There is a cliche in sports that you only win when you "give 110%"--that must apply to taxation as well.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is out with its latest report on who pays taxes--and how much they pay--in America. The study finds that in 2010 (the latest year that data was available) those with the highest 40% of incomes in the US paid 106% of the federal income taxes. At first you might think "how is it possible to pay more than 100% of the taxes?" Well, the same study finds that the bottom 40% of Americans pay -9% of the federal income taxes.
I bet you are thoroughly confused now. "How can you pay 'negative' income tax?" You have to consider that low-income filers qualify for several tax credits--like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit--which can exceed any income tax that the filer may have had withheld from their paychecks (or pension payments). When that happens, those filers get back more than they paid in--meaning a negative impact on the total tax collection.
For those in the lowest 20% of wage earners (those making up to $24,000 a year), they paid -9.2% of federal income taxes collected. Those in the second-lowest 20% (many of whom would not be considered to be 'living in poverty' at up to $41,000 annually) paid -2.3% Those in the second highest 20% (which would include a majority of the middle class with family incomes starting $81,000) paid 13.3% of the taxes while those in the top 20% (making over $182,000) paid 92.9 percent of the taxes.
The biggest problem with what should be a progressive system like the income tax is that we are seeing "bottom creep"--namely, the number of payers at the lower end of the scale are shrinking--putting more pressure on the declining number of payers at the middle and top end of the scale. That is likely the result of higher unemployment, more retirees and stagnation of incomes at both the lower and middle section of the spectrum. Also keep in mind, that the numbers are from 2010--when the economy was in worse shape than it is right now. Perhaps 2012 or 2013 numbers might look a little bit better.
Does that mean that we should have a big tax increase on the poor or end the EIC or Child Credits? No, the revenue possibilities are very limited from that end of the income scale. What it should mean is a reconsideration in Washington as to how much money we are going to spend going forward--as the number of payers falls--and the number of "payees" continues to rise.
It should also silence those on the Left who drone on and on about how those at the top "don't pay their fair share". If your liberal aunt brings that up at the dinner table during the holidays again you can chime in with "Yeah, 106% is clearly not enough."
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Football--The Way It Should Be
I would like to thank Mother Nature for contributing to the most entertaining day of NFL football in recent memory. The heavy snow at stadiums in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Pittsburgh brought the game back to the NFL Films-style of play that reminded me of my childhood.
You can't tell me that there was something that just felt "right" when you saw the big snowflakes falling and blowing past those purple Vikings helmets. December games against the Purple People Eaters were epic battles not just against the opposing team--but the worst weather in the league at Metropolitan Stadium. When was the last time you saw the Vikes play in real weather like that? The same went for the snow covering the field in Pittsburgh--where the Steel Curtain would use the elements to their advantage in slowing down and stuffing high powered offenses like Air Coryell with Dan Fouts or Luv Ya Blue with Earl Campbell slip-sliding all over the place.
The best watch of the day was Detroit at Philadelphia--where you couldn't even tell where the play on the field was. The shot of Megatron--Calvin Johnson--being tackled on a long catch and coming up with his facemask completely filled with snow--that is the essence of football.
Fans who attend games like that talk about it for generations. It almost becomes a badge of honor. I was at the Snow Bowl game against Tampa Bay at Lambeau Field in 1985.
My friend Eric and I rode into Green Bay on his snowmobile through a foot of snow that morning. We didn't stay for the entire game--it was two horrible teams playing--but at least I can claim to be one of the 20-thousand or so that "braved the elements".
And did you notice the exciting football that was produced in those snow games yesterday? Even without 5-receiver sets and the spread pistol read-option, teams were still able to move the ball by running it. You had a bunch of kick returns for touchdowns--and Pittsburgh almost had a Cal-Stanford "The Band Is On The Field" miracle final play to win it against Miami.
