JayMillionaire's Blog

Is alcohol a drug?

Yes, alcohol is a drug. Alcohol can affect every organ in the human body - brain, liver, stomach and heart to name a few! In teenagers and adults as well, behavior that occurs “under the influence” of alcohol can also lead to serious threats to life and health. Although alcohol is not a prescription drug or an illegal substance (for adults), it carries all the risks of addiction and illness that street drugs do.

 Above is what I found everywhere I searched on internet so I have one question to the Government of The District of Columbia.  

IF ALCOHOL IS A DRUG AND SCHOOLS HAVE A DRUG FREE ZONE THEN WHY ARE THERE LIQUOR STORES ACROSS THE STREET FROM SO MANY SCHOOLS IN THE DISTRICT? 

You allow you so called legal drug to be sold right in the eye of children.  We all know that alcohol attracts a certain crowd of people good and bad but in the inner city mostly bad yet this type of tactics are allowed by the citizens and government.  We petition to have night Clubs closed down but ride right pass the hundreds of liquor stores sitting on almost every corner where there is a school located. 

CHANGE – Yes we are in need of change and not just from the government but from the people as well.  When are we going to start caring enough to take matters like this into our own hands?  

These are kids that have to see this as early as they are going to school because the liquor stores open up just as early as the schools.  

But once again these are the kids that we expect the most from.  Kids that are already facing challenges that are monumental to say the least.  A lot of these kids already lack the support system and education needed but are now faced with another choice.  

I pray for these kids everyday because I live in MD and my kids attend a great school.  They don’t have to play at recess or gym and see actual drug deals going down they can be kids.  I talk to my wife about this because I am from the city and I don’t drink as much now but growing up it was so easy to get it you would be surprised at what age most kids start drinking.  I was raised in this same environment and see many of my friend’s border line alcoholics and they are in there late 20’s and early 30’s and they didn’t start drinking at the legal age at 21.    

And finally my belief isn’t that marijuana is the gateway drug to others I believe it’s ALCOHOL that is the gateway drug.  Look at most hard drug users and I bet they have a drinking problem as well.  It maybe the gateway in the suburbs but in the City it’s noting compared to ALCOHOL.  

Being a black male born and raised in the Washington DC area there are a lot of things that play a role in crime in this city but the number one reason most crimes go unsolved I believe is the definition of SNITCHING or being labeled a SNITCH. 

We recently had a conversation in the barber shop with some young men and I brought up this topic.  I asked one of the young men what he considered a snitch and his definition was so vague that anyone in the barber shop could have fit the description.   

I asked them if they were sitting on a friends porch minding their business and a car came speeding around the corner and there was a child crossing the street and he hit the child and kept going and you saw the tag number would you tell.  His response was “No, cuz I ain’t no snitch”. 

Amazed I continued… even though I knew that the next questions had no chance but I asked it anyway.

So if you and some friends robbed a store or a bank and on your way out a woman parking her car saw you and wrote down the tag number and told the police what is she?  Of course his answer was the same “man that B is a snitch and she should have minded her own business” was his friend response which seemed to draw high fives and a few giggles.  

Okay if you are selling drugs in front of someone’s home and they call the police.  You guessed it again they consider that a snitch.

So I asked them one final question before I gave my definition

So if some shot, robbed, rapped, or murdered a family member and there were people who saw this crime take place and all your family member was doing was walking home from work minding their business would you want someone who saw the incident to come forward?  Not a word and that’s when it was very clear to me that these young men thought they knew what a snitch was.  I am from the same streets they are from and they are aware of this so I wasn’t worried about them thinking I was a snitch.  Some of these young guys looked up to me growing up so I know they will at least listen to what I am saying.

This is what I told them I considered being a snitch. 

If 4 people are in a car and they are out to commit a crime rather it be a misdemeanor or a felony crime and upon getting caught or getting away 1 of them 4 decides to tell… that is a snitch.

 Someone who agreed to be involved but decided to tell to save their own…. that is a snitch.

Someone who decided to sell drugs and upon getting caught tells on the person that gave him the drugs… that is a snitch

Law abiding citizens out to live and make a better way and witness a crime and decides to come forth does not give them the label of a snitch.  We argued for a bit but at the end most of the young men agreed that they did look anyone that gave information as a snitched but openly admitted that they do see a difference.  So it made me think what else do they think they know that they really don’t have a clue.  No of course I advised the young men to try to live a better life but that is a different topic.

