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Thniking out loud - wants and needsPosted Sunday, February 7, 2010, at 1:02 PM
This is how much I know about how our economy works..zero. I try to watch the news, although I am convinced they only show us what they want us to know most of the time. I know we are in bad shape, but I do not understand why.
I know spending leads to debt, which leads to our nation being in debt.
I know that printing more money will not help because the federal reserve is privately owned and it has interest added before the nation even thinks about needing more money..why is it called a federal reserve then?
I know that people are losing jobs and in turn spending less which makes more people lose jobs.
I know that the United States really does not make anything here anymore, face it we are an outsourcing nation.
So what now? How do we save what ultimately is crumbling right in front of us?
We are in debt, out of work, not skilled as a whole, and on our own.
Soon we will be a nation of only two kinds of people.. the insanely rich and the destitute poor. Every year I see the gap grow bigger and bigger. I know you have to see it too.
Maybe it's because we no longer can find a difference between what we WANT and what we NEED.
A friend of my daughter's explained it very well….you want the pretty shiny earrings that cost 40 dollars, but you need the winter coat, before it snows, that is brown for $ 25. And you get lunch for two days(she said that was an added bonus).
I would have looked pretty stupid frozen to death with shiny earrings on last week.
So do we as a whole think this way, we need to buy cheap crap from other nations, we need brand new cars every two years, we need the latest designer clothes, and we need to be in debt?
I am hoping our supposed leaders are smarter than that. Unfortunately all I hear lately is I want, I want, I want in all the speeches that have been given.
Nothing about what we really need…which is really scary to me.
Hey here is an idea…get together a group of regular people named the "Average Joe Committee" or AJC since we all know the govt. loves acronyms.
Give these people access to the information they need…yes all the information..like it costs $ 400 for a hammer to hang a picture at the White House (just an example) and see what they come up with.
I'll bet they can cut things out, just like I do when we have a lean week at my house.
Maybe the people we have dealing with our money right now need the perspective of someone who has seen lean years and knows what is like to be poor.
Correct me if I wrong, but most of the people in a position of power in our govt. never ate raman noodles for a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Yes, I was in college, I had 10 dollars to spend on food because I bought the shiny earrings.) So I do not have faith in their version of "tightening the belt".
Since most of you are common folk like me I'm open for suggestions on how you would improve our situation. So let me know what you think? Comments Showing most recent comments first [Show in chronological order instead] |
Troxler, a native of Bedford County, lived in Shelbyville all her life, until recently moving to Unionville. She has three teenagers. She's an amateur photographer.
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I buy the shoes that normally cost 130.00 because my doctor wanted me to have them for the support, but I find them used/like new at Marti and Liz's in the Boro for 38.00
there is ways to find what you want/need for super prices...
Limit meetings of Congress to once a month or less. Then they would only have time to focus on things that really matter for the country and wouldn't waste time investigating steroid use in baseball or other nonsense that is no business of congress. Less meetings would also mean lower pay and NO benefits such as health care or retirement for them, so they would have to work "regular" jobs and experience the effects of their decisions just like the rest of us.
Also, reinstate the 10th amendment with the full force of law. This would reinforce much of the above benefits and would also let individual states explore different solutions to problems, without a central government going "all-in".
Imagine up to fifty different experiments to find a solution to one problem happening at one time-it would be much more likely to find a workable, agreeable, cheaper solution to almost any problem this way.
I don't know what to tell you. But I do know about those 130.00 shoes. Our 18 year old son believes that they will last him longer.But it is because his friends have them. The gas keeps going up and our power bill was 300.00 this month and Food is going up. It is tuff for the normal family to get by.If I hear Obama say one more time "Yes we can" I will scream. I wish I could tell him No we can't. I just wish I could go to the store and buy what ever food I would like without worring about the price. But I don't see me being able to do that.
Let's start by cutting all the salaries of "top officials" to a more realistic rate for services rendered, and cut back on some of those $200,000 "bonuses."
I don't know how to fix this, I too am not an economist. I do know that for at least two generations Americans appear to have bought into the "more it cost, or bigger/"badder" is better" ideology.
We have seen this concept pandered to by our auto industry and look where it got us. Do we need "big bad cars" or do we need fuel efficient reliable vehicles that will get us from A to B. People have spent money that could have been saved to "trick out" their cars to make them look faster or cooler. None of the "stuff" was needed, nor does it actually improve the speed or efficiency - it is all superficial.
When we need clothing, we want designer things. We pay for the name, not the garment. The quality quite often isn't any better than non-designer clothing (and I am not referring to "Made in China.")
We want designer sunglasses for $80, when $10 will get a pair that performs the same function. Most people can't tell one from the other, so why spend the extra $70 for a name?
I have come to believe that we can no longer tell the difference between "want" and "need". I watch others play this "game" of "he who has the most stuff for the highest cost - wins."
I am tired of hearing, "I NEED $120 sneakers." No, you WANT them because you think they'll impress others. What you NEED is a good pair of shoes and price does not always equal quality.
As to the $400 dollar hammer to hang pictures at the White House, I'll do for $100, or better yet, have the politicians do the jobs they obviously consider "beneath them." They need to regain an appreciation for actual physical labor. Once people who earned their living by the sweat of their own brows were respected. Now it seems we glorify those that find ways to make money without actually doing anything productive.
Obviously, you hit my "hot button." Sorry about the rant.