Not your fault

As I turned into the last corner on my long trip home tonight, my ear caught these words from a commercial playing over the car radio. It went something like this: "Are you in more than ten thousand dollars worth of debt? Do your credit cards have you locked down? Are you tired of calls from collectors? We'll it's not your fault."
"What?" I thought, as I felt for the button on the garage door opener. How is being in debt way over your own head, not your own fault?" I turned the car off, and left the radio on, determined to listen a little closer. In what can only be described as some brilliant Americanized marketing, the voice I was now hearing went on to explain to me that credit card companies have devised a scheme to "keep you in debt" because "that's how they make their money."
Wait a minute. If I spent over $10,000 dollars of someone else's money and I cant pay it back then just how does that profit them?
Well, to cut a long story short, this genius has devised a plan (not for free I might add) to get you out of debt, and a way to stop the "evil" credit card companies from calling you.

Why not just pay what you rightfully owe? Oh that's right, you cant because you don't have any money.

Personal responsibility. We seem to be missing that in our country these days. I remember amassing quite a large debt with a certain credit card company in my early twenties, but I don't seem to remember an "evil agent" from Visa putting a gun in my back, forcing me to spend money. Oh no, I did that all by myself. Because we are all taught that having debt is normal right? One needs to "build your credit" when you are young so you can take on more debt when you are much older. Spend now so you can be more in debt later - got it.
And why have a savings account for a rainy day - isn't that what a credit card is for? Yes, of course, because borrowing more money when you are flat broke is always a good idea. Especially at a 21% APR.

These days, normal is broke, or only 4 weeks away from it.

I'm proud to say that we (Marci and I) are free of all debt, but our home. You read that right, no car payment, credit cards, student loans - nothing. Why, because we got sick and tired of owing everyone else money. It took 3 years of hard work. Marci (a.k.a Minister of Finances) wrote out the last check for someone else, last year. I cant tell you how liberating this experience was. I firmly believe that one of the reasons we have a great marriage is because we are not under the stress of debt anymore. You should try it.




Sean.

New day

Ok.
So a few words on today's inauguration. Call it historic, "full of change" significant, touching, whatever. If it didn't remind you at least once somewhere deep in your soul that this is truly the greatest country in the world, and that we are truly blessed, you must have a heart of stone.

Whatever side of the fence you fall on, God Bless America, and may God bless our new President.

Lord knows he is going to need it.

S.

Cars

The latest round of bailout talks with American car manufacturers has got me thinking. First of all, I think that I am sick of everyone being "bailed out" and second of all, I am feeling less and less sorry for companies that are begging for rescue from their own poor management and years of selling cheap, poor products.
I asked Marci last week to name just 1 small, quality, fuel efficient car made either by Chrysler or GM. She thought for a few seconds and couldn't name any. I then asked her to name 1 similar vehicle made by Toyota, Honda, or any other "foreign manufacturer." Within seconds she named 3. Try this little experiment yourself and see what happens. I'll leave it with you to digest the results. But the exercise seems to answer itself.
For fun, I decided to do some research on the top ten worst rated cars of 2007. So here they are:

10. Saturn ION
9. Chrysler Aspen
8. Chevrolet Trailblazer
7. Hummer H2
6. Hummer H3
5. Chevrolet Uplander
4. Dodge Nitro
3. Chevrolet Aveo
2. Chrysler Sebring
1. Jeep Compass.

Suspiciously, (or not) every car is either a GM or Chrysler product - with GM having the distinct honor of having a total of 7 in the top ten. Congrats to Chrysler who only had 3.
Absent from the list is any foreign manufacturer. Ok, so you may ask what are the criteria for this list? I'll let you read it for yourself here.
Very impressive. Is it any wonder why both companies, once giants in the auto industry, are literally days away from bankruptcy - and don't even get me started on unions, where the average wage to work in a GM factory to build these wonderful products is $28/hour.
Just if you wondered, based on an average year (with no overtime), that's a salary of $58,240 per year.

Caveat - I point the finger squarely at big unions and poor management for this one, NOT the guy on the production line trying to make a decent living.

I won't go into the depths of how Detroit has sold us on cheap junk with no re-sale value for years, and years. We as Americans have been forced to accept mediocrity, and poor quality, and lousy design from our own car companies for decades. Does anyone remember the Pontiac Aztek? Who in their right mind in the engineering and design dept at GM, dreamed this thing up and then thought - "Wow, what a beautiful car!!" Who signed off on the paper, allowing this behemoth of ugliness go into production? Sorry - no offense to those of you who actually bought one of these....but really??

The sad part of it is, surely the greatest, most prosperous nation in the world is capable of so much better. I work for a large American engine manufacturer where I can honestly say that quality is the most important aspect of everything we do. I am proud to represent an organization that sells a well engineered, quality product. Our very name is synonymous with quality. And we are constantly, driven, and pushed towards this on an internal level. Thousands, upon thousands of hours of product research and development are completed before any new engine is ever released.

