I have a lot of different thoughts running through my mind, at this moment, but none are as important as YOU, my Loyal Readers!
We are in mid-January and so many projects and clients have come and gone, it's hard to say where one had started and the other ended. THIS is actually a good thing, but I have found it harder and harder to keep up the pace. My body is, definitely, willing but my mind is weak. It seems people are doing the same things over and over and talking about the same topics which, in the end, are not really amounting to anything; and this IRKS me...
Back in the day, I used to be able to re-invent myself and go to a different place at the drop of a hat, but life has now handed me a plateful of responsibility that includes a future baby daughter and an up and coming business that is growing on a daily basis. I need a change, but am unsure what I want to do and how I want to do it. I am too young to be going through the "mid-life crisis" and too old to be hitchhiking to the next town "on a whim".
So, what can I do? It's an easy answer, actually. I just create.
"Create? What exactly does THAT mean?" you may ask. Well, since I am older and wiser (supposedly), I create ideas and opportunities. Yes, I KNOW it sounds boring and stiff, but it keeps me busy. It, also, keeps me aware of my surroundings because when you are a "creator" or "producer" it's imperative to evolve and keep up with the current trends and fads. THIS is where I get into trouble.
I have noticed over the years that the projects/ideas that people are proposing to me have no substance. They sound nice, exciting, and even somewhat "stylish", but in the end, they are like grape-flavored popsicles, great to have and eat but not much value. (nutritional)
PROLIFICK PROFILES is going against the grain and vows to stay entertaining, yet educational. It is important to me that you, my Readers, get "something" out of the time you have spent with my words. I mean you may not get an epiphany or a life changing vision, but if nothing else, it may just cause you to have a moment and think, "Hmmmm, that's interesting..." Because if not, then what's the point? ENJOY!
Monday, January 17, 2011
PROLIFICK WRITINGS by KEVIN BAHLER
True Honesty Leads Toward True Happiness
Honesty is a pretty difficult thing for us. We always seem to think that lying will make our lives easier, happier, or some way better. Really, it is total and complete honesty that will lead you toward happiness. Lying (or simply not being completely honest) only delays your arrival to true joy.
Consider the classic story of the quiet kid (let's call him Jeff) who is attracted to the pretty girl (let's call her Sandy). Jeff wants so badly to be with Sandy. He pines for her. He imagines how wonderful it would be to spend his life with her. But he is so terribly shy, he simply cannot muster the courage to actually tell her how he feels or ask her out.
Weeks, months, even years pass, and Jeff is still in the same awkward place of hope and fear that he was the first time he saw Sandy. If he had been completely honest and told Sandy how he felt about her, no matter the result, it would have led him toward happiness.
If he asked her out and she said yes, then he's already closer than he was. If she says no, it may hurt, but he no longer will be pining for her, which releases the burden from his head and his heart. If their date goes well, they will happily continue their relationship. If it does not go well, Jeff will once again be released from his desires.
If their relationship grows deeper, they may get married and spend their lives together. They may also have a horrible break-up. But even then, once the initial pain subsides, Jeff will be able to see all the other people in his life. He may start to realize that Jenny has had eyes for him for quite some time and they share far more interests than Sandy ever did.
Being completely honest to yourself is not easy. That's why we don't do it enough. It can lead to us realizing that our hopes and desires are no more than pipe dreams. When that happens, it hurts. But that is pain we can get over. Meanwhile, it allows us to progress with life, to move on to the next thing, and to keep discarding the useless until we find that perfect match, whether we're talking about people, jobs, or breakfast cereals.
True honesty will always lead toward true happiness. And that is always worth the effort.
Honesty is a pretty difficult thing for us. We always seem to think that lying will make our lives easier, happier, or some way better. Really, it is total and complete honesty that will lead you toward happiness. Lying (or simply not being completely honest) only delays your arrival to true joy.
Consider the classic story of the quiet kid (let's call him Jeff) who is attracted to the pretty girl (let's call her Sandy). Jeff wants so badly to be with Sandy. He pines for her. He imagines how wonderful it would be to spend his life with her. But he is so terribly shy, he simply cannot muster the courage to actually tell her how he feels or ask her out.
Weeks, months, even years pass, and Jeff is still in the same awkward place of hope and fear that he was the first time he saw Sandy. If he had been completely honest and told Sandy how he felt about her, no matter the result, it would have led him toward happiness.
If he asked her out and she said yes, then he's already closer than he was. If she says no, it may hurt, but he no longer will be pining for her, which releases the burden from his head and his heart. If their date goes well, they will happily continue their relationship. If it does not go well, Jeff will once again be released from his desires.
If their relationship grows deeper, they may get married and spend their lives together. They may also have a horrible break-up. But even then, once the initial pain subsides, Jeff will be able to see all the other people in his life. He may start to realize that Jenny has had eyes for him for quite some time and they share far more interests than Sandy ever did.
Being completely honest to yourself is not easy. That's why we don't do it enough. It can lead to us realizing that our hopes and desires are no more than pipe dreams. When that happens, it hurts. But that is pain we can get over. Meanwhile, it allows us to progress with life, to move on to the next thing, and to keep discarding the useless until we find that perfect match, whether we're talking about people, jobs, or breakfast cereals.
True honesty will always lead toward true happiness. And that is always worth the effort.
THE AFRICAN - AMERICAN CLARION CALL
STARVING THE BEAST: TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO TAKE AMERICA BACK
Increasingly, I’ve been thinking about things that I can do differently to remove the fuel from the corporatocracy that seems to dictate political and economic policy in this country. At the national level, we have arrived at a situation where the corporate and political powers have moved toward merger and it’s clear that both political parties are dominated by these interests. Our economic problems stem largely from the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of a very few and this is primarily why we’re even dealing with concepts like “too big to fail” especially when it comes to the Wall Street. They’re “too big to fail” because this was that sort of insurance that was purchased from the political system. This problem is not limited to America but is a global one largely involving the same players.
