3/20/2011

LEGACIES AND THE NATURE OF THOSE WHO BESTOW THEM


A Personal View
:

Those who create a legacy out of their life's work have the supreme self confidence to share the positive outcomes of their life with others for the greater good. They are what I refer to as 'net' givers'.
They are magnanimous in their daily life, self effacing and their cup is neither half full nor half empty - but rather overflowing.

They are rare indeed.

I have been priviledged to share a life with one such person.

3/19/2011

FAMILY IN THE WEST - IN LIFE - IN DEATH - THE OEDIPAL FAMILY MODEL AND FASCISM - FROM WIKIPEDIA



Family in the West


Family types


Family arrangements in the United States have become more diverse with no particular household arrangement representing half of the United States population.

The different types of families occur in a wide variety of settings, and their specific functions and meanings depend largely on their relationship to other social institutions.Sociologists have a special interest in the function and status of these forms in stratified (especially capitalist) societies. The term "nuclear family" is commonly used, especially in North America and Europe, to refer to conjugal families. Sociologists distinguish between conjugal families (relatively independent of the kindred of the parents and of other families in general) and nuclear families (which maintain relatively close ties with their kindred). The term "extended family" is also common, especially in North America and Europe. This term has two distinct meanings. First, it serves as a synonym of "consanguinal family." Second, in societies dominated by the conjugal family, it refers to "kindred" (an egocentric network of relatives that extends beyond the domestic group) who do not belong to the conjugal family. These types refer to ideal or normative structures found in particular societies. Any society will exhibit some variation in the actual composition and conception of families. Much sociological,historical and anthropological research dedicates itself to the understanding of this variation, and of changes in the family that form over time. Thus, some speak of thebourgeois family, a family structure arising out of 16th- and 17th-century European households, in which the family centers on a marriage between a man and woman, with strictly defined gender-roles. The man typically has responsibility for income and support, the woman for home and family matters.


According to the work of scholars Max Weber, Alan Macfarlane, Steven Ozment, Jack Goody and Peter Laslett, the huge transformation that led to modern marriage in Western democracies was "fueled by the religio-cultural value system provided by elements of Judaism, early Christianity, Roman Catholic canon law and the Protestant Reformation".


In contemporary Europe and North America, people in academic, political and civil sectors have called attention to single-father-headed households, and families headed by same-sex couples, although academics point out that these forms exist in other societies. Also the term blended family or stepfamily describes families with mixed parents: one or both parents remarried, bringing children of the former family into the new family. Also in sociology, particularly in the works of social psychologist Michael Lamb, traditional family refers to "a middleclass family with a bread-winning father and a stay-at-home mother, married to each other and raising their biological children," andnontraditional to exceptions from this rule. Most of the US households are now non-traditional under this definition.


Sociological views


Contemporary society generally views family as a haven from the world, supplying absolute fulfillment. The family is considered to encourage "intimacy, love and trust where individuals may escape the competition of dehumanizing forces in modern society." During industrialization, "[t]he family as a repository of warmth and tenderness (embodied by the mother) stands in opposition to the competitive and aggressive world of commerce (embodied by the father). The family's task was to protect against the outside world." However, Zinn and Eizen note, "The protective image of the family has waned in recent years as the ideals of family fulfillment have taken shape. Today, the family is more compensatory than protective. It supplies what is vitally needed but missing in other social arrangements."


"The popular wisdom," Zinn and Eitzen say, is that the family structures of the past were superior to those today and families were more stable and happier at a time when they did not have to contend with problems such as illegitimate children and divorce. They respond to this, saying, "there is no golden age of the family gleaming at us in the far back historical past." "Desertion by spouses, illegitimate children, and other conditions that are considered characteristics of modern times existed in the past as well."


Still others argue that whether or not we view the family as "declining" depends on our definition of "family." The high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births indicate a decline in the institution of the family. No longer are marriages arranged for political or economic gain, and children are not expected to contribute to family income. Instead, people choose mates based on love. This increased role of love indicates a societal shift toward favoring emotional fulfillment and relationships within a family, and this shift necessarily weakens the institution of the family.


Oedipal family model and fascism


The model, common in the western societies, of the family triangle, husband-wife-children isolated from the outside, is also called the oedipal model of the family, and it is a form of patriarchal family. Many philosophers and psychiatrists analyzed such a model. One of the most prominent of such studies is Anti-Œdipus by Deleuze and Guattari (1972). Michel Foucault, in its renowned preface, remarked how the primary focus of this study is the fight against contemporary fascism.


