Brent Burkey: March 2008 Archives

Barack Obama is doing well in most of the United States, including small, rural states that have voted Republican since before I was born. But not in Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton has a double-digit lead by most accounts. And I think it's because Obama's message doesn't play very well in the Keystone State.

He tells America, "Let's have hope for the future." But this state gave up hope a long time ago.

I can't say exactly why everyone is so roll-over-and-die, it's just a fact of life. And this isn't some Maryland transplant talking; I've never lived much more than an hour's drive from Harrisburg my entire life.

The New York Times found the same thing when it parachuted in over the past few weeks. Read about it here.

Do you think this is a fair take on Pennsylvania. And is it any worse here than anywhere else?

The New York Times today outlined why the current economic climate is both different from past recessions AND still not in a place to cause a depression. It's a little scary, but a pretty honest look at what could happen in the coming months and years. If you can only take the time to read one full article every few weeks or so, this one I think is it. See it here.

Piggybacking on my previous post about why Gen Y doesn't seem to work as hard as our parents, one local company is apparently taking the Gen Y work ethic as a fact of life.

(Basically, to save you a search through the archives, we don't work as hard because big business threw our parents away like they were disposable cans, and both our generation and our parents are worth better)

Johnson Controls, parent company of the former York International, is co-sponsoring a study to see how the company can better cater to this group and retain them as employees. The logic is simple: Older workers retire, and we're all you got left.

See the story here.

What do you think of this move?

When I came to York about three years ago, one of the most evident things I saw going on was the home ownership push in the city. Every city leader wanted people to own their homes, not rent. And I could see the whole lot of good that would bring.

People who own homes care more about them, so it would help the blight and litter issues in the city. And that level of pride in something could translate into other parts of life, and might help that angry, bitter attitude that smacks visitors in the face when the come into the city.

So everyone from the president to legislators to local elected and appointed leaders began a rallying cry to help everyone in the city, and other urban areas across the country, own their own homes.

And then the other shoe dropped, because getting everyone to own a home is the same as saying everyone is going to get saddled with a mortgage. And let's face it, people who can barely pay their rent from month to month have no business signing a 30-year mortgage, no matter what kind of "deal" they get.

Read more about how the "a home for everyone," an odd version of "chicken in every pot" coming from a Republican president and embraced by both parties, helped crash our economy in today's Wall Street Journal.

Getting fed up with modern life, going home and starting a farm is hardly something new. John Wayne's character went home to farm in 1952's "The Quiet Man." (My shameless plug for a great Irish movie on this St. Patrick's Day)

But what might be odd today is the number of people doing it.

The New York Times had a piece on a new group that is opposing the opposition to biotechnology in agriculture. Our local Rutter's Dairy isn't named in the piece, but the image of the debate is in fact the bottling plant. Check it out here.

According to the new perspective from a Catholic leader on the subject of confessing sins, environmental degradation is an evil of the modern world. Churchgoers would need to confess it. Don't believe me? Here it is.

That's the bottom line, isn't it? So here are a few tips to really save money on your daily drive, without the caveats of saving the planet that can actually cost you money in the end.

It's just cold economics.

And interestingly enough, the main tip to take away from this: Having a little beater car for the commute can save hundreds of dollars - and hundreds of gallons of fuel - per year. You don't need a Prius to save gas, and you end up helping the planet by default.

So maybe what we need to see on the long road south to Baltimore every morning is a string of cars that looks more like our old high school parking lots than the Detroit auto show circa 2015.