Next Charging Station: 3000 Miles, or 300 Feet?

So, I've been reading a bit lately about alternative fuels and how exactly we can get them to where we need them. It's a huge issue, and one which can and should be tackled in the current push to rescue our economy.

See, here's the deal: It's always sunny in California. Rivers run hard in the Rockies. The windy plains are exactly that. Which is great--we can have solar power and hydroelectric power and wind power--heck, there are even fantastic places to harness geothermal power here in the United States. It's a big country after all.

Which of course, is the problem. The US doesn't have one power grid, we have several. So solar energy just can't get from the sunny valleys of the West to the dreary North very easily. Or at all, in some cases. What is needed in this country is a unified smart grid.

Now you've heard me talk about smart grids before. They are designed so that it is easy and efficient for energy to travel the length and breadth of the grid, making sure that all the places in between can get the energy they need--or give the energy they have, if that's the situation.

This can be done. It's going to take a lot of manhours (which, you know, means more jobs) and a lot of science and engineering and materials production (again, more jobs) to accomplish it, but it's possible. Just ask the Repower America group.

So, say we have this wonderful smart grid with its fancy smart meters. Say that photovoltaic power gets more inexpensive and we can all afford a couple of PV sheets on our roofs. We make more power than we use, we get a kickback, we don't make more power than we need, the grid provides it the same way it's always done--except of course that the power might be coming from across the country instead of across the state.

Wonderful for homes. Equally wonderful for cars running on electric power, especially if the newest version of fast-charge batteries become a reality. But really, all of this is only wonderful if we have a station every single place it's needed. Which could be in your home.

Take people who are being given the chance to own the first run of the BMW MINI E electric car. As lucky bum Stefano Paris tells us over at Revenge of the Electric Car, the requirements for getting one are pretty rigorous. One very important part of the puzzle, of course, is where you're going to park and charge the little electric monster. BMW is going to great strides to make sure that the first run of its electric cars don't meet the same fate as earlier versions. (See the movie Who Killed the Electric Car if you want to be outraged at how this technological innovation was squandered in the twentieth century.)

Or what about hydrogen fuel cell cars like the Chevy Equinox FC? Hydrogen-powered cars only work if there's hydrogen to be had. To which end, California has been planning an alternative fuel highway for a few years now. Their plan was to have it completed by some time next year, but it looks like it might take another five at least.

Which matters not at all if we can't get the cars on the road.

Why blather about all of this? Because we need to come up with solutions for these problems. Maybe.... Maybe neighborhoods go in on hydrogen fueling stations--buy it as a community and the community reaps the benefits and profits, instead of the oil companies. Maybe the same happens with solar-powered recharging stations. Imagine a whole neighborhood with one central parking lot, filled with recharging stations powered in part by the sun.

Really, it's all a question of rethinking the way we get resources. Do the oil companies have to turn into hydrogen fueling companies? Isn't there some other way--some more local and more personal way--to get what we need?

What do you think? Any ideas?

Stealing from His College Fund to Pay for His Future

No, this isn't the story of how I robbed my child's 529 so I could buy him a hockey kit in the hopes that he'd one day become a famous NHL player (although I'd totally do that). This is the story of a walk to the train station that I took this week.

On my way to work, I always have a buck in my pocket for my paper guy. He hangs out outside my coffee house and sells the local homeless newspaper. Now, I don't like newspapers. I don't like the extra paper waste or the fact that I only ever want to read a few pages anyway, and then I grump at the wad of stuff I have to carry around until I find a recycling bin.

But this guy is great. He's cleaned up his life (he went sober on his birthday one year, making the anniversary an easy one to remember) and he works for a living. But that living isn't much--I've never asked him if he's still homeless, but that's not really my business anyway. He's doing his job and he's lucky to have one (as am I).

So one day, after weeks of him greeting me happily and shooting the occasional breeze, I said to him "I don't want a paper, but I'll buy one off you anyway." I gave him a dollar and I let him resell the paper I just bought.

Yes, I do realize that what I did was just give him a dollar (which didn't make it back to the paper, and frankly, wasn't supposed to), but it was the thought of the thing. I didn't want the paper, but I wanted him to get paid--for being a genuinely cheery person, if nothing else.

I "buy a paper" from him fairly often. I also give money to other people who ask for it when I have an extra buck. It's not hugely often because I always give dollars, never coins--loose change, I keep for my son's college fund.

When I was younger, I asked my family for money for Christmas one year. It was to buy my own new shiny computer. Imagine my surprise when my eldest brother gave me a gigantic pink piggy bank. Now, this could have been the sort of gift that says "stop begging money off the rest of us and save it yourself, Peace," but it was stuffed with a $50 bill, so I didn't complain.

I did, however, keep the pig. Have for 25 years. And I use it--I usually collect a couple hundred dollars of spare change in a year, which is a nice wad to use for a birthday dinner and whatever I'm into at the time. But once we started trying to build a family, that pig became ourchildren's college fund pig. All spare change goes into the pig and, once a year the pig donates its innards to a savings account that is never touched.

