Back in 1983, when our family bought a new, brown Cutlass Ciera,
my mom stated that the car would be like another room of the house —
she could take naps or I could do my homework there. She was probably
trying to justify the impact the purchase would have on our quiescent
family budget, but as I was watching drivers applying makeup in their
cars this morning on their way to work, I realized she might have been
right about the meaning of a car to Americans. Maybe one reason for our
destructive attachment to large vehicles stems from the fact that they
aren’t just a way to get from here to there: they actually are living quarters.
Category Archives: Economics
The Empowered Wife Buys More Stuff
Funny how an article that starts out talking about how penny-wise wives check their husbands’ profligate stupidity (“We were newly married with no money to be spending on stereos,” said the only sane person interviewed in the entire article) evolves into a pro-consumerism booster that equates empowered, working women with the need to buy more stuff:
The rules in their seven-year marriage were established long ago. If an item costs, say, $1,000, “I’ll run it past her,” said Frost, a Boston money manager. “If I really want it, I might get her the same thing.” In place of a motorcycle, he got a Nissan 350Z. She got a Honda Element. “It was to my benefit, the whole motorcycle thing,” she said.
Thanks to this article, we can now conclude that:
- Husbands and wives are engaged in a spending war against each other (the real winners: retailers and manufacturers);
- Because most wives now work, the average American family needs to buy twice as much stuff as they used to — for no other reason than because they can;
- Women are a bunch of irrational, appearance-obsessed spendthrifts who are driving families to penury and filling our landscapes by replacing perfectly working household appliances with less-functional and more expensive — but more feminine-looking — equivalents.
Blatant advertising disguised as news through the use of gender stereotypes — it’s like Parade Magazine took over the Globe.
What’s good for downtown is what’s good for jobs?
Peabody is looking at reviving its downtown. The mayor’s committee “agreed on what, over the years, has become almost a chant in response to the question of what will bring people downtown — special attractions, theater, the arts, ethnic restaurants and festivals, a farmers market, stores that offer specialties, and services that one may not find, say, in the malls up Route 114…”
It seems to me that a more vibrant downtown life could also lead to better local jobs. Specialty shops and local farmer’s markets promote small businesses that keep money local and
often offer better-paying jobs with better growth potential than the megastore-in-a-box at the mall. The “New Luxury” economy might just mean a fairer economy if consumption continues to trend towards specialty goods and services that can’t be outsourced or derive their
value from not being mass-produced.
What’s worse than a liberal and a conservative?
If Mr. Bush were a genuine conservative, he might cut taxes, but he would cut spending to match. If he were an honest liberal, he might increase spending, and taxes as well. Instead, the president is inviting us out for a wild night on the town and leaving us — and our children — with the bill.
This passage, in particular, alarms me:
A new study from the Brookings Institution, “Restoring Fiscal Sanity,” estimates that by 2014 the average family’s income will be $1,800 lower because of slower economic growth caused by these budget deficits. A family with a 30-year $250,000 mortgage will be paying $2,000 more per year in interest costs alone.