Tim Burgess

But then again, I say I love people and things that I dont really trust. So how can that be?

Obviously theres a problem with the commonness of the word love. The one-size-fits-all generalness of the word diminishes its glory, reducing a rare and precious thing to an ordinary catchall for affection. I love muesli for breakfast. I love my mother. I love to make love to my lover.

I also love buying things. This love is rarely recognised aloud its embarrassing to admit – but my continued exchange of labour for money, money for things and things for happiness, which I love, proves it. Im not alone in this as were all tuned to the core message of the market; love to shop, shop for love (it love, not sex that sells).

In this way, love becomes an ownership thing. Saying you love something means you want something I love becomes I love-to-possess.

And so love is cheapened; so love becomes something less about truth and beauty and more about whatever.

Trust, on the other hand.

How hard is it to trust these days? (To wit, trusting is harder than loving.)

You cant trust photographs. You cant trust your bus will arrive on time, or that the person waiting next to you wont blow you up. You cant trust the media, you cant trust the government. You cant trust what you eat is actually food, or the prescription pills you take will help, or you can retire at 65.

You cant trust that the person youre talking to online is who they say they are, or that the measures you take to keep your private life private will work.

You cant trust teenagers. You cant trust your wife.

You cant trust yourself. This is particularly telling the product of people who favour excess over restraint, extremes over balance. Or if they dont, think they do, and overindulge accordingly.

So in this culture of anti-trust and gross-love, what notion is most attractive?

I stand by love. But that depends on my definition, for which trust is intrinsic. I may give the word love away freely but I dont intend to reduce its value. And the intent is important it implies consciousness, which is essential to truly loving anyone, yourself especially, in the wholly magnificent and utterly liberating way that we ought.

How about you?

@katherinefeeney

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York, PA – A recent federal Justice Department opinion could pave the way for lottery tickets to be sold online. But if they are, Margaret Gartner of Dover Township wont be buying them that way.

Im not sure if Id like that, Gartner said.

Gartner stopped by a Rutters Store in Manchester Township recently for one of her regular Pennsylvania Lottery ticket purchases.

She said she gets nervous about buying things online. Handing over the cash and selecting her numbers in person just seems more concrete, somehow.

Not that the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue is in any big hurry to implement online sales, according to spokeswoman Elizabeth Brassell.

A number of states are now looking at the possibility after a Justice Department decision that was dated September, but released publicly in December.

Previously, online gambling was deemed illegal under the federal Wire Act of 1961, which prohibits gambling by telecommunications systems over state or national borders. The new Justice Department policy does away with that prohibition, making online gambling illegal only if it pertains to sports.

That clears the way for legalized online gambling such as Internet poker. It also makes online sales of lottery tickets possible.

But before the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue — which coordinates the state lottery — could do that, the state government would have to pass a law specifically allowing online lottery sales, Brassell said. The state government would also have to enact specific regulations dictating how those online sales would take place.

And the Department of Revenue hasnt even decided whether thats a good idea.

Brassell said department officials are looking at the possibility, and evaluating factors such as the social cost of increased gambling vs. the potential money that online lottery sales could put into state coffers. Another factor is how the policy might affect retail businesses in Pennsylvania, she said.

Scott Hartman, Rutters president and CEO, said the specter of online lottery sales has been around for a long time.

The National Association of Convenience Stores has opposed the idea of online lottery sales in the past, Hartman said. Personally, he doubts it would be good for business, but he doesnt think the possibility should panic retailers who sell lottery tickets either.

He said lottery tickets are like gasoline and cigarettes, in the respect that his stores make a minuscule profit margin on them — amounting to five cents on the dollar for the tickets. Like cigarettes and gasoline, the main appeal of lottery tickets from his stores perspective is that they bring in customers to buy them, who may purchase other items while theyre at it.

State Rep. Scott Perry, R-Carroll Township, said hes not surprised some states are considering the possibility, given the economy and the national scramble for funding sources.

I think the possibility continues to exist as budgets continue to be tight and everybodys looking for a source of revenue, Perry said. Unfortunately, I think thats whats going to drive the conversation.

State Rep. Seth Grove, R-Dover Township, said his main objection to online gambling in any form is the necessary role of electronic money transfers. If problem gamblers are using credit or debit cards rather than handing over cash, the potential for real financial damage is much greater, Grove said.

I would not be in any rush to implement anything until its thoroughly vetted, he said.

State law

According to Department of Revenue spokeswoman Elizabeth Brassell, all funds generated from the Pennsylvania Lottery are used for programs that benefit older Pennsylvanians. In the 2010-11 fiscal year, that amounted to 960 million, she said.