The rise of the corporatocracy in America was driven mainly by consolidation of vast areas of the economy. The “Wal-Martization” of the economy has taken out scores of small businesses that formerly provided many services and the process itself serves to centralize economic power in the hands of a few and I believe that’s to the detriment of the public. Consolidation reinforces the too big to fail mantra.
The Amish and those like them are largely unaffected by our economic reversals as they were never really a part of the economy per se. Their lifestyles have not only insulated them, but they enjoy a degree of independence that’s a fleeting memory for most Americans. The Amish actually live a life similar to that my 87 year old father describes as he was growing up in rural south during the 1930’s and 1940’s. I’m not suggesting that we all would want to go back to a rural existence, but many of us are going to have to look at doing things far differently than what we’re accustomed to. This will not be a strictly a function of a desire to “starve the beast” as suggested in the article below, but one of sheer necessity as pension promises are revoked and gainful employment remains elusive.
During the last great depression, the thing that saved many people was the ability to go back to the farm. Economic consolidation has resulted in the farms now being owned by vast conglomerates which leaves people dependent on food stamps and food banks when they’d be better off depending on themselves. Perhaps this very good article below might be best titled as Ten Things You Can Do To Get Your Freedom Back and its best use may be as a checklist to determine how close you are to freedom. Freedom today means setting up an alternative lifestyle to insulate oneself from the economic shocks yet to come while “starving the beast” is a side benefit. This is a thought provoking article:
STARVING THE BEAST: TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO TAKE AMERICA BACK
by Sara Robinson
If last Tuesday showed us anything, it’s this: We are not going to get America back on the right road — the one that leads to a progressive, just, carbon-free, equal-opportunity future — by political means alone.
That was an illusion, and it’s time to give it up. We are up against powers so massive that their leaders rightly describe themselves as Masters of the Universe (MOTUs, for short). They’ve got so much money that they can buy off any politician in the world; and so much clout that they maintain branch offices right inside the West Wing. Because of their influence, our courts and our Congress no longer work for us. Our media no longer tells us the truth. Our votes are the prizes in corporate bidding wars. Our jobs are mere chips in a global poker game. Our doctors can only give us the health care corporate insurers willing to pay for, even when better choices exist.
Everything from the food on our table to the content of our kids’ education is chosen for us on the basis of what will put the most money in the pockets of people who are already rich beyond the imagination of a Caesar. Increasingly, we have no say about anything that happens to us. Every choice we make is predetermined to deliver our money, time, and life energy into the service of this increasingly remote and amoral aristocracy.
It goes way beyond Washington. It’s the whole rotten system. And if we really want that system to change, forget taking to the streets. (The MOTUs long ago learned to tune out public protests.) It’s time to take our non-compliance to the next level. It’s time to get serious about not participating in this system at all, until it either breaks or changes.
It will not be easy. The overblown corporate-driven economy exists because we allow it to — and we allow it to because there’s so much that passively cheap and easy and comfortable about being part of it. Compared to a lot of the world, we don’t have it so bad; and the MOTUs are counting on that inertia to keep the money and power flowing their way. But it’s beyond obvious now that we cannot change things unless we’re willing to give up those comforts, and take matters into our own hands.
The good news is that if we’re willing to do that, there are plenty of high leverage points in this system, places we can jam in a hard stick and whang on it and actually hope to create some change. And since we know now that Washington will be totally gridlocked for the next two years, this is as good a time as any to start.
A starting place
The ten suggestions below are just a starting place. (I’m thinking of turning them into a book, and would love your additions to the list.) But they all turn on two basic assumptions about where our leverage lies.
The first assumption is: Big national corporations and the MOTUs who profit from them only have money in the first place because we give it to them. So stop giving it to them.
The second is: People in government only have power because we give it to them. So, wherever possible and appropriate, pull that power away from the federal level, and bring it back to the local level, where we can keep an eye on it — and where the best solutions to our most pressing problems are already being worked out.
With those two core assumptions in mind, here’s what we need to do to defund the Masters of the Universe and get our country back.
1 Live within your means
Taking apart the systems that sustain our comfort is a risky business. The first task, then, is to insulate ourselves from those risks to the extent we can. And the first step is living within our means.
It’s not that big a reach, though it feels like that at first. We just need to resurrect the values of our Depression-era grandparents, who gauged someone’s status on the basis of their thrift and prudence rather than their extravagance. For them, it wasn’t about what you drove or what you wore on your back; it was about what you had in the bank, and what you could give back to your community.
Buy a car you can pay for outright, or hang on to the one that’s already paid off. Let go of the things you don’t use — the toys and trinkets that are just taking up space. Give up junk food and start a garden. Ask if you could get by with a smaller, cheaper house. And consider the possibility that, after you’ve pruned your life down to something more manageable, you might just be happier (and healthier) for it.
Having enough surplus salted away, plus some to share with others, gives you personal resilience in the face of hard times. It means you can lose a job or get sick, and still have a margin to fall back on. It also means that nobody owns you: America’s bosses would treat us a lot better if more of us had a take-this-job-and-shove-it fund in the bank that enabled us to walk away from bad conditions or abusive treatment.
Living with less also means fewer expenses, fewer distractions, and more time and energy for the things that matter. Which is good, because some of the other things we need to do will take a little more time, energy, and money than we’ve been used to spending.
