I read last night that the rate of American children living below the poverty level is now 20%.
http://news.consumerreports.org/money/2011/08/the-us-child-poverty-rate-has-reached-20-percent.html?EXTKEY=I91CONL&CMP=OTC-ConsumeristRSS
Apparently, some economic indicators at some point went up, and the recession was declared "over".
Not that any normal person would have noticed.
Just because a drowning man is able to take a gulp of air does not mean he's not drowning anymore. Just because a drowning man can make a stroke towards shore does not mean he is saved.
The man is still drowning over here, its the same man, drowning in the same lake, and it's not getting better.
Years ago we were told about a bird flu pandemic possibility. Folks were warned to be prepared to stay put, not go into town, and certainly do not go to a hospital. We were instructed to store up enough food, water, medicines, and hygiene stuff to survive a month. Oprah even had a show on it.
Seemed like I just didn't have any room to store food in any quantity. Then, as this economy became more desperate, and the price of food skyrocketed while returns on any savings lost ground, I found some room.
I've downsized my wardrobe so that one of my "dressers" is now a food storage unit. I feel good about this. It also allows me to stock up on deals if I find them.
I was reading another blog about priorities in survival planning. He suggested that clothing will be much easier to find than food should things go seriously bad. I agree. Clothes last a long time and are easy to come by. Food, on the other hand, maybe much harder to find.
Along with all the other reasons that food may be scarce in the future, I firmly believe we are headed for a major war soon, so figure that into this depressing mix.
ReplyDeleteI almost laughed when I saw some little headline that said we were close to a double dip recession. It was like "And we'll be able to tell the difference how?"
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of storage, but I could use more. We are doing some rearranging at the house to take advantage of available space. I have to keep the bedrooms that are not being used up and running though, since we will have family and some friends joining us here if the situation deteriorates to that point.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen anything positive about the economy since 2008. I don't trust any of the news media at all, since they have their own agendas to feather their own nests, and giving people accurate assessments is not part of their plan.
Having a good food stash is a hedge against inflation, too. I bought two cans of Mackrel (very strong, but healthy fish) and they were $1.25 on the shelf, but rang up at $1.60! Of course, I contested the error, and she corrected the charge, but thats how much it went up, they just didn't get the tag changed this week. Thats like 40% increase!
ReplyDeleteWalgreen's updated their food setup here recently and I wiped out quite a lot of their discontinued food. It was quite heavily discounted and the expiration dates were a long ways off. I tried a can of the off brand tuna and it was quite good.
ReplyDelete