Coping with Inflation

(WSJ illustration)

The WSJ publishes 15 Ways Consumers Can Deal With—and Even Benefit From—Rising Inflation. Below are my comments in italics:

What’s your inflation rate?

In the CPI-U [consumer-price index for all urban consumers], motor fuel represents approximately 5% of assumed total household spending and is up 44% from April 2021 to April 2022. Used cars and trucks represent approximately 4% of the total and are up 22.7% over the same period. So if you can hold off on buying a new car, for instance, you can feel less of a sting from those big increases.

My personal inflation rate is lower than the average because the largest expenditures (mortgage and car payments) are fixed. Variable components have a discretionary element, e.g., chicken can be substituted for beef, and we can dine out two days a week instead of three. So we're lucky--we certainly feel the inflation, but the non-inflatable part of our budget is high, and we are willing to substitute lower-priced items in most cases.

Be aware of shrinkflation

Product companies will slowly “shrink” the contents of the packages and goods you buy while charging you the same price. This means a price hike for you. The package of strawberries now has five fewer strawberries. The bag of chips has more air and less chips than usual. The roll of toilet paper went from 264 sheets to 244 sheets...

One way to deal with shrinkflation is to try to stick with generic store brands because those tend to be the last to shrink...It also helps to only buy fruits and vegetables that are in season.

Perhaps there's brainwashing involved, but about half the time I don't find generics to be as good or effective as branded products, so that suggestion doesn't work for me.

Instead, my problem is kind of the opposite but is an opportunity to save money: don't buy more than you're going to use before it spoils. I buy too-large packages of perishable items, for example, two loaves of bread for $7.50 instead of one for $5, then have to throw out the second because of mold. Switching to smaller-size packages raises the per-item cost, of course, but the overall expense is lower.

Delay Social Security

Every year that Social Security benefits are delayed past full retirement age, the amount of the eventual benefit increases by 8%.

Thus, an individual with a full-retirement-age benefit at 67 years of $1,000 a month could increase their benefit to as much as $1,240 by delaying to age 70—an increase of as much as 24%. And the annual CPI increase is based on this higher amount.

My health is good but not great, and there's a good chance I will make it to 90. However, there are many personal friends, relatives, and acquaintances my age for whom stuff happened, so I claimed full benefits at 66 rather than defer until 70. Deferral is a good plan if you're in good health and are financially comfortable.

Buy the car you’re leasing

New-vehicle prices rose 13.6% since March 2021, while prices for used cars/trucks were up a whopping 34.7%. If you have a vehicle lease expiring soon, you possess a valuable way to avoid those higher prices.

That’s because your vehicle’s lease-end price was set when your lease began, prior to the current inflation...

Even if you really want to get rid of it, buy it anyway. It’s now a (lightly) used vehicle whose market value has jumped about 35% in the past year. So sell it yourself, and pocket the profit on the difference before buying something else. If you simply return it to the dealer, they will do the same thing and, of course, share none of the profit with you.

We bought out our leased car three months ago. It was the right thing to do, kind of like going to the dentist.

Seek a higher return on happiness

Take a moment and think about what you’re spending money on and why. And then stop spending money on the unnecessary things that don’t bring you joy. After all, if you stop spending money on something, by definition, you are no longer impacted by inflation in that area...

take just a week (a month is even better) and commit to deliberately reflecting on every single expenditure made during that period—from the auto-payment on that streaming service to filling up your gas tank—transformational things can happen...thinking about that one expenditure allows you to rethink where you are going—literally and figuratively.

COVID-19 caused a lot of people to reflect on their lives before inflation struck. What one needs vs. what one wants is an age-old question, but it's still relevant. I want the latest iPhone but the almost-four-year-old iPhone XS Max satisfies all my needs (except for status and techno-lust), so resist temptation!

Ask for a raise

The salary increases one normally gets are likely to be below the rate of inflation, so it is important to ask for higher raises...Given the state of the labor market—this time in favor of workers—summon up courage and go ask for the raise. You need it.

I only expressed unhappiness to management about my pay a couple of times in my career. Each time I was fully prepared with comps, a list of extra things I did, and even a worst-case scenario if the discussion went south and I had to leave the company. Even if the worst-case scenario is improbable, it's good to go through in your mind (see "happiness" above) and enter negotiations with the confidence that walking away from a job isn't so bad.

