In this economy it has become ever more obvious that we have to take care of ourselves, as individuals. It is inarguable that programs are being cut at a lot higher rate than programs gaining funding and being created.
Scholarships, military aid, teacher resources, money for streets, and money for the police are all being pulled more thin every day. Now certainly there is still help out there for people that need it, but it is a lot harder to qualify for it than it was five years ago and there are a lot more people that need it.
Take for example a random homeless shelter. Five years ago you could read in the paper that they needed help. They needed more supplies and a growing number of people that were straining their resources. So what on earth are they doing now? For the most part, they are making due with less. This means that the person that is in between housing or in between paychecks might be left out in the cold for someone in even more need than them.
We are being forced to compete against each other for scarce resources at every level of society. Even at the upper echelon movie stars and athletes are competing against each other for the biggest and best of the money that is still available and there is less money available even to them.
They too are trying to maintain their lifestyle and we can’t hold that against them. So what is the normal person that makes up 90 percent of our society to do? We too are competing against each other. Every time something is bought or sold, supply and demand re-prices it. So the fact that as a nation we have become more frugal in the past year has made it tougher for the economy to bounce back and has lowered the taxes of cities, counties and states recieve all over the country.
It is a cyclical cycle and all the experts out there are yelling! Go spend your money! Save the USA at Wal Mart and Best Buy. What the experts should be yelling is exactly the opposite.
They should be encouraging everyone to learn better money management skills and save even more money because in the long run this will be the best solution. All more spending is going to do is take more money from the poor and give it to the rich. More spending will stabilize the economy in the short term, but in the long run it will keep the majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck and unable to outwait the next little hiccup that their personal economy takes.
Instead of Cash for Clunkers, or bailouts, what the government should do is offer classes at libraries, schools and jails to teach money management techniques. The old adage holds true. Give a man a fish and he eats for a day and teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.
So what is the individual to do? Well first we all need to recognize how much money we spend on a day-to-day basis. I propose that everyone tries “No Money Mondays.” See if you can go a whole day without spending anything. This will take will power and a lot of planning. I am not asking you not to eat, just to plan ahead and do your shopping on Sunday and pack a lunch. If you need your daily coffee you have to make it at home with supplies you already have. If you need gas you either need to get it on Sunday or Tuesday.
This will be incredibly hard and won’t actually save you money. You’ll be doing your shopping on other days. But it will show you how much money you spend on ridiculous things every day. It will show you how important planning is to lifelong financial success.
And it will show you why your checking account disappears between every paycheck and why your credit card bill is the same every month even when you don’t buy a big money item. Don’t listen to the experts and go shopping to save the world. You are only hurting yourself and saving the stock prices of a company you don’t even own.
Mike Stahlman is a milkman living in Longmont. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