Yesterday's weather is the nightmare scenario for the NFL as it gets ready to host its first "cold weather" Super Bowl in New Jersey in February. The talking heads who think they know the game better than anyone will be full of gloom and doom predictions this morning--that snow during the Big Game will "ruin the purity of the contest" or be an "unfair advantage" for a team that still plays cold weather games outside. But based on what we saw yesterday, I'll take the Super Snow Bowl over the "perfect conditions", antiseptic, video-game style of football we've had to endure the last few years.
You can't tell me that there was something that just felt "right" when you saw the big snowflakes falling and blowing past those purple Vikings helmets. December games against the Purple People Eaters were epic battles not just against the opposing team--but the worst weather in the league at Metropolitan Stadium. When was the last time you saw the Vikes play in real weather like that? The same went for the snow covering the field in Pittsburgh--where the Steel Curtain would use the elements to their advantage in slowing down and stuffing high powered offenses like Air Coryell with Dan Fouts or Luv Ya Blue with Earl Campbell slip-sliding all over the place.
The best watch of the day was Detroit at Philadelphia--where you couldn't even tell where the play on the field was. The shot of Megatron--Calvin Johnson--being tackled on a long catch and coming up with his facemask completely filled with snow--that is the essence of football.
Fans who attend games like that talk about it for generations. It almost becomes a badge of honor. I was at the Snow Bowl game against Tampa Bay at Lambeau Field in 1985.
And did you notice the exciting football that was produced in those snow games yesterday? Even without 5-receiver sets and the spread pistol read-option, teams were still able to move the ball by running it. You had a bunch of kick returns for touchdowns--and Pittsburgh almost had a Cal-Stanford "The Band Is On The Field" miracle final play to win it against Miami.
Yesterday's weather is the nightmare scenario for the NFL as it gets ready to host its first "cold weather" Super Bowl in New Jersey in February. The talking heads who think they know the game better than anyone will be full of gloom and doom predictions this morning--that snow during the Big Game will "ruin the purity of the contest" or be an "unfair advantage" for a team that still plays cold weather games outside. But based on what we saw yesterday, I'll take the Super Snow Bowl over the "perfect conditions", antiseptic, video-game style of football we've had to endure the last few years.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Invictus
As we mark his passing on Thursday, I will always remember Nelson Mandella for two things: transformation and forgiveness. The transformation refers to Mandella's journey from being a Communist terrorist to a champion of democracy and peace.
Oh, you didn't know that Mandella was a Communist? In the late 50's and early 60's he wrote and spoke about his admiration of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro--and hoped to model the African National Congress's overthrow of the Apartheid government in South Africa after their Communist revolution in Cuba. And as the leader of the "MK" (or "Spear of the Nation"), Mandella authorized the bombings of a number of South African civilian facilities--including a crowded train station in Johannesburg. It was for these bombings that Mandella was sentenced to life in prison.
But while spending time in the notorius Robben's Island prison, Nelson Mandella realized that fighting the violence of the white government against the majority blacks with more violence would not achieve his goal or freedom for all South Africans. Pressure from the rest of the world--along with economic sanctions--eventually brought a peaceful end to Apartheid rule--and won Mandella his freedom.
Following his election as the first black South African President, it would have been very easy for Mandella to exact a measure of "revenge" against the Afrikaaners who had engaged in the suppression of "his people" for so many decades. Mandella could have seized the assets of white South African businesses as "ill-gotten gains" or forced white farmers off their fertile lands to "redistribute more fairly" to Blacks. (Which was done in neighboring Zimbabwe--causing the complete destabilization of the country's economy) And it certainly would have been popular to take the former leaders who had imprisoned him for so long and to throw them into the same small cells in which he had been captive.
But Mandella didn't do any of that. He worked with the Afrikaaners to incorporate Blacks into the economy, into the schools and into the halls of government to share power. A process that still has a long way to go. And it is that forgiveness and tolerance that we should most respect in the man.
