Cheap Laptops

A simple PC-based laptop can be had for under $500, brand new.  Why do people pay as much as ten times more for one?

A recent "heartwarming" story on MSNBC was about a stolen laptop.  A fellow buys a high-end laptop, gets it stolen (his second one stolen) and finds it using tracking software.  Not a big story.

The family who claims they bought the laptop, not knowing it was stolen, paid $900 for it, and was supposedly "struggling" to put their son through college.  The fellow who had his laptop stolen feels sorry for them and starts an online fundraiser for the family, raising well over $900.

This seems to be a trend these days - picking people to feel sorry for, and then setting up online fund drives.  We all recall the bus monitor from Rochester, New York, who was teased on the bus and cried, and was shown in a viral video.  She ended up with over three-quarters of a million dollars as the result of an online fundraiser.

While we might feel sorry for this woman, is giving her nearly million bucks any sort of justice?  We don't know her back story or anything.  As a New York State School employee, she might be very well off already.  And it begs the possibility that in the future, people will stage such events for the purpose of raising money. 

And isn't a bus monitor supposed to knock heads together and keep the kids under control on the bus?  When I was in school, we had one named "Sarge" and you didn't mess with her, let me tell you.  But I digress...

Before you go off sending money to someone you "feel sorry for" think about it carefully.  Altruism is suspect, if not totally evil.

What struck me about the MSNBC story was the huge holes in it - holes not apparent to six-figure-salary reporters living in the big city.  To them, $900 is a cheap laptop, as they have paid thousands for their MacBooks.  And to them, everyone has a Mac, right?  And an iPhone and iPad as well, right?  That is just baseline living, to them.

But most of us do not.  I am typing this on a Toshiba Satellite I bought at a Wal-Mart in Maine last year, when I spilled a Martini on my hoary old Dell Laptop.  I paid $320 for the Toshiba, and it works fine for writing, surfing the web, sending and receiving e-mails, and basic graphics chores.  No, it is not a gaming platform.  But who needs that?  Oh, and by the way, the old Dell still works and I still use it.

I guess I am a bit outraged that people think that $900 is a baseline price for a computer for a family that is "struggling" and that we should feel sorry for such folks when the laptop they "bought" turns out to have been stolen.  For a freshman in college, such a luxury is hardly necessary.  But it illustrates how kids today end up with tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in consumer debt - there lifestyle expectations are very high - and very expensive.

And it disturbs me that the United States of America is slowly turning into the United States of Feeling Sorry for Ourselves, as we pander to each successive victim story that the media touts - and the media loves to tout a good victim story.

And everyone is a victim, it seems, except me.   Well, the only way NOT to be a victim in America is to not buy into all the victim crap.  Once you do that, you are tagged as a heartless bastard and whatever you get in life is deemed to be what you deserve.  And of course, people will suspect you of being Republican.

But, looking at the big picture, the victim mentality really doesn't pay off in the long run.  We can't all be teased bus monitors who win the lottery.  For every victim celebrated on the TeeVee there are thousands of other victims who get nothing.  And many of these folks are real victims, too - not just some middle-class family suckered out of $900 for a stolen computer (and anyone who can afford to pay $900 for any computer is not a "victim" in any sense of the word).

In the long run, you are far better off being self-actualizing and self-reliant than to play the victim card.  But the media doesn't want you to think that - ask yourself why?  The answer, of course, is that depressed people who perceive themselves as victims, make excellent passive  consumers,  who will drown their misery in car payments and credit card deals.  When they sell you a victim story, they are selling you a lifestyle.

The reaction to the story online was sad, as it reflected how this victim mentality is so deeply set in America.  Most people posting responses said things like, "Well, maybe the college student needed an expensive computer for college!" - as if Freshman English required more than mere Internet Access and a Word Processing program.

Our country has still lost its way - and has learned nothing from the economic fiasco of the last four years.  We still believe we are entitled  to fancy electronics and toys and new cars and cable television and a whole host of crapola in our lives, that costs, cumulatively, a ton of money, but adds little to enrich our lives, either spiritually or financially.

But of course, the media, beholden to advertisers, never will sell that message.  The advertisers want you to buy, and the more you spend and the more you borrow, the better.  And people just don't get that.

