Losing weight was hard but there was an euphoria attached to it. There was a high. When I stepped on that scale and it was down, damn, it felt good. Real good. I don’t feel the same way about saving money. Where is the juice? Where is the high? Hey, I saved 50 cents on yogurt. It is not as cache as I hoped it would. The buzz off a “two for one” Happy Meal at McDs has left me empty.
Is this Operation 180 a lost cause? Well, I have paid off almost three grand on my line of credit. Has it charged my life force? My life force? That is some Deepak Chopra shit. The answer is no. It has not changed me at all. The focus on saving is doing nothing for me.
Let’s state the obvious. I am not going to be able to pay off the whole 10 grand in the 180 days. Is it moving in the right direction? Sure. Have I been making it rain? No.
My little mission to get out of the hole is a microcosm for the current approach to the global economic crisis. The solution. Instead of generating revenue, governments have decided to spend less. The result. Pissed off people.
If you feed someone Twinkies all their life and then tell that person they are eating nothing but spinach, you are going to have one angry person. Where are my Twinkies? Trust me I’ve been through it. Take Greece as an example. They spend and spend and spend. They add the Olympics to their responsibilities. Someone wakes up and figures it out. Shit. We are spending money we don’t have. People want us to pay up our debts. We have to cut back. When the people don’t know any different it is like yanking that Twinkie right of their mouths.
The issue with austerity measures is that they are not sexy. It does nothing to inspire. Taking away vs. adding. This is the issue I am having with my approach. If I was making new money instead of limiting my spending, I would be excited to continue. This is the problem government is having. It is telling the people that they have to deal with less without inspiring them to make more. To innovate. To create. The problem is compounded when there is government waste. Every time a politician takes a military helicopter to a fishing resort or orders a fifty dollar glass of orange juice, it undermines the sacrifice.
Eliminate the waste. The People will make haste.
Get rid of the trash. The People will make the cash.
I was just spitballing some T-shirt ideas. Hey, maybe this is my money making idea. My own stimulus.
Do you think a government being more frugal is the best approach? Do you think stimulus is the best approach? Combination?
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