“ And not only historical fascism, the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini [...] but also the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us. ”


In the family, they argue, the young develop in a perverse relationship, wherein they learn to love the same person who beats and oppresses them. The family therefore constitutes the first cell of the fascist society, as they will carry this attitude of love for oppressive figures in their adult life. Kindship and family forms have often been thought to impact the social relations in the society as a whole, and therefore been described as the first cell or the building social unit of the structure of a society. Fathers torment their sons. Deleuze and Guattari, in their analysis of the dynamics at work within a family, "track down all varieties of fascism, from the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the petty ones that constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everyday lives".

 
As it has been explained by Deleuze, Guattari and Foucault, as well as other philosophers and psychiatrists such as Laing and Reich, thepatriarchal-family conceived in the West tradition serves the purpose of perpetuating a propertarian and authoritarian society. The child grows according to the oedipal model, which is typical of the structure of capitalist societies, and he becomes in turn owner of submissivechildren and protector of the woman.


Some argue that the family institution conflicts with human nature and human primitive desires and that one of its core functions is performing a suppression of instincts, a repression of desire commencing with the earliest age of the child. As the young undergoes physical and psychological repression from someone for whom they develop love, they develop a loving attitude towards authority figures. They will bring such attitude in their adult life, when they will desire social repression and will form docile subjects for society.

Michel Foucault, in his systematic study of sexuality, argued that rather than being merely repressed, the desires of the individual are efficiently mobilized and used, to control the individual, alter interpersonal relationships and control the masses. Foucault believed organized religion, through moral prohibitions, and economic powers, through advertising, make use of unconscious sex drives.
Dominating desire, they dominate individuals.

According to the analysis of Michel Foucault, in the west:


"the [conjugal] family organization, precisely to the extent that it was insular and heteromorphous with respect to the other powermechanisms, was used to support the great "maneuvers" employed for the Malthusian control of the birthrate, for the populationist incitements, for the medicalization of sex and the psychiatrization of its nongenital forms."


—Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality vol I, chap. IV, sect. Method, rule 3, p. 99





3/04/2011

PARENTING'S HAPPY FACE JUST A PUT - ON, STUDY FUNDS



Idealization a way to cope with costs


When parents say their children are the true source of happiness and fulfillment in their lives, they may be enacting a psychological defence to justify all the time, money and energy they put into the job, finds a new Canadian study.



The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests parents are idealizing their role to cope with the downsides of being mom and dad — namely, how expensive it is to raise a family.


“The well-being literature shows that during the years when most people are parenting, people tend to report lower life satisfaction and lower levels of happiness,” said study co-author Steven Mock, an assistant professor in the health studies and gerontology department at the University of Waterloo.


He and colleague Richard Eibach, an assistant professor in the university’s psychology department, set out to “explain the disconnect” between quality of life reports that consistently show low points in middle age and the common assertion that parenting brings all the joy one could ever ask for.


“It’s this cultural idealization,” Dr. Mock said, pointing to previous studies that have found the idea that parenthood is a trove of emotional joys is a myth.


The pair conducted two studies to test their hypothesis that parents idealize the emotional rewards of their role to help justify the financial costs of raising their children.


In the first, half of the group of 80 parents of children under age 18 recruited for the study in the northeastern United States was given reading material that focused on the fact it typically costs more than US$190,000 to raise a child to age 18.


The other half was given the same material that also addressed potential benefits of parenting, such as financial and practical support in old age.


The parents who were primed to mostly think about the costs of children were more likely to idealize parenting when answering questions about how much happiness a child brings to a parent’s life.


In another test with similar preparation techniques, the parents who were preoccupied with the costs of raising children were more likely to report higher levels of enjoyment in spending time with their children and intending to spend more time with them in the future.


“It appears from our results that if you direct parents’ attention to just the financial costs of raising kids, that then motivates them to idealize parenting and exaggerate its emotional rewards. In doing so, it helps them cope with the dissonance about their costs,” said Prof. Eibach.


Years ago, children were part of a family’s economic engine, working on farms and bringing home paycheques that would land in the family’s communal pot, the researchers point out. Parents were also less emotionally available or in tune with their children at that time, they add, but that has changed over time as children contributed less wealth and cost more. With that rising cost has emerged an idealization and an emphasis on the emotional rewards of being a parent, they said.


It’s not always a bad thing to idealize, said Dr. Mock. In fact, research has shown those who tend to see and experience things in a slightly more positive light than most, accurately or not, tend to report better mental health.


A new study released this week, and also published in Psychological Science, found that people who idealize their romantic partners lead a happier life in the long run.


“We’re not trying to say parents are deluded,” he said. “Idealization is a strong word and if we challenge it people think automatically the inverse, that we’re attacking parenthood. We’re not doing that at all,” he said. “What we are saying is that maybe people idealize it a little bit.”


