A few examples of what the people would like to see cut to help balance the budget!

Ok so I got a hold of some survey results from the Wall Street Journal/NBC. Among the many questions there were some questions about what the survey takers would like to see cut from the budget in efforts to balance things out. Here are what the high points of the results are!

The question was whether or not the taker thinks its acceptable to cut funding for the program in question. Originally this was split into Totally Acceptable, Mostly Acceptable, Mostly Unacceptable, Totally Unacceptable, and Not Sure.

Subsidies to build new Nuclear Power Plants: 57% Acceptable, 40% Unacceptable, 3% Not Sure
Federal assistance to state governments: 52% Acceptable, 45% Unacceptable, 3% Not Sure
The EPA: 51% Acceptable, 46% Unacceptable, 3% Not Sure
Transportation and Infrastructure projects: 51% Acceptable, 46% Unacceptable, 3% Not Sure
Medicaid: 32% Acceptable, 67% Unacceptable, 1% Not Sure
Medicare: 23% Acceptable, 76% Unacceptable, 1% Not Sure
K through 12 Education: 22% Acceptable, 77% Unacceptable, 1% Not Sure
Social Security: 22% Acceptable, 77% Unacceptable, 1% Not Sure

Here are some other things the survey takers were asked about:

Placing a surtax on federal income taxes for people earning over a million dollars a year: 81% Acceptable, 17% Unacceptable, 2% Not Sure
Eliminating Earmark spending: 78% Acceptable, 17% Unacceptable, 5% Not Sure
Eliminating funding for weapon systems the Department of Defense says are not necessary: 76% Acceptable, 22% Unacceptable, 2% Not Sure
Eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries: 74% Acceptable, 22% Unacceptable, 4% Not Sure
Ending Bush tax cuts for families earning over $250 million a year: 68% Acceptable, 29% Unacceptable, 3% Not Sure


That is just a smattering of the information from pages 15 and 16 of the survey, which covers far more than just the budget. I suggest you breeze through it, there are some great numbers. For the most part it would seem as if the people would like to see cuts in spending and in tax breaks. Lets hope that someone can listen and someone can figure out how to do it without killing the middle and lower classes.

What should we do with these tax breaks for Big Oil?

A lot of talk has been flying around lately about the breaks that Big Oil gets on their taxes from the Federal Government. To ring in on the topic I found this awesome chart from 350.org.

Now as you follow the flow you will see a lot of rhetoric, and to cut through some of that really quick let me make this clear. The oil companies are not the only companies out there that receive major breaks and benefit from incredible holes in the tax code. None of these practices are appropriate on ethical and business levels. All across the board we should be looking at ways to eliminate tax breaks for companies earning huge profits like they are or for those who evade paying their taxes by moving parts of their operations out of the country.

Also I’m not going to talk about domestic offshore drilling, you can probably guess how I feel about that and I will tell you that even trying to get domestic offshore going will make no real impact.

So what are we allowing the oil companies to get away with? Well we give the oil industry a 41 billion dollar tax break annually. This tax break could be equal to $41,000,000,000 that we can spend on domestic needs. The removal of these breaks would not cost the consumer much more than they already spend at the pump. The jumps in price would likely look normal to the average consumer. Now that is because the profit is not made on an individual gallon of gas, a few pennies per gallon, but in the quantity that the oil companies sell. Most of the costs associated with the price of fuel at the pump are state and federal taxes, which is why I can go to Vermont and buy gas for about 20 cents less than across the border in New York. It is also why I can buy gas for less in certain counties of New York compared to others.

How much are these companies making in profits? Record breaking profits, in the tens of billions of dollars, Exxon made $52.9 billion last year in profit. All while the rest of the economy is in decline. Now I’m not saying that we should punish these companies for doing better while the rest of us suffer, I’m simply saying that they should pay their taxes like you or I. And there are plenty of people who support this idea. Our President, Barak Obama, Former Shell CEO John Hofmeister, House Speaker John Boehner [R], and the U.S. Treasury all support the removal of these subsidies.

So this sounds like a good call, remove the subsidies and use the money for good, right? Certainly we could use an extra $41 billion, we have some debt collectors from across the Pacific that might want to get paid back, there are huge budget deficits across the nation, and could use some new roads, bridges, and/or renewable power sources. One specific we can take from the chart is that we could DOUBLE the amount of energy generated in the US by renewable wind energy. Now I’m not super sold on industrial scale wind power, but I’d rather see that than more record breaking oil company profits. How about you?

So what else should we look at? Well for starters maybe we can legitimize these corporate tax breaks with something that would benefit everyone, that’s diplomatic isn’t it? Perhaps we could allow tax breaks to companies is they create jobs in the U.S. for U.S. citizens? Or maybe they get a break in taxes if they spend a high percentage of their profits to fund domestic renewable energy? Ideas like these would be mutually beneficial to the companies and to American citizens. Combine these ideas with a new tax code, updated for the 21^st century and its businesses, and maybe we can think our way out of this very unpopular and controversial point of contention.

