What About Bob?

Does anyone else notice a theme that seems rather apparent in this crappy economy we're all stuck in? Everyone wants more money.

We are all well aware that of course the government wants more money. President Obama seemed to almost chant that with his "pass this bill" rhetoric—the real message behind his jobs bill is of course more taxes. And not a day goes by we don't hear from somebody in the Congress, or a representative from our local municipality that the coiffures are dry, we need more, more, more!

The banks are considering charging fees for the use of their debit cards now. Of course the answer to that is because we are having trouble turning a profit. When you travel to Las Vegas, they want to charge you a resort fee that can be as much as $15-$20 per night. For? Would you have guessed it's a charge for the use of their towels, and to have a maid come in and toss your sheets? All things that back in the day used to be a part of what you pay for in your regular nightly rate to stay at a hotel.

...because we all know that the hotels in Vegas are financially wheezing so that these fee resorts are a must charge—even though profits were up by around 36% last year despite the lagging economy. Do pardon my sarcasm on this particular item, thank you.

In all of this I ask, "What about Bob?" What about you and I? Aren't we Bob? Look, we're having trouble too. We are having trouble turning a profit just like everyone else. Our costs have gone up too. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me right now, but I can tell you that nearly every single daily necessity has risen in cost steadily, and heavily over the last at least four years or so.

Might I only ask one other begging question besides asking, "What about Bob?" Where exactly in hell is all of this frigging money?

I'll admit that this is a bit of digression, here, but I do think it's important to make a note of it. That is, I hate to get back on my bash the CEO bandwagon here, because every time I do that I get called a moron for not understanding about risk reward, and entrepreneurship, and for not appreciating hard work. But the reality is that all the while, while CEOs keep saying they need more to keep the wheels of their business turning, I see their paychecks rising in record numbers. The money isn't going into infrastructure. It's not going into improving efficiency. It's not going into giving their employees pay raises.

But CEOs are getting pay raises. So is the Congress. So are the guys who cut the grass in the park that's across the street from my house.

So again I ask, "What about Bob?" Because if the argument seems to work for everyone else that the costs keep going up and that's why I must charge more, and need more to get by, why can't Bob make the same argument? When Bob goes to the table and says, "It just ain't cuttin' it boss," the boss just nods his head and sends Bob back through the door.

"Whine, whine, whine," the boss says. "Just deal with it. Times are tough."

And to that I say the following. Exactly! So why don't you? Just deal with it, that is. I think it's high time one of these geniuses, be they in Congress or be they in business, with all of their fancy degrees actually use an ounce of their brain to figure out what the problem is before they determine what the solution is. Because every time one of these solutions come up, Bob has to give up more of his money.

Oil Prices Could Not Be Sustained

This most recent price drop in oil, and ultimately the price of a gallon of gas is a bit interesting. I think it says quite a lot about where the economy really is right now, and to what extent we are in recovery. I also think it means oil prices will continue to go down, not up. The truth is consumers are still tapped out. Jobs numbers may be slowly bouncing back, but just because more people are back to work does not mean those same people are caught up financially, nor that they will have much in the way of disposable income. People are going to pull back where they must in order to save money. And because oil is so closely tied to every other thing we buy, people will have to pull back not just on driving, but on other things as well.

This pullback is showing already in a decline in miles driven and gallons of gas sold. I think the fact that we got to a pullback on consumption of gasoline so soon is telling. Oil prices simply could not be sustained. People cannot afford the additional cost. Granted, I've made the argument that oil is perhaps one of the most important commodities in the United States, and when you value it against its current prices, even the higher prices, it seems rather cheap. I've made comparisons to a 20 oz. bottle of Coke which runs around $10 per gallon, and 5-Hour Energy which sells for as much as $192 per gallon. Still, the reality is that while the actual prices of those things are much higher than gasoline, we don't consume those items in the same quantities that we do of gas, and so inevitably the price of a gallon of gas is going to take a bigger, more hurtful chunk out of our wallets, and as a result, it is going to cause us to have to make some decisions as it relates to spending. Certainly it gives us cause to make decisions about driving.

