LOWER STRESS BY KEEPING PRICES STEADY

Something that seems like it can only end badly is the idea that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has to keep increasing. So is the idea that house prices have to keep going up as well as prices of energy and food have to continue increasing. Why does this have to happen? We all like the price of some of these things to go up but not others.  For example, homeowners like the idea that houses increase in value and most do not like the idea that the price of gas and food is going up. In fact, the only thing people like is when they have investments that increase in value: their house, their pension plan. The only thing that seems to be going down is taxes, which the conservative congress designed to make the government so small that we can “drown it in the bath tub”. If the government is small, that means it will not be there to protect us from the greedy and the powerful; the people that that want taxes to go down. Others go along because they do not appreciate the value of government coupled with the natural idea that they do not want to spend money—a combination of facts that gives them a majority. Therefore, government, the one thing that is costing less shouldn’t because the price is huge; no EPA, no FDIC, no Social Security, no Medicare, etc. Sacrificing quality of life to save a few tax dollars is not a good way to live.

Banking means you deposit money in saving accounts or in pension fund and the bank lends out the money and shares the interest return with you except for their costs in handling the money. Government regulation prevents them from lending out all of the money just in case you go to the bank to withdraw your money. It is just good safe business. If prices did not go up workers would not have to fight for higher wages.  If investments do not go up, people could not make money unless they actually added to the GDP, that is work for a living by making something or providing a service and not just living on the interest from money earned by those who have worked and provided services. A huge segment of our financial society depends on returns from these kinds of investments, which is equivalent to perpetually living on an unearned pension. They, along with the people who have put their hard-earned money in savings and pensions funds in the bank, want interest rates to go up so they can earn more money. Enhancing quality of life is a good way to live.

This points out why things are complex but none of this answers the question about why everything has to increase more and more? Is constantly increasing prices along with the inherent increase in stress this induces in society the only way we can balance our quality of life? How will it end?

Aside from the loss of Wall Street, what would be the drawback if prices did not go up every minute, everyday, every year? I would guarantee it would be less stressful.  Or, have we lived with the drive to “get ahead” so long that it is innate and it is too late to do anything about it?