Lessons for Living | Ain't Complicated

Seducing Debt

Now if I can do better at implementing some debt-reduction strategies . . . .

The people who created this country built a moral structure around money. The Puritan legacy inhibited luxury and self-indulgence. Benjamin Franklin spread a practical gospel that emphasized hard work, temperance and frugality. Millions of parents, preachers, newspaper editors and teachers expounded the message. The result was quite remarkable.

The United States has been an affluent nation since its founding. But the country was, by and large, not corrupted by wealth. For centuries, it remained industrious, ambitious and frugal.

Over the past 30 years, much of that has been shredded. The social norms and institutions that encouraged frugality and spending what you earn have been undermined. The institutions that encourage debt and living for the moment have been strengthened. The country’s moral guardians are forever looking for decadence out of Hollywood and reality TV. But the most rampant decadence today is financial decadence, the trampling of decent norms about how to use and harness money.

[…]

First, raise public consciousness about debt the way the anti-smoking activists did with their campaign. Second, create institutions that encourage thrift.

Foundations and churches could issue short-term loans to cut into the payday lenders’ business. Public and private programs could give the poor and middle class access to financial planners. Usury laws could be enforced and strengthened. Colleges could reduce credit card advertising on campus. KidSave accounts would encourage savings from a young age. The tax code should tax consumption, not income, and in the meantime, it should do more to encourage savings up and down the income ladder.

There are dozens of things that could be done. But the most important is to shift values. Franklin made it prestigious to embrace certain bourgeois virtues. Now it’s socially acceptable to undermine those virtues. It’s considered normal to play the debt game and imagine that decisions made today will have no consequences for the future.

If It Feels Good

Flip-Flop Flaws

Summer is when the rubber hits the road. […] Back in 2005 some members of the Northwestern University national champion women’s lacrosse team drew flack for wearing flip-flops when they met with President Bush at the White House.

Questions of etiquette aside, flip-flops may not be the best choice for health reasons. In a study presented last week at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, researchers at Auburn University found that flip-flops actually alter the way wearers walk. That change in gait can cause persistent foot and ankle pain—the kinds of problems usually associated with a fondness for Manolos and Jimmy Choos.

Justin Shroyer, a doctoral student in biomechanics at Auburn, and Dr. Wendi Weimar, the director of Auburn’s biomechanics laboratory, were tossing around ideas for a research project when they hit upon a subject that seemed ripe for exploration. “We’re biomechanists,” explains Shroyer. “We can’t go anywhere without analyzing the way someone walks.” They noticed that when students came back from summer vacation they often complained of pain in their feet, ankles and lower legs. The same students were also likely to be flip-flop fans (as is Shroyer, as a matter of fact). Could there be a connection?

[…]

After digitizing all these images and analyzing the data, Shroyer came up with some disturbing conclusions for those of us who treasure the freedom of flip-flops. He found that flip-flop wearers take shorter steps. The result is more stress on the body because you have to move more to go the same distance as people wearing other kinds of shoes. That could mean a higher risk of muscle and joint pain in the legs.

Toes are another problem area.

So there you are.

Can You Hear Me?

At least my teenagers aren’t Australians:

More than 70 percent of young Australians show early signs of hearing loss, with loud music played through headphones believed to be a major cause, a survey released Tuesday showed.

The Australian Hearing survey found that tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, was more prevalent among 18 to 34-year-olds than elderly people, even though it is seen as one of the first signs of hearing loss.

[…]

It found that while the elderly were the most likely to experience hearing loss, the next most vulnerable group was teenagers.

Australian Hearing spokesman John D’Arcy said there were responsible steps people could take to minimise the risk of going deaf from loud music.

“Set the volume of your MP3 player at a level that allows you to hear someone at arm’s length without them having to shout,” he said.

Besides our three teenagers, we have four other older children. Including our son-in-law, whose mother is Australian.

To all seven of you (only one of whom reads this blog), take heed!

And to all the rest of you who use headphones, take heed as well.

(You’re welcome.)

Defraud Not

“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well” (Proverbs 5:15).

Guys, if the girl isn’t your wife, keep your hands off.

Gals, if the fellow isn’t your husband, keep your hands off. (And his as well!)

Kissing, holding, handling, hugging, fondling, cuddling — even that, if between non-spouses, violates the above verse. In my opinion.

Even if I indulge in it “only” in my mind, I have sinned. Jesus said so.

As the world’s standards of morality continue their downward trend, I purpose to be faithful to my God and to my wife.

