Let’s talk about inflation for a few minutes. Log onto any news site and you will see something about the current rate of inflation. Many, even among the mainstream news, have chosen to blame President Biden, but they are turning a blind eye to the reality … it’s easier to pick on the president than do a bit of digging into the causes, right?
First, let’s narrow this discussion to the price of food, for everything else is irrelevant or unnecessary when you get down to the bare bones. You have to eat, you must have carrots, but you don’t have to have that new pair of shoes or even the latest James Patterson book. The grocery store is the one place where everyone, no matter their station in life, skin colour, religion, or gender is going to feel the pinch in times of high inflation.
Now … let me ask you a question: do you think that the big food producers have suffered a loss in profits in these times of inflation and are raising their prices just in order to stay afloat? If you answered ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ to that question, you are in for a big surprise. No, their profits are actually increasing … think about that one for a minute … their profits are increasing while you and I are struggling to afford enough food to keep our family healthy.
Let’s take Tyson Foods, for one example …
Earlier this week, executives at the largest meat processor in the country detailed how dramatically they have raised prices. In the last three months of 2021, Tyson Foods’ “average beef prices rose by nearly one-third while pork prices increased by 13 percent, and chicken by 20 percent,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company is blaming everything from labor shortages to supply chain woes for these price hikes, but the reality is that their quarterly profits more than doubled, driven up by surging profit margins for beef, pork, and chicken. Tyson’s stock price jumped 12 percent after this news broke.
Tyson isn’t the only food producer that’s raising prices. Mondelez — whose brands include Oreo, Ritz, Wheat Thins, and Triscuits — saw its gross profit increase by more than $800 million in 2021, but still jacked up prices by up to 7 percent in January and is leaving the door open to raising them again. McDonald’s prices rose more than 6 percent last year. In the company’s latest earnings call, the CFO credited strong sales and “strategic menu price increases.” Overall, their net sales for the year rose 13 percent to more than $6 billion thanks to these menu price hikes.
Granted, supply chain issues, labour shortages, and the pandemic are real issues, but the inflation you’re seeing at the grocery store is more often due to … corporate greed.
And now another question: given the higher levels of corporate profits, do you think these corporations are giving their employees nice raises of at least 7.5% to match the rate of inflation? Again, if you answered either ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ you’d be wrong. While most companies have increased worker wages in order to keep and attract employees, the increases have averaged about half of the rate of inflation. Back to the example of Tyson Foods … CEO John Tyson made $13.74 million last year, an increase of more than 22% over the prior year, while Tyson employee’s pay increases averaged 9%.
In these times of rising inflation, the rich continue doing what they’ve always done, getting richer off the labour of their workers and artificially raising prices, while the poor get poorer, even if they receive a modest pay increase. The minimum wage in this country is still $7.25 and has not been raised since July 2009! Congress has steadfastly refused to raise it for the past 13 years because a large number of members of Congress are in the pockets of corporations and corporate CEOs who donate to their campaigns. At this rate, the minimum wage will still be $7.25 at the end of this decade. It rather shoots down the theory of “Trickle-down economics,” doesn’t it?
And to add insult to injury, most of these corporations find ways to pay very little in taxes, thus leaving the bulk of the tax burden to those of us who life payday to payday.
So, next time someone tries to blame President Biden or Democrats for inflation, know that the real blame is on the wealthy corporations who are pocketing their profits rather than trying to help their workers or the rest of us struggling in this era of the pandemic! Greed and arrogance go hand in hand and are destroying the country in more ways than one.
And, generally speaking, most of the ‘wealthy’ out there are die hard Republicans. Every time I see some article trying to blame inflation on Covid it makes me want to scream. Bullsh,&!! And they wonder why low paid jib workers are quitting in droves. I just can’t.. anymore.
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Oh yes, for if they weren’t Republicans with the Republican arrogance and greed, then they wouldn’t BE wealthy! Covid certainly played a role in the current rate of inflation, BUT … it is not solely responsible. The wealthy still skim theirs off the top, leaving the dregs for us ‘common’ people and allowing prices to skyrocket while they are occupied counting their pieces of gold!
