Wednesday, October 28, 2015

In- Woman Buys Car, Friends Freak Out


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The Dying Breed of Real Men
Jacob Bass

Freelance Business Development & New Venture Consultant

The Dying Breed of Real Men


I once thought I was strong because I could bench press 365 lbs. and felt like the Hulk after a little workout. I once thought I was strong because people looked at me and I could tell they were impressed or intimidated by my height and build. When I became a husband and father, I’ve come to realize this is a feeble and laughable strength.
Real strength is when a husband and a father gets out of bed, every day for years on end, before the sun comes up, leaving his wife and children sleeping peacefully, and puts in a 12 hour work day. Real strength is coming home to a colicky newborn baby and a wife that is past what she can endure and taking over for the night because you can’t afford to be weak and let them suffer. Real strength is making dinner, cleaning the dishes, doing a load of laundry, taking out the trash, and fixing the old high mileage pickup truck so you can get to work the next day. Real strength is holding your baby girl in your arms and she falls asleep instantly because she has complete faith in you.
So what happened to men of real strength and character? Every day, the media tells us about how a feminist idol made it big or a homosexual crossdresser became a “hero” while a soldier, who gave his life for his country, is a villain. It seems the American culture is more concerned with idolizing the shocking and unconventional lifestyles of Hollywood playboys and lying politicians than they are with what happens in real life America. So again, I ask, what happened to the real men, husbands, and fathers of America? Why do they seem to be ignored or non-existent? The answer is obvious; so obvious that it’s shocking. The real men, the men who are building America, blazing trails, keeping the country running, under-appreciated, and over-worked as if it is expected and not worth taking note of - these men are too busy to give a rip. These men are too busy waking up while it’s still dark outside, working 12 hours a day, coming home and taking care of their wives and children, fixing their old pickup truck, rocking their babies to sleep, and getting their family to church every Sunday to care about publicizing themselves, seeking public spectacle, or validation of obscene vanity.
So, to the real American men, regardless of color, creed, or politics, this is a tribute to you. YOU are the glue that holds your family together. You are the driving force for the economy, regardless of all the Washington politicians’ best attempts to take credit for it. You are the ones making a real and lasting difference in the world because you’re building a life for yourself and your family while carrying freeloaders, exploiters, and societal leeches on your backs in the form of excessive taxes. Without you selfless, devoted, hard-working, men of integrity, we wouldn’t have a country to call our own or the freedom to live in the pursuit of happiness. So, in the unlikely chance that you get a break this week, sit back in your easy chair, have yourself a cool drink and pat yourself on the back – no one else will and that’s OK because, at the end of the day, you’re a real man and you don’t need them to.
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ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty ImagesDaily Pulse: US Reaches Budget Deal, Apple and Twitter Report Earnings, REI Pays Employees to Take Black Friday Off
Isabelle Roughol

International editor, LinkedIn ● "Curious by profession"

Daily Pulse: US Reaches Budget Deal, Apple and Twitter Report Earnings, REI Pays Employees to Take Black Friday Off

The US is moving back from the edge of the fiscal cliff. The White House and Congress's Republican leadership have reached a deal on a bipartisan, $80 billion 2016 budget. The deal is a compromise that modestly increases government spending while cutting some social spending. It also raises the US debt ceiling -- a once-routine measure for public finances that has become a casus belli for the most conservative Republicans -- and avert a government shutdown, as the federal government was expected to run out of money by next Tuesday. The full bill is here; political horserace analysis, if that's your thing, here. 
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Thanksgiving shopping is decidedly out of style (it was down 11% last year from 2013): now outdoor retailer REI is closing not just on Thanksgiving Day, but on Black Friday too, and will make the day a paid holiday for its employees. It won't even offer online deals and its site will instead encourage shoppers to get off their computers and go outside. REI has the luxury of not having to satisfy shareholders (it's a consumer co-op) and having a brand that fits the message. The expensive move -- losing one of top 10 sales days of the year while paying 12,000 people -- will likely even score the Seattle brand points with its progressive, nature-loving base. 
"Doing retail today requires that you have a very crisp view of why your members or customers should come to you." 
REI CEO Jerry Stritzke
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Two major tech earnings today: first Apple will let us know just how popular the iPhone 6S is, with maybe a hint on Apple Watch numbers -- as long as they're low, we won't be told. Even more so than this quarter's sales, analysts will look to the next quarter's forecast and expectations for holiday sales at the biggest company on Earth. Because the 6S isn't as big a departure from the previous generation of iPhones, sales aren't likely to be as impressive as last year's.  
While Apple's been pulling the tech sector -- Q3 tech earnings are expected up 2.1% when including Apple, but down 3% without it -- Twitter has been one of the companies dragging it down. Today's earnings are the first since the return of CEO Jack Dorsey at the helm, who's been making a slew of announcements showing who's boss. While his mark isn't likely to yet be visible in earnings, investor reactions will show just how much good will he's starting with. @Jack should be quizzed on user growth, early results from much-hyped Moments, and what's happening with Square, the other company he's supposed to be running. 
Other earnings include Alibaba, Ford, Pfizer, Merck, Bristol-Myers, UPS, Comcast and T-Mobile. 
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You've heard this one before. It's the start of another round of "Will they, won't they" for Fed watchers. The monthly Open Market Committee meeting starts today and with it speculation on whether the Fed will finally make good on its promise to raise interest rate. My two cents: we'll find out tomorrow and here's why I'm not holding my breath. 
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Walmart is making a move in Amazon's backyard -- or airspace. The retailer applied for authorization to start testing drones for delivery, curbside pickup -- intriguing: last-mile delivery or returns without the post office? -- and checking warehouse inventory, Reuters reports. Regulators have been playing catchup with private companies in this field, and Walmart is falling into the tracks left by Amazon's hard-nosed lobbying. 
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What you may have missed — and really should read:
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Photo: Refugees and migrants sail to the Greek island of Lesbos on October 25, 2015 as they cross the Aegean sea from Turkey. At least three migrants -- two children and a woman -- drowned when their boat sank off Lesbos, the coastguard said. Around a dozen others, mostly Afghans, are still missing after the rickety vessel, carrying 60 people, went down. ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images
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Getty ImagesI Just Bought A Car And Everyone I Know Freaked Out
Caroline Fairchild