We are in an RV park near Montreal, and our RV is arguably the smallest in the place, and one of the oldest.  Our decade-old BMW tow vehicle is one of the oldest cars here.  Most folks here have shiny new cars and large RVs - and take two weeks of vacation a year, or go camping on the "weekends"when they are released from Job-Jail.  They have to go back to work on Monday, as they need to make money to make the payments on it all.

The campground host, seeing our Georgia tags, said, "Gee, that's like what, a 20-hour drive from here?" which floored us, as it had taken us nearly a month to get to this point.  But it illustrated the difference in thinking.  To him, you drove "straight through" to make the best use of your limited vacation time, so you could get back to work to pay for all your crap.

For us, well, you can't even explain our life to someone on the salary-slave bandwagon.  No, we took a month to get here, as we don't have to go back to work.  And we don't have to go back to work, because we don't owe anyone money on anything.  And yes, maybe you can laugh at our old camper and worn-out car, and my cheap Wal-Mart laptop.  But they are all paid for.  And come Monday, I won't be hurriedly packing up all my stuff because I have to get back to the office.

In fact, I won't be back for another three weeks. ( And our net worth is far higher than the folks in the shiny new cars and campers.   Not that I would tell them that, of course.  Sometimes it pays to appear poor.  They might think we are victims!  Just kidding.)

But that is a lifestyle choice.  You can have lots of shiny bling and spend the rest of your life paying for it, or learn to live with less and enjoy life more.   It is a choice, not an obligation.  And no, I don't feel sorry for a family that buys a stolen laptop for $900.  Not when I make do with a whole lot less.

--Sent from my $320 Toshiba from Wal-Mart.

Public Space

Living in public space makes you appreciate how civilization works.

Traveling by RV, you are dependent on public space, for a place to park as well as simply a place to sit and enjoy the world.  And in any society, public space serves this need.  Increasingly, however, public space is under attack - being sold off to private interests, or viewed as an unnecessary expense on already over-extended local budgets.

But well-maintained public parks and other public spaces are a joy, and really an indicia of how well a civilization is working.    Finding an idyllic park or other spot, just to pause even for a moment or two, is a real joy.  And while your taxes may pay for it, you don't have to pay taxes on it.  Moreover, you can enjoy a space that would be all but impossible for the average person to own.

For example, at Mistletoe State Park, in Georgia, we enjoyed what I call the $20 Million Dollar view.  We parked our RV on a remote site and had a view of the lake and the far shore, uninterrupted by any houses, camps, other people or, well, anything.   In order to own such a view, you would have to pay at least $20 million to own your own lake and the surrounding lands.  But for about $20 a night, you can enjoy it for a lot less.

Increasingly, however, if you want the view, you have to buy the view.  We live in a State Park - Jekyll Island - and few of the homes there "own the view."  The view of the ocean and the marsh are open to everyone, and by State Law, 2/3 of the island is protected from development.   Contrast this with nearby St. Simons Island, where if you want a view, you have to pay a couple of million to get one.  And if you drive on that island, you may not realize you are on an island, as you cannot see the ocean other than at a few isolated public access sites.

And in such spots, even if you "buy the view", chances are, it is a view marred by the presence of so many others like yourself, who wanted to buy a "slice 'o paradise" and thus crowd in with you to get a shot of that fabulous sunset that you watch once a year (but pull the shades on the rest of the time as it overheats the house and reflects off the TeeVee, making it hard to watch).

Public space, on the other hand, is often far superior and, well, paid for.  No $15,000 tax bills will arrive in the mail if you have a picnic on public lands.  And yet, few take advantage of them.  On the Blue Ridge Parkway, we are often the only ones in Picnic areas or camping sites.  We see few, if any people, on the hiking trails.   Folks would rather stay at home and watch television.

Our own island was recently remodeled with beautiful public spaces, including a new picnic park with multiple pavilions with barbecue grills and picnic tables.  It is all nicely done, but when you ask a local resident about it, they feign indifference.  "Oh, I hear it is nice," they say, but of course one doesn't actually go to such places.  They are for other people, who don't own their own picnic table in their backyard (which of course is never used, as who wants to picnic in their back yard?  Besides, America's Idol is on).

As you might guess, we use it all the time.  In fact, pavilion 4 is sort of our own, as it is out of the way and has a nice breeze from the ocean.  It takes little time to pack a picnic dinner and a bottle of wine.  And we keep all the other necessities in the car.  Public space - you paid for it, why not use it?

