All the talk in the press is generally of a negative nature… very little air time or article time is devoted to good news so I thought I’d share a few facts with you I picked up recently from Jeff Thredgold, President of Thredgold Economic Associates:
1. The middle and lower middle class had stronger income gains in 2007 than did one-firth of households.
2. Donations to charity set an all time high in 2007. More than $300 billion was donated by individuals, foundations and corporations.
3. Men’s contribution to housework has doubled over the past 40 years, while their time spent on child care has tripled.
4. US exports to China have risen roughly 24% per year since 2001, making China the fastest growing market for US goods.
5. The number of people who have quit smoking, 46 million, now exceeds the number who still smoke, 45 million.
6. For every dollar of US economic output generated today, we burn less than half as much oil as 30 years ago.
See, it’s not such a bad place that we all live in is it? There’s much work to do to make things better for everyone but if only the media reported some of the good news stuff, we’d all feel much happier. It’s a little bit like our battle at Florida Leisure Vacation Homes to educate people that a vacation home is a great place to stay and that you don’t have to be couped up in a 400 sq. ft hotel room when on vacation. One day the press will get that story… can’t wait to see what they make of it!
As I am ineligible to vote in the US elections, I never usually pass much of a comment, but by not having the pressure on me, it sometimes gives me an unbiased look at the candidates. I am not sure where I would fall in the party spectrum … in the UK I was a staunch Conservative, but over here the two parties are so similar it usually comes down to the personality where I am concerned. I also don’t like the fact that you have to be registered to vote a certain way … why is that? Anyway to let you know which way my chips would fall, the way I would’ve voted over the years would’ve been … Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush … but now I would have a dilemma.
I was definitely heading down the McCain route and then he went insane … after all what other reason could he have for choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate … he may as well have picked Michael or John Cleese or any of the Monty Python troupe.
Let’s examine the choice … well it is positive that she is a woman … 44 years old … but that aside come on … about to become a grandmother to an unwed teenage daughter … has been in politics for about ten minutes, but is the goverenor of Alaska … please!!!!!!!!!!!!! When was the last time we heard about Alaska under terrorist threat, the rising gang violence, the population explosion, unemployment, immigration … etc etc etc … it’s hardly a microcosm of American society.
On top of all this, she is (admirably) the mother to a four-and-a-half-month old son who has Downs Syndrome … that must be hard and isn’t going to get any easier. How can you balance being a peripheral part of the US government with being the mother of a young child with a debilitating condition?
On top of that, do we really want a 44 year old political novice just one bullet or heart attack away from the most powerful office in the world … remember John McCain is no spring chicken … summer and fall have passed him by as well.
These are just my observations. I welcome a rebuttal.
