Category: Life in these United States

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A simple sample of trickle-down-economics

image I don’t post many political blogs. This is mainly because I know that many of my readers don’t adhere to the same political views that I do, and I don’t want to piss off the few readers I do have. But with tax time hitting and everyone trying to decide whether to do something fun with their refund, or whether to just save it, I thought I’d give a little lesson on Reaganomics–specifically “Trickle Down Economics,” which the Democrats have poo-pooed to death with this stimulus plan.

Reaganomics, in this instance anyway, is the idea that tax cuts that benefit everyone the same, actually benefit the middle class and poor the most. Now true, if you make a million dollars a year, and you save 2% on your taxes, then you’re actually getting back a heckuva lot more than someone who makes $50K per year. But let me use my own example to show how it’s not this cut and dried.

CareerMom and I do pretty well; as my family (not you “TT” or “BP”) is always quick to point out in a passive aggressive sort of way (“Wow, if I made the money you do…”). It drives me nuts because most of them also live in Timbuktu, by choice. So, while they don’t make much money, their cost of living is very low as well, so it doesn’t cost them as much. But while we do well, we still have a lot of bills, and thus, our spending cash is probably nearly the same as a family living on half what we do.

Sound odd? Let me explain.

When you make a certain amount of money, there are only a few ways in which you can keep it out of the government’s hands:

  1. Contribute the crap outta your salary into a 401K plan. The downside is, that’s cash out of your pocket every paycheck, that you won’t see for 40 years.
  2. Buy a nice house and pay the crap outta a mortgage. The downside is that, while you get to write off all that interest, it’s again, money out of your pocket every month. Plus, the utilities are HUGE!
  3. Donating to charity. The downside, again, more money out of your pocket. Sure, you get a nice “feel good” but that doesn’t pay the grocery bill!
  4. Have lots of kids. The downside is…really? I think we all know what these are.

If you’re obscenely well off, there are more ways, but these are the basic ways most people you know can save money.

I mention all of this to point out that when CareerMom and I do get a little chunk of cash back, while we’re not having to use the money to pay off the credit card that we had to use for vehicle repairs, we’re also not so flush with cash that we can just run right off to Hawaii (in fact, the only “Island” vacations we’ve been on, were to St. Thomas because CareerMom won it along with a bunch of work people, and once to the Bahamas at a very inexpensive all-inclusive–something I would NOT do again OR recommend).

With the economy where it is, it’s making even those of us with a little extra cash laying around, reconsider what to do with it. For example, with MLS (My Little Surprise) on its way, we’ll be losing our guest room. Now, we have a very large, unfinished basement, but even to convert one room and a bathroom down there will cost about 15K. Using some creative financing and with me doing a LOT of the work, we could do it, but we’re not sure we want to spend the money right now because that would completely sap us dry. So, that’s 15K NOT going into the economy.

On a much smaller scale: I was working outside the other day and a guy, who was apparently doing some pressure washing on the neighbor’s house, came over and tried to pitch me on having mine done. He was insistent that he could do it “extremely” cheaply, but I still couldn’t let myself spend that coupla hundred dollars on something that we didn’t really NEED.

So, even the small jobs aren’t getting done, and the guys who could really use the money, aren’t getting it. Having illustrated this, I’d love for the guys in Washington to show me how giving the “middle class” an extra $500-$1000 is the same as cutting everyone a tax break, which would then potentially loosen the wallets of people like us and in turn provide even more cash into the economy.

Building roads isn’t going to make me feel better about spending money. Getting GM back to work building more cars with even more gov’t requirements and standards isn’t going to make me spend any more money. And building the CDC a new, “Green” office building here in Atlanta isn’t doing a darn thing for my psyche.

No sir, there’s only one thing that will make me feel better about spending–having more to spend. Also, from me to you…a Tax Tip: If you do your taxes via TurboTax or TaxCut, don’t let them deduct the e-filing fee from your refund. On top of the regular charge, they also tack on an additional “Handling” charge. For TurboTax, it’s another $29.95 for doing nothing more than transferring money from one account to another. No, just pay for it up front with a check, or your debit card and save yourself some green!

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Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States

Say Hello to my li-il frien’!

Last night, while sitting by myself downstairs watching “Wanted” with Angelina Jolie, that cool black dude that plays the head of the tech department at Wayne Enterprises, and a host of other people you’ve never heard of, this crawled across the floor:

IMG_2846In my younger years, regardless of the location, I would have instantly called for someone larger than myself to come kill whatever creepy, crawly thing I found around my home.

However, these days I have pity on the little critters. I mean, they just want to eat and have sex; just like me. So, I tend to cut them some slack…unless they are inside my home!

This little guy ended up floating in the commode after I shmooshed him in a heavily padded wad of toilet paper.

First thing this morning, I tried to figure out what he/she is. I mean, anything with cool markings like this has to be either A) One bad dude, or B) Pretending like it’s one bad dude.

I think it’s human nature, when trying to identify the unknown, to gravitate towards the dramatic and thus, the closest thing I can find to it, is the “Brown Widow,” shown here:

imageAnd yes, they are a poisonous cousin to the “Black Widow.” I think this is the Bollywood version of the Black Widow actually (sorry Romi, you have me on a Bollywood kick).

