The Most Stupid of Vices
Issue #2345
- WEALTHY: 2 global ETFs that could help you beat the dollar (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: Why you should steer clear of protein bars (Jon Benson)
- WISE: Jean Vanier on envy
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Is your sense of happiness based on the wrong things? (Alexander Green)
- Manual or automatic - which is better? (Judith Strauss)
- It’s Good to Know… about the physical joystick
- Add "gamine" to your vocabulary
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The Weak Dollar and Global ETFs
We received a query from a reader on ETR’s Speak Out forum regarding global ETFs. Because many of our readers might be interested in this subject, I thought I’d answer it here.
This is the question…
"Can one invest in global or foreign ETFs by using a company like TDAmeritrade - and how do you find the best ones? Are these a good hedge against the falling dollar?”
And this is the answer…
You should be able to buy a global ETF with any brokerage firm. You can punch in the ticker symbol of the ETF just as you would for a stock trade, and follow the same steps from there.
As for how to pick the best ones… that’s a little tougher. Personally, I use the same criteria to pick an ETF that I use to pick a stock. I look for a fundamentally strong economy, a good technical picture, and, ideally, an ETF that is being overlooked by other investors. Two that jump out at me right now are the iShares MSCI Brazil Fund (EWZ) and the iShares MSCI Hong Kong Fund (EWH).
Regardless of whether or not the dollar continues to fall, there are better opportunities outside the U.S. at this time. Our economy is declining and others are growing. Meanwhile, getting some exposure to foreign markets keeps getting easier and easier. And at a time when our market is vulnerable, investing in a global ETF is a wise investment decision.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft is a professional trader and market analyst. In Rick’s new investment service, he gives easy-to-follow, step-by-step advice that you can use to create consistent, automated income. Learn more about how he can help you produce explosive gains - no matter which way the market is trading - by clicking here.]
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"Envy comes from people’s ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts."
Jean Vanier
The Most Stupid of Vices
Economists Sara Solnick and David Hemenway recently conducted a survey where they asked participants if they would rather earn $50,000 a year while other people made $25,000, or earn $100,000 a year while others got $250,000.
Sit down for this one. The majority of participants selected the first option. They would rather make twice as much as others, even if that meant earning half as much as they could have with the second option.
This is completely nuts, of course. Yet other findings by Solnick and Hemenway confirmed the envious nature of contemporary culture. People said, for instance, that they would rather be average-looking in a community where no one is considered attractive than merely good-looking in the company of stunners.
When it came to education, parents said they would rather have an average child in a crowd of dunces than a smart child in a class full of brilliant students.
What is going on here? In his book The Mind of the Market, Scientific American columnist Michael Shermer writes, "Our sense of happiness tends to be based on positional and relative rankings compared to what others have."
There’s one problem, however. That doesn’t work.
As the philosopher Bertrand Russell pointed out, "Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed."
Of all the dissatisfactions we face, surely none is more menial than envy. It denies us contentment, is a waste of time, and is an insult to ourselves. Worst of all, it’s completely self-imposed.
"Envy is the most stupid of vices," wrote Honore de Balzac, "for there is no single advantage to be gained from it."
Face it. We all know people who are smarter, fitter, richer, funnier, more talented, or better looking. But so what?
Thinking this way only keeps you from appreciating your own uniqueness and self-worth, things that, not incidentally, do lead to greater happiness. Especially when combined with a strong sense of purpose.
As Shermer writes, "Feeling ennobled is a pleasurable emotion that arises out of this deepest sense of purpose. Although there are countless activities people engage in to satisfy this deep-seated need, the research shows that there are four means by which we can bootstrap ourselves toward happiness through purposeful action." These include:
- Deep love and family commitment
- Meaningful work and career
- Social and political involvement
- Transcendency and spirituality
Note that psychologists have yet to discover a route to happiness by comparing oneself to others. (Although it never hurts to measure yourself against your own ideals.)
