Category: My Past

lessons I’ve learned from my past

Why do Americans struggle to save money?

Posted in My Past

consume ( verb ) – to engage fully, utilize as a customer, be destroyed by

Consumerism (noun) – promotion of consumption – new stuff every year with fresh features, invite consumers to upgrade from their older versions.

With 69% of Americans having less than $1,000 in savings and 45% having $0, why are so many
people bad at saving money?

Too many people have bought into the consumer culture.

I just have to have the latest $1200 smart phone.

I desperately need that 3rd 60 inch TV.

I am dying for Sept when I can get my next new car.

I have to have a sports watch, all the fashionista clothes, and a remodeling of the kitchen every 2 years.

You have to live below your paycheck, whatever that is. AND make an effort to improve yourself and so as to EARN a larger paycheck next year.

There are plenty of people out there who earn $150k+ a year and who are a couple months away from bankruptcy. Why? Because they have no discipline, no common sense.

It’s not so much how much money you make, it’s how much you keep.

70%+ Americans have been reported to live paycheck to paycheck

Maybe because wages have basically been stagnant for 30 years and products and services have become more and more expensive?

inflation – a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.

Americans are told from birth, that they are prosperous, and that this prosperity is a birthright. Of course, wages for the working class have been stagnant for almost a half a century now, but most don’t realize this.

They think they have an obligation to be consumers, and that they are failures falling short of the American Dream, if they do not have the trappings of prosperity.

So they routinely decide whether they can afford something, based on the size of the monthly payment, not the actual cost of the purchase itself.

Working Class have been stagnant for over 40 years. Again, most of us don’t realize this, because we make more “dollars” than our parents did. What we don’t comprehend, is that the rate of inflation and increases in the cost of living, have outstripped the number of dollars we earn, so that our standard of living has actually diminished considerably during that 40 plus years.

There is some validity to the idea that we could do better, if we were better educated about money. But another consideration is that economic policy is enacted in the US by the wealthy class, and it is designed to benefit only them…not us. The primary reason along with economic ignorance for the fact that so many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, is that the economic policies are stacked against the Working Class. But most of us don’t realize it.

KMART

I earned 9.50/hour for KMART.
9.50 * 30 hours = 285
285 * 4 = $1140

after taxes = $934.8

rent $300
634.8

School loans = $180 a month
$454.8 left for spending
$113/ week
$16.24/day

dish at local chinese restaurant is $9.99

1st software job

$52,000 = 353,000rmb

$4333/month

after taxes $3553

$650 rent
$1000 student loans
$500 credit card
$400 (phone bill, commute, gym fees)

$1000/4 = 250/week
$35/day

Keeping up with the Joneses

The joneses – Kate is the leader of a team of stealth marketers, professional salespeople who disguise product placement as a daily routine.

Their clothing, accessories, furniture, and even food are carefully planned and stocked by various companies to create visibility in a desirable consumer market. While Kate’s team is highly effective, Steve is new to the team.

The team quickly ingratiates itself into the community, slowly shifting from displaying products to recommending them. Soon, local stores and businesses are stocking products based on the Joneses’ trend-setting styles.

Cashless society

There’s another reason Americans struggle to save money: The cashless society. Americans pay for nearly everything with a debit or credit card and that can affect their spending.

Studies have shown that people are willing to spend up to 83% more when using a credit card to pay for their purchase. If you don’t believe it, try this experiment. Spend a few weeks paying for everything you can by cash. Take cash out of your checking account and see if you can notice the difference in how it feels when that cash leaves your hand. See if spending cash feels different than swiping a debit or credit card.

Most people find that it’s much tougher to let go of cash than it is to swipe a debit or credit card on a machine. Purchases made with a debit or credit card just don’t feel like spending real money.

Purchases made with plastic do spend real money. We’re not just spending more on purchases, either. People who don’t pay their cards off in full every month are also paying interest on their credit card balances, often at rates as high as 20% or more.

