The Trammel Trace Tribune published this article a while back for me. My last blog brought it to mind. And here we go:
I have been watching the news and listening to my customers lately, and seeing how folks are becoming more desperate for a solution to many problems. The list is long and rather depressing. For a while, it was gas prices that vexed us and though the prices have gone down, most wonder how long that will last. Now we are being told we could be on the cusp of a huge recession or even a depression, a frightening concept to say the least. The DOW hovers somewhere in the 8K margins, and banks are collapsing worldwide. However, something started to turn over and over in this hard noggin of mine before this latest "crisis" began to raise its own ugly head. I am no economist, and my only claim is as a sort-of old-fashioned barber in a little Texas town, but I am a thinker. I ponder a great many things, but whether the things I ponder are worthwhile or not, is something I will leave up to others to decide. One of my most recent ponderings had to do with the crunch over fuel and grocery prices. I hear a lot of people grumble over having to drive 20 miles for certain needs, and while listening, I could sympathize with a great many of their grumblings. A lot of folks go to Longview, or Marshall, Carthage, or even Shreveport to buy many things and use many services that folks in those towns take for granted
I began to run through an inventory in my mind of the things that I go to Longview for and realized a great many of the things I drive into "town" for are at places like Wal-Mart, Target, Sam's, or other major corporate chains. That thought process led into a new one on how we have come to rely more and more on such chains for many needs. Don't get me wrong. I am not an anti-corporation person. I believe in capitalism and a free market, but how free is our market, really, if we are only finding fewer sources for our needs as each year passes?
Years ago, people didn't go to town almost daily for needs as many do today. There weren't a lot of restaurants, and folks got enough groceries to last them as long as a month or more before having to go back into town for something else, and even if they lived in town, they did not waste time on constant trips to the stores. In communities like Tatum, there are unused and run down buildings that used to carry the types of goods we now drive into larger towns for, because one of those aforementioned chains is there. The small businesses that traded and sold goods to folks were the backbone of the American economy when it was at its strongest, before credit created a false sense of success.
Local goods and services for smaller towns like Tatum have dwindled for good reason. Inflation, cost of operation, insurance, taxes, and other more subtle factors can cripple a small business today. However, some economists claim that a consumption tax, and elimination of income tax could solve a great deal of the problems that hobble small business in America. I wouldn’t mind having to charge a tax on haircuts to keep from having to mess with the I.R.S. every year, and most I talk to would love to eliminate their income taxes and would gladly pay a bit more for goods and services rather than deal with that bloated government entity.
Lately, with our current credit "crisis" and with banks falling apart, an economy based on hard work, solid tangible assets, and trade that is generated more on a local level instead of nationally may just be a major part of the solution.
Another major part of the solution would be for folks to realize that everyone cannot live like Donald Trump, and the Jones family next door may just be able to afford their stuff without financing it. So why choke ourselves out with debt to try to keep up with them? Whatever happened to living within our means and being responsible consumers?
To live within our means and to be responsible consumers means a bit of an inconvenience. People will have to make sacrifices. We won't all be able to have a 62" plasma screen television, satellite programming with DVR, and a brand new car every few years. This also means, (sigh), maybe fewer haircuts throughout the year. Some of us may have to find work actually working instead of playing with numbers and credit all day, and only the C.E.O.s who create success will make the big bucks.
Yes, that means some jobs will be lost, but who are we trying to fool? We have built an economy on a paper shelf and it won't hold any more weight. Instead of basing our economy on solid, tangible assets like precious metals, food, and goods, we have created a paper nightmare that is just beginning. Our only way to make it may just be to get back to basics. It means that folks writing up loans and mortgages, working with credit, and men and women making consumable electronics that are simple conveniences rather than necessities may just have to rethink their career choices.
What would come of going back to the basics aside from losing a fancy lifestyle many live and few can afford? We can have more time with our families, more time with our neighbors, and even the “greenies” will get the satisfaction of less consumption.
We have become a society deeply obsessed with obscure and unnecessary conveniences and entertainments, and we are willing to pay whatever price is asked for the right distractions, and if we can’t afford it, we finance it.
Maybe, just maybe, we are in the middle of a wake-up call. Instead of finding ways to get out of work and make money doing it, and instead of living outside our means it may be time to start putting our noses to the grindstone and being productive, churning out inventors, craftsmen, and tradesmen again, because I have a feeling, we are going to be in desperate need of such men and women real soon.
