Bonnie and Clyde' (1967)
Lesson: Crime doesn't pay. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway are decidedly charming as the young Depression-era anti-heroes of the crime film "Bonnie and Clyde." At least they are until they start slaughtering people right and left. Then things start to get ugly and serious and scary -- sort of like what's going on with our banking system.
There certainly is anger and outrage over multibillion-dollar bailouts, risky mortgage practices and how the credit rug has been pulled out from under consumers and businesses. But people aren't taking the Bonnie and Clyde route for revenge.
Bank robberies and thefts, in fact, have decreased from 7,272 in 2006 to 6,182 in 2007 to 6,105 in 2008, the FBI says. And the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that violent crime, property crime and firearm-related crime have steadily declined since 1993 (except for an uptick in firearm-related crime in 2005). What's gone up: felony convictions and the percentage of crimes reported to police.
Still not convinced that crime doesn't pay? Keep in mind that, according to FBI crime statistics, of the 19 people who died during the commission of a bank robbery in 2008, 16 were the perpetrators.
There certainly is anger and outrage over multibillion-dollar bailouts, risky mortgage practices and how the credit rug has been pulled out from under consumers and businesses. But people aren't taking the Bonnie and Clyde route for revenge.
Bank robberies and thefts, in fact, have decreased from 7,272 in 2006 to 6,182 in 2007 to 6,105 in 2008, the FBI says. And the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that violent crime, property crime and firearm-related crime have steadily declined since 1993 (except for an uptick in firearm-related crime in 2005). What's gone up: felony convictions and the percentage of crimes reported to police.
Still not convinced that crime doesn't pay? Keep in mind that, according to FBI crime statistics, of the 19 people who died during the commission of a bank robbery in 2008, 16 were the perpetrators.
Breakfast at Tiffany's' (1961)
Lesson: Be a cheap date. In "Breakfast at Tiffany's," street-smart socialite Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) and struggling writer Paul Varjak (George Peppard) are both broke -- and both "kept." Holly lives off the money she gets from her dates (she also makes $100 a week by visiting an imprisoned mob boss and relaying drug intelligence). Paul relies on his married lover for financial support. As a result, the two don't have much cash between them when they hit the town on their first official date.
Dates aren't cheap, especially in New York, where a movie now averages $10.44 a ticket and wine $10.86 a bottle. Throw in dinner for two ($40 on average, says Zagat), and you're looking at a first-date price tag of $75 to $100 easy.
How can a couple court without incurring this kind of cost? By taking a page out of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Instead of dinner and a movie, Holly and Paul hit the famous jewelry store to peruse the merchandise (and have a Cracker Jack ring engraved), then head off to the public library for some afternoon high jinks. After that, it's a stealth adventure at a local department store. You and your date might not want to make off with stolen property (Holly and Paul nick goofy dog and cat masks from the store), but their date -- which resulted in true love, mind you -- was a real steal.
Dates aren't cheap, especially in New York, where a movie now averages $10.44 a ticket and wine $10.86 a bottle. Throw in dinner for two ($40 on average, says Zagat), and you're looking at a first-date price tag of $75 to $100 easy.
How can a couple court without incurring this kind of cost? By taking a page out of "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Instead of dinner and a movie, Holly and Paul hit the famous jewelry store to peruse the merchandise (and have a Cracker Jack ring engraved), then head off to the public library for some afternoon high jinks. After that, it's a stealth adventure at a local department store. You and your date might not want to make off with stolen property (Holly and Paul nick goofy dog and cat masks from the store), but their date -- which resulted in true love, mind you -- was a real steal.
Confessions of a Shopaholic' (2009)
Lesson: Credit cards are not your friend. Like many Americans, Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) likes to shop. In fact, she likes to shop so much that she winds up with $16,000 in credit card debt and her very own debt collector.
While Rebecca's wastrel ways are played for laughs in "Confessions of a Shopaholic" (what could be funnier than an out-of-control addiction that could potentially ruin your life?), her unsuccessful attempts to rein in her spending should seem painfully familiar to a nation enthralled with "magic cards."
According to myFICO, the average consumer has 13 credit obligations, nine of which are likely to be credit cards. The average individual owes $5,729 in credit card debt, and credit card companies are raising rates, even for good customers.
Rebecca, with about three times the average debt and a collection agency hot on her heels, manages to squirm out of her predicament by auctioning off her designer duds and maybe, just maybe, mending her ways. But for most folks, high credit card debt can result in much bigger problems, such as losing out on a job or an apartment, paying higher insurance rates and trashing credit scores, which mean a much higher interest on that home sweet home, among other things.
