We Are a Commodity

It is a fact. The rich get richer and poor get poorer. That reminds me of the above cartoon.

Oh Me

We Need More Jobs

Steve Jobs (1955-2011), cofounder of APPLE, died yesterday. I don't think it took anybody by surpise, he has been battling pancreatic cancer for years. It may not have surprised anyone, but people were still shocked - such a lively man is gone.

Steve Jobs was a big force in changing us into these electronic times. He changed the world is an understatement. People spent the night in front of electronic stores so that may be the ones of the first to purchase his latest electronic wonder. My wife Anna reads novels and quickly look up trivia facts with her i-pad and I walk daily keeping the beat of my i-pod.

I admire Steve Jobs because from what I heard he was a nice guy who treated his employees decently and his wealth did not go to his head.

HAPPY LABOR DAY!!!

Now get back to work. If you work hard and make me richer I might let some of my bonuses trickle down to you, just like I have before. HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! Fools!!!
Or I might do better than that and just not downsize you. HA HA HA HA HA!!!

On This Date, August 16th...

1812: General Hull surrenders Detroit & Michigan territory to England. I read that Detroit is trying to make a comeback. It was suffering from 45% unemployment because the big ones of the auto industry moved to other locations, leaving the city high and dry. I think now the State Department is going over the legalities of the terms that General Hull surrendered Detroit to England in 1812 and say England won Detroit fair and square and it is now back under British rule as far as the U.S. is concerned.




1925: Fess Parker Fort Worth Texas Fess Elisha Parker was born either on August 16th, 1924 or August the 16th, 1925, take your pick. Wikipedia says he was born in 1924, on-line This Day in History says 1925.. He is probably best remembered for playing Davy Crockett and wearing a coonskin hat in the Disney movie. However, he also wore a coonskin hat playing Daniel Boone on a TV series. He also played James Andrews of Andrews Raiders in Disney’s GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE, which sort of started here in Marietta but really got underway a few miles up the track at Kennesaw… or was the name of it Big Shanty then? Not long ago we were in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta andread a sign said James Andrew was hung something like 40 or 50 feet from the sign, which would have been across Memorial Drive. I looked over to the spot the sign was pointing to and saw Fess Parker swinging at the end of a rope.




1977: Elvis Presley died of a heart ailment at Graceland at 42 and the music stopped.

Lets see if I got this right, if we treat the wealthy right they will treat us right and let some of their money dribble down and create a some jobs, look! Here is an example now.

Trickle Down or Pissing On Theory?

Dilbert by Scott Adams

Teacher Retirement System gives bonusesBy James Salzer

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

While teachers went without cost-of-living raises last year and had to take unpaid days off, some top state staffers managing their retirement accounts got pay boosts of more than 35 percent.

The two investment chiefs at the retirement system took home $609,000 each, almost double what they were paid before the recession hit in 2007. – ajc.com Jan 30, 2010

I heard it before. The rich get richer and the poor get poor during a recession. Is this part of the trickle-down theory to save the economy?

November the 13th

On this date in 1789, Ben Franklin wrote, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes." That was before loopholes were invented to take care of the 2nd certainly. For now we are stuck with the first certainly.

I Want You to help with the economy (my economy)

The paper yesterday mentioned a pet camp for youths. For only $250 your child can learn how to care for animals such as dogs and horses. I interpret that they pay to clean out stables and change the paper in dog cages.

That is a better deal for an owner than hiring interns for $0.00 salary. With solutions like this the economy will be back on its feet in no time.

I am thinking of doing my patriotic duty and opening up some camps here.

Maybe a Learn-To-Cut-Grass Camp for only $200; Learn-To-Wash-Dishes Camp for only $150 (bring your own detergent); a Painting-House-trim Camp also for $200; and Minor-House-Repair-&Maintenance for only $300.

And of course with the income I will receive I will be happy to do my duty as spend it so it can dibble back into the economy to help generate more jobs.

Be a good American and send your money and application in now!

Employees and Products

This is the Marietta Coca-Cola Bottling Company years ago before my time.
After it outgrew itself it moved to Roswell Road on a hill overlooking downtown Marietta. My uncle-in-law-to-be Bill Mc, after his Army hitch got a job at the Coca-Cola company.

One of the benefits of the job was that employees were welcome to drink Cokes all day long, free. It turned my uncle into a diabetic. He had to shoot himself with insulin the rest of his life.

He changed jobs to W.T. Anderson Chevrolet dealer in the parts department. There, if he chose to own a vehicle, it had to be a General Motors product.

That doesn’t seem right does it? – for your employer to have the right to dictate what you do with your money.

Which doesn’t not fit my image of W.T. Anderson, who I always thought was fair and just….. but it does fit the image a of a business man, which he was a very successful one.

I wonder if today’s auto-worker has to purchase a vehicle made by the company he worked for? If so, it might help, to bail one out from within… pull one’s feet up by their own bootstraps, so to speak.