Read more about this: Your Money Or Your Life
2 Stop using credit cards
Conservatives howl that sales taxes are a huge drag on the economy, since they take a little bite out of the value of every transaction. But you never hear them howling about the 3% sales tax we pay to the banks for every credit card transaction. There’s a whole lot to be said about the perverse economics of this; but the short summary is that if we’re going to defund the powers that are choking the life out of our democracy, the first thing we need to do is stop handing over 3% of almost every transaction we make.
The second is to stop paying out an even larger percentage of our annual income in interest. The average American household pays $1500 a year in credit card interest; in some households, it’s much more than that. Bet you can find a better use for that money than the bank can.
If you can’t manage life without plastic, there are still better options than sending your wages to Citi or Chase. Move your credit card to a local bank, which will invest its earnings in your town’s economy. Use a debit card (which takes lower fees) for online transactions, and start doing everything else possible with cash. (As an added bonus: using cash gets your personal business out of the data stream, increasing your personal privacy as well.)
Credit cards are the single biggest hook the MOTUs have into us after our mortgages, student loans, and car payments. It’s also one we have the most control over, so let’s stop sending them that money.
Watch here: In Debt We Trust
3 Move your money to a local bank
Arianna Huffington deserves credit for putting the “slow money” movement on the progressive map. It’s a powerful concept, because it directly defunds the people who are trying to buy our government.
The idea is simple: take your banking — your savings, checking, mortgage, car payment, 401K and other retirement funds, and credit cards — away from the bankasaurs, and give it to a local or regional bank or a credit union. These banks are often safer these days than the big boys, since they’re less likely to get caught up in big finance scams. And, even better: they’re far more likely to put your money to work financing local homeowners, businesses, and farms.
Keeping that money in the hometown economy is an investment in resilience for the long haul. It ensures that your neighbors will have good jobs, that house prices will remain stable, and that small entrepreneurs can find the capital to start companies that are far less likely to relocate. These small businesses usually return far more in spending, jobs, and taxes to the local economy than big out-of-town businesses do, so keeping your money close to home is one way to invest in a stronger community.
Read more: Move Your Money
4 Eat local. Eat organic. Cook your own.
More and more of us are aware that the processed foods that fill the center aisles of the supermarket aren’t particularly good for us. They’re full of sugar, salt, fake fat, fake flavorings, preservatives, and GMO frankenstuff. They come from factories thousands of miles away. And we’re sometimes suspicious that the food safety isn’t all it should be.
This is why farmer’s markets, community-supported farms, and food co-ops can now be found in almost every corner of the country, with more coming on line each year. People want alternatives — preferably fresh, organic fare produced by farmers who are close enough to get to know.
I love the fact that my food dollar isn’t going to Cargill or ADM. It’s not adding tons of petroleum-based fertilizers (those damned oil companies again) to the soil and the watershed. It’s not paying to truck food two thousand miles to my store. Instead, it’s going to Mike Finger, my CSA farmer, who lives five miles from my house. It’s keeping our town’s outrageous Saturday farmer’s market alive and lively. It’s providing hundreds of jobs for dairymen and women, cheese and butter makers, bakers, farmers, small meat operations, co-op workers, chicken ranchers, and all kinds of other talented folks in my community. And it’s creating an alternative food stream that banishes the big corporations (and the big banks that fund them) out of my kitchen and off of my family’s plates.
Read more: La Vida Locavore
5 Don’t shop in big-box stores; support local merchants instead
We all know how Wal-Mart bleeds small town Main Streets dry, kills mom-and-pop merchants, decimates local tax bases, and replaces good-paying jobs with non-union McJobs that pay so low that people holding them still qualify for welfare and food stamps.
But it’s not just Wal-Mart. Every dollar you spend at any big box store or chain restaurant is doing pretty much the same thing. The money you give them doesn’t stay in town, creating decent jobs and supporting prosperous middle-class families. It’s going to some corporate HQ in Far Yonder. And from there, in this new post-Citizens United world, a lot of it will be going to lobbyists, who will be using it to more fully corporatize our government.
Cut them off at the knees. Find and use local options wherever you can. Local merchants often carry a wider and more interesting selection (and can order anything they don’t have in stock). They pay higher wages. They know their merchandise — and special tastes of the local clientele. And they pay into the local tax base, supporting your own teachers and firefighters and cops.
And don’t even assume that you’ll be charged more. In some areas, you may pay 5-10% more in a local shop; in others, you may be surprised to find prices comparable to what you’ll find over at the big box. A local restaurant may have better food at better prices, and pay their staff better as well. Not all of the mom-and-pops are good enough to deserve our support; but the great ones are irreplaceable assets in our local economies, and deserve all the support we can give them.
Read more: The Small-Mart Revolution
6 Make your own energy
In our economy, energy is money — which is why the big energy producers have more money than anybody else. If we want them to have less power over us, we need to stop buying their product. And that goes for the big private energy utilities, too, which are the biggest coal users in the country.
Adding solar panels or geothermal pumps to your house isn’t cheap (or even easy); but if you plan to be in the house for many years, it’s an investment that’s worth making. If that’s not feasible, look into community power solutions, and encourage your town to invest in clean, local sources of power. At the very least, the odds are overwhelmingly good that your energy company offers a green power option where you can pay a bit more per month to subsidize the development of clean power sources for your region.
Whatever you can do to replace coal, oil, and gas as your household and community power sources adds a bit more leverage to the effort to remove Big Fossil from its powerful political perch.
Read more: The Renewable Energy Handbook
7 Buy used whenever possible
The Big Consumer Machine runs on our constant appetite for new stuff. One of the best ways to jam it is to simply stop buying what they’re selling. It’s better for our wallets, better for the Earth, and it takes money directly out of the pockets of people who are (literally) banking on our poor impulse control.
