A Rare Word from the El Paso Times

This was on their website today:

The problem is that people tend to gauge their ability to afford purchases based on a bevy of irrelevant factors. Aside from your income, consider the other elements involved in a purchase and how they affect your idea of affordability. To start, there’s the cash price, which is the lowest conceivable price you can pay. It’s very possible you can’t afford the cash price, whether or not you break it down into payments. Sadly, not being able to afford the cash price isn’t the deterrent it used to be.

. . .

We’re at a place culturally where objective affordability simply doesn’t matter. We finance everything. Our governments, municipalities, schools, places of worship and homeowners associations all make purchases absent a plan to pay for them. If the concept of not being able to afford something is completely foreign to you, it’s because fiscal restraint doesn’t seem to exist in these 50 states.

Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll be back to promoting public debt tomorrow.

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