Thankful on Veterans Day: Our country, still a very special place

I was trying to think of a reason to post a Veterans day message on my money BLOG. While I was driving to the Nashua NH Veteran's day parade it struck me....my linkage.

It really doesn't have so much to do with Veterans Day, as with our entire country. You see there are plenty of places in the world where the kind of frustration and anger that has been builting up over the war (and that created our President's dissaproval numbers) would have resulted in blood in the streets. (either from citizen riots or police crackdowns)

But here in the USA, people went to the polls and made their opinions plainly evident. With a single vote, we have demanded and hopefully received change.

No shots fired....no blood in the streets. Totally peaceful change. (my father used to say this to me what I was younger)

So what does this have to do with money you ask. Well I think it has plenty to do with it because it shows the great calm and stability of our country. This stability is important to people investing...and right now with our trade deficits at current levels, we have plenty of other countries "investing" in us. (they are loaning us the money we need to run these debts up)

The last thing the people loaning us money want to see is their money dissappearing, so when they see such mass emotion taken out at the voting booth....and even more importantly, when we don't see the losers of the election taking to the street and causing trouble. This has to be looked at and seen as a very positive thing.

Sure, the USA is far from perfect. Our system of government has flaws, some of our leaders have flaws, and our economy is currently in a slow-slide. But rather and wringing our hands in worry let us remember that no country or person is perfect either, and our system of government is flexible and strong enough to adjust, learn from our mistakes and always strive to make things better.

I used to worry that when the USA started to get our financial trade house in order that we could see the kind of tension that would cause mass protests and unrest...and that this would make those buying our bonds leary and hesitant to continue their support/investment. But I think the very peaceful correction that occured in the vote last Tuesday will go a long way to calming their fears.

So there....our country is the connection betwen Veterans day and the money topic in this post. Our veterans sacraficed and did such great things for this country because it was a place worth it to them....and ths should allow us all to feel good about our Veterans, *AND* our country.


Happy Veterans Day to all!

Our Elected Officials Finances

I was going to post here simply reminding people to VOTE tomorrow....but being a finance/money/frugality BLOG, I thought I needed a "money" angle to the post.

My next thought was...."vote your pocketbook"....or "look at how much tax you pay"....but you know, there are other things in life besides money, and plenty of other reasons to vote. (probably more important things in the long run too)

But when I found this little website put up by The Center for Responsive Politics, I thought I had made the connection. Ok...so the info here will probably NOT sway your vote one way or the other...and I'm not suggesting it should. But it is very interesting to see the diversity of wealth and income among our current elected officials.

These people also have a lot of other information on our elected officials, some that they claim might help you decide when you are in the voting booth. I don't know about that since I have not looked at all the other information. (Reader beware I guess)

Check it out at:
http://opensecrets.org/