Over the past century, our massive consumer engine has manufactured so much stuff that odds are the perfect item you’re looking for — a sturdy winter coat for your kid, extra plates for Thanksgiving dinner — already exists out there somewhere. And it’s increasingly easy to find it, thanks to eBay and Craigslist and Freecycle. Why go to K-Mart when there’s undoubtedly someone local looking to unload something that’s one-of-a-kind (and probably better quality) for a fraction of the price — and will help you raise the finger to the corporate consumer machine while you’re at it?
Read more: The Compact
The Great American Apparel Diet
8 Buy American. Buy union.
If you’ve got to buy it new, and there’s no choice but to buy it from a big chain retailer, at least make sure your money is going to support another American worker’s family. Living without imported Chinese goods is almost impossible (as this woman found out); but again, going out of our way to make better choices is an important way we can shift the leverage in the entire system that’s killing our democracy.
Buying American is good. Buying union is even better. Unions have always been our biggest, strongest, best bulwark against creeping corporatocracy. The more support we can give them — and the more unionized workers we have — the more leverage we have against the big money interests, and the more likely we’ll be able to take our country back in the long run. If we want to restore the middle class, we need to be deadly serious about buying union-made stuff.
Read more: UNITE’s guide to buying union-made goods
9 Cut your use of fossil fuels
There are a hundred good reasons to do this, but the big four are:
1) It reduces our dependence on foreign oil, which also reduces our need to spend 58% of our federal budget on defense. Since defense contractors are among the biggest lobbyists in Washington, defunding the military-industrial complex is an important strategic objective in taking our country back.
2) It cuts the profits of Big Fossil — the oil and coal industries — who are the biggest and most influential donors in Congress, period.
3) Your choices and investments will spur the market for clean technology options, which will accelerate our progress in moving toward a greener future — again, at the expense of Big Fossil.
4) Over time, moving to non-fossil alternatives in food, transit, manufacturing, and so on will make your household and community far more resilient in the face of energy price shocks and climate change itself — an important step toward empowering local governments over higher-level ones.
There are a thousand books and ten thousand websites full of suggestions for how to move beyond the basics like changing out your light bulbs and recycling. But now you have another reason to do it: it’s one of the best things we can do to defund the MOTUs who own our country.
10 Hire a better employer
Our choices as consumers matter, no doubt. But the biggest contribution we make to this system isn’t in our spending; it’s in our earning. The fact is that the best jobs in America in terms of salary and benefits are also too often the same ones that are most deeply involved in the corporatization of our government. And we need to confront and deal with the truth: when we give 40 or 50 hours of our lives to these enterprises, week in and week out, we are contributing far more to the problem than we can ever make up for by anything we do on our own time.
Of course, it’s too much to ask people to walk away from a good-paying, stable job in the teeth of devastating recession. But as a long-term goal, we might be thinking about how to arrange our lives and our communities so that we can stop giving our time, energy, talents, and best efforts to the same aristocrats who want to enslave us. If we get out of debt and off credit cards, build up local businesses and create resilient economies, and learn to live a little smaller, we may in time, also be freer to make career choices that are better aligned with our values, and put our labor beyond the reach of the system that oppresses us.
As I said: none of this will be easy. But we’ve tried to create change while staying within our circle of comfort; and it hasn’t worked. It’s time to move outside that circle, and get on with the work of creating the future we want our children to have — even if that means changing our most familiar and intimate habits and routines.
Still, you’re probably already doing at least a few of these things, for all kinds of good reasons — as economizing measures in hard times, as an effort to reduce your carbon footprint, or out of solidarity with your local community. But there’s added motivation — and even some sweet revenge — if we bear in mind that the things that we’re already doing to protect ourselves in the present and prepare for the next future are also some of the best things we can do to take our money, our lives, and our broken democracy back from the MOTU bastards as well.
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010114511/starving-beast-ten-things-you-can-do-take-america-back
Increasingly, I’ve been thinking about things that I can do differently to remove the fuel from the corporatocracy that seems to dictate political and economic policy in this country. At the national level, we have arrived at a situation where the corporate and political powers have moved toward merger and it’s clear that both political parties are dominated by these interests. Our economic problems stem largely from the concentration of political and economic power in the hands of a very few and this is primarily why we’re even dealing with concepts like “too big to fail” especially when it comes to the Wall Street. They’re “too big to fail” because this was that sort of insurance that was purchased from the political system. This problem is not limited to America but is a global one largely involving the same players.
The rise of the corporatocracy in America was driven mainly by consolidation of vast areas of the economy. The “Wal-Martization” of the economy has taken out scores of small businesses that formerly provided many services and the process itself serves to centralize economic power in the hands of a few and I believe that’s to the detriment of the public. Consolidation reinforces the too big to fail mantra.
The Amish and those like them are largely unaffected by our economic reversals as they were never really a part of the economy per se. Their lifestyles have not only insulated them, but they enjoy a degree of independence that’s a fleeting memory for most Americans. The Amish actually live a life similar to that my 87 year old father describes as he was growing up in rural south during the 1930’s and 1940’s. I’m not suggesting that we all would want to go back to a rural existence, but many of us are going to have to look at doing things far differently than what we’re accustomed to. This will not be a strictly a function of a desire to “starve the beast” as suggested in the article below, but one of sheer necessity as pension promises are revoked and gainful employment remains elusive.