As the church herself becomes increasingly lax in far too many instances, I purpose to keep up my guard.

It’s tough.

Learn About Life in the Shoe

Except here they’re out of their shoe and in someone else’s.

And it doesn’t seem to have panned out too well.

But it does make for a funny read.

Here you have the outer edges of the sandwich:

The Great Getaway

Paul and I like to take an overnight getaway in June before our marriage takes its annual battering during harvest in July and August. This time Paul went above-and-beyond and booked a lunch cruise tomorrow on a ship in Portland and a room at the Holiday Inn. Through Priceline of course.

So we checked in this afternoon. The room was on the fourth floor, and beautiful. And cold.

[…]

Just a few minutes ago he left again, saying something we couldn’t understand. I don’t know if the drain is fixed or not. He’ll probably be back soon with his toothbrush and pajamas and popcorn and a movie.

Go visit your Holiday Inn for your next romantic getaway, the one with three curved sides, on NE 2nd just across from the Rose Garden.

So there you are — a ringing undorsement of the kind I thought I had posted for the Super 8 in Tucson at West Starr Pass Blvd (but which I can’t find here now).

Paul and Dorcas, I hope today is better. And if that guy showed up again, I hope he brought his interpreter.

Credits for the Emperor

Pull up a chair. Get comfortable. Listen carefully. Think thoughtfully.

I have a little story to tell you, a little tale to spin, a little lesson to convey.

Once upon a time there was an emperor who loved being emperor. And who loved having The Latest Thing. But he also struggled with guilt over being the emperor and over having the latest thing.

But he certainly didn’t feel so guilty as to give up his emperorship and all his stuff.

No, not that guilty.

Then along came two people with a grand solution to his dilema, at least as it concerned his clothing.

“Sir, in a kingdom not your own, many people have no clothes and little wealth. They would like to sell you some of the points they have earned for not having clothes. When you buy some of their points, you are putting on clothes (very important clothes, at that, and the latest trendy styles, too).

“When people ask why you are running around without any clothes on, just tell them you most certainly are not. Tell them you have purchased Clothing Credits. Tell them you have become Clothing Neutral. You can even tell them you have purchased Conscience Credits.

“(Tell them whatever you want. Just give us the money.)”

So that’s what he did.

And he ran around stark naked, pretending he was fully clothed.

He felt good.

And the people in his kingdom, wanting to keep their heads though he had lost his, admired his sensitivity. And his conscientiousness. And his Cutting Edge-iness. And his social consciousness. And his leadership. And his Never Mind Old-Time Common Sense.

Until a child innocently ruined it all: “Daddy, why does the emperor not have any clothes on? And why is he so proud of it? And why doesn’t anybody tell him?”

Disclaimer: I didn’t spend much time with the story concept nor with the writing thereof. Furthermore, if you think I was writing about carbon credits and being carbon neutral, I decline responsibility for the events in your head.

LifeLock Finally Loses One

For several weeks now, I’ve been meaning to sign up with LifeLock. (After all, Rush and Sean and Mike have. 🙄 )

Security Boss Tempts Fate, Pays Price

A criminal has successfully answered a security firm chief’s challenge to steal his identity — and it could be a particularly costly defeat. Todd Davis of Californian company LifeLock was so confident of his fraud prevention service that he published billboards and filmed TV adverts displaying his own social security number. (It’s 457-55-5462 in case you were wondering.)

[…]

However, Davis recently admitted that one criminal succeeded. Davis doesn’t appear to have lost out financially, but beyond the obvious corporate embarrassment, he could now pay a hefty price in civil court. Customers in at least three states are suing the company, saying that Davis should not have continued guaranteeing they’d be safe from identity theft after he knew — from personal experience, no less — that the system was fallible.

It’s not known for certain how the Texas-based hacker stole Davis’ identity, but he used his social security number to borrow $500 from an online payday loan site. Davis didn’t get the alert that LifeLock is supposed to produce because the lenders didn’t run the application through one of the three leading credit bureaus. The first he knew of it was when the firm approached him to demand repayment.

The case backs up criticism that the protection offered by firms such as LifeLock is limited. It doesn’t cover incidents such as a job applicant using a stolen social security number, or an arrested criminal using someone else’s details to keep their own identity secret.

That problem is at the heart of a separate lawsuit against LifeLock which argues the firm’s much-publicized $1 million guarantee against losses is misleading. The guarantee only covers failures in LifeLock’s service and doesn’t cover all types of identity theft, even though customers may have signed up under the impression they do.

I still plan to get LifeLock, even so.