Is America that Dumb?

If you have read my previous postings, you would know that I go to the gym for workouts and that I prefer to be in front of a television when pedaling faster on an elliptical machine getting that heart rate higher. On one such evening, I happened to be at the gym watching Oprah’s show. It was a show where Suze Orman was the guest and she was explaining how to make changes in our day-to-day lives to get going in this economical crunch time. Some of her tips (like having a 10-month savings before looking to own a house or putting aside a part of your paycheck towards emergency funds) were worth knowing and following but most of it is real common sense.

In that show, there were many adults who were interviewed of what their income and expenses were and how they save for that much needed times. One such participant was a recent graduate from college who was working at Starbucks full-time. She was living in an apartment by herself, driving a fully-loaded new car to work, had expensive furniture and accessories. She was carping about the fact that she was always running behind on her bills, that she could not pay her student loan, and most importantly not being able to go out partying with her friends. When I was listening to this, I could not help but simper. I will tell you why.

Is it that difficult a fact to understand that what you earn is what you spend? Even our own body knows that what you eat is what you are. Then the mind that controls our lives, does not understand this basic concept? This is basic common sense that I spend what I have in my hand. If I earn ‘X’ dollars, I have to make sure that I spend less than or equal to ‘X’ dollars, unless I don’t want to save anything for the future. But many might argue that they can use their credit cards to buy what they want even though they do not have cash on hand. That is true but they forget the fact that they have to pay for it after the 30-day period when the credit card bill comes in. Charging it on a credit card not knowing whether one can afford it or not is how US got into that much debt and let China own most of it, is it not?

A graduate working at Starbucks, telling that she is too lazy to look for a decent job is unacceptable. She had to be told by Suze that she is not earning enough money to be spending lavishly on her car and apartment and not being able to pay off her student loans. She had to be told to start looking for a decent job, move into another apartment with her friends, to get rid of her car and start using Metro and buses and not to worry about not being able to party because this is a crunch time. I saw other similar cases on the show but I just picked this one to prove my point. To understand a simple fact “to spend less than the income” an outsider had to funnel the thoughts through her, who happens to be a graduate as well. Is America really that dumb?

‘BRIC’, the building block

One of my favorite pastimes in TV watching is watching Jeopardy. Everyday, like clockwork, if I am at home or at the gym in front of TV running, would be to switch to the program at 7.30PM EST. It seems to be built-in into my brain to switch over automatically. Many, who know me, know of this ritual as well. Even though I don’t get all the questions answered, I can get at least get 30-40% right. Some have derided at me that I watch the program even though I cant get them all answered and that the questions that are answerable are some subjects that we know of. But is it not the fact? We can answer a question, only if we know them or are exposed to that subject and are refreshed by the fact that someone is asking questions on that subject.

Programs like Jeopardy, Cash cab, Weakest Link, (to name a few) ask questions on general knowledge and also in depth on certain subjects like History and Current affairs. When a question is asked, you have a few seconds to answer them and the sooner you answer the better it is or someone else grabs your chance. In that few seconds, you have to run your mind to seek the answer in your collection in your brain if you know it. Compound this task with the adrenaline rush that you get being nervous in front of the audience and that you want to bag as many questions as you can to get the most out of the game in terms of fame and dollars. This really makes the game interesting for the participants.

Last night, while watching Jeopardy, the final question was on BRIC – an acronym that was used by Forbes magazine to talk about the economically developing countries in this globally attacked recession period. To those of you who don’t know what BRIC stands for – Brazil, Russia, India and China – the four countries that are growing economically and Yes, I answered that question correctly. While the US stock market is struggling to reclaim its footing, BRIC countries are doing well and have a gain of more than 30%. India and China are developing in terms of infrastructure and technology. No wonder all the jobs are sent overseas and many large companies here in the US have their development done mostly in India and China and have branches opened in these countries.

Labour is cheaper compared to the US and developers there (whether it is information technology or medical billing/Tran scripting) are far better than those here. Education there (in India and China) is advanced when compared to education level offered here in the US. Compare the level offered in any grade in the public schools versus private schools here and you will see that the private school standards are much advanced than the public schools. The private school standard is what is offered in the public schools in those countries and that is why I say that the standard is higher than here. One out of three people you would see at work would be Asian for the same reason of standards (yes, their accent is hard to follow – pun intended, from the one who has accent herself) and every other item you pick up while shopping has ‘Made in China’ printed on it.

These countries are developing in terms of technology, education and job markets, resulting in stock market growth and are contributing enormously to the global economic power. That is the reason why most of the US I.O.Us belong to China and I won’t be surprised to see ‘Property of the People’s Republic of China’ on the statue of Liberty, soon enough. No matter how much Obama stresses on in terms of bringing back those jobs from India and China back to the US, BRIC are the building block of global economy.