The study ignited online debate after its publication in February.


On 11 pages of comments in response to a column about the study on the Huffington Post website, readers praised the researchers for having the courage and forthrightedness to study such a culturally fraught subject. Others were offended by the suggestion that they may be denying true feelings they might hold about the experience of being a parent.


Dr. Mock said he’d been asked by interviewers whether he and Prof. Eibach were parents themselves.


“What it implies is one of these cultural myths of if you’re not a parent, you don’t know what it’s about,” he said. “From a research perspective, we can’t always study things we experience directly.”


Sarah Boesveld and Derek Abma,


National Post,


Postmedia News •


Mar. 3, 2011

APPLE'S JOBS SAYS iPAD 2 MAKES IT OFFICIAL: PC ERA IS DONE

On the occasion of the launch of the second generation of Apple’s iPad tablet, CEO Steve Jobs essentially declared the end of the two-decade PC era.


“These are post-PC devices that need to be even easier to use than the PC, and even more intuitive,” Jobs said at the end of Wednesday’s iPad 2 launch event in San Francisco, using the phrase “post-PC” a dozen or so times in reflecting on the year since Apple (NSDQ:AAPL - News) once again put the PC and consumer electronics industries on notice with the launch of the original iPad. Just like the iPhone in 2007, the iPad is quickly showing that people are finally ready for a more intimate computing experience than the one provided by their laptops but now, they want it in an easier to read and use package than a smartphone.


Apple shipped 15 million iPads in the 9 months following its March shipping date through the close of the year. That’s “more than every Tablet PC ever sold,” Jobs cracked, referring to Microsoft’s failed attempt to drive a similar idea into the computer industry a decade ago with its Tablet PC software. Ten years ago the hardware simply wasn’t capable of providing a lightweight computing experience, and Microsoft’s pen-based user interface wasn’t all that popular outside the hardcore geek crowd.


But now all the planets are aligning around lightweight 9-inch-or-so screens that can go all day on a single battery charge and fit comfortably in a purse or backpack. These devices are also allowing software developers and designers to break free their reliance on the keyboard (based on the 19-century typewriter) and mouse input devices to a more natural series of buttons, gestures, and even voice commands. Jobs talked about the dawn of this “post-PC era” last year at the D: All Things Digital conference, but offered numbers and evidence Wednesday that suggests we’re already there.


There’s nothing particularly notable about the iPad 2 as compared to the original. Sure, it’s thinner, faster, and more capable than the original, but it’s basically the same device in terms of what it allows the user to accomplish (modest exceptions such as iMovie and GarageBand aside).


But what it does do is cement Apple’s reputation as the catalyst for this “post-PC” era.


Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT - News), the architect of the PC era, is barely present in the so-called “connected devices” market, which for the sake of this discussion includes smartphones, tablets, and ereaders like the Kindle. Google (NSDQ:GOOG - News) is making a valiant attempt to play the foil to Apple’s ambitions but is just getting its first Android version designed specifically for tablets out the door. HP (NYSE:HPQ - News) and RIM (NSDQ:RIMM - News) have presented interesting ideas, but have nothing in the market yet.


Apple is 15 million devices into the tablet portion of this era (which doesn’t even count the 100 million iPhones that have shipped to date) and will have its second take out in two weeks, with many expecting they’ll have another more capable model available as soon as this fall. Just as Google’s Android has caught up to the iPhone’s lead, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Apple won’t necessarily have the tablet space to itself forever. But for now, it basically does.


Jobs and Apple believe that their integrated model—in which a single tightly-knit company designs the hardware, software, and services around the device—is the only thing that can succeed in such an era. That’s certainly open for debate: Apple can argue its method produces the “best” device but that leaves plenty of room for those who are willing to cater to other parts of the market, as we’ve seen with smartphones.


It does, however, mean that any publisher or software developer looking to target the tablet experience has no choice but to pay attention to the iPad, because design-by-partners takes time and pain. In the PC era, PC companies like Dell and HP essentially ceded most design decisions to Microsoft and Intel (NSDQ:INTC - News) and wound up having to compete tooth and nail on price and brightly colored designs. Phone and tablet makers would like to avoid such a fate.


Discussion of a “post-PC” doesn’t mean that all of a sudden PCs suddenly vanish. Just like television didn’t really “kill” radio, and like computers have yet to kill televisions, there’s room for multiple devices in the average home or office and years of opportunity to make money off the PC.


