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The Rate Of Inflation
Somebody tell me what the Rate
Of Inflation means. Pretty much all through the 90s and this decade, the
Rate of Inflation was somewhere below 4%. At least that's what my employer
keeps telling me as he uses the Rate Of Inflation to figure out what our
raises are going to be for the upcoming year. Sometimes it's 3, sometimes
it's 3.5%.
Boy, I remember when I was a
kid INFLATION was a big thing. It was reported on the nightly news with
regularity. The President of the United States would mention it almost all
the time when addressing the nation or making a speech. I know Richard
Nixon was so worried about inflation, that he ordered a freeze on prices
and wages back in the early 70s. Gerald Ford came up with WIN buttons in
the mid '70s (Whip Inflation Now), like wearing a button would solve the
problem of inflation. Inflation pretty much got Jimmy Carter a one way
ticket to Palookaville back in the early 80s. Ronald Reagan used Carter's
own "Misery Index" which had an inflation component built into it, against
him during the 1980 Presidential campaign.
But, like I said nowadays
inflation is hardly even mentioned. Oh sure you hear about inflation
whenever the Fed is discussing whether to raise or lower interest rates.
The Fed is very worried about inflation. If inflation got out of hand, it
would be pretty much on the Fed's head. One of the ways the Fed can combat
inflation is to raise interest rates, effectively removing money from
people's grubby little hands so they can't go out and buy the last loaf of
bread in the grocery store as the prices go up every hour on the hour.
With the last round of
interest rate cuts the Fed pretty much is more worried about the mortgage
and housing mess and a possible recession than they are about inflation.
Since we don't hear the
President mentioning it, and we don't hear it on the news night in and
night out and the Fed surely doesn't think inflation is a problem, then we
pretty much can assume inflation is under control. Right?
Well, I sauntered over to a
website that probably a lot of people including my boss uses to quote the
rate of inflation. According to
Inflation Data the rate of inflation is currently sitting at 4.3%.
That's actually pretty high when you compare it to the
inflation rates of the previous months. However, that's still a lot
lower than the rate during
inflation's hey day in the 1970s when it got universal coverage from
the President all the way down to the nightly news on a regular basis.
So, there you have it.
Inflation even though it's creeping up a bit is actually at historically
low levels. At least that's what all the number crunchers tell us.
Funny thing is that when I
went to the grocery store today, a gallon of milk was $4.19. Compare that
to what I paid last year (2.69), that's a 56% increase. I paid 1.99 two
years ago, but we're going to compare yearly rates here. Then, we have the
price of gas. Today, I'm paying 3.05 per gallon of gas (which is down
considerably from a couple of months ago when I paid 3.24, but we'll go
with December of this year versus December of last year). Compare that to
the outrageous amount of money I was paying for gas last year (2.71).
That's a 13% increase. My gas and electric bills are all up over 15% from
a year ago. My property tax bill? Heh! That's up a whopping 43%! And let's
not talk about my food bill. A half-pint of raspberries cost 3.29 (and
lets not forget that gallon of milk) and the rest of my grocery bill is up
well over 10%.
I just got done calculating
the cost of our last vacation. What's happened to the cost of hotel rooms!
Holy mackarel. It's not uncommon to pay 150 or 200 dollars for a night in
a decent hotel. Only a few years ago it was half that. I spent over 5
grand on a road trip with the kids this past summer. That's about 50% more
than what I spent on a comparable trip the previous year.
What exactly goes into
calculating the "Rate Of Inflation"?
All I know is that the things
I buy day in and day out are going through the roof, all the while my boss
is keeping my salary tied to this miniscule rate. Somehow I think I'm
getting ripped off.
Mortgage Mess
Everywhere you go in my
neighborhood, there's a mushroom cloud going up where a mushroom cap used
to reside. Speculators ran rough shod over my area when empty nesters
started selling their tiny 1200 square foot ranches that were sitting on
7500 square feet and up of property. Within minutes after closing, the
bulldozers would come in and flatten Mr and Mrs O'Shaughnessy's house and
within a few months a three story behemoth would stand in it's place. So
large was the house that only a postage stamp sized plot of grass
remained. It was all driveway, garage and grand entrance. The 200,000
dollar shanty turned into a 3/4 million dollar prize and boy did these
mushroom clouds sell.
When almost all of the little
shanties on the big parcels of land sold, the speculators went into
neighborhoods that had little shanties on little parcels of land, and the
entire process was repeated. Take a 150 thousand dollar house and turn it
into a million dollar palace. You don't have a backyard, but you have a
1,000 square foot shower/steam/sauna on the second floor.
Where did all this money come
from? A lot of these people that bought these houses didn't look like they
were rich. Heck, some of the cars they drive pretty much tell you that
they aren't loaded, but here they were buying up these mushroom clouds on
a mushroom cap salary. All of it was based on low, low, low, mortgage
rates, most of them the adjustable variety.
I'm not saying that the entire
mortgage mess follows the above story, but all of this talk about "bailing
out" poor souls who were taken advantage of by unscrupulous borrowers is
sort of making me ill. Anyone who lives past their means should not be
bailed out and they shouldn't be bailed out by the government of all
people.
And let's not forget that the
REAL folks getting bailed out are the unscrupulous borrowers. These folks
are the ones that are the real bail out beneficiaries because if the poor
soul they took advantage of can't pay, these borrowers have to foreclose
on a house that is probably worth less than the actual mortgage itself.
Once again, why should I or the government bail out these idiots?
These are the same folks that
don't mind riding high, let them go up in flames in the mushroom cloud.
Smoking In Restaurants
I'm a reformed smoker. Nothing
worse, or more self righteous than somebody who kicked the smoking habit.
I'll be the first to admit that.
I'm also the first to admit
that after quitting smoking and being on the wagon for a number of years,
the smell of cigarette smoke and in particular the smell of stale
cigarette smoke made me positively ill. After a night out in a smoky bar,
I would have to toss my jacket in the washing machine to get the awful
cigarette smell out of it (something I never did when I smoked). Now, I
can tell when one of my colleagues from work comes back from a "smoke
break". God, do they stink!
At the stroke of midnight in
my fair state, all dining and drinking establishments will become smoke
free environments. No more smoking sections or lack thereof. I can walk
into any bar, diner or restaurant and not have to smell that smoke while
I'm there or carry it with me when I get home. No more itching, watery
eyes. No more hacking. Just a wonderful smoke-less environment.
Nothing could make an
ex-smoker, an obnoxious ex-smoker happier, right?
Wrong.
That state or local government
has the right to tell a business owner what LEGAL activity can occur
within his or her establishment is positively frightening to me. This is a
complete outrage! My fellow smoke-less friends are rejoicing this decision
by the government. But friends, you are MISSING THE BIG PICTURE. The
government is telling people what LEGAL activity they can and cannot do on
private property. This isn't a cause for celebration. This cause for real
concern.
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