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IMHO worse than ever. 😞
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Reblogged this on NEW BLOG HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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Thank you, Michael!
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Jill, presidents get too much credit and blame for the economy, providing only headwinds and tailwinds. But, if we are on give credit or blame, we should note Biden inherited an economy reeling from the pandemic, while Trump inherited an economy in its 91st consecutive month of economic growth, the third longest in history. Yet, the former president said to his followers he did all of that as the pretty good economy continued, but the pandemic sank it. The inflation is upon us as demand is higher than supply, due in part to the slow recovery in certain industries and insufficient workers to move things along. Are people taking advantage with higher prices than needed – yes, some worse than others. Hopefully, we can return to more normalcy as the pandemic subsides some. Keith
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Good points, my friend! He did inherit rather a mess and in my book has done a pretty good job of cleaning the mess. He might do an even better job if he had a little cooperation from Congress, too!
I could buy the part about rising prices being necessary due to slow recovery, insufficient workers, etc., but when the CEOs of those companies made higher salaries than ever, then no, rather than increasing their own profits they could have used that money to keep prices from rising. Or, perhaps I just don’t think the same as they do.
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Jill, there seems to always be a reason to give CEOs more money, especially in the US. Part of the reason is the peaking stock market which makes those options more valuable. Keith
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Yes, as a nation we seem to almost worship wealth and the wealthy.
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Democrats and President Biden responsible for inflation…. Might as well blame them for the bad weather too.
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Don’t think they haven’t tried!!!
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Which is kinda counter-intuitive since a vast majority of them are climate change deniers.
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Yep … but they spout whatever narrative suits their purposes at a given moment in time, or during a given circumstance, never realizing the hypocrisy.
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‘Cause it’s a word with more than one sy-lee-bell
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Oh yeah … silly me!
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Nice Post
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Inflation is rising here. Huge energy cost rises. These are hitting millions yet those making the decisions are inoculated from these concerns be massive bank accounts.
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In the U.S., there are approximately 330 million people. Of those, 784 are billionaires and 37.25 million people live in poverty. Something is very, very wrong with this picture, and it sounds as if there is a similar trend in your country.
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Let us not forget those caring, sensitive words of wisdom from Andrew Bailey.
‘Cor fanks guv’nor for that advice. Don’t worry ’bout us. There’s lots of rats in our rented accommodation….We can dine like kings ‘n queens, an’ the cooking fire will keep us warm,’
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-giggles- That Cockney accent gave you away! cheers, mate. 🙂
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Strewff. Fanks.
Dick van Dyke’s legendary performance in Mary Poppins will forever remain…..errr….something of an…..🤔 inspiration???😏
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LMAO – oh I remember, I remember! Not his best moment I fear. 😀
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To be fair, he made up for it in ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ – what moves!😀
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I don’t remember seeing that one..unless you’re thinking of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? Flying car?
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Yep, Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews starred in Mary Poppins!
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I remember reading the books as a kid and absolutely loving them. Talk about kickstarting a kid’s imagination. 🙂
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Me too!!! And then I graduated to Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries! Did you ever read those?
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Yes! Guilty as charged. I can’t imagine life without books. 😀
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I don’t even want to try!!! I’m dumbfounded when people tell me they haven’t read a book since they got out of school, or they’d rather watch television than read a book! 📚
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Yeah. 😦 In the 50? odd years since I went to school, the education system has created generations of people who were taught to hate reading. Sadly many of them are borderline illiterate as well. This sorry state of affairs /could/ be fixed by simple, pragmatic changes, but education ‘theory’ is intractable. Grrrr….
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Yes, and that is why I don’t like the idea of computers in classrooms, because it further denies kids the opportunity and necessity to pick up a book and READ. Most kids today don’t even know how to use the library! I knew that before I ever even went to school, I think! And in this country we now have the white anti-historians who are passing laws such that the history of the nation will be whitewashed and children won’t learn the true history of the nation at all. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. We sure do growl a lot these days, don’t we? Sigh.
