I’m speaking specifically about cars, but the premise can apply to just about any object—especially TVs.
Reveling in the light “wombat hour” traffic last Saturday afternoon, and comparing it with the typical going-home traffic of yesterday, I noticed quite a few things:
• Nearly all the cars in traffic were carrying single occupants
• Most of the cars were distinctly oversized for carrying the lone occupant
• Traffic moved slower than it did when gas was under $3.00/gallon—it took more lights to get through an intersection
Now I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that when fuel tends to tighten the noose around your cost-of-living neck, you’d somehow take some sort of evasive action to sidestep it…right? I didn’t see much of it going on around here.
Night after night, the news channels all proudly broadcast people either crying at the pump, or those looking for a working pump to cry at. Yet none of these people has apparently come to the conclusion that the cost of living, including driving, is going up, never to settle back down to lower levels again. No evasive action maneuvers are being taken, because it’s so much easier to cry and complain on TV.
Do we really need a flat screen TV that takes up an entire wall of our living rooms? Do we really need that monster truck or 8-cylinder car for commuting to work and back? We have reached the My Big Fat Inanimate Object point when it comes to our personal possessions. What was ever wrong with a regular 4-cylinder car, a regular 21” TV screen WITHOUT surround sound, a regular 250-300 cc motorcycle, cell phones that just relayed calls, pocket-sized electronic game players, and the good ol’ Walkman?
Technology, supposedly ushered into our lives to make them easier, has made us slaves to the megawatt, the megabyte, and the price per gallon. Now, more technology is being invented to relieve us from the pain of the current technologies.
Let me paint this picture for you: when you’re dieting, do you super-size your fries, purchase fries from an alternative source, or wail publicly about the calorie content until Congress gets involved? No--you simply don’t eat the fries any more. Now, apply this analogy to oil, electronics, and anything else you purchase and use in “My Big Fat” proportions.
We are standing at a precipice of cost of future living vs. cost of buying decisions, and some of us will go over the edge from our own largesse. It’s time to back away from that ledge, and away from the “savior” technology. Pay levels are NOT going to rise for hourly workers*, and they’re the ones on the teetering edge—the most vulnerable to price spikes and shocks, and the loudest complainers about them. It’s time to take a hard look at lifestyles and what is going to go into maintaining them—can you afford this going into the future? Without a drastic change in income, my guess is no.
The solution—cut the fat. Your cars, your TVs and other electronic gizmos, and whatever else you have that supposedly makes your life push-button easy is all fair game here. Maintenance costs, replacement costs, and new manufacturing costs are all going to continue to rise into the future and beyond, so you may as well get used to living a lifestyle you’ll be able to afford for years to come NOW. Right at this moment, even the wealthy are shaking in their boots over rising prices, debt, and health care costs, so you aren’t alone in uncertainty about the future. Ignoring it won’t make it go away.
Trim your inanimate object fat, and let someone else cover the costs of upkeep and replacement. Bigger, smaller (in the case of MP-3 players and cell phones), or more capabilities does not mean a better object—it just means more in costs, hassles and headache, and fewer tears for you down the road.
If the price of something seems cheap today, this means the future costs are going to be dear.
________________________________________________________
*Footnote: a spokesman for the firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas says that employers are going to continue seeking the lowest wage point for work until something better comes along to save labor costs. I saw this on CNBC, and am still seeking a direct link to his commentary.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Excellant post. The idea of car pooling is so alien to people... maybe things will change when price go beyond 3.50 into 4.00/gallon
I do feel superior though when I ride my scooter, boy do I love those days. Hehe!
Ah--the Sophia Loren girl! I wish i could join you, but traffic around here is not worth my life. These bozos wouldn't notice a scooter on the road until AFTER they've run over me!
It just killed me to look around at the traffic I was sitting in while bringing my car home from the shop (all cleaned out and mechanically ready for summer and higher gas prices). Other than obvious work trucks, there was a sea of solo-occupant cars wasting time and gas slowly parading through intersections--who can afford to do THAT at $3.00/gallon? Apparently the same people who cry and complain about the price of gas.
It would seem the evasive action being taken around here is to drive like hell to work and back, and skip the weekend mall trips--oh yeah, and Junior still gets rides to school in the mornings. The peasants here aren't doing enough, if you ask me.
...and these people have the nerve to scoff at ME for staying home from the workforce...
Now who's got it right? We frugalites, that's who!
Do you remember a time when we didn't need cell phones, or 400 televion channels. Excellent article, I am sick and tired of hearing people complain about the high gas prices. Stop whining and start doing something about it. Carpool, or trade in you're supersized H2 for a Civic or something that doesn't guzzle gas.
Dear "g",
Yes, I remember...Pink Floyd sung it best with "I got 13 channels of shit on the TV to choose from...".
It just killed me to see whining peasant at the pump along with their SUVs, 4X4s, and Hummers, all complaining about the gas. Yet, Junior still gets chauffered to school so he won't get exposed to bus cooties.
Even the military here in Notfolk is talking about starting some sort of mass transit just for sailors--the trouble is, though, that they are flung far and wide across the county, and would end up driving to some central point to catch a bus--obviously that is no solution for getting sailors off the road!
As for bus ridership around here, I've spewed my .02 on it--in order for hubby to ride, he'd have to catch it at 5:30, ride 30 miles in the wrong direction, then end up backtracking and STILL wind up late! He drives the 11 miles to work directly, and leaves here at 6 to get a good parking spot.
Now I know why bus ridership here is so low--I imagine hubby isn't the only guy in this predicament with the bus routes.
Post a Comment