Aesop was a storyteller in ancient Greece who lived over 500 years before the birth of Christ. He was also a slave, but because of his ability to learn and tell stories we now know him two and a half millennia later because he was a storyteller. His fables lived on through oral tradition and weren’t even written down until a couple of centuries after his death. By then, a lot of stories have creeped into the volume of his work and were attributed to him. A lot of Aesop’s fables, most of us have never heard. However, many told during our childhood have become part of us, stories like: The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Lion and the Mouse, The Fox and the Grapes.
The one story that has stayed with me more than any other is The Ant and The Grasshopper. As the story goes, the ant spent the summer gathering food and building shelter while the grasshopper hopped around and played and sang all summer long. When winter came, the grasshopper of course became cold and hungry and came to the ant asking for food and shelter. The ant rebuked the grasshopper and told him to go ahead and dance through the winter.
I brought up that story to talk to the ants of the world and encourage you to be empathetic. We are going through some very tough times. Inflation is at 7 1/2%. That means the buying power of your money is less. A lot less. The ants of the world have scrimped and saved for just a time as this. We will be ok. How ever, we all have friends that have spent money on things we would consider luxuries: boats, jet skis, four wheelers, vacation homes, expensive deer leases, etc. Now that times are tough, they are selling those things for a fraction of what they paid for them, and it is a buyer’s market. I will tell you that if you are an ant and want to help yourself and your community and you can afford it, help out your neighbors. If not now, very soon will likely be the time to buy vacation property as an invest ment. You might be able to buy power toys that are a lot more affordable because of inflation. However, these are not the things that I am talking about. Working class people are struggling to get by and selling things that most of us wouldn’t consider luxuries like tools, vehicles, and household goods.
Now is a really good time to go to auctions in person or online. There is a great online auction in Forney called Rusty by Design. It is a good time to go to garage sales, shop on Craigslist, Offer Up and Facebook Marketplace. Some would think that buying bargains is taking advantage. However, I look at it differently: if you don’t buy it, someone else will and probably for a cheaper price, maybe even a lot cheaper. My admonishment is to the ants to help out the grasshoppers but also the fellow ants who just don’t have as much as you do.
However, be careful. In desperate times there are opportunists and scams out there. Don’t get taken in by a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
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