Web Video of the Week: Money As Debt part 4/5

Here is the 4th part of the movie/video - Money as Debt. This portion offers possible solutions if you consider our money system a problem:



Unfortunately, the solutions presented are easier said than implemented. What do you think?

WebVideo of the Week: Money as Debt - part 2/5

Here is part 2 of the Money as debt video:



Enjoy, let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Web Video of the Week: Sir Branson Visionary

Today's blog of the week again comes from my favorite news source, honestly, I should have stock in Time Warner or they should at least reimburse me for the publicity. That being said.

Today's Webvideo of the week - you'll have to follow this link:

http://money.cnn.com/video/#/video/fsb/2007/10/15/fsb.hwgs.branson.bites.fsb

..to see. The more I learn about Richard Branson the more I like this Billionaire. I think my favorite Billionaires would go in the following order of likability:

1. Warren Buffett
2. Oprah
3. Richard Branson

Before I get too far off track, a little bit about the above link. Richard Branson is going into the loan agreement business with Virgin Money - a company that focuses on formalizing loan agreements between family and friends. Now some of you may think it's silly to do this because your family is good for it but, I know from experience (me being the debtor) that not all family is that good with money or paying people back on time.

That being said, let me get back to why I like that billionaire Richard Branson so much. He is beyond ambitious but he does it all while wearing a smile. He started a record store nearly 40 years ago - when he was about 20 and then several years later he parlayed that into an airline, and then several other businesses. Today he is of course a billionaire but at the same time, he wears a smile to just about every interview and it's a sincere smile at that. He is also an avid adventurer - constantly trying to break world records - none directly related to finance.

What really makes me want to meet this guy someday is the fact that a few years ago - he decided to make the first Space Airline - Virgin Galactic - basically upping the ante to anyone who doubts a daydreamer's dreams. So what my parents possibly saw as impossible at one point - going into outer space on vacation - I can see as a viable vacation option in say 2020-2030 (when I might be able to afford it).

What do you dream?

• Dream of getting out of debt,
  
• having some fancy car
  
• do you dream about being able to physically fly one day,
  
• to be able to end hunger in Africa or the world,
  
• Find new better jobs for weapons manufacturers so people can work on ways to work together instead of tearing people apart.
• Cure AIDs
• Cure all Cancer
• walking on the moon
  
• visiting a distant planet billions of light-years away
  
• having everyone laugh at your jokes
• Becoming famous
  

Harriet Tubman once said:

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

I'm a dreamer, a bonafide dreamer since birth. But without dreamers who put their dreams into action -much like Harriet Tubman, the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Oprah and Sir Richard Branson - (Visionaries is my word for them) I doubt I'd have a whole lot to dream about today.

I might quite possibly be an uneducated slave, who never rode an airplane, had only seen cars in movies and who never even began to think that flying to California was possible much less flying into outer-space.

I once had an argument - a very drunk argument at that - a few year's ago with friends about who could change the world. I argued that anyone can change the world in fact just about every day your alive you have an opportunity to change the world if you aren't in fact doing it already.

My two friends argued that that was way too idealistic and only a few key people ever truly affect the world in one way or another, the rest of us are just here for the ride. I still disagree with them but, if they're somehow right, I'd much rather be in the saddle then riding along in the carriage... so-to-speak.

Again I've gone completely on a tangent but I'm curious if you're reading this - do you think you can change the world? Personally, I stand by my belief.

Web Video of the Week#3: Classic Honeymooners

Classic Honeymooners, why counterfeiting doesn't work:



Best quote " I used to a Millionaire...for a couple of days"

Web Video of the week: Destro & Baroness

So I was looking around for something light-hearted and not too deep video-wise.

I think I found a winner. Warning: explicit lyrics -from the Baroness especially, I always knew she was evil...



...My childhood and teenage years brought together with surprisingly entertaining results.

Financial Videos for the week

Over the past 24-48 hours I've been watching a couple videos related to finances/economics. I thought I'd share my opinion of them. Here it goes:

1. The first Movie is a fairly hard movie to come by and is more about economics and race than anything: White man's Burden -this movie is a very unique movie which reverses the socio-economic of whites & blacks in America. A black factory owner played by Harry Belafonte ends up firing one of his lesser-educated white subordinates played by John Travolta. Like everything in the universe the firing of John Travolta's character leads to a series of events that puts the black factory owners life in danger. It eventually becomes a somewhat drawn out kidnapping flick. However, one unique thing about this movie is how it completely changes your perspective on economics. For example; all the management jobs at the factory are filled by blacks. All the line working jobs are filled by whites. All the whites live in the 'bad-side' of town and the 'good side' of town, with the large brick houses, is almost completely populated by blacks. The factory owner even has a white older maid who talks very meekly to her boss. The classic scene of the movie is at a charity fashion show where all the attendees are well dressed blacks. In fact all of the models are attractive black women. Then at the end of the fashion show the designer comes out and is surrounded by several, poor, underprivileged, white children and I think one token underprivileged black child for whom the charity fashion show was thrown. An excellent movie for changing a mindset.
   
2. The second movie/DVD I watched was the Frontline PBS series: Can you Afford to retire?
   -This mini-documentary talks almost exclusively about the downfall of pensions. The rise of 401K plans and how corporate America may not be doing their best to insure that baby-boomer's retirement year's are spent golfing & RV's rather than working at McDonald's or Wal-Mart. It appears that the organization that insures the nations dwindling pension plans would most likely go belly-up itself if every corporation began to file for bankruptcy in order to avoid paying their pension obligations to their employees - leaving the employees with nothing. It also touched on the fact that unless you are very well-paid and/or very financially savvy(or have a PF blog maybe... ) - Americans for the most part have no idea what they're doing when it comes to investing their money in a 401k plan. The movie interests me only because I worry about both my parents - who as of last month are both retired (divorced too) and I'm not sure if I'll have to eventually end up taking care of them financially.
   
3. The third and final movie is actually the first in the series from Morgan Spurlock called 30 days: I make minimum wage - This was great to watch and made me appreciate my current living situation. Even more interesting - this show was filmed entirely in my home town! Morgan Spurlock & his girlfriend decided to live in 'the bottoms' of my town. I won't go into all of the details as I'm getting tired from a long day but, basically he and his girlfriend both find jobs paying about $7 a day. They live in an apartment that costs $325 a month and has roaches and ants to boot. The landlord says as a selling point something to the effect of "well the the tenant below you go busted for selling drugs...at least it wasn't something violent...and there's a hospital right down the street". This somewhat gives you a perspective on their experience. At first they have no furniture, and no car. Although Morgan takes the bus, his more cost-conscious girlfriend walks (mind you in not the best neighborhood -but with a cameraman) everyday to work. They do eventually get furniture and some other amenities but eventually his girlfriend gets a urinary tract infection (with no health insurance) and Morgan sprains his arm (also with no insurance) which puts them in a hole it would take them months to get out of. This mini documentary teaches you quite a bit on how inhospitable it is or would be to be forced to survive on a minimum wage salary. it is eye-opening.
   

Ok that's all for now - nighty night.