Micheal’s rantings, ravings, and general banter

First let me say that I’m not a financial analyst, nor do I play one on TV, but I did stay at my home last night. So let’s get started.

Let’s face it, the economy is really hurting right now. There are food shortages. Gas prices are shooting through the roof. Stocks falling through the floor. And well, it isn’t pretty.

One thing (okay, a lot, but have to start somewhere) that really, really, really bothers me is the grain shortage. There’s talk of the US government paying farmers to push their crop to biofuel, which is all well and good, but meanwhile that creates a food shortage, and countries worldwide are feeling the crunch too. There are even restrictions on the amount of mass food you can purchase, with prices of cereal going up in the supermarket. Cereal. Of all things. Want that whole grain goodness? It’ll be goodness out of your pocket before it gets to a cereal bowl near you. So my suggestion? Instead of limiting food, which we need to survive, limit things we don’t need to survive. Get ready for this, because I’m sure it’ll upset people everywhere: cut back on the production of alcohol. I am not saying stop production of alcohol (though I wouldn’t be adverse to it), but cut back on it, rather than cutting back on food. We need food. We don’t need alcohol (sorry, but you don’t). Another suggestion is start taking the advice of the government and start getting prepared. Make your kits. Start canning. My family has rice, corn, wheat and several other things canned from years ago that all that’s needed is cutting open the can and preparing. It just makes sense. I’ll be writing a more detailed post on this later, but think about it. And act on it. It won’t hurt you to set aside some extra rice and wheat each week to start canning, while you still can afford to.

Gas prices. There’s a million and one reasons for this, but until action is taken to stop the inflating gas prices, consumers are going to need to start taking action. Drive smarter. You don’t need that gas-guzzling SUV, ladies. I target women because 9 out of 10 SUVs that I see have women driving them. And the bigger the SUV, the more likely it has a woman driver. We also don’t need to support people driving cars in a huge oval. Sure, it might be fun to watch, but do you realize the impact on oil that has? Let’s cut back on racecars and save the oil for things that we need, like getting to and from work. Like the alcohol and food scenario, we do need to travel to and from work (which helps pump money in to the economy …), we don’t need to watch cars that have a broken steering wheel and chronically turn left only. Parents, don’t give your teenagers cars as soon as they turn 16. I never had my own car as a teenager. Heck, I still don’t. Teenagers are notoriously bad drivers and help you get to the nearest gas pump, increasing the cost. Around here, the thing for teenagers to do is to go “rootin.” Yes, the g is missing. In layman’s terms, they like to drive through the mud. The faster and muddier the better. They love to spin donuts in the parking lot too, not only burning gas but tires. And ruining your engine. I’m not saying all teenagers are like this, I wasn’t, but reconsider how you treat your teenagers.

There’s a ton more ideas, but someone had to talk some sense in to society.