Time your expected purchases

Consumers are often advised to have cash and other liquidity available for unexpected expenses, such as house or car repairs or even medical bills. But there is another use for that cash on hand: making expected purchases on sale and ahead of time. While this only works for nonperishables, there is real value to be reaped by buying goods when the price is right and in quantities that make sense.

...households tend to hold inventories of consumer goods worth about $1,100 on average. By shopping strategically and optimally managing their inventories, households can potentially earn returns well above 20% on their “household working capital.” The key is not to stockpile too much at full cost and buy only when the price is right.

Stockpile supplies when prices are low. Clothing, however, carries the risk that tastes change: you may not like the swimsuit you bought on sale last winter.

Don’t add explicit inflation protection

While there’s nothing wrong with maintaining a long-term allocation to Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) for diversification, tactically adding them as a hedge may not have the intended effect. TIPS performance is driven by unexpected changes in inflation expectations. So while inflation is high today, the likelihood of inflation expectations surprising to the upside going forward seems low now that the Federal Reserve is actively tightening monetary policy.

Gold, meanwhile, has been an awful inflation hedge since gold futures began trading in 1975, in part because they tend to rise in anticipation of inflation (rightly or wrongly) rather than with inflation.

Even with the recent period of higher inflation, average inflation is less than 3% over the past five-year and 10-year periods. So rather than adding an explicit inflation hedge, you are better off reviewing the underlying assumptions of your financial plan to focus your attention on items that are within your control.

Plus, most investors already own the best asset to combat inflation: stocks. A big reason stocks beat inflation over time is that corporate earnings and dividends tend to grow faster than inflation.

I followed my own advice from one year ago, and it holds up: If we are going to reprise the 1970's, shift some investments into real estate, gold, art, or more stable foreign currencies that can keep up with dollar inflation. (I would recommend cryptocurrencies, but I don't understand them well enough.) Get out of bonds and low-growth dividend paying stocks. If you have variable-rate loans, convert them to long-term fixed-rate debt.

Control your lifestyle creep

spending inertia is very common and, oftentimes, there are some expenses that can be cut out with minimal impact. A good place to start this budgeting process is to simply pull all of one’s bank account, credit-card and debit-card statements and look for any recurring expenses for subscriptions or services that may no longer be needed.

COVID's silver lining: we bundled our shopping expeditions, doctor's visits, etc. to minimize car trips before gas spiked, cut back on recreational travel, and cooked more often. We're spending less in total than we did before COVID but I draw the line on subscriptions; we're keeping them all.

Account for shadow inflation

Do you remember when your restaurants gave you free bread and butter? When soda refills were free? Or when your hotel room was automatically cleaned, and you could count on fresh turned-down sheets before bedtime? With the cost of goods rising rapidly, along with the current labor shortage, many of the services we have grown accustomed to are no longer included without an extra fee...

Since it is likely right now that the cost of goods and services will continue to rise, build a buffer into your budget for spending on meals and other services that are affected by this cost increase.

The message seems to be that freebies are a vanishing species, hence inflation is worse than we thought, and we should "build a buffer." Very helpful! (sarc)

Buy inflation-indexed stocks

Investors should purchase stocks from established companies—such as supermarkets—whose revenues are indexed to the inflation rate. Inflation is a basket, and the best thing correlated with the change in the price of the basket is exactly the basket. Food is sold in supermarkets and, therefore, the inflation rate of food is highly correlated with the revenues of those companies. Because those companies have small margins, their earnings also are correlated with the inflation rate. Hence, buying a claim on the revenues or the earnings has to be correlated with the inflation rate.

My own preference is for real estate stocks or the hard asset itself. Though risky, real estate returns, especially with leverage, exceed inflation.

Update your résumé

I encourage individuals to update their résumés. Given the tight job market, there’s an opportunity for many employees to find new positions that will pay them more—and a higher salary is obviously a benefit in an inflationary environment. But workers may be able to find a job that is more personally satisfying as well.

The retirement nest egg is big enough so that I don't have to go back to work...yet. If inflation continues for a couple more years, then the résumé will have to be dusted off.

