Interesting Facts

Allegedly, the two biggest welfare recipients in America today are Wal-Mart and McDonald's. (So, how does that work out?  Well, according to a report in Bloomberg, American fast food workers received more than $7 billion dollars in public assistance between 2007 and 2011. McDonald's even had a “McResource” line that helped employees and their families enroll in various state and local assistance programs. It exploded into the public when a recording advocated that full-time employees sign up for food stamps and welfare, and has since been closed down. According to the same report, Wal-Mart employees are the largest group of Medicaid recipients. They are also the single biggest group of food stamp recipients. Wal-mart’s "associates" are paid so little, according to Congressman Alan Grayson, that they receive $1,000 on average in public assistance. Once upon a time, if you were unemployed you needed financial help.  Working hard and still needing government handou

On the day the Royal Mail is privatised I think it's timely to remind everyone that even the great white shark Margaret Thatcher refused to flog off the Royal Mail. (Her reason was she wasn't prepared to privatise the Queen's head. In a YouGov poll in July 2013, two-thirds of British adults opposed the privatisation of the Royal Mail. Nice to know that the Tories are listening to the common people.) !Update - Three months on from privatisation, shares are trading around 561p, 70% higher than the original price of 330p.  (I'm still glad I didn't buy any.)

If you're looking for a good ROI (Return On Investment), here's a way of making 30% in just 5 days. (No, this isn't a con, this is genuine. Send me all your money (joke). No - go to a UK post office and buy some first and second class stamps. By Monday they will be worth around 30% more. On 30th April a first-class stamp in the UK will rise in price from 46p to 60p and a second-class stamp will go up from 36p to 50p.  As the stamps don't show their monetary value, just their status (First / Second Class), you will be making an excellent investment.)