In the Adirondacks, public space is everywhere - there seems to be a boat launch, public park or hiking trail around every bend.  But other places, such as Long Lake, seem to be "bought up" - at least in parts - with wall-to-wall camps and vacation houses, lining the lake.  The effect is less than ideal.  Not only is it ugly and tacky, you can't even pull your kayak ashore without confronting a "No Trespassing" sign.  I've got mine, jack, you get yours! - that seems to be the order of the day in the places like that.

But after paying staggering property tax bills on trying to "own the view" I am finding that public space is a far more enticing alternative.   It is free, freely available, and you have already paid for it with your tax dollars.  And since most folks today would rather stay home and watch television, it is largely unpopulated and vacant.  You can be lord of a thousand acres, of only for an hour or two, for free, or the low price of a park admission.

Sounds like a good deal to me.  In fact, it is the greatest bargain around.

Choices

Many people think they have no choices in life, even about very silly things.

I wrote before about Choices, and in fact, that is what this blog is all about - realizing you have choices, and that the choices you make affect your life.  When you realize this, you are empowered.

On the other hand, most people don't feel they have choices, and often about very silly things.  For example, I wrote in a recent posting about car insurance for kids, and have written before about speeding.  When I was in my 20's, I did the stupid thing and bought a new car and the insurance was murder.  And the reason for this was speeding tickets.  I got a couple one weekend, and a nice lawyer got me out of them.  He said to me, "If you can just drive speed limit from now on, your insurance rates will go down."

I sped on the way home from court.

Drive the speed limit?  Who can do that?  That is not a realistic choice, I thought at the time.   No one drives the speed limit!  Well, that asshole in front of me who is "going too slow" does, but he is the exception, not the rule.  Speed limits are for jerks!  Everyone drives over the limit!  Right?

Well, not exactly.  Speeding is a choice, and you don't have to do it.  No, really.  About half of all Americans think they "have to" drive at least 5 mph over the limit, if not 10 or 15 mph.  About a quarter think they need to drive as fast as the car will go.  But these are not dictates or essentials, but personal choices.

And you realize, over time, that speeding gets you nowhere.  As I noted in my previous posting, we had a motorhome that was very slow, and at full throttle would do little more than 65 mph.  On the Interstate, we would see people pass us at 10-15 mph over the speed limit.  An hour later, they would pass us again.  Or we would meet up with them, once we got off the Interstate, and got into city traffic.   It was an eye-opener.  Most people never have this epiphany.

Or take Cable Television - the work of Satan himself.   When I was in my 20's, I had cable TV, perhaps illegally (hey, I hooked the TV to the cable in the living room, and it worked, what am I supposed to do? Call them and ask it be unplugged?).   But of course, they finally did pull the plug and I was outraged to find I had to pay $30 a month for Cable, which was a lot of money back then, or even today.  And with each rate increase, I was similarly outraged and put-upon.  I want my MTV, dammit!

The idea of not having cable was as alien to me as not speeding.  And for many young people today, this is the case.  Throw in the smart phone and the Abercrombie shirt, and you have a long list of entitlements and sacred cows that cannot be cut from their budgets.  So they go down to protest on Wall Street, with smart phones in hand.  How can those evil people in the corporate world raise our cable rates or cell phone fees?  We need these like oxygen!

Or, maybe not.  Maybe, like in any argument, the answer is in challenging the premise of the argument.  And here, the premise is that you "have to speed", "have to have cable", or "have to have a smart phone" or fill in the blank about the 500 "have to have" things in your life that are not really essential, but rather are just frittering away your estate, a little bit at a time.

A reader writes that they cannot understand why it is hard to unlearn this behavior.  That simple mediation should reveal the ultimate truth to all.   Of course, the same reader hyperlinks to a perpetual motion site, so I am not sure meditation is the answer.

It takes time to unlearn these things because your brain is programmed by the media and our society, thousands of times a day, with contrary messages.   Everyone watches cable TeeVee - Cable TeeVee tells us this.  In fact, back around the mid 1980's, the networks, and later cable, started running ads on TeeVee for TeeVee.   In addition to particular programs, they would show "warm and fuzzy" ads of people gathered around the set (a lie, most watch alone) watching their "favorite programs" together.  The message?  Watching TeeVee is a way of life and a "normal" activity for a human being.  And the average American watches about 4.6 hours a day.  No, really. 

