I guess I’ll never understand economics. The experts say our economy is going gangbusters and consumer confidence has reached an all-time high – but personal savings have reached an all-time low.

This seems backward to me. It seems folks with a lot of confidence would be saving for the future, instead of spending every nickel they can get hold of.

Today’s consumers remind me of an old fellow a friend was telling me about. This old guy is getting up in years and likes to joke about his age. “I’m getting so old,” he said, “I won’t even buy green bananas.”

Or, another old codger a different friend described to me. This man lived way out in the boonies and didn’t have a car, so he only got into town every month or so. My friend saw the old-timer on the street one winter day and asked how he was doing.

“Oh, I’m fine,” he said. “I’ve got some venison in the shed, and a little bit of firewood cut up. I don’t cut much wood at one time; I could die most any day, you know.”

Modern-day consumers seem to take the opposite view. The more confident they get, the less wood they cut. I blame the whole thing on credit cards. Credit cards have made spending much too easy.
Just before Christmas, my wife and I received several blank checks from credit card companies.

Letters accompanying the checks suggested, “There must be lots of things you would like to buy – but probably can’t afford. These checks will help you buy it, anyway. Don’t worry about repaying anything. We’ll tell you about that later.”

These companies must have thought we ran out of checks and didn’t know where to get more. Maybe they were hoping we were so stupid as to think this was free money that wouldn’t have to be repaid?

Earlier in the fall, I got a call from a company that helps people consolidate their debts. “Hello, Mr. Pond? This is Martha from `such and such’ company, and I’m calling to tell you about our new program for consolidating your bills and reducing your debt.”
I thought for a few seconds and said, “We don’t have any debt.”
The caller stammered a little and said, “But you own your home don’t you?”

“That’s right,” I said.

“Maybe we can help you reduce your mortgage payment,” she suggested.

“We paid off our mortgage,” I told her, and hung up the phone.
People like me are a telemarketer’s worst nightmare – when you make calls at random, you never know when you’re going to get a complete nut.

Readers with questions or comments for Roger Pond may write to him in care of this publication.

This farm news was published in the June 13, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.