And if that doesn't keep you away from the department stores, remember that financial stress can also cost you your health.
While Rebecca's wastrel ways are played for laughs in "Confessions of a Shopaholic" (what could be funnier than an out-of-control addiction that could potentially ruin your life?), her unsuccessful attempts to rein in her spending should seem painfully familiar to a nation enthralled with "magic cards."
According to myFICO, the average consumer has 13 credit obligations, nine of which are likely to be credit cards. The average individual owes $5,729 in credit card debt, and credit card companies are raising rates, even for good customers.
Rebecca, with about three times the average debt and a collection agency hot on her heels, manages to squirm out of her predicament by auctioning off her designer duds and maybe, just maybe, mending her ways. But for most folks, high credit card debt can result in much bigger problems, such as losing out on a job or an apartment, paying higher insurance rates and trashing credit scores, which mean a much higher interest on that home sweet home, among other things.
And if that doesn't keep you away from the department stores, remember that financial stress can also cost you your health.
The Grapes of Wrath' (1940)
Lesson: Relocation, relocation, relocation. Granted, most of us don't have it as bad as the Joads, the Oklahoma farm family forced to move across the country by harsh economic conditions, ruthless business practices and devastating dust storms. But many people do have to move to a new city, a new state or even a new country in order to find a good job.
More than a million people claimed job-related moving expenses on their income tax returns for 2006, according to Worldwide ER (the Association for Workforce Mobility). And a 2008 Manpower survey found 40% of people would be happy to pick up and move for work.
The trick, of course, is figuring out the best place to relocate. In "The Grapes of Wrath," the Joads had nothing more to guide them than a rumpled yellow handbill advertising some fruit-picking jobs in California. Once there, they found that jobs -- not to mention basic human decency -- were rare commodities.
Today, we can just check Relocate America's annual list of the top 100 places to live. Ironically, the top pick for 2009 is Tulsa, Okla., where the unemployment rate is 6.2% (3 points below the national average) and the median price for a single-family home was just under $137,000 in 2008. Other top metro areas offering stable economies and good home prices? Dallas-Fort Worth; Pittsburgh; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Huntsville, Ala.; Houston; Albuquerque, N.M.; Lexington, Ky.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Oklahoma City.
Lesson: Get-rich-quick ideas are crocks. This classic offers laughs galore as a group of average Joes, blinded by greed, wreak havoc on the state of California and each other in an attempt to uncover a pile of lost loot. They find out that get-rich-quick schemes are not only foolhardy but often harmful.
According to a report by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, confidence fraud such as Ponzi schemes, computer fraud and check fraud represent nearly 20% of all referred complaints. Nigerian letter fraud and identity theft represented almost 10% of all complaints. Get-rich-quick work-at-home scams were also a big problem.
Although it's unlikely that trying to get rich quick will land you in a hospital, as happens to the movie's greedy characters, it can bust up your bank account pretty good. In the U.S. last year, the total dollar loss from all cases of fraud was $264.6 million. Now that hurts.
More than a million people claimed job-related moving expenses on their income tax returns for 2006, according to Worldwide ER (the Association for Workforce Mobility). And a 2008 Manpower survey found 40% of people would be happy to pick up and move for work.
The trick, of course, is figuring out the best place to relocate. In "The Grapes of Wrath," the Joads had nothing more to guide them than a rumpled yellow handbill advertising some fruit-picking jobs in California. Once there, they found that jobs -- not to mention basic human decency -- were rare commodities.
Today, we can just check Relocate America's annual list of the top 100 places to live. Ironically, the top pick for 2009 is Tulsa, Okla., where the unemployment rate is 6.2% (3 points below the national average) and the median price for a single-family home was just under $137,000 in 2008. Other top metro areas offering stable economies and good home prices? Dallas-Fort Worth; Pittsburgh; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Huntsville, Ala.; Houston; Albuquerque, N.M.; Lexington, Ky.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Oklahoma City.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World' (1963)
According to a report by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, confidence fraud such as Ponzi schemes, computer fraud and check fraud represent nearly 20% of all referred complaints. Nigerian letter fraud and identity theft represented almost 10% of all complaints. Get-rich-quick work-at-home scams were also a big problem.
