Summer is coming, and that means vacations for some people. This year we're joining my sisters and mother on a trip to Colorado in June and then making another trip to see my mother in South Carolina later in August. Two vacations in one summer is pretty luxurious by my standards and I truly feel blessed to have that opportunity.
Growing up, we only took three noteworthy trips as a family. Once to New York, via Niagara Falls for a wedding. Another time for a few days to St. Louis. And a third time to North Carolina to visit Grandma. That was the vacation when we actually had a station wagon. The first two were in a Chrysler Newport in the days when one of the four children sat in the middle of the front seat. (Is any car made with a bench seat in front anymore?) I'm still not sure how we got a week's worth of luggage (including three lime green leisure suits) and a cooler (so we could save by avoiding restaurants) into that car.
So that's my background going into the AP story I read this morning about the plight of Edward and Dena Brody.
The Brodys, like many Americans feeling economic strain, are spending their family vacation closer to home. The couple has rented a vacation home in Martha's Vineyard instead of a 12-day family vacation to Europe.
I'm not sure if I'm supposed to feel sorry for the Brodys. I'm not sure what the Brodys want me to feel about them after participating in this story. This is at least the second trip to Martha's Vineyard for the Brodys. I suspect for most people a trip to anywhere in Cape Cod is a once in a lifetime trip and a trip to the exclusive pricey Martha's Vineyard might never happen.
I recall the '82 recession (the last big recession) pretty clearly. High unemployment, high interest rates as the country tried to tackle inflation, farmers losing their land, people in the "Rust Belt" losing their jobs or the lucky ones like my father merely getting transferred to the "Sun Belt". There was enough real misery at that time to fill the newspapers so I guess they didn't have to go out and write articles about people like the Brodys. I don't recall any complaints in that recession about the price of arugula or the escalating cost of dance and piano lessons. And I don't recall the plight of people losing their vacation homes to foreclosure.
I know that there are plenty of people having a tough time. In fact, increased costs for basic necessities are hitting the working poor and middle class the hardest. If the AP writers hung around in different circles, they might even find someone who's trip to Florida was cancelled and replaced by a camping trip to Turkey Run, or someone who's feeding their family macaroni and cheese for dinner instead of steak, or opting out of a dance class for their daughter and enrolling her in park district soccer instead.
Instead we get the sob story of the Brodys. Perhaps next week we'll find out about yacht owners who can't afford the high cost of boat fuel.
Beautiful post. I especially like the way you allude to the fact that the "liberal media" may be liberal socially, but is actually quite hypocritical on economic issues.
Time are tough. Terribly tough, why do we get this column filler crap?
Right on, Xian. I've been saying this a while too, among some very socially conservative people I know, they complain that the media has bad values, and some other liberal people I know, complain that the media is all in favor of the status quo and big business - the one thing that unites it is, the media are about making money.
If it sells, smut or not, it will be on the air, and yet the economic news all assumes you're in the top half allied with the big multinationals.
So everyone can hate it equally :D
Seriously though, when it comes to having alternative voice small scale media, all these groups can get together.
AVGAS is way up, too. Fueling my Beechcraft is a real bitch lately.
Good point! If people are really serious about conserving energy and saving money, a good place to start is toning down the luxury vacations. Kids today feel they MUST have a top notch vacation and parents too foten oblige. the smart thing to do is stay close to home and learn about America from your own backyard/neighborhood. If all vacations were cut in half (distance) think of the savings in fuel and dollars.
I saw the story about the Brodys going to Martha's Vineyard earlier this week. I wasn't left feeling too sorry for them, and frankly, I'm getting tired of these "We can't afford to go to Europe" stories everytime we have a recession in this country (the Wall St. Journal had one on their front page in the early 2000's, if memory serves correctly).
Haven't seen a "we can't afford fuel for our yacht" story yet, but I'm trying to remember where I saw another story, either Thurs. or Fri. night. It was in a national paper, and it was a group of neighbors in Ohio who were talking about how their summer plans were changing because of the high price of gas. One couple were selling their boat and the Ford truck they bought to pull their boat; another couple were probably going to cut down on the number of times they took their boat out this summer, and when they had it out they were going to drop anchor more often and do less cruising. Even more horrifying, they had moved their boat from a marina an hour away from their home to a marina that was fifteen minutes away, **AND** they were considering buying gas cans to carry fuel into the marina and lessen the amount of gas they bought at the marina (marina gas is typically $.50-$1.00 more than we pay at our corner gas station).
The sacrifices they make...(and yes, I'm being sarcastic here)
We did a family vacation to Chicago last summer; crashed on a friend's couch and went to see the Cubbies play the Cardinals at Wrigley. Probably aren't going to do a family vacation anywhere this year because I just don't see where the $$$ are going to come from; too many bills coming in and my boss isn't giving me a raise based on the rising cost of living. I actually see my company doing price increases in July when the minimum wage rises again (thanks to our pro-business governor; what a goombah!!), and while I'm fairly confident they won't cut my hours I can't say the same about some of my co-workers. I think we're going to see a repeat of 1979-82 before this is all over...
Don't you know the CU community is immune to any recession? Sadly not enough blue collar folks here, just a lot of administrator assistants living on tax dollars.
