Looking Out From the Garage: August 2008

I've been looking at this GPS unit, the Dash Express. 

It looks pretty cool.  It has internet connectivity through cellular and wifi networks.  So, instead of having a static list of restaurants or other area points of interest... it can search.  Maps can be automatically updated.  Traffic heat maps are on a whole new dimension. 

It also give three different route choices, their mileage and expected time.  That would be great for me, because I often like to go a slightly different way in order to accomplish something along the way (gotta combine those trips, you know!). 

But... using one is the best way to know about one...

Any users? 

And if you aren't, go wander around the site and see what you think.

I have been littering the political posts of A|R with comments about policies being proposed by either McCain or Obama.  In some cases I have alluded to other things I think they should be considering.  And in both cases I think that the parties and the candidates are missing the boat. 

Energy...

The Democrats are complaining that we can't drill our way out of this.  They are whining that it will take 20 years for drilling to have any effect...

• First, that is a lie.  It will be more like 3-5 years, but the effects would be felt immediately in the futures market.
• Second, 12 years ago, Clinton vetoed a bill from the GOP controlled Congress that owuld have opened up ANWR... that oil would be on the market right now. 
  

So, to fix the problem in the beginning, open up ANWR, the OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) and the FGS (Florida Gulf Coast) for drilling.  The 68m acres that the Democrat leadership is talking about are not productive areas... Drilling where the oil isn't is stupid... they know it.  70 of the people in the country want drilling and they want it NOW. 

Two things will be accomplished with this.  First, by NOT importing 4,000,000 barrels of oil each day, we won't be sending $400M - $600M each day to countries like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran.  Second, the royalty that the federal government gets from a barrel of oil is 18%.  So, they would increase their revenue by $72M - $106M each day. That means that by sourcing 4M barrels of in the US rather than elsewhere, the government would get between $25B and $40B each year. 

It is time to build nuke plants.  Even France generates 80% of it's electrical power from nuclear plants.  There is NO reason that we can't match that.  Free up the natural gas for transportation.

The next thing to do is put a man on the moon develop ground-breaking technologies to wean us off of oil for other purposes.  Transportation may be the toughest... but it is also not the biggest problem. 

Healthcare...

Despite the noise from the left, no other country can match the access to healthcare available in the US.  Don't tell me about how healthcare is useless unless you can afford it.  Every time there is a story about someone not being able to get healthcare because of a lack of insurance, there is a story about people going to jail and companies being fined many times the cost of care.  You CAN NOT be legally turned away from a facility because of a lack of ability to pay.

And yet, all... ALL... ALL of the countries that are pointed to as examples have healthcare rationed and people DIE waiting in line to be treated.  So, for those that say it doesn't matter if you can't aford it, I say All of the affordability in the world doesn't matter if you can't get treated.

So, what can we do to reign in prices, especially for the uninsured? 

• First, healthcare providers need to publish EVERY price for EVERY procedure, service or product they provide.  It needs to be public and it needs to be widely available.  They already have codes that are standardized throughout the industry for every concievable aspect of care.  They should make it available on their website and in print form for the cost of the print.
• Second, and this is important, each provider can only have ONE price for a service, procedure or product.  If you are paying cash, you pay the same as the biggest insurance company.  No negotiated fees.  A hospital can't charge the Bailey's $12,000 for delivering a baby, or charge the insurance company $4,000 for the exactlsame baby. 
  

Would people go to compare the costs and reputations of every provider while they are in the ambulance after an auto accident?  No.  But I can guarantee that there will be scores of companies that will do just that and the information about how good a given provider is v. their cost will be ubiquitous. 

And most of the people that are uninsured are uninsured by choice.  I have employed too many people that could pay $400/mo. for a car and $100/mo. for a phone, but couldn't manage $150/mo. for the employee portion of their healthcare.  I know it is WAY more expensive for us.  I could buy a rental home with what my family pays for our policy.  But limiting competition and putting the least efficient provider in charge is NOT the solution. 

And it could be implemented in weeks. 

Taxes and the Economy...

They are inextricably linked.  As is housing and transportation.  Again, despite the whining from the Democrats in the House and Senate about "the last eight years", the damage has mostly been in the last two years.  In the previous six years, the Clinton Recession was turned around, despite terrorist attacks that hurt the economy in addition to killing thousands of Americans on our own soil.