Pennsylvania state law makes all forms of public gambling illegal unless an act of the state legislature specifically legalizes them, Brassell said. Basically, legalized gambling in the state comprises horse racing, slots, bingo and the Pennsylvania Lottery.

Also, a state law passed in 1988 legalizes the small games of chance that eligible organizations can conduct as fundraisers. That category includes punchboards, pull-tabs, raffles, daily drawings and weekly drawings.

Every year around Christmas and Chanukah time, writers, commentators, pundits and many rabbis, priests and ministers exhort Americans against spending money on things. We are too materialistic, we are told every year. Happiness, not to mention a meaningful life, depends on our having non-material things, not material things.

Thus, Americans are told to spend little or nothing on holiday gifts. Give your children love and time, we are told, not train sets (are they still given?), dolls or electronic devices.

The problem is, this advice is built on platitudes. And as is always the case with platitudes — or they wouldn’t be platitudes — the words sound nice but mean very little.

Before defending material things, let me make clear where I do agree with the joy-deniers. First, there is no question that no material thing can compete with love, religion, music, reading, health and other precious non-material things. And second, experiences contribute more to happiness than things do. If you only have x amount of money to spend on yourself, traveling to new places is usually more contributive to happiness than a better car. When I had almost no money through my early 30s, I still traveled abroad every year — which meant that I could only afford an inexpensive car. I have now visited a hundred countries, and that has given me more meaning and happiness than a luxury car or any other material thing.

But having said all that, material things matter. They can contribute a great deal to a happier and more meaningful life.

A grandmother once called in to my radio show to tell me that instead of giving her grandchildren Christmas gifts, she wrote each of them a special poem. I respectfully suggested to the obviously sweet woman that I could not imagine any normal child preferring a poem to a material gift.

With all my love of family, of friends, of music and of the life of the mind, I have always loved material things, too. On any happiness scale, it would be difficult to overstate how much joy my stereo equipment has given me since high school. I so love music that I periodically conduct orchestras in Southern California. And I now own a system that is so good that its offerings sound only a bit less real than what I hear from the conductor’s podium. I bless the engineers and others who design stereo products, and it is my joy to help support their noble quest of reproducing great music in people’s homes.

Since high school, too, I have written only with fountain pens. Buying new pens and trying out new inks are among the little joys of life that contribute as much — and sometimes more — to one’s happiness than the “big” things. There is incomparable joy at attending a child’s bar mitzvah or wedding. But those great events last a day. I write with a beloved fountain pen every day, listen to music every day, smoke a pleasure-giving cigar or pipe every day (except Shabbat, for the halachically curious). I love these things. What a colorless world it would be without them. So, too, I love my house. And I love the artwork and furniture and library that help to make it beautiful.

Sure, I could write with a 29-cent Bic. Yes, I could hear great music on a $50 radio. Of course I could give up cigars. Certainly, I didn’t have to buy the 5,000 books and 3,000 classical music CDs I own, and I understand that I don’t need to live in a house when my “needs” could have been met in an apartment a third its size.

But, thank God, most Americans don’t think that way. We like things. And liking things doesn’t mean you love less or read less or appreciate sunsets less. Life isn’t a zero-sum game between free joys and purchased joys. Moreover, the American economy and that of most other nations depend on our buying considerably more than our minimum needs.

Can people overdo purchasing things? Of course they can. People can also overdo taking vitamins, exercising and even reading books or studying Talmud.

So, then, when do we need to control our buying things?
a) When it becomes a compulsion — when one cannot stop buying things because the buying gives more pleasure than the things that are bought.
b) When the primary purpose of the purchase is to impress others with one’s wealth.
c) When one cannot afford what one is buying.

But beyond those caveats, don’t let the killjoys get you down. “Work hard and play hard,” my father always said (and still does at 93). When he bought a new Oldsmobile every few years, the family stepped outside the house to marvel at it — and even as kids we understood this was his reward for working all day and many evenings six days a week.

May your holidays be filled with lovely gift receiving and giving and may your New Year be filled with both wonderful experiences and wonderful things. Both contribute to a fuller and happier life.

Dennis Prager’s nationally syndicated radio talk show is heard in Los Angeles on KRLA (AM 870) 9 am to noon. His latest project
is the Internet-based Prager University (prageru.com).

A version of this article appeared in print.
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ALBANY, GA -

You know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What about National Return Day?

United Parcel Service alone expected to handle 550,000 holiday returns today, the most ever. The Post Office was also busy.

Thanks to the internet, January has become the second busiest month for packages, because of those holiday gifts that werent quite right.