Google continues to be awesome and invest $168 Million into solar

I caught this today on Treehugger

Google has continued its support for green energy and technologies by funding a solar thermal power plant in the middle of the Mojave Desert in California. Its $168 million dollar investment will go to fun the 392MW Ivanpah Solar Plant. Construction on Ivanpah started last fall and has a expected completion date in the year 2013. Google's reason for investing so heavily into this specific plant is to help this solar tech reach its maturity and return more on the investment.

Solar Thermal Plants, like Ivanpah, use hundreds or thousands of mirrors called heliostats to focus the suns light on one singular point. We have all seen what happens when you focus the suns light on a leaf using a magnifying glass, the leaf heats up and burns. These heliostat mirrors do something similar, minus the fire, by focusing the suns light onto a huge tower. At the top of this tower is the focus point, where water is heated up into steam. And that steam is HOT, to the tune of 1000*F!! That steam is then used to drive a turbine generator and produce electricity, LOTS of it! Like I mentioned, Ivanpah is a 392MW plant, which over its 25 year lifetime will offset the of about 90,000 cars. Ivanpah's heliostat mirror array consists of 346,000 mirrors and a 450 foot tall tower.

Rock on Google for investing so much money into clean energy! Their grand total, according to Treehugger, is now $250 Million!

Minimizing material possessions as part of moving into a new home.

Recently I have been trying to find myself a new place to live. Between some personal changes that have taken place over the last few months and the possibility of earning/saving more money by living closer to work, I decided it would be a good idea. Last night I was making a list of things that I wanted to move to my new apartment. While looking at that list I realized I was making a list of categories of things and not particular things to move. Seeing my possessions split into about thirty different categories I thought it would be a good time to go through and see what I actually need to have and what is not necessary.

We all have clutter in our lives, but what clutter is useless clutter? What things can we put neatly away for the handful of days we actually need those things in the course of the year? There is so much in our lives that collects dust but it can be hard to come to terms with getting rid of it. So how do we get rid of it? I can't tell you how to shed the things that you don't need or use but want, but I can tell you how I'm going to do it!

First thing is first, determining those things that need to go. It can be hard to determine what is clutter and what is needed. Is my dictionary more or less needed or useful than my backpacking tent? Well really my dictionary might be more handy than my backpacking tent on a day to day basis, but I can't camp to comfortably if I don't have a tent! Which one can be consolidated? That dictionary can easily be substituted for the dictionary on my phone, my Kindle, or the internet, the only qualm I have with that is the loss of a hard copy of the dictionary. I can live without it. Consolidation, dual or multi purposing of items, and necessity of an item are keys to a items importance in your life and thus if you really need to keep it.

Another strategy I use for more mundane things like books, movies, and household item is whether or not I can remember the last time I used it. If I haven't used something in over half a year then I'm pretty sure I don't NEED to have it around. It might be a handy thing to have for that one situation, but is it really necessary to keep a large bulky item for something that might come once every two years? For me no, I can live without it, or borrow it from a friend, or rent it if I REALLY need it.

Now that we have decided on the things we can discard, what should we do with our newly shed articles? Well there are many options for you, some can make you a little money, some wont, and mostly they will be helping out local charities. My first option, for those of you concerned with making a buck on your old stuff, is selling your things online. I suggest venues like Amazon.com or Craigslist for most things. Amazon.com is particularly useful for books, CD's, games and movies, there are usually standard ads/listings you can add your item to. Craigslist for everything else, because you can name your own price and are selling locally so you don't have to worry about shipping. If all else fails DONATE TO CHARITY! The Salvation Army, Goodwill, Church Charities and the like, are always accepting things that people don't want. This is a great option for your karma to benefit from as you will be helping the poor and some really awesome organizations.

So I challenge you, my friends and readers, to start looking around your space. Do you see those things you might not need, the things you can live without? See if you can simplify a little. The simpler you live the less you have to worry about!

Cost of Commuting

With the cost of a barrel of oil marching upward and the cost of gas following closely, the cost of the daily commute is going up too. I recently realized this painful reality when I cashed my last paycheck and looked at my checking accounts ledger online. Counting up the trips to the gas pump, which I religiously charge to my debit card, I realized I had spent between $300 and $550 per month on gas!

These totals really surprised me and, honestly, made me very embarrassed of my driving habits. Granted I am a substitute teacher and fencing coach, I have to travel a great deal from my home in rural Albany County to the schools I substitute for and the fencing gym in Schenectady. I also have had to make regular trips out to Boston to visit a friend there. So my necessary travel expenses are going to be high, but are they really worth it?

Between the primary two schools that I substitute for, I average about two weeks of work per month, so ten days total. This works out to a net income averaging around $900. For every day I sub I have to figure the cost of the commute, round trip to the school and back. The closest of the two schools is a 62 mile round trip, the other is 69 miles round trip. To figure out the cost I had to take into account the cost of gas, how many miles per gallon I get and the average cost of maintenance per mile. Gas, today, costs $3.65/g, my car averages 21mpg, and, from what I researched online, the maintenance cost per mile is 5.3 cents. All in all my commute averages out to cost about 16% of my net income.

