The Unretired

Business Week magazine, in the December 15, 2008 issue (page 46), has an article on The Unretired. These are people who retired, but due to the economic downturn are now hurting financially, and in many cases going back to work.

A couple of quotes, just a few paragraphs apart, stood out to me:

These aren't just the spendthrifts or sloppy planners you would expect to run into trouble in retirement ... many are people who did everything they were supposed to do -- working for decades and regularly socking money away.

Peter Fay, like many of The Unretired, feels angry and betrayed. The 63-year-old built up a $1 million retirement account as an executive at companies including Chiquita Brands International and then at his own high-end flooring company in Scottsdale, Ariz. But with all his money in stocks, he's lost 50% of that this year, at the same time that his house has tumbled in value. He's drawing down his savings and applying for jobs at Lowe's, Home Depot, and Costco. "All the systems we grew up trusting during all those years of work -- you save your money, you trust in the government -- are no longer valid," he says.

Did you catch that? "all his money in stocks" This is doing "what they were supposed to do?" I know of NO reputable financial planner or advisor who would recommend a retiree (or near-retiree) have all his money in stocks, even in the heady days of the market of the last few years.

Quite the opposite. He (and/or his financial advisors) were apparently driven by pure greed. If history can't teach people that greed is ultimately bad for them, nothing will, I suppose.

The cost of college sports

I'm all in favor of co-curricular activities. Students need to be involved in sports, or music, or drama, or other activities outside their area of study in order to be well-rounded. For some students, it is the co-curricular activities that keep them in school. But I think the sense of proportion goes right out the window when it comes to college sports, and in particular college football.

Here are some interesting numbers from the December 2008 / January 2009 issue of Fast Company magazine (page 48):

-- The college football economy is worth an estimated yearly $6,000,000,000. (Yes, that's six billion dollars!)
-- Ohio State University had the nation's largest athletic budget last year: $109,382,222. That's nearly $110,000 for each of it's 980 athletes. (Except that when I do the math, I get $111,614.51 per athlete!)
-- Fox paid $330,000,000 to air all Bowl Championship Series games except the Rose Bowl from 2007-2010.
-- WINS: Merchandise royalties for the University of Texas doubled to $8,000,000 after it won the 2006 national championship.
-- LOSSES: NBC Pays $9,000,000 per year for the broadcast rights to home games at Notre Dame, which went 3-9 last season. Ratings have dropped 47% since 2005.
-- New Orleans got an economic boost estimated at $400,000,000 from hosting last year's national championship.
-- The 619 schools competing in NCAA football in 2007 tallied total attendance of 48,751,861.
-- Last season's 32 bowl games collectively drew 1,700,000 fans. Another 129,000,000 households tuned in to TV broadcasts.
-- Average home-game attendance in 2007 at Texas A&M's Kyle field: 82,207.
Estimated population in 2007 of College Station, Texas, home to Texas A&M: 80,315.

Surprise, surprise!

A story on page one of the October 23rd issue of the Manhattan Free Press says Hawaii is ending it's child health care plan after only seven months. Seems the do-gooders there had decided that the state should buy health insurance for any kid whose parents weren't paying for health insurance.

A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.

Duh. Did anyone seriously expect people to keep paying for something the state was giving away?

Off the Bottle?

From Business Week magazine, April 14, 2008, page 47:

Many people drink bottled water because they deem it superior to the stuff that comes out of the faucet. Wrong, argues Food & Water Watch, a Washington (D. C.)-based non profit dedicated to consumer rights. In a report last year, the group blasted bottled water, declaring that Americans "think it is somehow safer or better than tap water ... but it is generally no cleaner, or safer, or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water."
Americans drank 31.2 billion liters of bottled water last year. And the Pacific Institute, an Oakland (Calif.)-based sustainability thinktank, estimates that it takes approximately 17 million barrels of oil to produce the bottles all that water comes in. That, says the institute, is enough to fuel more than 1 million cars and light trucks for a year.

Clarence Thomas Quotes

In the latest issue of the Imprimis magazine is an interview with Hon. Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court. Here are some of my favorite quotes from him:

Today we've grown comfortable with programs and theories, whether it's affirmative action or something else. Centralized governments always have grand theories and five-year-plans. But no government program could have done what my grandfather did for me and for others who needed help. It's the golden rule -- do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The golden rule can't operate through a government program, it can only work between people.

I often say "I don't hire women law clerks." People are shocked. But I don't hire women law clerks -- I hire the best law clerks. And it turns out that 30 percent of them happen to be women. If a woman graduates from law school and I say I'm going to hire her because I need a woman, that seems to be dehumanizing, and the job would be tainted.

We're too focused on the benefits of a civil society and we think too little about the obligations we have -- the obligations to be civil, to learn about our history and our government, to conduct ourselves in a disciplined way, to help others, to take care of our homes. Too many conversations today have to do with rights and wants. There is not enough talk about responsibilities and duties.

Have you ever read Modern Times, by Paul Johnson? ... One point it makes clearly is the connection between relativism, nihilism, and Naziism. The common idea that you can do whatever you want to do, because truth and morality are relative, leads to the idea that if you are powerful enough you can kill people because of their race or faith. So ask your relativist friens sometime: What is to keep me from getting a gang of people together and beating the hell out of you because I think you deserve to be beaten? Too many people thing that life and liberty are about their frivolous pleasures. There is more to life.