Day # 154 - It's the Stupid Economy (Again)

This economy is something unique to my generation (X if you’re wondering) in that we have never really felt a pinch. With any luck, it will define the generations that follow us who are living through it, but I have no real hope of that. I want to be clear, I am not wishing for the younger generations to suffer. I hope no one starves, but maybe we can learn to live without the extravagances.

I was born during the Nixon Administration. My first memories of grim economic realities were of gas lines and my father buying a gas cap with a lock on it. Jimmy Carter was in the White House and I was in the third grade and even then, we knew he was a moron. Then came Reagan, who picked people up. Unlike Carter, he believed in American Exceptionalism. He cut taxes and the economy boomed and we were all proud to be Americans. There was a little recession during the first Bush Administration which the administration didn’t know what to do about (nothing is the only correct answer) Clinton came along and there were some good years, Bush came along and things were good in spite of those who hated him and talked down the economy while stuffing their pockets. In 2008 it all came crashing down. People voted for hope, change, empty talk and inexperience and here we are: $13 trillion in debt and counting. Socialized medicine and a president who cannot admit he is a human being and has, apparently, never been wrong about anything in his entire life.

I no longer consume news. I occasionally make incidental contact with it. I walk past a newspaper dispenser, there are TVs all over my hotel and sometimes they’re tuned to news. News flashes on the radio sometimes catch me by surprise. Things are bad out there. I know, I am a sales guy and no one’s got any money to spend. I make my numbers, but I work harder than I would have had to for this result.

In the midst of this, I have finally learned the lessons my parents have tried to teach me for so long. You know the ones about rainy days and saving for the future and not being wasteful. It took me a while to make it my lifestyle. It took a while to do what I knew all along I should have been doing.

Parents are so afraid of their kids being unhappy that they will destroy their future. We fear saying no to them, we think punishing them will harm their precious self-esteem. We think when they throw a tantrum, it’s our fault. Actually, it is the parents’ fault if a kid throws a tantrum. The only forgivable offense is the first one. After that, whip the hell out of the kid if necessary, or, for the PC crowd, make it a teachable moment (I talk tough, but I never hit my kids, I don’t have to.) Teach your kids the essentials and they will thank you one day. Let them earn their own self-esteem. Self-esteem should be the result of a job well done, not of failure. Yes, kids fail. Yes, they should be told when they are wrong. Put another way, if you want those $200 jeans, get a job and buy them yourself.

Save your pennies and get your kids in on it. Or, learn to speak Chinese. Write to your members of Congress and tell them to treat your money the way they treat their own. This is not a Ripofflican versus Dumassocrat thing, this is an American thing. Both sides are crooked as a barrel of snakes and every one of them needs to be sent home, replaced by new, less crooked snakes. Don’t believe in the “benevolence” of government – it’s a fallacy. Join organizations created to keep government honest. Vote for term-limits and support those organizations, too.

Vote on November 2nd. I am officially endorsing the non-incumbent in every race in the country. You wanted change? Go get it yourself.

- Adolfo