Unplugging from Cable and television in general is the most important step, as more than half of the poor normative cues pummeling your brain are from the television.  You cut off that cult-like programming, and the rest is easier.

Getting off the speeding mindset is harder, as it seems that "everyone" speeds, or at least that they do when you speed.  When you stop speeding (and tailgating and other horrific behaviors) you realize that all those cars you were passing are doing the speed limit, and in fact, make up about half the road traffic.

And you realize that the savings, in terms of wear and tear on your car, are terrific.  I bought theX5 with 50,000 miles on it.  BMW had replaced the brake pads and rotors under warranty at that point.  Eight years later, it now has 130,000 miles, and is still running on the same brakes.  80,000 miles on one set of pads.  How does that compare to your usage?

Most folks who speed end up jamming on their brakes at 80 mph, when a "slower" car has the tenacity to actually try to pass a truck.  This is a huge amount of kinetic energy to convert into heat, and not surprisingly, it converts brake pads into dust.

Poor choices snowball into poorer ones.  You speed, you get a ticket - it is an inevitable probability, a predictable outcome.  And then your insurance rates skyrocket, and like most weak-thinking Americans, you blame the insurance companies for running a racket.  I know I did.  Hey, so what if I speed, its not like I get into accidents, right?  Oh, whoops.

We all have choices in life, even when it does not appear you have choices.  What is appalling about Americans is that they cannot even perceive obvious choices.  They believe that silly things like Cable TV, designer coffee, fast food, smart phones, and speeding, are all necessary to living, and that they cannot do without them.  However, they are a choice - a poor choice in terms of health and wealth - but a choice they make, nevertheless.

And no, I don't feel sorry for them - for the simple reason no one felt sorry for me when I made the same bonehead stupid choices that allowed others to exploit me financially.  Getting ahead, it turns out, requires not a money-making system or trick, but just realizing that poor choices are offered to you daily, gaudily dressed up and presented to look like good choices.  Just turning away from them is the only real "secret" to wealth and happiness.

Naturism

Nudist or Naturist Resorts are quite popular in the USA.  They are all over the place, even in your own home town, although you likely wouldn't know it.  What is it like to go "all natural" and does it really make much sense?

We decided to stop at a "Naturist" RV resort to see what this Nudism thing is all about.  Americans get all freaked out by nudism, even as their European ancestors embrace it pretty much wholeheartedly (particularly the Germans).   We are still at the slap-and-tickle stage of adolescence in this country, and we connect nudism with sex, which is really about as far apart as you can get.   Believe me, nudist colonies or camps are not sex resorts, and if you think they are, you will be asked to leave.

And of course, few of us look good, naked.  Yea, when I was 25, I could look keen in a Speedo, but at age 52, it is more of a sad joke.  And alas, with America's obesity epidemic (eating epidemic), few look good naked, and many are downright scary.

Yea, I looked good at age 25.  Twenty five years and the law of gravity have changed all that.

But what is the big deal?  Is Naturism or Nudism some "answer" to everything?  Were we made not to wear clothes, "but for" the conventions of society, are forced to?  The answer is, well, not really.  People who make that argument are like Vegans who claim that the human body is "not designed" to consume dairy products, which is a load of hooey, as they have no inside track into the designer's mind, nor is there any scientific evidence (just para-science) to that.  But I digress....

Being naked all the time is kind of fun, in that you don't have to decide what to wear all the time, and your laundry usage shrinks considerably.  When you are traveling by RV, this is kind of handy.  You need to get something out of the car, you can just run out there naked, and no one will say anything.

But this does not mean you have no clothes.  To begin with, you have to have a towel - not to dry off with, but to sit down on.  Why?  Well, if you sit bare-naked on a chair or bench, you are going to leave a sweaty butt-print on the seat, and possibly a skid-mark, if you are having digestive troubles (all together now: "Eeeeeew!").   So you are required to carry around and use a towel.  So right off the bat there, the nudists have reinvented underwear.  And you understand why underwear was invented.

Of course, being naked in the 90-degree heat is fine and all, but when the temperature drops to 60, well, it gets cold, really fast, when you are naked.  And many refuse to give up, but rather resort to a larger towel, which they wrap around themselves like a toga.  Bingo!  They just invented clothing - or should I say, reinvented it.

And you quickly discover that clothing is more than some societal norm, but rather a form of protection from the cold.  And sunburn.  Yes, getting sunburned "all over" is no fun, but I have seen it happen to more than one over-enthusiastic naturist.  So clothing serves two purposes - keeps out the cold, and keeps out the sun.