Is my daily commute worth it, yes. This is especially true when I take into account that I haven't been able to locate and secure a full time position, or just find a full time job anywhere near me.

This is some interesting insight on what it really costs to go to work. I don't like it at all, the fact that 16% of what I earn a month, after taxes (which are ridiculous on their own level), goes into my car makes me sick. To think of the thousands of dollars I spend a year supporting our dependence on foreign oil and an industry that causes disparity on a global scale and contributes enormously to climate change. But the sad fact is that this necessary evil is likely to stay the same in my life for the foreseeable future. But I have plans to relocate within the next year or two in order to cut my commute 50-90% and to increase my monthly income. We shall see how these next couple of years pan out.

Not surprisingly the FAO warns about rising food prices for the 8th month in a row!

Amid concerns of political turmoil and rising oil prices, I was not at all surprised this morning to hear that the FAO's report on February's food prices is not any better than January's. For what is not the 8th month in a row the global food price index has risen. The index of food prices rose 2.2% in February, making it the third month in a row of never before seen record highs. The January index shattered the previous record from 2008, and from December 2010. 

With prices this high there is much speculation and concern over the possibility of riots and turmoil like that seen during the highs of 2008. In 2008 many developing countries around the world faced food riots and bans on exports from the developing world. This plus the rising concern over the price of oil, could create a perfect storm of dangerous political conditions. As if that wasn't enough, the growing season is right around the corner. Should global agriculture be faced with problems similar to the 2010 season, we could be in for a even rougher 2012. Last July started the spike in prices, in response to problems like fires in Russia, floods in Pakistan, and droughts across Canada and Australia. Pessimists like me think that problems like droughts and floods will only get worse.

In the face of all this it is good to see the Director of the FAO, David Hallam, being realistic. In the FAO report he states; "Unexpected oil price spikes could further exacerbate an already precarious situation in food markets... This adds even more uncertainty concerning the price outlook just as plantings for crops in some of the major growing regions are about to start." Indeed we are in a very unique environment. In the United States the market for corn has had a significant dent put in it by biofuels. Problems with corn and other crops like wheat and soybeans, are further exacerbated by the rising cost of oil, which is now hovering above the $100/barrel mark. The index does follow more than crops; meat, oils, and dairy are also on the list. All of the above are seeing marked percentage gains. 

The lesson to be learned here is to be watchful of food prices in the coming months. Take advantage of sales, and coupons. Stock up on nonperishables when you can. Where practical, plant a garden, fresh fruits and vegetables will be the most expensive part of your grocery bill but the easiest part to grow yourself. Buy organic, buy local, that supports the kind of change we need in agriculture while assuring you are eating the freshest and healthiest food you can. Good luck....

Oil is dancing with $100/barrel again and, surprise surprise, Americans are doing the exact opposite of what they should.

With the political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East getting more dangerous every day, the price of oil is going up. Libya alone is responsible for 2% of the worlds oil supply, and has some of the largest proven reserves out there. Plus unrest across the along Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula is not going to make things any easier either. So now a barrel of oil is hovering just below $100, and some are even well above that mark.

What does this mean for America? The short answer is nothing good.

We were just beginning to see some serious signs of recover, despite rising food and energy costs this winter. However, now with oil once again daring to set record highs with no sign of stopping, we are going to be plunged back into a downturn. What do we do about this? We whine to our leaders and expect miracles from the administration and from the Saudi's...

This past weekend at the National Governors Association meeting, many spoke out against the rise in price. The threat was made clear and worries about the engine of recovery stalling were aired, but no solutions offered. The next day members of congress sprang into action pleading for Obama to open up our reserves and seek aid from the Saudi's, a really responsible move..

To what end are these actions going to save the country? Depleting our strategic and domestic reserves is only going to serve to stave the problem off a few months. Leaving us open to a economic and functional crash once it is all gone. Going to the Saudi's, our favorite oil barons, will add billions to the national debt. Neither option are going to provide long term results. We need some creative, forward thinking, and responsible plans to save the nation from the worst possible outcomes of these events.

So what should we do? Why not lower the price of public transportation? Reducing the fairs on trains and buses, even temporarily, will encourage people in cities and suburbs across the nation to park the car and take public transit. Even if these public operations end up running at cost, there is nothing wrong with operating thusly when faced with the likelihood of there not existing at all. Radio and television ads, on local stations, could advertise routes, times, and fairs to help spread the word. State and Federal transportation agencies could lower the speed limits by 5-10mph, in hopes that the difference in fuel consumption would lead to savings. Our largest glut of oil, shipping and industry, could be required to make cut backs or seek alternate methods of transportation. Already we have seen technology that could make savings in ocean going shipping, we could also stand to ship more by rail.

In the end, it is a little too late to do a lot. The time it takes for the government and for companies to make changes would make any major changes time and cost prohibitive. As Americans and as people who are facing some of the greatest challenges ever faced, we cannot afford to be complacent. We need to begin to take this seriously, start making savings where we can. Carpool, stay home, plan your week to avoid excess driving, telecommute if you can, do whatever it takes. Above all else be prepared.