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Mmm…sorry Jill, I don’t agree. The Offspring learned to read by playing a game called Vagrant Story. The dialogue was brilliant [I played it too] and the Offspring bent over backwards to learn to read that dialogue. Reading really doesn’t depend on physical books. Reading is an act of the imagination, whatever the device being used.
If I were still teaching in schools, I’d not only welcome computers that engaged students one-on-one, I’d fill the library with age appropriate comics of all kinds. I’d encourage the kids to ‘act out’ the stories and make up their own. And as they were doing all that, they’d be absorbing a life long love of reading words. Make reading pleasurable and they’ll want more. Eventually, once reading is as natural to them as breathing, then and only then should we bring in the texts that we think have value. -sigh- But I’m not a teacher any more and even if I were, I wouldn’t have the power to change the system. 😦
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You make very good points, my friend … I guess I hadn’t thought that one through. It just seems that today the internet and social media are a bigger draw than reading books, letting the imagination run wild, and learning those pesky things called “facts.”
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You’re right about the internet spoon feeding people what they want to hear/see. In a way though, the internet and social media are just an extension of the mindset that made people WATCH tv or movies or DVDs instead of interacting with a book [print or digital]. Words entail a bit of effort from the reader. Movies and tv require nothing at all.
I know a lot of people love audio books, and I can see their value in situations when you can’t sit down with a book or ereader, but…again, you’re getting someone else’s interpretation of the story. Not as much as with movies, but tone of voice and all the little things that make voice actors so good also mean they’re imposing their understand of the story onto the ‘reader’.
Imho, the written word is a form of intimate code that each of us can unlock for ourselves…/should/ unlock for ourselves.
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I guess that’s why I’ve never watched many movies or much television (besides being near-deaf, that is), because it’s too much a passive activity and I get bored, usually picking up something to read about halfway through any program! I can’t do audiobooks, for the obvious reason, but I think they might be a great thing to have on a daily 1-hour walk — which I hope to be able to do again sometime soon. Yep, I agree with your humble opinion … give me a book anyday!!!
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Commiserations. My hearing is not what it used to be either. I cover by accusing the Offspring of mumbling. 😉
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Ha ha … I do that too! They know that they have to turn toward me if they expect me to hear them, as I do a lot of lip reading and a bit of sign language, and if they fail to do that, then it’s their own fault if I serve them liver for dinner! 🤣
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lmao!!!! I’m not that bad yet, but that could be a brilliant way to stop the Offspring from mumbling and making things worse. 😉 Thank you.
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Us oldsters have to stick together!!!
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Amen, Sister! 😀
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I was thinking of his cameo in the sequel ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ with Emily Blunt:….
I give you……..
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Oh! I didn’t even know this had come out. Good on ‘im! 🙂
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It’s a treat!. Time has moved on. Jane and Michael are grown-ups. Michael is a widower with two children and finding life difficult…. Guess who turns up? Emily Blunt does a very good job in the role.
And there’s Dick Van Dyke😀
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lol – I’ll keep an eye out for it. I did love the original though. 😉
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Me too😀
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Now you’ve made me want to watch it!!! I shall see if it’s on Amazon Prime!
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‘Tis!😃
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Found it … marked it ‘to watch’!
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I wasn’t aware of a sequel!!! I love it … thanks, Roger!
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Emily Blunt steps up and reaches the bar set by Julie Andrews.
Michael and Jane have grown up- they have problems and issues….and guess who turns up?
The cast dive in with zest…Meryl Streep plays a stellar version of Uncle Albert (I love to laugh)…As Mary Poppins’ east European cousin.
Poignant, colourful, lively and fun.
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Oh now I KNOW I must see it … I love Meryl Streep! I just added it to my watchlist! Thanks, Roger!
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It’s a treat, Colin Firth playing a baddie, and lots of little cameos.
It is said they wanted Julie Andrews to make one, but she generously said it was Emily Blunt’s film and she did not want to distract from that.
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Yes, I Googled to see why Julie Andrews hadn’t been in it and found that she didn’t want to distract from Emily Blunt’s role. Time comes for us all to move on, I suppose, but Ms. Andrews has been a long-time favourite of mine.