"...Naturism is all fun and games until the mosquitoes come out."

And the mosquitoes.  Yes, Naturism is all fun and games until the mosquitoes come out.  And while Skin-So-Soft and other bug sprays work (and you do have to spray them all over), there reaches a time of day when the little buggers are so hungry that all the OFF! and DEET won't keep them away.  And you get bit.  All Over.  Usually around sunset.

Clothes cover your body and prevent this problem.  So you see, they have yet another function as well.   Protection from the cold, sun, insects, and as underwear.  Clothing is far more than mere societal norms harassing the individual.

And yes, there is the modesty factor.  At the Naturist resort, there is a suspension bridge (whose engineering I question, but that is another story) that traverses a small river.  Since it is visible to the "outside", you are requested to "cover up" when crossing the bridge.  So, people either carry another piece of clothing, or the ubiquitous towel is put into service, yet again.

And like I said, while it may be fun to run around naked, it might not be so fun for others, who have to look at your sorry ass, particularly if it is a saggy sorry ass.

But on the whole, I guess I can see the point these Naturists have.  But on the other hand, I am not prepared to adopt it as a "lifestyle" or anything....

Car Insurance and Teenage Drivers

Friends of mine in High School drove cars like this to school at age 16 or 17, yet lived in the poorest of neighborhoods.  How could they afford it?  Or is there a connection here?

A reader writes:

"How about teenagers and cars for teenagers and insurance for teenagers - or do you feel unqualified to comment without real experience?  Lawsuits seem to have ruined the entire "Can't wait 'til I'm 16" driving experience, at least for parents.  My wife and I are pretty well off (at least compared to most of America) and if our son gets a couple of tickets or has a fender bender I don't know how we can cover it.  Which means, how is everyone else in America doing it?  (Driving without insurance?  Minimum 10,000/20,000 liability coverage - do they still allow that?)  Who decided that teenagers couldn't drink until 21 but were entitled to drive at 16 anyway - wouldn't it make more sense to reverse those ages?  (Or at least make the driving age 18.)  At my sons high school, which is admittedly on a busy road, you're only allowed to leave by bus or in a car - they consider walking too dangerous, there being no sidewalks.  Isn't this crazy?  And I don't think anyone in our metropolitan area at any age is allowed to ride a bike to school (Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA)."

Good question.  Car insurance for teens has always been prohibitively expensive.   And yet many parents go out and buy new cars for their kids, or give them late-model hand-me-downs.  When I was a kid, the poor kids in town all had nice cars, but lived in crappy houses.  Their parents subscribed to the model that you bought a brand-new car (a crappy Dodge or other cheaply made American car) every three years.  When their kids reached driving age, instead of trading in, Dad would hand over a three-year-old used car to Junior, who would drive the Satellite Sebring to school.

My dad, on the other hand, wailed long and loud about the cost of car insurance for two teenagers in the house.  He agreed to pay for the insurance, provided we bought our own cars.  As a result, my brother and I ended up with a succession of $50 and $100 clunkers that we cobbled together, in order to get around.  While it was not a fun way to ride, we did learn about how to keep an older car alive.

And of course, we lived in a better part of town and lived in a fairly expensive house.  But perhaps that is the point.  My parents spent their money on their home, which appreciated in value, as opposed to a string of new cars, which end up in the junkyard after ten years (if that, back then), and also invested in stocks and bonds, both of which would be alien to my friends' parents with the new cars.   In other words, poor folks become poor by spending and rich folks become rich by saving - and investing wisely.  The road to middle-class poverty is paved with new car payments.

And when I look back at it, my Dad was remarkably cheap about cars.  Maybe that is where I get my cheapness from.  He had a company car, which was leased by his company and paid for and insured by his company, and he bought a succession of fairly cheap cars for my Mother - a Fiat, a Vega, and an Aspen, the latter of which was leased, which turned out to be a huge mistake when my Brother wrecked it.  But overall, his auto expenses were fairly minimal, compared to most families.

And since we drove cheap cars, the insurance was cheap, at least from a collision standpoint.  I wrote before about collision insurance for young drivers - it is astronomical, particularly if you get a few tickets.  And I got a few, to say the least, as a young driver.  Most do.  The cost of my car insurance exceeded the monthly payments on my car, which was just insane, from my point of view, but logical from the insurance company's point of view.  From their perspective, it was an even bet I would wreck a car before the payments were up, so they collected twice on the cost, just to cover their expenses.