The result? We won't likely see $5 per gallon of gas anytime soon. And I think if we do see gas rise to $5, there will be a major spike downward in gasoline consumption, and I think discretionary spending goes out the window, spiraling us into an interesting dynamic of very, very slow economic growth, higher savings rates by Americans, and lackluster consumer demand. In a way, we're kind of in this mode right now. But I think if we can keep prices down, we can have better growth going forward. Not great growth. But better growth than what we'd see if gas prices were to run up to $5, because obviously that cost would trickle upward eventually into especially food prices, and it just is not possible for Americans to have their two highest expenses see dramatic cost increases and have any possibility of any significant growth in the economy.

Again, the folks are tapped. What's that old saying? You can't get blood out of a stone. Prices will have to be adjusted to what the market is willing to bear. And right now that's not a lot. So, companies will have to go back to the drawing board and draw down their margins and look for better ways to create jobs for Americans despite it all (because without jobs there'll be no growth), and they'll have to get really creative in how they do this profitably. No more are the easy days of easy decisions to simply move work out of the country and take away people's pay and benefits. Government has tossed as much money as they can into the economy. Now its time for corporate dollars to make it into the hands of Americans through work. There's simply no other way. Corporations need buyers. Buyers need money. It really isn't rocket science is it?

I Still Believe Gold Is In A Bubble

The excitement hasn't exactly quieted down yet. People are still very much sure that gold is the investment to hold right now. I think they are half-right in their thinking. Gold will continue to hold value over time. I think that's fairly indisputable. However, I'm inclined to believe that the current price of an ounce of gold is inflated by a lackluster economy in not just the U.S., but across the world, a lagging dollar, and all of the uncertainty that those two things have on people's confidence in paper currencies for which there is no tangible backing for.

Simply put, gold is the most recent example of a bubble in play, and like all bubbles, it is going to burst one day. It's only a question of when.

There are telltale signs of this. For one thing, there are standalone operations that have set up shop in strip malls, and kiosks have even been opened up in the bigger malls. Pawn shops have become major operations just from buying used gold to be sold and melted down and resold to eager buyers. People are flocking to everything gold, and they are turning their attics and basements upside down trying to find anything gold that they can sell.

It's the crazy, in my opinion, that marks the end of a bubble. When oil was going through the roof, people in the know started shouting out that the price for a barrel of oil would surpass $500. An outfit formed that would sell gasoline at today's price that could be used when tomorrow's price went higher. That business tanked. It was another example of the crazy. Oil crashed. When housing boomed and people began getting crazy, refinancing over and over and taking out more and more money each time, buying lavish vacation homes, boats, cars, and anything else their hearts desired. Housing crashed. When the Internet was at its height and people began talking about 'the new economy,' and how business could be transformed, not needing a penny of any real revenue to make it big, and wages were being replaced by stock options and straight shares of company stock, this was the crazy. The Internet boom crashed.

Granted, gold may not be quite on scale with these other bubbles. But with people converting a lot of their dollars to gold, it still will have an impact. And it's still a bubble. It will still burst like all bubbles ultimately do. My only suggestion is to proceed with caution.

Links of Interest

Gold Market, Investing in Gold
What are some good penny stocks?
Consumer Financial Protection Is A Necessary Evil

Forget About The Mosque

That's my plain and simple message to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Just simply forget about the Mosque. It is as clear as the nose on my face, as it is equally clear on the faces of better than 70% of the rest of Americans who oppose the proposed Mosque being built so near to Ground Zero, that this Mosque has not a thing to do with building any bridges between Muslims and Christians (it is not accomplishing anything remotely resembling that), and certainly it is not accomplishing any bridge building when it comes to American's overall perception of Muslims. If it is accomplishing anything at all, it's causing more dissent and mistrust.

Part of this stems from additional comments by the Imam that simply do not make sense, that are only going to make matters worse for him, his building, and his bridge. Such as making the remark that American's thinking that Ground Zero is hallowed ground is misguided. False. To Americans that ground is sacred, and for obvious reasons which it is clear the Imam has no understanding of. It also says loud and clear, in my eyes, that he doesn't have any real connection to America, American culture, nor American values—yet he calls himself an American?

