Random thoughts

I woke up this morning at 3am with a million things running through my mind. Last night I read a few articles about the new Bush economic stimulus package as well as a few other articles, and really, I cannot help myself. I have to comment.

(1) Giving people a tax rebate to spend on stuff is not going to help our economy. Sure, it may give it some life for the very short term, but it will not help in the long run. The problem with our economy is not lack of consumer spending, it is the absence of savings. People have accessed every form of wealth they can to spend spend spend and they are not saving for retirement or emergencies of any kind.

(2) I don't watch much television, but since American Idol started this week (yippee!), I have been watching that. Anyway, I don't recall seeing this before, but I saw a car commercial (probably Ford, since they are sponsors) and the advertisement went like this "Brand New Ford Excuse only $249 a month!" I don't remember the exact name of the car, but you get the idea. The price of cars is now portrayed as a monthly payment. There was no mention of the cost of the car, just the monthly loan payment. That's really scary. Are people not recognizing the overall cost of a car these days? Financing a car for 6-7 years (a new trend) makes it cost a lot more than the actual sticker price.

(3) Why is it that children are routinely diagnosed with adult psychiatric diseases? A child diagnosed as being bipolar at age 3? Children are not just miniature adults. They have growing brains and these drugs being prescribed to children are not tested and there is no research on the long term issues associated with taking these drugs at a young, fragile age. I sometimes think my 3 year old is bipolar. She will go from happy, sweet child, to a full blown tantrum in 60 seconds flat. Sure sounds like she's bipolar to me. NO! She's three and 3 year olds have tantrums. It's what happens when your little brain is growing and trying to make sense of all the disorder and chaos in there. It's not just psychiatric issues either. Doctors are prescribing far more antibiotics to children for colds and ear infections than they should. And parents give out medicine for every little fever and cough. You know, sometimes we get sick and the best remedy is sleep and hydration. Unfortunately, there's not much money to be made on THAT research, so I doubt it will happen any time soon.