During the last great depression, the thing that saved many people was the ability to go back to the farm. Economic consolidation has resulted in the farms now being owned by vast conglomerates which leaves people dependent on food stamps and food banks when they’d be better off depending on themselves. Perhaps this very good article below might be best titled as Ten Things You Can Do To Get Your Freedom Back and its best use may be as a checklist to determine how close you are to freedom. Freedom today means setting up an alternative lifestyle to insulate oneself from the economic shocks yet to come while “starving the beast” is a side benefit. This is a thought provoking article:
STARVING THE BEAST: TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO TAKE AMERICA BACK
by Sara Robinson
If last Tuesday showed us anything, it’s this: We are not going to get America back on the right road — the one that leads to a progressive, just, carbon-free, equal-opportunity future — by political means alone.
That was an illusion, and it’s time to give it up. We are up against powers so massive that their leaders rightly describe themselves as Masters of the Universe (MOTUs, for short). They’ve got so much money that they can buy off any politician in the world; and so much clout that they maintain branch offices right inside the West Wing. Because of their influence, our courts and our Congress no longer work for us. Our media no longer tells us the truth. Our votes are the prizes in corporate bidding wars. Our jobs are mere chips in a global poker game. Our doctors can only give us the health care corporate insurers willing to pay for, even when better choices exist.
Everything from the food on our table to the content of our kids’ education is chosen for us on the basis of what will put the most money in the pockets of people who are already rich beyond the imagination of a Caesar. Increasingly, we have no say about anything that happens to us. Every choice we make is predetermined to deliver our money, time, and life energy into the service of this increasingly remote and amoral aristocracy.
It goes way beyond Washington. It’s the whole rotten system. And if we really want that system to change, forget taking to the streets. (The MOTUs long ago learned to tune out public protests.) It’s time to take our non-compliance to the next level. It’s time to get serious about not participating in this system at all, until it either breaks or changes.
It will not be easy. The overblown corporate-driven economy exists because we allow it to — and we allow it to because there’s so much that passively cheap and easy and comfortable about being part of it. Compared to a lot of the world, we don’t have it so bad; and the MOTUs are counting on that inertia to keep the money and power flowing their way. But it’s beyond obvious now that we cannot change things unless we’re willing to give up those comforts, and take matters into our own hands.
The good news is that if we’re willing to do that, there are plenty of high leverage points in this system, places we can jam in a hard stick and whang on it and actually hope to create some change. And since we know now that Washington will be totally gridlocked for the next two years, this is as good a time as any to start.
A starting place
The ten suggestions below are just a starting place. (I’m thinking of turning them into a book, and would love your additions to the list.) But they all turn on two basic assumptions about where our leverage lies.
The first assumption is: Big national corporations and the MOTUs who profit from them only have money in the first place because we give it to them. So stop giving it to them.
The second is: People in government only have power because we give it to them. So, wherever possible and appropriate, pull that power away from the federal level, and bring it back to the local level, where we can keep an eye on it — and where the best solutions to our most pressing problems are already being worked out.
With those two core assumptions in mind, here’s what we need to do to defund the Masters of the Universe and get our country back.
1 Live within your means
Taking apart the systems that sustain our comfort is a risky business. The first task, then, is to insulate ourselves from those risks to the extent we can. And the first step is living within our means.
It’s not that big a reach, though it feels like that at first. We just need to resurrect the values of our Depression-era grandparents, who gauged someone’s status on the basis of their thrift and prudence rather than their extravagance. For them, it wasn’t about what you drove or what you wore on your back; it was about what you had in the bank, and what you could give back to your community.
Buy a car you can pay for outright, or hang on to the one that’s already paid off. Let go of the things you don’t use — the toys and trinkets that are just taking up space. Give up junk food and start a garden. Ask if you could get by with a smaller, cheaper house. And consider the possibility that, after you’ve pruned your life down to something more manageable, you might just be happier (and healthier) for it.
Having enough surplus salted away, plus some to share with others, gives you personal resilience in the face of hard times. It means you can lose a job or get sick, and still have a margin to fall back on. It also means that nobody owns you: America’s bosses would treat us a lot better if more of us had a take-this-job-and-shove-it fund in the bank that enabled us to walk away from bad conditions or abusive treatment.
Living with less also means fewer expenses, fewer distractions, and more time and energy for the things that matter. Which is good, because some of the other things we need to do will take a little more time, energy, and money than we’ve been used to spending.
Read more about this: Your Money Or Your Life
2 Stop using credit cards
Conservatives howl that sales taxes are a huge drag on the economy, since they take a little bite out of the value of every transaction. But you never hear them howling about the 3% sales tax we pay to the banks for every credit card transaction. There’s a whole lot to be said about the perverse economics of this; but the short summary is that if we’re going to defund the powers that are choking the life out of our democracy, the first thing we need to do is stop handing over 3% of almost every transaction we make.
The second is to stop paying out an even larger percentage of our annual income in interest. The average American household pays $1500 a year in credit card interest; in some households, it’s much more than that. Bet you can find a better use for that money than the bank can.
If you can’t manage life without plastic, there are still better options than sending your wages to Citi or Chase. Move your credit card to a local bank, which will invest its earnings in your town’s economy. Use a debit card (which takes lower fees) for online transactions, and start doing everything else possible with cash. (As an added bonus: using cash gets your personal business out of the data stream, increasing your personal privacy as well.)
Credit cards are the single biggest hook the MOTUs have into us after our mortgages, student loans, and car payments. It’s also one we have the most control over, so let’s stop sending them that money.
Watch here: In Debt We Trust
3 Move your money to a local bank
Arianna Huffington deserves credit for putting the “slow money” movement on the progressive map. It’s a powerful concept, because it directly defunds the people who are trying to buy our government.
