Fiscal cliff

During winter break all I heard about was the fiscal cliff. It seemed so frightening to me, even though I only had a vague understanding if what it actually was. Now that legislation was passed at the absolute last minute, I feel an overwhelming sense of frustration and fatigue. I'm frustrated because our political leaders can't figure out away to cooperate with one another and work together. It's all about their political party and they just can't seem to work together for the good of the people. They can't seem to get it  into their tiny little heads that just because they put this Band-Aid over the problem it's going to go away. It's not going to go away, it's just going to make the problem worse in the future. I'm tired because this kind of thing has been a problem for such a long time now, yet no politician seems to want to listen. It's time for them to get their head in the game and use the skills they learned in kindergarten.

A Pyramid Scheme???

I recently read an article about Bill Ackman's accusations toward Herbalife. Ackman claimed that Herbalife was a pyramid scheme, while Herbalife replied that it used "multilevel marketing" strategies. After a personal experience with the company itself, I can understand Ackman's claim. It certainly seems to act like a pyramid scheme, with an added ridiculous up-charge on it's products whose equivalents could be found in other stores at a much lower cost. 
I personally find stories like this upsetting. It's ridiculous that people try to get away with things like this, and end up taking advantage of good people in the process. The only real money to be made in companies like this are in the top positions, which screws everyone else at the bottom over. The people at the top become yet another addition to the 1%, and refuse to  share the wealth with the other people in their company who may be struggling in economic times such as these.
It frustrates me that so many people depend on people like these to facilitate the trickle-down policy of wealth distribution, as well as facilitate the investments needed to increase the rate of expansion in the economy. It's been proven that strategies such as this don't work because people get greedy! The people that act like misers with their money are the reason that such social services are in place, and why the government needs to keep spending.

Anyway, enough about my opinions. What do you think? (If you want to read the article click here)

Traffic Cameras

As I drive anywhere, I often come across an intersection with a sign saying"Red Light Photo Enforced". Whenever I see this sign, my heart instantly pounds. As someone who has never gotten a ticket (yet), I fear that one day an intersection like that will be the end of my squeaky clean record.
In an effort to cut down on accidents and traffic violations, these cameras were installed by townships everywhere. If one breaks a traffic law, a blinding flash goes off from an unknown location, lighting up the intersection so that a picture can be snapped of the culprit. Not only is this flash distracting for the driver that somehow broke the law, but it is distracting for all other drivers near the intersection.
Supposedly, the tickets and fines that are sent out as a result of these cameras add to the revenue of the particular cities they are located in, thus helping the local economy. If that is true, how many tickets are really sent out (after being reviewed) just because it helps the city's revenue? Isn't that just as bad as forcing officers to have a quota of tickets that they have to write? And, how much can a few tickets help a struggling local economy? I personally believe that these cameras should be gotten rid of, and replaced with actual human officers who can asses each situation individually, thus eliminating one step of the process already in place.
What do you think? Should these cameras be gotten rid of? Do you think they actually help communities in any way economically?