Safetogototown

  You ever struggle to define something.  You work and study and write and edit and rewrite until you are satisfied that your words accurately and precisely represent your thoughts.  You feel good about your efforts and get that warm feeling that comes when a well constructed sentence or paragraph is on the paper in front of you.  You reread your prose and begin to imagine the accolades you will receive for your excellent use of the English language.  I was watching a video from the  Financial Tortoise .  Specifically I was watching this  video .  I enjoy Tae Kim's videos mostly because his methods are ones that I seem to instinctively follow.  In this video he discusses habits that keep one broke.  I have come across these before in one form or another.  Around the 9:30 time code he presented this quote: Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like. Will Rogers...

  With all the turmoil in the markets (both financial and grocery) I thought it would be a good idea to go back and reeducate myself on basic economics.  That way when I lose my mind over the current administrations policies I am a least a little bit familiar with the academic side of things.  That said I am fully aware of my vast knowledge void in this area.  Since I acknowledge this shortcoming of mine, it is best to start at the beginning.  So what is "Economics"?   Merriam-Webster  defines economics as: "A social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services" I do like Google's AI generated definition: In simple terms, economics is the study of how societies use their limited resources to satisfy their unlimited wants and needs. (My emphasis) I like how the AI generated definition admits that resources are limited while wants and needs are unlimited. Many of may h...

  This weeks thoughts stem from an earlier  post .  In this previous post I attempted to make a correlation between our moral character and our spending decisions.  While this previous post focused on us as individuals, there is a bigger thought rattling around in my brain.  That thought focuses on us as an unified electorate.  Simply stated "what effect do our collective decisions have on policy creation"?  When I started looking into this effect I was quickly taken into the world of behavioral economics.  Also a number of these articles used behavioral economics to craft and implement policies.  I am more interested in the initial stages of a policy creation.  How does a representative come up with the basis of a policy and if he or she is motivated to act on it. A big part of this concept comes from my belief that a lot of what goes on in our world is influenced by our collective behaviors, not by politicians.  One example would ...

  My last post focused on two of the four contexts that decisions are made under.  As a quick review the four contexts are simple, complicated, complex and chaotic.  These contexts were described in the this Harvard Business Review  article .  You can also refer to my  previous posts regarding these conditions.  The article is focused on business circumstances and leadership decisions.  I related the article to personal situations and the decisions we make for our lives and families.  I also proposed in my previous post that most of the personal decisions we make are within the simple and complicated contexts.  As a quick review, the simple context is address by enacting known solutions.  These solutions are well understood and have a historical track record of success.  Situations that fall into the complicated context are addressed by common sense,  risk aversion and expert analysis.  In both of these there are man...