What did we do before caller ID?  I can’t tell you how many times my phone has rang this week, with someone on the other end encouraging me to vote for this candidate or that candidate.  Don’t even get me started on the political ads!  Candidates for Congress have spent more than $3.6 billion on this election so far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and they’re still going!

Suppose instead of running attack ads, slick mailers, and robocalls, our politicians lavished us with:

1. Tuition for 62,548 students at America’s most expensive university
Forbes recently listed Sarah Lawrence College as the nation’s priciest school, with a tuition rate of $57,556, including room and board.

2. 3,973,510 monthly mortgage payments
The average monthly mortgage payment, according to analysts at Freddie Mac, is $906 in principal and interest. $3.6 billion would buy one month’s reprieve from the repo man for almost 4 million Americans.

3. 48 million bleacher tickets for a World Series game
Cheap seats cost $75. Wouldn’t we all like to be there?

4. Annual salaries for 83,116 high school teachers
Payscale.com pegs the median high school teacher salary at $43,313. Don’t we need more math and science experts in the classroom?

READ MORE!

Friday evening, I will be boarding an airplane to return to Chicago to pick up my family (Woot Woot!) and make the cross country trip back to the SOS Radio Network studio city of Las Vegas.  Just in time for my trip, US News and World Report published their report on America’s Worst Airlines.

Worst Major Airlines

5. US Airways-  While US Airways improved five percent in passenger satisfaction according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, they were one of three airlines cited as having the rudest flight attendants and serving the worst food.

Domestic Baggage Fees:
1st Bag: $25
2nd Bag: $35 3rd Bag: $100
Overweight Bags: $50 Extra (51 – 70 lbs) $100 Extra (71 – 100 lbs)
Oversized Bags: $100 Extra (larger than 62″)

4. American Airlines-  This year AA has had frequent incidents of mishandled baggage with an average of 4.07 reports per 1,000 passengers, according to the Air Travel Consumer Reports (this is the worst rating among the major airlines in the study). SeatGuru’s survey named American Airlines as one of the three airlines that have the rudest flight attendants and the worst food.

Domestic Baggage Fees:
1st Bag: $25
2nd Bag: $35
3rd Bag: $100
Overweight Bags: $50 (51 – 70 lbs) $100 (71 – 100 lbs)
Oversized Bags: $150 (larger than 62″)

3. Alaska Airlines- According to Air Travel Consumer Reports, the airline averaged 3.98 incidents per 1,000 passengers last year. However, Alaska Airlines did a stellar job when it came to delays, with 88 percent of its flights having on-time arrivals (in the 12-month period ending August 2010).

Domestic Baggage Fees:
1st Bag: $20
2nd Bag: $20
3rd Bag: $20
Overweight Bags: $50 (51 – 100 lbs)
Oversized Bags: $50 (63 – 80″) $75 (81 – 115″)

STILL TO COME: Click here to check out the top TWO worst airlines as well as full coverage on America’s Worst Regional Airlines.

Modern day parenting here folks!  A mother in South Carolina offered her daughter $300 to stop using the social media site Facebook for one month.  The way the deal worked, Alyssa Rushing, 20, had to stay off of Facebook for a month, pour the hours she would have spent on the social networking site studying, and in exchange her mom would give her $300.

Like most her age, Alyssa indicated that she typically spent three to four hours on Facebook, logging on whenever she has a break in her day.

READ ON: Learn how Alyssa’s mom locked her out of Facebook after the jump.