Jay Millionaire

There is no one particular reason that we are in one of the worst housing slumps ever there is more a like ripple effect that occurred.  I am going to break down the different groups of people currently struggling thru this housing crisis because the media has a way of mixing them all up.  Here they are

1. W2 employees that brought homes thru stated loan programs.  Stated Income programs were first designed for self-employed and commission based employees because their income has always been a bit difficult to prove with all the tax deductions allowed at the end of the year.  But when lenders starting allowing W2 employees to state their income they created a problem they couldn't have imagined.  Oh a stated loan is one where you don't have to have your income verified you just the mere fact that you work there and how long.  Well most of these borrowers did not take fixed loan programs because the fixed rate offered on a stated program was just to high to them so they took the lesser of 2 evils and went with a 2/28 (the worst), 3/27, or a 5/27.  They took an adjustable arm banking on the fact that (a) these programs would always be around (b) that the housing market would continue to flourish and the equity would allow them to refinance before the loan reset and (c) No one ever explained to them that what they were doing was against the law.   

2. Borrowers who purchased homes based on the interest only portion of the loan.  The usual way of computing your Debt to Income (DTI) ratio was based on calculating the Principle, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance (PITI).  Here comes some more new programs that only calculated the interest payment making borrowers qualify for much more house then they can afford.  Basically taking say a $3000 mortgage payment and making it a $1800 mortgage payment makes the borrowers think he can afford that loan.  Well when it's time to qualify for that loan at the full PITI payment they can't and they can't afford the full payment once it starts because they couldn't afford it from the beginning. 

3. Prior to Jan 2007 Most states didn't require loan officers to be licensed.   The housing market was booming and any business that makes money has to always be on the look out for the crooks but unfortunately when the government noticed it was already to late.  60% of the people I ran into over the last 3 years were either Realtors or Loan officers and I was just amazed at how some of them could be either some were both which really was astonishing.  Mortgage Brokers at one time had more business then they could handle so they hired mostly whoever came knocking and if the broker wasn’t honest you best believe that his or her staff was sure to follow but not all those one left and went to other companies.  There were laws in place for the Mortgage Broker but none requiring any training to become a Loan officer which I found amazing given the fact the sensitive information you are handling when submitting an application for a loan.  You have access to a person whole entire life as well as the loan that you put them in can make or break them and with little to no experience or training imagine the amount of people that sold borrowers whatever they Broker told them.

4. And last but not least THE 6 YEARS WE HAVE BEEN FIGHTING 2 WARS!   I don't know of any country that could spend billions of dollars a day fighting to wars in to separate countries and still expect their country to be thriving.  We have been at war for at least the last 5 years think about the number of soldiers not here working in our economy I think the number of soldiers at war is somewhere over 300,000.  Sure that is a small part of the economy but for some of the small states where a lot of these soldiers are from that's a lot.  This war hasn't been good for anyone as far as I can see; we still face serious threats from terrorist around the world.  We are no safer then the start of the war although I haven't seen an orange alert since the last Bush election I don't feel any safer.  And traveling aboard is certainly out of the question right now so once again the war has not push this country forward but merely taken us back to housing crisis, recessions, stock market crashes, as well as record gas prices.

Those are only a few reason that the housing market is in shambles but I want to end this on one final note.  YOUR JOB IS NOT YOUR CREDIT!!!!   I find it appalling when we have ads by stars boosting that YOUR JOB IS YOUR CREDIT because last time I checked your credit was your credit.  Amazing that the stars job is their credit but tells average working Americans that statement makes it ten times harder for people to really understand the importance and significance of your credit.  These are the same problems that have caused the economy to fall.  How do I talk a client into budgeting and paying bills on time when they just brought the car and home of their dream all with a 580 credit score and a decent job?  Paying bills and saving will definitely be the last thing on their mind and now the creditors see they just brought a house so here come the credit card offers.

 I am aware there were a lot of people that were taken advantage of but my 5 years in the business has shown me that not many people took any FREE HOME BUYING CLASSES that explains the process from beginning to end.  

Education is the key to all this mess

Jay Millionaire