Only One Day

Americans are very smart. I mean from going into space and inventing Microsoft and Windows to Medical Research and Pharmaceuticals the rest of the world looks up to America. Then how come the two parties cannot come up with an agreement? Is it because the parties are so much against each other that they cannot accept a good solution by the other even if it is a good one? Is it possible that neither of the parties have a good solution? My head starts spinning when I try to figure out what went wrong and when.

I just feel for people who are looking for jobs and are on unemployment benefit. I feel for people who are raising children and I also feel for people who have big mortgages and are expense bound.

In college, in Economics we learned that the sooner we pay off any loan the better because in the long run we save on interest. It is only after coming to the US we were told that paying interest on home mortgage is tax deductible therefore we can buy a home on mortgage and reduce our taxes. However I feel very uncomfortable if I owe any money to anyone therefore I encouraged my husband to pay a little extra on the principle so we can pay off the loan as fast as possible. Our tax preparer told us that that is not a very smart way because we will pay more taxes. I calculated and it turned out that we pay more in interest than in taxes. At least by paying higher taxes we are contributing towards the country budget, by paying interest we are only making the already rich banks richer. We were told time and again that we can enjoy the cash if we take out home equity loans. I rather we save for a vacation than borrow against the roof on our heads.
Another factor that is hurting us whether it is a household or  the entire country is the way we take care of our health. I would pay doctors an extra bonus if majority of his or her patients are in the best possible shape. Companies have started giving bonuses to people who are willing to answer questions about their health and are willing to participate in improving their BMI, their blood pressure, their sugar levels etc. My brother thinks that it is an invasion of privacy, but I think that it encourages people to stay fit.
I think that teaching children to share their toys even clothes and teaching them to save money from early on will keep them from becoming high maintenance and even expense bound when they grow up. I am sure that there are other very simple factors in our lives that can save a family budget an may be in the long run the country as well.