Concentrating on your own fortunes - and improving those of others - is guaranteed to generate more satisfaction than sizing up the Joneses. Besides, if you knew everything the other guy was dealing with, you might prefer your own circumstances anyway.
In other words, don’t begrudge the other guy his blessings. Count your own, instead. As Mark Twain said, "Pity is for the living, envy is for the dead."
[Ed. Note: Alexander Green is Chairman of Investment U and Investment Director of The Oxford Club. Although he still writes investment commentary for both publications, he now tackles some of life’s more difficult challenges in his free, twice-weekly e-letter Spiritual Wealth. Learn how to grapple with the big questions in your life by signing up here.]
For proven advice and hands-on guidance for accomplishing your goals, check out ETR’s Total Success Achievement program. Learn more here.]
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The World Is Shrinking… and the Opportunities to Make Money With This “Global” Economy Are Nothing Short of Staggering! If You Know How…
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The global borders are shrinking… The world’s becoming a smaller place… Will you just stand there watching opportunity go by or will you seize the moment and put the “Global Economy” to work for you?
Why I Drive a Stick
By Judith Strauss, ETR’s Senior Editor
I’d left the lights on, and my car was dead in the company parking lot. "If you have jumper cables, I’ll give you jump," said one of my fellow workers.
"No. I don’t have cables. But maybe you could just give me a push-start."
"That only works with a manual transmission," he said (with a bit of a smirk).
"This is a manual."
"No kidding!"
Shaking his head in disbelief, he said, "Okay. Get in, step on the clutch, and put it in second."
Minutes later, I was on my way.
Growing up in Chicago, there was no need for me to drive at all. Buses and subways were convenient and cheap. But then I moved to Idaho, where public transportation was nonexistent and nothing was in walking distance. So I had to learn. And the person who volunteered to teach me had a VW bug with a manual transmission.
That was a long time ago - but I still choose to drive a stick. Why?
- It’s mechanically simpler than an automatic - which means there’s less maintenance and less that can go wrong. (At least that’s the argument I bought into way back when, though I’m told it’s no longer as much of a consideration.) Plus, if something does go wrong, it tends to be cheaper to fix.
- It’s cheaper up front, by about $1,000 on a new car. And it’s more fuel efficient, which becomes more of an issue every year.
- It has better acceleration - helpful when merging into highway traffic or passing.
- It gives you control over the gears - good to have when negotiating a steep hill or curve, especially if the road is icy or wet.
- Though the vast majority of cars in the U.S. have automatic transmissions, the rest of the world likes manuals. So if you expect to do any overseas traveling that will involve a rental car, being able to drive stick is a good skill to have.
Those are all my logical reasons. But there’s one more: the look on a man’s face when he finds out I can drive this thing. You’d think I’d just stepped out of a phone booth with my hands on my hips - in red, white, and blue spandex, knee-high boots, and carrying a whip.
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Where to Put Your Protein Bars
By Jon Benson
My friend Tom Venuto calls protein bars "candy bars in disguise." Despite this, some people actually recommend protein bars to people trying to lose weight. In fact, the protein bar could be helping you get fatter.
In a study published in The Medical Science Monitor, 20 adults were instructed to eat the following on five separate days: white bread (all carbs, all worthless), a low-carb Atkins Advantage Bar, a medium-carb Balance Bar, a high-carb Power Bar, and a skinless chicken breast (no carbs at all).
The white bread, which elevated their insulin levels sky-high, was used as a baseline comparison. And guess what? The high-carb bar raised their insulin to nearly three-quarters the level of the white bread. The medium-carb bar didn’t fare much better, raising their insulin to about one-third the level of the white bread. The low-carb bar? About one-quarter the level of the white bread. In short, all the bars increased insulin levels, as any food would, but in proportion to the amount of carbohydrate they contain. The chicken? Almost twice under the insulin response of white bread.
