What a funny name. It sounds like something bad is about to happen. Like “Zoinks!” “Gadzooks!” “Yelp!” Iono. Maybe it’s just me. In any case there is nothing bad about yelp.com. Unless you’re saying it’s badass! Which it is. It’s basically an online community of reviewers. You can review any business with a physical address. I like it mainly for it’s restaurant reviews. I have found much good food on yelp.com and today I decided to contribute by doing my first review.
Navigating through yelp.com is pretty easy and writing your own review can be done very quickly too. Most importantly it combines my enjoyment of writing with my love of food.
So yeah. Go to yelp.com and check it out. Leave a review if you feel up to it.
Obama will be the new President in 2009 and yet I feel that too much hope and expectation is placed in one person.
Don’t misunderstand, I voted for Obama and I do feel that he will initiate the kind of change that no one has seen in a long time. However, I don’t think everyone understands how unrealistic their expectations are and the limitations that not even Obama will be able to overcome.
First of all, the President does not control the economy. There is very little any one person can do to fix our economy right now. He cannot wave his hand to create homes, heal the sick, create jobs, or stop the war. He can not solve all of your problems. I don’t think anyone thinks he can do this. Well, I hope not.
What Obama will do and has been doing since his campaign started is initiate change. He not only represented but reached out to the youth. He courted the fire that got the youth to care about politics. But he didn’t make anyone care and he didn’t make anyone vote. We did that ourselves.
The mantra is “Yes, We Can.” It’s not “Yes, He Can.” It’s good to be hopeful of the change that Obama will bring to the White House but it’s better to believe in the change that we can bring to our own lives. I will be very proud and very happy to see that Jr. Senator Barack Obama will be President Obama on January 20, 2009. However, I would be much more happier and prouder to see my peers working to make a change for themselves.
Barack Obama will be the new president but “We the people…” will forever remain the real hope.
I saw a teenage couple in borders looking in the sex section the other day. They were definitely young enough to have someone tell them they were too young to be having sex.
So I went over there and lectured them on how they were too young to be having sex and that they had better be prepared to accept the consequences of a child if they insisted on having sex. “Don’t go cryin’ and tryin’ to get an abortion if you get pregnant,” I told the young lady. Then I threw a couple of condoms at the guys face and said, loudly: “At least use bloody (not literally bloody, that’s disgusting) condoms!”
Ok I made that up. I saw a teen couple in the sex section in borders the other day and simply thought: “Good. Better they learn from books than their idiot friends who probably don’t know anything and are bragging about experiences they never had.”
My faith in the teens of the world increased a wee bit. I can sleep a wee bit better tonight.
Dorks are the premier examples of growing up without growing old.
They are silly, foolish, and they do not care as much about what others think. They can laugh at themselves and at life all the while taking care of their responsibilities and being mindful of their family and friends.
A revolution is coming and it is being led by, that’s right, dorks.
Ellen DeGeneres, host of an award winning talk show: dork
Amanda Bines, star of Sydney White: dork
Jessica Biel, actress in We Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry: dork
Fanny Pak, Jaba, Kaba, Super Crew: dorks, dorks, dorks, dorks
Barack Obama, US Senator and presidential nominee: dork (oh you contest? watch the clip below)
Ok, so this ended up being really, really, really long so if you’re like me and can’t pay attention to anything for more than several seconds than this first paragraph sums everything up. If you’re between the ages of 25-30 years of age or in the middle economic class then you are screwed if the economy enters into a worst case scenario of epic proportions that will make the Great Depression seem like a hiccup in the grand economic picture. If this economic disaster never takes place then we will all go through some tough times before things get better. However, this topic is especially important for the middle class and young adults because, lets face in, in our every day lives we have “much more important” things to worry about.
If you can’t take any more of my babbling than you can stop reading, watch the following clip, and follow the psychological brainwashing instructions.
If you’re a really, really, really, bored and have nothing better to do and want to waste your time reading my nonsense. Commence. I greatly appreciate your time.
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Let me just make a disclaimer and say that I have no idea what I’m talking about. Also, keep in mind this is worst case scenario. Hopefully, someone will do something to correct our economy and we won’t have anything to worry about. I should also add that when I say youth I’m referring to people under the age of 30. With that being said let me explain why we, the middle class and the youth, are essentially screwed.