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An amazing performer, impeccable timing.
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Brilliant!!! I love it! I had never seen this one … thanks!
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‘Star’…A biopic of british entertaining Gertrude Lawrence…Critics didn’t like it…Julie Andrews being edgy…Gosh!
Worth a watch…You Tube has clips as a taster.
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I shall check them out. To me, the greatest attribute of a ‘star’ is their ability to be many things, to slide into many different sorts of roles.
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Ignore the critics… It’s a good film…Daniel Massey is an excellent Noel Coward.
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Oh yes … loved him and Julie Andrews in that!
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He’s still got it!👏
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He sure does!!!
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You da man, Sir Roger!!!
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And Roger does it so well, don’t you think? 😁
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Stone the crows! He’s a dead ringer, mate. :d
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“Stone the crows!”
I have not heard that exclamation for a long time. I don’t think I have heard it since I left Australia. I seem to remember that it was usually “Stone the bloody crows!”
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Ooooohhhh … I like your version even better! Stone the bloody crows!!! I must remember that one, for I’m sure it will come in handy in the near future!
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lmao!!!! You’re so right. We flavour just about everything with ‘bloody’. Or ‘bastard’ or sometimes ‘bloody bastard’. I hesitate to use the vernacular too much as most outsiders don’t realise that to us, these aren’t swear words. Or not usually. Tone does count for a lot. 😉
When were you in Oz…and why did you leave? Come back! lol
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I grew up near Perth. I left for graduate school.
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High Five, Neil! And may I say I’ve often wished we lived in WA during the last couple of years. 🙂
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Have you been back to Australia to visit since then?
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Yes, but it has been a while since my last visit. I’m getting a bit old for that kind of travel.
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I hear you on that!
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I love that expression … Stone the crows!
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-grin- I’m not sure whether it’s a Brit expression that was taken up by us or something that evolved naturally, but it’s fun, isn’t it?
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I Googled it and apparently it originated in Australia! And yes, it is a fun one that I plan to use … probably often!
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lmao – yay! One for us – and please do. 😀
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T’was ever thus. It’s the rich wot gets the pleasure and the poor wot gets the blame. Often people are blamed for a businesses drop in profits for not spending enough, despite the fact they don'[t have it to spend because the rich don’t pay them enough.CEO’s salary and pay increases should be capped.
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Sigh. Perhaps ’twas ever thus, but it’s time for it to change! CEOs should be limited to a salary equal but not to exceed the amount they donate to the poor! I’m so sick of wealthy people and their arrogance … let them all eat cake!!!!
Cwtch
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As usual, Jill and friends, this is just another example of “When things go bad, greedy corporations make it worse, and worse, and worse!” These price hike are barely warranted. And everything falls on the consumers. Time after time after time!
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Some level of price hikes might have been warranted, given the supply chain issues alone, but not 7.5%. And corporations could have been heroes if they had simply refused to raise prices and dug into their own deep pockets, accepting a loss for the year if needs be.
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As you said, they hang on to every penny they have, and greedily reach out for more, without conscious thought of others.
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Need I add that the operative word in “gross profit increase” is GROSS.
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I fully agree!
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It’s called GREED. That’s the beginning & the end of it.
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Yep, greed and arrogance, a sense of entitlement.
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Thank you for your insight on this issue.
I was not aware that thes profits of these food comapnies have risen so much. I’m wondering if any of the jump in profits are the result of perhaps not comparing apples to apples, since last year these companies may have experienced serious profit problems. And so this year, they were bound to show increases. It would be interesting to see if these companies are back to their pre-pandemic levels in terms of sales and profits. But like you point out, there is nothing like corporate greed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if these increases were a little bit of both. And the pay increase for the CEO compared to the average worker seems quite unfair…
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You are one trusting guy, Jim. Anyone who makes $13.74 million in a year is stealing $13.73 million not only from his slave-workers but he is even stealing from cotporation investors. No job in this world is worth $13.74 million in salaries. I’m betting there are bonuses and stock options on top of that salary, but even if it includes those, it is still too much by over 99%. He is not paid those wages for doing a good job for the corporation, but for figuring out how to increase profits while keeping wages low.
