Saturday, April 26, 2008

Time For A Change

Things are getting pretty tight around here.

I gassed up this past Sunday for $3.21 a gallon. It had been $3.15 the day before. The following Wednesday, I gassed up again and the prices had jumped to $3.39. Last night, it was up to $3.42.

My trips to the grocery store are telling a similar story. Last week, a four pack of Nine Lives cat food was $1.35. Last night, it was up to $1.50 and a sign by the shelves informed me that this was the "sale" price. Bananas had been 48 cents a pound -- now they're 58 cents.

Meanwhile, I've been on the same job for three years now and in all that time I've not gotten a single raise. Our business has also been suffering more as the gas prices have risen. People are cutting corners to offset the gas prices and one of the first things they'll cut is something perceived to be a luxury item. Did I also mention that I have no health insurance, paid sick days, retirement, or paid vacation?

I ask myself if I'm better off than I was eight years ago and the answer is a resounding NO. I have less real money to spend and I have fewer opportunities to improve my situation.

People in my area are fed up. Rightly or wrongly, John McCain, as a Republican, is viewed as four more years of the same ol' thing.

I'm ready for a change How about you?

4 comments:

Patty said...

Our gas today was $3.54 a gal, this past Wed. when I filled up it was $3.57, but I only needed $13.35, today we filled it up, and it was $13.00 even, we had gone about 110.00 miles, on Wed. I had gone about 115. We try to keep it full, so it doesn't cost us an arm and a leg to fill it. Yes between groceries and gas, I don't know where it will stop.

Kelly Ann said...

It's $3.51 here, heard it's going to be up to 4 this summer. I'm not loving it. I can complain all day about it, but there isn't anything that's going to get better anytime soon it seems.

Intentional Fallacy said...

Is it within the power of the President to lower gas prices? I don't recall such a power in the Constitution.

I do recall the power of the President, however, to veto any bill designed to give the billions of dollars in tax breaks that Congress currently gives (including a Democratic congress) to the oil companies.

Even then, wouldn't the companies make up for that by passing that cost on to you at the gas pump?

Wouldn't a good way to lower gas prices be to stop using gas altogether? But how to do that?

The people would probably need to be free from mass regulation in order to put their ingenuity to the test and make it happen. Lower taxes might also make it possible to have that "real money" to spend on such ingenuity, along with everyday life.

But if we vote for someone who favors big government, would we have less regulation and lower taxation?

A helping hand by the government in financing alternative energy (proposed by McCain, as well as Obama and Clinton) could go a long way but beyond that, does relying on government for most everything else help the problem or cause the problem?

Aside from some circumstances that are bound to be the exception, who's fault is it that someone doesn't get a raise at a job they have worked at for 3 years or doesn't have health insurance? The government? The company? Or, the person who freely continues to work at that job?

Libertine said...

Jobs are not growing on trees in my area -- the unemployment rate is quite high and has been for some time. And it took me six months of looking before I had to settle for that. And I use only myself as an example. Prices are rising much faster than nearly everyone's wages.