The packages are all unwrapped, the Christmas rush is through, but the lines at UPS still look similar to what they did during the Christmas rush, this time with gifts going back.

Buying things online, people cant feel it, touch it, or smell it and when it doesnt work out, theyve got to return it, and so were here to oblige,said UPS Store Manager Donnie Lovvorn.

Web based sales this past holiday topped $35 billion, a 15% increase over last year, but not all of those were the perfect gift.

There were a couple of things I had to return because the people Id bought the gifts for had already received them,said Paige Benton.

It didnt fit right and the color did not look exactly the same as it did in the book, said Brenda Shy.

Sending it back isnt as tough as it once was. It was actually really easy through Amazon they give you a packing slip, that you put inside your box and they give you the shipping label that you just stick on, said Benton.

I have an RMA number and that makes it so easy to return, said Shy.

The big gift, electronics are expected to make up the bulk of the returns and UPS cautions customers to make sure they package those items to go back carefully.

The insurance that the company sends, covers them, but when you send it back you sort to want to make sure it gets back to them, like it is, said Lovvorn.

They encourage customers to do the leg work and get that prepaid label, ultimately making the credit they get go further.

UPS expects a steady stream of holiday returns through the end of the month.

Copyright 2012 WALB. All rights reserved.

I admit it: I shop at online retailers all the time. A significant chunk of the Christmas presents I gave this year were in the form of Amazon gift certificates. And if you’ve been reading me here for any length of time, you know that I spend more time browsing and buying things from Newegg than I do hanging out with some members of my family. But I still felt my heart sink into my kneecaps as I read Larry Downes’s story on Forbes.com, “Why Best Buy is Going out of Business Gradually.”

In the story, Downes cites some chilling statistics about Best Buy losing market share, 40% of its value, a decreased market cap, and a B- average analyst rating. He also discusses the ways the company has failed to extricate itself from old-world thinking. In the ways its employees order products, aggressively try to up-sell or cross-sell when dealing with shoppers, and even address their own mistakes, the company is digging its own grave. Where Amazon makes even the most tedious and usually distasteful tasks a breeze never have I had an easier time exchanging a product than I did my malfunctioning first Kindle Best Buy introduces only frustration and confusion. And thus it’s no surprise that customers are turning away from it in favor of other options.

Given what’s already happened to other major electronics chains like CompUSA and Circuit City, there’s real reason to fear the disintegration of Best Buy. And if or (gulp) when it happens, it would be a major loss to both casual and serious buyers.

Wait please don’t brand me as some incurable Luddite who can’t negotiate the transition to a digital marketplace. That’s not remotely true. Aside from clothes, certain tech products are about the only things I feel a need to buy in person. When I’m getting books hey, not everything is yet available for my (replacement) Kindle I never hesitate to do that online rather than at one of New York City’s roughly 800 Barnes Noble stores. I’ve never accepted the argument that being able to rifle through a book’s pages and feel its cover is of any particular importance; for me, what matters is the content on the inside, and the easier that is to acquire, the better. Ditto cookware and other basic household appliances.

But when it comes to many tech-related purchases, being able to see, and in many cases feel, what youre getting is crucial to making sure youre not wasting your money or your time. For all the benefits of Amazon and Newegg, they prevent the direct interaction that is sometimes the most important information you can acquire before you lay down your credit card. Online reviews are frequently excellent for assessing a product’s bare capabilities, and especially good sites (like Newegg) give you all the specifications you need to make an intellectually informed decision. Thats just not always enough. Don’t you want to see your prospective HDTV’s screen in action, slide your fingers across a keyboard to see if it meshes with your typing style and preferences, get a concrete idea of how convenient a laptop really is for you, or sit down at the fully featured desk you plan to buy for using that computer? Even with our current, highly advanced web-based purchasing culture, some things cant be left to mere faith.

Next page: Apple, the white knight, to the rescue?

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This holiday season, lets all pledge to stop buying crap. Now, before you roll your eyes at another lecture on the evils of consumerism, hear me out. What Im talking about is a pledge to stop buying things just to buy them, either because they are at a reduced price or because they have been well-marketed. A recentsurveyfound that 90 percent of American households have at least one unused item lying around the house and 70 percent of households have unused electronic items. Instead of buying things and not using them, how about we just not buy them?

Heres why it is important to break our addition to consumption: Consumption directly impacts the supply and demand cycle. Increased consumption leads to increased demand, which, in turn, is met by increased supply. If the rest of the world consumed at the rate of the US, we would needfive planetsworth of resources. Our insatiable appetite for buying things is destroying resources at a far faster rate than they can be replaced. And, we arent even using the things that we are buying.