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like I said it’s unfair the raise the ceo received vs the raise the workers got. I just heard that James Harden, a basketball player, earns $44 million per year. Who’s to say he’s worth that?
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No one person is worth $44 million! Just ’cause he can run and throw a ball into a basket? Bah Humbug!!!
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I agree, and then multiply that by 5,000 and that is how much Elon Musk was worth at one point…
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I’m a CPA but even so, I simply cannot imagine that much money! Why would anybody even want that much???
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at some point, it just becomes meaningless…
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Rather like a horse race … the only goal is to ‘win’, to have more than anyone else. I’m glad I’m not rich!
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more money, more problems 🙂
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No one. But we treat our sports stars like gods. Very reminiscent of the Roman
gladiators. And like Rome, we will fall. And all those millions will be so many worthless pieces of paper, or worthless numbers in computers that are worthless without electricity!
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our society would not function well without electricity…
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It would not function as it is, but we functioned for thousands of years without it. If we had to, we could learn to do it again. But 85% of those living today would fail without it!
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but how would I check my WordPress stats? 🙂
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Good question!!! 🤣
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Lol. There would be no Word Press, now would there.😣😅😣😅😣
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that would free up a few hours of my day… 🙂
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Mine too. And take away my main connection to the rest of the world. Living in redneck territory I have very few real life friends, more like zero, just acquaintances who never go out for coffee with us. My virtual friends are what keep me going. Without them, my partner and I would be real life hermits.
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In such a situation, I think you’d find a greater sense of ‘community among your neighbors. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention and when people need help, they tend to become more ‘social’.
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Social using with a red neck: Swilling beer, making offensive jokes, putting women down, and bullying anyone who can be bullied. No thanks. I like my home, it has good vibes. With six cats, it cannot have bad vibes!
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😊
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Spelchek strikes again. “SocialIZING”! Not “social using.” Thwt would be weird!
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Admittedly, I did scratch my head a bit about that one!
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that sounds like tough living conditions. but I’ve always thought that one of the best things about the internet was its ability for people to make connections and build community. WP has certainly done that for me…
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Me too … my blogging friends are like a family and in many ways I’m closer to some of them than I am to people I’ve known for decades!
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three cheers for bloggers!
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True, but the day could come when we have to. I suppose that’s when ‘survival of the fittest’ will play into human lives … those of us who can grow our own food will be far above those who have millions in the bank but don’t know how to even take care of themselves.
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unfortunately I’m neither. I’m not a millionaire, and I don’t know how to take care of myself… 🙂
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You’d learn soon enough because you are a man who doesn’t rely on servants to meet your every need. You might be surprised by how much you could take care of yourself in a pinch.
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I better start stocking up on some survival foods…
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Or learn to grow your own! 😉
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I guess I should!
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What the Sam Hell does ANYONE need $13.74 million in a year for??? In fact, what the Sam Hell does anyone need millions or billions of dollars for to begin with??? And they hang on to every last penny as if it mattered, rather than spending, say, half of their riches to help people in need. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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GRRROOOOWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLL,
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I’m in Australia so I can’t make an exact comparison, but over here, ALL of the big supermarket chains have posted big profits, all through the pandemic. BUT…they’ve only just started raising prices because Omicron has led to massive worker and supply chain shortages. I do all my shopping online, and about 80% of meat cuts are ‘temporarily unavailable’. We have had floods that have cut off large sections of the inland, but still, no matter how much you may produce, it can’t be sold if it can’t be transported and stocked on shelves.
Supply and demand does influence prices so I assume something similar is? maybe? happening in the US. That said, our supermarkets offer free ‘direct to boot’ pickup of groceries as well as surprisingly cheap contactless delivery, especially if you buy in bulk and just once a week. We kind of feel that the supermarket chains have earned their profits, but I don’t know if it’s the same in the US. If they haven’t, then it’s profiteering, pure and simple.