Although it's unlikely that trying to get rich quick will land you in a hospital, as happens to the movie's greedy characters, it can bust up your bank account pretty good. In the U.S. last year, the total dollar loss from all cases of fraud was $264.6 million. Now that hurts.
It's a Wonderful Life' (1946)
Lesson: Count your blessings (and your friends). After $8,000 goes missing on the eve of an important audit, banker George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) realizes he's on the verge of bankruptcy, scandal and prison. Consumed by worry, he starts to act erratically -- screaming at a daughter's schoolteacher, "terrorizing" his children, drowning his sorrows at a local bar and even contemplating suicide, convinced he's worth more dead than alive.
Sadly, dark times do seem to fuel dark thoughts. Although the image of Wall Street bankers jumping to their deaths after the 1929 crash is mostly myth, the suicide rate did rise from 1929 to 1933, going from 14 to 17 deaths per 100,000 people. Today, depression is on the rise, if pharmaceutical sales are any indication.
What lessons can we glean from a movie many people consider nothing more than Christmas corn? For starters, Clarence, the guardian angel, is able to show George his many blessings, great and small, a shift in perspective that brings about an important change of heart. Mary Bailey (Donna Reed) finds out what's behind her husband's erratic behavior and turns to friends and neighbors for help -- not only raising the cold, hard cash they need but, more importantly, surrounding her husband with those who love him. Experts say that's a good way to keep dark thoughts at bay.
Sadly, dark times do seem to fuel dark thoughts. Although the image of Wall Street bankers jumping to their deaths after the 1929 crash is mostly myth, the suicide rate did rise from 1929 to 1933, going from 14 to 17 deaths per 100,000 people. Today, depression is on the rise, if pharmaceutical sales are any indication.
What lessons can we glean from a movie many people consider nothing more than Christmas corn? For starters, Clarence, the guardian angel, is able to show George his many blessings, great and small, a shift in perspective that brings about an important change of heart. Mary Bailey (Donna Reed) finds out what's behind her husband's erratic behavior and turns to friends and neighbors for help -- not only raising the cold, hard cash they need but, more importantly, surrounding her husband with those who love him. Experts say that's a good way to keep dark thoughts at bay.
The Money Pit' (1986)
Lesson: Know what you're getting into. Falling prices, rising foreclosures, new construction grinding to a halt -- that's nothing compared with the housing problems Tom Hanks and Shelley Long experience in "The Money Pit."
From the moment they move into their Long Island fixer-upper, things go south. The front door falls off, the stairway collapses, the wiring in the kitchen explodes, and holes in the floor swallow both the bathtub and our hero. Yet the pair stick it out. Buying a house -- at all costs -- is a deeply embedded part of the American dream. (See "The 3 worst reasons to buy a home.")
Now we know adjustable mortgage rates, unexpected home repairs and plunging values can quickly turn that dream into a nightmare. According to a 2009 study by Zillow, more than 20% of homeowners are "underwater," meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. And a survey by Demos, a nonpartisan public-policy research and advocacy organization, indicated that 38% of U.S. households are in debt because of home repairs.
The lesson in all this? Don't buy a house without knowing what you're getting into.
From the moment they move into their Long Island fixer-upper, things go south. The front door falls off, the stairway collapses, the wiring in the kitchen explodes, and holes in the floor swallow both the bathtub and our hero. Yet the pair stick it out. Buying a house -- at all costs -- is a deeply embedded part of the American dream. (See "The 3 worst reasons to buy a home.")
Now we know adjustable mortgage rates, unexpected home repairs and plunging values can quickly turn that dream into a nightmare. According to a 2009 study by Zillow, more than 20% of homeowners are "underwater," meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. And a survey by Demos, a nonpartisan public-policy research and advocacy organization, indicated that 38% of U.S. households are in debt because of home repairs.
The lesson in all this? Don't buy a house without knowing what you're getting into.
Sunshine Cleaning' (2009)
Lesson: Start your own business. Flat broke and blue about the direction her life has taken, single mother Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams), above left, decides to transform her part-time maid job into something bigger and better: "Sunshine Cleaning," a crime-scene cleanup service. Granted, she runs into a few glitches along the way, but by movie's end our plucky heroine has reinvented her skill set into a service that's satisfying, beneficial and considerably more lucrative.
A pink slip can be just the kick in the pants a would-be entrepreneur needs. And starting a business in a recession means you can take advantage of both a huge pool of talent (often at affordable rates) and cheaper supplies, many of which you can buy at auction.
