OT

I have read a lot of stories from WWI and WWII, and particularly WWI there is a lot of talk of rationing coupons and the deprivations necessitated by the War. How you could not buy cream or butter and even eggs and sugar were very hard to come by. I remember my Gram talking about Oleo like it was manna from heaven. (Oleo being a former brand of margerine as famous as Parkay). And I think about the expenses of our Wars right now, and I have to use a plural because we have more than one front, but all of the deprivation I can feel right now is the pinch in the wallet. There is no rationing- there is only more and more expensive things. I can buy all the gas I want, instead of being limited to a gallon a week (which would be my due if we had rationing now like we did then because my sweetie and I can both work from home). I just can't afford much at $3/gallon. It adds up fast. Befor 9/11, we were paying about $1.69/gallon in gas. I filled up this morning at the cheapest I have seen it in months at $2.69. That $1 doubles and multiplies for the cost of goods, because our country is a driving country and most goods are hauled over the road. Filling up my gas tank once a week is now an extra $20 that I have to figure out where to squeeze from my already tight budget- that's more than $1000 a year. I'm not going to break $12,000 on my pay this year. And of course no one can apply for bankruptcy any more because they changed the law to make it even harder. In three hours this morning, I spent more than $220 on gas, cigarettes, booze, and groceries. For a week. That's not really the fault of bad habits- that's the fault of the economy. Five years ago, I could have bought all of that in under $150. And our income has gone down, not up. We really are getting poorer. And as a whole, America isn't noticing yet. Our economic divide is growing. I haven't seen a divide like this since the Robber Barons were still around. I think they're back, and this time, we elected them.  ¶ 4:00 PM