The idea is simple: take your banking — your savings, checking, mortgage, car payment, 401K and other retirement funds, and credit cards — away from the bankasaurs, and give it to a local or regional bank or a credit union. These banks are often safer these days than the big boys, since they’re less likely to get caught up in big finance scams. And, even better: they’re far more likely to put your money to work financing local homeowners, businesses, and farms.
Keeping that money in the hometown economy is an investment in resilience for the long haul. It ensures that your neighbors will have good jobs, that house prices will remain stable, and that small entrepreneurs can find the capital to start companies that are far less likely to relocate. These small businesses usually return far more in spending, jobs, and taxes to the local economy than big out-of-town businesses do, so keeping your money close to home is one way to invest in a stronger community.
Read more: Move Your Money
4 Eat local. Eat organic. Cook your own.
More and more of us are aware that the processed foods that fill the center aisles of the supermarket aren’t particularly good for us. They’re full of sugar, salt, fake fat, fake flavorings, preservatives, and GMO frankenstuff. They come from factories thousands of miles away. And we’re sometimes suspicious that the food safety isn’t all it should be.
This is why farmer’s markets, community-supported farms, and food co-ops can now be found in almost every corner of the country, with more coming on line each year. People want alternatives — preferably fresh, organic fare produced by farmers who are close enough to get to know.
I love the fact that my food dollar isn’t going to Cargill or ADM. It’s not adding tons of petroleum-based fertilizers (those damned oil companies again) to the soil and the watershed. It’s not paying to truck food two thousand miles to my store. Instead, it’s going to Mike Finger, my CSA farmer, who lives five miles from my house. It’s keeping our town’s outrageous Saturday farmer’s market alive and lively. It’s providing hundreds of jobs for dairymen and women, cheese and butter makers, bakers, farmers, small meat operations, co-op workers, chicken ranchers, and all kinds of other talented folks in my community. And it’s creating an alternative food stream that banishes the big corporations (and the big banks that fund them) out of my kitchen and off of my family’s plates.
Read more: La Vida Locavore
5 Don’t shop in big-box stores; support local merchants instead
We all know how Wal-Mart bleeds small town Main Streets dry, kills mom-and-pop merchants, decimates local tax bases, and replaces good-paying jobs with non-union McJobs that pay so low that people holding them still qualify for welfare and food stamps.
But it’s not just Wal-Mart. Every dollar you spend at any big box store or chain restaurant is doing pretty much the same thing. The money you give them doesn’t stay in town, creating decent jobs and supporting prosperous middle-class families. It’s going to some corporate HQ in Far Yonder. And from there, in this new post-Citizens United world, a lot of it will be going to lobbyists, who will be using it to more fully corporatize our government.
Cut them off at the knees. Find and use local options wherever you can. Local merchants often carry a wider and more interesting selection (and can order anything they don’t have in stock). They pay higher wages. They know their merchandise — and special tastes of the local clientele. And they pay into the local tax base, supporting your own teachers and firefighters and cops.
And don’t even assume that you’ll be charged more. In some areas, you may pay 5-10% more in a local shop; in others, you may be surprised to find prices comparable to what you’ll find over at the big box. A local restaurant may have better food at better prices, and pay their staff better as well. Not all of the mom-and-pops are good enough to deserve our support; but the great ones are irreplaceable assets in our local economies, and deserve all the support we can give them.
Read more: The Small-Mart Revolution
6 Make your own energy
In our economy, energy is money — which is why the big energy producers have more money than anybody else. If we want them to have less power over us, we need to stop buying their product. And that goes for the big private energy utilities, too, which are the biggest coal users in the country.
Adding solar panels or geothermal pumps to your house isn’t cheap (or even easy); but if you plan to be in the house for many years, it’s an investment that’s worth making. If that’s not feasible, look into community power solutions, and encourage your town to invest in clean, local sources of power. At the very least, the odds are overwhelmingly good that your energy company offers a green power option where you can pay a bit more per month to subsidize the development of clean power sources for your region.
Whatever you can do to replace coal, oil, and gas as your household and community power sources adds a bit more leverage to the effort to remove Big Fossil from its powerful political perch.
Read more: The Renewable Energy Handbook
7 Buy used whenever possible
The Big Consumer Machine runs on our constant appetite for new stuff. One of the best ways to jam it is to simply stop buying what they’re selling. It’s better for our wallets, better for the Earth, and it takes money directly out of the pockets of people who are (literally) banking on our poor impulse control.
Over the past century, our massive consumer engine has manufactured so much stuff that odds are the perfect item you’re looking for — a sturdy winter coat for your kid, extra plates for Thanksgiving dinner — already exists out there somewhere. And it’s increasingly easy to find it, thanks to eBay and Craigslist and Freecycle. Why go to K-Mart when there’s undoubtedly someone local looking to unload something that’s one-of-a-kind (and probably better quality) for a fraction of the price — and will help you raise the finger to the corporate consumer machine while you’re at it?
Read more: The Compact
The Great American Apparel Diet
8 Buy American. Buy union.
If you’ve got to buy it new, and there’s no choice but to buy it from a big chain retailer, at least make sure your money is going to support another American worker’s family. Living without imported Chinese goods is almost impossible (as this woman found out); but again, going out of our way to make better choices is an important way we can shift the leverage in the entire system that’s killing our democracy.
Buying American is good. Buying union is even better. Unions have always been our biggest, strongest, best bulwark against creeping corporatocracy. The more support we can give them — and the more unionized workers we have — the more leverage we have against the big money interests, and the more likely we’ll be able to take our country back in the long run. If we want to restore the middle class, we need to be deadly serious about buying union-made stuff.
