What is baseline budgeting

I think we we can get people to understand baseline budgeting they might be able to understand economics.  They might also begin to understand some of the techniques sales people, marketers, and politicians use to convince you you're getting a deal.

Say you have a $400 budget to purchase a iPad this Christmas for your spouse.  You go on Amazon and find one on sale for $300, and Amazon says, "You're saving $100."  The truth is, you not not saving $100, because you just spent $300.  You see, you lost money.  You spent money.  You spent $300.  You did not save $100, you spent $300.

You have not saved one cent.  You did spend less than you expected,  but you saved nothing.  Spending is not saving.  So you see the old marketing trick.  It's called marketing.  It's called a marketing ploy.  It's one of the oldest games in the books.

So as democrats in Congress tell us that we are going to be getting a tax cut if Washington can come up with a deal to expand the Bush tax cuts, we now know that it's a marketing ploy.  There is no tax cut.

What happens is either the taxes stay at the current rate if a deal is done, or they go up if a deal is not done.  Baseline budgeting is something I learned in Marketing school way back in 1992.