship. If you read closely, you'll find that of the $45,193,999 they say is available to consumers, only $300,000 of that is contributed by AEP. The remaining 44.9 million come from U.S. government programs. Of all funds available, AEP's contribution consists of only .6% of total funds available.
If that isn't frustrating enough, AEP's P&L for 2008 reports revenues exceeding 14 billion dollars. Sadly, their $300,000.00 contribution to families in need is only .002% of their 14 billion total revenues for 2008. Their P&L also listed AEP's CEO Michael Morris' total annual compensation for 2008 was 9.7 million dollars. But, despite the fact that his annual salary falls just bellow the national average, while blue collar families were facing lay-offs, part-time employment and in some cases, lower wages, Mr. Morris was given a 7% increase.
With the number of unemployment claims increasing sharply, more and more struggling families are going to lose their homes to foreclosure. AEP's rigid inflexibility will continue to play a significant role in these events. AEP, you need to fix this. You need to fix this not because you have to, fix this because you know it's the right thing to do.
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