Ryan
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07:26:27 am on October 20, 2008 | # |
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how the downturn in the economy will affect us in tangible ways and my mind keeps coming back to one point: we will have to get used to living with our means. What does this mean? It means we’ll have to habituate ourselves to paying as we go. It means we’ll have to think carefully about whether we can really afford something or not before we buy it. It means less debt and more savings. It means choosing more practically and less ideally.
My brother is currently choosing a college to go to. His “dream” is to go to Duke University. But my family can’t really afford Duke University. Not really. Not $40k plus per year. So my brother is going to have to live within his means. Either, he’s going to have to work his ass off to pay the ridiculous tuition + room&board, or he’s going to have to get some magical financial aid package. Or, OMG, OMG, he might have to get practical and choose a far more economical and practical local school. He might have to spend his first two years at a community college. Or, he may choose the local state University that his high school has association with and which he might be able to get a full ride to.
You see, Americans are going to have to start making compromises like this. We can’t have everything we want without a cost. Either we’re going to have to get back to producing wealth, or we’re going to have to cut back on our dreams a bit. My bet is that we’re going to do a little bit of both, and that life will be just fine that way.