Watch for falling prices

One strategy for dealing with inflation is accelerating certain purchases. This might seem counterintuitive given the impact of inflation on the economy. However, in certain scenarios it is possible to selectively capitalize on the current environment. Many consumers will need to cut spending on discretionary items, so a lack of demand may cause the prices of various nonessential goods to decrease. This can present a unique buying opportunity.

If you planned to pursue new hobbies in retirement, for instance, and are fortunate enough to have ample cash flow, it’s possible to make the most of this inflationary environment by accelerating the purchase of select recreational items as their prices fall. The key is to identify where you have some financial flexibility and make the most of what is otherwise a very challenging situation.

Prices fall with products that no one else wants (duh!). Time to fill your space with hardcover books and CD's.

Invest in alternative energy

Investors may want to consider alternative-energy stocks as an inflation hedge...But the war in Ukraine has further underscored the importance of sourcing alternative energy...While traditional energy may outperform over the near-term, the drive toward clean energy seems unlikely to reverse and may present a better long-term opportunity for socially responsible investors and the planet.

Even if you don't buy alternative energy stocks, get out of fossil fuel companies like Chevron and Exxon-Mobil. Their shares have doubled in the past year, so take the profits. The long-term prognosis is bad.

Better insulate your home

One of the best investments for a return on your dollar is to better insulate your home. This is particularly important given the current higher costs of fuel. Often, you can get a free energy assessment from your power company, with a to-do list for lowering your energy costs.

The upgrade will eventually pay for itself—sometimes in as little as three to five years—and you will have lower heating and cooling bills that will outlast this inflationary period. If it takes five years in saved electrical and fuel bills to recoup the expense, you likely just got a lifetime 20% return on your insulation investment. And as the costs of fuel and electricity go up, so does your percentage saved.

Insulating the house has been recommended for decades, and we haven't done it because we're highly allergic to the dust that project will create. Besides, it's cheaper to wear a sweater during the winter and go to the air-conditioned mall, library, or theater during the summer.

A few final words of advice, applicable to non-inflationary times, too:

1) Temper your lifestyle to be less than your income (easy to say, but pride and pleasure are powerful obstacles);

2) Pay off your credit card balances every month;

3) Do all you can to make your marriage work.

Relevant Article

Deadlines are not friendly to headline writers. Current events can impart unintended meaning and emotions to an unlucky choice of words.

The Yale Alumni Magazine (YAM) cover story is a cheery one.

The women's ice hockey team made it to the NCAA Final Four ("Frozen Four"), where the Bulldogs lost to the eventual champion, Ohio State, 2-1.

Speaking of current events, YAM also has a relevant article on research into the effect of trauma on children's brains.

Children who have endured chronic stress, such as living in a violent neighborhood or within an unstable home life, tend to have thick branches near the brain’s alarm system (the amygdala) and weaker ones near its off switches (the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex). The alarm system blares and there’s nothing to stop it...

(Wiley Online Library)

For children who have endured severe trauma, one option is Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). Dylan Gee is involved in a study designed to assess TF-CBT. Previous studies have shown that it works very well for about half to two-thirds of those who go through it, but less well for others. Her goal is to figure out which children are most likely to benefit from TF-CBT and what might improve the process for those who don’t.

Gee is assessing volunteers, aged 10 to 17, before and after therapy. The theory is that the reason many children show fewer symptoms of trauma after TF-CBT is because the therapy strengthened their regulatory centers. In other words, the children have better control over their brain’s alarm center than they had before.

Children exposed to traumatic events, especially those involving extreme violence, will, of course, need therapy ("TF-CBT").

The Yale study indicates that physical intervention in the development of children's brains at the cellular level is also necessary to right the ship.

Although we are years, if not decades, away from devising the methodology, at least we know the direction in which we're headed.

Back to Work

Elon Musk via email has ordered Tesla employees back to the office. Asked for confirmation, he responded with the tweet shown at the bottom, "They should pretend to work somewhere else."

="ltr">They should pretend to work somewhere else

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2022

Comments:

1) I hope that vaccinated workers who have COVID co-morbidities (or who live with someone who has) can be accommodated by maintaining physical distance, allowing them to mask, and ventilating their workspace.

2) If (1) is true, then there's little justification for workers complaining; showing up for work on time was the minimum requirement pre-COVID.

