Disposable Income

One of the things that the media seems to talk a lot about in these days of economic challenge is what we are to do with our disposable income. I have to tell you that I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines disposable as "designed to be used once and then thrown away". 

Now I don't know about you, but based on that definition, the pure and simple truth of the matter is that I consider none of my income to be disposable. This is not to say that I don't have some bad habits (I mean lifestyle choices) which require capital infusions from time to time. I recently had a "kid in a candy store moment" during a recent trip to North Carolina with a stop at the J R store humidor and performed a corresponding investment in my cigar inventory. My travel sometimes allow me to stumble over a particularly good bottle of wine or liquor at a reasonable price that subsequently manages to find its way into my luggage. I even indulge myself from time to time in a meal better than one which requires me to decide what size french fries I would like with it. The income used for these choices is not something that I would call disposable however, but more like "choosing a style of life which I would like to become accustomed to if I could more easily afford it". 

You see, like most people out there, I live on a "fixed income". Oh not the kind that people who are retired from their labors talk about, but the kind that requires that I put in long and exhaustive hours to get a paycheck (for the same amount) every two weeks. I have supplemented this recently with the columns that I write for the Toledo Free Press, but this is after all a "free" newspaper, and as such they cannot afford to reward me with large sums of money for the meager prose that I produce for them. Also like most people I have a number of fixed costs. This includes money for the place that I live in, the utilities for it, an automobile (which thankfully is paid off), gas and maintenance of that auto, luxuries such as Internet service for the different things that I do (like this blog), and something more than ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS for entertainment on television, and of course groceries that provide the nourishment that my body requires to survive. 

What the media then portrays as my disposable income I suppose then, is the money that I spend for the nourishment of my spirit. There is in fact a difference between simply living and being alive. I have to believe that there is more to life than simply existing or the sheer pointlessness of such an existence would drive me mad (hmmm, maybe I can use that as my excuse). I believe that words have to mean things, and in this case I have to say that as defined in today's common parlance, the term disposable income is a 'null input'. Today's media says enough already that has little or no meaning or relevance in the world as we know it. I wish therefore that this same media, who would like us to believe that they are so much wiser than the rest of us, would simply dispose of this term.