Nelson Mandella says that during his time in prison he found greatest inspiration from a poem by William Ernest Henley entitled Invictus--which is Latin for "not conquered". It's message could certainly apply to those of us in America today as well:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Oh, you didn't know that Mandella was a Communist? In the late 50's and early 60's he wrote and spoke about his admiration of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro--and hoped to model the African National Congress's overthrow of the Apartheid government in South Africa after their Communist revolution in Cuba. And as the leader of the "MK" (or "Spear of the Nation"), Mandella authorized the bombings of a number of South African civilian facilities--including a crowded train station in Johannesburg. It was for these bombings that Mandella was sentenced to life in prison.
But while spending time in the notorius Robben's Island prison, Nelson Mandella realized that fighting the violence of the white government against the majority blacks with more violence would not achieve his goal or freedom for all South Africans. Pressure from the rest of the world--along with economic sanctions--eventually brought a peaceful end to Apartheid rule--and won Mandella his freedom.
Following his election as the first black South African President, it would have been very easy for Mandella to exact a measure of "revenge" against the Afrikaaners who had engaged in the suppression of "his people" for so many decades. Mandella could have seized the assets of white South African businesses as "ill-gotten gains" or forced white farmers off their fertile lands to "redistribute more fairly" to Blacks. (Which was done in neighboring Zimbabwe--causing the complete destabilization of the country's economy) And it certainly would have been popular to take the former leaders who had imprisoned him for so long and to throw them into the same small cells in which he had been captive.
But Mandella didn't do any of that. He worked with the Afrikaaners to incorporate Blacks into the economy, into the schools and into the halls of government to share power. A process that still has a long way to go. And it is that forgiveness and tolerance that we should most respect in the man.
Nelson Mandella says that during his time in prison he found greatest inspiration from a poem by William Ernest Henley entitled Invictus--which is Latin for "not conquered". It's message could certainly apply to those of us in America today as well:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Too Many Events City (Part Two)
In a town that promotes itself as a mecca for special events, the natives are growing restless. They are beginning to tire of outsiders clogging up their streets. They are sick of not being able to access their parks. They are questioning the value of spending more than necessary on police and emergency protection for people who are leaving in a few hours time. And they want their lawmakers to start returning their city to their use.
I bet you thought I was talking about Oshkosh--"Event City"--didn't you? Well, I'm actually referring to Traverse City, Michigan--which now bills itself as the "City of Festivals". Every week there is a different event in TC--art shows, film festivals, bike rallies, car shows, the National Cherry Festival--all of which bring a new load of visitors to town. At first, residents welcomed the tourists--and their cash in a bad economy--with open arms. But now a growing number of people are getting fed up with not being able to access the lakeshore, park on the street or get a table at a popular restaurant--and they would like more time for Traverse City to be about Traverse Citians. It's even gained its own catch phrase: "Festival Fatigue".
The Convention and Visitors Bureau folks are trying to shout down this anti-tourism sentiment, tossing around their economic impact figures--but even city supervisors are beginning to wonder if that really makes up for the added expense and strain on municipal services and the aggravation endured by residents. Those commissioners are now considering a "festival limit" to give people a break.
While I may not have been talking about Oshkosh in the open, Traverse City should serve as a "canary in the mine" for our city. Already, we are seeing some of our own "festival fatigue" here. City Manager Mark Rohloff has publicly expressed his concern that the number of events around town is already straining police and first responder resources. You can't have officers and EMT's on overtime every weekend. City Councillors have tossed out the idea of increasing the Special Event Permit Fee even more to not only cover those rising costs--but to also serve as a greater revenue source for other departments. We've been telling you for months now about one event that can't even pay the event fee it is currently being charged. And don't event think about trying to use Highway 41 on any of the nights that Country USA is going on--which is a huge safety issue for those just trying to drive to Fond du Lac or Appleton.