3) Elon is implying not very subtly that remote workers "pretend" to work.

4) One of the criteria for being classified an employee, according to tax law, is that the employer dictates the working hours and location of the job. If recalcitrant office-goers otherwise like working for Tesla, perhaps they can work out a deal to be classified as self-employed contractors.

Returned in Force

Ryan Park, Foster City, 9:30 a.m.

The air was still as the morning warmed quickly .

Every few yards along the walkway a faint smell of decay drifted from the lagoon.

I had to step around the clumps of waterfowl scat (was that the inspiration for the name of my current search engine?)

A brood of ducks, evincing no fear, marched by. With summer approaching, the ducks have returned in force.

Decades ago we didn't have the money to purchase a house on the lagoon; instead we bought one a block inland. The burden of maintenance and repair on a waterfront house is high--a friend of ours said that he had to hose off his deck several times a week--so I'm happy that our finances were thin.

I like ducks, but preferably at a distance and not in large groups.

Memorial Day, 2022

This month marks the 107th anniversary of the widely known poem, In Flanders Fields. It was composed one year after World War I ("the Great War") began. I first heard it 58 years ago when an upperclassman quoted the opening stanza from memory.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

By 1964 the 20th century was already the bloodiest in history; the Korean War stalemate, the American buildup in Vietnam, and the threat of mutually assured destruction promised a dystopian future--if we had one at all--of continuous war and police states. All Quiet on the Western Front portrayed the recent past, and 1984 and Brave New World the future.

It is with wonder and gratitude that we are still around to reflect on the sadness and beauty of Flanders Fields.

Flanders Fields (U of Texas NROTC photo)

Sandwiches on Sunday

There were about a dozen people when I got to the community center at 11:30. It's Memorial Day weekend, I surmised, even the hungry have better places to be.

The assessment was premature; when the three volunteers arrived a few minutes later, the line had grown to 30. We gave two bags to each person and judged that there would be enough left over for stragglers.

Deborah Orler

At noon a van pulled up with four adults. Good, we had enough to feed them, too.

No thank you, said the leader of the group, we are here to help. Deborah said that she had started a non-profit group called Hearts for Humanity. Its purpose is to distribute food, clothing, and toiletries to veterans, seniors, and the homeless on the Peninsula. She brought out two boxes of pastries and more bag lunches from the van. They were gladly received by our "customers" at the community center.

I recounted a brief history of Sandwiches on Sunday to Deborah. She was interested in participating in some fashion. We promised we'd keep in touch.

Meanwhile, some of the meal recipients began feeding the pastries to birds. Within a minute about several dozen pigeons swooped down. After they were done, they perched on the roof, eyes raking the area for more.

Next time I'll bring a hat.

Not Gone Away

Valerie spreads the mustard.

Rob brought over all the ingredients on Friday. I checked the inventory against the bill of materials (manufacturing jargon!), picked up a couple of items, and went to the parish hall on Saturday morning to set up the assembly line.

COVID cases are spiking again. Because the church membership has a substantial number of people who are over 65 and have co-morbidities, e.g., diabetes, obesity, asthma, I opened the doors and set out gloves and spare masks.

Even if individuals are themselves low risk, they are very likely to have people in their own household who are in the vulnerable population.

Only three volunteers showed up because of the long Memorial Day weekend, but we still managed to put together 90 bag lunches in the scheduled two hours.

The extra supplies were put in the storage closet, and the lunches were squeezed overnight into two refrigerators.

Sandwiches on Sunday has returned to its roots; we're making sandwiches again. The coronavirus has forced the closure of the community garden and the cessation of hot cafeteria-style lunches.

But the need for a free meal has not gone away.

He Who Must Not Be Named

A title that many strive for (market business news)

In the latest example of progressive sensitivity, the San Francisco Unified School District has banned "chief" from job titles:

The word “chief” will no longer be used in reference to job titles in the San Francisco Unified School District in an effort, school officials said, to avoid the word’s connotation with Native Americans.

The leader of a tribe is referred to as "chief", but the term, IMHO, has long ago ceased to have its principal association with Native Americans.

"Chief" is employed in U.S. military ranks, from "Chief" Petty Officer to Joint Chiefs of Staff to Commander-in-Chief. Used colloquially, "chief" is a useful term that combines authority, informality, and affection. I have never heard it used pejoratively or mockingly.

