HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2002-05-15, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002. PAGE 5.
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Does colour matter? Of cars it does!
You can have any colour you want.
As long as it is black.
Henry Ford
you always know when the Canadian
poet Susan Musgrave is coming down
the road. The car she drives is neither
new nor sporty - pretty conventional, in fact.
Aside from the fact that it is completely
covered — and. I mean doors, hood, trunk,
fenders and bumpers — with glued-on kids'
toys.
There's an art teacher in Nanaimo, B.C. who
encourages his students to treat his pickup as a
canvas. He lets them paint anything they want
on it — and then he grades their creations.
There's a guy in Florida who drives an '85
Chevy that's covered with green, growing
ttraca. There's a guy in New York who fiTiV.'S a
car covered with clocks. And there's an artist
in Santa Cruz, California who maintains a
stable of two Volkswagen beetles that he's
converted to look like flying saucers.
The question is not what drug are these folks
on. The question is: what's wrong with the rest
of us?
Why this slavish indulgence to the measly
four or five colours the big automakers parcel
out each fall? You don't have to be Sigmund
Freud to figure out that your car is in some way
an extension of yourself.
So how come we don't spontaneously
personalize our cars the way we decorate our
living rooms, front porches, and back yards?
The interesting thing is that car buyers'
tastes do change — if only within the
parsimonious parameters meted out by the car
Economics, regardless of where it is
practised, is frequently called the
"dismal science" since it is we who
bring the rest of the world the news of such
things as impending recessions, the real effect
of tax increases or the bad medicine that has to
be followed after a country has been living
beyond its means for too long.
Because we have to peer into what might be
described as a cloudy crystal ball when it
comes to telling politicians or other members
of society what is going to happen at a specific
time in the future, we like to hedge our bets.
We therefore lard our speeches and reports
with such expressions as "on the one (other)
hand."
This led a former president of the U.S.,
Harry Truman to exclaim that he was going to
advertise for a one-handed economist to advise
him. He was, he said, getting tired, of hearing
his economists say such things as "on the one
hand we may have a downturn; on the other
hand we may not."
History does not record whether he ever
found one.
But economics is also classified as an
"inexact science" which puts it beside such
things as medicine and psychology in the
academic realm of things. You pick up the
paper one day and read that the American
central bank, headed by Alan Greenspan, has
just lowered the bank rate by 0.25 per cent. if
you read a bit further, you may find discussion
on how the Bank of Canada is going to react to
this.
Do the two banks know something that we
do not? Possibly!
Is the decision made to lower the rates the
right one? Maybe arid maybe not.
Now you see why President Truman got
upset about the advice he was getting. I can
make one definite statement, however. What
the American central bank or- even their
economy does sure has an effect on Canada.
manufacturers. From 1994 to 1998 the most
popular new car colour in North America was
green. In 1999 people purchased more white
cars than any other colour.
This past year, 19 per cent of all North
American new-car buyers chose silver.
Not surprisingly our car-buying habits and
the colours we choose are a psychological, gold
mine for shrinks. A recent study commissioned
by the British Bribacicasting Company
Lkili i.116---,se oZii" Cat enteliF.i 23 a
clear signal to other motorists. A white car, the
experts say, indicates a distant, aloof
demeanour, while Type A personalities
gravitate towards black.
You want to be a magnet for road ragers?
Get yourself a fire-engine red buggy. There's
something about red that brings out the
psychotic in fellow travelers.
Mind you, you'll also be a prime target for
any cop with a radar gun. The shrinks say that
people who drive red cars like to put the pedal
to the metal.
Traffic control officers say, "We've noticed".
Then there's the neutral family of car colours
- champagne, gold and lighter shades of
brown. They make up about 15 per cent of all
vehicles purchased last year and the year
before that.
Raymond
Canon
The
International
Scene
One of the main reasons for this indecision is
what is called a time-lag. Economic measures
do not have the desired effect the very next
day; they require a period of months or even a
year or more to make their effect felt. A lot of
things can happen in a year.
This is not unlike a doctor telling you to take
some medicine and come back in a week. He
may or may not admit it but he doesn't really
know how effective the medicine is going to be
in that period of time.
Most of my students (well, the good ones
anyway) can tell you Canon's Law number
one. It says that there is no such thing as a
perfectly positive economic measure.
Stated in another way, this means that, no
matter what economic shock you introduce to
improve the economy, somebody will suffer.
The conventional wisdom is that lowering the
interest rate will (eventually) stimulate the
economy but it also reduces the return on
savings deposits.
ING, the Dutch bank where I park all my
spare cash, announced it was lowering its
interest rate from four per cent to 3.85 per cent
and finally to 2.5 per cent so I earn less for the
same amount of deposit. Ouch!!
Incidentally, if you do not know about ING
• and you have some spare cash, you should
look into them. See what they offer you and
compare it with the rates of the Canadian
banks.
Like many another science, we have a jargon
all our own. Any number of times you will see
The colour of my car? I was afraid you'd
ask.
It's a bland and boring variation of beige -
and yes, I actually chose it. Not because I liked
the shade, but because I liked the other options
less.
