microeconomics

Is it not the most bizarre thing ever to be living a news story?

The economy tanks, gas prices soar, banks clamp down on the credit crack, thousands of minivans lie in minivan graveyards moaning pitifully as their windshield-eyeballs get pecked out by Dodge vultures. Minivans that we all lost thousands upon thousands of dollars on for the privilege of abandonment.

Usually these sorts of things remain macro, watercooler chitchat from an altitude of 60,000 feet.

Not now.

OH MY GOD said Justin upon noticing the stress-induced financial pestules breaking out all over my body. WE HAVE TO START BUYING LESS BEER.

Comments

[camerashymomma]

i keep thinking of photographs from the carter era, cars wrapping around gas stations, filling up in the states depending on the even or odd number of your license plate. people look back on that time in history. i keep thinking, 'we are living it!' just like you said. this is history. this is fucked up, but i dont' even think we can all see it yet.

[shalet]

Nooooo! Not the BEER! My husband is a brewer. MUST BUY BEER!

[Tracy]

Apparently no matter the state of the economy, people will still buy beer and wine, and according to the TV news (this here in far-off New Zealand where we are feeling the growing ripples), cafes do just as well whether the economy is soaring or tanking.

However, in our little farming nation, people seem to be buying less cheese.

[kara]

Tracy, I met a totally foxy New Zealander this evening at a Halloween party, and no recession stopped me from buying too many drinks and dancing like a hot mess all up in his Kiwi business. Cheese, however, never came into play.

[sweetsalty kate]

Kara, I can relate. If there's one thing we'll never be able to cut back on, it's foxy New Zealanders.

[thordora]

The kids can eat less. I will have beer.

I don't really worry about it, oddly. We survived the NDP induced recession in the early nineties....I figured things are relatively better out here.

Or at the very least, the potatoes are cheaper. :P

[mns nm]

I vote thinner children - more booze :)

[Aurelia]

Am laughing at this! Oh, yes, never cut down on the beer!

[sweetsalty kate]

Speaking of New Zealanders, Justin used to work with one as a ski patroller. One summer they were all up there with chainsaws cutting new ski runs, working in gigantic blueberry fields with gorging black bears everywhere, and they were always cracking up at the Kiwi guy who said the words BEAR and BEER exactly the same. He'd point behind someone and yell "A BEEAH! A BEEAH!" and they'd all be like 'Jeez, we're all thirsty but can't you at least wait until we're done?'

Let's have a moment of silence to contemplate scruffy, sweaty Kiwi ski patrollers with chainsaws.

sigh.

</digress>

[Lisa C.]

I laughed out loud at buying less beer.

[maggie, dammit]

This is so funny because just yesterday, my husband said the price of beer was rising significantly and I replied, "NOW I'm feeling the economic crisis!" and he just stared at me ::blink blink:: and I was all...... "uhhh.... just kidding?"

Now I feel better. :)

[bon]

Dave has yet to conclude that less beer is needed. if he does, i will assume that we are either a) about to starve to death or b) experiencing all signs of the apocalypse at once.

[Aimee Greeblemonkey]

The good thing for me is I buy cheap beer anyway. Whew. Dodged a bullet there.

[mamie]

wow. i was just going to stop buying organic milk.

[m]

I thought beer was supposed to help us through tough economic times?

[emily]

Say it ain't so.
Not. The. Beer.

[Tracy]

Just don't ask us to say "legs" or "pen". I lived in California for a few years and it never failed to entertain the masses.

*eats forbidden cheese*

[trish @ spiritofplace]

The 'credit crunch' hit us here about six months earlier than you guys so it's very surreal to see Canada responding in a fashion that seems way too reactionary. Anyways, if this is as bad as it gets, it's not too bad - although we're in the middle of trying to sell our house and move (no luck - the housing market is dead).

The banks don't seem to have learned their lesson though, we were amazed at how easily we got approved for a new mortgage since Cory is self-employed.

[deezee]

so nice to find a laugh in all this.

[Mad]

No. Microeconomics simply demands that you buy your beer from microbreweries. It's more filling per glass that way.

[Ernesta]

One can just switch to wine, no?

[maggie]

we do?


what about pomegranate margaritas?

[crazymumma]

No. I simply refuse. i did my 10 years of absolute financial privation with a child and a home.

Beer and wine before gas payments.

And cheese? Absofreakinlutely necessary.

[Luisa]

Tell Justin he should swap the Heinekens, or any imported beer for vast quantities of local Canadian beer - to buoy local demand for goods and services, stimulate the local economy, and help reduce costly imports.

Buying more Canadian beer would be a good thing!

[erin]

darren and i had a good laugh over this one.

and yes, it is the strangest thing...

[Sarah-Ji]

If y'all are really THAT worried about the price of beer, my husband did a detailed cost analysis and concluded that he saves at least a thousand dollars a year by making his own beer. And he makes fine, quality, award winning craft brews that are probably better than what he'd be paying money for anyways.

For all you DIY'ers out there, making your own beer is not as hard as it may seem, and the possibilities are endless::
http://www.beertown.org/homebrewing/index.html

[sweetsalty kate]

Hey, totally, sarah-ji! Justin used to make beer, but for a while, it was taking up too much space. He used old Grolsch bottles, too, the ones with the flip-top gasketed stopper - which was great because he didn't have to use a capper. Highly recommended, if you can get your hands on them.

Now we may have to reconsider that. Hmmm... space for crib / space for beer / space for crib / space for beer........

let me think on that for a whie... that's a tough one.

[Woman in a Window]

I keep wondering what will finally break us all for real. Some families are hurting economically but most of us just think we are. What will we do if it really gets bad. Like, REALLY - there's no more bread in the house bad?

The beer, good for making bread.

[Jen]

giggle *snort*

[claire]

Brew your own! We pay about 20 cents a beer that way, especially if you keg it.

[KYouell]

Psst, Woman in Window? Make your own bread without the beer. Cheap, cheap! I'm only good at baking cakes and I have been making bread successfully with the recipe here:

http://ayearinbread.earthandhearth.com/2007/05/t-his-bread-which-i-call-farmhouse.html