Maslow is a wise man.

When it comes to finances I listen to Mr. Maslow. As in, Abraham Maslow - the father of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. 

For those of you who haven't been taught this concept seven times throughout your educational career, I'll brief you in. 

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is meant to do exactly what it sounds like; it is Maslow's interpretation of which human needs have priority over other needs. First on his list, ranking at "most important," are physiological needs.

So, thanks to Maslow, when budgeting for the month I think about my physiological needs first. Will I be able to eat at least two meals a day? Check. Will I be able to pay rent and keep my electricity on? Check. 

After placing my priorities in order and putting survival first, I move on down the ladder. 

Second on Maslow's hierarchy are safety needs. So, I make sure I have enough in the ole' bank account to keep a full tank of gas throughout the month. 

Nothing like not running out of gas at 2 a.m. to keep you safe.

And so Maslow's list goes on with my logic in spending basically mirroring his logic in needs:

3) belongingness needs - going out with friends.

4) self-esteem needs - setting aside enough non-work hours to succeed in school.

5) self-actualization - buying a new book and educating myself.

All the way down to the sixth most important item, aesthetic needs. By this point my funds are usually running pretty low, but it really doesn't stop me.

Sure, I'm a college student who works three jobs and still manages lives below the poverty line, but I think it's important to spend the money I earn on things I want. Isn't that what we all work for? To buy things we want?

I don't get fulfillment just out of looking at my money, so instead I like to see my money transform into things (as materialistic as that may sound).

I think it is important to splurge, but to splurge with moderation. Normally, I spend about $100 per month on aesthetic things like new clothes. 

Another chunk of that $100 is normally spent on alcohol consumption and letting loose - which I sometimes consider medicinal, but for all-mature purposes I'll place it under aesthetics where it actually belongs.

The way I view finance is this: human beings are at the top of the food chain for a reason, because we have developed logical minds.

Being logical is the leading factor behind Maslow's hierarchy of needs and in turn behind my own personal finance philosophy.

For example, I maxed out my credit card on flights and train tickets for my trip through Europe this summer, but I did this knowing that I had a job lined up as print managing editor at The State Hornet for the following year. Already, only two months into the semester I have paid off half of my debt.

Although not all members of society speak fluent logic, having a logical mind puts us in a place of power. A place where personal finance should not be daunting.

Instead of stressing over finance, let's just all collectively use our brains and make the right decisions.

For example, don't want to fall victim to credit card debt? Don't spend money you don't have or know you won't be able to have sometime in the near future.

Listen to Maslow and choose dinner over the newest coach purse.

The man your mother told you to avoid

After turning down a full-ride scholarship to the University of San Francisco, Dan Walters, columnist at the Sacramento Bee, decided to drop out of high school.

"I'm the person your mother told you never to associate with," Walters said. 

Walters, who now writes about Sacramento politics, was a National Merit Scholarship winner and would have graduated fourth in his senior class at his high school in Eureka. Instead, Walters bypassed his final required class and continued on as copy boy at the local paper.

"The powerful truth is that the one class I didn't pass to reach my diploma, was civics," Walters said. "Ironic because this is basically what I write about now. I've written books about it. I've taught it in college classes. Just haven't passed the high school class."

As a teenager, Walters was an emancipated minor, going to school and working as a copy boy at the paper six nights a week.

"Frankly, I was just having too much fun," he said. "Working at the paper, online poker games, girl friends - they all led to another and high school just lost its allure."

Walters has now been in the journalism field for 35 years and has written approximately 7,500 columns, every one of which he said he thinks is perfect.

"I try to write like I'm telling a story. I like to be conversational and straight forward. Sometimes with an ironic twist and play on words," he said.

Walters originally began writing columns because he didn't like being stuck in the story form of regular news writing.

"I didn't like having to try to get people to say what you want them to say and the burden of quoting," he said. "I just wanted to be able to say, 'This is the way it is - period. Take my word for it.'"

