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There are some disturbing stats out about seat belt use. Only 80% of us wear them; that means 1 in 5 goes unbuckled!

Clark took high school physics. While he didn't understand much, he did understand the part about flying through the air during a sudden stop! The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 68% of teens who were killed in nighttime car crashes weren't wearing seat belts. Parents, you're responsible for drilling the seat belt message into their heads.

In Europe, new drivers are required to display a scarlet letter on their vehicles. It's a huge red-and-white "L" that helps alert other drivers to be extra vigilant around them. If we had that system, it would give police a heads-up to observe the behavior of young drivers.

Clark's 19-year-old daughter has been driving since she first got her learner's permit 4 years ago. By her own admission, she's still "learning" how to drive. Christa, meanwhile, is worried about when her 5 year old gets ready to drive.

In certain states, it's considered a badge of cool to not wear a seat belt. The top 3 offenders in this category include New Hampshire (the "live free or die" state), Massachusetts and Arkansas. On the flip side, Hawaii and Washington state are the best places when it comes to wearing seat belts.

Clark has a natural affinity for smaller vehicles. But just how safe are they? The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety now says the Smart Car, which seats 2 passengers, has earned top ratings for side and front crash tests. The Honda Fit is another wundercar that's been built from the ground up to be extra safe.

This is a big change from the days when all small cars were considered unsafe. Today, small does not necessarily have to mean dangerous. While you can't defy the laws of physics, you can counteract them with good engineering.

Clark and his wife like to go out and have a nice dinner every so often. Last week, they went to an extremely expensive place that offered a 3-course meal for $29. Usually, it's around $80 per person!

High-end restaurateurs are finding they're having trouble getting customers. And those customers who do come in are really picking and choosing what they order. The Dallas Morning News reports one restaurant has seen a 30% decline in desserts.

Appetizers, desserts and alcohol are what Clark calls the Bermuda Triangle of your restaurant bill. That's where most of your money disappears. By comparison, the markup on the main course is usually much smaller than on those items.

Meanwhile, the only segment of the industry that's doing well right now is fast food. So it's no wonder the high-end restaurants are experimenting with the tried-and-true "value meal combo" approach.

The Howards enjoyed their 3-course "value meal" so much that they've already lined up a different deal at another restaurant for their daughter's upcoming birthday!

The new quarterly results from the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) have been released.

While Clark usually comes out of the gate with news of who's stinking it up, he's decided to begin with one industry that's doing great -- the package delivery business. FedEx earns an 85 this quarter, while UPS is right behind them with an 83. Keep in mind that this is out of a scale of 100. Anything in the 70s is considered a passing grade. USPS scored a major coup, meanwhile, reversing several past failures with a score of 74.

Among the flunkees, we have Sprint in the cell phone business. The carrier earned a 56 while Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile were all in the low 70s.

The cell carriers all fiercely compete with each other. Not so in the monopoly-dominated world of cable and satellite TV. And the numbers don't lie, either; every last cable/satellite provider failed. Direct TV was the least of the worst, while Dish Network had a big decline. The worst score of the entire index was 54, earned by both Comcast and Charter.

In the airline sector, US Air also took home a 54 to make it the worst airline for customer satisfaction in the United States. The full-fares all failed, with American and Continental selected as the "best" because they earned 62 each. Among the discounters, Southwest scored an industry-wide high of 79. In fact, Southwest has been No. 1 for 14 years in a row. Other discounters were too small to note individually, but had a combined blended score of 75.

Is it any wonder that the industries you hear repeated complaints about on the show got the lousiest scores? Clark thinks not.

When you have a medical procedure, a bill is generated, the insurer pays a negotiated amount and you have your co-pay. That should be the end of the story. But right now there's a fight in California about who gets stuck with the tab. Doctors and hospitals are furious that they bill one amount, yet the insurers come back saying they'll only pay a fraction of it.

In the push and pull, the weakest player here is the consumer. The doctors and hospitals are trying to pass unpaid costs off to the patient through a practice known as "balance billing." Clark has no idea how this fight will go in the Golden State, but he'll keep you updated.

The real solution here would be for customers to know the cost of medical care before a procedure and shop accordingly. But we're nowhere near this being the case.

The Society of Actuaries finds that paying for healthcare is the No. 1 concern of workers, cited by 70% of people. Right now there's a stalemate with employers, medical providers and consumers all hating the system. The only ones who like the system are the insurers.

The problem is we don't have a marketplace where insurers are required to practice normal capitalism. Clark has long been an advocate of vouchers for healthcare. Insurers would then have to compete for everyone's business and there wouldn't be exclusions for pre-existing conditions. This is not a justification for universal healthcare; it's just a call for healthcare vouchers.

Healthcare is a hot button issue for voters in '08. But both parties are stuck in a prior decade with their views. We need to move into the future and vouchers might be one way to get the job done.