More are seeing this silver lining: Each month last year, 320 of every 100,000 adults created a business, up from 300 in 2007, according to an April report by the Kauffman Foundation. That's 530,000 new businesses a month.
The timing is good: Eleven of the 30 corporations that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average were started during recessions, including AT&T, General Electric, 3M, Merck, Walt Disney and Microsoft.
The states with the largest number of people who've set up lemonade stands after being handed those proverbial baskets of lemons? Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Montana and New Mexico.
A pink slip can be just the kick in the pants a would-be entrepreneur needs. And starting a business in a recession means you can take advantage of both a huge pool of talent (often at affordable rates) and cheaper supplies, many of which you can buy at auction.
More are seeing this silver lining: Each month last year, 320 of every 100,000 adults created a business, up from 300 in 2007, according to an April report by the Kauffman Foundation. That's 530,000 new businesses a month.
The timing is good: Eleven of the 30 corporations that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average were started during recessions, including AT&T, General Electric, 3M, Merck, Walt Disney and Microsoft.
The states with the largest number of people who've set up lemonade stands after being handed those proverbial baskets of lemons? Alaska, Arizona, California, Georgia, Montana and New Mexico.
Tootsie' (1982)
Lesson: Think outside the box(ers). In "Tootsie," actor Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is out of work, out of money and out of options, until he decides to get creative and try out for the part of a woman in the long-running soap opera "Southwest General." His ballsy move pays off, and he gets the role -- and a much-needed jump-start to his acting career.
Not surprisingly, today's competitive job market -- the unemployment rate hovers above 9% -- has prompted some to become equally inventive. Hiring managers report job seekers are trying all kinds of off-the-wall tactics to stand out: offering a free foot massage if hired, writing a poem or bringing breakfast to the boss until getting hired, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey.
But the dicey job market is also pushing many people to contemplate (or pursue) career changes. More than half of U.S. workers want to; they told Harris Interactive they would switch careers if they had a chance to start over. And it can pay off:
Not surprisingly, today's competitive job market -- the unemployment rate hovers above 9% -- has prompted some to become equally inventive. Hiring managers report job seekers are trying all kinds of off-the-wall tactics to stand out: offering a free foot massage if hired, writing a poem or bringing breakfast to the boss until getting hired, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey.
But the dicey job market is also pushing many people to contemplate (or pursue) career changes. More than half of U.S. workers want to; they told Harris Interactive they would switch careers if they had a chance to start over. And it can pay off:
You Can't Take It With You' (1938)
Lesson: Money isn't everything. This Frank Capra classic tells the Depression-era story of two New York families: one rich, repressed and miserable; the other broke, bohemian and blissfully content. Their orbits collide when Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur), a sweet working girl whose free-spirited family puts relationships and creativity above all else, falls in love with Tony Kirby (Jimmy Stewart), the son of a Wall Street wheeler-dealer whose life revolves around money, munitions and the occasional monopoly.
Hilarity ensues as the two families mix, mingle and hash out their disparate attitudes toward love, life and money. Not surprisingly, family, friends and joie de vivre win out over the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Can money buy happiness? Princeton researchers who surveyed nearly 1,000 people in 2004 found that people with above-average incomes were "barely happier than others in moment-to-moment experience." They also tended to be more tense and spend less time enjoying themselves.
But a study presented in February found that when you spend money on experiences, such as travel or theater tickets, it satisfies "the need for social connectedness and vitality -- a feeling of being alive." That feeling -- not necessarily the money -- makes people happy.
Either way, as Lionel Barrymore's character says in the movie, "You can't take it with you . . . so what good is it? As near as I can see, the only thing you can take with you is the love of your friends."
[source]
Hilarity ensues as the two families mix, mingle and hash out their disparate attitudes toward love, life and money. Not surprisingly, family, friends and joie de vivre win out over the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Can money buy happiness? Princeton researchers who surveyed nearly 1,000 people in 2004 found that people with above-average incomes were "barely happier than others in moment-to-moment experience." They also tended to be more tense and spend less time enjoying themselves.
But a study presented in February found that when you spend money on experiences, such as travel or theater tickets, it satisfies "the need for social connectedness and vitality -- a feeling of being alive." That feeling -- not necessarily the money -- makes people happy.
Either way, as Lionel Barrymore's character says in the movie, "You can't take it with you . . . so what good is it? As near as I can see, the only thing you can take with you is the love of your friends."
[source]
0 comments:
Post a Comment