I was $10,000 in debt:

Bank of America
Discover
Washington Mutual (Chase)

Having a baby

Private room (1 night) $4940
Semi-private room (1 night) $2470
Admissions charge (walking through the door) $700
Pharmacy $1193
Lab fees $1533
$7250 (Labor room and delivery)
————————————

$18,224 (total hospital charges)
$16,107 (insurance)
$2094 (pays out of pocket)

$12,000 (hospital charges)
$6,000 (insurance)
$6,000 (pays out of pocket)

Cancer frequency by country (per 100,000)

1 Mongolia 918.0
2 New Zealand 438.1
3 Ireland 373.7
4 Hungary 368.1
5 United States 352.2
6 Belgium 345.8
7 France 344.1
8 Denmark 340.4
9 Norway 337.8
10 Netherlands 334.1
11 Canada 334.0

Cancer is becoming a more common tragedy in our world. The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 600,000 Americans will die from cancer this year, and almost 2 million new cases will be diagnosed.

Then vs Now

Americans LOVE to save money, to the point of hoarding. If you look back at people who had money to save, who grew up in the 1940s-1980s golden years, they mostly have enormous nest eggs, rental properties, second and third homes, assets that can be turned into money regardless of what happens with our monetary system and economy.

The reason Americans don’t have money saved is that we are NOT a rich country anymore. Poverty is widespread, wages stagnant, and young people forced into massive debt just to get what everywhere else is standard. Living above paycheck to paycheck just doesn’t happen for the bottom 60% of the country.

Capitalism

资本主义

Adverb 2

Posted in My Past

ref – https://www.grammarly.com/blog/adverb/

An adverb is a word that modifies (describes) a verb (he sings loudly), an adjective (very tall), another adverb (ended too quickly), or even a whole sentence (Fortunately, I had brought an umbrella). Adverbs often end in –ly, but some (such as fast) look exactly the same as their adjective counterparts.

adverb describes a verb
Tom Longboat did not run badly (badly is an adverb)

adverb describes an adjective
Tom is very tall (very is an adverb)

adverb describes another adverb
The race finished too quickly (too and quickly are both adverbs)

adverb describes a whole sentence
Fortunately, Lucy recorded Tom’s win.

Adverbs and verbs

Adverbs often modify verbs. This means that they describe the way an action is happening.

Phillip sings loudly in the shower.
My cat waits impatiently for his food.

I will seriously consider your suggestion.

The adverbs in each of the sentences above answer the question in what manner?

How does Phillip sing? Loudly.
How does my cat wait? Impatiently.
How will I consider your suggestion? Seriously.

Adverbs can answer other types of questions about how an action was performed. They can also tell you when (We arrived early) and where (Turn here).

However, there is one type of verb that doesn’t mix well with adverbs:

Linking verbs – feel, smell, sound, seem, and appear
(typically need adjectives, not adverbs)

A very common example of this type of mixup is

I feel badly about what happened.
I feel bad about what happened.

Because “feel” is a verb, it seems to call for an adverb rather than an adjective.

ex: I jump (verb) powerfully (adverb) in the competition.

But “feel” isn’t just any verb; it’s a linking verb. So we need an adjective.

ex: I feel (linking verb) bad (adjective) for you.

Therefore,

An adverb would describe how you perform the action of feeling. An adjective describes what you feel.

“I feel badly” means that you are bad at feeling things. If you’re trying to read Braille through thick leather gloves, then it might make sense for you to say “I feel badly.”

But if you’re trying to say that you are experiencing negative emotions, “I feel bad” is the phrase you want.

Adverbs and adjectives

Adverbs can also modify adjectives and other adverbs. Often, the purpose of the adverb is to add a degree of intensity to the adjective.

The woman is quite pretty.
This book is more interesting than the last one.

The weather report is almost always right.

The adverb almost is modifying the adverb always, and they’re both modifying right.

“Is my singing too loud?” asked Phillip.
My cat is incredibly happy to have his dinner.

We will be slightly late to the meeting.

This bridesmaid dress is a very unflattering shade of puce.

Adverbs and other adverbs
You can use an adverb to describe another adverb. In fact, if you wanted to, you could use several.

Phillip sings rather enormously too loudly.
The problem is that it often produces weak and clunky sentences like the one above, so be careful not to overdo it.

Adverbs and sentences
Some adverbs can modify entire sentences—unsurprisingly, these are called sentence adverbs. Common ones include generally, fortunately, interestingly, and accordingly. Sentence adverbs don’t describe one particular thing in the sentence—instead, they describe a general feeling about all of the information in the sentence.

