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Interesting
by James Glaser July 7, 2008 The last few months I have seen more people come into my gallery, and because of that, the number of sales is up. What I noticed though, the average dollar amount of the average sale is down. I wondered about that, and walked across the street and talked to the man working in an antique/junk store that has been in business for years and found almost the same thing. At that store the same number of people were coming in, but the number of those "best" customers, the ones you could count on to purchase something every week had gone down. The people were still coming in, but they were being much more careful with their money. There is a interesting web page that deals with what is going on, and that is the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA). They have a page called "COLA Watch" and if you Google that, their site is right there at the top of the page. Like Social Security recipients, retired military officers' retirement pay goes up with inflation. COLA stands for Cost of Living Adjustments. Each year Washington figures out what the rate of inflation is, and those on Social Security and retired military get their monthly check raised by that amount. Back in the 70's and early 1980's those adjustments were going up by 6 to over 14 % a year, but then Uncle Sam put a halt to those kinds of numbers by taking out the cost of food and fuel in their inflation equation. Now most years the increase is about 2.5%. Not factoring in the cost of food and fuel saves Washington trillions of dollars over the years, but you and I, and the people on these fixed incomes know how their buying power is falling behind every year. It isn't just fixed-income people who are falling behind. It is the whole middle class. That is why the people coming into my gallery and the shop across the street are spending less. They don't have the money at the end of the week that they had in years past, because the real cost of inflation is hurting almost everybody. If you have more money than you know what to do with, you probably don't notice inflation as much, maybe it even helps you somehow. But, for most of us in the middle or lower class, things are not looking good. Americans like to shop, and we still do in droves, but we are a lot more careful about what we buy, and that is starting to hurt everybody. I could lower my prices and hope to increase sales, or I could raise prices and hope some people still buy, but in truth, people don't really need art. It is a luxury item, and a full tank of gas for next week feels better right now than a new ceramic vase or a nice silver bracelet. So, what do I do? I'm starting to do piece-work cutting out parts for other artisans' work, and like I did in the past, I am starting to refinish furniture. Also, I am making less expensive art and craft pieces, so that more people can afford my work. While that may be the answer to keeping my shop door open, it does nothing to solve the problem. Even if Washington decided to be honest with its calculation of inflation, and started paying those on fixed-incomes what they really needed to keep up, the problem of inflation is still there. I don't have the answer to fix it, but I do know Washington is addicted to its credit card, and our nation is spending way more money than we have. We can argue about if the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan are necessary for us to remain free, but nobody can argue that we can afford either one of them. If we really wanted to be honest with ourselves, we would admit that we can't even afford the military budget we have. Remember, all the costs of George Bush's wars are being put on plastic, and every month we borrow more, but only make an interest payment on our ever-expanding debt. We can't keep going the way we are, and this rate of inflation we have now, the real rate that you and I feel when we buy gas or purchase groceries is a wake up call to all of us that things have to change. We have to put our nation's financial house in order, but all I hear from both major parties is more of the same. Borrow and spend. Sure the Republicans are going to spend on things different than the Democrats, but both parties are going to keep right on spending. A few more years like the last few, and I won't have to worry about keeping my gallery door open, because nobody will be able to buy anything. I don't think I have a choice any more. I have to think Third Party this election, and I hope you do, too. |
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