Is inflation bothering you? How about the price of utilities and gas? Well, here’s a radical proposal – use less.
Only buy what you need and skip what you want. Wants and needs are two different things, wants being a much, much larger group than needs. Needs come with your being human. Wants come with advertising and keeping up with the Joneses.
Do you need clothes? Heck no. In all probability, you’ve already got more than you need.
Cookies? You don’t need Oreos. Just buy Benton Sandwich Creams at Aldi for half the price. Bread? Ditto. Veggies? Walmart’s frozen veggies are still well under $1.50/lb.
Skip the 250-cable channel option. Get the lowest price option. We grew up with three channels and, were perhaps not happier, but probably just as happy.
There isn’t a lot you can do about your car or house/apartment, but hey, you were the one who chose them. Back in the ’50s, our family of four lived in a 1,100-square-foot house and had one car for years. No one needs a 2,400-square-foot house, nor a 25 miles per gallon vehicle. You chose them, so don’t blame Biden if utility costs and gas prices are now a burden. Did you actually think that the low energy prices would last forever?
The point is that none of the supply chain, or inflation, or gas price problems are the result of Democrats. Virtually all economists agree they are the many and varied results of our and the world’s emergence from the Covid pandemic. They are the result of demand outstripping what systems can supply.
It must be remembered that our economy is an almost incomprehensibly huge set of trillions of decisions and actions by workers, consumers, investors, business owners, and leaders, which usually works well, but sometimes runs into glitches. This is one of the glitches…
Does complaining and blaming do any good? No, but coping will, and the best method of coping is to realize that meeting our needs is crucial but meeting our wants isn’t. We haven’t been granted a right, by God or the Constitution, to have everything we want.
So, the moral of all this is the best way to fight spending, debt, and consumption issues is to drop back and punt if you are having problems. Needless to say, that isn’t easy for people on or close to the bottom, but for most of us, it is a question of simply reassessing what life is all about. My guess is that you’ll be just as happy with fewer things and less moving around, wishing, and wanting.
Importantly, the prime cause of most of our problems is none other than advertisers. Their job is trying to make us want things and its influence is everywhere.
It is claimed that we each see/hear 5,000 or so marketing claims a day, but the message is always the same: Buy this and people will like you, you’ll be happier, and life will be more enjoyable, and most of it is a flat out lie. Don’t buy it.
– Bruce Allen, Del Haven
