Some number of years ago some strangers met me in a coffee shop and tried to talk me into joining a Network Marketing pyramid for Amway. I enjoyed the latte they bought me and politely said, "No! No way! Never me!"
At the time I considered Multi-Level Marketing to be nothing more than a pyramid scheme. Now, particularly with the right product(s), I consider it an alternative and perhaps even better way to get the word out. Certainly the Network Marketing commissions are no more expensive than advertising costs, which are also part of the cost of the product, not to mention the retail profit margin.
Now I've found a suite of products that I believe in, primarily because some very respectable people have talked more about the science behind them and their own personal benefit from their use than that Network Marketing means getting rich. Unfortunately, they are available only at something that approaches a reasonable price only if you are in the network. Not that making some money doesn't appeal to me. It does, particularly now with my layoff and the stock market collapse delaying, if not bursting my business or early retirement dreams.
Ever since Marilyn passed away, I've kept my eyes open for anything that improves the immune system. For the last year and a half I have been a vegan. Unfortunately, being a vegan requires a lot of study and planning to get the right quantity and combinations to maximize its benefits. Supplements help, indeed some are required, vitamin B-12, but the supplements also have a best pattern of being taken and it isn't always made explicit. Much of what I know came from the Gerson Therapy that Marilyn was on. For everything but the cancer, and it may have been working slowly on the cancer until she stopped, it was obviously working miracles for the rest of her. They had her taking supplements before, during and after meals (and a lot of juices in between).
Even now there isn't a magic pill but there is a set of products that helps revitalize the immune system without all the juices and coffee enemas. These products are all from Orenda International.
I will be taking O-Tropin, Immune, and possibly the All in One Male. I'm recommending my sisters take at least the Immune and All in One Female. The Oki product helps muscles recover faster, improving the benefits of exercise.
There are other people I know who could benefit from these, and other, of the Orenda products. Hey, that is Network Marketing.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Stimulus Sedation
In my current condition of unemployment coupled with a stock market meltdown, real property collapse, and an inability to refinance a mortgage to a better [for me] cash flow, you'd think I'd be all in favor of a stimulus. I am but ...
With a record debt, continuing budget and trade deficits, and finally a little more rational consumerism, because of all the economic worries, any government stimulus spending will have at best a marginal contribution to improving our economy and only if it is large enough and spent on the right things to overcome the increased debt it causes.
For governmental deficit, stimulus, spending to have a maximum impact, it should be a rather unique event. Instead the U.S. has continually run unneeded deficits because the politicians have been unwilling to live within our means. Historically both Democrats and Republicans have dropped the ball with too much spending on items that are operating costs, not capital investments, and an unwillingness to tax appropriately to cover either, let alone both. (I know you can point to the budget surpluses of the Clinton era, but the Great Society/Vietnam War of the Johnson era trumps that and besides, the surpluses of the Clinton era were mostly a matter of luck rather than the politicians doing anything positive to achieve them.)
Of course, the massive spending and revenue reduction of both the Reagan and Bush eras top everything. Without their $8 trillion addition to the national debt, a stimulus package now would have a much greater effect.
In some ways you can say that our need for a stimulus now is partly driven by the inappropriate stimulus of the unnecessary deficit spending in years past. We've been stimulated so much we are addicts. It is much like a sugar high that is followed by a crash. Our government's massive debt is at least partially responsible for the credit contraction as it has to borrow money from the credit markets to finance its debt. This is exacerbated by a reduced source of cheap money from the Social Security fund as it turns to a net outflow. Further, the artificial exuberance, lack of regulation, and indeed the encouragement of some sectors, say housing, contributed to a bubble that requires correcting. Unfortunately, when everything corrects at the same time, we get a depression.
To keep the stimulus from being a sedative instead, kind of like an Irish Coffee, additional revenue must be found very quickly. This revenue has to come from the people and corporations that have money and can pay. If we are not going to do away with Corporate Income Taxes in favor of a Value Added Tax, or its equivalent, we need to immediately institute a flat tax on all corporate worldwide profits based on the proportion of business they do in the U.S. This will take care of a company's ability to use international transfer pricing to artificially understate their U.S. profits. (We should also eliminate all forms of corporate welfare, not limited to but certainly inclusive of selling off our national resources, such as trees, at below market rates.) If we are not going to do away with a progressive income tax on individuals, then it needs to be dramatically simplified with fewer tiers and much less taxation of the lowest income tier and much more taxation of the highest income tier.
A government that lives within its means and makes appropriate investments for the future would be more than refreshing, it would be--stimulating.
With a record debt, continuing budget and trade deficits, and finally a little more rational consumerism, because of all the economic worries, any government stimulus spending will have at best a marginal contribution to improving our economy and only if it is large enough and spent on the right things to overcome the increased debt it causes.
For governmental deficit, stimulus, spending to have a maximum impact, it should be a rather unique event. Instead the U.S. has continually run unneeded deficits because the politicians have been unwilling to live within our means. Historically both Democrats and Republicans have dropped the ball with too much spending on items that are operating costs, not capital investments, and an unwillingness to tax appropriately to cover either, let alone both. (I know you can point to the budget surpluses of the Clinton era, but the Great Society/Vietnam War of the Johnson era trumps that and besides, the surpluses of the Clinton era were mostly a matter of luck rather than the politicians doing anything positive to achieve them.)
Of course, the massive spending and revenue reduction of both the Reagan and Bush eras top everything. Without their $8 trillion addition to the national debt, a stimulus package now would have a much greater effect.
In some ways you can say that our need for a stimulus now is partly driven by the inappropriate stimulus of the unnecessary deficit spending in years past. We've been stimulated so much we are addicts. It is much like a sugar high that is followed by a crash. Our government's massive debt is at least partially responsible for the credit contraction as it has to borrow money from the credit markets to finance its debt. This is exacerbated by a reduced source of cheap money from the Social Security fund as it turns to a net outflow. Further, the artificial exuberance, lack of regulation, and indeed the encouragement of some sectors, say housing, contributed to a bubble that requires correcting. Unfortunately, when everything corrects at the same time, we get a depression.
To keep the stimulus from being a sedative instead, kind of like an Irish Coffee, additional revenue must be found very quickly. This revenue has to come from the people and corporations that have money and can pay. If we are not going to do away with Corporate Income Taxes in favor of a Value Added Tax, or its equivalent, we need to immediately institute a flat tax on all corporate worldwide profits based on the proportion of business they do in the U.S. This will take care of a company's ability to use international transfer pricing to artificially understate their U.S. profits. (We should also eliminate all forms of corporate welfare, not limited to but certainly inclusive of selling off our national resources, such as trees, at below market rates.) If we are not going to do away with a progressive income tax on individuals, then it needs to be dramatically simplified with fewer tiers and much less taxation of the lowest income tier and much more taxation of the highest income tier.
A government that lives within its means and makes appropriate investments for the future would be more than refreshing, it would be--stimulating.
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