Delicious Black Bean & Turkey Chili
From my good friend Davis Farnsworth, this is a wonderful dish, especially on a cold wet day like today. Read more [...]
Preparing for Unemployment: Are You Next?
You need to keep in mind the possibility that you could face the unemployment abyss in the not-too-distant future.
The first thing you should do is try to assess your chances of a layoff. Low morale at company will say a lot. If management isn't trying to address poor morale, that says even more. Read more [...]
Is Long-Term Recovery Likely?
Washington, DC to Wall Street seem to assume is ramping up and going strong. For obvious reasons I remain dubious. I still have a lot of friends and associates who are either jobless or nearly so. It's also clear that in our new globalized world there are plenty of things that can tip the economics of the globe off kilter and cause trouble. Read more [...]
Spotting Job Scams
You've seen the ads; they're all over the web and if you do anything that hints of looking for work (like posting a resume or applying for a job online) you'll see them pile up in your email in-box. For heaven's sake, life is hard enough when you're scrambling for something, anything that can help pay the bills. Read more [...]
The Cost of Long-Term Unemployment
More and more studies are appearing about what happens to people who are unemployed for a long time. The universal consensus is that very real psychological damage results when someone is unable to find work after several months. What is particularly sobering about this research is that the damage can be lifelong and often includes significantly reduced income for years or even decades afterward. Read more [...]
What Happens When a Community Connects
An article that appears in a recent issue of Yes! magazine caught my attention this morning. The article talks about how consumerism has caused families to weaken by prompting them to turn over more and more tasks that were once the province of the family to professionals and how in the process the authors believe something has been lost. Read more [...]
A New Twist on Cheap Food
Recent global events have sent world food prices soaring. I suspect that speculation is having an impact on those prices as well, as is the increasing cost of a barrel of oil. Whatever the reason it has thrust the problem of high food prices back into the news, so this might be a good time to talk about some new ideas related to eating on the cheap. Read more [...]
Fun With Gift Cards
Gift cards can be purchased outright at many retail outlets. Some stores such as Costco sell them at a significant discount. Besides that, there is a whole market that has opened up where people deal in gift cards, almost like a stock market or currency exchange. Read more [...]
From Welfare State to Punishment State
I noticed some time ago that the guiding philosophy behind the conservative approach to social problems is the belief that every social ill (real or imagined) can be solved by applying the right punishment to the those suffering the most from said social problem. Read more [...]
Simplify, Simplify!
Simplicity is not simple, and it is not easy. You can do it, and it can have a remarkably exhilarating effect on your life. But there's a catch. Read more [...]