COST--A Truly Obscene Four Letter Word

Decades ago, I read an interview with the then Speaker of the House. (I believe it was Tip O’Neil, but I cannot swear to it.) There was some reference to the hundreds, thousands of bills that had passed his desk, but what struck the interviewer was his realization that the question of affordability (as in, “can we”?) or cost had never in all his years crossed the Speaker’s mind.
It was just never an issue. Not in my lifetime and before has it been an issue. Even in the Depression, cost was never an issue for the federal government. Our credit was good, we borrowed or printed money (in a time of serious deflation that wasn’t a problem). WPA, PWA, CCC—we created them all without worrying about cost.
Ditto World War II, the Cold War, building a national highway system, pouring billions into the educational system, Korea, the Gulf War, invading Afghanistan and Iraq, and on and on. (Have to admit that a major reason for stopping Vietnam was when Wall Street came down to Washington and pointed out that the war was hurting the economy. But we were already winding down.) By and large—going in to something—cost never needed to be a question.
The other day I went in for a substitute teaching job and got to chatting with the principal’s secretary. She told me, in an affluent suburban district, that if a computer broke down and needed a new part, there was absolutely no money to repair it. There was certainly no money for new technology.
Next year will be far worse if an election to maintain the present millage does not pass this spring. I wished her Good Luck in a neighborhood full of scared people. She was working on an election poster as we talked and kept repeating, “But this isn’t a new millage”.
It’s a neighborhood full of kids and new houses that happily supported millage to build an entire new high school ten years ago. (Already plans for further extensions have been shelved. For one thing, people are moving out—heading for new jobs or cheaper digs.)
In district after district I notice a lot of new, young faces among the faculty. Administrators are moving heaven and earth to get older, higher priced teachers to retire so they can be replaced with kids right out of college at the bottom of the pay scale. One older teacher told me, laughing, “Every time I step into the hall, the principal is there asking, ‘What can we do to get you to retire’”. He teaches advanced English and also adjuncts at the community college. He’s good.
I pointed out to the secretary that her entire district had been cobbled together out here in the ‘burbs when cost was no object. “No one,” I said, “in Lansing, Washington or the administration here has any real experience dealing with a situation in which the money simply isn’t THERE.
“They have no idea how to deal.”
My wife returned to the community college this winter to take courses in art and photography. She had gotten a degree there twenty years ago. The contrast startled her. Whole departments are now basically staffed by adjuncts—no benefits, a fraction of the pay.
The cafeteria is closed—replaced by a privatized “café” with an extremely limited menu and prices twice as high as you would pay two blocks away. The school bookstore is run by Barnes and Noble—it carries no art or photography supplies. The faculty can only suggest stores. The school plans to privatize maintenance.
A few years ago they could afford to build a whole new wing and a new library. Cost has now become a factor in their calculations. I might add that everybody is sitting waiting, breathlessly, for the new bailout money from Washington.
First of all, guys, it won’t be enough to meet all the needs. Second of all, it won’t go on forever. Then you’ll be back in the same leaky boat—with more stuff to maintain and support.
California is facing a deficit the size of most national economies. Unlike Washington, they don’t have a printing press for money in the basement. Many more states are in trouble—as is Michigan here.
Our whole economy has lost sight of the issue of cost. The other day I looked at one of my reasonably new (and expensive) pairs of shoes. It needs a minor repair. Twenty years ago I could have located someone to do it in an alcove of my grocery store. Today I cannot think of anywhere to take them—or even to buy the clips to do it myself.
People have stopped repairing things. Shoes, toasters, clothes—they have all become throw-away items. You don’t even try to fix them, you just toss them. What do you do when the cost of replacing them becomes an actual concern? When the money might not be there?
(When we go miniature golfing, we all carry our own putters. We’ve collected them over the years from neighbors who just put them in the trash. They weren’t the latest style? I have to say that over the last few months there has been nothing in anyone’s trash around here worth looking at. They may be hanging on to more things.)
The other day my wife took a trip to Chicago to visit some art museums. She had lunch in nice little restaurant in Greek Town. The food was still delicious; the price hadn’t gone up—but the portions were smaller. That’s all over. Cost suddenly matters—you can no longer just raise prices.
Cereal boxes are shrinking. Sam’s Club no longer carries the large bag of rice we’ve bought for years. It has a different supplier with a smaller bag. (Rice isn’t as good, either.) Have you checked the size of a yogurt cup lately?
It’s a dirty little word, cost is. For decades we haven’t worried about it. By and large, we haven’t needed to. But it seems to be becoming a problem—in our governments, our homes and our grocery budgets. Most of us have absolutely no idea how to deal.
The world around us offers so few repairmen—and so few things that even CAN be repaired.
That may be a change coming to a neighborhood near you. Or me. I really do hope so.