Up and Down

I don’t drive my own car. I buy gas sometimes but most of the time I pedal my bicycle and occasionally use public transit. I’m lucky I can get around this way. My lifestyle and a streetcar stop at the end of my street make it all possible.
Nevertheless, I am painfully aware of the “price of gas obsession” in our society. It’s like an addiction–we all get higher than a skyscraper when the prices go up and hang our heads in shame when the prices come down. And then we just wait for our next fix, the rush we get when the price of gas starts climbing again. Like addicts.
Considering the level of rage we feel about high prices, we should balance ourselves with a corresponding joy when the prices come down.
And, what about the stock market? I seem to recall when the price of oil surpassed $50 per barrel the media reported the planet was going to hell in a hand basket. Nobody talked about the people getting rich because they invested their money in oil stocks. But today I hear the sad lament that the price of oil is headed down and how horrible this is for the economy.
Seems to me that if I make an embarrassing amount of profit because everyone else is paying far too much for gas, I should graciously give some of it back. Or at least be content making some money instead of lots and lots of money.
In the past couple of weeks, the price of gas has gown DOWN by about 20 cents per litre! Why don’t I see people dancing in the streets? Perhaps you are dancing in your cars.

Can We Please Hear Something Positive on the Economy?

My clients are calling and booking extra work. I had dinner with a friend recently who just got a nice promotion ( and get this, he works for a bank!) Someone else I know just moved into a she she condo on the harbour. The folks I know who depend on government pensions are getting the same money they were getting last year and still paying the same rent. No crisis there. So, I ask you, just who in the hell is really feeling the effects of the drastic downturn in our economy?

If we didn’t watch television and didn’t read the papers for a week, we would never know there are problems with the economy. The greatest problem I see with our economy is our media. The media is telling us that, overnight, we have begun living paycheque to paycheque and our savings have been decimated.

And this is news?

Let’s hear more stories about average Canadians whose lives have not changed one little bit since the Americans took their swan dive into the economic toilet. Let’s talk about the success, stability and same old same old all around us.