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THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 2007
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Group Marketing
Is Perdue's plan
right for the state?
Here’s a true story. One of our employ
ees has a daughter who got married
about a year or so ago. Just prior to
that happening - and we’re talking months
- the new in-laws were busy opening up their
own business
- a bar and
grill here in
the local area.
Business was
good but it was
a long time
before this
business was
in the black,
and in fact,
they might
not still be in
the black (just
out of danger of having to go belly up).
At some point and time during this growth,
the young couple joined the family business
and later all the employees realized the
need for health insurance. But the owners,
as good and kind a couple as you would
find, just -didn’t have the money. Then, a
few months back, the daughter's appendix
burst. The grand total of her medical bill
without insurance: Just over $21,000, not
counting the medicine they had to buy right
out of pocket - over S2OO for one particular
bottle of pills.
The hospital was nice enough to work out
a payment plan but can you imagine what
a payment plan of that sort does to a couple
just starting out?
If only the company could have afforded
health insurance.
Enter Gov. Sonny Perdue.
As we’re sure you read, he has proposed a
plan aimed at helping small businesses offer
coverage for their employees.
Perdue, according to a release, is offering
up to S2O million from state coffers, which
reportedly will ensure 34,000 people - of the
1.7 million reportedly in the state without
insurance.
The plan, according to reports, is far less
ambitious than Republican-sponsored like
plans in place in Massachusetts and under
consideration in California.
Is it the right thing for Georgia?
Well, plenty will balk at the price tag, but
we know at least one business and one cou
ple that will find it cause for celebration.
Oaky Woods destruction
The zoning variance request by the new owners of
Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area is the Trojan
horse that will eventually destroy this unique wildlife
area in Middle Georgia. They want to build a wastewater
treatment plant on 18 acres of this 21,000-acre tract.
No talk about selling any of this land to the state at
fair prices to provide recreational parks for the public.
Or caring about the wildlife there that is often unique.
Our state and local governments allowed this sale to hap
pen and the citizens should have protested about the loss
of such a unique, natural asset that should have become
a state park. Our governor took monetary advantage of
the sale by buying some adjoining land to profit by. Public
apathy helped the developers to deprive the citizens of
Middle Georgia of a great opportunity to improve the
recreational and natural resources of Middle Georgia.
In its place we shall see 30,000 new homes and 120, 000
more vehicles on our congested roads. But too many of us
didn’t even notice-and now it’s too late. Future genera
tions will not benefit. Neither will we.
Frank W. Gadbois, Warner Robins
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Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
The grand total of her
medical bill without
insurance: Just over
$21,000, not counting
the meilcine they had to
buy right out of pocket
- over S2OO for one
particular bottle of pis.
Current market could be goldmine or fool's gold
The stock market is in turmoil. It
is up and down and all around.
Investors are confused. Some
are frightened.
The market is going through what
analysts call “a correction.” The mar
ket goes up and up and up and, even
tually, there comes a time when stocks
are overpriced and there is a correc
tion. Overreaction is the name of the
game where stocks are concerned, so
they go down too far before investors
realize they are underpriced and begin
to buy.
This cycle has been going on since
there was a stock market. People who
“play the market” and believe that they
can outguess it get burned. Investors,
usually, wind up better off than before,
because they do not panic and sell out
at the very wrong time.
For some, a falling stock market
can spell disaster. When the market
crashed in 1929 many stockholders
jumped off skyscrapers to their deaths
as they saw their wealth wiped out. A
young man, reflecting on this, said to
me, “Why in the world would anyone
kill himself over money?” He has a
good point.
The market this time is off only
about six or seven percent. It is so high
that a couple hundred points sounds
much greater than it is. However, the
losses can hurt and this is the time
when real investors are separated from
people who believe they can make
quick money in a rising market. Don’t
believe anyone who claims to have a
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Lifestyles of the rich and stupid
We are allowed to dream, aren’t
we? “If you won the lottery,
say $l3O million, what would
you do with it?”
It’s a conversation I hear, and engage
in, often. We probably all do. In this
case, there were three of us.
“Well, first of all, I’d build a big
house - the biggest in town, with a
huge Olympic-size swimming pool, a
stocked pond out back, and build a
golf course for just me and my friends
to play on whenever we wanted,” said
the first to respond. “I’d buy a house
in Hawaii, a plane, about 12 sports
cars, a Hummer, a nice big boat, and a
house in the mountains. I’d also hire a
personal masseuse, a butler, and a chef
that only cooked pizza. Whatever I had
left, I’d just blow it.”
Our pretend second lottery winner
had a similar plan.