And that is about the odds, particularly for young men, when it comes to accident rates.  Chances are, your kids will wreck a car between the ages of 16 and 25.  You just have to hope they don't kill themselves or someone else, doing it.  And sometimes, those deaths are just that - concealed suicides - the classic car-leaving-the-road at a high speed and hitting a bridge abutment.  It happened to a friend of mine's older brother, but no one likes to talk about that, except insurance company actuaries.

So, you have two teenage kids, reaching puberty and driving age at about the same time.   And your insurance bill comes and it is staggering - thousands and thousands of dollars a year.  What can you do about it?

Well, to begin with, you need to talk to your kids and stress how even one or two speeding tickets can mean that the whole deal is off - that the cost of insuring them will be staggering.  And the problem is, if you have teenagers in the household of driving age, your rates go up, regardless of whether they drive or not.

The second thing is to examine your coverage.  Chances are you are spending a ton of money insuring the fenders of your 10-year-old Honda, and not spending enough to cover your real risk - your liability.

I have written about this before, again and again.  A simple umbrella liability policy for a million dollars can cost as little as $200 a year.  And if your kid wrecks the family car and kills someone else, such as a passenger in that car, you will be glad you had that umbrella liability policy, and you won't give a damn about the wrecked Honda.

Most Insurance Agents sell you policies that include liability, medical coverage ($10,000), uninsured motorists, property damage, and collision and comprehensive.  Then they try to throw in rental car coverage (to give you a rental car when yours is in the shop) and towing.  These latter two are junk coverage, in my opinion,   The Medical Coverage thing, I think, is also junk, as $10,000 isn't bubkis, and most people have medical insurance that will cover them if they are in a wreck.

Uninsured motorists is also a conundrum.  To get enough to make it worthwhile, it costs a fortune, as it is ripe for fraud.  Buying $25,000 worth, on the other hand, seems kind of pointless.  You lose a limb, what is $25,000 going to do for you?

But the big enchilada is Collision and Comp, as the insurance company figures that your kids are going to wreck the family car (or whatever clapped-out POS you give the kids to drive) and price the policy accordingly - adding hundreds per month to cover the cost of the car that they will have to pay for.  Dumping Collision and Comp is one way to save a bundle.

And in order to do this, you have to own cars that are (a) paid for, and (b) inexpensive enough that you can afford to take the risk of not insuring them for Collision and Comp.  This means that when your kids turn 16, it is a bad time to go out and buy a brand-new BMW, as your insurance rates will be murder.  You are better off, for this short period of time (when your kids are age 16 to 21 or so) to drive an older, paid-for car, as well as have your kids drive paid-for cars as well.

If you can do this, you can dump excess insurance coverage from your policies and at least minimize the cost of having teenagers in the house.  And you can then afford that umbrella liability policy, which will protect you from your real risk and exposure - that your kid will injure or kill someone with his car.

But, like I said, others choose differently.  Many people won't make such sacrifices, but instead go out and buy new cars, oblivious to how having a 16-year-old in the house will affect their insurance rates.  Their rates go up, and they sit there like deer in the headlights, wondering what happened.  And of course, the idea that they might be able to drive older, paid-for, cheaper cars, is just not on the table.

And that is one reason why many poorer folks have the nicest cars - for every member of the family - parked in the driveway (often five or six) and yet live in a house not worth as much as the cars in the driveway.  They choose poorly, and invest in depreciating scrap metal instead of their homes.

But what if your kids gets a string of tickets or a DUI?  What can you do then?  It is difficult, and at one time, my poor Dad was faced with this problem as my Brother had a DUI and I had about five speeding tickets.  His solution, which I do not think was legal, was to have me get a New Jersey Drivers License and claim to be living with my Grandmother.  I am not sure how he came up with the idea, but it seemed to work, at least for a while.  It meant that I was no longer a "resident" in his household, so I did not appear on his insurance records.   Like I said, I doubt that was legal.  But it goes to show you how having two rambunctious teens can really jack your insurance rates.

A lot has changed since then.  I finally realized that driving as fast as possible everywhere wasn't saving me any time, and costing a lot of money.  Today, I pay $15 a month for car insurance through GEICO, and I drive the speed limit all the time - and I have a clean license.