And these issues are only going to be exacerbated in the future. It is an open secret that a third multi-day music event is coming to Ford Festival Park next year. The DNR recently eased the limits on fishing tournaments in the state--meaning the Lake Winnebago system could host even more events. The EAA is moving up the date for Airventure starting in 2015--compacting the event schedule for June and July even more. And don't forget that the renovated Convention Center and downtown hotel are supposed to be bringing in thousands of more people on a regular basis as well.
If Oshkosh isn't careful, we could start "over-booking" ourselves as well. Instead of "Festival Fatigue" we'll have to call it "Event Exasperation".
I bet you thought I was talking about Oshkosh--"Event City"--didn't you? Well, I'm actually referring to Traverse City, Michigan--which now bills itself as the "City of Festivals". Every week there is a different event in TC--art shows, film festivals, bike rallies, car shows, the National Cherry Festival--all of which bring a new load of visitors to town. At first, residents welcomed the tourists--and their cash in a bad economy--with open arms. But now a growing number of people are getting fed up with not being able to access the lakeshore, park on the street or get a table at a popular restaurant--and they would like more time for Traverse City to be about Traverse Citians. It's even gained its own catch phrase: "Festival Fatigue".
The Convention and Visitors Bureau folks are trying to shout down this anti-tourism sentiment, tossing around their economic impact figures--but even city supervisors are beginning to wonder if that really makes up for the added expense and strain on municipal services and the aggravation endured by residents. Those commissioners are now considering a "festival limit" to give people a break.
While I may not have been talking about Oshkosh in the open, Traverse City should serve as a "canary in the mine" for our city. Already, we are seeing some of our own "festival fatigue" here. City Manager Mark Rohloff has publicly expressed his concern that the number of events around town is already straining police and first responder resources. You can't have officers and EMT's on overtime every weekend. City Councillors have tossed out the idea of increasing the Special Event Permit Fee even more to not only cover those rising costs--but to also serve as a greater revenue source for other departments. We've been telling you for months now about one event that can't even pay the event fee it is currently being charged. And don't event think about trying to use Highway 41 on any of the nights that Country USA is going on--which is a huge safety issue for those just trying to drive to Fond du Lac or Appleton.
And these issues are only going to be exacerbated in the future. It is an open secret that a third multi-day music event is coming to Ford Festival Park next year. The DNR recently eased the limits on fishing tournaments in the state--meaning the Lake Winnebago system could host even more events. The EAA is moving up the date for Airventure starting in 2015--compacting the event schedule for June and July even more. And don't forget that the renovated Convention Center and downtown hotel are supposed to be bringing in thousands of more people on a regular basis as well.
If Oshkosh isn't careful, we could start "over-booking" ourselves as well. Instead of "Festival Fatigue" we'll have to call it "Event Exasperation".
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
What We Celebrate Today
It seemed like a harmless enough tweet when it showed up on my Twitter timeline yesterday. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wanted her followers to know:
Good news: 1.46 million people have been found eligible for Medicaid and CHIP in the 1st month of open enrollment.
(In case you are wondering, CHIP is the Children's Health Insurance Program--an extension of Medicaid.)
I'm sure that what the HHS Secretary is wanting to "celebrate" is that nearly 1.5 million people will be getting some form of health insurance coverage at the start of the new year. But what Ms Sebelius is forgetting in calling this "Good news" is the underlying situation that forced these people to require Medicaid or CHIP coverage in the first place.
How would it look if the tweet went like this?
Good news: 1.46 million adults and children are too poor to buy their own health insurance.
Wouldn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and bring a smile to your face knowing that many people were facing that type of situation? Would this tweet make you feel any better:
Good news: 1.46 million people lost jobs that provided them with health insurance.
Woo Hoo, Madame Secretary! That really is worth celebrating! And where is the tweet announcing the other option for providing people with health insurance coverage--which doesn't seem to be as high a priority in the Obama Administration:
Good news: 1.46 million people found employment that provides them with health insurance last month.
