September 26, 2008
Will this be the New Dollar Bill? Truth or Lie?
Has the American economy tanked so badly that our government is issuing new money? I received this prototype from a friend. Will this be the new dollar bill?
Is it true our economy is so bad they are printing new money?
September 25, 2008
Video: Can Mama Make it all better? Truth or Lie?
Students at WASU have been talking about this video and others. Many students have expressed dismay and wonder if this can really be happening.
Join the students of WASU and let us know what you think.
Can Mama make it all better?
Here at We’re All Screwed University students seek the truth!
September 22, 2008
Should taxpayers demand five conditions on trillion dollar blank check? truth or lie?
Robert Reich suggests that five conditions be added to the “blank check” the Bush Administration is requesting to bail out Wall Street:
The public doesn’t like a blank check. They think this whole bailout idea is nuts. They see fat cats on Wall Street who have raked in zillions for years, now extorting in effect $2,000 to $5,000 from every American family to make up for their own nonfeasance, malfeasance, greed, and just plain stupidity. Wall Street’s request for a blank check comes at the same time most of the public is worried about their jobs and declining wages, and having enough money to pay for gas and food and health insurance, meet their car payments and mortgage payments, and save for their retirement and childrens’ college education. And so the public is asking: Why should Wall Street get bailed out by me when I’m getting screwed?
So if you are a member of Congress, you just might be in a position to demand from Wall Street certain conditions in return for the blank check…
1. The government (i.e. taxpayers) gets an equity stake in every Wall Street financial company proportional to the amount of bad debt that company shoves onto the public. So when and if Wall Street shares rise, taxpayers are rewarded for accepting so much risk.
2. Wall Street executives and directors of Wall Street firms relinquish their current stock options and this year’s other forms of compensation, and agree to future compensation linked to a rolling five-year average of firm profitability. Why should taxpayers feather their already amply-feathered nests?
3. All Wall Street executives immediately cease making campaign contributions to any candidate for public office in this election cycle or next, all Wall Street PACs be closed, and Wall Street lobbyists curtail their activities unless specifically asked for information by policymakers. Why should taxpayers finance Wall Street’s outsized political power – especially when that power is being exercised to get favorable terms from taxpayers?
4. Wall Street firms agree to comply with new regulations over disclosure, capital requirements, conflicts of interest, and market manipulation. The regulations will emerge in ninety days from a bi-partisan working group, to be convened immediately. After all, inadequate regulation and lack of oversight got us into this mess.
5. Wall Street agrees to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify the terms of primary mortgages, so homeowners have a fighting chance to keep their homes. Why should distressed homeowners lose their homes when Wall Streeters receive taxpayer money that helps them keep their fancy ones?
September 21, 2008
Politician Lies?
Give me a break! If there were a politician who had integrity and said the same thing to everyone, that politician would not get elected. Politicians lie because people do not want to hear the truth. People will only vote for politicians who tell them what they want to hear.
This is what I think:
If you want to get elected you are expected to lie about many things.
If you had an extra-marital affair, you are expected to lie.
If you smoked pot as half of all Americans have, you are expected to lie.
If you ever cheated on your taxes, you are expected to lie.
It seems that American’s are currently incapable of facing the reality that politician’s are human, that all politician’s have skeleton’s in their closet, relative to the expectations of the American public, that political parties will use these skeletons and if they can’t find any, the political parties will manufacturer them through negative public relations campaigns. Why should we expect our politicians to be somehow morally superior to us, the average citizen?
We elect politicians to do a job.
Our politicians should be qualified to do that job.
Our politicians should not be corrupt and should not have a record of corruption. This is not a simple matter. What determines if a politician is corrupt?
This is the definition of corruption per the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
1. Impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle 2. Inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (as bribery) 3. A departure from the original or from what is pure or correct 4. An agency or influence that corrupts.
So good voters, study this definition well and study to determine if you think a politician fits this definition. If in your best judgement they do then – DO NOT vote for them. We don’t need corrupt politicians!
I predict most voters will continue to elect the politician who lies the most. I believe that is one of the main reasons we have so much corruption built into our political systems. It simply reflects the bad judgement of voters and the limited choices they are presented by our political system.
