Sunday, April 19, 2009
I spent almost all of today wrangling paper. Shoveled out my car, unloaded the flat spaces in the kitchen, set fire to the desk (well, no, but I wanted to). Now I have to pay some bills and do some filing, I guess. Most of the paper ended up back out in the car, but this time sorted and corralled in bags, destined for the recycle center.
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I mentioned to Piper the other day how disappointed I was that Marylou Whitney had canceled her annual gala (my post on that here) for the opening of the Saratoga racing season, on the grounds that it was "inappropriate in the current economic climate". He agree that such an extravagant display was inappropriate --- until I explained to him why canceling was absolutely the wrong thing to do. There are a lot of businesses in the Saratoga area that depend on that million-dollar gala to put them over the hump. Not having the gala is going to put a lot of businesses under (beauty parlors, dress shops, caterers, decorators, costumers, entertainers, printers, and everybody they buy stuff from), and that will have ripple effects.
Ms. Whitney MUST have the gala! Because of the economic climate. The bigger the better.
I can understand why some people are spending less, what with lost jobs, lost business, lost investments, or the threat of disaster. But Ms. Whitney has more money than anybody in this world needs, and I figure she has a responsibility to spend it, spread it around. Every time a rich slob buys a yacht, several thousand people benefit from the ripples.
This is a good thing. The more ostentatious displays of wealth, the better.
I figure them what's got it should spend it. They have a responsibility to spend. It's their duty. It's the only way things will turn around. Stuffing it into the mattress (or into savings) isn't helping. I mean, if anyone's got more than they need, and they got it with the support of all the little people, then by damn they should give some of it back.
Of course, they don't want to spread it around.
If the government had it, the government should spend it. Unfortunately, the deficit is already so high that technically the government doesn't have it. So if the government has to take from those that have it, and spend it for them, well, that's probably the right thing to do.
The more money is circulated, the better for all of us. If that's socialism (it isn't really), or communism (it isn't really), well that's what's needed.
The government is distributing money. That's the right thing to do. The money is borrowed. The next question is where they get it from to pay it back. I figure it should come from the upper income levels, because they're the ones that have it. We'll see - but we shouldn't get excited (tea bag, anyone?) until we find out for sure where it will come from.
Piper started out skeptical, but the more he thought about what I said (using Ms. Whitney and the economics of Saratoga Main Street as a concrete example) the more he agreed.
Spending is absolutely the right thing to do. Even if it's by executives at spas. It may "look bad", but if it means the masseuses and maids can keep their jobs and make their car payments, how is that bad?
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1 comment:
I guess it's easy to say the money should come from the upper income levels if you're not there. I have worked my rear off all my life while my friends worked when they felt like it or did their 8 to 5, 5 days a week, and when the bell sounded at the end of the day they never gave work another thought. I have been "on" 7 days a week, every hour of the day for years. It was my choice because I knew the kind of lifestyle I wanted, I knew what it took to get it and that's how I've led my life. Now you think it's right for the government to take my money and distribute it..... shame on you. Here's what I'm doing and I assure you I'm not alone. Everything I have is paid for, my money will not go back into the stock market, I'm through buying so it won't go back into circulation. I'm mowing my own yard, washing my own car, wearing my old clothes and throwing them in the washer instead of the dry cleaners. I was getting bored with eating out so I'm spending my spare time with cookbooks. I'm sick of paying the AMT tax on top of regular tax, I'm furious that next year my taxes will increase even more. I'm not going to be the government's beast of burden anymore. I'm cutting my time and pay down drastically over the two years and then I'm through. I no longer have any incentive to keep it up and when more people do the same and the government can't steal anymore from us then this brillant plan of theirs will come tumbling down. I refuse to keep working for the grasshoppers in this country. The right thing to do is for the government to get their hand out of every aspect of our lifes and to stop supporting the failures. I heartily disagree with you on this one.
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