“Everything’s high-dollar.”
That’s been the agitated and snide response to our ever-so-frequent comments of similar connation.
“Where’s that high-dollar bridle?” “They sure have a high-dollar trailer?” “That’s one high-dollar saddle.” “We need a sack of that high-dollar feed?”
Family members seemingly become offended when we refer to personal acquisitions, and that of others, as “high-dollar.”
They somehow seem to consider it a “put-down,” and in a sense it is, because we can’t comprehend the reason some things are so costly.
Likewise, we don’t understand why one would have something so extravagant, when similar, and equally as serviceable, could be had at fractions that amount.
But realistically, that’s the way it is.
With few exceptions, everything is expensive today.
One thing that is comparatively inexpensive is food, especially when compared to all of the other essentials needed to live. In a sense, it’s high, too.
We still think of coffee as nickel a cup, gasoline 29 cents a gallon, quart of milk for a quarter, two loaves of bread for 39 cents and hamburger two pounds for 89 cents.
Of course, wheat was a buck, and calves were two bits, then.
Our overhead has multiplied faster than the value, and the spread from field to the dinner table has broadened further.
Middlemen are taking more, and our percentage is lower than ever.
However, we still contend there are ways to cut corners. Our car is the oldest in the parking lot, not the ugliest either, but it cost less than all of the rest. It starts every
morning, gets us there and back, and that’s what counts.
Similar opportunities are available for most of whatever one needs, if effort is made to find them.
There’s one thing that is “down-right cheap” today, and that’s horses. They are selling for exactly what they did when coffee was a nickel. Dreams of return to profitable markets are nice, but days of “high-dollar” horses will never be seen again.
We don’t want the rest of the economy to follow that trend either, but it would be nice if everything else wasn’t so “high-dollar.”
Reminds us of Ecclesiastes 5:14: “When riches were spent, there was nothing left for
survival.” Likewise, we appreciate Ecclesiastes 11:2: “Divide your funds among many places, for you do not know what risks are ahead.”
+++ALLELUIA+++