But it does mean that if tech and media companies want to stay relevant over the next decade, they need to pay attention to these trends, which are not flashes in the pan. (See: netbooks) They represent nothing less than a dramatic new opportunity to break free of the constraints of the PC era and invent new ways to combine human ingenuity and processing power.


We wouldn’t have gotten here without the PC, but we’re ready to move beyond it. A generation of kids born after the development of the World Wide Web in 1995 is about to get their driver’s licenses, and they’ll be off at college after that. They’ll probably want some sort of keyboard to type up their term papers, but they are increasingly consuming media on phones and tablets.


And at the moment, Apple offers easily the strongest combination of product, price, and services for those interested in the tablet market. Jobs said time and time again Wednesday that he believes 2011 will be the year of the iPad 2, and while that remains to be seen, it’s clearly going to be the year of the tablet.


Tom Krazit


March 2, 2011





3/02/2011

WITH HEFTY DEMANDS FOR RETIREMENT, ARE ADVISORS FILLING THE NEED?

Your retired clients need to be flexible.


I don’t mean physically pliable, or open to new ideas (although I’m sure those attributes would lead to a more pleasant retirement). I mean that there needs to be a degree of flexibility in their financial plans.


Planning for retirement isn’t just about hitting the “magic number,” whatever that number may be in their minds. It’s not just a matter of building up a nest egg during accumulation years, and then drawing it down in the most tax-advantageous way during decumulation years.


It’s about setting up streams of income to trickle in at certain times and even for certain reasons. Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute, said the key to retirement planning today is having the right combination of safety and guaranteed income. The institute published a report this week called “Best-Case Strategies For A Flexible Retirement: The MetLife Study of Thinking About Retirement in Uncertain Times.” It concluded that Americans are not putting enough emphasis on the potential for the unexpected in retirement.


The study segmented people into 10 different profiles, depending on how prepared they are to handle things that could wreak havoc with retirement plans, such as higher-than-expected healthcare costs, long-term care costs or vanishing pensions. The most prepared retirees were dubbed “preemptive planners.” The least prepared were the “snoozers.”


To be sure, the idea of adding income streams to a retirement nest egg has been gaining traction. In an article on retirement in our upcoming issue, we discuss the idea of buying annuities for very specific purposes in retirement—that is, an annuity for health care, or an annuity for a grandchild’s education. Joe Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, says that such an annuity ideally would allow for additional income to be purchased for future needs. This market is in its early stages, he says, but it should grow as our aging society continues to need more predictable streams of income. Allowing clients to create their own “personal pension account” would provide the degree of flexibility that many clients will need, he says.


The MetLife survey, which was done in conjunction with the Scripps Gerontology Center and consisted of 1,007 surveys and 50 in-depth interviews (about an hour) across the country, shows that 35% of respondents had “major unexpected expenses” in the past two years. The most common expense was medical related, and the average duration was 10 months. The next most common was financial support of friends or family, with an average duration of 11 months.


There is one bit of good news for advisors. Less than half (49%) said they used a financial planner for retirement decisions. And if you read further, the role of their financial planner varied widely to include “teachers,” listeners,” “counselors” and even “math geeks.” Indeed, most of the respondents (60%) said they pay for their unexpected expenses by simply drawing cash from a “rainy day fund” or retirement fund.


So the potential clients are out there, and in need of a professional advisor’s services. But these are new client demands, and will require new skills and insights to fulfill.


Lee Conrad
OnWallStreet
February 17, 2011

3/01/2011

DEBT CRUNCH: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ADDRESSING CANADA’S RECORD LEVEL OF HOUSEHOLD DEBT


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



Since 2008, Canada has not only weathered the


recent financial crisis, but also emerged as a global


example of fiscal responsibility. However, while


our banks, businesses and government remain


strong, Canadian households have continued to


accumulate debt at an unprecedented rate. In the


third quarter of 2010, Canadians’ debt-to-disposable


income ratio surpassed the United States for the


first time since the late 1990s, exceeding 1.5 dollars


of debt for every 1 dollar of income per household.1


While Canadians are enjoying accessible credit


at historically-low interest rates, many are living


paycheque to paycheque, with significant amounts


of their disposable income going to servicing their


personal debts. With interest rates expected to


rise, Canadian households that have taken on too


much debt face a real financial risk. Vulnerability


at the household level could easily translate


into a larger risk for the economy as a whole.


The current high levels of household debt create


two main concerns for the Canadian economy. The


first is the danger of increased defaults on debt and


mortgage delinquencies from highly-leveraged


households. Second, Canadian households would


significantly reduce their spending in the general


economy if forced to address higher interest amounts.