Of course, you can add on the recent uncoverings of the Imam's ties with this Khan guy, who is not embarrassed at all about the fact that he believes 911 was an inside job.

My thinking is this. I'm not saying to the Imam don't build nothing. Just don't build a Mosque. Don't even give it a name like Muslim Cultural Center. If you want to build something, including a bridge, then why not build an American memorial and cultural center which honors the victims of 911, and that is non-denominational? That's something I think we could all live with. That is something which would certainly clear the air about what the Imam's intentions are. It certainly would send a message to any Jihadists out there who may wish to correlate this Mosque so near to Ground Zero with Islamic victory against the infidel Americans.

There is dirt here. And I'm not just talking about the dirt on the ground. There's dirt on the Imam. There's dirt on his cohorts. Certainly there will be dirt on his financiers in the deal. And that's part of the problem for Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf as well and his bridge. When 70% of the population are against the Mosque, you better believe there will be a very large majority of those people ready with shovels to dig that dirt up and lay it all out on the table for everyone to see. It's happening already, and it will only get worse.

Mr. Rauf, just forget about the Mosque. You'll be happy you did. Build something, my man. Anything really. Just not a Mosque.

Read more by Springboard on HubPages:

Springboard on HubPages

QURAN BURNING IS MORE IGNORANCE

The burning of the Quran by a Florida pastor sort of reminds me of one of those TV infomercials where the host yells out to the eager, waiting audience, "But wait! There's More!" Ignorance, that is. That's what we're getting more of with this deal. Ignorance.

I spoke very loud and clear about the Mosque being built so near to Ground Zero being a very bad idea. I listened to all of the arguments that the proponents of the Mosque made about rights and the Constitution. I very quickly conceded that if Imam Rauf wants to build a Mosque anywhere he wants to, he most surely can. The Constitution clearly says so, and I don't dispute that fact one iota. The question for me was and is, if the vast majority of the American people are opposed to the building of the Mosque, and it is the desire of the builder to create a bridge between the Muslims and the rest of America, wouldn't it be the prudent thing to do to not build the Mosque?

Bridges aren't built by pissing off everyone on the bridge.

And what of this burning of the Quran? Sure, the pastor has every right in the world to light the thing on fire and chant whatever things he wants to chant while doing it. But should he do it? Is it the best judgement on his part? Is it the prudent thing to do? In this case do two wrongs make a right?

I think not.

I put the burning of the Quran in the very same light that I put the building of the Mosque. Both are bad ideas, and I think they are both bad ideas for very obvious reasons. The ignorance of both the Florida pastor and the New York Imam is as clear as the nose on my face.

READ MORE OF SPRINGBOARD ON HUBPAGES:
The Mosque Is Not About Religious Freedom
From Comments:Everything about this attack was based on the Muslim faith, in the name of Allah, and in the cause of Islamic Jihad...if you want to build an AMERICAN non-denominational center of worship and prayer, go for it. A Mosque is about victory plain and simple. A bridge, by the way, travels in both directions. A Mosque only travels in one.
It's Who You Know, And Who You Blow
From Comments:Mr. Rockefeller Sr. CAN look down at Jr. and say, "Junior, this here money is mine. This here acheivement is through my effort. My smarts. My guts. I will not give you the fruits of my efforts and you should not expect that I offer them to you. You CAN be a witness to my acheivement, and you CAN be inspired by the knowledge that we live in a world where IF you work as hard as I did, and do your very best as I did, that while you still may not acheive to the exact level that I did, that you will have at least had the exact opportunity that I did." Conceptually, if you succeed, you succeed on your own because you are meant to. And if you fail, you do that on your own as well for the same reason.
Climate Change and the Issue of the Falling Sky
From Comments:Curbing pollution and being responsible citizens of the earth is a very important thing. I do believe that we're doing plenty to hurt at least the ecosystem, and it could have a profound impact on even our own lives. But the gloom and doom stuff is just a lot of focus on hocus pocus and I think it's simply the wrong way to approach the underlying issue of pollution and the effects it could have on the environment.