The Numbers Game

The Numbers Game

Have you ever thought about how often numbers figure in your everyday life?  

1. Start with your identity: After your first, middle and last names, you’re identified

 by your address which includes street number 112, 9 digit zip code 75026-2321,

 phone number 214-992-0241 and social security number 120-56-8910.

2. You awaken in the morning and check the time: 5:30 (still dark, back to sleep) until 7:00.

3. If you’re an insomniac, you’ve been following numbers all night, wondering which  one will  release you to sleep: a.m: 1:30, 2:15, 3:30, 5:00 ….zzzzz…..

4. After morning ablutions, you check the outside temperature to see what to wear: 75 (nice), 62 (a little cool), 50 (so-so), 30 ( long under wear time.)

5. If you do a.m. exercises, you count the number of reps 2 sets of 12 and/or the minutes spent - 20  minutes – that’s enough of that!

6. If you count calories, your breakfast might look something like this: Special K fruit and yogurt cereal 120 calories, cantaloupe 60 calories, coffee with skim milk 25 calories; total 205 calories. Not bad if you can stay away from the Danish 106 calories – that blows breakfast - later this morning for those 11 a.m. munchies.

7. Time to make phone calls. Punch the numbers 883-097-2368 to reach your target. If you’ve pre-programmed numbers into your phone then your automatic system does this for you, Hooray for technology!

8. You have a doctor’s appointment this morning at 11:00. Ready for more numbers?

9. First thing they do is weigh, measure and take your blood pressure. Chances are (as you age anyway) that 3 numbers have gone up and 1 has gone down: that’s right, weight, B/P and cholesterol have gone up and height has gone down. Why is that, anyway? Weight 140 pounds, height 60 inches, blood pressure 150/92 –uh oh, doesn’t look good! Weight and height thing must be due to wearing a heavy sweater and flat shoes (yeah, right!) B/P elevation must be due to the ‘white coat syndrome’ (just being in a doctor’s or dentist’s office elevates it.) Total cholesterol levels are creeping up towards  275.  Uh oh, doesn’t look good!

10. Finally, the doctor (or nurse or p.a.) says, well, for a person your age (fill in blank) you’re really not in such bad shape…..gee, thanks for the compliment?

11. You finally leave the doctor’s office, having spent 2 ½ hours there. It’s now 1:30, time to meet your friend for lunch.

12. You’re not too late, enjoy lunch and conversation, pay the bill which you split 50/50.

13. After lunch you plan to stop at Nordstrom’s; they’re having a 25-50% off sale. Even at these discounts, their prices are still high.

14. On the way there, you’re tempted to stop at a shoe store as they, too, are having a special sale: Buy one pair and get 2^nd pair 50% off. How can you resist those numbers?

15. 45 minutes later you leave the store, 2 pairs of shoes heavier and delighted with your bargain. For only $59.95 you now have 2 new pairs of shoes which you  don’t need and probably won’t wear. But, how could you resist those numbers? 4:00. Time to head home.

17. Driving there, the radio gives the weather, cloudy at 62, time 4:10 p.m. and the stock market daily report, Dow down 35 points after which you hear the song, If I Could Put Time In A Bottle.

18. Lots of traffic, trip takes 35 minutes. When home, check the time to cook the chicken,   45 minutes at 350 degrees. Dinner will be ready in 60 minutes.

19. Time to relax with your feet up for 45 minutes with a drink (calories? – oh the hell with it.) Just enjoy the drink and forget the numbers!

20. After dinner, the dreaded task of bill paying. This is where the numbers don’t compute. More going out than coming in. How can you pay $4,200.00 in monthly bills on $3,959.00 income? Still trying to figure that one out.

21.    Finally, 11 p.m. The numbers plus your body tell you it’s time for bed.

22.    Lord, what would we do without numbers? Well, we might feel a lot less

regimented and more free. And just think, you got through an entire day with only 22 numbered items!

Final thoughts: If you’re an accountant, numerologist, stock broker or gambler who likes betting on the numbers or playing 21, that’s a whole other ball game…… and speaking of ball games, did you hear that the Red Sox won their latest game against the Orioles by a score of 22 to 11!?  

As a follow-up to this post here’s an amazing short Youtube video on numbers;

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=h60r2HPsiuM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

  

The United States of Wall Street

The United States of Wall Street

For a long time I have believed that the U.S. is guided by a system of capitalism that has ‘run amuck’. I did not understand why or how this had happened, what causes and systems were behind it, but I did believe it to be undeniably true.  Despite the fact that I was an art and psychology major in college and graduate school, with little knowledge of or interest in economics or finance, I did see the truth of this belief wherever I looked.

It has been hard to find others who agree with me as our worship of capitalism runs deep and is as fixed an icon in America as the flag, supporting our troops, mom and apple pie. How does one question an icon? Then lightening struck! I had my ‘Ah-Ha’ moment of understanding while viewing Michael Moore’s documentary, Capitalism – A Love Story. My thoughts on the film: excellent, incisive and a much needed step in revealing the truth, as he does so well.

