The Political Whore

I received a notice from the Dept. of the Treasury the other day that I should be expecting my economic stimulus check in the mail any day now.

I can’t wait.

Hell yeah, $300 to help get me out of the hole that is swallowing me due to crazy gas prices and slowly rising beer prices and rising prices for groceries and every other cost than seems to be a perpetual drain on my income.

And now, since we have received word that our economy is now flying high like a jumbo jet, I no longer feel pressured to spend my check on something that I don’t need in order to keep America (and all the third-world countries that produce the products we enjoy) going strong. Yes, apparently our economy is doing great, growing at a steady pace, chugging right along. Better now than it has been for a long time, etc. It is no longer necessary for me to bounce my stimulus check back into the whirlwind of progress that is the economy.

But the strength of the economy must be felt more at the corporate level and by the upper income folks than by the common-folk at the bottom of the economic food chain because I don’t feel a thing. Not anything good, at least.

Regardless, I no longer feel compelled to add to the riches of a small division of a retail mega-conglomerate. My check is going straight into by bank account.

I call this speculative economics: If I spend my stimulus check at a store, it helps keep that company going strong so that it can afford to continue employing its workers who, in theory, will spend their money somewhere and keep the pool of cash swirling around and around and keep us all afloat. I speculate, however, that these workers will choose to save as much of their paychecks as possible, as well as their economic stimulus checks, due to the higher cost of living. The higher costs we are all feeling are eating into our disposable income and it isn’t going to get any better.

This is also what I call my every-man-woman-and-child-for-themselves economic policy. I’m holding onto as much of my money as possible to avoid being screwed in the future if gas prices hit $10 a gallon. When it comes to my money, it’s all about me; there is no let’s-do-what’s-best-for-the-country-by-spending-money-I-don’t-have-on-things-I-don’t-need.

Back in the day when I would get a mini-windfall, such as my tax refund check, for example, I would spend it on stuff I wanted, like a stereo for my car or a pair of shades. I was a true patriot. I could afford to be.

If I would have received my check earlier, before the economy was doing so great, I would have felt all fuzzy inside handing it over to a corporation in exchange for something that I don’t need, so that it can afford to pay its workers their pittance without having to lower CEO pay or raise prices.

Sorry, but I’m keeping as much of my money as I can. It’s simple economics. Actually, it’s the simplest of simple economics.

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