Living Within Our Means

Well, the State of California has finally passed a budget. A key legislator finally decided to go along with the program. They dropped the twelve cents gasoline tax hike but they’re keeping the one percent hike in sales tax, the doubling of motor vehicles fees and also an increase in the State Income Tax. They had this all last night on the evening news but I missed the boat yesterday in that other file because I saw a Google video where the Governor was talking with reporters and was in a downcast mood.

There is a guy who had his internet moment of fame yesterday for saying that Obama shouldn’t reward irresponsible people and punish the 92% of the mortgage payers who actually pay their bills on time, and if Obama is going to help the slaggers, then he should help the responsible 92% also with a check. I happened to think of my own past back to November of 1978 when my source of income was gone, and now I was moving into a different house where I would be paying almost double the rent. But it was only the next August or September (of 1979) that I actually began to get worried, even though all that time I had no money coming in, in fact had actually made a loan to my housemate so he could pay the rent, and I had a $300.00 dental expense for a crown that wasn’t covered by insurance. But that was back in the days when people actually had financial buffers that could absorb the shocks of the unexpected. That could never happen today. People have no drescretionary money. Hartman is trying to tell us that once upon a time fifty percent of people’s money was drescretionary. That’s living the life. Today people are only one pay check away from financial ruin. People who are my age and just older look at their bank accounts and declare they will never be able to make it on retirement. But people do have to live within their means. I don’t see how people can continue to use cell phones. The idea of giving cell phones to your kids, and encouraging them to use them is lucicris on a whole lot of levels. You see these TV sitcoms where everyone is a virgin at seventeen and all the students are applying for these exclusive colleges. That generation seems to live in a different world. You know, where you can travel for three months in Europe to “broaden your experience” or something. They say people have “stopped spending”. I’ll tell you what “stopping spending” is. That’s when a while back I “stopped spending” money on snacks because I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t just cut back fifteen percent. I “stopped spending” on a movie night out, or day excoursions at one of our local theme parks. Cutting back fifteen percent is not “stopping spending”. People have not even “stopped spending” on elective surgeries. There are still incidences, even now, where the Federal Government will dump a lot of money on a community and they have to dream up all sorts of wasteful ways to spend the money. People in the news need to redefine their terms. They still advertise lypho-suction to reduce fat and these laser treatments for excess fat, and stomach stapling. People still seek the same exclusive fashions and accessories that the Stars have. It we were really all that broke, all these places would have gone out of business by now. They say Mc Donald’s has upgraded their coffee. Mc Donalds already had the best coffee of any of the fast food places I went to when I lived in my apartment and still actually had discretionary income, even if it was from the government. I think switching to Mc Donald’s coffee is the only sensible thing to do in these times and long overdue. But you know- - being financially prudent is considered “un-patriotic” by the Bushies, “Doncha Know!” Remember when President Bush’s message to everybody was to “Go Shopping?” This is one recession we can’t shop our way out of. And if other people are thrown out of work because I stop spending money well I guess that’s just too bad. But I’m not going to engage in the same insane behavior that caused this economic mess. The Reagonomics gurus and the Bushies said to use your home as an ATM machine, and to compensate for stagnant wages by going into debt. I believe people should suffer for their own poor decisions unless somehow “The Commons” is affected. That is- if you don’t vaccinate your kid, then it decreases “herd immunity” and increases my kid’s likelihood of getting the disease. Likewise if your neighbor’s house is on fire it is the only prudent thing to do to help him put it out, lest it spread. In like manner if a blight of unsold homes is breaking out in your neighborhood, it impacts the worth of your house. Your neighbor really owes it to you NOT to default on his mortgage. One might even argue if the price of your house goes down because of his actions, than you have the right to sue him in court. People say this recession could last for twenty years. One person in his sixties said “I do not expect to see the end of this financial crunch within my lifetime”. We have to wrong out all the economic poison from this economy. We were able to do that in the early ‘eighties, but only after a protracted period of a high “misery index” in the twenties. Hopefully parent’s misfortunes will be an object lesson to their children, not to spend beyond their means, learned, perhaps at a bit younger age than their parents learned it. Hopefully today’s youths will grow up more responsible people because of the hardships we are facing now, like our grandparents used to be.