You know, every time I watch the news or read the news online there are stories about the terrible state of the economy and how the middle class losing ground. Unemployment continue to increase, wages for those working are shrinking, the cost of living is rising, household budgets are tightening, banks wont loan money, foreclosures are looming and housing prices are weak and falling, consumer spending is on the decline and nobody has any money. I read lot of people are delinquent on their mortgages, the job market is weak, consumers are using credit cards to buy food, gas and other basic necessities and more people are being laid off and seeking unemployment benefits while the number of Americans living in poverty continues to rise and government debt is at unprecedented high levels. More businesses and stores are closing, student loan debt is soaring and the default rate is rising sharply every year, incomes continue to go down. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are classified as low income jobs. There are now nearly 50 million Americans that do not have health insurance, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 12 years in a row. Meanwhile, Americans now spend more than 3 times as much on health care as they did back in 1990. The number of self-employed Americans continues to rapidly shrink and nearly 40% of Americans believe that the U.S. economy has now entered a permanent decline. Today, there are more than 45 million Americans on food stamps. The U.S. national debt continues to explode in size and spiral out of control as the U.S. dollar has lost more than half its value over the past six years. That said, every house on every block has a small satellite dish or a cable hookup. Everyone I see in stores, in traffic, in offices, in waiting rooms and in public is holding a a specialty coffee cup signaling they just plunked down between $2.00 and $5.00 for a cup of coffee. I watch people display spending habits at convenience store gas stations. When they go inside to pay they purchase a bottle of soda, snacks, gum or cigarettes, adding as much as $5.00 or more to their purchase. It never stops being surprising to me when I visit someones home and see how they spend their money. My job takes me into residences of every income bracket. The lowest wage earners, those hardest impacted by the negative economy gripes we keep hearing about, seem to spend the most money on electronics. A $450.00 flat screen television with a $400.00 video game console and two or three dozen game cartridges stacked on a nearby shelf at $30.00 to $40.00 each totals well over $2,000.00 when you throw in the DVD player and cable tuner box. If there are younger children in the household, throw another $250.00 or more at that total for the pile of Disney movies that were purchased on their release date. Their banking habits show that ATM fees, overdraft fees, credit card interest all combine to cost individuals at least $30.00 or more in fees and hidden costs each month. For an economically depressed region in the midst of a recession where unemployment is up and wages are low, the forty five minute wait at chain restaurants around the retail shopping malls and plazas. The chains offer a menu that barely deviates from their competition in selection, preparation and, witching a couple dollars per entree, price. Nearly every one of them has their version of a Blooming Onion, The Onion Bloom, The Onion Blossom, The Awesome Blossom or The Onion Mum. Whatever its called, its a deep fried whole onion with some sort of dip sold as an appetizer for around $7.50. All of the appetizers are between $7 and $11 each so when they are ordered along with the entree and a beer or soft drink, its not unusual for the bill for a couple to total $40 to $50 or more. The average American eats out 4.2 meals per week. Thats about 18 meals per month. The average prepared meal cost is $12.75 each. Therefore, the average person spends about $232 per month eating meals prepared outside the home. Thats a lot of groceries! The average meal made at home is usually less than $2.00 each. Thats a big difference and would go a long way toward easing the pinch on the household budget during the especially trying economic times I keep hearing about. There are so many other areas where I see money being foolishly spent by people who are impacted by the poor economy. The folks who have better paying jobs that are more secure than average are wasting money too but Im less concerned with their wasteful spending as they can afford the higher cost of the items they choose to purchase. I dont often see this on high end cars from the wealthier neighborhoods in town, but I do see it more and more often on the lesser expensive cars in neighborhoods more likely to be inhabited with lower wage earners. The thing I see that makes me wonder about priorities is the automobile headlight eyelashes. These durable rubber or vinyl products are sold as a kit that is installed above your cars headlights to resemble eyelashes. They sell for approximately $28.00 to $75.00, depending on the kit and accessories. Plus shipping and handling! And for some reason the car mounted reindeer antler craze has been growing year after year as more motorists are inclined to decorate their vehicles with a pair of plush, fabric-covered antlers that fasten above your cars front door windows. The kit includes a large red reindeer nose for the front bumper or grill of your car, completing the Rudolph costume for a price tag ranging from $15.00 to as much as $45.00. To be fair, the value of the $45.00 set was awesome because it came with not just the fabric and plastic antlers and red plastic grill nose but also the pink bunny eats and whiskered grill mounted bunny nose for Easter and the bat wings for Halloween. So, heres the new guidelines I would like to see followed from here on out. 1) If you are in a chain restaurant lobby waiting 30 minutes for the distinction of paying $15.00 for an appetizer and a beer before you even order a $15.00 entree, you are not allowed to complain about gas prices having increased 6¢ or 7¢ per gallon. When you go to fill your tank and your cars gas light is lit warning you that youll soon be a pedestrian without soon refueling, please realize that youll be purchasing fuel for a small to mid sized car. The gas tank on those models will usually hold about 13 or 15 gallons at best. If gas prices increase by 11¢ per gallon, your empty tank will cost an additional $1.50 to fill. That is the same price as the bottle of water you purchased when you got your last tank of gas! 2) If you are out of work and have been applying for jobs that you know pay minimum wage, you are no longer allowed to complain about the need for minimum wage increases to ten, twelve or fifteen dollars per hour. If you are an out of work proponent of an increase in federal minimum wage then please understand that instead of being out of work and not being paid $7.25 per hour you will be out of work and not being paid $10.10 per hour. Your net pay is THE SAME! 3) If you are buying a Hearty Blueberry Oatmeal for $3.45 with your Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte at $4.45 on your way to work at your minimum wage job, you have spent more than one hours wages on your designer snack and beverage. Ditch the carb laden muffin and poor the coffee from your coffee maker at home and save $$40.00 per week! 4) If you leave your minimum wage job on a Thursday afternoon and go to the tanning and nails place for your manicure at $35.00, you just spent nearly the entire wages from your shift, after taxes. Maybe do the nails yourself or you and a friend do each other. Youll save a fortune and have more fun! 5) This is probably the single most important item on this list. If I hear you complaining about your crappy low rate of pay for a menial job you cant stand for a boss who takes advantage of you and you have a pair of those twenty or thirty dollar antlers in your newer model car, I will silently stare at you until you rush to the safety of your vehicle at which time I will steal the antlers. So if you hate your job, quit and get a better one. If you respond by telling me that you cant find a better job because there are no jobs out there to be had, then praise and thank God or Buddha or Allah or Vishnu or Zeus or Krishna or Yahweh or Jah or Jesus or the sun or whatever -ism you hold precious. Then, you immediately figure out a way to start liking your job and try harder. It will get better and you will get paid. And quit wasting money and whining about how poor you are. We all have money problems. We all wish to earn more on our paycheck. We. Dont all buy stupid crap with our meager earnings
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 06:26:53 +0000
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