Others choose differently.  On a recent trip through the Adirondacks, I noticed that most people like to drive fast - but rarely get anywhere faster.  Someone passes me on a road out of town, and we meet up with them at a traffic light at the next town, 20 miles later.  They drive 5-10 miles-per-hour over the limit, but don't really make any more progress.  But they spend more on gas, and no doubt spend more on insurance.  And they live in fear of the red-and-blue lights of the State Trooper, as they know they are constantly breaking the law and are subject to fine and arrest and any moment.

And for what?  To go a little faster?  But again, it is one of those things that takes a long time to learn, and often bad habits are learned in the cradle.  My parents were both speeders (and their tickets no doubt exasperated their insurance difficulties) and taught me that driving 5 mph over the limit was sort of the minimum speed you were expected to do.  Unlearning that was hard.

Which gets me back to the first point.  Your insurance rates, with teens in the house, will be murder.  If they get tickets (or you have some) or an accident, it will be murder to the second power.  Driving carefully and within the speed limits is the best thing you can do (and it is a CHOICE, not a necessity, to speed) and also teach your kids a lot about driving.

My parents rarely said much about driving, or gave much in the manner of driving instruction.  Well, there was the one time my Dad gave me pointers about how to drive carefully after you've "had a few drinks" to avoid getting a DUI.  But I am not sure that is a good example of good parenting or driving instruction.

Corporate Socialism Lives!

International Paper donated land to make a handicapped accessible campsite in the Adirondacks.  It is completely free and very under-utilized.

I wrote before about Corporate Socialism and how it is largely dead.  A half-century ago, companies would spend money on social programs and social goods, even if they did not pay back in terms of publicity, advertising, or a benefit to the company.  Today, in this dog-eat-dog bottom-line world, such things are the first on the chopping block, once the Bain Capitals of the world take over.  There is no room for sentiment or good deeds in the Corporate Board Room anymore.

Well, there are a few exceptions.  International Paper donated land to build the John Dillon Park, a private park that is handicapped accessible, in the Adirondacks, near Long Lake.  There are only about a dozen sites, and they are all FREE and include lean-tos and picnic tables.  They even deliver firewood to your site, free of charge.  Students from nearby Paul Smith's College, studying to be forest rangers or whatever, run the place.  It is immaculate, beautiful, remote, and free.

Unfortunately, we arrived on the last day of the year they are open, and at 3:00 in the Afternoon.  So, we sat out on the dock and opened a bottle of Champagne, and toasted John Dillion.  And at 6:00 they booted our asses out, the last visitors for 2012.

If you are looking for a place to camp in the Adirondacks, it is worth checking out, doubly so if you, a friend, or a family member are handicapped.....

Corporate Socialism.  It lives!

Big Kids

Spoiled Brats are a pain in the ass.  But as adults, are we really any different?

We are camping in the Adirondacks, and while it is beautiful, the campgrounds here are far more crowded than on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  On the Blue Ridge, you might find a handful of campers in a campground designed for 200 or more.  In the Adirondacks, you find nearly every site full.  We are closer to civilization, and closer to the beginning of the school year as well.

Two families brought their noisy kids, and they are camping about 1/8^th mile away.  The little girls have discovered that delightful noise they can make when they scream at the top of their lungs – a shrieking noise that sounds like a banshee.  It is merely annoying in the afternoon, it is torture late at night.  One wonders what the parents are doing, or should I say “parent” as both families seem to be non-intact (you know, Dad was the disciplinarian, and we’re all glad he’s out of the picture, right?).

Well, someone finally complained (not me) and the park ranger got them all to shut up.  I am not sure how the parents could stand the noise, so close up, and at 11:00 at night.  Perhaps they were drunk or on Valium, or perhaps you get used to the bloodcurdling screams.  It sounded like the little girls were being mauled by bears, and in my worst moments, I kind of hoped they were.  After all, it would be Darwinian justice, for making so much noise in the woods.

And I wondered if I did similar things as a kid – shouting (which they all seem to do, even when only two or three feet from each other) and screaming, and running around and generally giving adults migraines.  I must have, as I do recall Mother often complaining about the noise, but perhaps that was only because she was hung over at the time.  One starts to understand why parents “park” their kids in front of a TeeVee for eight hours a day – it keeps them relatively quiet.

