(image source: http://usdebt.kleptocracy.us/)
Ever wondered how many Benjamins can fit in a football stadium?
As the debt ceiling (quickly) approaches and the government (hopefully) nears some sort of resolution, we just thought we’d help you get a handle on what all these ginormous (fact: ginormous is actually a word) numbers look like.
You can also check out this infographic and this one if you want to learn more about where the debt came from and exactly whose debt it is.
(image credit: Collaborative Consumption)
But isn’t that like, communism, man?
Not exactly – people still own things and are making a profit from them, and that’s sort of the point.
Technology (i.e. the internet) is allowing regular people like you and me to share their skills, stuff or space with the world – for profit. New websites and services like TaskRabbit, SkillShare and Airbnb (and even old stuff like eBay and Craigslist) allow people to take advantage of stuff they own or stuff they can do by lowering barriers-to-entry.
But, wait, if, like, everyone can easily buy and sell stuff, isn’t that at least, like, socialism, man?
Not exactly.
Holy blazes, Batman, the budget’s gonna bust! We’re zooming toward the debt ceiling, but nobody seems to know what to do..
We need a hero. A Budget Hero!
Luckily, American Public Media put together this awesome widget that you can use to play around with the U.S. government budget, a little bit like our elected officials in Congress do. Cut spending, increase taxes, watch your deficit move around, and learn about what all these cuts and increases mean.
Think you can do better than Congress is now? You just might be… a BUDGET HERO!
(source: nytimes.com)
“Oh my god. Ohhh my god. Apple. Apple!!!!!!!”
– Intern Spencer, screaming as he watched the price of everyone’s favorite mega-corporation skyrocket to almost $400 per share.
(Just for fun, compare that with a maximum price of $9.54 per share in 2001.)
The reason for the sudden spike? Apple released its quarterly earnings report* on Tuesday evening, showing a record $28.57 billion in revenue. That’s $28.57 billion. In three months.
In the handy graph above, you can see investors getting excited about the upcoming earnings announcement on Monday and Tuesday, and then pretty much exploding with enthusiasm on Tuesday night.
What else would you expect from a company that has enough cash to buy almost every other mobile phone maker in the world, and that has enough fans in China to support an entire industry of counterfeit Apple stores?
* In the U.S., all publicly traded companies are required to produce earnings reports which disclose their sales numbers and net profit over the prior three months.)
W. Christopher Stewart is a philosophy professor at Houghton College in Houghton, NY, where he teaches courses on aesthetics, the history of philosophy, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, philosophy of science, and business ethics. He is the author of, among other things, an essay on magic and technology forthcoming in The Hobbit and Philosophy,and earlier co-authored an essay on magic, science, and the ethics of technology for Harry Potter and Philosophy. He has served as a consultant for Pfizer, where he advised a team of marketing experts on the relationship between clinical research, consumer behavior, and Pascal’s wager.
TILE: What exactly is philosophy?
Chris: Philosophy explores fundamental assumptions about the world and what it means to be a human being. Alasdair MacIntyre (a philosopher from the University of Notre Dame) called it “the discipline in which you learn to think about what you’re doing in other disciplines.” I like that because it highlights the fact that philosophers are interested in everything, but at a very deep level. They’re interested in the underlying assumptions that inform other activities and disciplines, from science to business to sports to anything else you can imagine.
TILE: We can’t all be Aristotle. Philosophy, like finance, often scares people away. Is it even possible for the average person to philosophize like a pro?
Chris: Aristotle himself said that philosophy begins with wonder. We look around and see the way things are, and then begin to ask questions.
Philosophizing is a natural human response to experience. The evidence for that is the most common question on the lips of every small child: “Why?” Somewhere along the way, many of us lose our natural sense of wonder, and philosophizing starts to seem like something unfamiliar or strange.
Also, philosophizing isn’t just about expressing opinions, which is the easy part. It’s knowing why we believe what we believe, and being able to provide reasons to anyone who asks us for them.
That’s not easy, but anyone can do it. Just keep asking “Why?”
TILE: What’s one of your top takeaways from a favorite philosopher?
Chris: Plato said that, although mandatory physical exercise does no harm to the body, mandatory learning “never sticks to the mind.” I’ve thought about that quite a bit as a teacher, but I think it applies pretty well in any context. Any time you’re doing something simply because you think you have to, not because you want to, it’s probably not doing anyone much good, including yourself.
