Let's do some math. Math can be fun.

March 9, 2026

Good morning!Blame it on love — or the lack thereof. Bill knew this — as did others. It is now suggested by some sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and business experts that among the reasons younger people struggle with fitting into the traditional work place is they haven’t been in love. And, when you think about it, okay…Love (or, if you prefer, a primary relationship) teaches us how to socialize, express emotions, cooperate, forgive, deal with rejection and annoyances, how and when to compete…There is a direct link between the ability to communicate with a romantic partner and the ability to do the same with a co-worker or boss. (West, Etc., et al.)Approximately 57% of today’s youth make it to adulthood having had a romantic relationship, compared to 75% in previous generations. (Ibid.)

The meteoric rise and fall of so-called Dubai chocolate… (it’s merely a sentence fragment, nothing more)
How can time fly by so quickly?!
- We have been making references, allegories, metaphors, and analogies to the movie, Fargo, for thirty years.
- It’s worth a trip if you haven’t as of yet… the wood chipper (the real deal) is enshrined at a Road #94 rest stop in Fargo, ND — along with a Hollywood-esque Walk of Fame featuring longtime friend and faithful-departed Bobby Vee.
Did you have your trees tapped all of last week?
Just visited my favourite old fashioned meat market; hamburger is $8 per a pound.
Why the sudden fascination with the sexual patterns and behaviours of Neanderthals?
Riddlee o’ the Day: How does a tree use a computer? (*Answer down below)
If that person across the room from you is wearing glasses, be wary.
- S/He might be recording you and/or doing a facial recognition scan of you… for real…
- But, you can counter-spy if you want to, but… and this is a big butt… you will need to have a non-applee device to do it, at least in the short-term.
- And, so far, the only thing counter-spying will accomplish is you’ll know the other person is spying on you… nothing you can do about it except to put on a hat.
- Yes, cherished reader, the predicted time has arrived.
Speaking of $8 per a pound hamburger, the cost of child care is out of reach for all but the very wealthy.
- We didn’t run the CPI algorithm and so it might NOT be a big change from 1975 when… we puttered on. (Is that a Churchill quip? Or just generic British?)
- With no end in sight, non-family-centered child care costs are increasing double the rate of inflation — and have been for quite some time.
- Prices vary wildly, of course, from rural to urban and for other reasons, but here in Minnesota, the average cost for one infant is north of $20,000 per year. (U.S. Bureau of Labor)
They forgot to measure twice!
- Rookie mistake.
- By the end of this century, coastal ocean waters could inundate 37% more land and more than 100 million more people than originally thought. (Borenstein, AP)
- Moral to the story: Always measure at least twice — and don’t EVER rely upon the measurements of others.
Let’s do some math. Math can be fun.
- We used to do more math, now it is done for us and we don’t personalize it, internalize it, or appreciate it.
- Going back nearly half a century — throughout the 1980s and the 1990s — we were scandalized and worried as OUR federal government took us further and further into debt to the tune of $100 billion to $200 billion annually, on average.
- In the late 1990s, OUR federal government actually experienced a net surplus for ~five years in a row, up until September 11, 2001.
- The budget deficits ensuing post-2001 skyrocketed to ~$300 – ~$400 billion annually, and then started to decrease steadily for a few years.
- Then the so-called Great Recession hit.
- Our federal government spending out-paced revenue by as much as ~$1.4 trillion per year, and then gradually decreased a bit, the deficit spending, that is.
- To a net deficit of about ~$500 billion, and then ~$600 billion, and then $800 billion, and then ~$900 billion…
- And then, you remember it?
- The plague hit — six years ago today.
- And, to spend our way out of catastrophe, we voted ourselves an additional ~$6 trillion of net debt over two years.
- But, there were no yellow lights or red lights in that plan and the terrain was greatly altered, as if by a tornado, tsunami, or hurricane.
- Now we appear to have achieved a new norm where ~$2 trillion more expenses than revenue in a year is de rigueur…
- The (U.S.) Congressional Budget Office projects we will soon approach and exceed ~$3 trillion per year of deficit spending given the status quo.
- Average inflation in the U.S. over the last half century has been ~3% per year.
- Looking at the math in the mirror, things cost about 315% more now than back then… (Or, if you prefer, the U.S. $ is worth less by that amount.)
- (More math: A 100% increase is another way of saying something has doubled… it’s sometimes hard to wrap a brain around those data. 100% = 2x)
- Which means, we could reasonably expect — all things being equal and consistent — to have gone from ~$200 billion annual deficit spending in 1980 to ~$815 billion today.
- Or, for more math in the mirror: If the pattern prevails, we will be spending ~14x as much compared to 1980 OR, ~11x more than in 1980 after adjusting for inflation.
- This is PER YEAR and doesn’t address the cumulative effect; i.e., the national debt.
- We ARE eleven times better-off, are we not?
- Warren Buffet is famous for not being worried about any of this.
Every excellent experience has an origin.
- A leader cared about the experience.
- A leader decided what good would look like (smell like, taste like, feel like, sound like) and refused to compromise.
- The instant a standard is lowered is the instant performance begins to erode.
- Among a leader’s more important responsibilities is defining and upholding standards until they are owned by others.
- We call this Vision — and then communication — and then leadership… and then SHARED vision… and then execution…
- When that happens, you have a sustainable culture. (Without A Vision, informed by Eades)
Has the dream of living the good life switched to somewhere other than the United States.
- People are leaving the United States in greater numbers than people are arriving — for the first time since 1935. (Brookings Institution)
- Portugal is a hot destination, with a 400% increase in U.S. expatriate arrivals compared to just five years ago.
- Ireland is popular, too, experiencing a 100% increase of inbound U.S. citizens over just the last year (hey, I know two of them!).
- Moving from the United States to jolly old England, too, is 42% more popular than a year ago.
- “The U. S. middle class suburban dream might now be a villa in Barcelona.” (Ibid., Gallup) — (We’re voting for Piedmont.)