ARG! If I read one more BS news story about how our country is bouncing back from recession, I'm going to just vomit all over the computer! Well, maybe not, the keyboard is already hanging on by a thread but you know what I mean. I see more and more people paying for their goods with the welfare program link card and the people using my local church food pantry have doubled. The same paycheck that used to allow us to pay our bills and save a little bit each week for farm equipment and things we would like to have to improve our self sustaining situation no longer covers even our simple bills. Things such as mortgage(we still owe on our farm), the electric bill which should be lower without a stove and a hot water tank but it instead keeps going up, the property taxes on the farm that used to be worth 4 times what it is now(funny, the tax bill hasn't decreased) and our biggest expense - fuel to get to work. It's very depressing to go week to week and have nothing left. What's even more depressing is thinking about how much we would NOT have to buy food. Thank God I grow so much here. Now, I know everyone around me has all these same bills. So, how is it they can go to McDonalds a couple times a week, buy new vehicles, clothes and all the latest hot cell phones? Is everyone around me living on credit cards?
How can this country come up out of recession and the job market come back when the jobs are continually outsourced to other countries? What happened to our industrial base? It's gone, that's what happened to it. Most of what we consume now is produced and imported from another country. This is not sustainable and this very thing has brought several great empires thru history to their knees.
What do we do about this? On a large scale, there isn't anything we can do about it. On an individual basis we can stop buying imported goods and start doing more for ourselves. Grow food, raise our own meat, use wind, solar or water to power our homes, what ever we can use. Our government is NOT going to fix this, they can't even see the forest for the trees. They are too busy blaming everyone else around them for what is wrong here when they should be blaming themselves. Our government keeps thinking they can cure all our problems by throwing money at them. What happens when there's no more money(worthless paper) to throw? It is obvious that we have not learned from history so we are certainly doomed to repeat it.
I don't like being the working poor but it seems I don't have much choice in the matter anymore. So, I will continue to do the best I can with what I have and expand my garden spot in the spring. Perhaps I can trade some of what I grow to help ease the tightening noose I feel around my neck. At least I'll be eating well!
Whew, I feel a little better now. What do you think about that killer kitten? hardly big enough to fit in the palm of my hand but she sure whipped that wood shrew!
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I just don't understand why this country keeps spending and spending even though we don't have the money for it. What does this tell the American people? If you're in debt, just charge more...frustrating. And sad to see this amazing country going down such a sad path.
ReplyDeleteAnd the kitten is very cute!
Amen, Amen! to everything you said! We too see it here, the food pantry fed 485 families( total, of course some are steady some are one or two time visits) last year. By March 2010 they'd already serves 525 families and many visit twice a month. Sadly the largest partakers are the elderly :o)
ReplyDeleteOur whole way of life is so.... tied to $$. You just can't escape the banksters. We pay cash for everything, bill are paid for with P.O. money orders, but you have to have an account nowadays, because everyone now deposits pay checks via direct deposit and most recently now our banksters changed the rules, you either have to have half the amount of the check in your account to withdraw it or you have to wait for 5 business days<<<<< GRRRRRR>>> and of course they will gladly use your money that whole time basically interest free( savings accounts get something like.o4% a month. Beleive me we've turned this issue inside out and backwards and you still have to have $$ to pay for some neccesities in life, but believe me you we barter for more and more things.
Hang in there, we're all pinching ole' ABE until he's screaming.*sigh*
Blessings,
Kelle
I couldn't agree with you more. It's actually scary. That's why I want to learn about everything when it comes to homesteading. It will be the only way to survive in the near future.
ReplyDeleteIt's very depressing and very frustrating. Price hikes are happening everywhere while companies are cutting hours. Food for instance, 1 package of Farmland bacon cost $3.25 back in the beginning of August, we went shopping last Sat. and it was $4.28, it rose a dollar in a month and thats just the start of things. We noticed several other food products skyrocketing in price. While we are trying to be sustainable there are some things we havn't been able to get to. Then you have all the fighting and name calling in D.C. trying to place the blame when the whole system and everyone with it is corrupt. I am sorry but congress should not be able to pass massive pay increases for themselves when the working people are going to the bare min. just to survive. Not to mention how our freedom is getting sucked out right under our nose one of the latest tragedies is the new gun bill that passed last year that few know about...now uncle sam is going to tax your gun and know exactly what kind've guns you own (under penalty if one does not completely comply). Recovery is a funny word...I have yet to see recovery in my area. Just the other day I was in line at a grocery store talking to the cashier and she told me how her husband has been laid off for 10 weeks and you know she probably wasn't making much more than min. wage. The guy behind me in the line started commenting how bad things are in construction. For instance in the St.Louis area union carpenters unemployment is around 50%. These so called beneficial stimulus jobs are only lasting a handful of months at best. I don't want to sound pessimistic but from what I have been reading and hearing it's going to get worse. So yes I totally agree with you. One sad note, when I was at the grocery store there was a little old lady buying $19 of groceries, she ran her CC thru and found she only $15 left on it. She was getting upset and managed with $15 credit and $4 in change. I also know other cashiers who said they are seeing stuff like this happen on a everyday basis.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you the recession is going strong here in NC, in our family alone 1 daughter has had her hours cut to 28 a week, she is just coming off a 2 1/2 month unpaid materinity leave, her husband has had his hours cut from 60 hours to 30 hours a week. Two of our daughters are teachers, they have had pay cut for 2 years now, our other son-in-law lost his job 2 monthes ago, and a new baby is on the way, I took a voluntary layoff 2 years ago to head home, I couldn't take any more of the disgusting conduct the large company I work for was involved in by outsourcing over 2,000 jobs. NONE of us has taken a red cent from the goverment in unemployement benifits or anything else, I am sure many others have opted out of the handouts as our family has. We are soooo blessed that my husband still has work and a good paycheck that we use to help our kids out. Our country is headed in the wrong direction thinking they can contiune to throw money at the real problem which I think is pure and simple greed. Greed from companies who keep outsourcing real jobs with a wink and a nod from washington and a tax break to boot, greed from comsumers who think they can have what they want when they want it at any cost with no care if they end up in bankrupcy which the rest of us pay the bill for. I am afriad we are headed for a much worse depression than occured in the 1930's, people nowdays have no skills to even cook a meal, mend clothes or entertain themselves, everything must been done for them.
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me feel sad... because i know what you're talking about. We find that every single month we've had to spend a little bit more than is coming in, the bills are going up, the paycheck is going down.
ReplyDeleteeverything you said is true, unfortunetely. We will loose about $15k of our income this year, directly related to tax increases due to the health care bill...but we're well under the 200k income! how's that "hope & change" workin' for everyone?
ReplyDeletecan you say Depression? Because that is what we are in.
ReplyDelete