I am writing 2009’s final column seated on a green vinyl sofa pushed to one side of a stuffy, deserted laundromat. Overhead, neon lights flicker and white ceiling fans whirl without moving even a smidgen of air. The cold winter wind howling outside seems mighty far removed from this place. On the far side of the room a sitcom with canned laughter plays on a large flat screen television to an audience of no one. But I am too comfy to get up and mute the television, so I block the sound out of my mind.

I should confess that I have a pretty nice set up for myself this particular evening. I’ve got a bag of peanut M&Ms sitting on the beige laminate folding table to my left. Next to the candy I have a 20- ounce bottle of diet Mountain Dew. The hour is late and the Mountain Dew will be good company.

We go to this laundromat out of habit and convenience. The machines used to be bargain priced. A wash was 75¢ and the dryer was 25¢ for 20 minutes. Back then we sorted our laundry loads: whites, dark, pastels, towels and rags. At the beginning of the year the prices went up. Now the wash is a $1 and the dryer has doubled. At the new prices we use fewer machines. We don’t sort near as extensively as we used to and we pack more clothes in each laundry load.

Across the way is the dry cleaner where I used to get my shirts laundered and pressed. I think at one time the shirts were less than a dollar a piece. The cleaners was always very hard on my shirts. The buttons got brittle. The fabric wore thin. Sometimes the collars were ironed off center. For years I put up with these little offenses for the convenience. That was until the price inched up close to $2 a shirt. Then one day, with little discussion, my wife set up the ironing board and started doing the shirts. After a ritual of literally years, the weekly stop at the cleaners was no more.

Considering the economics that dominated year 2009, one fact comforts me more than anything else. My comfort does not come from the fed monetary policy. It does not come from the bailouts or takeovers or government interventions. The one fact that comforts me in this economic mess is that we still can exercise choice when it comes to much of our finances.

I don’t think that our government economists give sufficient credence to the fact that Americans still have the capacity to change and to vote with their feet. We don’t have to give advance notice to anyone in D.C. We don’t have to seek wise counsel or a second opinion. We can keep our old cars and brown bag our lunches and, shutter the thought, we can darn our socks and cut each other’s hair. We can reduce our wash loads and iron our own shirts and make whatever adjustments necessary to manage our own finances.

We don’t even have to understand the macro economics of the financial melt-down that was so much of 2009. And we don’t have to spend any more time trying to assign blame or make excuses. We can just vote with our feet, withdraw our financial participation, cut up a few credit cards and tend our own finances.

* * *

Flight 253

Let’s be totally clear on this point. It was a quick thinking guy, Dutch tourist Jasper Schuringa, who saved the lives of the passengers on Detroit bound Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day. The Nigerian terrorist who tried to blow the plane up made it past all government officials and employees paid to protect the flying public.

Jasper Schuringa was the one who pounced, the one who risked, the one who saved the day.

Big government is in the process of claiming an enormous stake in both heath care and our financial system. And the subtle sub-text of the arguments supporting these governmental takeovers is that government alone can do the job.

An ordinary guy saved Flight 253. That’s the story, that’s the fact. It’s as simple as that.

Government was unable to deliver, Jasper did.

Best wishes to all for a 2010 of clarity and choice and happiness.