The Wedding Crisis
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 1:24 pm
As I think back to my only daughters wedding it reminds me of the current economic crisis, strange uh?
My point is quite simple, my daughters wedding was a very emotional, once in a lifetime experience and we wanted to get it right, to make it “perfect and memorable. We would have too except it poured rain all day. :-1 In today’s America a perfect anything usually means spending a considerable amount of money. While my frugal side tried to raise its practical head, other more powerful forces prevailed, forces in the form of my wife and daughter. We could have had a disc jockey, but we opted for a band. We could have had chicken, we had prime rib, we could have done a lot of things differently, but hey, this was my only daughter, my little girl and the bills could wait to be paid.
Thankfully that was all more than six years ago, the bills are paid and the economic crisis was not even in our imagination (and I was not retired). However, the mindset we may find ourselves in at times of great joy or sorrow where what we can really afford seems to fade into some distant future payment is not unlike the current mindset in our country.
I heard on the news this morning a women representing a food bank say they need a “federal bailout. I suspect they will have to get in queue with banks, insurance companies, auto makers, the states, home builders and even average Americans. It appears the line is long and for some magical reason the supply of bailout money endless, for now that is. And, it’s a heck of a rainy day as well.
I am no economist, but it seems to me that sooner or later this crisis mentality largess will come due. I ask myself what will all this mean for my children and grandchildren, what if the rest of the world decides that it no longer wants to fund high living Americans, what if we find out that the long neglected Social Security and Medicare crisis is real, or worse Americans figure out that there is no Social Security Trust “Fund? :-5 What if we have to dramatically raise taxes (if?) to pay off this debt and then find that higher taxes inhibit growth in the economy thereby prolonging our malaise?
It’s very easy to rationalize doing what you have to do today and worry about tomorrow, that is until tomorrow comes. You know something like buying a house you can’t afford with an adjustable rate mortgage. I wish someone would bail me out of my growing depression. :rolleyes:
My point is quite simple, my daughters wedding was a very emotional, once in a lifetime experience and we wanted to get it right, to make it “perfect and memorable. We would have too except it poured rain all day. :-1 In today’s America a perfect anything usually means spending a considerable amount of money. While my frugal side tried to raise its practical head, other more powerful forces prevailed, forces in the form of my wife and daughter. We could have had a disc jockey, but we opted for a band. We could have had chicken, we had prime rib, we could have done a lot of things differently, but hey, this was my only daughter, my little girl and the bills could wait to be paid.
Thankfully that was all more than six years ago, the bills are paid and the economic crisis was not even in our imagination (and I was not retired). However, the mindset we may find ourselves in at times of great joy or sorrow where what we can really afford seems to fade into some distant future payment is not unlike the current mindset in our country.
I heard on the news this morning a women representing a food bank say they need a “federal bailout. I suspect they will have to get in queue with banks, insurance companies, auto makers, the states, home builders and even average Americans. It appears the line is long and for some magical reason the supply of bailout money endless, for now that is. And, it’s a heck of a rainy day as well.
I am no economist, but it seems to me that sooner or later this crisis mentality largess will come due. I ask myself what will all this mean for my children and grandchildren, what if the rest of the world decides that it no longer wants to fund high living Americans, what if we find out that the long neglected Social Security and Medicare crisis is real, or worse Americans figure out that there is no Social Security Trust “Fund? :-5 What if we have to dramatically raise taxes (if?) to pay off this debt and then find that higher taxes inhibit growth in the economy thereby prolonging our malaise?
It’s very easy to rationalize doing what you have to do today and worry about tomorrow, that is until tomorrow comes. You know something like buying a house you can’t afford with an adjustable rate mortgage. I wish someone would bail me out of my growing depression. :rolleyes:
