The Native Iowan

I am an observer, a commentator, a word-smith/ philosopher. I watch and listen to the world around me. I talk to people. I read voraciously. I’ve been writing my thoughts and observations for decades…

And every once in a while I get a plum of a topic to sink my teeth into, to delve into, to ruminate upon, read and write about…

The ” Cost of Living” is such a topic…

One of the big “things” in the virtual world of words is “The Cost of Living”.

The cost of buying a house, raising kids, making your own way in this wondrous and wicked world.

It’s all too much, almost out of reach. Life is TOO EXPENSIVE.

Discussion on social platforms, talk at the coffee shop, complaints at the local pub… All thick with how much all and everything costs. Housing, feeding the family, medical care, travel, education, kids in general… everything has skyrocketed… Everything costs more, which is indeed understandable.

EVERYTHING COSTS MORE THESE DAYS… I dont think there is much argument here.

One basic component in this discussion must be the wage folks are getting paid. If you pay the kid turning burgers 20bucks and hour, you sure as shit aint going to get a cheap meal. It all looks to be great when minimum wages go up, but there must all ways and always be a corresponding increase in the cost of the finished product. I fear this basic economic “factor” is often missed by those lobbying for a raise in the minimum wage, anywhere on the planet.

One MAJOR component in this discussion is the “standard of living” we all strive for. If you buy a new, 1000dollar device every year, or every other year, you are living kinda high. If you live addicted to bandwidth, you will spend a fair amount regularly to stay connected. If you buy a coffee (or two) every day, you are spending an appreciable amount just on coffee. If you eat-out, order-in or do the drive-through with any regularity, you are paying those well paid young kids to cook for you. If you take a trip, travel the world, see new and exotic places, the effect on your income is huge. Travel, though a great educator, is costly. Supporting a sporting team, going to a game or two a season, buying a team scarf or jersey to show your allegiances… Entertaining your kids and grandkids, going to a theme park, even buying an ice cream adds to your particular “cost of living”.

I’m going to be the wise old fart now…

When I was a kid my father made less than 15k per annum, had 9 kids, a mortgage on the house, a car loan, grocery bills, utilities, taxes and made it work. There were no expensive toys, phones, devices, watches, clothes… There was nothing that was terribly expensive in our home. Eveyrhtign was either reasonably inexpensive or just old. The furniture was old. The TV (after we got one) was second hand. Much in the house was from generations past. Nothing was “costly”…

Noting everything was expensive. In a household where there is little $$, most everything is expensive. Too expensive, out of reach.

There was never “extra” money in the household. Finances were always tight. An unexpected bill… a Dr’s bill, a phone bill, a car repair was always and all ways unwelcome.

We did take vacations/ holidays. But they went to a family fishing cabin in north Wisconsin. There we’d fish everyday for 10days, fill the freezer with a year’s worth for fish for Friday’s dinner. It was work and play. It was inexpensive to be there and we took enough frozen walleye and crappie home for no less than 52 meals.

Weekends during summer months were spent in the family vegetable garden. Every spring a big garden went in, someplace. My father was good at finding a big, loamy bit of land where we would put-in a very large vegetable patch. Usually the better part of 1/4 acre, in a farmer’s fallow paddock, an undeveloped lot, a corner of a rural homestead… our yard was never big enough. Not for what we needed.

So my father did side deals, shared produce. All to have the plot of land he needed. We never bought meat at the butcher shop or grocery store. My father would regularly do a deal for a quarter or half of a beast. We bough potatoes in 100pound bags. Stored them in the “root cellar”. We kept a couple large freezers in the garage. My family needed to produce and procure enough to preserve, store, can, freeze, all in order feed us through the winter.

Us kids were the slave laborers (in my mind) working the gardens on hot summer days when one should be sleeping in, playing, having fun. Gardening for me as a kid was never fun.

Up until I was 9 or 10 my mother baked once a week. We had bread daily, a pie or fruit for desert after supper, sweet rolls and cookies… but never bought from the store.

The kitchen was always “hot”. Leftovers were a way of life. The Sunday’s ham was Wednesday’s beans n corn bread. Nothing went to waste.

I often felt as though we were “poor”. Kids at school had sandwiches made from store bought bread. It looked nice, uniform, small. My bread and butter sandwiches were huge affairs. Thickly sliced, dense and wholesome. I was embarrassed by the bread I took to school.

My mother patched our clothes, Pants and jeans were bought both long and wide, then “taken-in”. As I grew the inseam would be let-out. The waistline enlarged. My elder brother was too old for me to get hand-me-downs, but my sisters (six of them) had a long lineage of used clothing and shoes. It was rare to have “something new”.

My father only ever bought two new cars.

I was taken to one major league baseball game in my life. It was a big event.

I went to the State Fair a couple times. Got 25cents to “spend” on what I wanted.

Going out, going somewhere, anywhere, was not common.

My father paid much higher interest rates than we do today. Through the 70, 80s, and into the 90s his cost of borrowing was much higher than it is today:

My father never had a credit card until the 90s. He rarely wrote checks/ cheques. His was a cash economy. Maybe a cash economy is easier to manage than one where the average citizen is 135% in debt.

Credit cards, credit limits, credit scores are all kinda modern… modern to an old fart like me.

In our modern world I do think the “cost of living” is indeed a worthy topic.

I do also think that it is more about the ability for one to budget, manage their income over expenses.

If your kid(s) have a 1000dollar device and designer shoes… I think its more about choice than it is “high cost of living”.

But thats just me being an old, wise, tight fisted kinda guy…

more later