Turn That Mortgage/Frown Upside Down

Thursday, July 10, 2008

An advisor of John McCain said that we "have sort of become a nation of whiners." After a bunch of people whined about it, he had to explain that the "we" referred to the nation's leaders, not Americans in general. Apparently he was trying to say that a lot of the economic badness right now has been brought about by people talking about it happening. This is probably true to a degree. I mean, if enough people tell you a recession is going on, you're likely to spend less and help create a recession. I don't think whining has much to do with falling home prices and rising gas prices, though, and I'm probably in the minority right now in that I think both things are good in the long run.

A few years ago, we bought our house while things were on the way up, and now I can practically do the backstroke in my living room. That's fairly painful at the moment, admittedly. I should have probably invested in something like cars that hold their value a little better, but who knew. I'm not sure where I would have parked a fleet of Hybrids at my old apartment anyway. I'm sure I'll be better off eventually, particularly if I discover oil in my backyard, which I expect to happen soon.

I'm a little torn, sure, but in some ways I'm glad the housing market crashed. I look at my son, and it's hard to imagine how he'd ever afford his own chicken-wire-covered-with-mud mansion someday without an occasional market correction like this. I was starting to think I was going to have to get him started now in professional golf or hope he wins Survivor XXXVI someday, but now I think he can go back to the either of the careers for which he seems to be prepping at the moment (Cookie Monster or armed robber).

[Quick side note - as I'm typing this and watching Seinfeld, a flash flood warning popped up. What am I supposed to do with that? If I was out hiking around, that might be helpful, but sitting here on my couch, I'm not sure what action they're recommending.]

Anyway, I think it's actually not a horrible thing that gas prices have gone up either. This past weekend we drove about 1,000 miles round-trip to visit my family in Nevada, and I figured out that the trip cost us about $30 more at $4 that it would have at $3 (we might as well forget that $2 gas ever existed). Unless you commute to Alaska in a Hummer, you might have to be a bit more frugal, but I'm guessing $4 petrol won't put you on the streets.

At the moment, I commute 25 miles one-way to work in a vanpool. In January, we seriously considered killing it. We had 6 riders, and on most days, only about 2 showed up. Now we have 12 people and more on a wait list. I'm not claiming to be Al Gore's cousin or anything - the main reason I ride is to save money - but it's amazing to see the great motivator gas prices can be (I mean, it's fairly illogical to drive across town to save 5 cents a gallon). Having visited and lived in a lot of places with great public transportation systems, I will happily pay $30 extra to see my family if it means that people will carpool more in the short term and get behind things like light rail a bit more readily down the road.