Vice President Biden Goes to Costco

See the Vice-President of the United States officially buying a few prezzies from a discount department store that's just opened in Washington:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/11/29/photos-vice-president-biden-goes-costco?utm_source=120112&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=daily

At least nobody on his gift list needs to feel embarrassed about what they bought for him...

But seriously, Gentle Readers...although this edition of the White House blog also contains terribly cute pictures of the First Dog, its lead story urges us to share "What $2,000 Means to Me." In other words, "Please keep running up deficits and don't raise my taxes, because this is what I want to do with the money..."

What this web site urges you to do is think it through. Like many of the people I know, I won't be paying $2,000 in taxes this winter. Even if the tax hike goes through, the taxes on what I've made from this web site and odd jobs won't go into four figures. Did you pay $2,000 in taxes last year? Would you be paying that much this year, if tax rates rise? If so...let's face it, you have a pretty decent income left over. What would you be doing with the money?

Everybody's situation is different, but somehow I don't see the people in the four-figure tax bracket facing hunger or homelessness if they lose another $2,000. Maybe some of them will have to postpone buying a brand-new car or moving into a ritzier neighborhood. Maybe for some of them $2,000 will be the final push over the edge, from being able to keep their home to moving to a retirement project, or being able to keep a business open to having to go back to an hourly-wage job.

This web site encourages readers to go ahead and post what $2,000 means to them on the White House blog...but post the truth. If that's the amount you've been paying or will be paying in taxes, you're not poor. I could, and three-quarters of the world could, feel pretty dang rich on your income. Please bear in mind that what you post on the Internet may be read by people whose annual income, before taxes (and in some countries they do pay taxes), is the equivalent of $2,000--or less.

Bear in mind that when some people look at a discount department store, whether it be Costco or Target or Wal-Mart or even (spare us all) K-Mart, they feel overwhelmed by luxuries. Presents for the dog? A carton of Alpo is a thoughtful present for any dog who lives with frugal humans, but some people can afford so little high-protein food that they might be tempted to eat a dog if they had one. The poor-mouthing of the American middle class does not get much sympathy in much of the world.

This web site encourages buying prezzies at discount department stores for only one kind of friend. That's the friend who is really in dire financial straits, and is ashamed of it. That friend really wants to receive a $35 lamp or a $45 sweater from Wal-Mart, because s/he already has plenty of lamps and sweaters, but the new one from Wal-Mart can be traded in for $35 or $45 worth of groceries.

For friends who will actually display a gift lamp or sweater or whatever as a present from you, rather than trading it in, this web site recommends forgetting about the discount department stores. Make the lamps. Or the sweaters. Or the pictures to hang on their walls, if your own budget is limited. Or pay someone who makes things by hand in the U.S.A. to make those things.

Americans are, as a group, some of the richest people on Earth...but we won't be, for long, unless we become much more mindful of how we spend money. Both individually and collectively, we all need to be more frugal.