State of the Nation
Never want to upstage someone as important as the leader of the
free world. I only mean that in the
sense of posting my perspective of where the Nation is at, ahead of his State
of the Union speech.
Every once in a while aging does come with benefits: knowing from experience what to expect with
regard to a pep talk (which a State of the Union speech is meant to be). When you hear enough of this speeches and
then live through the period of time that follows you learn to read between the
lines. I would be the last person to say
that a politician lies but they do embellish, and you have to give them credit,
they are optimistic about how they can improve things with their plans for us.
If you want to get a real feeling for how the nation is doing
you should consider that not everyone is affected in the same exact way at the
same exact time by prevailing conditions, political or otherwise. I’ve always measure improvements by getting
it down to the lowest common denominator.
First of all, how am I (my home) doing since the last State of the Union
speech? The next level might be to
assess the status of your job or business.
The next most important measure to an individual should be, the
family. How are your children
doing? How are your brothers and sisters
doing? How about your parents: the ones that can least afford a negative
condition in the state of the nation.
Before you counter; some of our elderly that have had a nice life may
actually be in better shape economically to withstand a temporary downturn in
the economy. However, generally speaking
elderly population with a fixed incomes have limited ability to withstand even
temporary downturns.
Now for the tools to measure how we are doing. Take a look at the property tax statement for
your home, if you are one of the fortunate people to own or to be buying your
home. You can usually see a comparison
from your past property valuation to your next increase or decrease in
valuation, and taxes due. Take a look at
your bank account are your savings stable or has it been declining? Check your credit card balances are your
credit card balances down or up? Certain
things affect us all equally, as an example the unusually cold weather we are
experiencing in parts of the nation. According
to some news reports utility bills are doubling in some areas because of the
extreme and prolonged cold weather. If
your personal situation is stable, you should be able to withstand the
fluctuation in your utility bills, but if you are not doing well, it could be
the difference between buying groceries and keeping warm.
Another area to measure is the security issues that have been
prevalent in the news. Are you more
concerned about privacy with regards to electronic communications? Are you experiencing problems with your
health coverage (have you recently been dropped?)? Has your health coverage costs increased
significantly? Most of us can withstand
the flu or a cold, maybe even a sprained ankle without insurance. However, a major surgery event in the family
can bankrupt you, if you can even get medical care without insurance.
It turns out that I am not reporting the State of the Nation,
instead I am giving you some ideas on how to evaluate on your own. Having read the State of the Nation post, how are
you and yours doing? The best is yet to
come……
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