Have you moved lately? Have you given any thought to moving or downsizing in this Topsy Turvy world of economic shortfalls we now live in? It's something I think about being 64 years old and it's just me and the wife living on a acre in a 3000 sf house. A very large house for just two people and a very large yard for just two people all of which needs much attention to keep up and maintain. When you're entering your mid 60's these really aren't things we like to think about on a daily basis, we feel more like thinking about seeing the grand kids and going out for ice cream on a sunny day. We think about things like taking off in the motor home for a few weeks or longer enjoying each other and our great nation, not trimming 23 trees, raking an acre of granite, maintaining a pool and BBQ area for gatherings and painting the trim or dusting and mopping 2000 sf of porcelain tile and all those nooks and grannies, and windows.....
Just imagine for a minute if you wanted to downsize from 3000 sf of well furnished living and spaces filled with what at the time didn't matter the cost and now need to fit things into 1600 sf. Going from 3 bedrooms, den, office, 3 baths to 2 bedroom, office and 1 bath may not seem to bad until you start having to pick and choose what you really need to fill the smaller space and what to do with the remainder! I would imagine you'd be using Craigslist and having garage sales every weekend until you got rid of the stuff that just won't fit in the new place. There's always the kids that could use some of the stuff and that always works as long as they both don't want the same things, or want you to make a buck or two on the stuff just to help out. Yes, it might be a task we wouldn't want to face or tackle right now. You know at the age of the mid 60's you really aren't built to move like you used to be, you don't even have the energy some days to get started but this you must do. There may be deadlines, dates when this would have to take place or that would have to be done and we all know the older you get the faster those days come up on you, deadlines yep there sometimes hard to meet now a days! I think if I had to tackle these problems and didn't have a handful of young helpers around who hate moving friends anyway, I might consider a company like "Two men and a Truck" to tackle those heavy and awkward things for me. Hell packing it all in boxes would be a big enough job let alone moving all those heavy boxes YOU packed to the brim with heavy stuff! Yep the $45/hour may be the way to go and hopefully you can get the help to tear things all down and put them back together again.
Well this is something we're tackling at this time in our lives, we've decided to downsize and take the plunge into a retirement community.............my God does that make us sound old! We've decided we can't handle the ranch and need to go smaller, we've decided we can't afford to keep up the ranch and need to go smaller, we've decided we need to start gearing up for full retirement and soon. Yes it's us packing all the boxes we can get our hands on, it's us having multiple garage sales and using craigslist, yes and it's us with way more junk around that we need to fill a 1600 sf place. With closing on homes it also puts us under the gun to meet times and dates set in the near future and the clock ticks faster and faster each day.
You know we really thought we needed all this stuff at one point, and we really thought we needed to spend outrageous sums of money on filling this space and that space and having this toy and that toy and right now none of that matters. Enjoying the rest of our lives matters now, enjoying each other rather than material things matters more right now and it's down that road we're steering towards and looking forward to it with must enthusiasm. Life starts over in a month or so and we're looking forward to it............pray for us!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Made in America?
Did anyone catch ABC world news the past couple of days? Made in America was a topic and they actually went into an American home and took out everything not made in America and the home ended up gutted, watch tonight to see if they can fill it back up with products "made in America".
Now speaking on this topic brings a few things to mind at least to me. I'm putting this on the unions (must be my week to bash the unions....but look at Wisconsin and Ohio right now) and I think for the most part rightfully so. Manufactures, employers, mills, plants of all sorts are closed and have been closing down for years and looking to other countries for things like wage relief in order to make a profit. Yes I know most liberals in our country don't believe in companies making a profit whether it be small business or big business, to make a profit to them is like being UN-American....you know like spread the wealth please! We allowed the unions to keep getting these massive benefit packages and sky rocketing wages which in turns forces the companies to keep raising the price of their product to the point folks can't afford to buy them and it's just continues to be a viscous circle until the companies either go out of business or look elsewhere for a way to make the company profitable. Insurance companies too like to make money, if you started a business or a company providing service to or benefits for folks you too would like to make a profit. If the unions keep getting unlimited benefits to employees without the employees contributing much of anything to the point of being almost free coverage how could any company survive with out raising prices and passing on cost to the rest of us? Sure it's great that the teacher down the road or the fireman has these wonderful pension plans to the point of making more in retirement. It's also great that the union workers that earn as much in retirement as they did when working and with Social Security make much more but now where's "spread the wealth around"?
When the rest of the country pays for these pensions by way of our State and Local and National governments raising taxes on everything under the sun and are going deeper and deeper in debt due to the fact they can no longer afford to pay these pensions..........this is not a "win win" for the rest of us! Just because you were fortunate enough to either fall into broom bushing job at a union shop or decided to become a teacher or state or government employee does not mean you deserve to continue to bankrupt our States and Federal government without helping with the debts you are causing. Hell most of those retired teachers, government workers State, Local or Federal hated their jobs..........bitched about their jobs..........complained all the way to the bank until retirement rolls around and "bingo" it was the smartest thing they ever did!
No in my opinion the Unions played a big part in companies moving to less expensive ways to make their products or closed down due to over priced employees and until we fix the problem with the Unions there just won't be a lot of items labeled, Made in America!
