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When I was a kid, I had to go to my parents when I needed money.  I didn’t have a job but I still wanted stuff.  At a certain point, I got a small part-time job and made a few bucks.  I couldn’t buy big-ticket items but I could still buy small stuff.  If I wanted to buy a big-ticket item, I had to scrimp and save.

With the advent of credit cards, I can now buy big-ticket items without actually having the money!  Suddenly, I can buy a car, a big-screen TV, several computers and even buy groceries without actually having the cash to support it.  In many ways, this is a great thing!!  No more waiting to save up.  I can do it over time.

The problem with this cycle is I will continue to buy big-ticket items.  I won’t really care about how much I owe because I’m still buying stuff that I want.  Soon, the credit card companies want me to pay, except they don’t.  They’re perfectly fine if I pay $20 a month for a $4500 bill because they’ll get more money from me through the interest.  But the average credit card user doesn’t know this (surprising, isn’t it?)

I left college with a little under $15,000 of credit card debt.  That’s right.  I was determined to pay that it off within five years.  I took a hard look at my budget, pinched everything I could.  It took me two years to finally pay it off!  I’ve been debt-free since August 2008.

I didn’t pay this off through free money.  I saved every penny I got.  I cut back on all my spending.  And through discipline and toil, I was able to pay it off and still save money!

That’s right!  I still was able to put money away for saving!

I don’t get paid that much.  I’m a firm believer that you can save no matter what you get paid.  Most people don’t because they are under the impression that they need every penny.  This is simply not the case.

The auto industry has only itself to blame for getting into this mess.  The problem is three-fold:

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Anytime you move states, a lot of paper work is involved to make sure your mail gets forwarded, your taxes get updated, and your car gets registered. When I moved to Virginia, the first two were fairly easy. Dealing with the VA DMV was torture.

I had to go to the DMV several times because I didn’t have the paperwork needed to change my address and register my car. Even though I spoke with several people at the DMV, each time they told me that I didn’t have the proper forms. I spent a total of 8 hours just trying to get new plates and registration.

Then my ID. Converting my license took about 3 hours of wait.

Why is this? Why does it take this long just to get a new license?

Obama’s plan to “revamp” the economy is to regulate Wall Street. Can someone explain to me why this is a good idea? I don’t understand how government intervention will solve a free market. In fact, government intervention on the economy is more like communism and socialism than capitalism.

Most Obama fans don’t understand the complexity of the economy. Most Obama fans think, “Give people money! Give people money! That’s the way!” By question to him is why does he insist on giving people money and then at the same time say that he wants to regulate Wall Street? The two are incompatable.

Wait…they are compatible because Obama wants to take money way from people who have actually worked and earned it to people who didn’t.

What Obama doesn’t realize is that the market will be fine without his kind of help.  Several months ago, when crude oil topped at $120 a barrel, his strategy was to regulate oil.  Of course, he doesn’t introduce legislation on it.  He just made it a campaign promise.  (Does anyone else find that odd?)

But as months went on, the market reacted by consuming less fuel, carpooling, traveling less.  This caused demand to decrease, which caused prices to fall and close yesterday to below $100 for the first time in so many months.

You don’t see Obama celebrating this.  I haven’t heard him make a speach about this yet.  Why is that?  Is it because he relizes that we was wrong?  What people like Obama fail to understand is why the market works.  It’s not a perfect system, mind you, but it works best with very little outside interference.  When people start tinkering with it, you force the market to respond in ways that are hard to predict.

Take gas for example.  Obama wanted to regulate speculators so that they wouldn’t drive up the cost of oil.  But he doesn’t compain when those same speculators also cause the price of oil to come down!  Had he regulated these speculators, oil would be haven artificially inflated beyond what it is already.  The more restrictions there are, the less freedom there is to move in the market.

Now, I’m not saying that some rules aren’t necessary.  Market works best if and when everybody plays by the rules.  And for the most part, they do.  Some rules can be bent strategically and legally.  But breaking other rules will create an advantage in the market that would be similar to the consequence of government regulation.

Governments have yet to find a way to make going to the DMV, getting a passport, gaining immigration status, or even counting votes accurately efficiant.  Until they can figure out this stuff, why should we allow them to regulate in an area where they will give themselves an unfair advantage in the market?