Shell recorded a record profit in 2022 of $40,000,000,000.That’s 40 billion. That’s double their $20,000,000,000 in 2021. Aren’t you happy for them? Because your life is great too. — Phil Hendrie (@realphilhendrie) February 2, 2023 How much should they make? Apple made $120 billion selling gadgets. Shell sells a product people need. Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Money
Median Income by Ethnicity
It would be nice if modesty prevented me from saying that my household income is much higher than the median Indian household income. A lot of you white people out there are pulling down the average. Read more →
If California Slides Into the Ocean
And if California slides into the ocean Like the mystics and statistics say it will I predict this motel will be standing Until I pay my bill. — Warren Zevon, “Desperadoes Under the Eaves” Read more →
Wealth Tax
How do those two things even go together? What gives the government the right to use any individual citizen for the benefit of others? https://t.co/4WUNRlURzz — Paul Epps (@paulepps) January 16, 2023 Read more →
Does Money Buy Happiness?
Does money buy happiness? I’ve never seen any evidence of this but the girl cutting my hair today said it does. “It allows my husband and I to have a house so it gives us freedom.” I should have delved into this a little bit more for a couple of reasons. When I’ve owned a house, I’ve found that it gave me less freedom. If I’m renting a place, even a house, and I decide that I don’t want to be there anymore, I can just leave, which I can’t do if I own a house. Of course, there would still be the issue of moving all of my possessions. Owning things is problematic. Do I own my stuff or does my stuff own me? I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t really want to own anything: houses, cars, furniture. That would be real freedom. That still leaves the… Read more →
Render Unto Ukraine What We Need at Home
Now, I don’t think it’s controversial to note that many Americans here at home are not doing very well. You can pick whatever problem you think is the gravest: lack of wage increases and wage stagnation; the need to work multiple jobs if you have children, especially even if you’re a married couple — the fact that one parent, if they want, can’t stay home and take care of their children any longer, what was a foundational property of American life for decades and that no longer is the case. It’s gone. There aren’t enough good jobs, so people have to work two jobs just to sustain their family, to pay other people to raise their kids, and to pay other people to take care of their elderly parents. Huge numbers of people are without health care. Some of those people without health care got Medicaid benefits during the COVID… Read more →
Why Must Teachers Buy Their Own Supplies?
That's mismanagement. Avg per pupil spending in US is almost $15K. 30 kids in a class would be $450K. Deduct the teacher's salary and there should be enough left for supplies. P.S. Non sequiturs and false choice fallacies are not REQUIRED for every post. https://t.co/PMisLtoe4a — Paul Epps (@paulepps) December 21, 2022 Read more →
I Got a Bonus
I got my year-end bonus today. I really hadn’t given it any thought, how it was calculated, where it maxed out, because any company I’ve ever worked with where I was eligible for a bonus, I never got it. And my experience has been that nobody else ever gets the bonus either, with the exception of people in sales and people in the highest echelons of the company. Rank-and-file people don’t get bonuses. If the company wanted to pay you the bonus, they’d make it part of your salary. Anyway . . . I do training classes for software engineers, and it turns out my bonus is calculated based on graduation rate and student surveys, where students respond to statements like “I receive actionable feedback on my performance” on a 5-point scale from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. I had no idea. As it turns out, I did get the… Read more →
Thomas Jefferson on the Midterm Results
My fellow Americans – I thought Republicans would fare better than they did in the recent midterm elections. My reasoning was that Joe Biden and his administration have taken so much away from us that Americans would never vote to continue down the same path. Some of my readers may be financially well-to-do. If you fall into that group, I ask that you consider some of what I’m about to say from the perspective of the majority of your countrymen who live near, at or below the median level of income. Biden has taken away the ability to buy a tank of gas at an affordable price. the ability to buy groceries without gasping in shock at the total cost. the ability to retire comfortably. Retirement accounts have been drained due to the performance of the investment markets and inflation rates have gone through the roof. The ability to retire… Read more →
Let’s Go, Brandon!
