Pollution and Packaging

There should be a tax on consumer packaging.

I don't know the specifics but my young daughter likes to get dolls and what not (way too many which is a whole different issue). The process of unpacking a doll is a science that all parents have to learn to master. So that the item stays displayed properly in the box with a clear plastic front for proper viewing and child enticements every component of the toy is attached to the back of the box.

The body is strapped on, the arms and legs are positioned in a welcoming manner and strapped down. The hair is spread out and stitched to the back. Accoutrements

such as shoes, dresses, hair brushes, etc are all laid out for visual inspection and attached as well. To unpackage this item one has to undo twisty ties, cut tiny lines and extract the product from these bounds. In order to improve the image you may find small plastic tabs that the ties are fed through designed to keep the ties spread open instead of pulling tight as well reduce possible tearing of the cardboard box. Metal ties do not remove easily as they holes they are fed through are just right for the straight ties to be inserted into - post twisting they are anything but straight and are amazingly resistent to straightening.

Once you fight through all of this and have removed the product you are left with an amazing amount of packaging and associated materials which must be disposed of. Perhaps the tax should be in direct proportion to the volume of the product versus the volume of the packaging material. Milk cartons are fairly efficient, there isn't a lot of wasted material there so the tax would be low to non-existent. Bratz and other dolls should be charged $10/package.

Carbon Dioxide

Now that I am back why should I stop with foolish borrowers and lenders?

Many people believe that Global Warming is an issue and most believe it is being caused by Carbon Dioxide. I tend to believe and think that even if CO2 isn't causing global warming it sure isn't doing us any good. Like many others I don't personally want to have to suffer to reduce CO2 emmissions even though that is unrealistic so here are a few suggestions:

Ban any and all additional car registrations beyond those already on the books. If you want a new car you have to remove an old one from the rolls to make room for your new one. Sure this will further bury the car companies but they have made their fortunes by polluting the world and we will all have to give up something to make this work.

Emissions controls should be tightened at the same time.

How long would it take someone to come up with a CO2 free car after that law goes into effect? Electric Cars don't really count, that electricity requires power plants who produce CO2 as well so they don't slip by.

New power plants that produce CO2 should be banned along the same lines. You dismantle one you can build a new one that can produce up to some % of the old plant. If you can produce more electricity with 80% less emmissions then go right ahead.

The US can't influence other countries to improve their situations unless we share in the pain.

Mortgage Crisis?!

I have been quiet for a long time but the 'Mortgage Crisis' has finally prompted me to emerge.

The latest article I read was on Marketwatch.com today and went into great detail about how millions of families are on the verge of losing their homes because of the strict bankruptcy laws and how the laws should be relaxed to assist these poor folk.

Screw the poor folk (meaning ones approaching bankruptcy, not folks who generally don't have a lot of money) and I would prefer to express myself with much stronger language. There are some who end up in financial straights by no design of their own via means such as illness or unexpected job losses, I have no problem trying to assist this class of bankruptcies if someone could figure out how to neatly identify them.

The fools who took out the sub-prime mortgages with variable rates or interest only payments and every other variation designed to lower their payments so they could buy ever bigger houses and continue driving housing prices higher should lose everything. I don't feel they deserve any pity. If they deserve pity then I was a fool for not going whole hog and borrowing obscene amounts of money beyond what I could ever be forecast to afford just so the government could step in let me keep my oversized home and forgive a significant chunk of my mortgage so I can start making payments that I can truly afford.

The mortgage companies and those who borrowed from them should be made to pay the price for their decisions and actions. If anyone thinks the banks and mortgage companies are in it to help the borrower they are the fool - the lenders are in it to make money. For the past several years they just cared about approving more and more loans to generate the origination fees and income. Rising home values, fueled by their lending abandon, masked the issues as they would simply refinance at ever higher levels or the home would be sold and cover the debt with a profit for the borrower.

I look forward to millions of Americans losing their homes and declaring bankruptcy. I want to see housing prices fall dramatically (I live on the West Coast so a $500K house is a hovel) so that I can pull out my stellar credit record and buy a reasonable house at a reasonable price. A nice recession would put some reality back into peoples outlooks.