Friday night I went to a neighborhood restaurant for dinner. I put the bill on my debit card and included a tip.
Saturday I stopped at an ATM to get some cash and asked for a balance also.
When I got home I updated my checkbook application* and things didn’t look right. The balance in my checkbook didn’t match the balance given by the ATM. I couldn’t find any sales slip that matched the discrepancy.
Today as I looked at my sales slips I recognized the discrepancy. It was the tip on the sales slip. When the restaurant takes my card, it puts a hold on the amount on the slip. When I add the tip, the hold isn’t taken off, but the total is submitted. Given that I was checking on Saturday, when my account would not be updated, I was unable to find the restaurant charge in the online list of transactions. But the ATM slip did show the balance with the hold on the printed sales slip.
I will get verification of this on Tuesday. Monday is Presidents’ Day and I assume the online data will not be updated during the day.
But it did spoil my Saturday evening as this control freak tried to get everything balanced.
*The checkbook application is Checkbook Tao for the Mac, no app version yet. You can find it in Apple’s App Store.
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
When does "objectivity" become "subjectivity"?
One of the major problems with "the media", at least "the mainstream media" is that in the effort to be fair to "both sides", they don't call out distortions of truth. Thus, we get politicians, corporations, and even individuals making statements that are misleading or even patently false.
For a rather long analysis, see "Romney Ad Exposes Media's Chronic Inability To Use The Word 'Lie'", Jason Linkins, Huffington Post, 2011-11-22.
The Romney ad in question uses Barack Obama's quoting a statement by the McCain campaign as if Obama had said it.
There are at least two fact checking sites - FactCheck.org: A Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and PolitiFact.com of the St. Petersburg Times. The latter is known for its Truth-o-meter. It might be worth your while to add bookmarks for these sites and include them in your daily online news reading. You do read a lot, right?
For a rather long analysis, see "Romney Ad Exposes Media's Chronic Inability To Use The Word 'Lie'", Jason Linkins, Huffington Post, 2011-11-22.
The Romney ad in question uses Barack Obama's quoting a statement by the McCain campaign as if Obama had said it.
There are at least two fact checking sites - FactCheck.org: A Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and PolitiFact.com of the St. Petersburg Times. The latter is known for its Truth-o-meter. It might be worth your while to add bookmarks for these sites and include them in your daily online news reading. You do read a lot, right?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Which is most important? Individual, community, or capital?
The answer is none of the above. Without individuals there are no communities. Without communities, individuals cannot thrive. Without individuals and communities, there is no capital. Without capital, individuals and communities cannot increase their material and social wealth.
I was inspired to write this blog after listening to Catherine Austin Fitts on "The Dismal Science" January 30, 2009 podcast of "To the Best of Our Knowledge" from Wisconsin Public Radio.
She spoke about the "Popsicle Index" as a better measure of the financial health of a community than any other measure. That is, how willing are parents in a community to let children go off by themselves to get a Popsicle or other treat?
She also spoke about capitalism versus communities. Think about BigBox coming into a community. BigBox promises jobs to induce the community to allow BigBox to have its way. But BigBox builds out in the middle of nowhere so that people must drive to shop rather than walk. The community is also required to build new water mains, sewer lines, roads, and other amenities. Then BigBox decides that it didn't make enough profit from the store and leaves town.
But capitalism is also members of the community pooling their resources to build a business, say a tomato canning plant. Maybe the local plant doesn't have all the whizbang efficiencies that a BigFoods plant has, but the plant will be controlled by members of the community, not by some overpaid executive forty floors above the streets of a city a thousand miles away.
Communities can be overbearing, enforcing codes of conduct that have no relation to the welfare of the community. An overbearing community can stifle innovation and creativity. Think of all the people who went to the "big city" to get away from a real or imagined controlling environment.
Individuals can be cantankerous and dangerous. Some take individual freedom to ridiculous lengths, taking freedom from others. Think of speeders. They rush down the highway, damning anyone who dares to go the speed limit. In fact, our culture tends to reward the speeders by claiming those who obey the law are holding up traffic. Aren't the speeders pushing traffic?
Unfortunately, neither "major" party seems to understand the need for balance among these three "interests". Both favor certain categories of individuals to the detriment of other categories of individuals; both favor certain corporations over others; and both favor communities only when it serves their parties' agenda.
When, oh when, will those who understand the need for this balance bolt the "major' parties and form a long overdue "third" party with wide support?
I was inspired to write this blog after listening to Catherine Austin Fitts on "The Dismal Science" January 30, 2009 podcast of "To the Best of Our Knowledge" from Wisconsin Public Radio.
She spoke about the "Popsicle Index" as a better measure of the financial health of a community than any other measure. That is, how willing are parents in a community to let children go off by themselves to get a Popsicle or other treat?
She also spoke about capitalism versus communities. Think about BigBox coming into a community. BigBox promises jobs to induce the community to allow BigBox to have its way. But BigBox builds out in the middle of nowhere so that people must drive to shop rather than walk. The community is also required to build new water mains, sewer lines, roads, and other amenities. Then BigBox decides that it didn't make enough profit from the store and leaves town.
But capitalism is also members of the community pooling their resources to build a business, say a tomato canning plant. Maybe the local plant doesn't have all the whizbang efficiencies that a BigFoods plant has, but the plant will be controlled by members of the community, not by some overpaid executive forty floors above the streets of a city a thousand miles away.
Communities can be overbearing, enforcing codes of conduct that have no relation to the welfare of the community. An overbearing community can stifle innovation and creativity. Think of all the people who went to the "big city" to get away from a real or imagined controlling environment.
Individuals can be cantankerous and dangerous. Some take individual freedom to ridiculous lengths, taking freedom from others. Think of speeders. They rush down the highway, damning anyone who dares to go the speed limit. In fact, our culture tends to reward the speeders by claiming those who obey the law are holding up traffic. Aren't the speeders pushing traffic?
Unfortunately, neither "major" party seems to understand the need for balance among these three "interests". Both favor certain categories of individuals to the detriment of other categories of individuals; both favor certain corporations over others; and both favor communities only when it serves their parties' agenda.
When, oh when, will those who understand the need for this balance bolt the "major' parties and form a long overdue "third" party with wide support?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)