Business as Usual

When we invaded Iraq we asked Pres. Bush if he would release the oil reserves to stabilize prices the way his father did when the Gulf War broke out in 1990. He said no. He said that would make us appear weak. So for the last five years we’ve tried to operate rather misguidedly under the presumption of “Business as Usual.” The problem is that as prices have gone up we have shifted the difference onto credit cards. The shell game that we used to think we were good at has gotten more and more difficult as we’ve done “0%” balance transfers from Peter to Paul and vice versa, all the while the paycheck we’ve used to finance the whole thing has gotten more and more watered down. This has happened despite whatever raises we’ve gotten, and those have been shrinking as well.

What should we have done? We should have realized that this is not the President Bush that we grew up with in the 1980s. Not opening the reserves was a signal that higher prices were coming and quicker than we thought. We hollered when the gas hit $2. We moaned when it hit $3 and now that it is at $4 most of us are cussing. Those of you who don’t suffer from acute potty mouth, you’re cussing too. You’re feeling the same stuff the rest of us are. You’re just more elegant about how you express it. We know what you really mean when you say “Fiddle Faddle!” And if you’re a Galactica nerd, you’re saying “FRAK!” But seriously we should have started shortening vacations, combining and consolidating trips, eating out less, all the stuff the budget nerds tell you you need to do.

Would being more mindful of our spending have hurt the economy? Not in the sense you might be thinking and certainly not in the manner it is now. A reduction then would have clued the business community of what was coming. I doubt it would have stopped any of these price hikes in fuel. The people who could have stopped this do not listen.

Economic Theory

They say it’s recession when it’s happening to someone else and depression when it’s happening to you. I think that’s too exclusivist. It creates an atmosphere of us against them and fosters more class warfare. Here’s how I view it:

It’s recession when they’re using a condom.
It’s depression when they’re giving it bareback.

That’s what’s happening in the world. Some folks like it. Other folks don’t.

It’s Decided. The Bush Rebate Goes to the Bank.

I’m sorry. I just can’t do what they want. This isn’t helping keep us from a recession or depression or whatever it is we are headed towards. If I take this money and use it to buy an iPod or camera or whatever I will just be following along with the rest of the mind-numbed who had a choice but took the easy route. I am going to look for a $500 CD and try depositing it on that for a year if possible. I really think that would be the best use of the money. This way I am “buying” something with it…just not a trinket. I’ve got iTunes on the laptop and an MP3 player. That needs to suffice for now. Maybe by this time next year they will have improved the iPod Touch even more. A camcorder would help since I plan to use one in my business. But that needs to be purchased with proceeds from the business not from this government funnymoney. Yeah it’s all coming out of my collective pool (Read: Casserole Dish) of funds. But the money from the government wasn’t budgeted for and shouldn’t be indiscriminately tossed about.

Cramped Parking Lots

Last night we went to dinner at Red Lobster. This particular location has an extremely tight parking lot. Some years ago they expanded the building to accommodate an increase in business. Now they have that increase in business and an increase in traffic through a parking lot that now has less space because the sidewalk and building on 3 sides are pushed out 15′. This building was put up in 1972 or thereabouts. The population here then was about a third what it is now. That location is 35 years old and that design still can only handle a 1970s population/traffic model comfortably. They’re not the only business where I’ve noticed this problem. To compensate some businesses have overflow arrangements with surrounding businesses, using their parking lots. I just wonder if leaving the building as it was originally and adding another location less than a mile away might help as well. It seems to work for gas stations.

Title Insurance

You need title insurance so that when the great grandson of the recently deceased owner of the house next door to yours hires an attorney saying that he wants the fence moved over two feet closer to your structure because his land is 75′ wide and not 73′. Your title insurance company agent will then do the necessary research and find the daughter of the original owner of your property and learn that seventy years ago through an unrecorded gentlemen’s agreement your neighbor’s great grandfather moved the fence over two feet to allow his neighbor room to walk by his house without having to turn sideways. In addition to defending your case in court the title insurance company will pay to have the fence moved or buy the two foot strip of land from the person who is suing you depending on the decision of the court. Even though the research done by title companies is thorough, there can be any number of issues outside their control. For example at some point during the ownership of property a signature on a deed may have been obtained from a minor or may have been forged. It is these types of undiscovered claims that a title insurance property protects you against as long as the property is owned by you or being passed along to your heirs. It is important coverage to have and like all forms of insurance, you’re paying the premium for the time that you may need it.

The Economy: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Well it is broke. But what you’re proposing won’t fix it. Mr. President, if you want to encourage people to buy stuff, open the oil reserves, cut the gasoline tax in half, fire the guy who’s negotiating with our foreign oil suppliers and replace him with someone who can talk the price down about $75 a barrel from where it is and is going. A lot of people aren’t buying stuff because they’re rolling dimes to pay for gas. I really don’t think anyone over here cares how we look to the folks you’re calling the enemy. So what if we appear weak. Who cares what they think. They’ve held and hold worse opinions than that about us. When you presented the $150B stimulus package you knew, by telling Capitol Hill to not mess with it, that the Senate and House would be bringing add-ons. I don’t have a problem with a $500 vs. $600 rebate if the $100 goes toward senior citizens who are solely on Social Security. It’s not money that’s in my budget anyway. I am curious why you are opposed to that and why the thing was crafted to exclude them in the first place.

Nouveau Riche University: Keep your day job

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Busrail

Our bus company, Capital Metro is going to be running a daily rail service sometime this year, I think. they’ve already purchased the cars and have them at a station. The other stations are still under construction. I didn’t vote for this because given my hours I can never make use of it unless they go to a 24hr schedule. It would be nice to drive to the park and ride and board the train and get dropped off within walking distance of work but since the service stops at 11pm or something like that, it isn’t an option. I mean I’d love to pay them a few dollars a week and have them save me hundreds a year in fuel costs. Hopefully the money will start rolling in and they’ll see the wisdom of posting some security and running the trains all night. Machines that sit idle are costing you money. The airlines understand that. Hopefully CapMetro will get it too.

Decreases in business, attrition, austerity

I was talking with a friend who works for the USPS. It seems they are feeling a loss in business like many other sectors. They’re not taking in as much mail. They’re not shipping or delivering as many packages. As a result when people leave they aren’t replaced. This is causing increases in overtime on the existing staff. Off the top of my head I’d say they’re going to have to come up with new ways to market themselves to the public. Maybe setting up more smaller contract stores, which are USPS as far as shipping and receiving but are privately owned. I go to the one near my neighborhood instead of the main station which is not farther away but has denser traffic.