Life in a big chair

Last week I went into Action Motorsports, in York, for a new pair of winter riding gloves. I asked John, the owner, how the economy was affecting him and he said, when people can't do anything about the economy, they ride. It seemed to be better advice than murdering yourself and six family members as a California man did yesterday over his financial problems.

I was sitting in this big, uncomfortable chair in the Adirondack Park yesterday on a random motorcycle ride north and I came to a conclusion about the economy. Maybe it has to all come apart and return to local economies where people know each other and know who they are doing business with, paying and sustaining each other with work, responsibility and respect.

Globalization and monopolies seem to be killing each other and the base they feed off of. We live in a broken economy that operates on credit, and we are attempting to repair it with more credit.

An illusion that cannot be sustained.

I decided to dump my credit cards as much as possible. I have never used them for credit. I just use the dividend cards and I don't like change. I am considered a "deadbeat" customer by the credit card industry because I don't get into debt.

Today, the average family owes roughly $8,000 on their credit cards. This debt has helped generate record profits for the credit card industry -- last year, more than $30 billion before taxes. pbs.org

Adding to that, I am giving my local merchants a 2..3..%? stimulus in a weak economy on every purchase that credit card companies charge them for the service on my credit card purchases.

I feel free. None of my purchasing history is tracked. As the change piles up, I take it to a self checkout at a local retailer and dump it in.

Going back to cash has been a rewarding exercise of simplicity in a complicated economic environment.