Fortunately, we got there in time.
Interestingly, no one at the auction seemed interested in bidding on the antique spoon collection.

At one time, the use of the word hopefully as a sentence adverb (e.g., Hopefully, I’ll get this job) was condemned. People continued to use it though, and many style guides and dictionaries now accept it. There are still plenty of readers out there who hate it though, so it’s a good idea to avoid using it in formal writing.

Degrees of comparison
Like adjectives, adverbs can show degrees of comparison, although it’s slightly less common to use them this way. With certain “flat adverbs” (adverbs that look exactly the same as their adjective counterparts), the comparative and superlative forms look the same as the adjective comparative and superlative forms. It’s usually better to use stronger adverbs (or stronger adjectives and verbs) rather than relying on comparative and superlative adverbs.

An absolute adverb describes something in its own right:

He smiled warmly
A hastily written note

To make the comparative form of an adverb that ends in -ly, add the word more:

He smiled more warmly than the others.
The more hastily written note contained the clue.

To make the superlative form of an adverb that ends in -ly, add the word most:

He smiled most warmly of them all.
The most hastily written note on the desk was overlooked.

Placement of adverbs
Place adverbs as close as possible to the words they are supposed to modify. Putting the adverb in the wrong spot can produce an awkward sentence at best and completely change the meaning at worst. Be especially careful about the word only, which is one of the most often misplaced modifiers. Consider the difference between these two sentences:

Phillip only fed the cat.
Phillip fed only the cat.

The first sentence means that all Phillip did was feed the cat. He didn’t pet the cat or pick it up or anything else. The second sentence means that Phillip fed the cat, but he didn’t feed the dog, the bird, or anyone else who might have been around.

When an adverb is modifying a verb phrase, the most natural place for the adverb is usually the middle of the phrase.

We are quickly approaching the deadline.
Phillip has always loved singing.

I will happily assist you.

When to avoid adverbs
Ernest Hemingway is often held up as an example of a great writer who detested adverbs and advised other writers to avoid them. In reality, it’s impossible to avoid adverbs altogether. Sometimes we need them, and all writers (even Hemingway) use them occasionally. The trick is to avoid unnecessary adverbs. When your verb or adjective doesn’t seem powerful or precise enough, instead of reaching for an adverb to add more color, try reaching for a stronger verb or adjective instead. Most of the time, you’ll come up with a better word and your writing will be stronger for it.

Working retail and service in the US

Posted in My PastTagged , , , ,

It was late October. I found myself alone in a distant town, somewhere near the northeast part of the country. My twenty years in America had been interesting. Unfortunately, the manifestation of the American dream was not a reality for me. I had a graduate degree, but no opportunities. There were very few available positions for someone with little to no experience. In fact, my situation was worse. In order to graduate, I sacrificed too much. My family pushed too much. I overworked and overextended myself, which resulted in some rather nasty symptoms. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, and as a result, I was only a shadow of my former jubilant self. To add insult to injury, due to my political opinions at the time, my father kicked me out of the house as well.

In order to escape insomnia, burnout from school, and a detrimental family environment, I went to live on a farm in Doylestown Pennsylvania. I worked for the local Kmart store during the Christmas retail season when shopper traffic was highest. The position paid nine dollars and twenty five cents an hour. I worked as an Utilities and Receiving associate. The hiring manager was Mary Ann.

I was jolted awake at 7:45am by my alarm. I plodded to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and returned to my makeshift room. As I put on my usual work khakis and a hooded sweatshirt, I noticed that my insomnia had improved. With ever growing confidence, I went downstairs and was ready to tackle the day. Sonnet greeted me with a wagging tail. I scratched his broad furry head and opened the front door. The sun’s warm rays greeted me, and I took a second to admire the acres of farmland. It was a Tuesday, so my landlord had left before the break of dawn. Mr Detweiler sold farm cleaning equipment and traveled the nearby counties to deliver them. His wife Mrs Detweiler worked at the local Deli. I walked down Main Rd steadily. Every now and then, a car zoomed by.

