A work in progress

This picture's meaning runs deep. It shows how some Americans stick to the old ways and are unable to accept today's diverse world. These members of the WestBoro Baptist Church protest everything. They literally plan protests of celebrity's funerals and soldier's funerals. Maybe they have nothing to do? More worrying however is their inclusion of children in their group. Children and being indoctrinated with their racist views.

In the picture below the first one , the Church is protesting Jews and Israel. This shows just how much these people hate everything and everyone. These pictures provide and insight into the mind of the racist. Although these views are not common in the north, in southern states many people routinely express their views in this way.

Old Traditions

Where I live in Northfield , there is a big gap in houses and generally house size. There are 2 categories of house. 1 is the newly built giant house and the other is the 60 year old small house. What I noticed about the two types of houses is that in my neighborhood , only the older houses had flags. I looked at about 100 houses and saw ~15 flags. Not a single large house had a flag. This reminded me of the discussion we had in class where Mr. Bolos mentioned that in his area more small houses had flags than bigger houses. With some careful observation over the past few years , I have noted that the bigger houses were mainly owned by people who have immigrated to the U.S. within the last 20 years. All the smaller houses were probably owned by the same people for 30+ years. This leads me to believe there is a correleation between how long you live in the U.S. , how successful you are and flags. I will have to study this more in depth.

Irresponsible Retirement

A few days ago I sent a college professor and email requesting an interview, although he could not do the interview he did answer my question. Why do Americans Live above their means? He gave me a very interesting answer that I had not thought of before. If someone is retired and has all their money invested and then the economy goes bad, those people appear to look irresponsible. While they thought they were living within their means , and perhaps for the time they were, the investments failed and now they can no longer pay off their debt. This problem is not easily solved due to the fact that predicting when investments may go bad is very hard. Thus, people always get caught in this trap. I have thought about this for quite some time and cannot help but to think , How does the government prepare for this specific situation knowing that this type of thing is bound to happen ?

Don't Blame the Bankers

I often hear Americans blame banks, bankers or financial institutions for giving loans to almost anybody. While this was most definitely wrong, the bigger blame should go to the people who took the loans even though they were making nowhere near enough to pay them. As a nation we are quick to point fingers ,but we need to take a closer look at ourselves. If we saved money instead of spending money we didn't have the economic situation might have gone better.

From Modest to Mcmansion

According to an NPR article (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5525283) , the average size of a house in the united states has gone from 983 sq. ft in 1950 to 2400 sq. ft now. This is a disturbing trend because the size of our families is not increasing ,but rather decreasing. What does all this mean ? It means that on average Americans are attaining higher expectations. One reason for the huge increase in house size was the fact that in the early 2000's loans were being given to anyone. This fueled an increase in construction ,which in turn caused house size to go up. Why are Americans growing more greedy? Why was 983 sq ft enough 50 years ago ,but it isn't now ?

Living in credit

Being in the middle of a credit crisis has got me thinking, why do Americans feel it is ok to live so deep in debt? Buying a house that they clearly cannot afford, not thinking ahead and racking up a giant debt. People are complaining now ,but have they looked back t0 2 years ago when they were spending carelessly? Although banks are partly to blame for giving loans to almost anyone , common people need to realize that scapegoating the banks does nothing when they themselves are the root cause of the issue. The average American who wanted an above average lifestyle. I feel like too much of the blame is being put on "wallstreet fatcats" and bankers when most of the blame should lie with the American public.

Aig set to pay out 450 million in bonuses

Even as it is apparent that AIG's failure was because of mismanagement, executives and other employees are set to receive about 450 million in bonuses. This is outrageous considering AIG is bankrupt and those receiving the bonuses are getting them directly from out tax dollars. The government needs to step in here and prevent the people who's actions led to this company's downfall from getting massive bonuses. The latest payment of the 450 million is $160 million dollars. Although Obama's plan already limited future payments, the current ones need to be stopped as well. Although contracts would have to be broken, this is one situation where it would be wise to bend the rules.