And the word doesn't even come from the Native American language. It's Old French:

c. 1300, "head, leader, captain; the principal or most important part of anything;" from Old French chief "leader, ruler, head" of something, "capital city" (10c., Modern French chef), from Vulgar Latin *capum, from Latin caput "head," also "leader, chief person; summit; capital city" (from PIE root *kaput- "head"). Meaning "head of a clan" is from 1570s; later extended to headmen of Native American tribes (by 1713; William Penn, 1680s, called them kings). Commander-in-chief is attested from 1660s.

Normally I wouldn't care about words that organizations choose to use internally, but we have seen what happens when woke-ism declares itself to be the arbiter of acceptable ways to communicate in schools.

Indoctrinated intolerance leaches out from the schools to society, and pretty soon the products of the school system are cancelling people because of the way they speak.

In February three members of the San Francisco Board of Education were recalled because they spent their time renaming schools, replacing merit-based admission with a lottery system at Lowell High, and dragging their feet on re-opening. It looks like not everyone got the message.

Present Tents

Now that I'm retired, I have (even more) difficulty keeping up.

Earlier today I had to go to McDonald's(!) to discover the term "table tent." In McDonald's case a table tent is the triangular plastic on which a customer's order number is inscribed.

Table tents are more commonly used as marketing tools.

These cardboard, self-standing mini billboards can help you display promotions, menu items, service list and more. They’re also a great way to greet and guide customers at tradeshows, reception areas, and lobbies.

"Table tent" has been in use for at least a decade,

Frankly, I don't like the coinage because the underlying noun, "tent," is a temporary shelter made of cloth, soft plastic, or cardboard. "Table tent" appears to originate from the triangular shape that used to be commonplace but is no longer a prerequisite for tentship.

There's no point in being distressed. If McDonald's is using language that I'm unfamiliar with, I should just accept that I have become permanently out of the loop.

Animal Tales

Catching up on local animal news:

Mother's burden: stuck and heavily lactating (Chron)

Mother Raccoon stuck in roof

A mother raccoon trying to reach her babies in an attic got stuck as she chewed through the roof of a home in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Monday morning, wildlife rescue officials said.

The raccoon may have been trying to get to her babies in the attic, following the homeowner’s repair of an attic vent...

Construction workers nearby then helped the homeowner, and the raccoon made its way back to her babies...It was unknown how many baby raccoons were in the attic.

The lesson is that we need to check for critters before undertaking home repairs. No love for animals is required, just self-interest--no one wants dead animals in their roof, basement, or walls,

(Intl Bird Rescue / Chronicle photo)

Pelican Crisis

California’s brown pelicans are suffering from a mysterious affliction that has landed more than 200 of them in wildlife rehabilitation centers in recent weeks, resulting in what wildlife officials are calling a major “pelican crisis.”...

Determining a cause for the pelicans’ conditions has been difficult because the issue appears to be affecting pelicans of all ages in different ways, and the injured and hungry birds are coming from all over..

The affliction, whose cause could take years of research and tracking to fully understand, could be the result of a combination of factors, [International Bird Rescue spokesperson Russ] Curtis said. Young fledglings are just now learning to feed on their own, and IBR officials believe there could be a lack of available fishing stocks, meaning pelicans are struggling to find enough fish to eat or taking unusual risks in search of food.

International Bird Rescue is spending about $2,000 on 1,000 pounds of fish every day....“They are voracious eaters,” Curtis said. “We got a lot of mouths to feed.”

The quail is both the State and City bird. (Chron photo)

Coyotes may help bring California quail back to San Francisco (?!?)

The last California quail known to live in the Presidio was a male...Scientists gently collected it in 2008 and brought him to the San Francisco Zoo. The hope was that at least the bird’s genetics would live on, even if its flock had not.

Coyotes reduce predators like rats, raccoon and feral cats that threaten quail and its eggs. The effect is significant.

The presence of coyotes in urban parks increased the odds quail would live there, too, by 73.3%, according to an analysis of data on quail sightings.

Today there are "5 to 10" coyote in the Presidio. They eat the rodents that dine on quail and quail eggs. Thanks to coyote, the park service is considering reintroducing quail to Golden Gate Park.

