The Starving Artist's Guide to Starvation

It is another beautiful day in Western Washington. The birds are chirping, the skies are blue, you can feel the holiday cheer in the air, the tree is up and lit with all it's decorations and I am sitting here in my toasty and cozy house in front of the fire place holding a nice warm mug of hot cocoa. If you believe all that, I have a nice piece of ocean front property in Nebraska that I'd like to sell you.

Here are the Facts:
-The birds are squabbling over the tiny little morsels of food available that the early frosts didn't wipe out.

-The skies are not blue at all... It is completely black out there and will be for the next several hours. BUT, when the skies do start to show a little light, it will just be to reveal the cold, gray and pollution cloud reality that is this region.

-Holiday Cheer? How about holiday stress?! The retailers are making their last ditch effort, before going out of business, to attract the wallets of those who's bank accounts have not been wiped out by the current economy or who, for some reason, still have credit cards with available funding and are foolish enough to use that credit to make purchases for kids who wont appreciate it anyway. But, why not rack up the credit... they are going to go bankrupt in a few months anyway.

-There is no tree... I can't pay $80 for a diseased and half dead decapitated "noble" fire hazard to just sit in my living room sucking up Christmas light wattage and running my power bill up so high it's like buying a new car every month.

-A toasty and cozy house is a thing of the past... Not only can I not afford the power to heat the place, I can't afford to burn it down with the scraps of fire-ish wood I can find laying around... Burn it down, you say? Yeah, the chimney hasn't been cleaned since the 60's and the only thing that might be safe to burn in there is one of those fancy man-made fire logs. Let me digress and tell you about THAT experience... So, I decide that since it is so cold that I have icicles hanging from my nether region, I would go ahead and "splurge" on a $6 fancy fire log. I placed it on the grate as directed and turned it on it's proper side to light it according to the clearly printed instructions. But, despite my acute attention to proper treatment of this very special fire log, the paper kept trying to go out. WHY IS THIS LOG WRAPPED IN FIRE RETARDANT PAPER?!?!?! Finally, I get the thing lit only to find out that once the paper has mostly burned off, the log is just not that interested in catching fire. The "fire retardant" fire log seriously never lit up much more than a couple candles worth of flame. It was a 3 hr fire log that pretty much smoldered for just over 12 hrs. Needles to say, I never did get to thaw out my junk... Still freezing! I guess I'll go back to producing my own friction heat. (if you need an explanation of what that might mean, you are too young to be reading this blog or too prudish and should ask questions you don't really want the answer for) But I digress even further, so back to the reality list.

-A warm mug of cocoa? No. Who can afford chocolate these days?! I am however sipping on a recycled old latte cup of some of that pre-ground canned mud water that P & G try to pass off as coffee. I had to get some caffeine in my system somehow so I could ignore the frost bite slowly creeping up my toes. On the bright side, I can't feel those pesky ingrown toenails anymore.

So, that is my exaggerated not-so-reality. But, all is not lost... . For some reason, I have been blessed with reasonable health, a wonderful new and old group of friends and family, the constant miracle of "pulling through" when my personal economy says that I should be living in a cardboard box, my two strapping young boys and a woman who loves me. I actually have it ALL. I feel like I should probably realize just how well off I am more often instead of sitting around being stressed and feeling self-pity. :)

But, after all my bragging about things being so great for me, it is important to note that not everyone has even the basics of human comfort. There are kids who don't have anyone to buy gifts or bake cookies with them and bend over backwards to make the holiday season so absolutely perfect for them regardless of their level of appreciation. There are men, women and children out there in the cold without adequate clothing to protect them from the winter conditions. There is a growing population of people who's personal economy has found them actually living in cardboard boxes... Can we really just sit by our fireplaces admiring our lights and trees without a second thought for the less fortunate. YES, WE CAN. We can go shopping and spend money we don't have on people who wont truly appreciate it. We can do this without a second thought. But, in doing so, we still have the opportunity to lend a hand to the needy.
How? By being smart about where we purchase.

Especially during the holidays, there are plenty of retailers and charities who have goods for sale that will take portions of the profits and put it to use to feed and clothe the less fortunate. I am not going to lie, I often feel like my entire financial world has imploded, but I still have a semi-warm place to lay my head. I will be spending money on Christmas presents, though it will be less than any year previous. I plan on making my Christmas cash count not only toward the good of my family, but also toward the good of those who I will never meet that really need the help.

I feel strongly about this and that is why my online store "Electro-tainment" will be donating portions of holiday shopping proceeds to the needy. Electo-tainment has expanded it's reach beyond the typical grown-up related products into games and toys for children. It is my hope that this will increase the sales numbers through the Holiday Season and allow the consumers to focus their holiday dollars onto the kids while we collect funds for the local charities.

I realize many of you want to help, but you also may not want to just use your debit cards on just any old website out there. But, you can make your purchases through Electro-tainment with confidence because every product purchase is managed, guaranteed and secure through the Amazon.com network system.
The slogan "Buy with Confidence and Save" is more than a slogan... it is a reality.

