Here’s An Idea…SAVING!

Here’s An Idea…SAVING!

 

 

When I was a kid I used to save money.  In the first grade we had a field trip to the local savings and loan.  Everyone opened up an account for one dollar and we took home a savings book.  We learned about interest.  MONEY EARNING MONEY!!

I guess I learned to save because I was a child of depression parents.  We never bought or received anything without being reminded how lucky we were to have it.  Children were starving in China, I was lucky to have spinach; when my dad was ten his toy was a hoop and a stick.  I was very lucky to have a bike.

When I got money either from my grandparents on my birthday, doing chores for an allowance or simply finding a quarter on the street I saved it.  I put some in the bank, and I squirreled some away in places that I would forget until I would find it years later. 

I would spend some money on comic books…10 cents apiece, candy…five cents for a Hershey bar, or when I really splurged, bowling…eighty-five cents for two games with shoe rental.  One year I went crazy with some Christmas money and bought a rifle cap gun for three dollars and fifty cents.  The gun broke after one year.  For years after I regretted that purchase and often calculated how much money I would have if I invested it in the bank to earn interest (at 3% compounded…$22.86 to date.)

Kids today, (kids being anyone under 27 years old) cannot spend their money fast enough.  They not only spend it as if it was going extinct, but they spend more than they have.  Give a kid $20 and he will have something that he just has to have that costs $35.  He will not wait until he saves up that extra $15, he will negotiate.

“Gee Dad, if you give me $15 today, you can just take $15 off whatever you were going to give me for my birthday.”

When my son was 18 he was already into me for Christmas and birthdays for the next 15 years.

It is this inability of the younger generations to save that got us into the economic malaise we have been in since 2008. 

Have a new Government program? Borrow!

Want a new 4000 square foot house?  No need to put 20% down, no need to have an income large enough to pay the mortgage, just put no money down, and take a balloon loan where you don’t have to pay the real cost for 5 years; by then I’m sure you’ll be making enough money to pay for it.  Besides real estate always goes up in value…doesn’t it?

The government is now deeply in debt.  Something needs to be done to shrink that debt.  We need to raise taxes.  We can’t ask for money from the poor or the middle class…their life is tough enough trying to cover those balloon mortgages. 

I know!

Let’s tax those rich assholes who’ve been saving and investing their money since they were five years old.  They have plenty by now, more than they can spend.  What’s the big deal? 

We just won’t ask them for anything this Christmas.*

 

*Cranky realizes this scenario does not cover the whole spectrum of our economic issues.  Please don’t get all political on me…It is called satire…making a point with a speck of truth.

Satire: a way of using humor to show that someone or something is foolish, weak, bad, etc. : humor that shows the weaknesses or bad qualities of a person, government, society, etc.