The other night, Phil Gramm, the genius (?) who advises Senator McCain on the economy said that there is no real problem with the American economy, it's all in our minds and we are all a bunch of whiners.
Most of us Americans have suspected that those in charge of our government and living inside the Washington DC "Beltway" were a bit out of touch. But now we know just how far out of touch they are. It's not just George W. Bush who looks so damn stupid. It's most of the Republicans and Democrats in DC.
My barber seems to know more about the economy than McCain and Phil Gramm put together. I was in there the other day getting a haircut and my barber had these observations about our economy:
- Credit cards are being used to pay for haircuts twice as often as this time last year. Presumably because people don't have cash because they are out of work or their mortgage payment is bigger than they can handle. These are $18 haircuts.
- At the local grocery store, the bagging and shelf stocking staff is now composed of 45 to 60 year old ladies. It used to be students and Hispanics. These older ladies have had to go back to work to help make ends meet.
But apparently in DC, people still have money for haircuts.
A funny story about barbers and the cost of haircuts. Up until a few years ago I used to go to a hair stylist who would charge $40 to $60 for a haircut. I had been doing that most of my adult life.
That made some sense when I had lots of hair to cut. However, if you look at my picture today http://www.careerplanner.com/MichaelTRobinson.cfm you'll see that spending $50 for a haircut was just plain stupid.
The real reason I cut back my spending on haircuts was to prepare for a time when I might not be making the big pay check. A time when the economy was going to sour, and sour badly.
Well the time has come and I'm glad I switched to my barber / economist with his $18 haircuts.
By the way, the stylist that was cutting my hair moved to the city (San Francisco) where she gets $300 to color someone's hair. Gee, maybe I should get the gray out.
I don’t know If I said it already but …I’m so glad I found this site…Keep up the good work I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say great blog. Thanks!
Posted by: Generic Acyclovir | November 05, 2009 at 11:35 AM