Consumer confidence is down, but the rich go on vacation

Another indicator that the economy is getting eaten by the rich is that vacation travel has not slumped among the wealthiest Americans.

At a country club outside of Portland, about 150 people spent part of a recent sunny day indoors at a "Luxury Explorers' Showcase" to learn about African safaris, tours of the Amazon and Galapagos, private jet charters and even space tourism.

Organizer Pamela Hurley-Moser said not all of the attendees were loaded with money, but all had one thing in common: They had no intention of canceling travel.

Hey Pamela, a country club membership means you have disposable income.

TCS Expeditions, which offers tours via private jets, is sold out for 2008 and nearly sold out for 2009 even though the standard price for trips like "Wildlife of the World" and "History's Lost Cities" is $64,950 per person, said Melanie Cole, vice president of sales in Seattle.

If you are feeling down, get out that People Magazine and live vicariously through people who can still have those luxuries. Either that or start demanding equal pay for equal work.


Doesn't it say something about this day and age when a pop song, like this one by Good Charlotte, can have a diatribe against the rich.

Unequal America?

When we talk of a cannibal planet, we are speaking of how those with power and money use it to consume the lives of those less fortunate. This is happening at an ever increasing pace. The gap between rich and poor is not just one of means, but of life itself. Think I'm some anarchist extremist? Well, you might be right...but then again Havard Magazine just summarized a few studies that back me up:

Disparities in health tend to fall along income lines everywhere: the poor generally get sicker and die sooner than the rich. But in the United States, the gap between the rich and the poor is far wider than in most other developed democracies, and it is getting wider.

It goes on to show that societies that tax the rich more heavily and basically share the wealth more evenly have higher life expectancy across the board.

So, the extreme rich in our country are actually sucking the life out of the rest of us. Maybe Vampire Planet is more fitting?

Maybe we need a vampire hunter?


If you are an anime fan, this movie "Blood: The Last Vampire" is an absolute must have.

Time to spill some hot coffee

" Starbucks Corp. will close 600 U.S. coffee shops and eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs, the most in its history, as Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz slows the chain's expansion after it doubled in size in four years."

How hard is it to run a franchise that marks up the cost of its product by 1000-2000%? Add in the fact that your customers are addicts and to top it off what you are doing is legal. How hard can that be?

Easy, unless you've got your arm up to your elbow in the till.

The company blames slower sales because the economic downturn and yet, they haven't looked at their executive pay as a place to regain competitiveness. Instead, they close stores and cut jobs which will, in effect, hurt their long term financial health.

Though I'm no fan of corporate coffee, my wife and kids love the drive-through pick-me-up stimulant and sugar experience. So, I'll save these baristas their jobs on the condition they take this info and hold their management accountable. Let's look at the FP (financial packages) of some of the folks in charge:
James Alling $12 million
Martin Coles $7.2 million
David Pace $11 million

and the coffee daddy Howard Shultz $472 million

Since Howie is just a man, let's strip his worth down to a man's level. We will leave him with $2 million. The average barista makes about $8/hr. We liquidate Howie's FP (except the $2 million) and that gives us 58,750,000 counter person hours of fine service to the caffiene junkie patronage. That's more than enough cash to keep those 12,000 baristas on the job for more than 2 more years. The economy might turn around by then or a new additive maybe allowed to make the coffee even more important to the clientele.

Barista's unite and raid the corporate kitty!

Then you could even take your coffee in bed.