Look at what we had going two years ago in regards to unemployment, inflation, oil, the value of the dollar.  Also keep in mind that the Democrats couldn't get traction on the economy during the mid-term elections... they ran on the war.  Now, with two years of "leadership" from Democrats in the House and Senate... it REALLY is starting to suck.  So, these are the folks with a roadmap?

It is time to really shake things up.  FairTax.  Dismantle the IRS.  Make the US the biggest coporate tax haven on the planet.  After the FairTax is adopted, people would have to hide under a rock to avoid a job.  We have among the highest corporate taxes in the world.  And we wonder why companies want to be headquartered elsewhere?  US companies have to pay taxes on international profits... foreign companies don't have to pay taxes in their home country on earnings here.  And we wonder why companies want to be headquartered elsewhere?  We can fix that, simplify life for business owners and non-business owners alike.  We can end the intrusion of the government into people banks accounts and life.  We can tax the underground economies.  And we can surtax illegal residents... all in one fell swoop. 

So, there you go...

You want to race what?  Seriously, there are a couple of real air race videos for this video Sunday... and one NOT serious, but hilarious. 

Jon Washburn here has been tracking a pile of RE blogs for a few months.  I have scraped my way up to #54.  But, I'm Going to break into the Top 50! at some point soon... I hope. 

I have been using Plugoo on my site as an IM chat client for several months.  It was a great solution.  And then I got a connection request from a consumer on my site and Plugoo cut it off and told me I needed to upgrade.  You know... that ticked me off.  There had never been anything saying that there was a limit on connections for Plugoo... and so THAT night I changed to Meebo.  I think it is better.  And to change everything, I needed to do some Boring housecleaning... and add a cool video. 

Have you been to the Ranch?  Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn, near Stone Mountain is a cool place to hang out for a couple of hours with the kids.  The animals are friendly. 

Most of the time it is NOT good to have the iTeam focus their cameras on you or anything you are involved with...  Update of the Fox 5 iTeam at my listing... Wow.  You HAVE to see these.  And I hope you don't stop at the first two.  The third is better. 

Almost Ready with Lilburn Dwellings... And posting on Gwinnett Dwellings...  And I talked about it on my blog.

Racing is racing... there are just different scales.  F1 costs $300m+ to field a team for a year.  Nascar is starting to approach $100m.  Saturday Night Dirt Track racing can take up $25k or $250k.  What if you only want to spend $500?  There is a scale...

I've mentioned it here a couple of times.  Pardon the dust... I am up to my earballs in updating some stuff on LaneBailey.com.  I am cleaning up tags and links and adding "More" tags.  It's really boring. 

Real estate, the garage... where ever, I like cool tools... and I like using them.  And both REtech and the garage are great places to find cool tools to play with utilize. 

Short sales could make RE pros go nuts.  The banks just don't seem to want to get the books cleaned up, and so they whine about needing money while money stares them in the face.  I don't do them... and It's a Dirty Job, and nobody has to do it.

Not much is cooler than a good junkyard.  Playing in the yard is a pointer to a cool photo esay in the LA Times. 

I have set up a Twitter account just for Lilburn real estate.  It's A new way to find out about Lilburn, GA real estate... follow me on Twitter @Lilburn.

Spicy... Don't Touch!  I hear things.  I see things.  They relate to real estate and marketing.  And so I write them.  Even things that are seemingly unrelated have a message for real estate and marketing.

I have not made it a secret that I LOVE WRC (World Rally Championship) racing.  It is simply just about the most exciting form of racing in the world.  So, for Video Sunday, I got Back in the Rally again... Video Sunday. 

I am a fan of Localism.  I'm not hiding that much either.  While I think that it will need to grow for a while, it has serious potential.  So, Lilburn and Localism introduces it to my market.  Come on in.  Make yourself known. 

As an example of a nice local post for Localism, Lilburn City Park... not just for Kids.  An interactive panorama, a few pictures, and a nice summer day with one of my boys. 

Each month, I redo the entry page for GarageHomesUSA.com.  It takes a bit of time, and I like it.  I like having to go through some posts to figure out what content fits it best.  I put up the August issue on 8/6.  And announced it...

