linklings, Saturday November 11, 2007
A picture of the Registan in Samarkand (another place I fully intend to visit) from iPhotograph.
This post is just to catch up on some articles I’ve come across in the last few days that I thought were worth pointing out. I have also picked the winners of the contest; once they have all gotten back to me I’ll announce the ‘results’ so to speak.
There is No Money To Be Made from Healthy People: “There is no money in healthy people and dead people…so the government wants to keep us somewhere in between. ” I couldn’t put it better myself. The US government has a definite self-interest in heavily medicated, somewhat ill citizens. (@ Natural Family Living Blog )
Jump Starting the Financial Engine: It’s easy to have grand plans that never get started. Dong has some good suggestions to getting finances in order, starting today. (@ Ask Dong)
Increasing my Alternative Income: I made a few suggestions in a guest post at Lazy Man and Money, and Saving Diva’s taking up the challenge. Like Dong’s article, she’s just getting started doing it – which is great! (@ Saving For A Home of My Own)
Do You Have a Deeply Fulfilling Career?: Steve makes a great point here: you either have a deeply fulfilling career, or you don’t. There are no “partially deeply fulfilling careers.” By that standard, mine is not deeply fulfilling, but I have a plan and the desire to do something about it. (@ Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog)
10 Simple, Sure-fire Ways to Make Today Your Best Day Ever: The recently redesigned Zen Habits had a great post in some ways similar to my “today is better than the day before” post (not that I’m claiming that I inspired it, it’s just similar)! A great list, but that’s what Leo does best, right? (@ Zen Habits)
How Long Does It Take To Decompose?: Disposable diapers take 500 years to decompose. That means poopy diapers from my son will be around in the year 2507. Oof. The styrofoam container I ate my salad in yesterday will be somewhere on Earth when the Andromeda Galaxy collides with our galaxy in 3 billion years. I really, really, really need to bring a container to work for when I get salad in the cafeteria. Great article, but sobering. (@ Be Healthy and Relax)
The things we’ll do for health insurance: The newly redesigned Money Socket has a new blogger, Thursday Bram, and she talks about her lack of health insurance. I’m afraid this kind of thing will become more and more common while our politicians dither. I expect no improvement no matter who is elected, Democrat or Republican. Why? Because I think the US is no longer capable of fixing problems on this scale. Inertia is a powerful force. It’s why New Orleans is still struggling, and why 6 years after 9/11 the World Trade Center site is still a gaping hole. Fix Social Security or health insurance? I don’t expect it. I hope I’m wrong. (@ Money Socket)
Earliest Retiree: Xias has a great attitude about money and what he wants it do for him (not what he’ll do for it). Read the article that he links to in the Globe and Mail about another early retiree. (@ The Finance Castle)
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Thanks for the link back. I know the info was quite sobering. I guess someone needs to be the bearer of bad news. In part it was to help me too; I need to break the styrofoam habit!
Interesting point on the US government having a vested interest in heavily medicated, somewhat ill citizens. Kinda makes me happy to be living in Canada where the government has a financial incentive to keep the citizens as healthy as possible. Sick people cost a lot of money to a government covering their basic health care.
On the other hand, there’s probably still an ‘optimal’ number of sick people for the Government of Canada to have. Too many and the health care costs are crippling (i.e. the situation now). Too few and they lose all the lovely tax dollars and employment garnered from the pharmaceutical and pharmacy industries, not to mention the increase in payouts necessary from the Canadian Pension Plan when everyone lives that much longer.
In any case, I’m guessing that ‘optimal’ number is lower North of the border than South.