WE had to do a family vacation by letting the wife and daughter ride the MTD from downtown to Country Fair while the son and I jogged alongside. Once we got to Country Fair we couldn't afford to even go in the Dollar Store. Waa waaa waaa. If you got the money spend it any way you want, this is America, without some creep saying, "Oh my, Martha's Vineyard! They are sooo wasteful, and we shall never have sympathy for those who have more than us." Maybe they worked their tails off to get that money. Quit your judgmental complaining about someone who has to cut back on a vacation when you can't afford to go to Martha's Vineyard in a good year. Don't like the price of yacht fuel, don't buy a yacht. Can't afford a jonboat, get a better job. Stop the freakin' trillion dollar war, rein in the oil companies, quit growing food to burn in our cars, get rid of the Republicans who have nearly destroyed America.
Apparently one of our trolls is now "Working for a living", and I suspect s/he doesn't even begin to understand how the joke's on them. Many here are opposed to the war, we're not fans of the oil companies, we're unhappy with the farm bill and queasy about turning food into fuel. Some say it's the Republicans' fault, others blame "big government" and "over-regulation" no matter which political party is pulling the levers in Springfield and D.C.
I, for one, am trying to do a good job so I can get promoted and start earning more money. I hope at some point to be able to travel to Europe, and I hope I am never quoted in a cry-baby story in the paper about how I'm having to tighten a standard of living that exceeds what 80% of the world has.
Ain't life grand, and aren't we lucky to be Americans!
I recall how several years ago congress determined that they needed to raise taxes on luxury boats; after all, those bad rich people will buy them anyway, right? Turns out the tax pushed down boat sales considerably (I don't recall how much the tax was). Who cares that rich folks didn't get a new boat? Turns out that people that build boats, work on boats and sell boats cared a lot. The industry took a big hit until the tax was repealed. I guess the point is that while I have to agree that I don't feel too bad that someone has to cut back on their pricey vacation, one thing to keep in mind is that the waitresses and hotel clerks and tour guides that are much more modest earners will also pay a price. In a system, such as an economy, nothing happens at one end that does affect the other.
Well, one argument would be is that if too much of the economy is luxury driven, it's logical to use policy to push people to make something other than yachts. Of course, in our current country, they'd probably just get shifted to making bombers or something.
Personally, I vote "Donut Factories". Tear down all the defense contractors and give people comparable salaries making donuts.
Mark, all I have to say is that, sometimes a vacation for some is going away for the weekend. Good Golly, Martha's Vineyard is a step down?
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Robert Dunn
Ex-Leftist, Born-Again Conservative American
it's logical to use policy to push people to make something other than yachts
So the government is best situated to determine what we want and need? It certainly seenmed logical in Russia. After all, look how well it turned out.
Has anyone seen the front page story in today's paper about how the current economic downturn is impacting folks in the local area? Having met one or two of those folks in the past, and seeing more "man on the street" type stories, made me a little more sympathetic to them.
(As someone who grew up on a farm, where my father was an early adapter of conservation measures and no-till farming, I was quite annoyed to hear one farmer talking about how this was the 1st year he was trying it and how the only reason he was trying it was rising diesel costs, but that's a whole 'nother story for a whole 'nother day.)
So the government is best situated to determine what we want and need? It certainly seenmed logical in Russia. After all, look how well it turned out.
Boggle.
xian: sometimes the use of chemicals can improve our lives
dane: you mean like the nazis used chemicals? look how well that turned out. also, i failed my logic class.
xian.
Boggle to your boggle…
The point is that the harder the government tries to push an economy into a preferred mode it tends to fail in the long run at making everything all better for everyone. There always has to be management and flexibility, but when we ask gov't to push us to make something other than an item people are buying then the image that comes to mindis the fabulous communist type of economy, which has been a consistent failure.
The government pushes items all the time. It also regulates how those items and commodities are exchanges.
Just imagine if they didn't regulate multi-billion dollar gambling. The big financial corps might start doing side foolish uncovered sidebets called "derivatives", bankrupt themselves, capsize the real estate market and demand multi-billion dollar government handouts, sinking our economy while costing the taxpayer dearly.
Wouldn't that be awful?
"and demand multi-billion dollar government handouts"
If only the federal government had no Constitutional authority to do such a thing. As Xian's example shows, it's not the free market that causes investors to make overly risky decisions, it's knowing that daddy government will be there to bail them out that encourages the reckless behavior.
At any rate, I wouldn't be so confident as to determine for other people how they should spend their money. I try to be humble, like Jesus. Who am I to say what is a luxury and what is a basic human right? I'm not a liberal, that's what liberals do.
Has anyone seen the front page story in today's paper about how the current economic downturn is impacting folks in the local area? Having met one or two of those folks in the past, and seeing more "man on the street" type stories, made me a little more sympathetic to them.
While there were a couple of profiles that fit the News-Gazette's attempt at a "these are tough times" feature, the rest were silly. I couldn't feel sorry for the guy with the private plane. Or the young, single girl who loves clothes, movies and makeup and buys budget clothing. (That's just common sense.) I wanted to feel sorry for the single mom raising three kids, but then I saw that she got to take a family trip a couple of years ago to the Turks and Caicos Islands, and will be visiting New Orleans this year for school AND pleasure.
Laura, I had some family vacations like that and have to confess that with the passage of time, I remember them as some of the best times we had. Maybe we can start another thread about some fun stuff like that. I bet lots of people have good stories to tell about family vacations.