I started work by clocking in before 9am. We were to report to Receivings, which was an area designated for receiving stock. It was located in the back of the store. The Receivings’ Manager was a guy named Doug. He was in his fifties, came from Jamaica, and was divorced. He had very strong paternal presence and all the employees liked him. He understood the bureaucracy of Kmart’s retail environment and did his best to accommodate those around him. What I remembered most was his tiredness from life. He lost a lot of himself in his divorce, and just wanted to earn some money. I remember him chatting about getting a Driver B license so he could drive dump trucks and earn sixty grand a year. Obviously his current managerial position at Kmart did not look promising.

Doug would open this garage door every morning at eight thirty and there’d be a truck container filled to the brim with boxes. The boxes contained dog food, seasonal items, bathroom products, stationery, games, and all kinds of retail junk. We would pull out a conveyor belt, which was like a steel snake with wheels for scales. The head would go into the truck, while the tail stays on the warehouse floor. The boxes would roll down the snake’s spine and slither from the truck and onto the warehouse floor. The obvious benefit was that we could unload the truck in the shortest time possible.

Each box weighed anywhere from five to fifty pounds, and ranged from stationary to cat litter. One or two guys in the truck container would get a box and push it down the conveyor belt. Once a box traveled down the conveyor belt and onto the warehouse floor, a few guys would put them on their respective pallets. When a pallet was full, we’d shrink wrap them and pull them out onto the sales floor for the sales associates to unbox and organize onto the shelves. This process went from nine am to twelve pm. We had to finish the whole truck every morning. Since the truck was docked and waiting for us to unload, the trucking company charged Kmart money for that time. So we had to hurry up. Once the truck was empty, we had an hour lunch.

I reached into my pocket and scrounged just enough to buy a two item lunch combo from the restaurant next door. It was $11.95. Lunch was about 20% of our daily wage. But I were ravenous due to hours of hard morning labor. I stepped out from the furnace that was Kmart and walked down to the Chinese restaurant. I wolfed down my two item combo and coiled belly up on a bench for some much needed rest.

After lunch, my job was to collect shopping carts. I would push one cart inside another so they were attached. After eight or nine carts, I had a shopping cart serpent. Then I’d charm it into the store entrance by lifting its tail and weaving it left and right.

All in all, it was grueling work. I was on my feet doing manual labor for eight hours straight, with only an hour lunch in between, and another 15 minute break in the afternoon.

Now, for the kind of mental conflict I was in, these blue collar service positions were therapeutic because I got to clear my mind. I had the opportunity to wipe away past painful memories, get exercise, and resolve my insomnia. But for the guy who wanted to get ahead in life, it didn’t make sense because you could hardly feed yourself. I worked about seven point seven hours a day. This way, I did not go over forty hours per week. In the US, if an employee worked over 40 hours, this meant full time, and Kmart will have to pay all sorts of benefits. As long as I worked below forty hours, we were part time, and Kmart could save a lot of money by only paying hourly wages. The hourly wage was $9.25 so this meant $71.23 a day. Tax for our bracket was 18%, so I literally took home $1424 every month. No raise. No promotion. I was just a muscle peon that worked during the holidays where retail traffic was at its highest.

After January, the holiday season ended and Kmart fired the new hires by bringing their weekly hours down to ten. That meant the employee will work two hours a day, which amounts to a few hundred dollars a month. With that kind of money, they’re living in poverty.

I soon quit Kmart, and then went to Lowe’s, and finally to Target. The work was all the same. Very blue collar. Very physical. The thing that mattered most was how many hours I got.

Lowe’s was okay, but Target was better. Out of all the retail places I’ve worked, Target treated me the best. I did Planogram, which was a position that started at six thirty in the morning. It was also grueling work because I had to make sure the shelves, theme, price tags, and items were all stocked and put exactly the way it was on their planograms. The positive was that they gave me thirty eight hours a week year round, so I had consistent income.

Retail positions in the US go unfulfilled because they have no future, no promotions, and they require the applicant to literally slave away for a paycheck that barely covers life expenses. The available group of workers that apply do not have higher education, have medical issues, do drugs, or simply cannot show up every morning. The retail companies know this, and would cold-bloodedly enslave them. They dangle hours according to sales traffic, and meticulously steer clear of employee benefits. The cost performance of such positions is only high for the company. The more aware and abled applicants will eventually know this, and leave for better opportunities. Such is life for the lower middle class working retail in these United States.