Walters' writing career began in Lancaster, Calif. at Antelope Valley High School. Because Walters changed high schools frequently he entered Antelope Valley half way through the year.

"I was interested in photography but the school only had a position on the paper as a writer - so I took the position and really liked it," Walters said. "The next year I became the editor and the rest is history - I never really did anything else."

Before working in Sacramento politics, Walters was the main editor at three separate newspapers: the Hanford Sentinel from 1966-69, the Chronicle Oregon Herald from 1969-71 and a Eureka publication from 1971-73. Walters said all newspapers were small but still built up a lot of his experience.

"It was an odd career," he said. "Being editor of three different newspapers before I was 30."

In '73 Walters began working at Stockton's edition of the union, while "moonlighting" as an adviser to the University of Pacific in Stockton.

"The truth is, I had a couple of kids and I needed the extra money for the teaching, but I still enjoyed it," Walters said. "It definitely wasn't a chore to me."

Eventually, Stockton's edition of the union shut down and Walters moved to Sacramento. From there he applied for the opening at the capital bureau and was accepted.

"Since then I've been in the same building on four different floors," he said.

Although Walters now has his niche in Sacramento politics he said he is in no way a "political junkie."

"A lot of people in my business are political junkies - I'm not. I don't particularly care about politics in terms of campaigns and conventions," Walter said. "I find it to be mostly boring and irrelevant. I write about it, sure, it's what I do, but what I'm really interested in is the interaction of government and society."

Power and money? Welcome to America.

In the United States, nothing is ever enough and people always want what they can't have. These are innate feelings for most Americans, and are rooted in the United States' capitalistic society, where money is power, power is money.

And let's face it, money and power lead to corruption.

Privatization is one major concept prevalent in American society that nurtures any policy surrounding money and power.

David Streitfeld, New York Times' columnist, recently covered the issue of a private company taking over public libraries in Santa Clarita. Streitfeld included a visual description of the main library's environment in Santa Clarita and said, "It was a portrait of civic harmony and engagement."

Who really wants to paint dollar signs and bigots into that holistic of a portrait? Not me.

In Streitfeld's article he received commentary from the advocates for the library's privatization who "acknowledge(d) there was no immediate threat to the libraries" and that they just "wante(d) to ensure the libraries' long-term survival in a state with increasingly shaky finances."

My grandpa, a farmer in South Dakota, would respond with, "Don't fix something that 'aint broke." I understand this is a hard slogan for most Americans to follow, but it's true.

There is a common, underlying motivation throughout most of the United States, which makes this kind of sensical slogan irrelevant and that is the want and need for the bigger and the better.

If a large Coca-Cola wasn't enough now we have a Big Gulp. But why stop there? Get a fountain soda machine and install it in your home. This is the mindset of most Americans.

Anyone who has seen "Sicko" knows what I mean. In this documentary film by Michael Moore, he exposes the corruption that runs rampant in privatized medicine.

Moore calls out insurance companies for giving raises and promotions to employees who deny medical attention. In one case a man was denied attention because his treatment was considered "experimental;" in other words, it was too expensive for the company to want to cover. The man died shortly after.

If that's not a perfect example of what kind of corruption can fester due to privatization, then I don't know what is.

If the libraries are privatized in Santa Clarita similar, but less serious, corruption will occur.

Streitfeld interviewed Frank A. Pezzanite, the outsourcing company's chief executive, who had no pity for the libraries or opponents of the privatization in Santa Clarita.

"A lot of libraries are atrocious," Pezzanite said. "Their policies are all about job security. That's why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We're not running our company that way. You come to us, you're going to have to work."

Furthermore, Streitfeld wrote, "(Pezzanite) has pledged to save $1 million a year in Santa Clarita, mainly by cutting overhead and replacing unionized employees."

You are not fooling anyone, Pezzanite, try to hide the corruption of privatization by saying it will "save money" all you want. In the end, what you just said is: I want to save you money, so I can privatize, make myself more money and take away any unions that will question my position of power.

And that, my friends, is corruption in its purest form.