Need Amidst Scarcity

In early 2002 my late friend Kevin bought a new Ford truck with 0% financing. Afterwards he lamented that he stupidly put a few thousand down even though borrowing costs were zero.

Kev did what Bush wanted everyone to do...what Americans ought to do in times of national stress...he bought shit on credit. That was the extent of our national sacrifice to support Merikan 'values' following 9/11 -- we bought shit we didn't need with money we didn't have. And we placed small, thermoplastic stickers of American flags on our vehicles. This was the extent of our national sacrifice.

Two years later we're off to war -- and the extent of our national sacrifice? With heavy hearts, we climbed into our cars and drove to the mall to do a little 'extra' shopping.

Now five years later in the midst of a recession slowdown, we gotta get consumers spending again. Incomes have remained flat while personal credit debt has risen. I don't know what to think of those numbers being thrown around, something like each family having $8,300 in credit card debt. Pick your number. +/- 30% is the range I've heard lately.

Eight months ago I called up my only credit card issuer and asked them to cut my credit limit from $22 thousand down to $4 thousand. How the hell did I ever get a twenty two thousand dollar limit to begin with? It was something I never really noticed...one day they'd jack it up, then a few months later, jack it up again, and over fifteen years it ballooned. I don't think I ever carried a balance over two thousand at any given point, so I had them drop it. Last week, my co-worker mentioned how my credit score was likely lowered because of my action.

Lowered? If access to credit far in excess of any reasonable ability to pay it off raises my credit score, then fuck my credit score. Fuck it. I now enjoy knowing that I can only borrow about half the credit debt the rest of this nation already carries.

FDR later recalled the depression as a time of want amidst plenty -- the nation was flush with ore, timber, oil, gas, jobs and steel but still economically crashed. I like to think that our immediate future (5-10 years) might be more like need amidst scarcity. The scarcity will be in dollars, water, oil, productive jobs, etc, but our needs will still be the same: Nintendo consoles, HDTVs, underwater camcorders, iPhones, iPods, Pringles, fish sticks, fried chicken, mufflers, brakes, hair styling and personal storage rental spaces.