These guys have apparently just started moving into N. Georgia, having come up from the coast, so who knows.

Black, brown, whatever. I’m breakin’ out the spray this weekend!

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Dad Blogs Family Life in these United States Marriage

Too busy to care?

Can you feel it? And didn’t it happen right around the turn of the year?

Aren’t we all just a LOT busier? My Lord, even with the “The Pregnancy,” I hardly have time to cook a meal, much less ponder meaningful and reader-worthy posts.

My only consolation here is that everyone else seems to be suffering from the same malaise and so I don’t feel so bad about not commenting as much as I used to. I applaud those of you who are sticking with it however. You complete me!

HA!

In all seriousness though, part of this post is that old exercise in college, “Just start writing something…anything…” but so far it’s not working. Oh, I could go on and on gabbing about nothing in particular, but is that really a good use of your time? Don’t you have like, laundry to do or something? Chickens to feed maybe?

Oh, so CareerMom had week 13’s “High Risk” pregnancy work up and all initial signs point to thumbs up. So that’s good. I have one of the ultrasound pics pinned to my cube wall. I’m not sure why. Is it to remind myself why I work? Is it to hopefully help get me all excited through the overflowing bubbliness that is sure to ensue when some of the ladies around the office stop by to “oooh” and “aaah” over it.

Who am I kidding, nobody drops by my cubicle.

Also, no signs of either a female, or male sexual organ, so we’re going to have to endure a few more, “Oh, maybe this time you’ll have a little girl” comments like I got from my cousin on Sunday. I might have been a tad rude in my response that simply said (and remember, this is a person I speak to like twice a year), “After two miscarriages, we’ll just be happy with a healthy baby.”

So sue me…I was grumpy.

Let’s see, oh yeah. The airline tickets are really cheap up to “Trisha Truly’s” neck of the woods (she’s my Bio-Mom), so I might fly up to see her in March. But that’s only if I can convince her that this rock-hard, manly body of mine CAN NOT and WILL NOT subsist on Metafast and clover that she picked from her own field.

Well here’s to hoping that whatever is keeping you busy, at least feels good!

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Dad Blogs Family Fatherhood Life in these United States Marriage

P is for Pregnancy!

image It is neither my intention, or desire, to turn this blog into a 9-month “and today in our pregnancy we did so and so” novella; but, it IS inevitable that when you’re living and breathing it on a daily basis, that things occur to you that you just have to share with the wider world. So today I thought I’d be very topical and bring you the word “PREGNANCY” in all its glory:

P – is for Privacy. Privacy is something I’m about to lose when the new baby comes. See, our guest room, when not acting as a “Guest” room, acts as my own personal man-sanctuary. Here, safely ensconced behind two locked doors, I can do my bid-ness in peace…and pull a Costanza with a library book.

R – is for Recreation. I’m going to have to find a new form of recreation as the boys get older. Currently, my only form of non-gym related recreation is golf. Golf, even at a cheap place around here, costs you $50 by the time you’re done. Multiply that times three (four if the next baby is a boy) and that’s just untenable. Hiking is sounding like a good (read: cheap) alternative.

E – is for Energy. I think it’s very unfair for mother nature to so completely sap a woman’s energy for months prior to having a kid, only to suddenly give it all back to her in the form of “nesting” just before it’s born. I mean, it’s setting a completely unreal precedent! As if, once the baby’s here, you’ll be able to live on estrogen and adrenaline well enough to keep from falling over at every opportunity. Much more believable, would be to keep the mother (and father) awake for the last two months of the pregnancy, and to make them both allergic to showers, fine dining and television.

G – is for Gee. As CareerMom turned to me the other evening, after letting out a heartburn induced burp, “FOR REAL, no more. FOR REAL!” I turned to her and said, “Gee, I’m pretty sure I was pretty F’ing serious last time I said ‘No More’ too!”

N – is for Never. As in “never friggin’ again”

A – is for Answers. Maybe by the time the third one asks me why God made his or her best friend’s skin brown, I’ll have an answer that sounds both intelligent and believable at the same time.

N – is for Nosey. Kids are the nosiest people. Daddy, what do you have in your mouth? Daddy, what are you doing? Daddy, what are you and mommy talking about? Daddy, why are you hiding from me?”

C – Is for consistency. Which is the complete opposite of what you get when you’re pregnant. Last night it was in the low forties outside. We had the heater on and CareerMom had me turn the fan on in our bedroom because of her constantly changing body temp and hot flashes. Are you hungry? Are you nauseaus? Are you tired? Are you coming onto me? Are you crying? It never stops!

Y – is for Youth. Because even in this crazy, crazy world of babies, and not enough time or money, when you’re out at a restaurant, like last night, and your littlest one stands up in a chair with a mouth full of brown, wet OREO that looks like a snuff of Skoal in his lip, and he yells out at the top of his lungs “BYE BYE” while waving to the crowd…you have to just smile. I just hope I remember the good stuff and forget the frustrations.