A Tax On Grocery Bags - Part 2!

This is continued information from a previous post here on this blog.

Well it seems more and more stores are starting to charge their customers for using paper bags. I saw a new post about this subject on one of the forums that I belong to.

I was surprised to see how many more places are charging their customers for using the stores plastic bags. In my own local area I really know of only one store - Aldi's that charges customers for using their bags. They charge something like 25 cents per bag.

It's going to make grocery shopping a more expensive trip.

It certainly is not going to be a good way to help people get out of debt! It is certain going to contribute to a person's credit card debt if they are paying for their groceries with a credit card!

Paper Towels!

I know that there is a big move to going "green" and recycling but there seem to be just some things that I would rather live with than live without!

For example, I was reading an online article about different ways that people "waste" money and one of those ways was buying paper towels. According to the article "there's nothing that can't be done with a re-usable dish cloth that you would need a paper towel for".

Now I'm sure that this is true but I just can't see myself (nor would I want to see myself) without having paper towels! I know that they do cost a lot - I remember a time when you could buy a roll of paper towels for a dollar! - but this is one of those items that I want to have a supply of!

Another Fee That Farmers May Have To Pay?

As a person that does grant research for a living, there have been times when I have had to defend them but here is a strange story!

It seems that there is a proposed new fee that farmers may have to pay for some of their farm animals! Here is an excerpt:

"An Environmental Protection Agency proposal to combat air pollution from flatulent farm animals would require farms with large number of animals to pay annual fees of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog."

If this proposed fee becomes law, it is estimated that some farmers could pay as much as $30,000 per year!

Farmers (as well as mostly everybody else) are struggling now as it is and as you can well imagine some farmers are not happy with this proposed fee!

You can read more about this proposed fee by going to the link below:

Making Farmers Pay For "Gassy" Animals?

Are You Interested In The Stock Market?

I was reading some adsense message board postings and someone brought up the subject of since Google seemed to be doing so well they were interested in buying Google stock which I thought wasn't a bad idea. Currently Google stock is at around $500 per share!

The only REAL dealings that I have had with the stock market was when I was in junior high school and we had the assignment of investing (imaginary) money into the stock market. I think I made something like $23 in profit!

Would I invest in the stock market today? I would as long as I had a good amount of security as far as my finances go. I wouldn't invest in the stock market to make a quick buck!

"The Curse Of The Lottery"

I was watching a program called "Curse Of The Lottery" which is about people who have won the lottery. Some have won a few million while others have won over a hundred million dollars!

Some of the stories were good and some of them were so sad! You would think that with winning all of that money a person's problems would be solved but that didn't happen in all of the cases.

First I think that it is a requirement that you appear on television to accept your lottery winnings. (Although I do seem to remember that some people had their lawyers appear.) Once you appear on television then everyone will know that you won the lottery.

Another thing is that a lot of that lottery money will be taken in taxes regardless of whether or not you take your lottery winnings in one big check or if you opt to receive payment installments.

Even though the name of the show was "The Curse Of The Lottery" a few of the people that were featured in the show did go on to lead a relatively productive life. One woman even said that she kept her same phone number.

The rest of the stories were quite sad! One man who won the lottery killed himself! Another became so deep in debt that he spent all of his lottery money in a few years. Actually this man traded his lottery winnings for quick cash from one of those places that do that kind of thing.

It's really just too hard for me to say that winning the lottery is an entirely bad thing because money can solve a lot of problems. Unfortunately it can also bring in a new set of problems as well!

This hasn't stopped me though from buying lottery tickets!

Sometimes Customer Service Represenatives Can Be So Rude!

Usually when I'm talking to a customer service representative they are usually pleasant and easy-going. But not this particular time! It's just so hard to believe that you could actually get two entirely different personalities when you call the same place!

On one of my previous occassions calling this company the customer service representative and I talked for almost a whole hour! And it was a very pleasant conversation with both me and the representative laughing!

That's why talking to this last one gave me pause for thought. She just seemed like she didn't want to be bothered and I wondered that maybe I knew more than she did and she didn't like it! (In defense of the topic of companies outsourcing to other companies this representative sounded as though she was from the US so I can't complain about not being able to understand her - I understood her quite well!)

There's really no sense in reporting her. Maybe she was just having a bad day?

