Thanks to my being underemployed, and thanks to the cost of COBRA's health insurance coverage (which I need or I will die), I do not have any extra spending money. Basically, for the first time in my life, I haven't been able to pay off my credit card on a monthly basis -- I'm still paying the bill, of course, but not the whole of what's owed every month like I used to.
This annoys me in a way that I cannot express satisfactorily. I do not like being in debt, even if it's just a few hundred bucks.
The cost of gas is rising again, the cost of food remains higher than it was even just a couple years ago, and the cost of electricity around here is fuckin' ridiculous if I do say so myself. Even with
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
spay_away paying half the rent/electricity/water/cable bill and for some groceries, we are still just scraping by. I had to dig into my savings account the other week to pay a hospital bill. This did not make me happy.So this is more or less my way of saying: if you want to hang out, I'm sorry. I can't afford it. I would absolutely love to hang out for a day, see a movie, grab lunch out, poke around and generally enjoy what life has to offer.
But I can't.
I have to save my gas for going to work or going up to the college to meet with folks who are helping me get somewhere to get my Bachelor's degree. I have to save my money to buy bread and insulin (which, if you're curious, is what the debt on my credit card is made of...very little of that is money that shouldn't have been or didn't need to be spent).
Heck, even my commission money -- which used to be my fun money -- has been going to paying bills and my credit card.
So I apologize in advance for being unavailable for awesome things. I'm continuing my job hunt, and its depressing as all get out, and I've mostly been amusing myself at home with drawing comics and reading library books.
I know they say you can't buy love or happiness, but being able to pay the bills and buy groceries without worrying would be a real load off a lot of people's backs.
- You Don't Know How It Feels:
irritated
The thing that bugged me about what he said (and I swear I was not trying to change minds or start an argument, though I did apparently, which always happens what the hell) was on the topic of the wages in China versus the wages here. He brought up factories at the turn of the last century; Henry Ford's famous $5-a-day revolution (he seemed surprised that I knew about this; if you don't know, Henry Ford felt that his employees should be able to buy the product they made. Wouldn't it be nice if people still thought that way?). Apparently, this is what China has going on right now.
Interestingly enough, I am relatively sure that Henry Ford's workers were not supported by people from other countries. Relatively sure that a good deal of that money -- if not all of it -- was American. Which sort of defeats the guy's point entirely.
I didn't bring this up, of course, I let the guy go on on his own 'cause he's a salesperson and a salesperson tells you what you want to hear to get you to buy their product. What chafed me was when he commented, "I was an Economics major, I know this stuff."
...no, you don't.
Now, keep in mind: I am not an economics major. I'm not a huge fan of numbers. But I do know that we are at a point in our history in many ways, including economically, that we have never been before. Saying you majored in economics -- especially when it was ten or twenty years ago -- is not unlike saying you were an economics major in 1920 and it's 1931. Things change. No matter how much you've studied concerning the subject, things change when it's discovered that Earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around.
We have never been at a point in modern American history before the past ten or twenty years where the majority of our product is imports. For most of American history, product was made in this country. Then folks realized that it was cheaper to make things in other countries, thanks to various laws (or lack thereof) and monetary exchange. The countries that we support doing this realize that, and buy our debt to keep the cost of the dollar at a point where their costs still benefit us (the universal "us," referring mostly to businesses, not us personally as people) and we continue to use their factories and product. It would be a mutually beneficial relationship if it didn't effect our own product output, but it does, thus it effects our job and product market by diminishing both.
But again, I'm not an economics major: this is just what I understand by watching it from the wayside and picking up bits and pieces in news reports. If you know why our economy is fucked right now and it's not anything near what I said (note: I know there are other factors such as loans and credit and such [I read Paul Krugman], I just consider this a contributor), PLEASE tell me. I want to know!
I just think that standing by "I'm an economics major!" or ANY major in almost ANY situation is the most moronic fallback ever unless you're being satirical or using it sarcastically. In all technicality, I'm a psychology major: I could deconstruct this guy backwards just by spending three hours listening to him talk about product -- I know it's not him, but it certainly is the person he presents himself as. It doesn't mean I'm right, though, which is my point. Everything changes, time is entropy, time is chaos: the only definites are what's already happened (maybe I should major in history?), and no matter how much you've studied, if something changes in a way that's never happened before, it's gonna fuck stuff up. The economy right now is an example of that (hell, the government right now is an example of that; it's trying to change and people aren't letting it because they don't like new things and I'm terrified we're going to go back to 1994 all over again), and it bugs me that people aren't realizing it.
Anyway. I didn't say anything, I let him carry on, and I'm sure he convinced everyone there that life was better in China thanks to us and we're supporting their economy and everyone has to start somewhere and look what we're doing to contribute to the world and I bet he votes Republican.
But it still pissed me off.
Note: As usual, this is a random ranble (a ramble and a rant COMBINED), and nothing has been researched or studied and there's a lot more opinion than fact. This is an LJ, not a fact blog. I always welcome critiques, questions, and corrections, but yelling at me because I said something wrong and then not providing the facts and feelings behind it will get us nowhere. I welcome information and research on the subjects I talk about, especially if I am completely off-base and wrong (and I am wrong sometimes), and I welcome conversation that centers around what I talk about, but PLEASE, try to keep it civil and informative. Thank you.
- You Don't Know How It Feels:
annoyed
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