But then again perhaps not.  While we were no doubt brats at that age as well, our media and society did not cater to that mentality as it does today.  There was no “Chuck-E-Cheese” back then, where a “kid can be a kid” – where being a kid, apparently, means running around out of control and screaming as loud as you can.

And yet, kids are capable of so much more – and yet are not challenged at all in our society, and thus they devolve into these hyperactive screaming monsters, aided and abetted by energy drinks, soda-pop and sugary cereals.

You may recall the Suzuki method of violin instruction.  Suzuki discovered that if you made instruments child-sized, and gave the children lessons and had them practice in a fairly strict regimen, they could be come quite accomplished violinists at a very early age.  All you have to do is challenge them and provide them with focus and a regimen.  A child’s mind is like a sponge and it will absorb so much.  Yet in America, we give them nothing to soak up except self-indulgence and Sunny-D in a sippy cup.

And as I have noted before, this trend is accelerating and extending.  Today, “kids” can “be a kid” well until age 30, living in Mother’s basement, smoking dope and generally being totally irresponsible and self-indulgent.  We are given no instruction, we are not challenged, we have no regimen.

And yet again, it is possible to so do much more.  As I noted in an earlier posting, in 1942, a 21-year-old might be in charge of a four-engine bomber and the lives of ten other men.  Today, you would not trust them with the family car – nor could you afford the insurance.

What brought this to my mind was that we stopped at a local trading post, where a family ran a small camping supply store, Laundromat, and liquor store.  Behind the counter was an alarmingly young man, apparently the son of the owner, who was minding the counter of the camp store while Dad was working out back.   Not only was he able to handle the work, he did it with remarkable aplomb. And the contrast between this serious young man and the screaming imbeciles in the campground struck me as astounding.

But in a way, it is an aspect of human nature – for people of all ages.  When you indulge people and cater to their every whim, and fail to challenge them or set boundaries, goals, or a regimen, they basically devolve into, well, spoiled brats.

Across from me in the campground is an older man in a pickup truck festooned with Romney stickers.  To hear him talk (and you will hear him talk, like it or not, just as you will hear the screaming girl) nothing bad in his life is his fault.  He is a victim of one sort or another, put-upon by the government, the liberals, and of course, those pampered minorities and immigrants, who are getting “all his tax dollars.”

He drives a vehicle that gets 15 miles per gallon, on a good day, and blames Obama for the high cost of gas (neglecting to recall that it was $5 a gallon during the waning days of the Bush administration).  And he faults the government for running up a deficit, while neglecting to account for how much money he takes out of said same government every month in the form of Social Security and Medicare.   Worse yet, he believes that those same programs should be cut, but of course, only for those who are presently under the age of 55, who apparently have other options available to them.

It is selfishness on the level of a small child at Chuck-E-Cheese.

And yet, our country – our people – are capable of so much more, if challenged and given a regimen.  And that, I think, was the greatest failure of the Bush Administration.  During the “War on Terror” (which is still going on), we were no asked to sacrifice at all, but rather told that our patriotic duty was to spend more, borrow more, and live an opulent lifestyle, to show those terrorists how great it is to live in a Democracy.  Now that it has all gone horribly wrong (perhaps by design – creating a debtor nation) we wonder what happened.  Did the terrorists win?

In past wars, we were asked to sacrifice – buy war bonds, run a scrap metal drive.  Volunteer for some service, no matter what.  Today?  No focus, no discipline, no regimen.

You would think with the Nation’s debt problems and the cost of the war, that Bush would have at least encouraged people to buy bonds or something, as a patriotic act – issue a special Series “War Bond” and ask people to invest – and pay for the cost of the war.

But no, we were and are pampered.  And the last great leader to do that in wartime was Hitler – who well until 1944 was reluctant to put the German economy on a full war-footing and discontinue production of civilian goods in favor of the war effort.  It was not until he was losing the war that he had Albert Speer put in charge of armaments.  And Speer was horrified to discover that even at that late date, civilian goods often had priority over war material.

Why do leaders do this?  They want to remain popular.  They believe that pamper their populations with beads and trinkets – bread and circuses – will appease them and allow the leader to stay in power.  But history has shown this doesn’t work.  People, left without discipline and structure, devolve into spoiled brats, and no matter how much bling you throw at them, they will simply pout and demand more.

Or scream at the top of their lungs at the “injustice of it all.”

Big Kids.  That is all they really are.  Children who have never grown up.