Moore, in his inimitable style, using truth laced with humor, clearly depicts the origins and reveals the development of my ‘run amuck’ theory. He and others have said that it doesn’t matter which political party runs the government as the results will be the same. I never understood this idea before; I completely bought into the (false) left vs. right argument which was perpetrated, I believe, to obscure the truth…… which is that Wall Street and large corporations run our government no matter who’s in charge. Our Constitution, which purports to be of, by and for the people has long been buried by the piles of money which obscure its original intentions. The altruistic, inspired and hard working men who framed our Constitution would be shocked if they could see where their efforts have led today.

According to Moore, this movement away from the original intentions of our founding fathers began, in our time, with the Reagan presidency. I was surprised to see the former head of Merrill Lynch, Donald Regan, on a stage with the president, appearing to give him directions. Well, not so much a surprise as Regan was both treasury secretary and White House Chief of Staff under Reagan. His distinctly money making expertise helped to create the failed ‘trickle-down’ economic policies begun in that era which succeeded only in creating a great budget deficit instead of the purported ‘prosperity for all’ solution it was intended to be.

That snapshot of Ronald Reagan, as well trained actor (and excellent communicator, I might add) as being in bed with Wall Street and the moneyed interests of the nation, is now permanently embedded in my mind. Other presidents have followed in his footsteps. Easy to understand. Since it now requires untold millions of dollars to run a campaign for the highest political office, who can better afford to back a candidate than millionaires and billionaires? The final ‘nail in the coffin’ enabling this practice was placed by the Supreme Court recently with its passage of a law allowing unlimited corporate contributions to candidates running for office. Fairness? Equality? Sorry but I just don’t see it.

The movement away from government of, by and for the people continues to this day, begun by Reagan’s quote that “Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.” That, followed by financial deregulation, successfully moved the country even further away for our original “self-governance” mandate, although that may not have been its intention. Reagan allowed the Savings and Loan industry a license to gamble with taxpayers’ money at best or to loot at worst. By the time the government closed the books on this nasty S&L affair, the taxpayers had lost $130 billion. Additionally, a longer term effect, Reagan era legislative changes essentially ended New Deal restrictions on mortgage lending that, in particular, limited the ability of families to buy homes without putting a significant amount of money down. It allowed corporations to pursue their ever greater love of profits undeterred by government regulations, checks and balances.*

Perhaps a healthy balance between government regulations and free market enterprise is the best answer. Because, ultimately it is people who are the problem, whether they work in government or outside of it. Until people can behave in a more altruistic, unselfish manner through the development of their higher inclinations, there will continue to be abuses in both the government and free enterprise sectors alike.

I don’t want to get into another tired debate about the Republican’s purported cry for smaller government vs. the Democrat’s supposed tendency towards big government, tax and spend approach. Both are no doubt wrong and exaggerated for the sake of politics with no real truth in actual fact. What is true is that our government (no matter which party is in control) is run by the moneyed interests, which control most policies, buy many of our lawmakers and run rough shod over the environment, the general population and the ‘good of all living things’ in its ever more frantic and fevered pursuit of profits. This is ‘capitalism run amuck’ in my opinion and can only lead us over the cliff to our demise. Moore starts the documentary with a clever juxtaposition of ancient Rome’s demise with the current situation in America. The obvious connection being, once a country puts its love of and pursuit of money over the interests of humanity, the end is surely near – unless a serious course correction occurs.

This afore-mentioned love of profits, to the exclusion of all else, including common sense, was the background for our recent downward slide; the out-of-control and illegal  gambling style practices of Wall Street which caused the financial and housing bubbles to burst, drowning many in their wake with attendant heartache, misery, loss, illness and death.

Moore asks: “Why do the American people stand for this state of affairs? Why don’t we revolt en masse?” And the answer is that, up until now, the hope has always been dangled in front of us that we, too, someday could be very rich, owning expensive cars, homes, boats and other symbols of financial success. This carrot and stick has been held in front of our noses for too long! The truth is that this rarely, if ever, happens, yet the hope is still kept dangling in front of us, obscuring the truth. Yes, there are those who have achieved the American dream, but for the great majority, that dream is an ever receding hope.

Visions of the French Revolution keep dancing in my head, without the guillotine, of course. Perhaps Americans need to start a bloodless revolution; one which will level the playing field and truly make the United States become ‘of America’ instead ‘of Wall Street’ and stand for government of, by and for all of the people and not just the 1-2% who now control everything. Moore shows examples of this type of revolution: employees of a closed factory refusing to leave the building until they got their back pay, vacation time, etc. They won! And a family in Florida whose home was foreclosed yet, with the help of neighbors found a way to stay in their house, refusing to move. Now there’re some concepts to wrap our heads and hearts around and to encourage others to do as well.

• Information on Reaganonics from an article in the NYT by Paul Krugman, 5/31/2009

Note: As a follow-up to this blog, you might want to watch a youtube video which greatly expands upon these ideas. It is 2 hours long but brilliant and worth every minute of your time…..I promise!  It is divided into segments so the viewing can be easily broken up. There will no doubt be areas with which you disagree but the overall premise is worthy of our consideration as a possible new direction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gKX9TWRyfs

Ramana Karkus

karkus.ramana@gmail.com