I like to delude myself that one of these days
I'll buy a half dozen cans of Day-Glo spray
paint and customize the crate.
Of course, it would help to be rich. Like the
friend of Phil. Silvers, the TV comedian. It
bugged this rich guy that he could never figure
out an original gift to give Silvers — the guy
had everything already.
One Friday, Silvers arrived at his friend's
villa to spend the weekend.
As Silvers drove up — in a Rolls Royce Silver
Cloud - inspiration struck.
"Sound= lite it's id rig a little rough:' the
friend said to Silvers. "You're not going to
need it all weekend. Let me have my mechanic
tune it up for you."
The hoit then had the car (unbeknownst to
Silvers) whisked off to a deluxe auto repair
shop, where a specially hired crew worked
around the clock to tear out the interior of the
car and replace it with a customized bar, a
colour television set and a state of the art stereo
system. The Rolls was delivered back to the
estate just before Silvers was to leave Monday
morning.
Escorting him to the car, the host murmured,
"Before you start out, Phil, maybe you should
check everything out to make sure it's in
shape."
"Oh, that doesn't matter," said Silvers. "It's
only a rental."
the expression "all other things being equal."
If you are confused by that, don't worry; it is
just our way of saying, more or less, that there
are no outside influences. As if that ever
happened!
If we want to reall; impress you, we use the
Latin expression "ceteris paribus." Don't be
impressed; most economists can't speak Latin
any better than you can.
Don't invite an economist to your home and
expect him or her to be the life of the party.
While we are not as colourless as accountants
are supposed to be, we are not exactly
overflowing with jokes and the like.
The most humorous one I know is a
Canadian, John Kenneth Galbraith. Well he is
actually an American who was born on a farm
near Glencoe. He has a rather dry wit which
stands out among economists and this is
certainly noticeable in his most famous book
called The Scotch.
Galbraith believes in saying what is on his
mind and there are still people in the Glencoe
area who wilt not speak to him or civilly of
him. But then some of my students may be in
the same category.
Galbraith and I have something else in
common — a liking for Switzerland.
Unfortunately, he, being somewhat more
affluent than I, has a lovely dwelling in that
country where, at the age of 95, he continues to
turn out books. (The royalties probably bought
the property).
He has never been appreciated as much as
thought he should but I have the feeling that,
like some composers and painters, this may be
remedied after his death.
Final Thought
Be aware that a halo has to fall only a feu,
inches to be a noose.
— Dan McKinnon
Why now?
With dinner and a movie my husband
and I celebrated our wedding
anniversary recently. I won't say
how long it's been since the big day, but I, will
tell you it's been long enough for young
people to giggle at our wedding pictures and
short enough that no one need break out the
champagne in our honour.
So Mark and I, armed with memories, some
of which actually contribute to a smug
satisfaction over ha` ittg =de it this far, took
the night off for ourselves.
Now, while neither of us are often at a loss
for words, like many long marrieds, if through
tacit agreement the topic of kids and money
are eliminated, we can generally exhaust our
conversation on the trip to our destination.
Therefore, a quick, though quite nice dinner
eliminated any concern that we would become
one of those sad couples who sits at a table
staring off into space, filling time by filling up
on dinner rolls while waiting for the meal.
Then it was off to the cinema where the
diversion of chatter is not permissible.
One topic that did come up that night,
which opened the door for considerable
discussion, was why we got married in May.
For us, like many couples, the proposal was
more an accepted next step than a romantic
formality. Picture if you will, a lovely day, sun
setting fire to trees ablaze with the warm
russets, oranges, crimsons and yellows of one
of those perfect autumns. A couple driving,
quietly taking in the natural beauty of the
season they both then enjoyed. As they travel,
the man matter-of-factly mentions that when
they marry it should be this time of year.
The next thing we knew the date had been
set in May, and for the life of us, neither can
remember why.
Confronted by. this mystery, I decided to
check with some others about why they picked
the days they did for their weddings. After all,
it's one of the most important occasions in our
lives, sc, there must be something special
behind its choosing, right?
Apparently not. Of all the people I spoke
with, and we are looking at enough of a cross-
section to make it interesting, not one gave any
credence to romantic notions. There was
nothing cosmic, no saccharin sentimentality.
The closest was one couple's desire to share
the wedding day of her parents, whose ideal
marriage was one they hoped to emulate.
Instead, pragmatism seemed to be the
underlying factor. To begin with there were, of
course, those for whom the date was, shall we
say, taken out of their hands, moved forward
somewhat to meet a certain deadline of nature.
Generally, however, people were guided by
outside influence. Available arena bookings
played the biggest part. Conflicting
anniversaries, weddings and birthdays dictated
when another special event would be
acceptable. When would their new house be
done, when would the gardens be in full
bloom, when could they get holidays, also
influenced couples on what time of year would
be the best for a wedding.
Weather, though I sure wouldn't hang all my
wishes on this one, proved to be another big
factor.
And while, unlike my husband and myself
these people did come up with reasons, I took
heart in the fact the majority needed time to
think about it. I guess, though it may be one
of the biggest days in our lives, this proves the
importance is not in why it happened when it
did, but that it happened.
World of economics not totally dull