I'm really tired of hearing the sorts of things most patriotic Americans utter to express what they believe to be the national character of the United States. Consider some of the most common expressions: "The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave." Or consider "The Greatest Country in…
I recently had a chance to talk on the phone with an old high school friend who was an extremely talented artist. Paul (not his real name) took a few college courses, none of them in art, but dropped out before getting any degree.
I have vivid memories of glancing over during high school classes to see Paul doing something he did extremely well: drawing. He used a standard #2 pencil to do his magic. He cranked out dozens of expressive and lifelike bodies, faces, and hands. He did his work on the backs of class handouts, envelopes or any other scrap of paper he could get his hands on. I know I’m not exaggerating Paul’s abilities, because I’ve saved dozens of his drawings. The hands Paul drew might have been his best work. I remember Paul drawing, from memory, a vivid Sistine Chapel reproduction of God’s hand reaching out to touch Adam’s.
After the bell would ring, students would sometimes gather around Paul to see what he had been drawing. I can’t count the number of times that students would ask him how he did what he did. Paul was reluctant to discuss how. Maybe he didn’t understand how. His approach was to show, not tell.
Paul failed to pursue art in college. After struggling through general liberal arts classes for a few years, he dropped out of college to take jobs involving manual labor. He has always been a diligent worker, but his jobs have never really challenged …
I recently had the opportunity to view “Maxed Out,” a feature-length documentary directed by James Scurlock.
The movie is one-sided, in that it gives scant recognition that some debtors have brought their financial problems crashing down upon themselves with no one else to blame. On the other hand, this movie presents a point of view that is not generally considered by the media. Not all debtors are irresponsible. There are many debtors who are generally innocent, who got tripped into debt by sophisticated and despicable measures used by disreputable creditors, with Congress turning the blind eye.
On the issue of irresponsible creditors, Exhibit A, featured in the movie, was a severely disabled woman who lived in a nursing home. She had no income, but was offered $30,000 in credit through the mail.
Here’s what else I learned from Scurlock’s movie:
1. Credit card companies make 4 billion offers of credit cards every year. Fees for these cards have risen 160% over the past five years. The average household now bears over $9,000 in credit card debt, costing the average household $1300 in interest every year. One analysis of people going through bankruptcy showed that for each dollar in principle borrowed, the average person going through bankruptcy owed two dollars in interest and fees.
2. What is overall problem? According to Elizabeth Warren (a professor at Harvard Law School and a recognized expert on the issue of consumer debt) we are in great danger of turning our nation into a two-tiered …
I've been feeling rather stressed at work lately. There's a lot to get done every day and the sun sets entirely too fast. Every day I face 50 real emails, constant phone calls, dozens of litigation deadlines and lots of foot traffic, while I'm trying to write complicated legal memoranda…
On Wednesday evening, Bill Moyers' Journal presented "Buying the War," a terrific special describing the failure of the U.S. media during the run-up to the Iraq invasion. If you missed it, you can watch the entire show here. Here's the official description of the special: Four years ago on May 1, President Bush…