Is the current Gen X kinda of passed out!

Gen X - Political no-shows'

America's young men and women! The so-called Gen X citizens! - Where are they standing when it comes to the pressing issues of the day? I'd surely like to know!

Issues like Obama-Care, Russian aggression, China's aspirations, Iran' nuke and even our domestic energy policy! Have they tuned in or tuned out? Or rather, have they they merely passed out! Maybe feasting on all the pleasures of a society where informational and sensory overload is the meal of choice!

The American's of olden times were largely a hard working and frugal people who knew what it was to save a penny for a rainy day. After all, starvation for them was often just a week or two away! Work brittle and strong, they carved a hard existence out of a then primitive land where early death was a constant companion and hardship the daily shackle of life.

These men built this country!

Contrast those early people of our country with what is going on today. Almost half the population are no longer employed or are on entitlement programs or living at home. Ten thousand, sixty four or older citizens are retiring daily with many marching right into an overloaded health care system where a few are racking up staggering medical costs that grow larger ever day....

Meanwhile, our youth seem less and less inclined to take up the reigns of leadership....Do I blame them...I'm not sure...one thing that is for sure - American exceptionalism is pretty much dead! Party on dudes (extreme sarcasm)!

The real cost of ‘always on’ devices

I suspect that my home is pretty much representative of most out there. Like everyone, energy costs have been of increasing concern. A recent rate hike of 13.5% that took affect in September 2010 will mean an increase of about $13 per $100 billed. Some area residents were pissed off. Another increase of 9.2% is being asked for this coming June 2011 and that doesn’t count the possibility of two more increases due to ‘fuel cost’ sometime in the next year. Wow!

So, one of my projects was to take a close look at any devices in my house that are left on but not used, especially during the night time hours. I took an inventory and was really shocked to find such a large number of devices; backup media drives, power transformers, printers and even TV’s. One early morning when most everything was off, I thought, I discovered that my TED power monitor showing a steady power consumption rate of 0.546 kilowatts being consumed! After doing a little math, I came up with a whopping $23 in wasted energy costs per month. As my electric bills average out to about $120 per month, these little energy wasters were taking a 19% bite out of my wallet! The total per year was $276.00. I figured for that kind of money, my time would be well spent making a few simple changes.

My first thought was twofold. First, I need to figure out what really needed to be on all the time. This list included such items as my refrigerator, deep freeze and water heater. Items that could go on a timer would be basically all power transformers, TV’s, High Definition converter boxes and such. The list would also include a cluster of devices attached to my main computer including the cable modem, wireless hud server and backup drives. Then, I needed to go out and purchase a number of multiple outlets which could be connected to timers. Lot of work that.

My second thought was to integrate the household outlets into a master controller so that I could schedule when power would be supplied and when it would be not supplied. One unit that caught my eye was the Homemanageables home controller. For a few hundred dollars you can control and schedule turning appliances on and off via a pc or cell phone. For right now, I’ve decided to go after the heaviest power offenders with a couple of well placed timers and leave it at that. After monitoring these changes for a bit, I’ll see if I need to go up to next level.