Can you believe that FaceBook has almost a dozen Lane Baileys and half a dozen Bailey Lanes.  I don't feel so unique...

Along with Localism, there are other venues for local news... REAL local news.  Look at things from the Outside.In.  They are a local portal all over the country... locally. 

I had Price Reductions for two of my listings at the same time, and felt that it would be good to announce them on my blog.  And I put up nifty slide shows.

Trying to get back on schedule withthe anthology of blog posts on LaneBailey.com... 

For Video Sunday, I paid a visit to one of the coolest tracks in the world... one that most people have never heard of.  Nordschleife, the real Nurburgring.  Even in its truncated form, it is over 13 miles long with 73 turns. 

I trotted out an old post to give it a little new exposure.  Dirty Little Real Estate Secret.  The media loves to "expose dirty secrets" and most of them aren't that juicy.  When I wrote it, I had just watched a news story about a dirty secret your real estate agent won't tell you... it was that other people stay in your time share.  Really?

I am now loading Flickr.  So I thought I would say so...  After all, I don't mind people following me there to see pictures of cool stuff going on in and around Lilburn, GA... some real estate, some not. 

As we get closer to the official launch of LilburnDwellings.com, I wanted to talk about What is Hyper-Local Content and why do you care?  After all, the stuff happening around the corner is at least as important as the stuff happening under the Gold Dome or up in DC. 

He didn't make it to the Medal Round, but we were able to Get ready to cheer for Lilburn's Eric Shanteau.  He made it to the semi-finals, and swam a great race in the 200m breast stroke.  Now he has made it back to Atlanta. 

I love making up new words... especially from combining other words.  And I was able to make a new one.  Ad Homily... my new made up word of the week.

If you are around Atlanta, you ought to pay a visit to the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center in Buford.  It is the "greenest" building in the southeast.  And there are lots of pictures...

I'm sitting here watching Barack Obama deliver his acceptance speech.  And earlier today, I was thinking about the book Rainbow Fish.  And they gel. 

For the person out there that isn't familiar with this children's book, it is about a fish that is beautiful and vain.  He has shiny colorful scales.  He thinks he is better than the other fish, and doesn't want to play with them.  One of the other small fish asks the Rainbow Fish for a scale, and he refuses.  After that, the other fish ostracize him until he give away all of his scales to them, except for one.  Then he can play with the other fish. 

Of course, those that have bestowed awards on this book subscribe to the idea that it is about sharing.  Not having possessions is good.  One shouldn't have any more than anyone else. 

But, I see something darker here.  The Rainbow Fish is essentially forced to buy friends, and his wealth is redistributed.  At it's core, it is an anthem for Socialism.  The Rainbow Fish has something that the other fish don't have... and they want it.  So, they pressure him to give it to them. 

And so here I sit...

Listening to Barack Obama talking about all of the things he wants to give away.  But, he doesn't want to give away what he has.  He wants to give away what OTHERS have.  Instead of rewarding people that go above and beyond, they should be taxed more heavily. 

And while it doesn't exactly line up with the book, what I am seeing is that Obama and the throngs cheering him think that this country is great BECAUSE of its government, not that it is great in spite of the intrusions of government. 

Finally, I would recommend reading Alexis de Toqueville's Democracy in America.  He saw this coming 175 years ago.

Everything old is new again... 

Like electric cars.  Think that they are a new idea?  Think again.  In 1907, the Anderson Electric Car Company (later Detroit Electric) began building electric cars.  The range was over 80 miles... in 1907.  Of course, speeds were low (20mph) but not out of line with contemporaries.  And they peaked in the 1910s... during the high gas prices of WWI. 

But of course, electric isn't the only "Green" automotive tech.  There are also bio-fuels.  And for those that aren't up on their green tech, bio-fuels are those that come from plants rather than dead dinosaurs. 

The most popular bio-fuel is ethanol.  And it is actually less popular now than it has been in the past.  In fact, at the dawn of the automotive age, one of the first bright lights to shine over the horizon was actually a flex-fuel capable Model T.  In fact, farmers used to use their own corn to make ethanol for their Ts. 

Later, the rubber used for fuel lines had trouble holding up to Ethanol.  It is only in the last few years that auto makers have begun using fuel lines and other components that would stand up to the alcohol. 

