Halloween

Halloween says a lot about our society as a whole. It's sort of a pseudo 'State of the Nation.'

The Economist keeps a rolling log of the buying power of a certain currency by tracking what they call the Big Mac Index. It's so simple, yet so brilliant. Basically, they compare the PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) between two different currencies, say the Dollar and the Yen, using a Big Mac as the purchase point.

I have my own theory. I call it the BUNYSOB measurement. (Bark uh Nomics Yearly Size-of-Bar measurement) My theory measures the differences in the average sizes of candy bars received by trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

Way back in boom-time hay day of 2004 when home prices were climbing daily, consumer spending was at an all time high (matched only by consumer debt), public savings rates were in the negative numbers, and general contractors everywhere were enjoying inflated, un-sustainable 6 figure incomes, things were good for the average trick-or-treater. Fun sized bars were the linoleum of the candy-giving world. Neighbors would gossip over who 'only' gave out snack sized bars to the kids, and didn't spring for the full-sized, cavity inducing, nougaty wonder that was then the norm.

But of course, things were better back then. With HELOC applications through the roof (Home Equity Line of Credit) people were borrowing more money than ever. New kitchens, better bathrooms, hot tubs, pools, vacation homes, SUVs, green grass and greener wallets. These were the tools of the boom-time tradesman. Frugality, merely a strange, distant cousin of the word cheap, maintained a home between the pages of our dusty dictionaries which we used to decorate our solid oak bookcases in our solid oak offices. Diamonds for the maid at Christmas, rubies for the kids' SAT tutor at Hanukkah. We were Sultans of Spend, Purveyors of magnetized plastic, and Gate-keepers of Greed.

Fun sized candy? Shame on you! Shame on he who is so vain to consider cost during the boom-time! This is America. Expense never be spared, considerations never be given, retrospect a word never written.

Fun sized candy? Like a foreclosure sign on the brown, burned up lawns of the past, this was no time to give out small candy. This was the boom-time. Excess was not a bi-product of success, but rather a product of blurred vision, the sum of all things ignorance, and the fundamental belief that our mere existence was cause for entitlement to greatness.

Fun sized candy?

Take a walk outside this Halloween. See the sights, hear the sounds.

This is no longer the boom-time. But a post apocalyptic world where the boom was too big, the greatness too great, the easiness too easy. Our overpriced, MSRP, sticker-priced, no haggle cars have failed us in ways we could never imagine. Our solid, exotic, Italian imported table sets sit in empty cherry wood dining rooms begging to serve us a meal or two. Our houses sit obesely in yards, creaking quietly with the changing of the seasons... the 'For Sale' sign out front swaying lightly in the crisp fall air.
Fun sized candy? As children dash through yards dashing the relentless punches every darkened front porch throws at them we'll all be sitting wondering how it got this way.

Fun sized candy, once a signature on the line of the unemployed, the unmotivated and the unsuccessful now a representation of one last fleeting hope for something better. A desperate attempt to find normalcy in a world that seems so extra-ordinary just a few short years ago.

If the Big Mac Index can measure currency trends, then the BUNYSOB is not just an indicator on the state of our financial nation, but a measure of the man who gives out the candy. The quiet family down the street who never had the fancy car, never bought the fancy house, never installed the fancy sprinkler system in their unwatered lawn, and never gave out the full sized candy bars of a time passed.

The fun sized candy, once a stain on the white dress of immortality now a reminder of the human side of the busted boom. How no matter the circumstances... foreclosure, repossession, bankruptcy, unemployment... there will always be a dollar or two in the budget for Halloween candy.

No matter what the situation, our ability as people to recognize the need for something normal may not keep us from the brink of total destruction, but will certainly keep us from crossing that brink and falling off the edge.

Like Christmas lights gaudily twinkling their way through a cold, snowy night, giving out Halloween candy to wide-eyed and unaware children helps us hold onto the last piece of thread that at one time made up the purest fur coat money could buy.

Fun sized candy? We should be so lucky...