When attempting to lose body fat, you want to keep your insulin levels at a trickle. Lower levels of insulin in the blood equate to higher levels of glucagon, your body’s fat-mobilizing hormone. You burn more fat when insulin is kept in check. This is the reason low-carb dieting works so well for so many people: the lower the carbs, the lower the insulin response.
Researchers tried to blame the insulin spike from the Balance Bar (which contains good fats) on its combination of protein and carbs. That was rather silly, considering the Balance Bar is full of sugar. (Now you know why these bars taste so good. They’re Snickers candy with less carbs.)
When dieting to lose body fat, throw your protein bars in the garbage and stick to real food. Load up on lean meats and veggies. These foods not only produce the lowest levels of insulin, but also the highest level of TEF (thermogenic effect of food). The higher the TEF, the greater the amount of energy the body requires to digest and process the food. In short, you’re using more calories just by eating the stuff.
Now that is good diet food!
[Ed. Note: Jon Benson, a life coach and nutrition counselor, is a contributing writer for ETR’s free natural health e-letter. His work in the field of post-40 fitness and mental empowerment has helped countless thousands. Learn how you can burn fat and get fit at www.fitover40.com or www.mpowerfitness.com.]
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It’s Good to Know: The Vocal Joystick
University of Washington researchers have developed software that converts sounds into controlled movements of a cursor on a computer screen. They hope the device will allow people with disabilities to surf the Web and use other computer software.
With the Vocal Joystick, the user voices different vowel sounds to move the cursor in different directions. Louder sounds make the cursor move faster. And "k" and "ch" sounds replace the click of a mouse button. The technology could also be adapted to control electric wheelchairs and robotic arms, say the researchers.
(Source: Physorg.com)
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You CAN learn to become wealthy!
Success is not encoded in an individual’s DNA and does not transfer from father to son or mother to daughter. It is a process - and learning the process is a major KEY to setting up for success.
Today I’d like to offer you two complimentary reports to help you get started: “How To Get What You Need To Succeed In Life" and "Simple Guidelines for Creating Abundance In Your Life."
There will be many steps you take towards your goals where it will feel like you’re taking two steps forward and one step back. You will have breakthroughs, triumphs, and opportunities to overcome adversity.
But to keep moving forward, you just might need a friendly kick-in-the-pants every once in a while. Here’s how to stay energized towards action and success every day of the year.
- Charlie Byrne
Word to the Wise: Gamine
A "gamine" (gam-EEN) - from the French for a child who wanders the streets - is a playfully mischievous girl or young woman.
Example (as used by Joe Brown in the Washington Post): "And the whole world is whacked out with fear of nuclear doom, except for Claire, a French gamine who is ‘living her own nightmare’ and waking up in lots of strange places."
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008
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Way to go, Judith! I’m a girl who drives a stick, too. Always have. I like the control it gives me. Need to pass a car? No problem! Shift down a gear, hit the gas, and the slow car is history. What a feeling!
Alexander Green’s article in today’s ETR, “The Most Stupid of Vices” ignores the laws of relativity. In a world where people earn $25,000 per year, if you earn $50,000 per year, your purchasing power would be twice that of other people. While in a world where others earn $250,000 per year if you only earn $100,000 your purchasing power would only be 40% of what others could buy or save.
Look at it this way, in 2006 average household income was about $48,000. The average home price was $264,000, or 5.5 times the average household income. In Scenario #1, then, the average home would be $25,000 X 5.5 = $137,500, putting 20% down and an APR of 5.75%, your monthly payments are about $633.22, only about 15% of monthly income. This is very affordable if you are earning $50,000 per year.
On the other hand in Scenario #2, the average home would be $250,000 X 5.5 or a staggering $1,375,000. Assuming the same parameters, your mortgage payment is a hefty $6,332.22 per month, more than 75% of monthly income. This is an almost impossible payment for someone earning $100,000 per year.