We won't see that tweet from anybody in the White House anytime soon because A) This economy will never produce that kind of job growth and B) The Obama Administration measures its success by the number of additional people that it can put onto government assistance. When you think about it, we should really be getting a bunch of "good news" tweets on a regular basis:
Good news: A new record number of people are on Food Stamps--47 million!
Good news: Fewer Americans are working--just 63.8%--the lowest since 1978!
Good news: The poverty rate didn't go down this year--still 50-million people!
I guess that in an era where success is vilified and that which is earned by a few should be "shared" with the rest--we should expect such celebration of failure.
Good news: 1.46 million people have been found eligible for Medicaid and CHIP in the 1st month of open enrollment.
(In case you are wondering, CHIP is the Children's Health Insurance Program--an extension of Medicaid.)
I'm sure that what the HHS Secretary is wanting to "celebrate" is that nearly 1.5 million people will be getting some form of health insurance coverage at the start of the new year. But what Ms Sebelius is forgetting in calling this "Good news" is the underlying situation that forced these people to require Medicaid or CHIP coverage in the first place.
How would it look if the tweet went like this?
Good news: 1.46 million adults and children are too poor to buy their own health insurance.
Wouldn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and bring a smile to your face knowing that many people were facing that type of situation? Would this tweet make you feel any better:
Good news: 1.46 million people lost jobs that provided them with health insurance.
Woo Hoo, Madame Secretary! That really is worth celebrating! And where is the tweet announcing the other option for providing people with health insurance coverage--which doesn't seem to be as high a priority in the Obama Administration:
Good news: 1.46 million people found employment that provides them with health insurance last month.
We won't see that tweet from anybody in the White House anytime soon because A) This economy will never produce that kind of job growth and B) The Obama Administration measures its success by the number of additional people that it can put onto government assistance. When you think about it, we should really be getting a bunch of "good news" tweets on a regular basis:
Good news: A new record number of people are on Food Stamps--47 million!
Good news: Fewer Americans are working--just 63.8%--the lowest since 1978!
Good news: The poverty rate didn't go down this year--still 50-million people!
I guess that in an era where success is vilified and that which is earned by a few should be "shared" with the rest--we should expect such celebration of failure.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Carnival Barker In Chief
President Obama will be doing a new infomercial for the Affordable Care Act today. Expect to hear a little bit about the "New and Improved" HealthCare.gov website (Now functioning properly 80% of the time--yes you heard right, 80% of the time!)--but more about all of the "great" features already in place--that the vast majority of Americans are apparently too ignorant to notice and therefore must be reminded of every few weeks.
The cancelled policies, rate hikes and decreased plan options will be conspicuously absent from the sales pitch (Problems? Uh what problems? Hey, look at the great features!!) or just poo-pooed as things that had to happen to make things "fair" for everyone else. And expect the President to renew his ludicrous call to have families talk about signing up for health care during their holiday gatherings (Tell your friends! Tell your neighbors! Tell everyone you know about the great deals we are running down here at Barry's Health Insurance Emporium and Free Benefits Supercenter!)
This all leads me to wonder, why does so much marketing effort have to go into something that we were told repeatedly for the last six years that people "desperately wanted and needed"--and which is now required by law to purchase? If the "benefits" of the Affordable Care Act were as in demand as we have been told, the Health Insurance Exchanges should sell themselves. Does the Oshkosh Wastewater Treatment facility have to run ads or issue press releases reminding people to flush their toilets? It costs us money (and soon to be more money) to do that--but the benefits provided by the service far outweigh the cost.
And yet, of the 10-million people that needed to sign up through HealthCare.gov, fewer that 200-thousand have done so through the first two months. Yes there have been website problems--but the more likely cause is that people are getting through all the way to the part where they pick their plan and finally get to see what it costs--and they realize that what they are being asked to pay isn't worth it. If you believe some surveys, these "dissastified customers" thought what they were about to get was free--while many others failed to understand that they will have to pay their premiums up front--before they can cash in on the federal tax subsidy. And that is when the find out that the Carnival Barker In Chief has been selling them an overpriced bottle of "firewater" that isn't going to cure a thing.