I consider the mid- and late-20s a transition period in our lives. It’s the time where we’re starting to figure out what we’re going to be doing as a career and where we want to be in the near future. The question “where do you see your self in 10 years,” is now replaced with “where do you see yourself in the next year.” This time is also marked by complaints of a quarter life crisis and females wanting to get married and have babies. After 30 everyone starts to calm down as they have given up on their fairytale ideals, but we won’t get into that as that is a whole different can of worms. As the mid- to late-20s is a transition period it means most of us are lower to lower-middle class on the socio economic scale. There are outliers but if in your 20s and are making about $100k annually then screw you. I hate you. You are still screwed with what might possibly happen. I’m kidding, I love everyone. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about this in a public place that hardly anyone looks at. Heh, funny thought. Writing on Thoughts for Barter is like pissing in a public place without anyone around.
Anyway, getting back on track. I have just laid down my case as to why those in the mid- to late-20s is grouped with the middle class. We’re not substantially poor but we are far from any stable situation either. Most of my friends are finishing up professional schools, starting their profession, starting families or simply nomadic like I am. Either way, our attention is focused on our current situations. We live month to month thinking about our bills, our friends, our families, and what we are going to be doing this weekend. Some of us are plugged into the economic world but can’t do very much except hope that someone will come and save us from the mess that we are growing up into.
Now as for the middle class. Though the middle class may make more money, around $100k a year per household I believe it is, they suffer from mainly paycheck to paycheck living with maybe some money put away for retirement. Unfortunately, those who had money in mutual funds and stocks aren’t looking very happy right now. Those who had money in real estate haven’t been happy for a while and those with money in a savings account, well, they may think they have a little back up but they would be really unhappy to find out that they are actually loosing money due to inflation. The middle class worries about keeping their job, impressing the boss, their families, their children, and their retirement. Some even worry about keeping up with the Joneses. Many of the middle class keep tabs on the economic standing of our great country yet can’t do much except hope that someone will come and save us from the mess that they are living in.
What many of the middle class and young adults are not doing is preparing for the worst case scenario. What is the worst case scenario you ask? Well, let’s see. If the best case scenario is that the recession, depression, or whatever you want to call it is just a hiccup or a burp, or a lot of passed gas that will correct itself with a little home remedy or proper eating habits. Then the worst case scenario is that the great depression will look like a hiccup, or a burp, or a lot of passed gas compared to the economic strife that is approaching us. With this in mind understand that I may just be a loony who’s screaming “bloody murder” while running around with a tin foil hat. Then again, I just heard that 10% of the U.S. population is now on food stamps. On the bright side congress just approved the $700 billion bailout for Wall Street. What does this mean for the rest of us? Not much. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? I have no idea.
So, if this is the worst case scenario than what do we do? Nothing, we’re screwed, there’s no fighting it. Or, we can do nothing because the worst case scenario rarely ever occurs. It will usually be somewhere in the middle right? Maybe. Someone asked me once, after finding out that I was Buddhist, to reflect on his following words: If I don’t believe in God and God doesn’t exist and there is not judgment before entering the afterlife than I had nothing to worry about. However, if I don’t believe in God and there IS a God that will judge me before deciding on my afterlife then what? My answer to that remains the same but this isn’t about religion it’s about economics. Likewise if the worst never comes to pass and we don’t prepare for it then we’ll call everyone who did loonies. However, if we don’t prepare and the worst does come to pass then what? Unarguably, there is documentation of a Great Depression in United States history. There is also documentation of one Black Monday. Will things get better? Will they get worse? No one can give a definite answer to this. However, two things are for sure. We can’t keep relying on the government to bail us out every time we, the nation of the United States as a whole, screw up. Second, in the worst case scenario there is no escape for the middle class. There is crazy talk of the middle class being wiped out completely. No, not erased from the face of existence, but will either become the poor class or the wealthy class. The difference will be what we do today to decide where we end up come the Great Depression part duex.
Oh and just to throw it out there. The wealthy are already preparing. They can afford to. The poor don’t care because, well, they’ve been sh!tted on for a while now. Economic disaster changes little for them.
So I implore you, educate yourself on the situation and prepare for the worst. The worst probably won’t come tomorrow so we can all do little things to start preparing. At the very least, if the worst doesn’t come, we will have least keep out a lot more hardship than necessary by being a little prepared today.
Just kidding, I don’t really care what you educate yourself on or what you decide to do. It’s almost 2009 and it’s all about C.S.W.
But do watch the video above. Not because I care if you do or not but because I really like the clip. I find it entertaining when celebrities get together on a project.
