The Inertia of Complaining

“Too many people go through life complaining about their problems. I've always believed that if you took one tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out.” 
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

People frequently complain about complaining, I do this myself.  Everyone knows that when you have something that annoys you, seems unfair or makes you feel bad that complaining solves our problems and relieves all the stress- it recharges and reinvigorates our energy.  No?  It doesn't make you feel better?

That's surprising...

Let's try a different approach, say to yourself “It’s not fair. It’s not fair they have the high paying job, . It’s not fair they have the big house. It’s not fair (insert what you are envious of here).” That should be the last time you say any of that because the shocking truth is life isn’t fair. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose so badly it is embarrassing; but that is life. We have to realize that there are some things we can change and a lot of things we cannot. Instead of complaining about the things we cannot change we should focus on the things we can. We should put all of energy into changing the things we have control over and not waste energy complaining.  Complaining is not going to help any situation and most of the time we complain about the symptoms not the problem.

Sometimes complaining is passed off as "working through our issues" but the truth is that it is only talk excusing our inaction.  

Think about it; if we do not get enough sleep, we complain that we are tired. If we spend all our money, we complain that we have no money. If we are not having a good time, we complain about how bored we are. All the things we are complaining about are just results of the real problem. If we are tired it is because we did not get enough sleep and complaining about how we did not sleep is not going to give us energy. The only thing that will do that is to sleep (although those 5 hour energies can help), so go to sleep earlier. Yeah, you might have been up all night doing that paper but how long did you have to do it? Complaining is also not going to make money grow on trees. If you want more money work more hours, do not buy that $200 pair of shoes, or manage your money better. If you are bored, find something to do or change your attitude and start having fun.

Yes, it is alright and probably healthy to have a venting session every once in a while. And yes, you can be doing everything right and things still may not work out but like I said life isn’t fair and complaining is not going to change that. So instead of complaining, take that time to figure out the solution to your problems. Invest in the future instead of complaining about the past. Words are not going to change your situation, so stop complaining and take action.

Christmas- Bah Humbug!

Why is Christmas not the magical experience it was in our youth?

Have you become a Humbugler over the years?

Where has the joy gone?

Have we been ripped off over the years in the great Collateral Exchange and no longer want to play along?

Are we just mad that our parents lied about Santa Clause?

Would we really kill the guy who wrote "Jingle Bells"??

Perhaps we have not seen "A Christmas Carol" enough times????

Although for many years Christmas has been justified on the grounds that it is "merry," rigorous quantitative analysis establishes that the opposite is the case. Despite claims advanced by proponents that the holiday promotes a desirable "spirit,'' makes people "jolly," etc., the data show that the yuletide time period is marked by environmental degradation, hazardous products and travel, and—perhaps most important—inefficient uses of key resources. The holiday is an insidious and overlooked factor in America's dwindling savings rates, slack worth ethic, and high crime rates. Nor does Christmas truly fulfill its purported distributional objective: the transfer of gifts to those who need them. Moreover, the number of people rendered "joyous" by Christmas is probably equaled or excelled by the number made to feel rather blue. In short, as shown below, although Christmas is an important religious observance that provides wintertime fun for children (who would probably be having fun anyway), it fails the test of cost-effectiveness.

Christmas consumes vast resources in the dubious and uncharitable activity of "forced giving." First, it is necessary to factor in all the time spent searching for "just the right gifts," writing and mailing cards to people one ignores the rest of the year, decorating trees, attending dreary holiday parties with highly fattening, cholesterol-rich eggnog drinks and false cheer, and returning presents. Assuming conservatively that each U.S. adult spends an average of two days per year on Christmas activities, this represents an investment of nearly one million person-years per season. Just as important is the amount that Americans spend on gratuitous gifts each year—$40 billion to $50 billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department's monthly retail trade sales. Extra consumer spending is often considered beneficial because it stimulates the economy, but the massive yuletide spike creates numerous harmful externalities.

Mistargeted giving is one indication of this waste. According to New York department stores, each year about 15 percent of all retail dollar purchases at Christmas are returned. Allowing for the fact that many misdirected gifts are retained because people feel obliged to keep them (such as appliances, tablecloths, etc., which must be displayed when the relative who gave them to you comes for a visit), and allowing for the widespread inability of children to return gifts, this indicates that up to a third of purchases may be ill-suited to their recipients. Christmas is really a throwback to all the inefficiencies of the barter economy, in which people have to match other people's wants to their offerings. Of course, money was invented precisely to solve this "double coincidence of wants" problem. One solution would be to require people to give each other cash as presents, but that would quickly reveal the absurdity of the whole institution.

"Forced giving" also artificially pumps up consumption and reduces savings, since it is unlikely that all the silly and expensive presents given at Christmas would be given at other times of the year. One particularly noxious aspect of Christmas consumption is "conspicuous giving," which involves luxury gifts such as Tiffany eggs, crystal paperweights, and $15,000 watches that are designed precisely for those who are least in need of any present at all ("the person who has everything"). Most such high-priced gifts are given at Christmas; the fourth quarter, according to a sampling of New York department stores, provides more than half the year's diamond, watch, and fur sales.

Naturally, gratuitous spending delights retailers. Christmas accounts for more than a fifth of their sales and two-fifths of their profits, which suggests a Marxist explanation for the holiday—a powerful economic interest underlying the season's gift-centered ideology. But for the nation as a whole it increases the burden of consumer debt (almost a quarter of Christmas season sales are financed by credit cards or charge accounts, and January is the peak month for credit card delinquencies) and reduces our flagging savings rate (now below 5 percent of national income).

(Source: Excerpt from New Republic. James S. Henry)