So any spare change is our son's, and we joke that, when we spend change, we're stealing from his college fund. Except that, a few days ago, it was amazingly windy and cold and just miserable. And there was a guy outside of one of the convenience stores I pass by on my way to work. And I didn't have a dollar, but I did have about 75 cents in change. I dropped my son's college fund into a street guy's paper cup.

Am I a bad parent? Well, probably, but not because I gave away that money. One problem I find with the world--especially in big cities, for some reason--is that everyone thinks everyone else is out for something. Everyone's got an angle, right? That homeless guy? Probably not homeless at all. And if he is, he's probably only using the money to get high or something.

I don't think that's always true (I'm not naive enough to think it's never true). I think sometimes, people are just down on their luck. And if you have 75 cents, is it that bad a thing to give it to them?

What does this have to do with my son's future? I think respect for everyone is one of the most useful lessons we can impart to our children. I think that meeting someone's eyes when they ask you for money--even if you quietly say "I'm sorry, I have nothing to give"--is an act of respect that teaches a child a lesson. Homeless people are invisible and rudely ignored and so are small children in trouble and women being beaten and countries full of people being murdered by their own governments. It's a brutal fact of life and it just shouldn't have to be.

So maybe, just maybe, tossing 75 cents to an invisible man and thanking him for his "God bless you" as I walk away isn't stealing from my son's college fund at all--it's just making a down payment on a more compassionate, respectful, visible world for him and his children.

40 Days of Mindfullness

My life is a little crazy busy at the moment, but I watched our president on Tuesday night, and one of the things he said struck me as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

I agree that we need to concentrate far more on our children's educations and on healthcare for all of us. I agree that we need to help people climb out of the problems that they have--financially, socially, physically, educationally--and improve the life of each and every citizen of not just the country but the planet. I think he's got some great ideas that warm the cockles of my heart.

But then he said this: "...the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy."

Why? Why does it have to be that way?

I understand that 99% of us cannot afford to buy a house with the money we have on hand, and I agree that probably 50% of us can't buy a car outright either (at least not without jeopardizing other bills and life requirements). That's investment, as far as I'm concerned. Credit, to my mind, is something that you get because you can't afford what you want, not what you need. If I really want an iPod but don't have the money to buy it outright, putting it on a credit card is no investment of any kind, as it provides no usable equity (though it does make it easier to listen to the presidential address podcasts).

So credit is one thing and investment another. You should have what you can afford and save for what you can't.

It's unfair, however, to expect that to actually be the case. Our capitalist economy has been built on spending money whether you have it or not, and the industries we have are simply designed to work on money that is loaned: You loan the bank money by opening a savings account; the bank loans Bob money, and Bob pays Jimmy (who employs Ken and John) and buys materials (which employs some other people) and eventually gets paid off by Max (who borrowed his own money) and pays off the bank which then pays you off in the form of interest.

So, I guess credit is the lifeblood of our economy, but coming to that realization requires me to rethink my definition of "credit" to include investments like those described above. Is it possible to live without credit (using my original meaning) and still get what you need? Yes. It just requires that we all rethink what the definition of "need" is, as well.

A human being needs, minimally, food, water, shelter, and clothing. Which sounds pretty minimal indeed. But if I go to Spago and eat foie grae and oysters, wash it down with imported bottled water from Italy, go home to sleep at my penthouse apartment in Central Park West, and wear Armani while doing it, I've got the basics, haven't I?

There are people in the world who need those particular basics. If you're not one of them, you must just not be watching the right TV shows, because all the admen are telling us daily that that or something like it is what we need to have.

I'm not saying you have to give up your iPod (you'll pry mine from very angry hands), but I do think we should all spend a little time finding out what the definition of need is.

For Christians, the season of Lent has just started--40 days of reflection and penance. Instead of just celebrating this Lent as a Christian holy season, where the most many of us will do is eat fish on Fridays, I'm going to invite anyone and everyone of every faith and none to join me and give up thoughtless spending for the next 40 days (or thereabouts).

Here's how I, personally, am going to work it:

• I am going to try not to eat out for the entire 40 days. If I do eat out, I will consider the source of the food, the plates I eat with, and the social and emotional benefit I get.
• I will try to spend the least amount of money on my food and minimize the packaging with which I'm willing to deal (luckily, lots and lots of things come in bulk now).
• I will not buy anything on impulse--each magazine, candy bar, and online music purchase will be considered and acquired in a mindful way.
• I will keep track of each and every cent I spend, without guilt or remorse for the entire 40 days. Easter week, I can take a look and see if I can find places to cut more out of the needless acquiring.

So? Who's with me?

Why is this Mr. Capitalist's job?

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the federal reserve said he was shocked his ideas led to the current economic crisis and said "I still do not understand exactly how it happened."
     Well, let me see if I can give it a shot: Banks bundled mortgages that had been given to people that wouldn't even qualify for jury duty and then sold those, along with credit default swaps which are basically insurance the seller provides to the buyer in case the entity loses value. However, unlike regular insurance, these swaps weren't regulated so they failed to meet any standards of responsible business. Then, when everything collapsed, it spread like an infection, because when people are making money, they don't ask how, they just say "yay!"
     But again, you're the expert.
     --Seth Meyers, Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update, 10/25/2008

The global economy is in the tank. Many countries are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and economic depression. Banks are failing left and right. And it's up to us to save it all. That's right, not Americans, my friends, but every single capitalist on this planet.