“First thing I’d do is get a chartered
plane and all my friends and we’d go to
Vegas,” he said. “We’d go gambling and
I’d spend about $5 million that night.
Then I’d hire AC/DC and Willie Nelson
to perform at my birthday party, even
if it wasn’t my birthday. Then, whoever
was left, we’d just travel around the
world - to London, Rio, Greece, Rome,
China, wherever we wanted to go. We’d
have a great time.”
When it came to my turn to dream, I
paused, deep in thought.
“What would you do with $l3O mil
lion, Len?”
OPINION
system that can outguess and beat the
market.
The market tanked in 2000, only
seven years ago. This was at the peak
of the excitement over dot.com and
other internet stocks. People who
believed that these newcomers would
make them rich took a real beating.
Most of these stocks (those that did
not go out of business) still have not
recovered to the prices they brought
seven years ago.
I have earned my living in the stock
market for the past 35 years. It has
been a rocky ride but one to which I
committed myself. It takes a special
kind of temperament to watch the
market go through corrections without
panicking. Most people cannot stand
it. There is a reward for those who do,
because they take what cash they have
and jump in and do some bottom fish
ing as the weak at heart unload at the
wrong time.
More than half of the American peo
ple have investments in the stock mar
ket. What it does affects them. Most
people’s investment in the market is
Len
Robbins •* |
Columnist V
airpub@planttel.net j\_ __ _ f 1
“I would start a fouidation to pro
vide college scholarships for under
privileged children,” I 'aid solemnly.
“I would use about S4O nillion to fund
that. Then I would tithe at least sl3
million. The rest I wouH donate to
missionaries working in third-world
countries in an effort to conbat world
hunger and eradicate guitea worm
disease.”
There was stunned silene for at
least a minute before the firt guy to
speak chimed in.
“Yeah, I meant I would bw a big
house and all that after I started a
foundation to combat world lunger
and elaborate worms.”
In all my times of having that littery
dream dialogue, I have never laard
anyone respond, “If I win the lotery,
I’m going to risk my fortune by stat
ing up an illegal, underworld dogfigit
ing operation.”
But that’s apparently what MichtaJ
Vick did when he won his “lottery*
- the richest contract in NFL history
($l3O million over 10 years, not count
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
through retirement funds (usually
invested in mutual funds) that grow
free of taxation until cashed in.
I get the idea sometimes that most
people do not realize the stake they
have in the stock market. If they did
they would look hard at political candi
dates’ attitudes toward the market and
tax policies that would encourage or
discourage growth in the economy.
The second richest man in the United
States - Warren Buffett - started out
with a few hundred dollars in the
mid 1950 s and today is worth more
than $52 billion. They say that SI,OOO
invested with him in 1956 would be
worth $24 million today.
Many individual investors and mutu
al fund s watch his every investment
move as head of Berkshire Hathaway
and benefit from his wisdom.
The secret of his success, as reported
recently in Newsweek magazine, has
been finding solid companies whose
stock is underpriced, buying and stick
ing with the stock. It is a conservative
approach to investing that has paid of
fabulously. Few people have the ability
to find these treasures or the patience
to see them grow to their potential.
Impatience is the worst enemy of most
people who buy stocks.
Today’s stock market turbulence will
turn out to be a golden opportunity to
some. It will cost others dearly. It will
depend on how they approach invest
ing and their ability to deal with the
vagaries of the market 'without losing
their sanity.
ing endorsements). Sure, he bought a
big house and some fancy cars and the
Mr. T starter kit. And then he bought
a house in Virginia and started “Bad
Newz Kennels,” according to a federal
indictment that accuses the Atlanta
Falcon quarterback of being the finan
cier of, and participant in, an interstate
dogfighting enterprise.
In addition to holding records at
Virginia Tech and with the Falcons,
Michael Vick has now set another dis
tinctive mark: He is the biggest dummy
in the world.
Sure, Vick hasn’t been convicted
and professes his innocence. I real
ize that. But after reading the indict
ment, where witnesses identify him
at dogfights, and the fact that one of
his co-defendants has pleaded guilty
and is testifying against Vick, I think
calling him “the biggest dummy in the
world” is a safe, reasonable verdict at
this point.
To really understand how stupid Vick
is, you need to read the indictment.
For instance, the highest purse of any
fight his dogs engaged in was $26,000.
That’s .0002 percent of his base salary.
He risked his career, his fortune, his
reputation, and worst of all, the pos
sibility of going to jail, to watch some
dogs fight?
Somewhere - probably in a gutter
in Honduras - Mike Tyson is saying,
“Tsk. Tsk. Michael Vick is an ignore*
nanimous.”