Corporate Bailout

So with the recent bailout of the financial industry, it seems that anyone who thinks they deserve a free handout because of poor market conditions wants to cry "poor" on Capitol Hill. I do not profess myself to be a financial genius or a great economist, but apparently aiding the financial industry, who made so many bad loans to people they knew they shouldn't have made loans to, was a necessity. I disagree, because they knew that people were getting into these loans with lower incomes and high debt, but what do I know, I just live here.

Fine. That DOESN'T give every corporate organization the right to come before Congress and ask for more money because the CEO's make millions per year, and fly corporate jets that cost 6 times what it would cost to fly commercially. I am so disgusted with Ford, GM, and Chrysler for having the nerve to come before our nations government and whine about how their company profits are down because of market conditions and they can't run the company without a taxpayer bailout. It's a load of hooey.

Let me tell you why profits declined for the automakers:

1. Reputation. Foreign vehicles have better reputations for durability, safety, customer service, maintenance and warranty offerings. That's not to say domestic vehicles are bad, they just struggle to compete with overseas automakers.
2. Gas prices. The SUV boom is over. It will not see growth the same way it did a few years ago when everyone had to have one, mostly because of their fuel efficiency. With gas prices that reached astronomical heights, more people were opting for more fuel efficient vehicles to save money at the pump. With trade-ins of SUV's on top of the surplus of current inventory, the value of the SUV plummeted and even when sold, did not yield much of a profit if it yielded one at all. The automakers could not have forseen other economic turmoil, but they also over-produced their large vehicles, particularly SUV's and trucks.
3. Vehicle cost. Because it takes so much to produce vehicles, and more for larger vehicles, they come with a high price tag. The unfortunate reality here is that because the automakers made the same faulty lending that the mortgage companies did, they shot themselves in the foot. They made loans to people who couldn't afford to pay them, but they'd loan the money so they could get the sale.... What a bad idea.
4. Overpaying executives. Yes, you heard me. I don't really think ANY executive who makes MILLIONS per year, has the right to come before Congress and ask for more money to run their business. Seriously, where does all that money go? They are the business leaders, it is their job to lead by example and if leading by example means taking a pay cut and shaving some perks, then that's what needs to happen. Frankly, if they are any kind of business intelligent, they wouldn't have let their companies fall into this position in the first place.

Essentially, anyone in the lending industry is at fault for our current economic crisis. People who make $20K are driving $50K cars, or at least they were. The same goes for houses. Mortgage companies would approve couples for $200K homes when they made $50K or less. Of course, the people who fell for these bad loans are also to blame. If you don't know where your money is going and you always seem to be broke, it's probably time to sit down and budget. KNOW WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES!

Even with the proposal of a bailout, it is not going to change the financial industry. I have recently become a big Dave Ramsey fan (ya know, the "Live Debt Free" guy) and he makes the point that financial management is 20% intellect and 80% behavior. While he tends to focus more on personal finance, the same principle can be applied to the financial, mortgage, and auto industries and to pretty much any financial situation.

If the government (aka taxpayers) bailout any industries, it is only treating the symptom of the real problem - poor management. If these companies are going to turn themselves around and become profitable again, they are going to seriously examine their expenditures. Maybe the CEO shouldn't get 26 million a year, especially if sales dwindle. That's rewarding poor leadership. Last time I checked, good leadership is what should be rewarded and bad leadership punished.

Maybe some of the executive perks should be removed. Who really NEEDS to fly everywhere on a private jet. Are they really so arrogant to think that they are that much better than the average citizen? They are in for a rude awakening and if the Board of Directors for these companies have ANY sense, they'll restructure executive pay, as well as the overall business model for the company, maybe even elect new members and top executives. If doing so requires filing Chapter 11, then so be it.

It's not OUR fault that THEY can't manage finances and plan appropriately. The auto makers need to step up and be held responsible here, not the hardworking taxpayer.

