Day: August 22, 2009

Still Chasing The Ultimate High

We baby boomers have been blamed for a lot of stuff in the past…like the bankrupting of Social Security……And Medicare….They say (whoever the hell THEY are) that we boomers will destroy the American system if something is not done and done quickly…..unfortunately, Washington does not know how to react quickly…that aside there is some troubling news depending on your point of view)  coming from Reuters:

Middle aged baby boomers are still turning on to illegal drugs forty years after Woodstock, doubling the rates of illicit drug use by the previous generation, according to a government study released on Wednesday.The rates of people aged 50 to 59 who admit to using illicit drugs in the past year nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are the same or decreasing, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.

Baby boomers are the post World War II generation born between 1946 and 1964. The data used in the study came from various surveys including 16,656 men and women participating in the 2002 through 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. Click here to read the full report.

The study surveyed use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants and prescription drugs used non-medically.

May I see a show of hands of those who find these findings surprising…..long pause for voting…..why do you find this report surprising?  The Boomers damn near invented the definition of “stoner”…..so you think that because they got older that they would trade in their “highs” for something more morally accepted?  Damn..then you guys are not a Boomer!  You people need to pay more attention to the society around you.

The Propensity To Save

Professor’s Classroom

Daily Agitation

Subject:  Economics

I attempt to help the reader understand what is what in economics and in politics…I try to make it as simple as possible because others keep it difficult and confusing, that way they keep the American people ignorant of what is being done.

Since the current economic crisis began the American people has been saving rather than spending.  According to many pundits in 2006 the savings rate among Americans was a bout 0% and since the crisis that has risen to about 5+%.  They, whoever they are, say this is a good thing that Americans are scaling back the consuming and have restarted the savings that they had in the recent past.

Any savings in the past was done by those with higher incomes; the poor did very little savings if any.  But if you believe what the pundits are saying then that has changed.  Everyone in the media is proud of the American consumer for its change in ways.

Personally, I think that they are dead wrong.  Why?  The economic theory of the propensity to save is that savings will go up as incomes rise.  Look at today’s economic situation–is anyone’s pay rising?  Yes it is, but it is those that already make the higher wages.  The working poor are not saving, they are doing what they have always done…spend in the pursuit of a life.  So the only good news, if you want to call it that, is that Wall Street is recovering, Main Street still SUCKS!