TILE: What’s the best advice you would give to your teenage self?
Chris: Be yourself. It sounds trite, but I really do think the impulse to conform to what everyone else is doing limits your potential. Socrates was big on “the examined life.” (Read Plato’s “Apology” to see Socrates in action.) So don’t just run with the pack. Constantly ask yourself “Why am I doing this? Where is it leading me?”
>> TILE brings you exclusive opinions, explanations, and interviews from experts in every industry. To read more, click on Ask the Experts in the TILE Library.
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(photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography)
Trying to get wellthy? No, friends, that’s not a typo – according to consumer trend tracker trendwatching.com, a hearty lung capacity and rock hard abs are becoming as important a status symbol as, say, a sweet ride or a fancy new iThing.
• People are increasingly ranking physical fitness and health as an important component of their happiness.
• Around the world, people are using more mobile healthcare devices and apps – most of which are purchased by consumers, not doctors.
• Tons of new fitness “toys” – Wii Fit, Sleep On It, the Fitbit – have been hitting the market lately.
Looks like you’ll have to literally keep up with the Joneses these days…
(image credit: B Rosen)
Numbers can tell you an awful lot, even if you don’t usually think of yourself as a number-cruncher.
Here’s one way: You’ve heard of net worth. You may even know yours. But have you ever watched your net worth fluctuate over time? It’s a really easy and interesting (really!) way to see how you’re growing (or regressing) as a Possessor of Wealth.
For example, a net worth number that consistently increases is a good sign that you’re doing something right. But even a dip can be instructive. Did the recession wipe out your investment holdings? Maybe it’s time to reconsider your strategy so it doesn’t happen again. (Hint: Try diversification next time.) Did your numbers go down because you spent a lot of money on tuition this year? Watch to see if your net worth increases as a result of your education investment.
We found a cool site called NetworthIQ that helps you track your net worth over time AND snoop on a bunch of other people tracking their net worth. You can compare your progress with others by age, location, education, and job category.
Not that your net worth necessarily reflects your worth as a whole person, but knowing has to be… worth something. Worth.
(photo credit: Mark Ramsay)
Heard of Kickstarter? That new site where anyone with an idea and a plan to make it happen can raise money from the unwashed masses? Well until now it’s mostly been used to help bands record their breakout albums, help designers raise capital to manufacture life-improving products, and help slightly off do-gooders pay for various swing-installation projects.
But now scientists are getting in on the action. From the Kickstarter-funded Mexican quail research expedition to the new academics-only crowdfunding site Open Genius, the doors are open for promising researchers to avoid the pain of securing traditional government and foundation funding.
Which means that you have a unique opportunity to directly impact research you care about. It’s one thing to donate to a cancer research fund (which is a totally awesome thing to do, by the way), but it’s another thing entirely to choose the lab you want to support.
This is also a great opportunity to exercise your advocacy muscles. With just a little prodding and a link to a well-designed website, you can double, triple, or quadruple your donation by talking to friends or posting your pitch online.
Never underestimate the power of peer pressure and one-click donations.
(photo credit: mangpages)
It’s kind of an understatement to say that taxpayers were peeved when they ended up footing the bill for the government bailout of the “too big to fail” banks. So they may take some comfort in a new FDIC rule that will seriously punish the leaders of failed financial institutions. Among other things, it says that any executive responsible for the collapse of a major financial firm is subject to spooky-sounding “clawbacks.”
Clawbacks are the equivalent of making an executive return two years worth of their salary to the government if a government agency has to step in and handle the collapse. Big banks will also be required to have a plan in place before they go up in flames, to avoid the kind of sweeping support the government was forced to provide in 2008 and 2009.
That’s a lot of pressure on a relatively small number of people. What do you think – whose responsibility is it to keep a financial institution on the straight and narrow? Should employees lower on the corporate totem pole be punished as well?
(photo credit: Wonderlane)
Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.
- Bertrand Russel, “In Praise of Idleness”
We all have to work. Even if we don’t have to work, we have to pretend to work (see, for example, the idle heiress halfheartedly designing handbags and “building her brand”).
So if we need to work, why not be as thoughtful as possible about it? First of all, do you agree with Bertrand’s categories of work? Can you be highly paid and unhappy? Can you be happy taking orders from someone else?
What kind of work would make YOU feel best about the way you spend your days and feed your family? What kind would help you achieve your life goals? Is it the same work?