Spending is not a patriotic duty

I have never really understood the stock market. It reminds me of

the game of craps, which I still haven’t figured out.

So when I’ve had the opportunities to invest, I’ve put it back

into the house we’ve lived in. That has always proved to be a good

investment.

There have been exceptions.

I bought Starbucks Coffee stock just after the company went public

in the 1980s. Yippee. But then I got bold and bought stock in a

cheese company that went nowhere fast. Then there was the card

shuffling manufacturing company that started their heavy slide the

day after I bought their stock.

I think of the stock market and Wall Street and the rigged game as

I watch families scrambling around shopping during Christmastime.

Pity poor Mr. and Mrs. Doe. One week they are being compared to

other western civilizations and told that our per capita saving is

too low, that we are not saving enough. The next week, they are being

told that consumer spending drives most of the U.S. economy and that

we should go out and shop till we drop.

Economists, please make up your minds.

Regardless of what we are supposed to be doing, I know what we are

doing.

We’re shopping. An early November shopping trip to South Coast

Plaza and Metro Pointe was a real eye opener. Long before the

official Christmas shopping season began, we were among the many

people out to buy something.

There are plenty of parents out there troubled by the amount of

time their kids spend in front of the TV or playing video games. As

they tell me this, I get the impression that these kids belong to

someone else -- that these parents have no power to pull the plug on

any of this stuff.

But each year at a birthday or Christmas, these parents only

perpetuate their misery by buying the latest version of a video game

or even a TV set for a kid’s room, as more than half of the parents

in the country have done.

Kids need to get more gifts that can only be used outdoors. They

should be getting balls, bats, gloves, skates, pogo sticks,

basketball hoops, Frisbees, bicycles and scooters.

There are a couple of exceptions I’d make. One is to buy kids

books or a gift certificate to a bookstore. The value of a child

reading books on a regular basis is incalculable.

One report I read online only a couple of days ago was about the

two most common habits of “A” students. One habit was reading for

pleasure, not just as homework. The other habit was eating breakfast

four out of five days.

The other exception I’d make is to buy gifts that the family can

use together.

One such gift would be a board game. Perhaps that can be used to

establish a family game night -- anything to promote the togetherness

of the family.

Finally, as a service to my fellow shoppers and parents, I am

offering a gift guide. But this one’s different. These aren’t gifts

I’ve seen, but gifts I’d like to see:

1. The Electric Seat. This is not the kind you find in nicer cars.

This one is a back seat that produces a nonlethal electric shock each

time some kid kicks the seat in front of him, particularly the

driver’s seat. If electricity is too cruel, then perhaps every time

they kick a front seat it triggers 10 minutes of Beethoven. That

should make them stop rather quickly.

2. Expandable shoes for kids. I marvel at the parents who can

either afford or otherwise have to have the name-brand shoes for

those kids whose feet are growing faster than weeds. These expandable

shoes are for the rest of us who watch our kids outgrow shoes that

still have plenty of tread on them. Each time a child’s feet grows a

half size, these shoes would have some sort of extension that helps

them adjust.

3. Lunchbox With a Clapper. Over the past several years, our kids

have lost enough lunchboxes to fill a shelf at Target. I’d like to

see a lunchbox with one of those “clapper” devices embedded in it so

kids can find their lunchboxes just by walking around school clapping

or whistling. This concept is also good for jackets, sweaters and

caps.

Parents, pay attention to your wallet, not Wall Street. Contrary

to what the economists and the media want you to believe, it is not

your patriotic duty to buy stuff, particularly if you go into debt to

do so.

It is your patriotic duty to establish a safe, secure home with a

solid financial footing so that your kids have a roof over their

heads, enough food to eat and some decent clothes to wear. Anything

else is gambling -- just like the stock market.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer.

Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at

(949) 642-6086.