New Economy Editor at LinkedIn

I Just Bought A Car And Everyone I Know Freaked Out 

For the past several weeks, I’ve spent my time in places that my friends told me to outright avoid: car dealerships.
I moved from Brooklyn to San Francisco about six months ago and always envisioned my California-self having a car. My boyfriend and I chose the apartment that we did partly because it included a parking spot. After several years of relying almost solely on public transportation to get everywhere around New York City and beyond, both of us were excited about the prospect of exploring this side of the world with our very own vehicle.
But when I started to talk to friends and co-workers about my plans, they made me feel like I was making the biggest mistake of my life.
“You should just use ZipCar or Getaround. That would be a lot cheaper,” one friend advised. “You do not want to get a car. It will get destroyed parking in the city,” another weighed in. “A car is just a money pit. You end up spending more money because you have a car to go and buy things,” a co-worker dramatically warned.
The millennial generation’s aversion to buying is not breaking news. When I was a reporter at Bloomberg in 2012, I was one of the first to spot the trend with a feature I wrote about the “Recession Generation.” The gist is that since millennials came of age during the financial crisis, they are wary of making large purchases. My story started out with a 28-year-old named Mike who was timid to buy a house, car and (what I couldn’t report at the time) an engagement ring for his now wife.
“Every decision that I have made since I lost my job has been colored by that insecurity I feel about the future. Buying a house is just further out on the timeline for me than it used to be,” he told me at the time.
Yet the sentiment I picked up on when embarking on my car-owning dream did not have the same tone as I picked up from Mike and others.  Nearly four years ago, millennials’ driving emotion behind the decision to not buy cars, houses, and even dresses was fear. Today, it is empowerment.
With the advent of companies like Uber, Lyft and others, millennials feel empowered to maximize their income and spend their money only on things they feel have the highest ROI. For many city-dwelling 25-year-olds like myself, that means not buying a car and a parking spot, but instead pushing a button on their phone anytime they want to get somewhere. Just a half-decade ago, this wasn’t an option. Today, we have new companies (Shyp, Luxe and Chariot to name a few) that are coming to market to solve a pain point for this new return-obsessed consumer that is emerging.
Yes, as Megan Quinn (formerly of Kleiner Perkins) pointed out this summer, Ubering vs. owning a car can mean major savings. But for most that is not the main reason they are making the behavior change. They are doing it because there are now companies that serve their needs in a way that no car purchase ever could. This is not a generation who will never make a big purchase again, like I speculated in my reporting a few years ago. This is a generation who will take advantage of the companies innovating around their particular needs until making a big purchase makes sense.
So why did I buy a car? Like my co-workers and friends who feel empowered not to buy a car, I feel similarly empowered to buy. Buying a car is both something I wanted to do and something I felt financially secure enough to do. There are certain trips I want to take sans Uber driver and going to and from Avis every weekend that you want to get out of the city gets old pretty quickly.
I am not alone in this decision: More millennials are buying cars now than in the immediate aftermath of the recession. This clearly has to do with the improving economy, but I would argue that it also has to do with this shift in attitude. I might be singing a different tune come next year when I have 12 monthly car payments behind me, but for now I am confident in my decision.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering about what happened to Mike, his attitudes toward buying have changed in recent years as well.  He now not only owns a house (under mortgage) and two cars, but his wife and he also recently had their first child. But let’s not kid ourselves: There will always be a tinge of intimidation behind a big purchase -- no matter how empowered our generation may be. Perhaps the next big startup with solve directly for that?
“The cars weren't a big deal, but the mortgage is scary. I'm pretty sure Chase can take my kid if I don't pay,” Mike joked with me.
For more news from LinkedIn's New Economy Editor Caroline Fairchild, click the follow button at the top of this post and follow her on Twitter here. 
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