BY RUSSELL TURNER
A PENNY PINCHER
In today’s news the main topic is education. We have allowed the mainstream media and their liberal cohorts to manipulate our people into thinking the only solution to improving our system is to give increasing amounts of money to the government to throw at the problem. While more money directed at certain programs may have some good results, just throwing more money to paper over the system will not solve our problems. Having the ability to distinguish our needs from our wants is the first step in solving our problems. Have you ever wondered why some people prosper whereas others seem to always be in financial distress? I have found that the art of penny pinching is taught, for the most part, by parents and grandparents to their children.
I consider myself very lucky to have parents, and to have had grandparents, who understood the art of penny pinching. One great example was my maternal grandmother. She was a woman who never did have a high paying job, but she always managed to feed her family and drive a dependable automobile. She worked hard all of her life; many of the jobs she undertook required hard labor, but she seldom ever complained. Early in life she learned the value of a dollar, and that life’s lesson guided her spending habits throughout life. I have found that that many times the people who understand that concept will have more money in their pockets than the person who has a much higher wage.
Over the weekend I watched a news story about a group of teachers who had a car show in Tulsa where, in essence, they were complaining about not being paid enough. I am sure that they, like everyone else, would like to have a better auto; but I feel that the media is totally irresponsible in telling the plight of a select group of individuals and ignoring the vast number of people who are in worse shape than they are. There are people out here in other professions that cannot have a car show because they do not have an auto, or the one they have is broke down and they can’t afford to repair it. Folks, we need to realize that misery is not unique to only one profession. We Americans have become a society that demands instant gratification; we have also become a people that are self centered and ignore the problems of others. My father is a man who instilled into me the trait of being thankful for what you have. I can remember him telling me, “Before you start complaining about not having a new pair of shoes, maybe you need to look at the person who has no feet.”
I consider myself a penny pincher, and I have been ridiculed for that belief. Many Americans have forgotten that our parents and grandparents lived through the great depression where the art of penny pinching was a way to avoid starvation. When I was younger I, too, at times became annoyed at some of the antics of my grandparents, but as I have grown older I see the wisdom of pinching pennies. I feel that is our duty as parents and aunts and uncles to teach the little ones coming up the art of penny pinching; that training is definitely not taught in the government school system.
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