Hi Elmat, Now the good news is that as the events marking off the milestones in the cataclysm's script take place, we will be successively more troubled, but at the same time, we will have progressively less to worry us.
At the rate we are going, in the direction that we are heading, we may soon have nothing at all to worry about or fuss over.
Deflation before inflation, or stagflation after devaluation, recession or non-recession, officially recognized or privately suffered, real or imagined, now, or later or even if before, but not never, there is a problem.
The problem, from where I sit, at where I am, MRHK&FMK, and slightly further out, crony-laden SE Asia, and sham accounting Taiwan, and by report, bankrupt Japan and WAT-frontline Korea, is that spending is rapidly coming to a stop.
I am beginning to greet people thus, 'are you scared yet?'. The responses are invariably the same with minor variations - nervous laughter.
We first started doing budgets about 18 months ago, and now we must cut the budgets we made.
Let us see, ah, here, the girls from Passions can do more for less. We (collective 'we' and nothing at all to do with me) will replace the paid-for mistresses with occasional freebie devil-may-care naughty girls and the ever-plentiful strangers' unhappy wives. The occasional 'gee, what a surprise' shiny baubles for the traditional wife can be done without - it is not as if she will be going any place expensive. That is enough re-figuring on the girls category.
We will frequent the inexpensive Italian eateries more, and cut out the costly Japanese restaurants altogether. We will drive the 5-year-old car for another 36 months out of our allotted 1178. We reckon the reflexology sessions do not have to be at spiffier 'press until my eyeballs pop out' treatment spots. So much cutting for the well being section.
Vacations? Yes, but cannot cut that out completely, because we need it. We can do with less, if at all, the private plunge pools and the spa treatment and we can rediscover the free-of-charge ocean, sun, and beach 10-minutes walk from the homestead.
What else can we cut … subscriptions to magazines that give us bad advice, once-every-18-months computer upgrades, not-totally-necessary taxi rides, theater tickets, music CDs, and … come on, lets cut some more … the visiting-home physical trainer girl? No, not the physical trainer girl, just for a while longer, otherwise life really gets uninteresting for Saturdays mornings while the misses goes about her business.
Come on, cut more! Ok, ok, maybe the cleaning maid? Nope, else the wife will revolt and get rid of the physical training girl, and we will have to clean the toilet and have no Saturday physical training to look forward to. Money, even the monotonously dry cash kind, is a many splendid, well, in fact, money.
So, what else can be cut to save a lot of money. Well, I suppose if all the guys are cut, as in neutered, the economy will literally wilt due to dissipation of raw animal energy and primal basic enthusiasm. No need for accessories such as cars costing as little as watches and watches costing as much as cars.
OT: Now, there is an abracadabra idea for a new kind of biological weapon to waste a nation's economy - genetically modified food that counteracts libido.
Pervasive overworking, sustained lack of sleep, and all-consuming alcohol poisoning can of course result in same. Maybe that is what happened to the Romans and Incas.
Chugs, Jay
BTW, is this true?
online.wsj.com |
