The third leg of my 3E rant addresses the economy and to me the solution is obvious. Don’t spend more than you got. Aside from the average Joe who has more credit card debt than he can shake a stick at, our own government has got us so deep in debt that our children will still be trying to pay it off when they are old and gray. I could go on about how amazing it is that a mere eight years ago we were in the black for the first time in about 50 years. I could also go on to point out how one madman and his private war are more important that trying to straighten things out, but I won’t go into that.

For those of you that are eyeball deep in debt, living in a house thats twice as expensive as you really need, drive a way too expensive car, and own every new gadget from an iPod to 60″ plasma, don’t come whining to me. I’m in the same boat but I make more money than you, just broke at a different level. The point is that if you spend more than you make, duh, you’ll be in financial hard times before too long. It also takes away from your effective earning power. This is because of a neat little trick that very rich people and companies have learned called interest. Because when someone advances you money they want a little extra for the trouble. The problem is that even though it sounds like just a little bit to charge you 5% interest on your mortgage, over a 30 loan period on a $200,000 mortgage, you pay back the $200k plus $250,000 in interest. Credit cards are more different, you want it now but you will pay much more than what you thought you were paying because of simple interest.

How people make it on minimum wage jobs is beyond me. There are some hard working folks out there earning less than $250 a week. I earn that much before noon and still seem to have a hard time making ends meet. No help from Uncle Sam who walks around with his hand in my pocket. This year for tax year 2007 I paid more than the average American makes, more than a third of my income for what? I should be able to have say in where that money goes and I sure don’t want some Haliburton contractor sticking it in their pocket. I know this sounds like whining and I confess it is. All I know is that handing everybody $600 and telling them to go out and spend it is no economic stimulus package. I’m proud of our rookie Senator Corker for calling bullshit on that move. Just shows what a bunch of morons we got up there. Jeez whatta bunch a morons.

Ok so I’m no economist so whats the point Sage? The point is as I said in the first paragraph, don’t spend more than you take in. With all the borrowing we are doing as a country, the fed dropping interests rates which drives the dollar down, which drives oil up which causes hardships on those poor slobs making $7/hr. Ok so the Sage don’t know all the answers except for what I consistently say, kick all those bums out of Washington and lets take back our country. Check out the National Initiative for Democracy. This is the only idea I’ve seen that can help us take back what is rightfully ours.

PEACE!!

The Sage