The airlines are charging us for what?!

One of the things that's changed in the US since we've been abroad (a fairly recent, regrettable thing) is that airlines now charge for checked baggage. We had heard about that, in the news, but only now has it hit home, as we finally get the pleasure of forking over an extra 15 bucks for the first checked bag. (This is with US Airways, though it seems most airlines are comparable. At least this sort of nickel-and-diming hasn't yet hit international flights.) Just another way for airlines to earn money, I suppose. But why not simply include luggage costs in the actual ticket price (and impose even heftier penalties for those with extra, overweight or oversized bags)?

Hey, wait a minute... they already do that!

All this add-on charging reminds me of a comedy clip I saw online a year or so ago, in which passengers were cheerfully informed by the flight attendant that things like flotation devices and oxygen masks would of course be available for their safety and comfort... and that exact change would be greatly appreciated.

I remember also reading that this new policy among US carriers is likely to just encourage people to carry on as many bags as possible, stuffing full the overhead compartments and generally making the experience of boarding a plane that much more fun!

Is the US really more interesting than everywhere else?!

Sometimes, living overseas it's hard to believe that we're not the most important place in the universe!

Why? Well, we're in Italy now and the front page of Milan's evening newspaper (Corriere dela Serra) is about the US government's loan to car companies (Crisi dell'auto negli Usa: maxiprestito del governo = Auto Industry Crisis in US: Maximum loan from the government). But guess what? The front page of the BBC News website? You guessed it: Bush unveils $17.4bn car bail-out. Now part of this could be that the global economy really is global...and Europe is just as dependent on the US's car industry as the US is. But the cynic in me says "What? Nothing important enough happened in Italy or the UK to be top of the news page?"

And I also wonder if it's just easier to report about the US (or in many places, complain about the US) rather than report about what's happening at home. Distraction, anyone?

What do you think? Please comment below...

The Cholesterol - Credit Complex

The first thing we notice about moving back to the US is that no one will rent us an apartment unless we fill out an application form & pay a credit company $25 (each) to give us our ‘credit score.’ But even once we obtain that all-important credit score, we still won’t know what it means! Pages and pages of stuff, which could probably have been easily summarized on just one page: no big outstanding debts or other financial commitments, no bankruptcy, credit card bills paid on time, etc.

And from looking at the three big credit rating companies, it seems that everyone also knows their credit rating, based on a ticker much like the Dow Jones. So why would people want to opt to spend even MORE of their hard-earned $$, to keep track of their own credit rating? Do some people really pay $5.95/month just to keep up-to-date with their credit score?

It feels eerily similar to the late 1980s, when everyone I worked with suddenly knew their own cholesterol levels. I was in my mid-20s then and had no reason to be interested in my cholesterol, so I felt rather left out when everyone would stand around chatting about how it was going up or down, and what they were cutting from their diets to improve their level. All that talk about “good” and “bad”cholesterol, too, was rather over my head. Perhaps it has to do with just having something in common to talk about, and is probably less “offensive” (if not particularly interesting) than discussing religion or politics!

Anyway, the credit rating industry (and yeah, by the looks of things, it is a full-fledged industry) is pretty much a rip off--just a way to milk people for the “service” of confirming that they aren’t, in fact, in financial trouble. Or perhaps it just reflects the fact that, once again, the US has overextended itself with regards to credit? (We won't mention the military, or other areas where we're also bitten off more than we can figuratively chew!).

Maybe that’s the main difference between cholesterol levels and credit rating companies: the former has both “good” and bad,” while the latter doesn’t.