Seems most people have one.  A situation that if left unchecked could eventually become a real problem.  Not that Gorillas are a problem, but I wouldn’t turn my back on one…in fact I don’t know what I’d do around one but that’s kind of the point isn’t it?  It’s a potential threat to the way you are acting and it could truly hurt you.  But…once you acknowledge the beast, you can at least try to plan on how you will interact with it.  At least that’s what I think about that.

So, what the 900 Pound Gorilla in my room?…Right now?….life after the desert.  How am I going to live on a lesser paycheck and will I be able to land that sweet job that might not require a significant change in my elected standard of living?  Can I plan a way to maintain what I find a comfortable living standard without sinking into debt.  Can I happily adjust to living with less?  Did I truly live with more before I realized the need to get debt free or did I just let credit get the best of me without realizing it until it was almost too late?  I’m not sure but I have some thoughts on this.

When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, I commuted…a lot…to get to my job and it sucked…a lot.  It took almost 2 hours to get to my desk from my front door.  This route was thwarted by the State Trolls under the toll bridge or it was an even bigger ticket charge to “Get to the Other Side” of the water where the jobs are nearer Seattle that enable my standard of living financially.  These costs are not carefully engineered into the routes of commuters for the purpose of easing ones commute but rather they were almost punishment by the state for not living closer to where I worked.  I did the math a few times and it would cost about $600.00 a month to get to and from work using the state Ferry system and Toll bridges and a commute that covers about 25 miles each way.  There’s something really troubling about that.  These days, people change jobs often and the idea of buying a house closer to work just isn’t feasible.  I left before that cost became a reality.

For far too long there have been too many people electing “officials” into office to do their bidding.  That bidding has been to tax and spend the public money on programs for some who need it but also to help deadbeats collect a free check when they didn’t earn it.  Once there was a backlash and enough of the voters said this sort of thing must stop, and they voted to stop paying taxes every year on cars they already owned.  Instead they decided to pay for car tabs but not to keep getting dinged for some artificial tax that was clearly not being used for the roads anyway.  It became a financial war on the middle class because the rich didn’t feel the sting of new taxes in places they had never seen before to make up for lost revenue and the poor were too poor to feel it because they had nothing to begin with.  This is a common scenario and it’s not likely to change unless the voters continue to take voting matters into their own hands when to government refuses to do so.  Most recently, the state was forced out of the liquor business and it really needed to happen a long time ago.  The people spoke and the government was forced to comply.  We can be the force that causes Government compliance.

Back to the Gorilla.  I have been looking at what I can do to come out of the desert with no debt and lowered monthly expenses but I realize that I must continue to work in some fashion.  This means a commute is probably in my future should I dare to return to the great Pacific Northwest.  Some of the monthly expenses I have eliminated by paying off bills would now be diverted to the cost of commuting and I start really thinking hard about returning to a place that is home to a government that exists to take my hard earned cash and give it away to people who don’t do anything to earn it.  After all, I didn’t come to the desert to become debt free only so I could move back home and pay a ridiculous fee to get to work only to do it all over again!

Our economic system is complex but it doesn’t have to be.  If people would wake up and realize that the government’s job isn’t to take care of us we would be in slightly better shape.  If we continue taking more initiatives as we have recently and forcibly vote the direction we really want the state government to take, we might have a fighting chance.

As for me, I’m not sure how I’m going to make things work when I return but at least I am aware that I must think about how to make it work.