Sunday, November 2, 2008

socialism 101

So in all fairness to my last post I thought we should cover socialism and communism.
After all I want to keep my self in check and make sure I am using the words in their correct context. (is that the right their?) So my theory is the good old USA is headed down the road to socialism with the $700 billion dollar bail out package that is in place by our great government, lets look at the facts, shall we?

Webster says Socialism is:
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
3: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
4: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

And Communism is:
1: a theory advocating elimination of private property
2: a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed
3: a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
4: a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
5: a final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably

So every one puts in a hard days work and every one gets a hard days pay. This concept sounds great on paper, however when it has been tired in a real life application it seems to only really work for one generation. Look at the Russian Revolution of 1917 which lead to the end of Czar Nicholas II and his family ushering in WWI and the communist party. Which, might I add, met its demise in 1989. Lasting a total of 72 years of which if we account for the ramp up and introduction of communism and the demise or fall of communism you have maybe a total of 50 years of communism "working" at which point it failed. We would need to look at capitalism more in depth for comparison sake, but we will save that for another blog. Socialism would work great if it were not for people. That is the weak link in the equation. If we were all hard working and type A personalities it would more then likely work just fine, however we are not.
Its the 10/90 rule. 10% of the people do 90% of the work. So think of 9 of your friends and only one of them is doing anything useful.
I know this might be hard to swallow, but I would have to admit I am in the 90% side.

Point being we have a bunch of investor that made a bunch of bad investment, in the form of sub prime loans. The investors knew what they were doing, they knew it was risky investments but for what ever reason (I will use term greed for today) they "invested" the money. It backfired on them. Now in a Socialist society, we would dole out $700 billion to give to them and say, we are so sorry for your bad investment here you go, here's your money back.
In a capitalist society (which might I add I thought we were) it would be tough "poo poo" get over it and figure it out. You made a bad choice fix it!
But now our government feels that every household in America (renter and home owner according to the 2000 US census) needs to give the federal government $6635.07

So am I confused or is it our government?

When we look at over the last fifty years of the United State real estate market it goes up for about 7 years then it comes down for ..... you guessed it 7 years.
you can chart it all most to the day. However some knuckle heads thought it would just go up for ever because what goes up NEVER comes down.
I think any elementary schooler could tell ya that one.

Don't get me wrong I know there is a lot more to our current economic situation then just a few bad investments, however to sum it up in a nut shell this is the basic folks. No matter what, we have two knuckle heads running for the highest office in the land and I do not think either one is truly qualified for the job at hand.
However it is who we got. So if nothing else DO YOUR HOME WORK and get out there and vote this Tuesday!

And know that property values are at an all time low and so are interest rates. In just about any business this would be called planetary alinement!
In ten years this all should be a distant memory and what ever you bought today should have made a handsome return for tomorrow.
Buy low sell high.

And if you need some property ...... give me a call!


Regards,
James Baxter
REALTOR
Richard Realty Group, inc
6986 El Camino Real Ste. H
Carlsbad, Ca. 92009
760-271-9971 Direct
760-942-9398 Fax
james@rescg.com
www.rescg.com

"Average is what anybody can do. Excellence is what I strive for."

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

iPhone Blogging

So I wanted to see how blogging from ones iPhone works? Do I really have things that are that important to say?

As the saying goes you are the smartest one in the room, until you open your mouth.

Catch 22

I wanted to take a moment and define the meaning of catch 22.
My reasoning for this is two fold. One, I hear the phrase used and I believe it is being used out of context to its real meaning and two, to see if it was me using it out of its true meaning.

As I hypothesized The first was to be true.

A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions.

With that said I was pondering the relevance to the phrase catch 22 to our current economic bail out package being proposed and put into effect by our fearless leaders in Washington. I only hope it works however I do feel we are in a catch 22. I do not see how bailing out the individuals that created this mess is going to fix anything. Hey I have lost a ton of money on my investment, I am down more then 50% across the board, is the federal government going to bail me out? You can make a check out to James Baxter and mail it to my office (see address below). It looks more like the beginning stages of socialism then a bail out package, and we all know how well socialism works.

Ah heck maybe I am looking at this all wrong, maybe socialism would be a good thing - we all get paid the same no matter what work we do eah. So my new job will be a full time dad and again you can mail the checks to my office. I think that will do just fine.

Cheers,
James Baxter
REALTOR
Richard Realty Group, inc
6986 El Camino Real Ste. H
Carlsbad, Ca. 92009
760-271-9971 Direct
760-942-9398 Fax
james@rescg.com
www.rescg.com

"Average is what anybody can do. Excellence is what I strive for."

Is now the time to buy?

"Is now the time to buy?"

As a Realtor in the San Diego area I get this question a lot. As with any major purchase it really depends on you, the buyer.

Bottom line, real estate has always been a excellent investment.
That is not to say that it does not have short terms ups and downs.
However over the long term it has always done well.

My question to you the buyer, What are your motivations?

Are you looking for a quick flip, to make a quick buck?
Well, you will be hard pressed to find it.

Are you looking for a place to raise your family for the next 5, 10 or even 20 years?
Are you looking for a long term investment property?
If this is the case you will do great buying right now.
Interest rates are at the lowest levels that they have ever been.
Real estate prices are near an all time low.
It is planetary alignment in the Real Estate world.
Low interest rates and low home prices.

If you would like more info feel free to contact me, it's what I do:

Regards,
James Baxter
REALTOR
Richard Realty Group, inc
6986 El Camino Real Ste. H
Carlsbad, Ca. 92009
760-271-9971 Direct
760-942-9398 Fax
james@rescg.com
www.rescg.com

"Average is what anybody can do. Excellence is what I strive for."