Are you tossing and turning in your
sleep, wondering how you will make your next loan payment? This scene is
playing itself out all over America as people caught in the debt spiral slowly
sink past the point of no return. If it makes you feel any better, you're not
alone. Take the case of Tom and Katie, newlyweds for nearly 30 years. Their
lives had gone along nearly perfect. Sure, there were a few bumps in the road.
There was the time when Tom Jr wrecked the car and ended up in the hospital for
a few weeks. Thank goodness he recovered without any permanent injuries. Or the
time when Ally got caught with marijuana at school. Other than that, life had
been pretty good. So good that Tom had been able to retire early at only 55.
They were living the American Dream. In fact, about five years ago they got a
letter from the bank offering to lower their house payment. Or they could keep
the payment the same and take out $100,000. It seemed like a sweet way to take a
little time for themselves and do all the things they hadn't been able to do
when raising a family. First they took a vacation to Europe. They spent a
romantic weekend in Paris and stayed at the Hilton. The next year, Tom
surprised Katie on their anniversary with a Mediterranean cruise. Everything
seemed sweet until they got home and realized their house payment had gone up
$500 per month. Tom was outraged. The loan officer who had put him in the
program was no longer at the bank. Tom protested but it was pointed out that he
had signed the documents. Not only that, but the loan had only been fixed for
the first three years. It was due to go up again next year. The extra $500
would severely dent their retirement budget. There was no way they could handle
an extra $1000. Tom decided to go back to work for a couple years to fix the
problem. He found his job had gone to a young college kid that was doing the
same job for about half what he had been paid. He sent out resumes but none
came back. The newspaper reported the US was entering a recession. It was about
this time that the cruelest blow of all came. The stock market crashed wiping
out nearly half of Tom and Katie's savings The lucky few individuals that have
made big money on domains over the years have seen the cultural changes coming
in advance and purchased domain names accordingly. Who would have thought
domain names would be so big? The first domain name ever registered,
"symbolics.com" was registered in 1985. Don't you know that the
company that purchased it now wishes they'd purchased sex.com instead (it's
sold a couple times already for more than ten million!)? Now some think another
big cultural shift is coming in the drug culture. Marijuana for medical use is
now legal in many states and voters in California are being presented with a
chance to allow small amounts for recreational use. As goes California, so goes
the rest of the states--at least many people think. That would mean that it is
only a matter of time before marijuana can be sold nationwide.. So has the time
come to buy marijuana domains? Some apparently seem to think so. A recent story
in the New York Times told about a number of domineers (individuals who buy and
sell domain names) who are betting heavily that marijuana will be legalized and
anything with the word marijuana in it will be considered a valuable web
business address. They hope California's Proposition 19 will pass allowing
possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational use as opposed to
the already allowed use of the drug for medical use. Some enthusiastic
individuals have purchased up to a thousand names at eight to ten bucks a pop.
Names like Sandiegomarijuana and marijuanaforever.com. Proposition 19, however,
seems to be losing its lead in the poles so you have to wonder if that's such a
good idea; or, at the least, if it is, in fact, an idea whose time has really
come. And even if California goes for recreational marijuana the Federal
authorities have sworn to continue to prosecute users. You have to think it
will be a long time before it's legal in say, buy marijuana seeds
|