Weekend Reading: August 17, 2008
By Pinyo • Aug 17th, 2008 • Category: Weekly RoundupsA Story About American Economy
This week a friend of mine sends a story that funny, yet revealing about the fading American economy. The story was entitled: Why you cannot find a descent job in America? And here’s the story:
Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 a.m. While his coffee pot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA).
After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.
At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can’t find a good paying job in AMERICA.
Great Articles For Weekend Reading
Here are the top 10 articles from Personal Finance Buzz this week.
- PF Buzz Will Bring You Quality Traffic at Prime Time Money — An excellent review of Personal Finance Buzz on Prime Time Money. If you’d like to see a user’s testimonial of PF Buzz. This is a great article to read.
- Do the work that you love to do at Gather Little By Little — Doing something you love is one of the biggest keys to success and having a fulfilling work experience.
- Sites That Help You Find Personal Finance Blogs And Connect With Personal Finance Bloggers at NCN Blog — NCN highlights some of the key landmarks in the personal finance blogosphere. PF Buzz was included in the list. Thank you!
- Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs Ranked By Traffic - July 2008 at FIRE Finance — This new list was recently published. It’s always interesting to see where I am on the list. Moolanomy will surely fall next time since I stopped using Site Meter this month.
- What Michael Phelps and the US 4×100 Freestyle Relay Team Taught Me About Debt at One Caveman’s Financial Journey – A great analogy of the most thrilling swimming relay race ever. I love it when a team persevere and come from behind against great odd.
- Should You Tithe When Times are Hard? at Cash Money Life – Tithing is a very personal thing and I am not saying one way is better than another. Personally, I would stop until I can get back on my feet again, but I am sure many will disagree.
- Victim mentality: Do people trap themselves in poverty? at MSN Smart Spending — This is a follow up on my article on Moolanomy. Some people blame the system or fate or bad luck for their inability to get ahead in life. Could they be right, or are there steps most people can take to improve their financial situations?
- The Right Size for Your Emergency Fund at Consumerism Commentary — 3-6 months of emergency fund is just a guideline. What is the right amount of emergency fund for you? It also depends on your definition of emergency.
- Why Is The Dollar Falling? at Amateur Asset Allocator — Kyle shares two reasons why the dollar is falling and how to alleviate the problem.
- My Last Will and Testament (or my experience in getting a will) at The Quest For Four Pillars – I am in the process of completing my estate plan and I’ll be tackling my will shortly. This is a great overview covering things you need to do and decide.
Have a great day!
All posts by Pinyo
Regarding why it’s hard to find a good job in the US… I’ve seen a similar e-mail before and there is some truth there. But I think it also goes deeper. I think there are a lot of people who have one type of job in their mind and aren’t willing to do anything else. Sometimes better options are out there if people are willing to be flexible.
AS for tithing, there were a lot of mixed responses on the article I wrote. It was interesting reading people’s points of view. Thanks for highlighting the article this week.
Thanks for the mention :). Moolanomy will not fall since we take averages of the sources from which data is received. So if we get data for your site from Compete and Quantcast, we will create your average based on data from these two sources only :-D. So rest assured you’ll have your right place!
@Patrick — Good point. There are jobs out there, but I would be looking for certain types of job if I am looking.
@FIRE — Okay, that sounds good. What is your opinion about Site Meter, Quantcast, and Compete in term of accuracy?
Interesting little story and it makes a lot of sense. There’s not much we can do to help ourselves if we keep farming out what used to be our core jobs.
Thanks for including my article in the roundup.
Dude is there really a TV made from Indonesia?*laughs*
But seriously, this is the result of globalization. You or your government can either make itself competitive or you lose the game.
Thanks for the link. I think the hardest part of estate planning is “getting it done”!
No more sitemeter? Wow.
Mike