Here's a site you might want to check out, 22 of the States have nothing labeled made in America and a number of the rest have one item you can purchase made in America............a sad day!
http://americansworking.com/index.html
Now speaking on this topic brings a few things to mind at least to me. I'm putting this on the unions (must be my week to bash the unions....but look at Wisconsin and Ohio right now) and I think for the most part rightfully so. Manufactures, employers, mills, plants of all sorts are closed and have been closing down for years and looking to other countries for things like wage relief in order to make a profit. Yes I know most liberals in our country don't believe in companies making a profit whether it be small business or big business, to make a profit to them is like being UN-American....you know like spread the wealth please! We allowed the unions to keep getting these massive benefit packages and sky rocketing wages which in turns forces the companies to keep raising the price of their product to the point folks can't afford to buy them and it's just continues to be a viscous circle until the companies either go out of business or look elsewhere for a way to make the company profitable. Insurance companies too like to make money, if you started a business or a company providing service to or benefits for folks you too would like to make a profit. If the unions keep getting unlimited benefits to employees without the employees contributing much of anything to the point of being almost free coverage how could any company survive with out raising prices and passing on cost to the rest of us? Sure it's great that the teacher down the road or the fireman has these wonderful pension plans to the point of making more in retirement. It's also great that the union workers that earn as much in retirement as they did when working and with Social Security make much more but now where's "spread the wealth around"?
When the rest of the country pays for these pensions by way of our State and Local and National governments raising taxes on everything under the sun and are going deeper and deeper in debt due to the fact they can no longer afford to pay these pensions..........this is not a "win win" for the rest of us! Just because you were fortunate enough to either fall into broom bushing job at a union shop or decided to become a teacher or state or government employee does not mean you deserve to continue to bankrupt our States and Federal government without helping with the debts you are causing. Hell most of those retired teachers, government workers State, Local or Federal hated their jobs..........bitched about their jobs..........complained all the way to the bank until retirement rolls around and "bingo" it was the smartest thing they ever did!
No in my opinion the Unions played a big part in companies moving to less expensive ways to make their products or closed down due to over priced employees and until we fix the problem with the Unions there just won't be a lot of items labeled, Made in America!
Here's a site you might want to check out, 22 of the States have nothing labeled made in America and a number of the rest have one item you can purchase made in America............a sad day!
http://americansworking.com/index.html
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
When is it all going to come to a boil.....soon I hope!
Let me begin by saying I was a staunch union man for 12 years and then even for a few years after leaving the ranks of the Teamsters and now I'm seeing the other side!
Coming from the Midwest and the heart of all farm implement manufactures up until the early 80's you couldn't help but know of unions and how they worked and helped the employees they represented. Many friends relied on these jobs and unions for their livelihood and some nice hourly wages and benefits, hell if you weren't in a union you envied those that were and the things they received through "negotiations"....... yep now I feel for most companies that have to deal with these same unions.
When you have democratic representatives of a State, representatives elected by the unions for the unions and with the unions money not doing their jobs for fear of what constituents and these unions will do or not do come next elections that's criminal. The union heads across the country right now must be hating all this negative publicity with regards to what Government union organized employees earn in wages and benefits compared to private sector employees doing the same work. It comes out today that in 41 states employees covered under the state and local government collective barging agreements earn substantially more than there counter parts in the private sector, more in wages and much more in benefits.
I'm not going on too much farther with this other than to say yes, the unions had a purpose years ago and did improve working conditions and wages for the workers of our country but how much is too far? I think they have out lasted their usefulness and should be toned down a bit to say the least. The days of a regular Joe leaning on a broom on the shop floor for 8 hours and making $18 plus an hour plus full benefits should be over. The Government worker who can't be fired or let go for missing 1/3 or more of each work quarter is absurd and our government should be ashamed, more of the citizens of this country need to know these things. Wisconsin and it's what really is the minority of their population should shut up and get back to work for all those big bucks. I hope it come to the point that all their doing is helping to bring attention to the ridiculous demands they have made and profited from in the past. Teachers that don't go to work and rather protest because they may have to pay for some of their benefits should be canned immediately, they aren't good teachers anyway if they don't want to teach!
Wisconsin, Ohio and the rest of them.................bite the bullet and help out your States because it's you union folks and your demands that most likely put your States into these budget problems.
Coming from the Midwest and the heart of all farm implement manufactures up until the early 80's you couldn't help but know of unions and how they worked and helped the employees they represented. Many friends relied on these jobs and unions for their livelihood and some nice hourly wages and benefits, hell if you weren't in a union you envied those that were and the things they received through "negotiations"....... yep now I feel for most companies that have to deal with these same unions.
When you have democratic representatives of a State, representatives elected by the unions for the unions and with the unions money not doing their jobs for fear of what constituents and these unions will do or not do come next elections that's criminal. The union heads across the country right now must be hating all this negative publicity with regards to what Government union organized employees earn in wages and benefits compared to private sector employees doing the same work. It comes out today that in 41 states employees covered under the state and local government collective barging agreements earn substantially more than there counter parts in the private sector, more in wages and much more in benefits.
I'm not going on too much farther with this other than to say yes, the unions had a purpose years ago and did improve working conditions and wages for the workers of our country but how much is too far? I think they have out lasted their usefulness and should be toned down a bit to say the least. The days of a regular Joe leaning on a broom on the shop floor for 8 hours and making $18 plus an hour plus full benefits should be over. The Government worker who can't be fired or let go for missing 1/3 or more of each work quarter is absurd and our government should be ashamed, more of the citizens of this country need to know these things. Wisconsin and it's what really is the minority of their population should shut up and get back to work for all those big bucks. I hope it come to the point that all their doing is helping to bring attention to the ridiculous demands they have made and profited from in the past. Teachers that don't go to work and rather protest because they may have to pay for some of their benefits should be canned immediately, they aren't good teachers anyway if they don't want to teach!
Wisconsin, Ohio and the rest of them.................bite the bullet and help out your States because it's you union folks and your demands that most likely put your States into these budget problems.
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