California newt (Chron photo)

Amphibians Need Road Crossings, Too

Every winter, a road in Tilden Regional Park closes to vehicular traffic so California newts can safely get to water during their breeding season. They’re lucky. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, thousands of newts get squashed every year by unaware drivers.

...Despite their size, newts share something with mountain lions: They’re top predators on the forest floor, with a steady diet that regulates the invertebrate population and may even help combat climate change.

...In Santa Clara County, over 7,000 newts have been killed on a stretch of Alma Bridge Road this breeding season. It’s the highest known roadkill rate of any other species in the world, according to the UC Davis Road Ecology Center.

Given the weightier issues of the day, these tales des animaux seem frivolous. I for one am glad that so many people know so much about and care for our fellow creatures.

E-Mails: a Curse and a Blessing

(Universal scribbler)

I entered the work force in an era when it was considered mandatory to respond to every phone call and letter request. The reasons were intuitively obvious: a response could lead to a sale, you're representing your company which has the highest standard of etiquette, treat others how you wish to be treated, etc.

Then telemarketing and email happened.

Re phone calls, I initially spent too much time on the phone listening to sales pitches. Worse, I fell for a few of them and was usually disappointed by paying too much for products that fell shy of promises. Now every call from a number that I don't recognize goes to voicemail, and even within that group I ignore nine out of ten messages, which are, no surprise, from telemarketers.

I receive over a hundred emails a day. The majority go to the aol account that was originated in the days of floppy disks and dial-up modems. The yahoo and google mailboxes were created for specific purposes and capture the remaining traffic. The only vestige of traditional etiquette is that I always open and answer emails from individuals whom I know and apologize to if their message goes unanswered because it got buried or was sent to the junk folder.

The sea of communications from people trying to reach others to serve their own purposes has become a modern burden:

So many of us spend our days ruled by email: constantly refreshing, wading through detritus, paralyzed by the pressure of crafting a reply to the one note that actually matters. The moment we reach inbox zero, and few of us ever do, the ding sounds again.

Consultant Greg McKeown's suggestion:

Start your day by writing a list of priorities on a piece of paper. Block two half-hour slots on your calendar to really deal with your email—rather than scrolling through constantly—and ignore it the rest of the time, he says.

Regardless of the tech tools at one's disposal, one must spend 30-60 minutes a day on email in order not to lose control of the inboxes. E-mail supposedly has improved our lives immensely, but it sure has us stressing while sucking up our time.

Sudden Hankering

42 years ago my employer sent me to Maine. I don't remember much about the project, but one ancillary benefit sticks in memory.

I was served what seemed to be innumerable variations of lobster dishes, and the dining experience almost made me accept a transfer to the Waterville office. Friends still recount the time when I returned with a container of fifteen (15) live 1-lb. lobsters (at $2 apiece!) and invited them over for a feast the next night.

One Bay Area outlet that recreates the Maine ambience is New England Lobster Market. After a three-year hiatus, I had a sudden hankering for boiled hard-shelled crustacean, and the NELM had the ticket. The other members of the household agreed instantly to the suggestion.

The $29 daily special of a perfectly boiled 1-lb. lobster, cole slaw, and fries was simple and satisfying. (Take-out is better because one can tear into lobster, crab, and other shellfish unconstrained by public politesse.)

The dining-out budget limits us, but now that we've had a taste it won't be a three-year wait before the next visit.

The Church Wrestles with Socialism

Christian socialists, such as those who dominate the leadership of my Episcopal church, often point to Acts 4:32-37 as biblical justification for socialism: [bold added]

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.

Your humble blogger believes that how a church, family, or any other group chooses to allocate resources internally is up to that organization. The early church indeed lived up to its principles, as the well-off voluntarily contributed to the neediest members. It may well have incorporated practices that we moderns identify with socialism.

However, to structure an entire society where a central authority controls all property has never worked for at least two reasons.

1) Information: a central authority cannot possibly know the wants and needs of all the individuals in society. And even if it did, producing all the goods and services that a modern society requires, in the proper quantity and the location, is difficult enough in capitalism and impossible in socialism. Just recall the debacle of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government was responsible for the purchasing and distribution of medical supplies and vaccines. Perhaps it was justifiable for the government to take charge in this area, but just imagine if the government was responsible for supplying everything that we use in our daily life.