If she doesn't like her job maybe she should read my Working From Home blog

Praying For A Financial Miracle

"Question: I pray for a financial miracle, not in greed but for relief and to help so many others both directly and indirectly in the name of JESUS. I'm tired of poverty and really believe that GOD has provision (lottery jackpot) above and beyond here on earth. I can see a great future and GOD in the blood of JESUS does provide. I am not ashamed for this vision of the future that is prayed for. Is this good?

Answer from Jesus:

I can assure you that both God and myself would like to see the abundant life manifest on Earth. It was never God's intention that so many people should live in abject poverty. On the contrary, it was always God’s intention that everyone should share in the abundant life in a universal brother/sisterhood in which people would recognize the truth in my statement that inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my little ones, you have done it unto me.

I am not saying that you should not pray for abundance, both in your personal life and in the lives of others. However, a central theme on this website is that people need to change their attitude towards religion and towards their relationship to God. People need to move out of a passive state of mind in which they expect God to change their situation through some kind of financial miracle. Instead, they need to get into an active state of mind in which they begin to see themselves as Co-creators with God.

If you truly read the Bible, you will see that this idea is already incorporated in the teachings I gave 2,000 years ago. Take for example my parable about the talents. The person who buried his talents in the ground was rebuked by God because he had not fulfilled the essential command given by God to “Multiply and take dominion over the Earth.”

When you are sent into this world, God gives you certain gifts and talents, and it is your responsibility to multiply those talents. When you do, God will multiply your multiplication so that to him that has, more shall be added. If you bury your talents in the ground and passively wait for God to do it all for you, you are simply not fulfilling the covenant that God has offered to man.

So instead of praying for a financial miracle, such as a lottery jackpot, it would be more constructive to pray for God to enlighten you as to how you can play an active part in bringing about this new more abundant future. There are two ways for you to do this, and the first is to change your own state of consciousness. It is a universal law of God that if you want to change your outer situation, you must begin by changing yourself, your state of consciousness.

Begin by leaving behind the consciousness of poverty, which truly springs from a sense of being separated from God, and step up to the abundant consciousness. The abundant consciousness is the Christ consciousness in which you see yourself as a son or daughter of God. You will remember my statement that I am come that all might have life and that they may have it more abundantly. As you will see throughout this website, I came to show all people that they can rise out of the lower state of consciousness, the carnal mind, and attain a higher state of consciousness, namely the Christ consciousness.

The Christ consciousness is truly the abundant life, and when you attain that state of consciousness, when you seek first the kingdom of God, all else, including material abundance, will be added unto you in accordance with God's will and your soul’s plan for this life.

When you begin to attain the abundant consciousness in your own life, you can then work for bringing about the abundant life on a larger scale. I earlier said that it is God’s intention that everyone should share in the abundant life. So you need to consider why we currently have a situation on Earth with such an unequal distribution of wealth that a majority of the world's population live in abject poverty while a small elite live in incredible luxury. You will quickly realize that this is a manipulation of the original plan of God.

If the situation is to change, two things must happen. One is that more abundance must be created, and this can be done by using the laws of God. The best way to use the laws of God is to attain Christ consciousness because then you will be in alignment with those laws. So one viable way to change the current situation on Earth is to attain Christ consciousness and then see how you can help bring about more abundance that you share with others.

source
Ask Real Jesus

For more information about additional sources of money please check out my blog about unclaimed money

The Unclaimed Money Blog

Update!

One of my most favorite pieces of advice is to take something that you love and turn it into a business! Please take a look at my Working From Home blog to get some working from home ideas!

If you are looking for money or some sort of financial help you can take a look at my blog Grant Basics 101 which is my blog about government grants and types of free money that is available out there!

The Federal Minimum Wage Will Increase This Week!

The federal minimum wage will increase this week from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 an hour.

What is even interesting to note here is that there are some states that have an even higher minimum wage! It's kind of confusing but it is politics.

Now even though some politician gripe about how $5.85 is still a very low wage, we don't see them doing anything to increase the minimum wage.

The article gives an example of a single person who makes minimum wage and if you go by $5.85 and hour that amounts to around $12,000 a year. The poverty level for singles is around $10,000 a year.

I do know this - If companies/businesses are required to pay a higher wage then they are going to look for ways to cut costs - outsourcing, not providing benefits.......