At least that's what the politicians and many of the pundits seem to be telling us. And because we're trying not to spend, us frugal people are hurting the economy. On the other hand, experts in personal economic security are telling us to save, save, save!

What can you do? Are you hurting the environment by spending tons and tons on things that use up resources--things you don't need and really probably can't afford anyway? Are you hurting the economy by minimizing resource use and not spending what little money your hard work makes you? Why do you have to fix this, and is spending all your money really the way to do it?

Mr. Capitalist has a hard time not spending money. Back in the 80s, when he was young, he got into all kinds of problems with credit card debt and ended up having to go to a credit counselor to get back in the black. Granted, he had to work two jobs all through the 90s to pay off those credit cards, but then he had a nice clean balance sheet to buy a house with his new wife.

When they went to buy that house, of course, the bank preapproved them for a mortgage that was very, very expensive--almost all they could afford at the time. Then, they had a baby and Mrs. Capitalist's father wasn't doing so well and needed a lot of financial help and it all added up. Luckily, the house had an equity line of credit, so Mr. Capitalist didn't worry too much.

Because, you see, he'd been told that we're all supposed to get mortgages we can barely afford and spend more than we have because we're supposed to buy things--that's capitalism. We need to make sure the family has TONS of Christmas presents (whether we celebrate Christmas or not), and then there's always Valentine's Day and Mother's Day and Father's Day and Grandparents' Day--the buying never stops because it's good for the economy!

Except...

Except that now Mr. Capitalist has a car loan and a mortgage and a home equity line of credit and a dozen credit cards and the minimum payments all add up to $5000 a month, but he only makes $4000 a month after taxes, and he never had much of a nestegg to begin with because he was spending like he should be. So suddenly the car is being repossessed and the house is being foreclosed on and the credit cards are in default and three or more banks are carrying "bad debt" because Mr. Capitalist was doing what he was told to do. He was stimulating the economy.

Not to mention the fact that, with his credit ruined he can barely get approved for a rental. His job gets downsized because he works for a company that does business with one of the banks that's carrying Mr. Capitalist's bad debt--you see, the company can't get a loan to cover its expenses while waiting to be paid by clients who can't get loans to cover their expenses because the bank is trying to hold on to what it has while it drowns under bad debt. So Mr. Capitalist goes to the unemployment line and gets his unemployment check--a check that is essentially paying back the loan he and his employer made to the government by paying taxes.

But of course, that money the government got on that loan has already been spent a hundred thousand times over, so they take out another loan to pay Mr. Capitalist, who can't get enough to pay his bills and provide for himself and his family.

This is an exaggerated thumbnail, of course, and doesn't take into account the fact that, at least in the US, the economy has also been severely damaged by the lack of affordable health insurance, which bankrupts hundreds of thousands of people because they either can't get it or have inadequate amounts of it.

It also doesn't take into account the greedy and immoral practices of banks and mortgage companies and futures traders, a great number of whom made up numbers as they went along to try to make the bottom line look good. And then there's the fact that society keeps touting the image of the affluent American, and the government has, until recently, kept trying to convince us that everything will be just fine if we can spend our way out of this.

So, fine. It's not really Mr. Capitalist's fault that the economy is crashing. It's not just because he spent more than he had--and if the economy continues to languish, it's not because he's now saving most of what he makes. But what do we do now? What can each of us do to help get things back on track? I'm not an economist by any means, but for me personally, the following is a good start:

• Spending: still a good idea--but wisely. Don't go into debt to stimulate the economy. Go check out Suze Orman for good tips on staying on budget.
• Saving: still a good idea, too--and remember, as that Fox article I quoted earlier says, paying down debt is saving. (I'm so not advocating listening to Fox News as a general rule, but in this, they're right. Ask Suze Orman; she'll tell you the same thing.) CNN's Money (particularly Money 101) has some good info on smart debt reduction.
• Giving: absolutely crucial. It's crucial for the survival of the idea of society, if not exactly the bottom line. If this world economy comes out the other side of this a stronger one, but leaves five billion people in the dust and ruins? That's not strength. And it's certainly not right. I've listed sites for donations before, but think of calling your local shelter and seeing what they need. There are a frightening number of people in need right now and any little bit helps.
• Learning: takes some time, but is so worth it. Read the newspapers, subscribe to political and economic blogs, check out your government websites (US Executive Branch, US House, US Senate, US Supreme Court) and read up on the bills being debated and the rulings coming down from your courts.
• Doing: hard, but necessary. Write a letter to your congressperson asking him or her to support real solutions for healthcare, call your senator about the current state of scientific funding.
• Thinking: is an often daunting prospect for some reason. There's a big list of things here, and it's hard to figure out what to do when and how. Think about three things every time you make a decision about your money: Am I helping the planet? Am I helping other people? Am I helping my soul?

We can hope all we want, but we have to work to make things happen.