Inflation

Having put my first tax-deferred dollar into my retirement account in 1994 when I was still a college student, I look back at the Dow industrial charts and wonder how in 1995 it began an until-then unprecedented steep upward climb. Of course there have been some spectacular retreats between 1995 and 2011, but overall I think the Dow is much higher than it historically should be. Historically, compared to the eight decades that preceded my entrance.

Along with an inflated Dow, we have inflated educational costs, too. I'm amazed at my good fortune to have graduated college in 1995, just before the "education industry" discovered how to graduate students with $90,000 in debt, how tuition has risen three times faster than the rate of inflation to ostensibly cover the costs of state education where 2/3rds used to be covered by the state of California but now only covers 1/5th. I had the good fortune to have landed a technical engineering position that paid enough for me to 1)cover my rent, 2) pay tuition, 3) transport myself to school and work, and 4) save enough in U.S. Savings Bonds to buy my first housal unit before graduating. What do you suppose the likelihood of this happening to a Sac State history major today, huh?

Along with an inflated Dow, we have inflated medical expenses, too. In 1995 I didn't even carry medical insurance; I was young enough, healthy enough...or so I thought. Exactly sixteen years ago today I joined the rolls of the medically insured and I've easily easily! sucked off at least 45 times more than I've paid in premiums through numerous surgeries and insulin. In 1995, a box of syringes and two vials of insulin ran $45 a month. Now, in 2011, with an insulin pump and its associated infusion tubing and reservoirs along with $130 vials of insulin, I draw $1350 a month from a $200 premium, a 3000% increase in the monthly cost of treatment and 6.75 times more than I am asked to pay. This doesn't even yet consider the upcoming costs of cancer drugs like the $93,000-a-year Provenge we're soon to consume.

Along with an inflated Dow, we still have inflated housal unit prices, too. Look at the Case-Shiller index, and even though unit prices have dropped since their hallucinated peak in 2007, they are still well above historical norms. I'd like to say that it was good fortune that allowed me to pay off my mortgage this month, but good fortune played no role -- it was simply hard fucking work to defer paying for that $45k Yukon with the $6k tires/rims and paying down debt first. Nonetheless, I did have the good fortune to have bought in 1997, just before the exponential and unsustainable increase in unit prices, just before DiTech Miracle Loans and 125% loan-to-values and cash-out re-fi's. I remember sitting in the backyard in the summer of 2000, wondering how could I possibly buy my own house if I had to. The answer: I wouldn't have. I couldn't, not based on my income. But what someone shouldn't do and what they do do are two totally different things, and a few tens of millions of us did buy between 2000 and 2006 for some reason or another, thinking it was either going to only keep going up ad infinitium or they wanted to use it as their personal ATM, and today either they've lost it, cashed-out re-fi'ed it above current market value, or otherwise owe more than they've started with or what it's worth.

Along with an inflated Dow, we have inflated energy prices, too. I had the exceptional good fortune to have understood the dynamics of energy early-on, as I work in the electric industry, and I have set myself up to (possibly) live in a constrained energy future. This is no small feat. I hear the constant, incessant yammering from co-workers and acquaintances bitching about gas prices and about how they'd conserve energy if they had to, but it takes a hell of a lot more than yammering to mount a bicycle 3-4 days a week instead of the Land Cruiser -- it takes a mental attitude above all else. Immigrants from low-energy intensive nations will continue to drive here regardless of price, until gas is simply not available; they didn't immigrate to America to ride a fucking bike. White suburban women will argue successfully to their husbands that it's simply too dangerous for their kids to walk to school, lest the child rapist drags them into the bushes, or that they themselves cannot take the transit bus to work lest the nasty black man drag her under the bus for a raping, too. They, too, will drive until gas is simply not available. They didn't move to suburbia to ride a fucking bus. Our national identity and our values hinge around private automobiling, and we will continue to do so regardless of cost. I have the exceptional good fortune to know how to ride a bike in bad weather and alongside bad Elk Grovian drivers. I also know how to ride a bus. These require a mental setpoint above and beyond the vast majority of Elk Grovians who cannot think past their three-car garages.

I do consider myself fortunate, yes. Going forward I intend on continuing to ride the bicycle, even though I have all the disposable income I need to hire someone to drive me if I so wanted. I intend on saving money, having a reserve, owning things to barter, owning tools and materials to work with my hands for myself or others as necessary. I intend on becoming closer to true energy independence, with the ability to take the full jump if absolutely necessary with some carefully planned arrangements.

Nonetheless, following these modest preparations, I'm still a member of the most wasteful, arrogant nation on earth, and I will continue to act like an American for as long as possible. I will recreationally burn oil for the rest of my life, regardless of cost. I will hop in my private vehicle to eat lobster in Stockton if I feel like it. I will perhaps jet-set across the globe on the smallest of whims someday. I'm amazed at my good fortune...