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thank you for sharing that perspective. many of our grocery stores are also now doing much more of their business through delivery and curbside pickup perhaps that is just a more profitable way of running a store. I certainly hope these global shortages, of people and product, end soon…
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I’m not sure about the US, but over here, the supermarkets have gained friends because of their positive response to the Covid threat. Hmm…I should probably qualify that by saying that they’ve been great here in Victoria where I live. The whole state,but in particular Melbourne, was hit very hard with lockdowns, curfews etc etc. The supermarkets helped make life a little easier. I think the same applies to the other states but I have no first hand knowledge of it.
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I can see why people would be happy with the grocery stores, given how they stepped up during the pandemic. they kept their doors open, their shelves stocked as best they can, and I am sure it was a challenge for the employees to go into work under such conditions…
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Yes, the employees have been great. They all wear masks, which is hot and unpleasant, and they stick to the protocols really well. Oddly enough, the group that has bucked the ‘rules’ has been that of tradesmen. I’ve seen so many young Tradies flouting the mask rules it’s not funny, especially when they do it inside shops. The poor shop assistant, usually a girl, is masked and supposed to not serve them unless they are wearing masks too, but…is a young girl going to argue with a big burly guy who’s just as likely to spray virus in her face as he yells at her?
This doesn’t apply to all Tradies, of course. The self-employed ones are wonderful. We use a young plumber who also has immune problems and he is sooooo careful.
I guess there are always people who think the rules don’t apply to them.
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yes, I have noticed the same thing here in the U.S. and where I work.
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I guess the US is so big and so diverse that some states act with social responsibility and others don’t. We have degrees of social ‘conscience’ here too.
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and the difference among the states seems to be heavily influenced by political affiliation
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Yeah, the red and blue states. What surprises me is how stable those splits seem. Are states alternate between Liberal [conservative] and Labor [progressive] govts quite regularly. 10 years with one type of politics is considered very long.
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that difference is interesting between our two countries. I think it’s mainly big cities tend to be liberal, more rural parts of the country tend to be conservative…
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lol – we have that too! We have two major parties – LNP and Labor – then we have some small parties, one of which is the Greens. A Green has been voted into the Melbourne electorate for years now.
Overall though, the state [Victoria] swings between LNP and Labor. The current state government is Labor and they’ve been in power for eleven years but that’s a long time by our standards so winning the next election will be a big ask.
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eleven years does seem like a long time for one party to be in power. it’s rare for one party to have a President in power for more than eight years, and it seems like it is even fewer years for our Congress. Which I think is a good idea…
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This is just at the state level – I guess like your Governors? We have no set terms for anyone, which is a pity coz I think that could focus peoples’ minds on the job instead of just politics.
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beyond our president and most of our state governors, there are no term limits. I would prefer if there were limits for every office…
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Agreed. Better yet, I wish the candidates were chosen by ballot – as if for jury duty – from the ordinary population. Professional politicians are destroying democracy. 😦
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that’s an interesting suggestion; I’d be up for trying it…
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Good man! If we want democracy to survive we have to start doing things better. 🙂
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agreed!
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An interesting concept … I’m not sure … I’ll have to ponder that one!
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I first came up with the idea a few years back…almost as a joke. The more I thought about it though, the more I realised that being governed by people who /don’t/ want to do the job is better than the having professional politicians who only care about the power and what they get out of it. Might put the public ‘service’ back into government.
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You make a good point, but my fear would be getting some crazed conspiracy theorist or someone so utterly devoid of conscience … oh wait!!! We already have both of those in our Congress …
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-giggles- Exactly! How much worse could a random person be? At least all they’d be thinking about is “please don’t pick me, please, please.”
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Ha ha … yes, I can see them hiding in the closet or putting out the word that they had died or some such thing! But seriously, the concern I would still have is that we would get one of the hyper-religious nuts here who believes that every person should be forced to believe as they do and practice their religion … that truly WOULD cause a civil war here!
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The lottery would only be to select the candidates. We’d still have to vote for them. If one of those religious fanatics were elected, well…a lot of people would have to agree with him/her. That thought is what scares me.
