Thanks
Posted By: sky on 2008-10-27
In Reply to: Wow sky. You sure have a way with words and summing up...sm - oldtimer
Sadly, the people you mentioned, those not affected by the economic problems that mosf of us face, have become our heros. We want to be just like them, and fantasize someday we will be, without realizing what enables their lifestyle is usually the bank fees and other dubious charges we just shrug and pay. As long as we reflexively reach for our wallets, without questioning what we are paying for or why we "need" it, they will profit from our apathy. They are counting on us to provide them this lifestyle, and we won't let them down. They deserve it after all, they are always busy thinking of ways of taking our money, and obviously we aren't very interested in finding ways to keep it in our own pockets instead of putting in theirs.
Did that pesky credit card charge you an overlimit or a late fee today? Darn, there goes another $20 or $30. Multiply that by thousands of customers and some CEO can buy another condo on the Riveria. But we don't learn, we refuse to budget and live within our means, we keep on charging any little thing that strikes our fancy. We're eager to pay interest to the big rich guy so he can have his condo and we can have our Starbucks, even though many of us will still be paying interest on that cup of coffee 5 years after we drank it.
But we deny the reality of our own foolishness. We deny that the pennies we waste today can add up. We deny that we are responsible for the mess we are in. The only the we don't deny is our own urge to keep spending, and if we do, people think we're pretty odd. Everyone wants us to spend - the government wants it, the advertisers want it, our neighbors want it, our family wants it. How can we deny the wishes of all these people?
JUST SAY NO. The current drug is conspicuous consumption. The question is - what does it take before we admit there's a problem and head for rehab? How big will our national debt get before that day? Like junkies caring only about the next fix, we bail out predatory businesses to keep the party rolling just a little longer, we pretend stimulus checks will help the economy, anything is better than dealing with the problem head on and making painful changes. Too many people in power don't want this party to stop, and they're our heros, right? We must start at home, with our own financial choices. Question those choices, and let the old-schoolers lead the way, especially those that lived through the depression and actually have survival skills for times like these..
What do the old-schoolers know? They know plenty about keeping their money in their pockets. They know it is possible to put money in a savings account, instead of gambling it in stocks and 401Ks and making Wall Street richer whether you win or lose. They know if you save up money first and then spend it, then you're not paying 3 times the item's worth in interest fees for the luxury of having something immediately. They know you can actually live without a cell phone bill or a satellite contract, they did it for decades. They know you shouldn't hand credit to a college student without first giving them some lessons in econsomics. If we all could learn some of these lessons, we could find both different values and heros.
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