15 cents...
Topic: ramblings
I was walking from my apartment to my car when I noticed a man digging through the dumpster outside. I don't know why, but my first thought was that he had lost something in the dumpster and was trying to retrieve it.

As I walked by he said, "How's it going, my good man?"

"Pretty good," I said. "And yourself?"

"Just found 15 cents," he said, "so I can't complain."

In Oregonian lingo, "15 cents" would mean he found 3 pop cans or recyclable bottles which he could later redeem for 5 cents each.

I noticed he sure was a cheerful man for having to dig through the trash to find 15 cents...

"When was the last time you looked at a bank statement?"
Topic: people who need help
So I get a call today from a woman asking about a "$30 charge" she saw on her account. Turns out, the $30 came out for an insurance policy she signed up for. "AD&D" appears on her statement, and it stands for Accidental Death & Dismemberment (Insurance). I explain to her that the insurance is set up by the member in the event that either the primary or joint member should be accidentally killed or dismembered, then the insurance company will pay them according to their insurance policy. The details of what exactly the $30 per quarter (three months) actually would give our member can only be found by contacting the insurance company.

So, I gave her the 800 # and told her they could give her all of the information she needs, as well as cancel the policy if she so chooses. She thanked me and got off the phone.

I was then curious to see how long she had been paying this $30/quarter (essentially $10/month or $120/year). After some quick research, I found out she had been paying this since *at least* August of 1996. Perhaps even longer, but that's as far back as the computer would let me search. She's been paying this for at least 8 years and didn't even know it...seriously...*shakes head in disbelief*

Seinfeld
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Seinfeld - Episode # 139:
Topic: sitcom funnies
Compliments of www.SeinfeldScripts.com.

From: Episode # 139 - "The Package"

Jerry opens his package.
Jerry : Is this my stereo?
Kramer walks in.
Kramer : Hey you got it.
Jerry : What happened to my stereo? It's all smashed up.
Kramer : That's right. Now it looks like it was broken during shipping and I insured it for $400.
Jerry : But you were supposed to get me a refund.
Kramer : You can't get a refund. Your warranty expired two years ago.
Jerry : So were going to make the Post Office pay for my new stereo?
Kramer : It's just a write off for them.
Jerry : How is it a write off?
Kramer : They just write it off.
Jerry : Write it off what?
Kramer : Jerry all these big companies they write off everything.
Jerry : You don't even know what a write off is.
Kramer : Do you?
Jerry : No. I don't.
Kramer : But they do and they are the ones writing it off.
Jerry : I wish I just had the last twenty seconds of my life back.

Pet peeve # 2,347,843
Topic: ramblings
Here's another notch for my "pet peeve" belt...

A member calls in today to talk about his account and puts me on hold after a few minutes. He then comes back a few minutes later and talks again about his account. He then asks me to hold on again, only this time he didn't mute me. So I hear in the backgroung him saying...

"Welcome to Jack In The Box, may I take your order?"

The guy was FREAKIN' WORKING while he was calling to talk about his account!

It wouldn't have bugged me so much if I didn't have to repeat myself 3 times to get his story straight...

...geez...

The $50 billion question...
Topic: thought provoking
The $50 billion Question

Suppose you were given $50 billion. You are to spend it on projects that would best foster global development and alleviate human suffering. How would you spend it?

A World Connected (.org)
Topic: informative
A World Connected

The website linked above is an awesome website to go to in order to read about world issues. It's a nice point of view on a lot of the big issues affecting the world and its dealings.

One of my favorite issues as of lately would be sweatshops. Not that I'm a big fan of sweatshops or anything, but this site (out of many others) helps to dissolve the myth that all sweatshops are bad simply by not paying their workers "enough" (or a "living wage" as many say). What most don't consider is the difference between the "real wage" and the "nominal wage." A nominal wage is a literal dollar amount you receive. For example, $10/hr. The real wage is what the money buys for you. Here in America, an 8 hr day at $10/hr will earn you enough to pay for most necessities (food, clothing and shelter). The $80 earned in that one day will easily sustain you for a day, hopefully even 3 or 4.

