Category Archives: Economy

Living within our means

April 30, 2015 7:04 AM , Leave a Comment ,

I’ve been doing a lot with my personal finances in the last few months.  Included in this was the purchase of a new car.  Something that I undeniably need living in Houston but yet some would argue I could have gotten something more pedestrian, less flashy, and more modest.  Some have asked if it is something that I can afford.

To which the answer is yes.  This was something that I’ve been thinking about for over a year and the numbers do make sense.  Now, I could have gotten something more modest, true but the cost difference really wasn’t going to be that great and I do feel that I got quite a bit for my money.  So I still feel that this was a good bargain for me.

Nevertheless these are valid concerns.  In my lifetime I’ve seen how quickly people can get in trouble with easy credit and overspending.  When I was in school the message boards were crammed with credit card applications for students to fill out and even though most students either didn’t work or worked part-time jobs they got ridiculously high credit lines.  Of course within a month or two these kids got into some real financial problems that took years to clear up.

But that’s just symptomatic of our culture or even our civilization as a whole.  We like to push the limits to the extreme and even break the limits till we get into trouble with not just money but resources, living space, and population size.

Take California for example.  The golden state with promises of endless farmlands carved out of the desert, green suburbs without end, and abundant, cheap water hauled from hundreds of miles away. What happens when the waters fail to come year after year?  The answer is the tragedy that’s slowly unfolding right now and affects not just millions of Californians but millions of people across the country and the world that depend on the produce grown there.

What will happen to that population?  They won’t just dry up and blow away.  We’ll soon see them in our neighborhoods looking for work and sharing our resources.  Problems that might have been sidestepped if we had not insisted on trying to squeeze every last resource out of a desert that wasn’t ready to take so many people in the first place.

California will heal but it will take a long time.  My question is when it heals and the rain cycle is restored will we go back and make the same mistakes again or will we learn and not try to live past the capacity of the land?

Posted in: consumerism, current events, economy, energy, environment, future, life in general, technology, thought, weather

making ends meet and how much is it worth to you?

May 15, 2014 6:20 AM , Leave a Comment ,

I suppose everyone has an opinion on the minimum wage issue.  Some want to essentially double it, some want to abolish it, some hope that it will stay the same.

The argument to raise it is that the minimum wage has stagnated for several years while prices have risen and those in minimum wage jobs are in effect getting poorer.  American taxpayers have to pay to support these people in the form of food stamps and other forms of public assistance.  In essence those of us that pay taxes are subsidizing businesses that rely on minimum wage employees.

The argument to keep it at the current rate is that any increase in the minimum wage will lead to job losses as employers will not be able to maintain the same staffing level at increased pay rates.  Either that will happen or consumer prices will have to rise to offset the pay raises.  Or a combination of the two will happen.  In any case, pay raises will have to be paid for one way or the other.

The argument to lower or totally get rid of the minimum wage is that without a minimum wage law that employers would be able to hire more employees and create more jobs.

A few communities have increased the minimum wage on their own initiative and time will tell what will happen to the job market in those communities.

While I do support a rise in the minimum wage laws to keep up with the costs of living I have to ask how much of a rise is enough and how exactly is it to be paid for?

Those of us that enjoy the services and commodities of life provided to us by minimum wage workers have to realize that all of these benefits come to us due to the hard work and efforts of these people who don’t have as good a life as others.  They deserve to have a decent life for all their labor.

Those that make minimum wage have to realize that these pay raises don’t come out of thin air.  They have to be paid for either in the form of fewer jobs or more likely in the form of higher prices for everyone.

The balance will have to be found by the market in the form of prices that the public is willing to pay for everyday items.  Are you willing to pay $10 for a hamburger at a fast food chain?  $4 for an apple at the supermarket? $12 for a cup of coffee at some coffee chain?  I’m not saying that prices will go that high if we do raise the minimum wage but merely pointing out that these raises do resonate throughout the economy in various items and services that we have grown accustomed to having.

So what’s the answer?

Posted in: economy, jobs, thought