The Boss'

Here’s an interesting quote from the committee report on the stimulus package that is expected to be enacted in the near future.

“Since 2001, as worker productivity went up, 96% of the income growth in this country went to the wealthiest 10% of society. While they were benefitting from record high worker productivity, the remaining 90% of American’s were struggling to sustain their standard of living. They sustained it by borrowing… and borrowing… and borrowing, and when they couldn’t borrow anymore, the bottom fell out. This plan will strengthen the middle class, not just Wall Street CEOs and special interests in Washington.”

I find the part where it says, “…the remaining 90% of American’s were struggling to sustain their standard of living. They sustained it by borrowing…and borrowing…and borrowing…” etc. etc.

I think this idea of “standard of living” is completely lacking in historical perspective. These days, even modest blue collar workers have multiple television sets, most own their own homes, and many have abundant free time, with weekends and holidays off. What American’s were “borrowing” for, was to keep buying crap that they didn’t need, and couldn’t afford. To often, ones standard of living doesn’t match ones income. Now, if people were borrowing to keep the heat on and keep food on the table, that’s a different story, but even many in that situation are spending too much on non-essentials.

Anyway, I just thought that one little section was interesting. The bill itself, and the committee report on it can be read at www.readthestimulus.org.

The text of the bill itself is typically dense and boring reading, but man, it’s wild to see the numbers adding up…just for the 12 member oversight board, $14 million dollars. But that covers travel expenses and food and stuff so, ya know…that’s not that bad. (Page 23 of the bill)

If you want to read the high level numbers…basically what each department will get, see the section, “APPROPRIATIONS FOR INSPECTORS GENERAL”, on page 8.

We grabbed a little video on New Years Eve when we opened the envelope containing the gender of Boss Baby number six. For those who don’t see our kids very often, I tried to identify the characters in the video wherever possible. As you can see in the video, everyone was very excited. I’m sure they would have been just as thrilled had the news been different. Want to know what we’re having? Watch the video.