I also have a Working From Home Blog and the reason why I mention this is because a lot of people want to start their own business and be able to work from home. But there are those that want to work from home but they also want to be able to work for a company but they want to be able to work for that company from their home.

I became disillusioned working for someone else a very long time ago. My dream job has always been to work from home and that is exactly what I am doing now!

Unclaimed Money?

Have you ever heard the term "unclaimed money"? That is exactly what this is. Unclaimed money includes bank accounts that have been forgotten, insurance policy proceeds that are waiting to be paid and on and on and on. If the account holder of these unclaimed accounts are deceased then the money goes to their next of kin.

In my own area (Philadelphia) there is a listing that appears in the newspaper and its about 4 - 6 pages long! Nothing but names and how much money is under that name! I have seen amounts as high as $50,000! (By the way I checked our family name and it wasn't on there )-:

The department that is in charge of all of this unclaimed money seems to frown upon those who charge others for this kind of information. This has always kind of bugged me. If the department can't do a good job of letting people know that they may have unclaimed money that may be theirs then what is wrong with someone (or some company) helping people with this for a fee. I'm not talking about those that do this kind of thing dishonestly but a legitimate professional individual person or company.

Beware of The Government..........

Beware of the Government
By: Jim FollisTuesday, November 7, 2006 10:42 PM PST


At one point in my life I viewed anything that was government with a studious eye because it seemed curious to me how things worked. Then I came to the point of being amused about the massive overspending, the favoritism and the pork bellying that ran rampant throughout our elective process. Now, I've become increasingly bitter about our government. It has grown to immense proportions. It is devouring us limb by limb with its ravenous debt. The money being spent just to service our mammoth debt is enough to run most countries in this world.Further, our government has even surpassed the point of its inefficiency and has moved into the arena of being injurious to our own welfare.


We are spending billions of dollars on other countries' problems and yet we have children starving in our own country. We offer barges full of advice to other countries, yet our population is increasingly disenfranchised with our own democracy. Our education level is slipping and our dollar is sinking over the horizon.

Now, I read that the Office of Homeland Security is thumping people who attempt to purchase prescription drugs from Canada or Mexico. These are drugs made by American drug companies, but cost a fraction of the price. Perhaps Homeland Security could better spend their time in protecting us from our own government. We are about to gag ourselves with daily stories of mammoth government overspending and worse, our government protecting corporations that continue to feed on our weak. Price gouging on utilities, medications, oil, gasoline, and our government protects the corporations rather than the people. What business is our government into? Are the profits of our drug companies more important than the health of our seniors who cannot afford medical care? As a shareholder I want my companies to make money, but I also think that competition is good. If people can buy their drugs cheaper elsewhere, they should have that right.

Why is our government in the business of handing out personal or religious advice? If we could legislate good morals and good citizenship, I could see the benefit. But abortions, cell research, right to die issues? Instead of awarding grants to the best product, we now favor "faith based" biasing? Reminds me of our old affirmative action-based battles.

I'm no genius when it comes to studying our constitution, but "States Rights" looms large on my list of "must have." If my state votes to allow people to wear bikini suits to work, then so be it. The constitution protects the right for us to elect our own officials and they have the obligation to do what we want. I now hear seniors are voicing the concern that voting no longer matters. "There is no one to vote for, and besides, they don't even listen anymore."Now this is alarming. The young voters have always been reluctant to believe their "vote counts" and the middle-agers are frantically trying to keep their heads above water, but now the oldsters are upset with our system? Now that's trouble. What's worse, I don't even have a solution. Sure I'm ready for a third party, but it wouldn't take long before it smelled just like the others. In order to get elected today, you need a lot of cash. Developers, corporations, unions, and special interests line up with their sacks of money and lists of expectations for "their" candidate. An independent honest representative of the people doesn't stand a chance.

You bet, I'm way past ready for some return to some of the values that I remember people living by in the past. And who doesn't long for leaders we can be proud of. I seriously long for the day when our government returns to the notion of being, "For the people, by the people.

"Hmmmm, I guess I really should vote. S'pose it's too late? But then, is there anyone I can trust?

- Jim Follis is a former Folsom resident now enjoying hisretirement years.
http://folsomtelegraph.com/articles/2006/11/08/opinion/editorials/01follis.txt