So, this Holiday as you are finishing up you last minute shopping, go to retailers that offer some kind of gift back to your community. If you are not sure where to go that will cause your purchases to have a positive effect on the life of someone in need, you can click on the link below to shop at Electro-tainment. I am committed to making profitable decisions in my business practices as well as making sure that those profits can be shared with those who really need the help.

Happy Holidays,

Jeryd Smith
Electro-tainment!!!

OMG! WTF! The World Is Ending!!!

I was inspired to write after giving thought to some online discussions that I was reading about the elections. It never ceases to amaze me how people react to elections and the probability of a politician that they don’t support being elected into office.

I hear on a regular basis, “I’m moving to Canada!” and I think, “Good, because we don’t need emotional decisions, people swayed by campaign hype, or the generally ignorant casting votes and helping shape the future of our country.” This happens on both sides of the party lines… One side seems to be worse about it, but this blog isn’t about that subject at all.

This is about economics.

This is about a long running economic agenda and mentality that has led us to where we are today.

We are all aware that there have been plenty of dishonest and irresponsible practices in lending, development and in forecasting profits in any given large corporation and publicly traded companies. There was and is a “War on Terror” to pay for, as well as a multitude of inefficient and ridiculously unaccountable government “charity” programs. It is also common opinion that politicians have supported legislation to support and continue these practices as well as abused taxpayer funds for personal profits and career development. Greed and hunger for power are the driving factors. This is not profound or new information. But, in order for these practices to produce profits, there has to be a system in place that encourages and supports this kind of behavior.

Outside of “politics” and “big business” blame... There are several fundamental problems with our measure of economic sustainability as it pertains to business. I'll point out just one: "Growth Equals Sustainability". It makes sense and is adhered to by anyone who wants to make the most money out of their investments. I’ll come back to that in a minute...

So how does the investment market really work? Like a roller coaster. Ups and downs create profit and loss. One man's loss becomes another man's profit. (Ok... it's a little more complicated than that, but for the sake of simplicity let's just leave it at that.)

Simply stated, a volatile market is the best place to win and lose fortunes. When the market is down, you buy shares on sale. When the market is up, you sell shares at a premium price.

The problem with the concept and measure of "Growth Equals Sustainability" (aka G=S Concept), is that any given market is only so big or can only expand to its capacity... Once it does, the game is over. The bubble pops. We are experiencing that popped bubble right now along with ALL political parties wasting taxpayer's money and trying to make up for gross inefficiencies by increasing taxes. Aside from over-development of retail and residential communities driven by the G=S Concept, the consumers don't have the financial resources or the confidence to sustain the “feeding needs” of the market places.

At the root of all the economic problems, there is a major contributing factor that goes beyond political blame; the G=S Concept. It drives lenders to do so irresponsibly, it forces companies to increase profits unreasonably through foreign vendors and insists on overproduction of products as well as "fixing" the books. All this is done in the name of Growth. All this is done to satisfy the hungry investors who are eager to push growth beyond a reasonable rate so the return on their investment will inflate with the said growth.

Well, all this growth has inevitably and predictably outgrown the market leaving suppliers and manufacturers overstocked and in debt. And because of a lack of growth currently, companies cannot rely on the new cash flow to pay for past financial blunders, over-extension of their financial risk and the perpetual growth/development expenditures.

As consumers, we didn't create the G=S concept, but we are all responsible for feeding into it by accepting lower prices in trade for lesser quality and not having the patience to wait for something to be made. No, we have to have it now, leaving the retailers and vendors with no choice but to overstock to meet probable demand.

Big business is not as much of an enemy as it is a victim. On one side, they are forced to buy into a faulty concept of sustainability and grow at unhealthy rates in order to satisfy the demands of the investors. On the other side, to meet customer demand, they are forced to predict and produce for the “crap shoot” that IS sales projections, because if they don't have it now and cheap, we'll go somewhere else.

Just remember as you get excited or bewildered about the current elections... It takes both sides to create balance. And the world does not end or become a haven just because a new bureaucrat with new promises or ideas gets into office. Balanced movement is slow movement and it has taken a long time to get where we are today. There have been plenty of hands on the wheel and a whole lot of little pushes in good and bad directions from every administration.

No matter how you dice it, there is always a political agenda at the root of the good and bad reports on any given subject regarding government. Take it with a grain of salt, and don't give too much trust or too much hatred to any one candidate or delegate.

The world and America specifically did not end at the hands of The Great Depression. It will not end this time either. We will survive and come out stronger if we make good decisions and fair judgments. But, will we decide to make changes in our “fast food” mentality as consumers? Will we support bringing jobs back to America by choosing quality over price even though it will dip into our wallets and our time? Will we stop blaming big business and politics for the economic struggles we are having and recognize that we all share the common cause? Because at the root of the political and business decisions made as well as at the root of our decisions as consumers, the common factor that has driven overdevelopment (growth) and pushed manufacturing over seas (lower prices) is in fact, Greed.