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Los Angeles Times (@latimes) Read more →
Musk vs. Markey: A Battle of Wits With an Unarmed Man
.@elonmusk could respond to my tweets but failed to respond to my letter by yesterday’s deadline and answer basic questions about Twitter verification. Congress must end the era of failed Big Tech self-regulation and pass laws that put user safety over the whims of billionaires. https://t.co/BEn6n9EitW — Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) November 26, 2022 Pardon me for stating the obvious but Senator Ed and a lot of other pissy little congresspeople were fine with Big Tech’s self-regulation when that meant censoring people and ideas that they didn’t like. They’re also fine with the whims of billionaires like Zuckerberg, Soros, (former billionaire) SBF and so on when those whims include making massive donations to Democratic candidates and causes. A quick Web search on Ed Markey reveals that he went to law school, went into politics, has apparently never done a productive day’s work in his life, but he wants to tell the… Read more →
Schadenfreude
Now that a federal appeals court has blocked the Biden student debt relief program, I have to admit that I really like to see people make terrible decisions and have to face the consequences, like taking on a colossal debt load in order to obtain a college degree with no commensurate value. I bet the Germans have a word for that. Germans have a word for everything. Read more →
All You Need is Love?
We saw The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. It was a fun show. My only quibble is that there’s about the right amount of buffoonery for, say, a Marx Brothers tribute, but a little too much for a Beatles show. A friend tells me his favorite Beatle is John, followed by George, which I’d say are not bad choices. I’ve always thought George was underrated as a singer-songwriter compared to Paul. One thing that always bothered me about John is that he was telling people that all they need is love, while he himself had a fondness for fashion, drove a Rolls Royce and lived in the most expensive building in New York. I’m not aware that anyone ever asked him about the apparent contradiction but it would have been a good question: “You’re telling people who may be living on the street or can’t afford… Read more →
Student Loan Prediction
I don’t think that’s a good prediction but it’s probably a good idea to make the prediction for the benefit of gullible idiots, aka voters. How much is loan forgiveness going to cost? $400 billion, something like that? Unless I’m very much mistaken, the president can’t just decide to spend $400 billion without the consent of Congress, which he doesn’t have. That’s not the way the system works. Time will tell . . . Read more →
Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen File for Divorce
I may be ignorant about crucially important details obviously but it seems like the main problem from Ms. Bündchen’s point of view was that her husband had a job. First, I’m super against divorces for people with minor children. Second, there are just few if any people who are as physically attractive as Tom Brady, have the charisma of Tom Brady, have as much money as Tom Brady, and are as good at their job as Tom Brady. So if she’s thinking she’s going to upgrade her spouse, she’s almost certainly deluded or getting bad advice. On the other side, I can’t help thinking that Tom Brady would be able to choose from any number of fabulously attractive women to enliven his social life. Read more →
The Right Side of History?
No, are you a mental patient? I'd like to retire but can't because my 401(k) cratered and inflation is thru the roof. But keep drinking the Kool-Aid, MFer. https://t.co/K0mPszyWL0 — Paul Epps (@paulepps) October 23, 2022 Read more →
The Unknown Millionaire
I’m buying a soda at a local convenience store, waiting while the guy in front of me buys about 50 dollars worth of scratcher tickets. After I pay for my soda and head out the door, I see the same guy leaning against the wall and he asks me for spare change. “For what?” I ask. “More scratchers? You haven’t even scratched the ones you have. You might be a millionaire and not even know it.” Read more →
It Wasn’t Much Good for Reading, But . . .
I recently read Omon Ra, a Russian novel that I’d heard good things about. I didn’t really like it at all. This afternoon, I saw some kind of a large black pincher bug on the living room carpet. My copy of Omon Ra was lying nearby and I picked it up and smashed the bug with it. So I can’t say that the book was a complete waste of money . . . Read more →
Even the Price of Getting Up is Going Up
A friend and former colleague is telling me about a recent trip to a massage parlor . . . “She offered to take her clothes off and give me a hand job for $140. A hundred and 40 dollars?!. “I said, ‘I can get a hand job for $60, if you’re gonna disrobe, I can add another $20, maybe $40.’ “‘Come on,’ she says. ‘Help me out.’ I told her to just massage my feet. “Is this inflation or what? I can’t get a naked woman to jerk me off for less than $140?! I’ve had full service for $120. Man, fuck Joe Biden.” Read more →
A Couple of Thoughts on Student Loan Debt
I’ve taken out mortgage loans, auto loans, acquired some credit card debt . . . am I forgetting anything? But I’ve never acquired debt and not paid it back. It never occurred to me to do that. Transferring student loan debt seems like subsidizing irresponsibility. What happens when you subsidize something? You get more of it. I saw the Secretary of Education being interviewed and although I don’t remember his exact words, he seemed to blame the whole thing on the COVID pandemic. He said it was his job (or the government’s job) to make sure that people can bounce back from that and not be crushed by their student loan payments. I’d like to ask him where he got the idea that it’s the job of the federal government to make sure that citizens don’t suffer financial hardships. In the early days of our country, many people… Read more →