Happy Black Friday!!

I remember in the early 60s the price of bologna went up in price. Why? Because a lot of people were buying it. One of the rules of economics is that price is based on demand. If masses of people were buying bologna it surely was in demand – right?

Wrong? It was the cheapest sandwich meat. When the price went up people quit buying it. Duh!

Now, I am wondering if the same will happen with the deep turkey fryer and peanut oil.

Twelve of us gobbled the gobbler yesterday here. I was the chef. As I have done many times before I deep cooked my turkey in peanut oil.

Before price wasn’t a consideration. It think the oil must have been fairly cheap, because as frugal as I am… well, I know me.

A few days ago we priced the peanut oil at Costco and their large container was $48. That was too much. At Walmart the price was $39 for their large container. I am assuming both containers were the size. We bought the Walmart brand.

Yesterday morning when I was preparing to cook I poured the peanut oil into the large container and it was three inches short of coming high enough. The mark I made with the turkey and water was 9 inches and the peanut oil came to 6 inches. Damn!

I hustled to Krogers and the manager told me they sold the last two. Publix was closed.

We took a chance with some old used peanut oil I used twice before for the remaining 3 inches, it worked fine.

I have read that using peanut oil twice is really not recommended because the oil can turn rancid. I guess we were lucky.

But, I could have easily spent $96 at Costo or $78 at Walmart for the cooking oil for a one time meal… $39 is bad enough.

Another thing about deep frying a turkey: After the cooking time was up my son Adam helped me left the bird out of the bubbling oil. It just about takes four hands for this feat (get it, feat? – hands – yuk yuk). When we got it up something went wrong and the turkey fell.

It could have fell on the ground and get dry leaves, bits of earth matter, and dogs’ bathroom stuff all over it and Adam and I would hose it off and keep swear ourselves to secrecy or it could have fell back into the bubbling oil and splash 350◦ peanut oil on both us.

It fell back into the bubbling peanut oil but both Adam and I had quick reflexes and jumped out of the way of the splash.

And everybody enjoyed the turkey – and also the spiraled cut ham and other goodies Anna made and people brought.

Rocky and his fiancé Sabrina brought a DVD-slide show of their trip to South Korea and treated us with what all they saw and the story behind the scenes which included customs, laws, and history of the Koreans. It was very enjoyable and interesting.

We have a lot to be thankful for – just for that morning.

I think my deep-frying turkey days are over. Now watch the price of peanut oil go down.

Up and At 'Em!

Good morning!

Early this morning remodeling begins on our kitchen.

It is a small kitchen, therefore won't cost very much - right? HA HA HA HAW HAW HEE HEE HO HO HAW HAW!

This is a good example of inflation. My parents bought a new brick house in 1955 for $500 less than this remodeling is costing.

Generating Money

I heard on the news Thursday that Mexicans in this country sent $25 billion dollars to their families in Mexico last year.

And I bet other people here with their families in other countries do the same.

I would like to think I would too. That is where your first responsibility is – your family.

But as far as U.S. economics go I don’t think it is good thing. The money they are sending away is a generating money. The self-generating money would ideally get put back into the flow my buying good or services, which generate more American jobs, or maybe invested in stocks, bonds, or a form of savings, which is money to be lent for things to generate itself around.

But, when the money goes to another country: Poof! I doubt if it will find its way back to jump in the generating pool again and the economy is hurt a little bit more.

I could use that $25 billion.

The Economic God

Yesterday someone I know received a nice bonus. Before the bonus had a chance to be spent or invested he had car trouble, which took big chunk of the bonus.

When I heard this it remind me of one time I received an unexpected check from our insurance company for $200. The letter that came with the check explained they had been charging the wrong rate for so many months so they were reimbursing us the amount we overpaid. Overjoyed by receiving an good lump of money when our family was young and struggling, that unexpected $200 was very welcomed, yes indeed. I got filled out my deposit slip, got into the car to go to the bank to deposit it. The car would not start, or if it did start, it didn’t say running long, I forgot, it has been so long. The water pump was kaplunked. I had to have the car towed away to a garage to be repaired. Total cost = $230. My dumbfoundedness = priceless!

Then I started noticing other people as well as ourselves. Just about every time us or our friends came into some money something would happen that it went out just as quickly as it came in.

Then, I decided, high up overlooking us people trying to scratch out a living, there must be a Economic God. He/She doesn’t want us little people get too carried away with any riches we might come across because we wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway except buy a outlandish house and decorate it in a gaudy fashion and do some crazy things.

The Economic God has devised a way to keep us at the bottom of the economic scale – after all, who is going to sweet the floors and do the other dirty work? And of course, the same system makes it easier for the rich to get richer … after all, the rich know to do wise things with their money, like buy Mercedes 3 or 4 homes, eat fine foods and drink nice expensive wine.

The tax cut for the wealthy is all part of the Economic God’s Master Plan.