Seymour Flops
Diamond Member
First of all, one thing I learned in studying psychology is that lots of people are like me. "Typical" is a good word for me, and like many people, I had always thought of myself as an outliar. So the way the economy is affecting me is how it affects many others - roughly. Nobody's story is exactly like anyone else's. Here's mine:
I'm a teacher whose wife is a paraprofessional. Not poor, but not rich. Under Biden's economic plan of crashing energy production in the U.S. while printing unlimited amounts of money, our real earnings have declined along with everyone else's. We had finally gotten our kids out of the house and were starting to enjoy things such as eating out more than once a week, taking bi-monthly weekend trips, and real vacations where we go somewhere. We still do that, but we had to figure out how to make up the difference.
What we have done is added $40 to our weekly expenses budget, and $40 to our monthly groceries budget. Because of our location in Houston, our light bill hasn't skyrocketed, or it would likely be more than that. So that is $200 extra we spend to live the same way under Biden as we did under Trump. Where does it come from?
It comes from what I call our "buffer." That was a built in "cheat" on our weekly budget for those times when we really shouldn't eat out, but my wife is not intererested in cooking or has a craving for a certain restaurant. We didn't always spend the buffer and at the end of the month, Mrs. Flops would treat herself to a silver charm, a tool for her hobbies, or a book.
Now we must stick with our actual budget and it feels like austerity to us. I'm the "boss" so I find myself saying no, when previously I would have said yes without a thought. That two hundred dollars was more meaningful than we realized. None of that is a tragedy, and it could certainly be called a "white people problem." Ridicule if you want, but that will be a powerful motivator to get us and others to the polls.
Question we ask ourselves is what are we getting in exchange for that sacrifice? A president who doesn't send mean tweets, but who brings us to the brink of WWIII? Not such a good trade even if they cost the same. At an extra $2400 per year, it seems way overpriced.
I'm a teacher whose wife is a paraprofessional. Not poor, but not rich. Under Biden's economic plan of crashing energy production in the U.S. while printing unlimited amounts of money, our real earnings have declined along with everyone else's. We had finally gotten our kids out of the house and were starting to enjoy things such as eating out more than once a week, taking bi-monthly weekend trips, and real vacations where we go somewhere. We still do that, but we had to figure out how to make up the difference.
What we have done is added $40 to our weekly expenses budget, and $40 to our monthly groceries budget. Because of our location in Houston, our light bill hasn't skyrocketed, or it would likely be more than that. So that is $200 extra we spend to live the same way under Biden as we did under Trump. Where does it come from?
It comes from what I call our "buffer." That was a built in "cheat" on our weekly budget for those times when we really shouldn't eat out, but my wife is not intererested in cooking or has a craving for a certain restaurant. We didn't always spend the buffer and at the end of the month, Mrs. Flops would treat herself to a silver charm, a tool for her hobbies, or a book.
Now we must stick with our actual budget and it feels like austerity to us. I'm the "boss" so I find myself saying no, when previously I would have said yes without a thought. That two hundred dollars was more meaningful than we realized. None of that is a tragedy, and it could certainly be called a "white people problem." Ridicule if you want, but that will be a powerful motivator to get us and others to the polls.
Question we ask ourselves is what are we getting in exchange for that sacrifice? A president who doesn't send mean tweets, but who brings us to the brink of WWIII? Not such a good trade even if they cost the same. At an extra $2400 per year, it seems way overpriced.
