It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine...

Sorry about the title, but after listening to Obama's press conference tonight and reading various criticisms of the economic stimulus package, that about sums up my feelings about the economic crisis. To be honest, I completely lack the economic expertize to pontificate on such matters, and am not even interested in linking to those who claim them. But I did run across a couple of interesting posts in the last couple days that focus on an aspect of these issues that does interest me: how our collective reactions to such crises reflect our views on human nature, and how that should impact our decision-making.

First, Charlie Lehardy has a great post on the concept of "moral hazard" and its impact on the current economic situation. Second, Chris Schelin has some good reflections on the subject of "peak oil"--an issue that is currently less visible than the recession, but may in the long run prove more important--particularly the way overly optimistic and pessimistic views of humanity tend to dominate such debates. Both posts offer some helpful observations from a lay-persons' perspective.

Buried Alive

In real life, I pay for graduate school by working as the on-site manager of a self-storage facility. It's not a terribly exciting job, but it allows me to work from home and it's generally only busy one week a month (when rent comes due). But the last few days have been livelier than normal, as I've had to spend quite a bit of my time shoveling snow. This isn't an area that gets it very often so hardly anyone has snow tires or chains, and customer after customer has tried to get to their storage unit only to get stuck in a snow drift. Most are here to get Christmas presents out of their units; I suspect many will be back next week with cars full of everything they just replaced. In truth, most of these people were stuck before they even got here.

A couple years back, I spent a week helping build a mission school in southern Mexico and one of our hosts asked what I do for a living. When I told him I manage a mini storage, he had no idea what I was talking about, so I tried to explain: "It's a place where people can keep the stuff that doesn't fit in their house." He gave me a blank look, then asked "Why would anyone need to keep stuff that they can't fit in their house?" I had no answer for him.

Most of the people who rent from us start out while moving. Some need to clear out space while the house is on the market or before they can move into a new one; others need to store their belongings while on a trip or deployment; most figure they will only need the unit for a few months at the most. The trouble is, a substantial number of people who move in for such reasons, never move out. They get into their new house, decide they want to update the furniture, and never empty the storage unit. They buy new clothes, toys and electronics, and shove the old stuff in storage--too valuable to throw or give away, but too old to keep using.

Half of them will end up keeping the unit for years, filled with stuff they have long since replaced with something newer and better. Others dutifully pay rent for units they never even visit. A few stop paying altogether, leaving us with a garage full of old stuff that no one wants or cares about. Sometimes it's junk--cat-scratched furniture and broken-down appliances--but often enough it's just out of date. By law, we have to auction such units off, and we're usually lucky to get $50 for a whole house worth of stuff. No one, it seems, wants old clothes and used furniture. Inevitably, most of it ends up in a landfill.

Yet the cycle goes on, and every month more people fill up their units with their excess, as we all go on buying and buying, burying ourselves under remnants of our corporate consumerism. All of which is to say, though this snow will inevitably melt away, we'll still be buried alive.

Worshipping the Golden Calf

Oh Dear:



Drew points to this unintentionally hilarious video and article from the (so-called) Christian Broadcasting Network:

“In January of this year, Cindy Jacobs was in a worship service when the Lord spoke to her, “Cindy, the strongman over America doesn’t live in Washington, DC – the strongman lives in New York City! Call My people to pray for the economy.”

“This is so severe in the economic area because we are facing judgment from the actions, not only for our stance towards Israel, but our blatant sin against Him in passing laws such as the one allowing homosexual marriages,” Cindy said....

“We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the ‘Lion’s Market,’ or God’s control over the economic systems,” she said. “While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble.”

I'd say their hearts are in the right place (after all, we should trust God in this matter as in all others), but really? The legalization of homosexual marriage is the most "blatant sin" they could come up with? You'd think, standing on Wall Street, that corporate greed might have deserved a mention? Or is that idol too sacred to question?

Some Perspective

From the Kenyan Daily Nation HT: James McGrath

Money Isn't Everything

Nicholas Kristof offers five ways the recession could be good for you (HT Jesus Creed):

Americans haven’t become any happier as they have prospered in the last half-century. And winning the lottery doesn’t make people happier in the long term.

This is called the Easterlin Paradox: Once they have met their basic needs, people don’t become happier as they become richer. In recent years, new research has undermined the Easterlin Paradox, yet it’s still true that happiness has less to do with money than with friendships and finding meaning in a cause larger than oneself.

“There’s pretty good evidence that money doesn’t matter much for how you feel moment to moment,” said Alan Krueger, a Princeton University economist who is conducting extensive research on happiness. “What seems to matter much more is having good friends and family, and time to spend on social activities.”

Jeffrey Overstreet Gets It

Jeffrey Overstreet (whose book Auralia's Colors I just purchased and can't wait to read) sums up my views of this election perfectly. I've never felt more conflicted about an election, nor more tempted to vote third party.

Quote - Financial Priorities, Again

Seen on a bumper sticker on my drive home:

It will be a great day when our schools have all the funding they need, and the air force needs to hold a bake sale to buy a new bomber.

Quote - Augustine on Good and Evil

Just in case our economy really does collapse in ruin (though I sure hope it doesn't!), here's Augustine, from the City of God, Book 3:

[E]vil men account those things alone evil which do not make men evil.... It grieves them more to own a bad house than a bad life, as if it were man's greatest good to have everything good but himself. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 2.43)

Quote - Bono on Financial Priorities

From here (via Looking Closer), Bono:

It’s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion dollars to saved 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.

Save Money: Gallons Per Mile

This is well outside my usual subject matter, but it was news to me, and very practical (HT Evangelical Outpost):

Inspired by debates they had while carpooling in a hybrid car, management professors Richard Larrick and Jack Soll ran a series of experiments showing that the current standard, miles per gallon or mpg, leads consumers to believe that fuel consumption is reduced at an even rate as efficiency improves. People presented with a series of car choices in which fuel efficiency was defined in miles per gallon were not able to easily identify the choice that would result in the greatest gains in fuel efficiency.

For example, most people ranked an improvement from 34 to 50 mpg as saving more gas over 10,000 miles than an improvement from 18 to 28 mpg, even though the latter saves twice as much gas. (Going from 34 to 50 mpg saves 94 gallons; but from 18 to 28 mpg saves 198 gallons).

Here's something to think about when you buy your next car. A difference in fuel efficiency between a 10 mpg SUV and a 20 mpg SUV will save 500 gallons of gas per 10,000 miles driven (more than $2000 by current prices). By contrast, the difference between a 35 mpg sedan and a 50 mpg hybrid only saves 86 gallons per 10,000 miles (around $400 by current prices). Consider that the next time you contemplate the sticker price difference; I know I will.