Debt, Spending And Control

The blogosphere at present seems strangely disconnected perhaps reflecting all the uncertainties of our times, the limited amount of reliable information and the clatter of so much confusing spin. That is where they are allowed to talk about something.

Fleet Street Blues came up with a very interesting idea. As so many celebrities of one kind or another and senior people in effect are media dependent for their standing and worth then if one should take out a super injunction limiting what may or may not be said then for the media as a whole they become “unpersons”.

That is the media resolutely refuse to mention anything about them, or if it is difficult to avoid then the barest treatment, for example tacked on at the end of a match report on a football game “name also scored”. The biter bit so to say.

This idea might be taken further. Market Oracle today had an intricate item on the subject of the thesis of Debt Saturation and the Money Illusion. Detailed but the nub of it was that servicing world or a national debt could get to the point when it was impossible to pay down the debt with dire long term economic consequences.

These days there are few households without some form of ongoing debt or another. A good deal of this now is credit card debt driven by the need to consume. Could we all decide to avoid using cards as much as possible and audit our personal spending to avoid debt wherever possible? If we could it would be a marvellous way to punish greedy bankers and incidentally begin to control our own lives.

Further to that, being a nosy person, I am fascinated by the amount of stuff and what it is in other people’s trolleys. Often there is not much in that of many OAP’s for obvious reasons and some others who are clearly a bit short. But there is little doubt that many households are buying and using stuff that costs far too much and often has little real purpose.

Also, I have had a sweaty and unpleasant morning around town being obliged to do the shopping today for our minimal needs. It was difficult to avoid hordes of people evidently buying goods because now shopping is supposed to be recreation. I regard it as one of the inner circles of hell. But to see so many people buying clothes they do not need and which do not last on credit makes me wonder.

If enough people decided simply to get what was a real need and not an advertised or marketed need and to minimise both outlays from income and added debt then we would begin to bring the economy back to its senses.

Unluckily, I think that the media will not stop fawning on the famous, power wielding elites will not stop borrowing money for us to pay back and the ordinary person have the sense to stop propping up those who are managing to extract all we have and more.