Consumption is so deeply embedded into the fabric of the US that our economic modeling is largely based around the idea. The health of our economy is reflected in measures like theConsumer Confidence IndexandGross Domestic Production. The Consumer Confidence Index is an indicator of how confident consumers feel about the economy and the higher the index, the more confident they are about the health of the economy and the more they spend money and buy things, instead of saving money. Likewise, GDP increases when we produce more goods and services, which are consumed either domestically or internationally. Weve written before about the failing of GDP as an economic measure because it doesnt measure things that are good for the economy, such ashome production, and counts production from natural disastersas a good thingwhile ignoring the harm that things, likeincome inequality, cause to the overall economy.

The Consumer Confidence Index is equally flawed. Just because people are willing to spend money does not mean that the money spent will benefit the domestic economy. Most of the consumer goods purchased in the US are imported, which means that consumer spendingleadsto economic development in other countries and not economic development domestically. For example, even though clothing purchases have steadily increased since 2007, shipments from US apparel factories decreased, as did the number of apparel jobs . People are buying clothes, just not clothes made domestically. This trend leads to decreased investment in domestic production and asdisposable income levels fall, consumer spending comes at the cost of increasing household debt burdens.

Finally, buying all this stuff is not making us happy. A large body of researchhas shownthat consumption in and of itself does not cause happiness and, in fact, the consumption that does make people happier is that which increases social connections, like leisure activities or travel. In other words, what makes us happy is not buying things but spending time with other people.

So, deck the halls with boughs of holly that you already have lying around. It will save you money while keeping the holiday cheer.

OpenSky was founded in 2009 by John Caplan as an e-commerce arm for bloggers. Influential writers could create storefronts alongside their content, but it wasnt a successful business model, according to Business Insider. After revamping its method, the startup now looks at $1.5 million in monthly sales.

Last year we were dead in the water, Caplan told BI. We werent selling very much. When people are reading they arent buying things; they dont have their credit cards in hand.

OpenSky relaunched in April as a personalized shopping site. The new OpenSky operates like Twitter and works with 80 industry influencers and celebrities, including Martha Stewart and Bobby Flay  to create lists of their favorite items.  Users can follow the influencers and buy the endorsed products.  OpenSky holds all the inventory, ships items to users, and splits the profit 50/50 with influencers, according to BI. 

Business Insider 

(LoanSafe.org) – Families, Seniors, students, military Personnel and Veterans are all welcomed to this free mortgage, foreclosure and financial assistance event this coming up weekend. Start off the new year right and educate yourself on your financial hardship.

Date of Event: Saturday January 7th

Time of Event: 8:30am 4pm

Location of Event:  8501 Jericho City Drive, Landover, Maryland

For more info: www.donnaedwards.house.gov or call 301-562-7960

Here is some information that will be covered at this event:

Smart Moves for Teens and Young Adults to Avoid Common Financial Mistakes
»» Buying things you don’t need? Learn how to save for your future, plan for college, watch your expenses, build your credit record, and
beware of credit card offers.
Retirement Planning Strategies
»» How can you maximize and protect your income sources in retirement? How should you plan for retirement? Learn about wills, trusts,
estates, Social Security, Medicare.
Placing our Children on the Right Financial Path
»» Discover ways to talk to your children about finances, saving for college or their first car.
Fraud, Scams, and Identify Theft: Protect Yourself!
»» Identify ways to handle scams that arrive by phone, letter, the internet, or at your front door.
Essential Tips for Effective Credit Management
»» Too many credit cards? Paying excessive fees? Closing a credit card account? Learn what you need to know about your credit record
and your credit score. Find out how to preserve your credit lines and loans.
Your Online Presence
»» Discover how your Facebook page, Twitter and email messages, and your credit history can cost you a job. If your name is “Googled”
by a prospective employer, what would they find?
Life’s Tsunamis: Are You Properly Insured?
»» Learn about how to protect yourself with insurance products (life, health, disability, home owners, car, long-term care, death/ funerals).
What financial records should you keep, for how long and where?
Preparing, Managing, Sticking to Your Budget: A Blueprint
»» Learn how to prepare and stick to a budget.
The Housing Initiative Partnership (HIP) “Bounce Back” Program
»» This program helps to keep people in their homes after a modification. The session will cover how to improve your credit score, being
financially prepared for job loss, divorce and death, emergency savings, home insurance, improving home efficiency and more.
The Foreclosure Legal Assistance Project — National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC)
»» This session will cover scams, how to avoid foreclosure, reverse mortgages and monetary assistance available.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
»» This session will cover Mortgage Financing Options for new homebuyers and the differences between conventional and FHA loans.
Housing Options Planning Enterprises, Inc. (HOPE))
»» This session will cover Financial Literacy, Foreclosure Prevention and Mortgage Financing Options (In Spanish).