Read more: UNITE’s guide to buying union-made goods
9 Cut your use of fossil fuels
There are a hundred good reasons to do this, but the big four are:
1) It reduces our dependence on foreign oil, which also reduces our need to spend 58% of our federal budget on defense. Since defense contractors are among the biggest lobbyists in Washington, defunding the military-industrial complex is an important strategic objective in taking our country back.
2) It cuts the profits of Big Fossil — the oil and coal industries — who are the biggest and most influential donors in Congress, period.
3) Your choices and investments will spur the market for clean technology options, which will accelerate our progress in moving toward a greener future — again, at the expense of Big Fossil.
4) Over time, moving to non-fossil alternatives in food, transit, manufacturing, and so on will make your household and community far more resilient in the face of energy price shocks and climate change itself — an important step toward empowering local governments over higher-level ones.
There are a thousand books and ten thousand websites full of suggestions for how to move beyond the basics like changing out your light bulbs and recycling. But now you have another reason to do it: it’s one of the best things we can do to defund the MOTUs who own our country.
10 Hire a better employer
Our choices as consumers matter, no doubt. But the biggest contribution we make to this system isn’t in our spending; it’s in our earning. The fact is that the best jobs in America in terms of salary and benefits are also too often the same ones that are most deeply involved in the corporatization of our government. And we need to confront and deal with the truth: when we give 40 or 50 hours of our lives to these enterprises, week in and week out, we are contributing far more to the problem than we can ever make up for by anything we do on our own time.
Of course, it’s too much to ask people to walk away from a good-paying, stable job in the teeth of devastating recession. But as a long-term goal, we might be thinking about how to arrange our lives and our communities so that we can stop giving our time, energy, talents, and best efforts to the same aristocrats who want to enslave us. If we get out of debt and off credit cards, build up local businesses and create resilient economies, and learn to live a little smaller, we may in time, also be freer to make career choices that are better aligned with our values, and put our labor beyond the reach of the system that oppresses us.
As I said: none of this will be easy. But we’ve tried to create change while staying within our circle of comfort; and it hasn’t worked. It’s time to move outside that circle, and get on with the work of creating the future we want our children to have — even if that means changing our most familiar and intimate habits and routines.
Still, you’re probably already doing at least a few of these things, for all kinds of good reasons — as economizing measures in hard times, as an effort to reduce your carbon footprint, or out of solidarity with your local community. But there’s added motivation — and even some sweet revenge — if we bear in mind that the things that we’re already doing to protect ourselves in the present and prepare for the next future are also some of the best things we can do to take our money, our lives, and our broken democracy back from the MOTU bastards as well.
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010114511/starving-beast-ten-things-you-can-do-take-america-back
FINANCIAL ADVICE by CHRISTOPHER LYNCH
The Power of Budgeting
You say you know where your money goes and you don't need it all written down to keep up with it? I offer you this challenge. Keep track of every penny you spend for one month and I do mean every penny. You will be shocked at what the itty-bitty expenses add up to. Take the total you spent on just one unnecessary item for the month, multiply it by 12 for months in a year and multiply the result by 5 to represent 5 years.
That is how much you could have saved AND drawn interest on in just five years. That, my friend, is the very
reason all of us need a budget. If we can get control of the small expenses that really don't matter to the overall scheme of our lives, we can enjoy financial success. The little things really do count. Cutting what you spend on lunch from five dollars a day to three dollars a day on every work day in a five day work week saves $10 a week... $40 a month... $480 a year... $2400 in five years....plus interest.
See what I mean... it really is the little things and you still eat lunch everyday and that was only one place to
save money in your daily living without doing without one thing you really need. There are a lot of places to cut expenses if you look for them. Set some specific long term and short term goals. There are no wrong answers here. If it's important to you, then it's important period. If you want to be able to make a down payment on a house, start a college fund for your kids, buy a sports car, take a vacation ... anything... then that is your goal and your reason to get a handle on your financial situation now.
Christopher E. Lynch, MBA
Financial Services Professional
MassMutual Financial Group
Stabler Corporate Center
3773 Corporate Parkway, Suite 380
Center Valley, PA 18034-8228
( Phone: +1 610 798 2500
( Direct: +1 610 798 2562, Fax: +1 610 798 8290
*: ChristopherLynch2@finsvcs.com
&: http://www.massmutual.com
You say you know where your money goes and you don't need it all written down to keep up with it? I offer you this challenge. Keep track of every penny you spend for one month and I do mean every penny. You will be shocked at what the itty-bitty expenses add up to. Take the total you spent on just one unnecessary item for the month, multiply it by 12 for months in a year and multiply the result by 5 to represent 5 years.
That is how much you could have saved AND drawn interest on in just five years. That, my friend, is the very
reason all of us need a budget. If we can get control of the small expenses that really don't matter to the overall scheme of our lives, we can enjoy financial success. The little things really do count. Cutting what you spend on lunch from five dollars a day to three dollars a day on every work day in a five day work week saves $10 a week... $40 a month... $480 a year... $2400 in five years....plus interest.
See what I mean... it really is the little things and you still eat lunch everyday and that was only one place to
save money in your daily living without doing without one thing you really need. There are a lot of places to cut expenses if you look for them. Set some specific long term and short term goals. There are no wrong answers here. If it's important to you, then it's important period. If you want to be able to make a down payment on a house, start a college fund for your kids, buy a sports car, take a vacation ... anything... then that is your goal and your reason to get a handle on your financial situation now.