An 8 hr work day at $10/hr in a Third World Country, however, will allow you the opportunity to purchase much more than you could in America. The $80 that would be earned that day could most likely sustain their life for a whole month.

This is why a corporation with a manufacturing plant in a Third World Country does not pay the same as it would in America. The worker in the other country is more likely to get $2 - $3 per day (depending on the country of course, it could be much wider than that still). Unfair you say? Not really, considering a meal in this same country can be purchased for 10 to 20 cents.

The ethical corporation would then, of course, pass on the savings from paying less in wages (in the Third World Country as compared to the US) by selling the products produced for less. This of course is very ideal, and some (or perhaps "many"?) companies do not do so *cough cough* Nike *cough cough*

But, the nominal wage in this Third World (low by our standards, decent or "good" to their standards) then leads to a higher real wage (i.e. higher spending power) in the US. Children in poorer countries stay off the street and earn money, people in America get to buy things cheaper. Certainly it would be best if children were in school and they had at least one parent working in order to raise them, but that is not always possible (in any nation). So this is about as close to a win-win situation as we can get.

One article in particular emphasizes not only the danger in closing legitimate sweatshops but the benefit to the country to have them. The argument being that sweatshops actually give jobs to many who would have much worse options for employment otherwise (prositution, drugs, crime, etc). Boycotting such products and forcing the shop's closure, studies have shown, leads those shop employees to tend towards said negative results.

Furthermore, the article mentions, every prosperous nation today (USA, Britain, France, Sweden, Germany etc) has had its own "sweatshop days."

"Only with the prosperity brought by international trade, globalization?s adherents say, can a country then afford to demand better working conditions for its workers."

Bottom line, it boils down to this:

"Most free trade advocates agree, for example, that benefiting from slave labor is no better than theft. Sweatshop workers are often the envy of their communities -- they make more money than the farmhands or beggars, for example. But it?s important that they?re working in factories of their own free will. The key to building prosperity is choice, and if workers don?t have the option to quit, or to take a job with a factory across town offering better wages, the "free" in "free trade" is a misnomer, and the benefits of globalization are tainted."

So much for me posting what I had first planned: a website with a quick suggestion or stamp of approval to have you visit it. My "two cents" usually end up being 10 to 20...dollars...

Cardstacker
Mood:  happy
Topic: informative
Ever wonder who holds the Guiness Book of World Records for stacking cards?

Bryan Berg: Cardstacker

I'm kinda fond of his name myself...

What I'm Worth...
Topic: funny stuff
I am worth $2,107,770.00 on HumanForSale.com

Free speech
Topic: ramblings
I witnessed this morning one of the greatest examples of free speech I have seen in a long time...

I was listening to the radio station Z100 (100.3) this morning. They're usually a decent radio station. They started playing a crappy song so I decided to flip over to 101.1 where Howard Stern talks in the morning. I'm not a big fan of Howard, but when Z100 sucks bad enough sometimes I switch over out of curiosity.

Anyway, the first thing I hear from Howard Stern's show is (verbatim) "F you, F you, F you..."

Then, Howard begins to play a song to the tune of The Beatle's "Hey Jude."

"F you, you mother (beep)-er..."

Howard interrupted the song by mentioning that when he goes to Sattelite Radio he's going to play this song in "honor" of Clear Channel Radio (where he currently works, mind you). "Only, on Sattelite Radio I won't beep out anything," he said.

Now there aren't many nations you can do this very thing without worrying about losing your job (or, in some places, your life). Gotta love America huh?

Graduation!!!
Mood:  happy
Topic: informative
Well, it's finally done. I officially am done with my bachelor's degree! I went during my lunch break and picked up my diploma downtown. I returned to work and showed it to a few people...whoever I felt was interested enough to see it.

Let the parties begin :D