Money Makes the World Go 'Round

Have you ever noticed that it's always something? Whether it's an oil change for your vehicle, the rising cost of gas, $40 to go and see a movie in a theatre, the exorbitant cost of dining out, not to mention rent/mortgage, taxes, groceries, back to school clothes, new runners, season appropriate clothing, insurance (house, life, auto), student loans, credit card debt, utilities, Internet, the computer on which to run the Internet, a yearly vacation, the list goes on and on...

For the most part, people are hardworking and generally want to please. Whether it's their spouse, boss, parents, children, peers and after all of that work and energy spent pleasing people tend to indulge in a little retail therapy. They figure the bills are paid (for the most part), so how about those new golf clubs, that night out on the town. The Jones' just bought a new car - they don't work any harder than I do!

That brings me to my next point. Now when we go to that movie we can't afford, paying for the $8 popcorn with our handy Visa card, we are inundated with advertisements. The first ten minutes in the darkened theatre are ads - "Save money on fuel - buy a Hybrid!", "Use a PC - only $600 compared to $900 for a Mac!" "Too busy at work to visit? Keep in touch with the new Blackberry Rocket!!"

I'm not blaming the media. I'm not blaming the economy for not keeping salaries on par with inflation. Or the people/decisions that started the ball rolling (think American mortgage crisis) but I find it interesting that after generations fighting for freedom from government interference it has been the Canadian Government stepping in to control credit card companies (it was recently mandated that said companies are not allowed to increase our spending limit without us as consumers asking for/ giving written permission to do so), manipulating interest rates, financially salvaging auto manufacturing companies (some would argue wrongly) to clean up the mess we couldn't help ourselves from creating.

Don't even get me started on the HST....