1 Statistics Canada. No date. Household sector
indicators (table). National balance sheet accounts. Last
updated Dec 13, 2010. statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/101213/
t101213a2-eng.htm (accessed Jan 26, 2011).


Personal spending on consumer goods and services


accounts for 58% of the Canadian gross domestic


product (gdp)2 and a reduction in consumer spending


could provoke a “home-grown” Canadian recession.


The Action Canada Task Force on Household Debt


proposes two solutions. First, the Department


of Finance Canada, along with Canada’s banks


and financial institutions, should develop


and implement a Code of Conduct on Lending


focusing on options to improve Canadian


consumers’ ability to manage and repay debt.


Secondly, Changing the Culture of Borrowing focuses


on increasing public engagement through a


national public awareness campaign and financial


self-monitoring options. It should aim to help


Canadians gain a greater understanding of their


financial well-being and to help introduce a


cultural shift in the attitudes and practices


around the use of credit and accumulating debt.


Successfully addressing the financial


vulnerability associated with household


debt requires the participation of all key


stakeholders in the financial system, including


the federal government, the financial sector,


and individual consumers. Introducing public


policy measures now would strengthen the


nation’s economic position for the future.



2 Statistics Canada. No date. Gross domestic product,
expenditure-based (quarterly) (table). Summary tables.
Last updated Jan 6, 2011. www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/
cst01/gdps02a-eng.htm (accessed Jan 26, 2011).


Since 2008, the world has witnessed significant


volatility and strain on the financial sector.


While over-leveraged countries and financial


institutions have collapsed under the weight of


excessive debt, Canada has not only weathered


the storm, but emerged as an example of fiscal


responsibility. However, the stability of Canadian


banks, businesses and government is not reflected


in the balance sheets of individual Canadians.


Canada’s total household debt is now three times


the size of the national debt—more than 1.5 trillion


dollars in total.3 During the recent recession,


household debt continued to rise in Canada, contrary


to many other nations—including the United


States. In recent months, international bodies such


as the Organization for Economic Co‑operation


and Development (oecd) have issued reports


about Canada’s unprecedented rise in household


debt, a message that has been echoed at home


by warnings from the Bank of Canada Governor


Mark Carney. Despite the warnings, Canadians


were still bigger spenders during the 2010 holiday


season than in 2009, enjoying the benefits of


low interest rates and easy access to credit.4


With interest rates poised to rise, Canadian


households that have taken on too much debt face


a real financial risk. Vulnerability at the household


level could easily translate into a larger risk for


the economy as a whole. Triggers such as rising


interest rates mean more household’s disposable


income will go to servicing individual debt.


3 Statistics Canada. No date. Household sector
indicators (table). National balance sheet accounts. Last
updated Dec 13, 2010. statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/101213/
t101213a2-eng.htm (accessed Jan 26, 2011).


4 Scotiabank. “Canadians Continue to Spend
More on the Holidays in 2010: Scotiabank Study.”
CWN Group Dec 16, 2010. newswire.ca/en/releases/
archive/December2010/16/c5659.html


This not only increases the risk of default, but with


the majority of Canada’s gdp tied to consumer


spending, it will have an effect on many sectors


of the economy. Reducing this risk requires the


participation of all key stakeholders in the financial


system including the federal government, the


financial sector, and individual consumers.


The Action Canada Task Force on Household Debt has


explored opportunities to reduce national financial


vulnerability due to high household debt levels.


After six months of consultation with financial


institutions, credit counsellors, government


officials, economists, and other stakeholders, the


Task Force has prepared the following policy


recommendations in an effort to improve financial


best practices for both borrowers and lenders.



REAL STORIES about REAL PEOPLE


To help illustrate the picture of debt in Canada,


actual situations provided by Canadian credit


counselors are provided in this document. Names


and locations of individuals have been changed.



Andrew & Padma’ s Big Decision


Andrew and Padma are a newly-married couple from


London, Ontario. Andrew, an engineer, and Padma, a


nurse, are looking to buy their first home and to start


a family. While they both earn good salaries, they


are still carrying significant student loans, a car loan


and have limited savings between them. They have


been approved for a mortgage, but have realized


that their decision to buy a house needs to factor


in much more than the just the price of a home.


With the average debt-to-income ratio of


homeowners nearly four times that of renters,


Andrew and Padma aren’t alone in making


difficult decisions about home ownership.

5 Meh, C.A., Terajima, Y., Chen, D.X., and Carter,

T. Household debt, assets, and income in Canada: A
microdata study. Bank of Canada Discussion Paper. June
2009. bankofcanada.ca/en/res/dp/2009/dp09-7.pdf


Read entire report:


http://www.debtcrunch.ca/