The other bio-fuel is bio-diesel.  The cool thing about diesel is that Rudolph Diesel actually designed the engine to run on peanut oil.  And there are a LOT of advantages to bio-diesel over ethanol.  The biggest being the energy yield vs. energy input.  Some studies are saying that it actually takes more energy to make ethanol than it puts out. 

But no so with bio-diesel.  Especially since it can even be made from used cooking oil...

I am cleaning up my blog... and it is really not fun.  I am making a few changes to the old posts, basically cleaning up the tags and adding "Read More" tags.  Boring... 

But, it is also forcing me to look at old posts. 

One of those posts was this... and that brings me to the point of my post. 

A little over a year ago, I made a bold prediction.  It was back in the days when I didn't really even get that many comments on my A|R blog.  So, there wasn't anyone to hold my feet to the fire.  Not so much now.  Plenty of people really enjoy lighting my pants on fire when I'm not right...

Read the old post, and have at it.  Or you could read the A|R version...

It is pretty easy to start out by saying that I am NOT a fan of Barak Obama for President.  As I have watched his candidacy unfold, I have noticed it long on rhetoric and short on reality, forethought and responsibility. 

Yesterday, Inman had a story about the Obama Housing Plan.  I'm not shocked... 

The first thing is that I came up with stated costs of $330,000,000,000.  By the way, that means that what he is proposing will cost $3,000 for every single household in the country.  Of course, the Obama camp is well aware that 97% of income taxes are paid by 50% of the population, so if you actually pay taxes, it is doubtful that you'll only see a $3,000 tax increase for this program.  Also, by the time it actually rolls through the halls of Congress, and gets loaded up with candy for favored causes, it will double. 

So, to a little of the meat (summarized from the Inman Summary):

• Obama's first proposal would create a new loan program at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). This program would "provide meaningful incentives for lenders to buy or refinance existing mortgages and convert them into stable 30-year fixed mortgages." The plan is intended to create "an important federal backstop." The policy statement doesn't detail the nature of the "incentives," but states that "neither lenders nor homeowners would receive a windfall from this plan."  (The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 authorized the FHA to guarantee up to $300 billion in loans to help borrowers refinance into more affordable loans when existing lenders agree to forgive part of their debt. Borrowers would also share gains from the sale of their homes with the government.)  Really?  An incentive that isn't going to incentivize anyone that is in the transaction?  Pure crap.  And personally, I am a little scared that a politician is putting up a plan which will effectively make the government a co-owner of millions of "private" homes. 
  

• A second proposal would create a $10 billion fund to assist homeowners who are facing foreclosure. The funds, to be partially offset by higher penalties on lenders who "act irresponsibly and commit fraud," would be used to "increase emergency pre-foreclosure counseling resources" and help homeowners who can't afford to own their home to sell it by offsetting the costs of the sale, including "helping low-income borrowers get additional time and support to pay back any losses from the sale of their home and waiving certain state and local income taxes that result from an individual selling their home to avoid foreclosure." The policy document adds that the funds would not be used to aid "speculators, people who bought vacation homes or people who falsely represented their income." Obama also has called for federal legislation that would "clarify and ease the ability of loan servicers to act on behalf of" mortgage investors.  As I recall... lenders acting irresponsibly were already responsible for the whole mess...  so they are going to be charged some more?  See the above incentive... More crap

• Third on the list is a $10 billion grant to state and local governments in areas that have been "hardest-hit by the housing crisis." The funds would be used so that localities' would[n't?] need to reduce "critical public services" or "vital infrastructure spending" as a result of foreclosures. The proposal doesn't specify how the localities would be selected, how the funds would be allocated or which services would meet those criteria.  Again, I think this was just a bone to try to get support from local politicians.  One of two things will happen.  It will be a nowhere plan that never happens... or it will cost 10x as much money because suddenly EVERY Democrat run city will need funding to help the local politicians maintain power.  

After that there are some standard boilerplate Federalist plans... making the federal government take more power from the states, expanding existing agencies and enacting new departments, and passing more laws that parrot current laws.

Basically, it is a populist plan that doesn't embrace logic, but rather appeals to base emotions. 

And next week, Inman will review the McCain plan... I'll probably be trashing that, too.