Subject Line Ideas: Let’s play the blame game
What the government wants to do with bacon

Safety first(Funny)

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Feature Article:Let’s play the blame game

Critical Reads:What the government wants to do with your bacon

The Funnies: Safety first

I wasn’t around in 1912, but so weren’t social media or 24-hour news channels. That’s probably a good thing, too. Can you imagine CNN or the internet after the Titanic sank? There would probably be people calling for the destruction of all icebergs. “Someone must pay,” the pitchforks-and-torches mass media would say. Which makes you wonder, are we constantly looking for someone to blame more these days, or is it just that we now have a way to really communicate our love for the blame game?

If you’re ready, let's dig in...

This Shouldn’t Be a Mystery

Throughout history, there have been tragic accidents. The Hindenburg. The Titanic. The Challenger space shuttle. I wasn’t around for all of them, but I wonder if I had been would I have heard the same kind of noise that surrounds accidents today.

If the Titanic would have sunk today, can you imagine all the armchair experts who would analyze the accident? It was the captain’s fault. It was the navigator’s fault. The ship builder should have done this or the fabricating workers should have done that.

Sometimes, though, accidents are just accidents. Sometimes, there are icebergs out there and we just don’t see them in time. So why is it that when tragedy strikes, the first reaction of the masses seems to be: “Who can we blame?”

I’m writing about this for a couple of reasons. If you were involved in real estate around 2007, you know all too well about the blame game. The economy collapsed as a result of several housing-related factors, and all anyone seemed to want to do was point fingers.

High homeownership rates were to blame.Wall Street was at fault. Politicians screwed it all up. Investors were greedy, banks crooked. Speculator trying to make a quick buck doomed us.

It was all a little counterproductive. While I agree that looking back through the rubble to find out what went wrong is helpful to prevent it from happening again, that doesn’t have to involve finger-pointing. At some point, you have to move forward no matter whose fault it is. But it seems our society is fixated on fault. We love to play the blame game.

I mention this now because of the Cinncinnati Zoo incident over Memorial Day weekend. A toddler got inside a gorilla enclosure, and the animal got a hold of him. With the youngster facing danger potentially worse than just injury, the zoo’s staff shot the gorilla dead.

And the internet went bonkers. It was the kid’s fault a gorilla was dead. It was the gorilla’s fault a child was injured. It was the zoo’s fault, the gorilla’s trainer’s fault. The internet is good at outrage, and this was that outrage at its best. “Just give us someone to blame,” the online community shouts, “And we’ll do the rest.”

But sometimes, accidents are just accidents. Any parent can tell you that if you look away for a second, a kid can be gone. And holding a curious 4-year-old at fault for doing curious 4-year-old things is a bit harsh. So is blaming a 400-pound gorilla for doing 400-pound gorilla things. And the zoo? Well, the enclosure must be at least somewhat secure because this was the first time that’s happened despite hundreds of thousands of visitors over the years.

Sometimes, accidents are just accidents.

It’s tragic, of course. A child is hurt. His parents are probably besides themselves with guilt and worry. A beautiful animal is dead. Picking one or the other to feel worse for is not only difficult but pointless. Why must there be a pecking order to which to attach our grief or sympathy? Does it matter who is to “blame?”

More importantly, do you only feel better about tragedy when there is someone or something tangible to blame it on?

What I wonder is if it have been like that in 1912. Would there have been internet outrage had Twitter or Facebook existed then? Would there have been internet lynch mobs, ready to hunt down the ship’s designer or the company that built it? Would people call for the bombing of all icebergs?

I have a feeling that blame is not the normal human reaction to tragedy. I have a feeling that our litigious society has trained us to immediately want to affix blame when something bad happens, and the internet has given millions of blame-gamers the voice to do it. If you think of it in those terms – of our reacting to tragedy in a way that goes counter to human nature – how we are now handling tragedy hasn’t evolved; it’s devolved. For all the advancements in technology, we are marching backwards in time when it comes to the emotional development of our species.

And I’m not sure if it’s man or machine we should blame for that.

What the Government Wants to Do with Your Bacon

The headline above is only slightly misleading. And that’s only because it’s not JUST bacon federal regulators are intent on changing. The FDA is hoping to help cut down the effects too much salt in our diets has on our health. Now that packaged and processed food is what’s prevalent, so is sodium. But, as this interesting Bloomberg piece points out, that’s about to change.

Three Really Obvious Ways to Build Wealth

Building wealth is not all that complicated. Of course, we all try to get into the mind of Warren Buffett, learn what stocks to pick. We try to time markets, buy low and sell high. We invest in real estate because it’s a good long-term asset. But, as Credit.com points out, most wealth-builders use three obvious ways to do it, and they’re ways anyone can use.

Why Debt-to-Income Ratio Matters

You’ve probably heard the term “debt-to-income ratio.” It means exactly what it says – it scores the balance between your debt and your income. A person who makes $100,000 a year but has $5,000 a month in debt obligations might be a worse credit risk for someone who’s earning $50,000 a year and is debt-free. This Nerd Wallet article explains the ins and outs of this ratio and why it matters so much when you apply for a home loan.

Safety First

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