Vindication

Ah, it's nice to read all the articles about $4 gas and the changing face of American car ownership. Tiff and I made a smart move in 2002 buying a little Mazda Protege5 instead of a hulking Tribute. There have been maybe 10 times we wished we had a bigger vehicle for trips or carrying stuff. Ten times. Five years. We get over it.

Warning. This post is about to get crabby. (And I'm generally a pleasant guy in real life, although not so much up here in the blog...)

There's still this notion of an "entitlement society" in our country. I'm going to "pamper" myself... I deserve it... I'm great... Why is it that people fail at math when it comes to looking at their own finances and condition? Right now, people are learning that that sense of entitlement is just entitling them to foreclosure and permanent penury.

A former colleague and I had a conversation about housing prices around that same time in 2002, when Tiff and I were thinking of buying our first house. Another guy, who was not really a responsible type, had just dropped way too much on a house, I'm sure with an ARM, saying it was a can't lose proposition, better than wasting money on rent. I told the colleague I was talking to, that if that guy said it was a can't lose proposition, we better re-think what's going on right now. Perhaps he was missing the boat.

SUV = You lose. Way to go, smart one. Ditto for that McMansion you can't afford. Should have thought harder in 2003, but you didn't did you? The problem is that to get there, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and say, "My self worth is not dependent on the things I buy for myself." Good luck with that.