Posted on 08/09/2009 10:54:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
The resistance is well underway.
Affluent Americans – defined as the top 20 percent of U.S. households by income – spent about 10 percent less in 2008 than they did in 2007, according to a study by luxury-goods researcher Unity Marketing. And those households with incomes of $250,000 or more are cutting back on spending even more than all affluent households overall. 54 percent of these consumers are spending even less in 2009 than in 2008.
Those $250,000+ earners, threatened and demonized by President Obama, are retaliating with their most powerful and damaging weapon: not spending. It is a quiet, deliberate, determined, very real resistance.
To be sure, some of the cutbacks in spending are related to investment losses, job losses and actual reduction of spending capacity. But much more has nothing whatsoever to do with the ability to spend – only with the unwillingness to spend.
Most in media do not understand the reality of this deliberately reduced and postponed spending as a political resistance movement. But that’s what it is. I’ve talked to many affluent entrepreneurs and professionals who have worked hard for years to finally reach their present income levels. They are intentionally refusing to spend money as a means of protest.
I was recently thinking about replacing my Ford Explorer with a new SUV, at minimum a new Explorer, but perhaps a Lincoln Navigator or Cadillac Escalade. The day Obama first trumpeted the proposed 5.4 percent tax surcharge on gross income of us high-productivity, high-responsibility, high income earners I changed my mind. Instead I spent $514.00 getting a little fender ding months old fixed, paint scratches touched up and the car detailed. The $30,000.00 or $40,000.00 I would have spent on the new car – and I’m a cash buyer – can sleep idly in the bank until the man who has chosen me as his target is gone. And I view it as deliberately depriving him of spending he desperately needs to help his economy. He needs me and others like me buying a new car a whole lot more than I need one.
This is also the first calendar year in at least a decade in which I’ve gone 7 months without buying so much as a single stitch of new clothing. Not a necktie, not a sports-jacket, not a shoelace. Not because I lack the financial ability. And not because I lack interest. I usually buy at least a few new things each season, and for my speaking engagements, I’m actually overdue a new suit. A store I patronize even advertised a remarkably attractive offer last week, offering two free suits with purchase of one. But I will not give the president even a dime of help. I have joined the Affluent Resistance Movement.
Business owners, CEO’s and entrepreneurs are resistors too. Fred Smith at Federal Express has outright stated his company’s order for a fleet of jets is pending and subject to cancellation should the speed-to-unionization scheme Obama supports be enacted – in effect, another epic tax on businesses like his. More CEOs need to step up and make similar threats. If the President will threaten business, why shouldn’t business threaten back?
Together, those in the resistance should all go public, and tell the affected merchants, service providers and professionals why. Business leaders can explain to their vendors that the money not spent with them is political resistance. If those of us in the $250,000+ targeted group, and those who lead companies small and large, all cut spending by yet another 10 percent or 20 percent, we can protest more emphatically than if we all picked up placards and marched up and down Pennsylvania Avenue. We can demonstrate that no power trumps the power of the purse.
It pains me greatly to suggest this, since I advise businesses on marketing and I am paid to help them boost sales. But desperate times demand desperate measures. So I say: send a message. Join the resistance. Buy nothing.
Great to do list!
I’ve done everything on it and I have two Fords; a 4X4 SUV and an F150.
Be Ever Vigilant!
If Im counting properly, my total CC debt is just about $1,985.
Other than that, I have a $42.00 cell phone bill without a contract and $19.00 a month for unlimited internet.
We’ve been going primarily for precious metals and rural land. Those are two things that, since the dawn of history, have always held a value irregardless of what currency has done. Land is power and right now there are many parts of the country where you can buy it on the cheap. Even a few acres would be valuable if we did go into a Weimar situation because land at least means you can feed your own family and it also means you can bring on tenants.
I personally feel that sharecropping will be making a return this century and so I am preparing for that eventuality.
There are some items one can’t help buying. Sure, big ticket purchases are not necessities.
But, it’s possible to extend this even to necessities. Stock up at sale prices on 3 mos to a year’s worth of toothpaste, soap detergent, cola, ....
Who is John Galt?
We do our own stimulus when he's gone by opening the floodgates to our wallets. By then everything we want or need will be at distressed prices.
Whoever the new administration is looks even better.
Bingo. Anyone charging up the credit cards and spending like crazy is insane. The market may go down again this fall.
Obama is doing a Chavez/Mugabe on the economy to wipe out the middle class. The left in concert with Islam want to wipe out the US. They have pretty much succeeded in the UK.
Dont forget that you are tracked with your bank account. We only use the bank to cash checks. Anything over $400 goes out the door in my pocket. We leave that small amount in the account for traveling emergencies in case we have to use the debit card. We have no credit cards, and will be almost totally off the radar by the end of the year.
I agree with this attitude, in principle. Then again, I’ve never been a profligate spender. I have always lived well within my means and it’s my intent always to do so.
But Obama has a nasty little surprise “tax” waiting for savers. It’s called inflation.
Inflation changes the picture substantially, and the strong probability of significant inflation influences my own personal money strategy.
You got it down, good site and all great suggestions!!
Be Ever Vigilant!
I have most everything I need, but have pretty much quit buying all those things I want. The only things I don’t need, I’ve bought in volume (guns & ammo).
I placed an order with a supplier and mailed a check with the order. They sent the check back saying they are going out of business. My favorite lunch place that is a chain decided overnight to close that location. I went to lunch there the day after the election and it was pretty dead plus some people locked shocked. On that day I knew the restaurant would fail.
I knew long before the election that Obama would destroy the economy and the middle class.
I too have cancelled all but vital spending. I feel it is a poke in the eye to big government. We must cut the tax revenues they get one way or the other. I will never buy anything from GE or GM. I will not buy union made products if possible. The silent Taxpayer Rebellion is headed their way. It is our Patriotic Duty to cut the Federal Government off at the Knees. De-fund Socialists. And Reduce the burden they expect us to carry.
I hope the selfish, snooty-*ss SOB, loses his money in the bank, and has to go out and get a real job. It would serve his worthless hide right.
It’s making me think maybe Obama is on the right path and ought to hit twits like this for more than he is planning.
parsy, who says to the guillotine with this goober! Liberty, Equality, Fraternity! (I’d sing that French song here, but I don’t know no French)
You’re lucky, mine was about $20K...it hurt....
>> Stock up at sale prices on 3 mos to a year’s worth of toothpaste, soap detergent,
You still use toothpaste, soap, and detergent? Dude. That was the first major food group I cut out. When people complain I just fake getting all huffy and tell ‘em I’m going “euro”, it’s the new trend.
7. Don’t do any business with Democrats, ever.
Agree 100%. I prefer NOT to even talk to democrats. Sometimes I have to, while at work, but I draw the line after that and will avoid them.
Unfortunately, some democrats are identified by the way they dress, talk, walk, and even the music they listen to at work.
Well I am older but still employed. I changed my w-4 to 12 exepts. I filed my return with no check. The last thing I want is to die without owing the IRS money.
I’m sort of an independent researcher on things. Eventually I stumble on what I need. No offense.
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