R. Braiden Trapp
I’m not a Ben Stein fan. You know who he is if you saw Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He played a teacher; the guy with the nasally, monotone drone who during roll call continually whined Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.
He’s a smart cat. He knows his economics, is on top of national politics and can crank out a column with more finesse and punch than many national writers. He wrote speeches for Nixon but don’t hold that against him.
Stein is a little too far right for my taste but sometimes in money matters he speaks or writes exactly what I’m thinking. He did that Sunday on CBS Sunday Morning.
Stein said those Americans who have jobs, no debt or low debt and aren’t in trouble need to spend money. There’s no reason not to.
What has happened around the country and especially here in Española is the people who still have good jobs, great jobs and are doing fine, those people have stopped spending money because they’re scared by the headlines and sound bites thrown at them continually by all types of media.
They are afraid of an oncoming depression and that they’ll need all the money they can get their hands on to make it through. So they’re saving money and hoarding dry goods and sitting at home waiting for the next shoe to drop.
And by doing that they’re helping to bring that big old shoe down upon themselves.
We’re all waiting for the government to step in and save us. The government can’t do that. There is a limit to its debt capacity and we’re fast approaching it. Each day brings another story of another industry asking for a “bailout,” now the most used and abused word in the English language.
As an aside, though, I hope the feds will bailout some of the nation’s better newspapers. Probably 90 percent deserve to go down the tubes as they abandoned journalism a long time ago and chose stockholder nurturing instead. Actually that 90 percent stopped being newspapers a long time ago.
No, I’m not an economist or have a doctorate in finance or banking but the situation today is much different than in 1929 and we all know that. But if we keep hiding and fearing much worse than what we’re in, we’ll fulfill our own prophecy and do it to ourselves.
So take those gift cards and get out and spend them. If you got money from mom, go buy that unreachable thing you have had your eye on.
I’m not advocating for more credit card charging or borrowing. That’s what got us here. Please don’t refinance your home (that may actually be possible next month) to put money in your pocket. What we need to do is not pull back on the reins if you have the means to purchase what you had planned on purchasing before the sky fell.
Additionally, please read the stories on the front of our Christmas Greetings section (D). Charities everywhere are taking a hard hit with the economy in trouble. Giving is the first place people cut the household budget.
Again, if you’re in the position to do so, please consider giving a little bit of money to one of our local charities. They all do great work, needed work and unappreciated work.
These are the groups filling a need government can’t fill. They’re often operating with volunteers on a small budget. We won’t understand the great work they do until they’re gone and that need goes unfulfilled.
I refer to the Crisis Center, the animal shelter, the soup kitchen, the YMCA youth center, Amigos del Valle and other groups that go into homes with food and help.
If you don’t have the money, call a group you want to help and ask what they need. You may have it sitting in your garage, basement or closet, going unused. Consider some of things we all take for granted, like sitting on a chair. When you’re setting up a new household because you left your abusive husband, a chair can be like gold.
So spend that money if you’ve got it and support our local charities. They make a big difference in some desperate lives.