well, the average life of a 30 year mortgage is only 7 years, so ARMs do make sense for folks who have a 5 to 10 year game plan...
Everyone's got a slippery-slope to sell. As for the last, where the writer claims to slip through a portal into the head of a cabinet member, well, hmm. Whenever I forget the reason I don't read Slate, you usually rescue me with a link within a day or two.
So there's no limit to how much we can borrow from the world and never pay back?
This Robbert guy sounds like a kindred spirit to me. A phlegmatic temperment has its advantages, but has some disadvantages too (beyond the disgusting sounding name) that should be easy to spot, such as detachment and the fact that most people will see you as being boring. It also seems to make people that are prone to stress more stressed, because they aren't getting any play off their behaviors.
Ahhh...having the grace to not become upset about things you can't do anything about.
Yeah, one thing I forgot to include in the ramble is can you so steady and calm without being apathetic? Does enthusiasm demand its opposite?
Yes... and No.
OR
Is it apathetic to not be materialistic? Obviously not.
I don't think its not being materialistic, but more like what Bruce said, where you don't freak out about things you can't do anything about. I like my fancy cars and HDTV and computers and such, but they are just the result of money, which comes and goes, and I'll replace whatever I lose eventually. Lessons instead of regrets, preparation instead of hand-wringing, etc. And I also don't think apathy has anything to do with it. The fault would be more about not expressing that I care deeply about many things and people.
"Don't cry over spilt milk" is the classic phrase, though a small rant is often emotionally soothing.