So we are faced with a dilemma? Do we bail out mediocrity? Do we simply accept poor products and poor management and poor quality with a nice check from the federal government? Keep in mind, that is your taxpayer money - you know, the stuff the government takes from you before you even get it. When was the last time you heard someone say - "Gee, I really want a nice new Buick in the driveway!"

I expect some good response from this one....

So go for it.

S.

Wow

OK folks,
Wow, I didn't expect all those comments on my last post. I truly appreciate all of your feedback.
Unfortunately, since this is an open blog some anonymous members of our new society have decided to post some not so nice things that I really don't feel are pleasant.
The goal of this blog is to create warm fuzzy feelings about family, life, love and friends - not a forum for a political gunshot wound.

So I take full responsibility for throwing the "cat amongst the pigeons" but have removed the last post and comments in the interest of maintaining happy thoughts.

Feel free to comment - (nice things only)
:)

S.

Voter Burnout

Have you heard of this?

Its a useful phrase, coined conveniently by political organizers. This way they can put a definition on those folks like me who are sick and tired of hearing about this election.

It's much easier to handle something when you have a name for it. Its much easier to not offend anyone. We are great at that in America. This all happened when we started calling the janitor a "custodial technician." Or a secretary an "executive assistant."

So, if there are people out there who are suffering from "voter burnout" you can now form a special focus group designed specifically to win back those precious lost votes. You can create new positions, for instance: you can have an "administrative assistant to the public relations liason" for the "special voter burnout task force"

Thats great! Who's going to pay for this? Oh never mind, were going to use money from a government grant. How much you ask? Oh, a couple hundred million, that should do it.

Good - aren't you glad that votes come cheap?

Speaking of cheap - if the credit markets are so screwed up, and there's no money to borrow, why did I get an application in the mail today from Chase bank for a $50,000 home equity loan with "payments as low as $198 per month!!!"

Here's where I am with all of this.

1. I'm tired of getting forwarded emails telling me that Obama is a complete terrorist, and we will all die if he is elected.

2. I'm tired of John McCain calling me his friend, and telling me that he will veto any pork barrel bill - and I will "know their names"

3. I'm really tired of hearing about "change" when I see nothing but more of the same from both sides.

Wow - I must have a really bad case of voter burnout.......

Go Sarah go.....

This morning we assembled the Matt Goss Band back together, and were given the opportunity to play for the McCain, Palin rally at F&M University in Lancaster.

What a fun day. Besides getting to hang out again with old friends, the rally was a lot of fun.

How did we get this gig you ask? Well, due to some contacts made during President Bush's campaign in 2004 we were asked to play at all three of his rally's here in P.A. The same folks who were organizing the McCain rally called our buddy Matt up and asked if we could do it again for John McCain. So we accepted.

The place was packed. It took much of the day to get set up. We had to load in at 9am, get set up and then leave so the whole building could be swept for security reasons. Not quite as stringent as when we met the President in 2004, but not too far off either.

One thing I do know is that people really like Senator McCain, but they love Sarah Palin.

As soon as she walked into the hall, the place went nuts. People were chanting "Saaarah, Saaarah." It is obvious that this lady handles herself with incredible poise and has a down to earth charm about her that people really relate to. Her smile, and demeanor are somehow familiar. She doesn't carry the stuffy, jaded, Washingtonesque aura around her. What really impressed me were the amount of women that were cheering for her.

After McCain left the building she spent another 20 minutes shaking hands, smiling, holding babies and taking pictures with people. The crowd just did not seem to want to let her go.

So this is just what I saw folks, you judge for yourself.

As a republican I am glad to see how this has energized the GOP. Its good to feel like there is some hope for the party, and for this election.

As usual during the elections I have been receiving lots of "forwarded" email smearing Obama, calling him everything from a communist to a terrorist to the antichrist. The watercooler talk at work resounds the same (on both sides). Some of us in the church have latched on to Sarah Palin like she is the God sent messenger here to fix everything wrong with the country. Its amazing how everyone else has decided on her behalf that she is now an evangelical christian. Funny, she actually has not come out publicly with her faith since she was asked to accept the nomination for VP.

My point? There seems to be a lot of hype, and lack of informed people willing to throw their vote to a candidate based purely on emotion. The freedom, and power of a democracy is only effective when you make an informed decision, and use your vote based on the facts. What will a candidate do when in office? How will they vote on any particular issue?

I asked someone the other day who they would vote for. The answer, "Oh for Obama, because I just hate all republicans" Great. I have no problem with someone voting for Obama, that is their right as an american. But surely there has to be a better, more informed reason than that?

So, know the facts.

For your convenience, here is a link to each candidates website. Check them out, get rid of the spin, and you decide.

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/