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting:

“How come you never offer me a penny for my thoughts?”

“It’s because your thoughts aren’t worth a penny.”

“Some are.”

“Which ones?”

“It’ll cost you a penny to find out.”

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: if you plan to take the road less traveled, make sure you have enough gas.

I’ve learned

1. It, is, easy, to, use, too, many, commas.

2. I like warm sheets and cold pillows.

3. That it’s not really tailgating if the bumpers aren’t touching.

Scene from a marriage

I made a mistake while shopping. I bought something that required sizing. Husbands should tread lightly in the arena of buying things that come in specific sizes. I made a further error by buying it in a size that was too big for my bride. Egad! If you are going to buy something for your wife and you are not sure of the size, tend to buy it in a size too small. You will still be wrong, but you will be complimentary. Remember the man’s rule–never overestimate age, weight or size.

Dying to be there

Deb Kenison of Ellendale said that she once asked her father if he was going to a man’s funeral. Her father replied, “No. Why should I? He’s not going to go to mine.”

Counting birds

I was tired. I had been up late working and then up early to do a Christmas Bird Count. I had just finished a long hike in pursuit of bird sightings and was feeling a bit peckish. I stopped at a supermarket to buy a sweet roll. The cashier asked how many baked items were in my bag. I told him one. He asked me if I was sure. Well, of course, I was sure. I told him that he could count it if he liked. He said that wouldn’t be necessary and rang up my purchase. I got to the car and opened the bag. There were two rolls in it. I had bought one or my wife. My mind, groggy and preoccupied with birds, had forgotten the second roll. I rushed back into the store and paid the cashier for the second roll.

I hoped I had been better at counting birds than I’d been at counting sweet rolls.

Thrilling days of yesteryear

It snowed. It was a hard snow.

I tried not to get my hopes up, but it kept snowing. I debated whether it was worth doing my homework. Why would I do homework if school was going to be canceled?

It continued to snow. I listened to the guy on the radio give the school closings. He was likely enjoying his peak audience.

I listened and waited. And waited. And waited.

School was closed — finally.

I high-fived the disembodied voice of a radio announcer that I would never meet.

Good things do come to those who wait.

Did you know?

If JFK were alive today, he would be 94.

US Census Bureau figures show that 20 percent of jewelry store sales happen in December.

Ten percent of Americans play golf.

The corner of the mouth is called a “wick.”

According to Roll Call, the total Congressional net worth has increased 24 percent since 2008.

Artificial Christmas trees make up 61 percent of the market.

Colonel is an honorary title given to all auctioneers, not all use it. It comes from the Civil War. Only those officers with the rank of at least a colonel could divide the spoils of war, using the bidding process for this purpose.

Meeting adjourned

“Forget injuries, never forget kindness.” –Confucius

But is inefficient social spends really the only problem? Everyone talks of growth as the grail, but even in the good years, many states slid further down the poverty index, the trickle down didnt happen, very little employment was generated. Isnt it better to be multi-pronged?
Theres no question that growth benefits were unequally distributed. In many ways, therefore, the MGNREGA was a good programme and much needed when it came. But compare that with another programme which is far superior the Prime Ministers Gram Sadak Yojana, started in 2000. What is the PMGSY? Its an infrastructurebuilding programme, intended to create last-mile connectivity for all villages. It opens up the village to the world and vice versa. It brings down costs for villagers transporting their produce to the nearest market and of buying things from the town; it benefits industry from whom they buy. It enables children to go to school. Its good for food inflation because it brings down the cost of transporting food from the interior. Contrast this with the MGNREGA, which is also supposed to be an infrastructure generating project, but the infrastructure its creating is useless. So its essentially an income transfer scheme. But the PMGSY is also income generating; labourers who work on that get paid. So, which is preferable? Id say the PMGSY. Yet its received one-third the budgetary allocation. Why? These are the things we need to debate.

Apart from this, the core issue that needs sorting is the funding of our political parties. Until we address that squarely, nothing is going to stop the political economy leaning towards programmes where siphoning off is possible. The siphoning is necessary for political funding. But our public discourse shies away from talking about the most important things.

I can tell you as someone on the board of the RBI that the burden of being seen as a growth stopper is a very heavy one. No one wants to stop the growth machine but we desperately need fiscal correction. Periodically the government tries to restrain inflation by hiking petrol prices, for instance, which makes people wonder how that can reduce inflation. The basic idea is it reduces the fuel subsidy from the Budget so the government has to borrow less. But overall, since the last election, theres absolutely no policy coherence.