A Tale of Two Families

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
The quote from Charles Dickens’s “Tale of Two Cities” might easily describe the two families in the spotlight of this week’s column. Readers can decide which is the best and which is the worst.
The Tom Jones family received the news of a reduced family income by drawing up a new budget to see where each person could cut costs. They were all saddened and apprehensive when they learned that the salary reduction was necessary or the company their father worked for would go bankrupt. Realizing that everyone is in the worldwide recession together, each one came up with expenses that could be cut. Some things could easily be dropped such as luxuries of fancy coffee drinks every morning at the local coffee shop. One suggestion that made good sense was buying few “convenience” foods and making more home cooked meals. The kids decided to prepare their own lunches rather than buy them at school, and even suggested their parents do the same thing rather than order from the deli every day. The two girls in the family promised to cut out impulse buying, especially shoes and clothes, and make do with the wardrobe already in their closets. I think one of them even promised to help with the ironing rather than send out the laundry!
There were suggestions made about car pooling and cutting out unnecessary trips. They all looked very carefully at the money budgeted for entertainment and travel, and decided that until things changed at their father’s company, they would curtail out-of-town vacations, and spend spring break visiting family and friends or even just relaxing at home. Now that might take a lot of planning and sacrifice, but because they trusted that there really was no extra money for such things, the whole family got in the spirit of doing their part to make the new budget work.
In making this effort the family began to experience a new level of closeness and commitment to “getting through” difficult times together. I even heard rumors of one of the nearing college-age brothers talk about “looking into” the new community college rather than the expensive school he had earlier thought about.
Now look in on the other family in the spotlight this week. The Woodrow Smith family had really gotten use to the high life all of us had been living when it looked as if salary and income could only go up. When the father and mother both came home with the news of a significant percentage of salary cuts because of the downturn of sales where they were employed, the whole family went into a tailspin.
The parents were disappointed because they had both been promised sizable raises for the next five years. “What do you mean there is no money?” was the most common complaint heard from their budget talks. The children could not imagine “giving up” their allowances which had provided for the “necessities” of favorite fashion brands or their expensive sports equipment and weekend trips to enjoy them. The prospect of life without all their “toys” was appalling. Neither could the parents imagine any ways they could possibly cut expenses when life was already at the “bare bones” anyway.
Their days became a series of resentments and complaints against the situation they and everyone else found themselves in. I’m beginning to think the Woodrow Smiths will not be able to cut their spending even when the income isn’t there to support it.
Now as you can easily guess, it is the Tom Jones family mentioned in the first family vignette, which fits into the Dickens quote about the “age of wisdom,” and the Woodrow Smith family, which fits the “age of foolishness.”
I present these scenarios because the State of New Jersey is about to reduce its spending in order to escape the very real specter of bankruptcy. All the citizens of our state will feel the pinch because many of us are employed by the state or local jobs that are supported by state aid. Gov. Chris Christie has made it very plain that he will do the job he was elected to do, and that is bring fiscal reality and responsibility to our state spending. When the coffers are empty (and that is their condition), how will our local municipalities, school boards and all agencies of government respond to the call to balance our budget? Will we respond like the Smiths or the Jones’?
Will we whine that “there is no way” I will give up my raise, my benefits, my this or that, or will we respond to this very real crisis by joining together like the Jones’ in a mature and unselfish way to bring out state’s “house” back in order?