If the President was smart, he would move from "salesman" to "bad cop" and remind all of these "scofflaws" that they are about to be in violation of federal law. (Health Care Reform is the LAW OF THE LAND--and if you won't buy into it, then I will have no choice but to come down on your HARD with my legion of IRS agents and fines--I mean "taxes" for constitutionality purposes!!) You could call that going with a "hard sell" if you will. Because without those young, healthy Americans buying those overpriced policies--the next ad campaign for ObamaCare will be for the "Going Out Of Business Sale".
The cancelled policies, rate hikes and decreased plan options will be conspicuously absent from the sales pitch (Problems? Uh what problems? Hey, look at the great features!!) or just poo-pooed as things that had to happen to make things "fair" for everyone else. And expect the President to renew his ludicrous call to have families talk about signing up for health care during their holiday gatherings (Tell your friends! Tell your neighbors! Tell everyone you know about the great deals we are running down here at Barry's Health Insurance Emporium and Free Benefits Supercenter!)
This all leads me to wonder, why does so much marketing effort have to go into something that we were told repeatedly for the last six years that people "desperately wanted and needed"--and which is now required by law to purchase? If the "benefits" of the Affordable Care Act were as in demand as we have been told, the Health Insurance Exchanges should sell themselves. Does the Oshkosh Wastewater Treatment facility have to run ads or issue press releases reminding people to flush their toilets? It costs us money (and soon to be more money) to do that--but the benefits provided by the service far outweigh the cost.
And yet, of the 10-million people that needed to sign up through HealthCare.gov, fewer that 200-thousand have done so through the first two months. Yes there have been website problems--but the more likely cause is that people are getting through all the way to the part where they pick their plan and finally get to see what it costs--and they realize that what they are being asked to pay isn't worth it. If you believe some surveys, these "dissastified customers" thought what they were about to get was free--while many others failed to understand that they will have to pay their premiums up front--before they can cash in on the federal tax subsidy. And that is when the find out that the Carnival Barker In Chief has been selling them an overpriced bottle of "firewater" that isn't going to cure a thing.
If the President was smart, he would move from "salesman" to "bad cop" and remind all of these "scofflaws" that they are about to be in violation of federal law. (Health Care Reform is the LAW OF THE LAND--and if you won't buy into it, then I will have no choice but to come down on your HARD with my legion of IRS agents and fines--I mean "taxes" for constitutionality purposes!!) You could call that going with a "hard sell" if you will. Because without those young, healthy Americans buying those overpriced policies--the next ad campaign for ObamaCare will be for the "Going Out Of Business Sale".
Monday, December 2, 2013
Give the Gift of Childhood Obesity This Holiday Season
After spending the weekend perusing sales flyers and viewing endless TV commercials, it appears to me that few--if any--of this year's "hottest toys" require children to engage in any physical activity or leave the house. I doubt any parent will allow Junior to take his $150 Leapfrog Tablet outside. I don't see much activity involved in getting your Furby to interact with you. And none of the ten pages of video game-related items will get your kid off the couch anytime soon. Heck, with the headphone attachment, your kids won't even have to see their friends in person anymore to "play" with them.
I will grant you that I come from a totally different generation of kids. We didn't have 550 cable TV channels and on-demand programming to watch whatever we wanted--or YouTube or Hulu for that matter. What passed for video games were lame, and took about two days to "solve"--so they got pretty boring after that. So we had to do a lot more "self entertaining" in those days. And our toys reflected that.
For me, sports equipment was always big. Best Christmas gift ever? My basketball hoop and backboard. It started a life-long love for the game--which I still play a couple of times a week, at the age of 41. Baseball gloves and bats were huge too. And a bike was like the ultimate gift you could get--because of the freedom it represented. A kid with a bike could go to more friends' houses, or down to the river or the park or just have races with his buddies to see who was the fastest.
