“It’s Debt Jim, But Not As We Know it”

By Isobel Miller

Would have been something Bones shrieked to Kirk as he pulled him up by the scruff of his regulation v-neck skivvy, with that desperate madman look in his eye as he turned the Captains attention to the alien species that just squelched its way onto the bridge, it looked like debt only it had evolved and mutated into something Kirk and the crew barely recognized. It was our debt.

Flashback to the days of 1966 when the fabulous Lieutenant Uhura sported a mini dress barely passed off as regulation starship uniform, the ultra sophisticated communication device she skillfully operated looked more like your common garden variety spark plug and the heaviness of her make-up was rivaled by every male crew member of the Enterprise.

During those times, debt looked pretty different too, nowadays it’s not without its share of evolution and alteration. In fact, our modern debt looks pretty far removed from its 1960’s sister.

A snapshot in time during the year 1966 revealed that people saved on average around 11% of their income, compared to that of 0% in 2004. (Remember these are averages throughout the population).

While Spock was busy cavorting and communicating with aliens using his famous Vulcan Mind Melding Technique, the humble folks watching him at home on their television sets were saving their money. They knew the value of a dollar and didn’t have the option of credit to fall back onto, in fact in those times the credit card itself was in its infancy and had only been in existence for 8 brief years, not everyone had access to them the way they do today.

Dollar for dollar equivalent by today’s standards our 1966 counterparts, on a single income had an extra $20,000 discretionary income and $23,000 in fixed costs, these fixed costs represented mortgage, health insurance, car costs, taxes).

Fast forward to 2004 we have a measly $18,000 discretionary income and $56,000 fixed costs in comparison. Fixed costs for us had been adjusted to include the cost of childcare yet in the 1960’s it was virtually unheard of.

The alarming thing is that our modern day figure represents a two person income, even combined their discretionary income is still less than a single person income in 1966. It’s understandable that our parents today feel as though they work just to cover the cost of childcare and travel expenses.

We can adopt some of the tricks of our 1966 ancestors by saving for the future rather than relying on credit cards and loans as our financial safety net.

The sun will always shine, the wind will always blow and just as certainly as our fixed costs have increased over time, so will it continue along this path. We can’t control inflation and the very reason we carry so much debt and rely upon our credit cards so heavily is because we simply do not make enough discretionary income to survive on alone.

Explore your options, seek out work closer to home and if you’re a parent, even working part time to save on travel expenses and reduce the cost of childcare.

Telecommuting is also becoming increasingly popular as more people are starting to work from home. The sky is the limit with what you can make money with these days and if you’re passionate about fishing, gardening, pets, scrapbooking, beekeeping, cooking you can be certain you’d be able to turn these into an extra sideline income to help make ends meet.

Even though they didn’t make as much money as we do now Kirk and the crew had it pretty good back then and they probably didn’t even know it.

Beam me up Scotty.