Christopher E. Lynch, MBA
Financial Services Professional
MassMutual Financial Group
Stabler Corporate Center
3773 Corporate Parkway, Suite 380
Center Valley, PA 18034-8228
( Phone: +1 610 798 2500
( Direct: +1 610 798 2562, Fax: +1 610 798 8290
*: ChristopherLynch2@finsvcs.com
&: http://www.massmutual.com
PROLIFICK HAPPENINGS
The Crimson Diamond Gala Benefit for The American Diabetes Association
The Crimson Diamond Gala 2011, a monumental event will be held at the illustrious SANGRIA Restaurant located in Downtown Allentown, PA. It is located on the first floor of the Butz Corporate Center at 9th and Hamilton Streets.The event date is set for January 30, 2010.
This will be an affair for those in the Lehigh Valley wishing to support the American Diabetes Association.
The Crimson Diamond Gala 2011 will be an event that will involve residents, merchants, and proprietors, but it will also, be the genesis of a quality annual event that will assist in the research and treatment of the illness known as Diabetes.
The goal is to increase awareness of the disease, improve the lives of those suffering, and, ultimately, finding a cure.
This will be a an "Exclusive Red Carpet" Event which will consist of Fine Dining Dancing, and Diamonds. Music will be provided by Jesus Vivar from NYC Pure Mix DJ / Fashion by SOPHISTIKATE of Bethlehem, PA / A Silent Auction will be held / A Champagne Diamond Fountain will be present
Please visit our website for all information:
www.CRIMSONDIAMONDGALA.com
*Tickets $65/person
*Black Tie Optional (CE Roth Formal wear coupon)
*Valet Parking
*Additional contact information regarding sponsorships and donations
The Crimson Diamond Gala 2011 Affiliates would like the media to, also, know that sponsorship and vendor opportunities are available for all interested parties.
POSH LIFE AFFAIRS / NINALEE EVENTS / ALFONSO TODD & ASSOCIATES
Telephone: 888.215.0865 / 484.838.0155 / 484.619.6541
E-Mail: www.crimsondiamondgala.com
NATIONAL BLACK HIV/AIDS AWARENESS DAY
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2011, UNION BAPTIST CHURCH, ALLENTOWN, PA
"It Takes a Village to FIGHT HIV!"
FREE HIV Testing with OraQuick Advance oral test
RESULTS in 20 MINUTES! NO BLOOD!
RECEIVE a $10 gift card for being screened!
OR VISIT LEHIGH VALLEY HOSPITAL, 17th & CHEW STREETS, 6th FL on
Tuesday from 1pm -3:30pm or Thursday 10am - 11:30am
CALL NOW FOR YOUR CONFIDENTIAL APPOINTMENT. GET A GIFT CARD!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:610 969 2400 or 610 969 2644
COMING SOON: The "TAKING BACK WHAT THE DEVIL STOLE" 2011 CRUSADE, presented by PAULA BRION of "Da SANCTUARY MINISTRIES" and ALFONSO TODD AND ASSOCIATES
COMING SOON: THE LEHIGH VALLEY MUSIC & FASHION EXPO II / A & R REGIONAL MUSIC CONFERENCE, presented by SOPHISTIKATES, REDLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT, APPLESEED ENTERPRISES, and ALFONSO TODD AND ASSOCIATES
THOUGHTS THAT ARE STILL RELEVANT TODAY: Awakening the BEAST Within (an exerpt from a conversation I had with another concerned citizen)
I agree with you 100% on this and all issues taking place with the Jena 6. Yes, some charges have been lowered, and yes, the town would have us believe that all is now well in Mayberry, but the truth of the matter is, this should not have happened in the first place. People have been brainwashed into thinking that racism no longer exists or it is just the rich against the poor. Sorry, but this is untrue, and we don't have to go to to Jena or the South to even experience it.
It is right here in the Lehigh Valley. Do you want proof? Why does Bethlehem, Easton, Allentown, and Center Valley look as they do, yet are in the same area? Why does the "Unbiased" press constantly bash one city when it come to crime while it makes excuses for others? Why are a type of people blamed for the "downfall" of a city ? Look at the difference when it comes to funding, wages, opportunity, neighborhoods, resources, attitudes etc and tell me racism does not exist here. It may be under wraps and under the radar but it's alive and well. We as leaders should rise up! Why can we put together a party but can't organize a food drive? Why can we hype up a concert, but can't direct those in need to the resources available? I may digress but basically "racism" is more than just about nooses, "white trees", and color, it begins with with being uncaring and indifferent about a people and if that is the case, then the people need to take care of themselves and become self-sufficient.
Join me in this "REAL LIFE BATTLE FOR TRUTH, HONOR, EQUALITY, AND THE AMERICAN WAY!" Because if we are not careful, wether Black, White, Brown, Red or Yellow, we too can be facing the noose of a tree called 'injustice' but there may not be any news coverage for us.
It is right here in the Lehigh Valley. Do you want proof? Why does Bethlehem, Easton, Allentown, and Center Valley look as they do, yet are in the same area? Why does the "Unbiased" press constantly bash one city when it come to crime while it makes excuses for others? Why are a type of people blamed for the "downfall" of a city ? Look at the difference when it comes to funding, wages, opportunity, neighborhoods, resources, attitudes etc and tell me racism does not exist here. It may be under wraps and under the radar but it's alive and well. We as leaders should rise up! Why can we put together a party but can't organize a food drive? Why can we hype up a concert, but can't direct those in need to the resources available? I may digress but basically "racism" is more than just about nooses, "white trees", and color, it begins with with being uncaring and indifferent about a people and if that is the case, then the people need to take care of themselves and become self-sufficient.
Join me in this "REAL LIFE BATTLE FOR TRUTH, HONOR, EQUALITY, AND THE AMERICAN WAY!" Because if we are not careful, wether Black, White, Brown, Red or Yellow, we too can be facing the noose of a tree called 'injustice' but there may not be any news coverage for us.
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