People inherently understand these kinds of relativities and make their decisions accordingly. So the argument is flawed from the very beginning. It is not envy that causes people to want more than others; it is the intuitive knowledge that having more than others is better than having less.
Further, envy is a physiological state and therefore an emotion, not a vice. A vice is a habitual behavior that would be considered harmful such as gluttony. While envy can lead to harmful behaviors, the energy it creates can also be harnessed to do good. So, while it is true that Bertrand Russell saw envy as a cause of unhappiness, he also felt that it was a driving force behind the movement for democracy. Therefore, it is possible for good to come from this powerful emotion. It becomes a matter of focusing your dissatisfaction in the correct ways. You need to let these emotions guide you in setting goals and then motivate you to take action. It is no surprise that dissatisfied people accomplish far greater things than those who have what they want.
HEY–I DRIVE A STICK, TOO!! You bet I’m going to try to get a stick next time around.
I’m also with John–skip the protein, I mean, candy bars and eat REAL food. Read the label if you don’t believe it. Madison Avenue and the food industry is still pushing the low-fat agenda even thought it’s killing people slowly. But then again, if you’re here, you’re not paying much attention to Madison Avenue, are you?
BTW, vegetarianism is a felony offense in Texas. ;-}
Regarding your article “The Most Stupid of Vices”, I feel like you just slapped me in the face with the reality of the way I look at myself.
I have recently been feeling unappreciated and underpaid at work and my performance has been going downhill because of it. After reading your article, I noticed that I was basing my pay and appreciated solely on how I was getting paid or congratulated “compared to others in the office”, not based on what I may deserve. In doing so I have been creating my own self-fullfilling prophecy.
It is time for me to shape up and get my performance back in gear, and let my results speak for themselves. Thank you ETR, and thank you Alexander!
The “The Most Stupid of Vices” article reminds me of a book I just read: Green with Envy by Amber Brown. Spot on! Suggest you check out your local library. It’s a very quick read.
Deanna! Amy! Yes!
That list of reasons for buying a stick - right on. Exactly why I bought mine: A white Saturn Ion Coupe. Practical car that looks impractical and sporty - and not many people can borrow it because they don’t know how to drive it! I haven’t run the battery down yet, but I live on a hill, so all will be fine if and when I do.
I love driving a stick too! It’s just the way to go…unless you live within a bunch of hills. Thank you for doing that piece on those glorified candy bars. You may very well have saved a life! Well written.
Tom has it right, Most Stuipd of Vices
I chose the 50,000 because prices would be set on 25,000 if that is what every body else earned. The market couldn’t set prices on one persons income. If every body earned 250,000 then prices would be set on that income and the guy making 100,000 wouldn’t live very well at all.I don’t care what someone else makes I just want enough to live on and save until I can’t get to a place where my savings can generate enough income to live on so that I can retire from forced work and do just what I want. What the next guy makes is his and none of my business. I don’t think the question was asked in the right way because answering 50,000 makes perfectly good sense.
Re Where to buy your protein bars ….
Jon opens the article with a statement on protein bars and then goes on to tell us about the evils of carb bars. Aren’t protein and carb not different even in bars?
I always enjoy Early to Rise articles. I am studying Ready, Fire, Aim. It is the best business advice I have ever had the opportunity to study.
I’ve always had stick to drive , although there are advantages to both.The thing with popping the clutch to start the engine in geer does not apply any more with new cars with fuel injection(if battery is completly deed). Still fun to drive.
I stick to the stick, too, but I’m from Europe and there it’s easy. I had the best teacher in the world: the old Fiat 500. No sync at all! I mean, with the 500 if you were not careful you could produce horrible noises that gave shivers to anyone around, if not worse. You learn fast in that way.
I’m going to write a book about the art of shifting gears with the stick, because it is an art that is being forgotten.
When in USA I use or rent automatic and I don’t like the lack of flexibility that stick offers.
