High gas prices will cause some interesting results:
- more people will shop for bargains online, rather than traveling from store to store
- delivery charges will be reasonable compared to picking it up yourself
- home gardening and locally grown food will enjoy a resurgence
- people will think twice about drives to the beach or to the lake
- going for a Sunday drive is a sign of wealth
- if your neighbor fills up his SUV at one visit to the pump, he is probably doing better than you are
- you may see some unlikely people - bankers, lawyers, doctors - use the gas crunch to justify commuting by motorcycle
- some smart commuters will get their exercise by commuting by bicycle
- people will need second jobs to stay afloat - most will create new businesses online to earn extra income
- small restaurants will suffer first as more workers shift lunch money to gas tanks
- fast food places will suffer next as prices of oil run up food prices
- over the next few years, temporary dips in oil prices will not be long-lived enough to let Americans drive huge cars and trucks again - SUVs will be like Cadillacs with fins
- supply increases will be sopped up by China and India
- alternative sources of energy will be great businesses but will not dethrone big oil
- Florida will be unhappy when offshore oil wells appear near their coastline in the Gulf of Mexico
- placement of refineries will be hot political topics and push abortion and gay marriage off the table
- politicians, as usual, will screw things up then demand more tax revenue to fix the problems they created in the first place
Just a few of the issues I believe will dominate the economic and political landscape over the next 10 years. With any luck, it will bring back some of the lean, mean, fighting spirit of the American people - but only if the politicians are pushed out of the way.
—
Charles Lamm is a junkyard philosopher whose blogs include Live Free in an Unfree World, the Asset Protection Iron Triangle, and Virtual Joe Friday.
Back in 2003, 100 people died in a nightclub fire when the band’s pyrotechnics got out of control. Families of victims sued. So far, so good.
Here’s the crazy part. Anheuser-Busch and their local distributor just settled for $21 million. Total settlement so far - $122 million. Others who have paid up include Home Depot and Clear Channel Broadcasting.
Home Depot was sued over insulation. The alleged liability of the others: promoting the concert.
Am I the only one here who doesn’t understand this. No media advertising can exist if the publisher of the advertising, or the sponsor, is responsible for the acts of the companies and individuals who actually caused the harm and death of the concert attendees.
A-B claims the cost of the litigation is running too high, but I can’t imagine a Board of Directors signing off on a $21 million settlement if they did not believe a jury was about to stick them with a larger bill.
One possibility - their insurance company decided to settle, and they have no choice. If they fought on, A-B would take on the additional expense and be liable for any jury award above the settlement amount.
Whoever decided to settle - you are the reason why our legal system is such a mess. If you are not liable - and unless you can explain otherwise, I don’t see how beer or promoting an event contributed to this tragedy - why not take it to the limit? You were being sued in Rhode Island, not Mississippi.
How do your actions compare to a man who spent 27 years in jail for a rape he did not commit? He could have been out of prison a dozen years ago if he had admitted the crime. He chose to man-up and not take the blame for something he did not do. The State of Texas may give him some monetary compensation in the future, but he can never get those years of freedom back.
Sometimes, you have to pay the price for what’s right.
~ Charles Lamm
You don’t have to be gay to understand the frustration committed same-sex partners have with not being able to be recognized as a legal couple through marriage.
As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
First, in legal terms, marriage is an unconscionable contract. Over 50% now end in divorce. The split up rate for gay and lesbian partners is even higher. If less than half work out, why do we need marriage at all?
The marriage contract is a three-party contract - husband, wife, and state. The state holds all the cards. The state determines who can and cannot marry, and decides if and under what terms the marriage can be dissolved.
What I suggest for couples or groups who cannot legally marry is to construct their own relationships using LLCs to define those relationships according to their own desires. An LLC cannot be set up to circumvent state laws or to legitimize an illegal sexual arrangement, but many other aspects of traditional marriage such as joint ownership of property and health insurance can be addressed quite nicely by the LLC.
For example, if the LLC provides health coverage for the members, and the relationship breaks up, the LLC will continue to insure the individual members. When a divorce takes place, if the insurance was in one spouse’s name at work, the ex-spouse will likely lose their insurance.
Joint property via an LLC is an even better proposition. Membership can be apportioned according to the contributions each made to the LLC. If the relationship dissolves, you still retain your ownership percentage through the LLC instead of having a family court judge divide the property according to how the court wants to apportion it.
An LLC lets you control the “divorce”, and works better than a prenuptial or post nuptial agreement, which can be modified or ignored by the court.
Prenuptial agreements are flawed in regard to children. For traditional couples, a prenuptial cannot contract away the rights of the unborn. The one thing all states will do is bend the divorce decree to favor the payment of child support, no matter what the financial situation of the parents. The state, quite simply, does not want to pick up the welfare tab for your failed marriage.
An LLC can include children as members. Children can have their own say in family/LLC affairs. Assets such as the family home can remain in the LLC and survive the breakup of the marriage.
And finally, husbands and wives destroy each other’s credit all the time. Members in an LLC are treated like partners for tax purposes, and their percentages of the profits pass through to their individual tax returns, while members retain the limited liability protection of a corporation.
Members of the LLC are not individually liable for the debts of the LLC, and they are not liable for the debts of other members. One LLC member cannot ruin the credit of another, as husband and wife can.
For gay and lesbian couples, plural “marriages”, and other unconventional relationships, keep the state out of your affairs with an LLC. Instead of tying the knot, use a slip knot to have the relationship you desire, plus the ability to change that relationship without the permission of the nanny state.
===
Charles Lamm is a retired attorney who owns Trustee and RA Services Inc. in Coral Springs, Florida. He recommends asset protection for all using a no-asset corporation, LLC, and beneficiary controlled trust. Read more at: http://www.corp-llc-bct.com.
RSS Feed