TV

Being that we have cable, we love to watch TV (when we aren't playing WoW, of course!) and I have 3 channels that are my favorites to watch. In no particular order, HGTV, Food Network, and Animal Planet.

I love HGTV for the design ideas that they come up with. The designers are always finding unique uses for things that they may not have originally been intended for. Tonight, I was watching "Myles of Style" and she created this really awesome nursery for a couple who is adopting a baby. The piece of furniture she used to create the changing table was actually a buffet! I would NEVER have thought to do that, but you have SO much more storage space and it can be updated again as the kid grows. That was GENIUS!

Food Network is awesome too. I love sweet stuff, so one of my favorite shows is "Ace of Cakes". Duff and his crew make some AMAZING cakes. If I didn't live so far away, I'd be ordering cakes from them every month! LOL

Other Food Network shows we enjoy are, "Throwdown with Bobby Flay", "Good Eats", "Iron Chef", among many others.

My favorite shows on Animal Planet are "Animal Cops: Houston" (although all of the Animal Cops shows are good to watch) and "It's Me or the Dog". Victoria Stilwell is an amazing dog trainer. I love how she is so direct and clear about what the dog owners need to do to remedy the pet problems they have. A new season is starting soon and I can't wait to watch it. I applaud all the work the ASPCA workers do to help the animals on "Animal Cops". It makes me sad that people are so ignorant to starve animals, or abuse them. Those types of people should NEVER own a pet more complicated than a goldfish, IMO.

Video Games

I will admit that I am slightly addicted to video games - a trait that is only enhanced when my husband is around, as he is a pretty avid gamer.

I enjoy the simple games, myself. I love puzzle games (The Adventures of Lolo, Lemmings, etc.) and of course, there will always be a special place in my heart for Mario and all of the games where Mario & Luigi must save the day! I'm a big fan of a lot of the classic Nintendo games.

RPG's are difficult for me. Not for the reason that the mysteries of the given world are so difficult, it's for the fact that they are so much more time consuming and I don't exactly have the patience to spend an hour looking for some little guy who's going to send me right back where I came from. That's not to say I don't play them, because I do. I just have a little help with playing them. :)

I think the first RPG game I played really was Kingdom Hearts. It was pretty spiffy - then the second one came out (on Game Boy Advance only) and then there was the 2nd release on PS2. (I only played the PS2 games b/c I didn't own a Game Boy Advance at the time. The hubby does though - just haven't made the time to play it.)

Well, since then, my husband and I made a deal. You see, when the 7th Harry Potter book came out, I decided to read the whole series at once, start to finish, so everything was fresh in my head when I got to the last book. In some of those books, there are some serious "laugh out loud" moments, courtesy of the Weasley twins. At this time, my hubby had been asked by a friend to try out a new game. While my hubby was playing this new computer game, I would be reading. Having never read the Harry Potter series before, he was interested in reading these books to see what I was going on about.

The game he had been asked to try was World of Warcraft....and the deal was that he would read all of the Harry Potter books if I also tried WoW. So, we had an agreement.

It was tedious to me at first... and a little boring because I didn't know what I was doing. Once things became a little clearer, it got less frustrating. I altered between phases of playing and not playing due to work. Then, for a very long period of time, after I had reached a fairly high level (I don't remember exactly what level, though), I was so frustrated with the questing that there was an extended period of time where I didn't play. One day, my husband discovered a very helpful add-on - QuestHelper. OMG! That made my life so much easier I was back into playing again! Now, I've been playing for almost a year and have 9 characters. Since my hubby and I are both into this game, our free time is usually spent.

What are we gonna do when they add Bejeweled for the in-game play during long flights? The Yahoo! article was right... it's the end of our free time. :)

Blogging

So this is my first ever blog and I'm hoping to better share my thoughts and organize my ideas in one place. I'm a pretty smart cookie but sometimes my brain works a lot faster than I can write or speak. :D

I'll probably blog about random personal things to start out, and see what transpires from there. If you found this blog and have any suggestions or comments, please let me know. :D