Kids who weren't into sports when I was a kid got BB guns to shoot in the fields or the woods--or Star Wars stuff that you could chase each around with both in the house and outside. Plus, sleds and those aluminum saucers were popular at Christmastime because you could actually use those right away--instead of having to wait for the warm weather to come back.
Unfortunately, kids don't get those experiences from their gifts anymore. Madden NFL 25 is the way today's boys (and full-grown men) "play football". Why argue over who is going to be "Terry Bradshaw" or "Franco Harris" like when I was a kid--when a certain gameplay option can allow you to both be Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson--at the same time. Plus, who ever suffered a concussion pretending to be Clay Matthews and delivering a huge pixelated hit to an animated opponent? Why have a plastic light sabre that makes the cool "whoom" noise when you and your buddy recreate Luke versus Darth Vader on the Death Star (minus the loss of a hand part) when Star Wars the Force Unleashed lets you kill each other as many times as you want with the use of a controller--and no one has to worry about knocking over a lamp. There's also no need to try and chase down butterflies or other insects in the yard when your Leapfrog has an app that can show you hundreds of pictures and videos detailing the life cycle of a bug in just two minutes--plus, you never get dirt on your designer-brand pants that way.
So as you wrap those "interactive" toys, the Ipod accessories and the video games for "Santa" to leave under the tree--keep in mind your not just substituting love and affection with an object--you're also giving the "gifts" of childhood obesity and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That must be what educators are talking about when they say that today's kids are "more well-rounded" than those of us from the '70's and '80's.
I will grant you that I come from a totally different generation of kids. We didn't have 550 cable TV channels and on-demand programming to watch whatever we wanted--or YouTube or Hulu for that matter. What passed for video games were lame, and took about two days to "solve"--so they got pretty boring after that. So we had to do a lot more "self entertaining" in those days. And our toys reflected that.
For me, sports equipment was always big. Best Christmas gift ever? My basketball hoop and backboard. It started a life-long love for the game--which I still play a couple of times a week, at the age of 41. Baseball gloves and bats were huge too. And a bike was like the ultimate gift you could get--because of the freedom it represented. A kid with a bike could go to more friends' houses, or down to the river or the park or just have races with his buddies to see who was the fastest.
Kids who weren't into sports when I was a kid got BB guns to shoot in the fields or the woods--or Star Wars stuff that you could chase each around with both in the house and outside. Plus, sleds and those aluminum saucers were popular at Christmastime because you could actually use those right away--instead of having to wait for the warm weather to come back.
Unfortunately, kids don't get those experiences from their gifts anymore. Madden NFL 25 is the way today's boys (and full-grown men) "play football". Why argue over who is going to be "Terry Bradshaw" or "Franco Harris" like when I was a kid--when a certain gameplay option can allow you to both be Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson--at the same time. Plus, who ever suffered a concussion pretending to be Clay Matthews and delivering a huge pixelated hit to an animated opponent? Why have a plastic light sabre that makes the cool "whoom" noise when you and your buddy recreate Luke versus Darth Vader on the Death Star (minus the loss of a hand part) when Star Wars the Force Unleashed lets you kill each other as many times as you want with the use of a controller--and no one has to worry about knocking over a lamp. There's also no need to try and chase down butterflies or other insects in the yard when your Leapfrog has an app that can show you hundreds of pictures and videos detailing the life cycle of a bug in just two minutes--plus, you never get dirt on your designer-brand pants that way.
So as you wrap those "interactive" toys, the Ipod accessories and the video games for "Santa" to leave under the tree--keep in mind your not just substituting love and affection with an object--you're also giving the "gifts" of childhood obesity and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That must be what educators are talking about when they say that today's kids are "more well-rounded" than those of us from the '70's and '80's.
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