September 14, 2008
Utopia is there such a place – Truth or lie?
This is a bit of a personal story and a true story. I have a friend that moves all over looking for utopia. He drags his family from town to town and state to state they never settle in one place long enough to find decent jobs, they always complain about no work. After about two months they complain the people in these new towns do drugs or drink to much, jobs in the area just don’t pay enough. They live on the edge of life, but with the thought that some one, some where be it family or big brother will keep them them from falling into the abyss. They don’t see that they fell long ago and that they are at the bottom and looking up and only able to see assholes.
So here is my question – Is there such a place that you can go to or is utopia a state of your own mind?.
September 13, 2008
Getting a deal when you know they are down
Hypothetical:
Say you are at the flea market and you see a woman there with two small children trying to sell personal items. You can tell she and her kids are down on their luck. It is near the end of the day. Her kids are a bit whinny. You talk with her and find out her husband died last year. She tells you it has been a slow day at the flea market. She really needs the money to feed her kids. The only thing she has of any value is her wedding ring. She tells you her late husband paid $10,000 for it eight years ago and it is obvious worth that, but she needs to feed her kids. She is willing to sell it for $500.00. She is desperate. You have the $500.00 on you but you pull out $150.00 and tell her that is all you have. She cries as she hands you her ring.
Truth or Lie – Would you take advantage of a person down on their luck? It is not like you know them.
September 7, 2008
The Gray Area: Is It Used To Much – Truth Or Lie?
“Hypothetical: “ Suppose you are a taxi driver. One morning you go to work and have coffee with a co-worker. She tells you how she made over $200.00 helping a person she was sure was a drug dealer by driving him around town in her taxi to do what she believed were drug deals.
This co-worker considers herself a responsible, good citizen who is doing nothing wrong in this particular case. She considers this a gray area. She is turning a blind eye toward what this passenger might be doing because she profits by being his driver.
Do you have situations in your life with gray areas and where do you draw the line?
September 5, 2008
Is the lottery a scam to tax the poor? truth or lie
How the Lottery Can Ruin Your Life
The article below is from Dave Ramsey. You can visit the original, using this link
Perhaps the quickest way to ruin your life is to win the lottery.
Don’t laugh. Lots of people think that instantly coming into a few million dollars means life on easy street, money that will be around forever, and no need for responsibility or work.
The truth is very rarely does it work out like that for a lottery winner. Unfortunately, a new study published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making finds that people who feel poor are more eager to spend money in an attempt to get rich (this is a good “duh” moment). One recent report found that families who make under $12,400 spend about $645 a year on lottery tickets.
Many poor people are fooled by what they think it means to win the lottery. It’s usually the worst thing that could ever happen to someone.
Coming into a quick pile of cash usually means that people will come out of the woodwork looking to get a piece of your pie. Third cousins whom you didn’t even know existed will call and hit you up for money. You’ll get letters in the mail from complete strangers with every sob story imaginable (unemployed, sick children, in a wheelchair, etc.) in an attempt to get sympathy points and money from you. It puts a big target on your back, and most often it takes you out, too.
When you are feeling the money crunch, the last thing you want to do is spend what little money you have on a super-long shot for money. The odds of winning a lottery are literally about 1 in 125 million.
- You are 66 times more likely to die from a snake bite.
- You are 2,001 times more likely to die in the electric chair!
- You are 2,201 times more likely to die from a hornet, wasp or bee sting.
- You are 1,488,095 times more likely to die in a car wreck on the way to the gas station to buy the lottery ticket.
Does all this sound ridiculous? GOOD! It’s supposed to sound that way! Banking on winning the lottery is about as ridiculous as it gets!
Think about this for a second. The less money you have, the more wisely you need to manage it because you don’t have as much room for error. When you make a budget and get out of debt, you have some breathing room. Your budget can get busted when an emergency comes up, but that’s why you save up an emergency fund. The ultimate is when you start investing the money you have. The reason for that is eventually your money will grow to enormous sums because of the power of compound interest.
Forget the lotto. Working hard and saving money is the only surefire way to make money. It works every time … unlike the lotto.
Lie of the Day 