Healthcare and Weekly RATS. We are now officially part of the way there.

Having recently returned from a vacation, without television or regular news, I need to get back into the swing of things.

Sunday brought us a good way towards some rational national health insurance system. The rest of the world laughs at us: “How can you have small business women and men making jobs when their jobs come with crappy pay and no healthcare”.

As much as the conservative insist the end is nigh, and socialism is run amok, this country needs some social purchases. As rugged independent individuals, we have been unable to build a system that cares for the sick, aged and dying. To build a good system for that, we will act together, much like Medicare and Social Security. yes it will take taxes, but we are among the least taxed people in the world and we get what we pay for.

Any way, the world as we know it is not coming to an end, and we will explore health insurance for at least a generation before we get it right.

Here comes “Weekly Rats”.  All is not good on Main Street in my town. A local roadside motel is advertising "weekly rats".

I can’t be sure if that’s a benefit, or an offer to reduce rates to meet the lousy prospects on our Main Street.

I can tell you, on our main street , jobs are still being lost, wages are being reduced and we are resetting how we go about living the “good life”

Who is that man behind the curtain?

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain… says the mighty OZ to Dorothy.

Who is that man behind the curtain? By now everyone who is not a member of the media/government class knows there is no one behind the curtain and we are on our own. Rationalizing your life style is not what corporations want. They want you to spend and buy in a credit less economy.

Banks are making money and its almost impossible to get a loan for a home. How is this possible?

This morning I did get a home loan, but as an investor not as a homeowner. I wasn’t exactly planning to buy as an investment, I was trying to buy a smaller home to move down.

I found a home that needed to be gutted and rebuilt, but that fit our near and far term needs better than our present larger and more expensive home. This morning I discovered that moving down market is considered an INVESTMENT move and not subject to the tax credits you get for moving to a new home, which only apply when moving up in price. In addition the term rates and down payments etc are higher for investment mortgages than owner occupant purchases.

I am pretty sure that I won’t get to buy this gut and remodel unit because of other bidders, but who knows? Now I have credit to buy another property in the near future if we find one that suits our needs.

The point of the matter is that everything the government, banks, financial institution and wall street are doing is an effort to rebuild a “consumer” economy.

I am pretty certain that without credit, consumer capitalism is dead in the water, so don’t count on either the Mighty Oz or the man behind the curtain, neither of them have a clue whats going on on Main Street..

The times, they ARE a changing. Back to basics and the "New" Consumerism.

I apologize for staycating and missing last weeks blog, but here is today's.

Parade Magazine, not the bastion of negative thinking nor teh hot bed of radical thought reported on the economic crisis and its effects on common Americans.

How the Economic Crisis Changed Us
by Michael J. Berland and Douglas E. Schoen
published: 11/01/2009

The Recession Hits Home  

• 79% have personally felt its impact
• 42% delayed or canceled their vacations
• 27% pursued extra work to make money

 
Americans See Benefits, Too  

• 52% are forming stronger bonds with spouses
• 63% have become more do-it-yourself
• 30% are volunteering more for charities

The first numbers aught get the attention of government leaders and market makers. The second set aught to get the attention of all of us. My postings about post-consumerism over the last few months have been pointing out indicators of a change in the way ordianry Americans are going about adjustign to the new economic relaities.

Humans as a species are adaptive, and we Ameircans are especially receptive to change.

Over the last two decades we have gotten way too wealthy and accustomed to having easy times.

It appears with these difficult times we are looking for what's important, and the advertisers have inevitably figured that out. If you google "back to basics" you will get 15M plus hits, by the time you read this, the number will be higher.

I'll grant that "back to basics" as a phrase has been around for a long time and it resonates with us, but  "New" Consumerism as a term for scaling back and shopping around for deals, strikes me as kind of weird.

"New" consumerism is the new normal. Yikes.

I really liked the Allstate ads for back to basics of spending more time with family and friends, finding pleasure in simple things. Now we are faced with the "new normal", spending our time in stores searching out the best deals. In this model just run to WalMart as they price compare. I do too: I know that this week milk and soymilk are cheaper at Safeway than at Sam's and that wine on sale (as it always is) at Safeway is way cheaper than Sam's.  But if we follow the new normal our shopping time will be increased and advertisers will be assured at work trying to find new ways for us to part with our cash once we hit the inside of the mall.

But we can be assured that AARP is on the ball: The 10 commandments of new conumerism were posted in the e bulletin