How ‘advanced’ is your country?
Red is bad.
via Peter and Warren Long.
Category: economics
how to pay off your credit card debt
It’s so simple …
new hilarious blog – The Content Farm
We’re so lucky to have content farms on the internet. Not. 🙂
decline of religion in richer nations
In general, the more affluent the country, the fewer citizens report that they are ‘religious’.
Note that Kuwait and the USA are outliers, exceptions to that general rule.
James A. Haught wrote about this trend:
Since World War II, worship has dwindled starkly in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and other advanced democracies. In those busy places, only 5 or 10 percent of adults now attend church. Secular society scurries along heedlessly. …
… males outnumber females among the churchless. “The ratio of 60 males to 40 females is a remarkable result …
Is this trend good or bad?
Good, I’d say, overall.
Religion works for some. I respect their right to freedom of religions so long as it doesn’t impose on others.
And any trend for less religiosity should diminish the fervency of religious extremists. We would hope.
Thanks Warren.
related – What atheists are really concerned about
High Greed Internet
Many Canadians are asleep while the ISPs plot a cash grab.
George Stroumboulopoulos explains the complicated issue calling B.S. on the Internet Service Providers.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I’ve already signed the petition at: StopTheMeter.ca
Telcos and ISPs are the least trustworthy corporations today.
Most Canadians don’t plan to retire: survey
And I thought I was the only one. …
What used to be called retirement will be just another day at the office for more than a third of Canadians, who say they’ll need to keep working to pay the bills, a survey suggests.
The survey conducted by Harris/Decima on behalf of Scotiabank indicates nearly 70 per cent of Canadians plan to work after retirement.
People cited different reasons for staying in the workforce. Seventy-two per cent said they want to remain mentally active, and 57 per cent want to stay socially active. Thirty-eight per cent of those surveyed said they’ll be working out of financial necessity. …
Borders might go bankrupt
The book-seller Borders may become the first casualty of a changing publishing industry. According to reports, the company has been delaying payments to book publishers in order to help refinance its debt.
Borders is the second largest book retailers in the U.S., after Barnes & Noble, but even so, Borders says “there can be no assurance” that these refinancing efforts will be successful in keeping the company afloat. …
Why?
… It isn’t simply a downturn in the economy or in the publishing world that has put Borders in trouble. Unlike Barnes & Noble and Amazon, Borders has not built its own e-reader hardware. …
As Borders Struggles to Pay Its Bills, Will It Be the First Casualty in the E-Reader War?
related – Barnes & Noble says e-books outsell physical books online
American 2010 debt $10,429.64
They owe $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the 308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census.
111th Congress Added More Debt Than First 100 Congresses Combined: $10,429 Per Person in U.S.
Does the American debt really matter?
Ask the folks in Argentina and the PIGS: Portugal, Iceland, Greece, and Spain.
Buy Nothing Day – Nov 26th
Kate reminded me to do what I do most Fridays. Buy nothing.
Buy Nothing Day (BND) is an international day of protest against consumerism observed by social activists. Typically celebrated the Friday after American Thanksgiving in North America and the following day internationally, in 2010 the dates are November 26 and 27 respectively.
It was founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by Adbusters magazine …
Wikipedia – Buy Nothing Day 2010
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But if you’re the kind of scumbag who buys gifts for loved ones, Amazon, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls are the place to shop USA.
Know that TJ Maxx and Marshalls are offering brand new iPads for $399 — a savings of $100 on an item that is rarely ever discounted.
It’s a Black Friday American Thanksgiving promotion. … Those will sell out quick. Not every location has them.
But all day, every day, you can save money on EVERYTHING at Amazon.com.
Why? … No sales tax.
… Unless you live in Kansas, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, or Washington state, you’ll pay no sales tax on many purchases from Amazon. (There are exceptions for goods that other merchants, like Target and Dow Jones, sell through Amazon.) …
You’ll get an especially good deal at Amazon if you’re making big purchases and you live in an area with high taxes. In Chicago and Los Angeles, for instance, state and local taxes add up to 9.75 percent, the highest in the nation. Sales tax is 9.5 percent in San Francisco, 9 percent in New Orleans, and it’s above 8 percent in Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. In those areas, a … 64-gigabyte iPod Touch, which sells for $399 at Apple, $395 at Target, $387.99 at Best Buy, and $382.54 at Wal-Mart is cheapest of all at Amazon—$382.54, without the $30 you’d pay in taxes at other stores. …
Slate – Every Day’s a Tax Holiday
You can buy from Amazon.com if you live outside the USA. But there’s some chance your shipment will be stopped at your border. You might be asked to pay duty in excess of the savings on the buy.
combining savings with lottery
I’ve always considered lottery tickets a government sanctioned tax on stupidity. About 50% of Americans buy them every year.
… Don’t tell me Americans get $60 billion entertainment value from them. Gambling is addictive.
But I’ve no rant on the topic. Often a percentage of that tax money goes to good works, including amateur sport.
But couldn’t we spend those misguidedly optimistic dollars more wisely?
Here’s one way – Prize-Linked Savings (PLS).
I learned about it on Freakonomics:
… PLS is a kind of savings account that pools some of the interest from all depositors and pays out a big lottery prize every month or so. It combines the thrill of the lottery with the safety of a savings account. It’s sometimes called a “no-lose lottery,” since a depositor is automatically entered into the lottery but can’t lose the original money she deposits.
And while PLS might play well in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia, there’s a group of researchers who feel that PLS is very badly needed right here in the U.S. …
Freakonomics Radio: Could a Lottery Be the Answer to America’s Poor Savings Rate?
The only problem, it’s illegal almost everywhere in the USA, aside from Michigan.
Here’s the first “Save to Win” winner, an 87-year-old Michigan woman who had deposited $75.
This is innovative thinking. The best way I’ve heard to encourage people to actually put some of their dollars into a savings account.
A similar savings scheme has been working in the U.K. for over 50yrs.
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner.
Freakonomics Radio is an audiocast by the same two guys available from iTunes. I recommend it.
in defence of the French strikers
GOOD NEWS – the tug and pull between labour and management is still healthy in France.
I tried to take a train from Amsterdam to Portugal. It was possible, but tricky, since all the French trains are parked. In the end, I was forced to fly.
My previous train journey had me taking an Italian sleeper train to Paris, … dashing from one rail station to the next by public bus, … and connecting to a Dutch train to Amsterdam. All the French trains were on strike.
Yep, I missed my connection.
But if tourists need suffer to maintain the right of comrades to protest of the government increasing the retirement age from 60 to 62 (MERDE!), so be it.
Worse, age for pension from age 65 to 67. (MERDE MERDE!)
A car was set on fire as students and policemen clashed in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, France on Oct. 18.
Sarkozy, are you an enemy of the people? … Off with your head.
Hey … You can’t make an omelette in France without smashing the chicken coop to smithereens for a few weeks.
Joie de Vie, mon Cheminots amis. I sing L’Internationale with you.
Note: Other travelers, like my friend Blythe, teaching English in France, are not nearly so open minded as moi.
Rick McCharles 
