Tag Archives: money

Follow The Money Trail

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Image courtesy of Raquel Baranow via flickr

Joe Scarborough recently wrote a piece in which he pointed out, rightly so, that Barack Obama received more donations “from Wall Street” than “any politician in American history.”

Joe is being deceptive.

Goldman Sachs, as a corporate entity, has donated nearly 6.5 times more money to Mitt Romney than Barack Obama. Romney has received $290,750 so far during the 2011-2012 election season. Obama has received $44,750 (just slightly more than the $43,000 they have given to Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican here in Florida).

Goldman Sachs employees, however, contributed significantly to Obama’s 2008 campaign. As a matter of fact they were the second largest contributor. This is a VERY important distinction. I quote from the page I just linked to at OpenSecrets.org:

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2008 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization’s PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

In other words, the rank-and-file support the Democrats. The corporate entity itself supports the Republicans.

Where is the disconnect? Seems pretty typical to me.

Spending wisely

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Image courtesy of Nina Matthews Photography via flickr

Time is money.

We’ve all heard that phrase before, but how many of us have really stopped to think about what it means. The common translation seems to be that if people are using your time they should be willing to pay you for it, and while that’s a fine stance to take I’m not quite sure it really it captures the true meaning of the saying.

Time is a resource, just like any other, and it it finite. There are things you can do to, possibly extend the amount of time you have on this planet, but you cannot ever get time back. Once you spend it, time can never be replenished. You get no dividends or interest on time. You can’t save it and let it grow. All you can do is watch your balance constantly diminish.

That concept is still a bit esoteric, though, so let’s break it down to something much more simple.

What if you could track the amount of time you had in life much like you could the amount of money you have in the bank. What if time had a dollar amount associated to it, and every second of your life that dollar amount shrank?

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