Only one downside: starting from a light in parallel with other cars that are automatic, you have a kind of breath in the acceleration that the automatics don’t have: you start, get some speed, clutch - release the gas - shift, release the clutch, gas again… During the one or two seconds needed to change gear (I would definitely suggest 2 seconds or even more) you feel the pressure of the cars behind you who don’t understand why you are not keeping the same acceleration that they keep. If you can stand that kind of pressure the stick is vastly superior to automatic, even if I have to admit that nowaday’s automatic improved a lot from the old models in the ‘70/’80s.
With the cost of gas skyrocketing, shift stick is a must.
ENJOY YOUR DRIVE
// Aren’t protein and carb not different even in bars? //
Yes, they are. However, most of them are full of sugars that digest rapidly. I would opt for a protein/lower-carb bar before your typical Tiger’s Milk or Luna Bar.
Where do you stick lovers live?
Driving a stick through rush hour in a metro area is the pits!! First, second. First, second. First. First. First, second. And you’re just sitting there holding the clutch in for a couple minutes between every move. You have got to be kidding!! I switched to automatic and am much happier now. But I do know how to drive one if the need arises.
The manual gearbox is an accommodation to the inflexibility of the reciprocating internal combustion engine. Way back when most cars had relatively large displacement, torquey engines, and manual transmissions, most cars and light trucks had three-speed transmissions and drivers shifted into third (high) as soon as the engine would pull without “lugging.”
I do not consider the manual less complicated than the modern automatic. I have rebuilt manuals. They are complicated and touchy to set up internally. Automatics are easily rebuilt in a shop equipped for them. The internals essentially slide out. Any defective parts or assembiles are easily replaced with little adjusting. Only a low level of technical knowledge and skill are needed to overhaul or to replace an automatic.
It is much easier to learn to drive an automatic-equipped vehicle. It is not easy to damage an automatic, except deliberately (like revving the engine in neutral and shifting into drive, or shifting into reverse while going forward). Modern computer controlled automatics have protections against that sort of stuff.
Manuals are easy to damage or break. The clutch will not withstand for long holding on hills, “popping,” shifting without clutching, shifting into reverse while going forward (”g-r-r-r-i-i-i-n-n-n-d-d!!”), etc.
Modern automatics are very “smart” in selecting ratios (”gears”) for throttle position, speed and load. In everyday use many automatic equipped vehicles are more fuel efficient than the same vehicle equipped with a manual.
Buses, heavy trucks, earthmoving machinery, and many other vehicles are more and more equipped with automatics because the combination of initial cost, fuel efficiency, reliability and long life favor the automatic over the manual.
Manual transmissions are favored by owner drivers due to lower first cost and by “sporty” drivers. Even here, though, diminishing volume of sales of manuals in comparison to automatics is lowering the initial price advantage of manuals.
Regrding “Most Stupid of Vices”. I was amazed that I really saw myself in the Vice. I really didn’t think that I was envious of anyone. But, I was all wrong. I haven’t done what I want to do because I have been conserned about what others are doing and if I can do as good or better than anyone. So I guess that I am envious of everyone. This is a rather revolting development. But, since I saw myself in the most stupid vice there is I will have to work on that and get out of it.
I think that the world is big enought for there to be, more or less smarter, thinner, more beautiful people out there and me too. I have a lot to offer the “world”, and I am looking forward to getting it out there.
Thank you for putting this out there for the envious to read and see ourselves in it. I believe that since I see my self in it, I can change my reality. So, thank you once again.
I use to think driving a stick was really driving, but now that I am older automatic is the way to drive. I really wish that it could be eaiser to hop on a bus and get to where I want and need to be without pulling out of my driveway and having to put so much gas into my tank. Just the other day I filled my tank topping the higest dollar amount that I have ever spent. If for no other reason to save some money, but the planet is the one that we need to worry about. So how do we get more busses on the roadway and less personal vehicles?