2) Human nature, specifically sloth. If "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" is the guiding principle, why should anyone work, since one will receive the same share of goods and services regardless of effort? In the early Christian church, as there may be in a monastery or large family or a small non-profit agency, there was a great deal of trust among the members, who may be willing to work for a common purpose regardless of a personal reward.

In a society of millions, where there is not one common purpose and where few are known to each other, a church that once believed in man's inherent sinfulness would have known instantly that the selflessness necessary for large-scale socialism to operate makes socialism destined to fail.

Sub-Zero Interest in a President Newsom

He does look the part (this nation)

Ever since he worked for Willie Brown in the 1990's, Gavin Newsom had the look of a politician who had his eye on bigger things. He has held in succession the offices of San Francisco supervisor, San Francisco mayor, California lieutenant governor, and California governor. There's now only one higher office to conquer, and he's denied that he's interested. [bold added]

Gov. Gavin Newsom has “sub-zero interest” in running for president in 2024, he told The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board on Thursday.

Newsom is running for re-election to a second term as California governor, which would last through 2026. Asked if he would promise to voters that he wouldn’t run for president before the end of that term, he said he believes Vice President Kamala Harris should be the next president after Joe Biden.

“Yeah, I mean, I have sub-zero interest,” he said. “It's not even on my radar.”

Newsom has made similar claims about having no interest in running for president before, but it hasn’t stopped speculation that he wants to be commander in chief someday. He’s stoked those rumors by positioning himself as a national political figure and publicly sparring with prominent Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"Sub-zero" is an odd choice of words. It is the name of the highest-end refrigerators that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Governor Newsom is clearly familiar with the term, just as, unmasked and closely seated contrary to his own directives in 2021, he is used to dining at expensive restaurants like the French Laundry.

Governor Newsom could have said that he wasn't interested in the Presidency until after his presumed second term ended in 2026, but all he would say is that he supports Joe Biden, then Kamala Harris. His answer means that if the prospects are propitious, he would run in 2024 in the midst of his second term as Governor.

The governor is evasive, ambitious, and will sacrifice principles and friendships to get elected. Although I do agree with some of his positions, as I wrote in 2017, I would never vote for him.

Another Wise Move by Elon Musk

Spending other people's money makes him happy

I'm old enough to remember that a universal norm among State governments was to cut taxes whenever budget surpluses got too large. Spend what is necessary, went the thinking, then return the excess to the people who earned the money in the first place. There were eleven (11) states which recently enacted income tax reductions, by the way.

In the progressive state of California, that philosophy has been out of fashion for decades. California raises taxes "temporarily" to fund shortfalls, then thinks about ways to waste spend surpluses during flush times. [bold added]

The continued prosperity of California’s richest taxpayers is filling state coffers with a $97.5 billion surplus, bringing the state’s next budget to a record $300 billion, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday.

It’s California’s largest budget and biggest surplus ever.

“No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this,” Newsom said at a press conference in downtown Sacramento.

The surplus highlights the chasm between the rich and poor in California, which is both the nation’s wealthiest state and home to the highest share of residents living in poverty. The state taxes its richest residents and businesses heavily, meaning their prosperity through the pandemic has filled state coffers to the brim, even as millions of Californians struggle to afford groceries and gas as inflation drives prices up.

Newsom said he sees the high revenue not as a sign taxes should be lowered, but as evidence of that divide.

What the governor doesn't say is that the surplus is mostly due to the tremendous rise in the stock market and real estate sales through 2021. Capital gains tax receipts are volatile and cannot be relied upon as a steady source of funds. As of this writing the major stock market indices are down more than 20% for 2022, and real estate sales have slowed.

A secondary effect is that many of the wealthy taxpayers who do pay taxes are moving or have moved out of California. For example, Elon Musk alone is responsible for $billions of California taxes; he declared himself to be a Texas resident at the end of 2020 (residency rules are complicated, and it's likely that the Tesla billionaire will be taxed in California on most of his 2021 income, which exceeded $20 billion.)

What will happen next year when there's no surplus and California politicians don't want to cut the gargantuan $300 billion budget? We know the answer to that, so hold on to your wallets. Elon Musk was wise to get out.