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Yes, it is a scary thought! Women could end up back in the dark ages, and I shudder to think what would happen to LGBTQ people!
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Not a world I’d want to live in.
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Nor I, my friend.
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-hugs-
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Big hugs back, my friend!!!
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And Congress … 2 years for members of the House and 6 years for senators.
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No set terms at all? I didn’t know that! Not sure I’d like that idea … having to be periodically re-elected is supposed to keep them honest, but of course it doesn’t. Still, it gives us the means to ‘take out the trash’ every 2-6 years.
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Oh! We do have elections for both the lower and upper house, just like you. What I meant was that there are no fixed terms like your Presidents – i.e. 2 terms/8 years and that’s it.
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My bad … it was late and I was exhausted and confused ‘term limits’ with terms of office! Jim is right … we don’t have term limits for members of Congress, but we absolutely SHOULD!!! People like Mitch McConnell who has been in the Senate since the Victorian Era I think, get far too comfortable in their positions and corruption is inevitable.
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Don’t worry, I was as clear as mud myself. And yes, I totally agree. Term limits should apply to every one of them. Of course they’d still find ways to rort the system, but maybe not so effectively.
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Not so effectively and we could get rid of the rot every few years and elect some new ones who haven’t yet sold their souls upriver!
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lmao – or only managed to sell half a soul. Yes. 😀
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Here, the supermarkets have gained some respectability for their attempts to meet the need of people during this pandemic, but they are not treating their employees fairly and that, to me, is a big problem.
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I read recently that the basic wage is still something ridiculous like $7? That probably translates to about $10 Australian, but it’s still slave wages. 😦
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The minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and has not been raised since 2009! Needless to say, with normal inflation that $7.25 has far less purchasing power today than it had 13 years ago and many minimum wage workers must work 2 jobs just to pay the rent and buy a bit of food! Worse yet … certain workers such as restaurant servers can be paid significantly less than $7.25, for they are expected to make up the difference in tips!!! Yes, my friend, it IS slave wages … and yet our lawmakers have consistently voted against raising the minimum wage … 🤬
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Ugh. I knew that tips were a /necessary/ part of the US economy but I didn’t know why. Over here we only tip if the service has been particularly good. The US is full of very strange paradoxes – obsession about ‘freedom’ and guns yet a laissez faire attitude to basic justice. 😦
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Knowing that servers and such are paid about half of minimum wage, and knowing that some people don’t tip at all, I always try to be extra generous with my tips. My philosophy is that if you cannot afford to leave a decent tip, then you really cannot afford dining out, for here a tip is truly essential. Also, we should always tip in cash, rather than adding it to a bill which we pay with a credit card, for some unscrupulous business owners will take a percentage of their employees’ tips!!! It should be illegal, but they’ve found ways to get around it. If I order pizza, I always give the delivery guy $20 in cash ever since I learned that the pizza place takes half of their tips! Yes, the U.S. is very full of strange paradoxes … some love their guns more than their own children, and ‘freedom’ has a very strange connotation among some. Sigh. If I had a choice, I would live elsewhere, but right now I don’t.
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My very first job after high school was in a local restaurant. I know what serving staff have to put up with to earn tips. Making that necessity part of their wage? That denies them the dignity every person deserves, no matter what their job.
Australia is changing, and not for the better, but it’s still a decent place to live. Just saying.
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I, too, tried a job as a server in a hotel diner, but hated it and hated the pinches, the pickiness of some customers, and I walked out when one man threw a plate of food at me! I read yesterday about a restaurant that collects ALL the tips their servers earn and splits them equally among all servers PLUS the dishwashers. Where’s the reward for the server who went above and beyond to please a customer? So unfair!!! Yes, from all I know, and I have several blogging buddies from Australia, it is a good place to live. No place is without problems, but I think you guys are doing okay compared to so many countries.
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-shudder- what a bastard. My worst experience was when I had to serve a group booking of drunk footballers. One farted in my face as I bent over to place his food on the table. I’ve hated footballers ever since.
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Disgusting!!!
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Yup. FOUL.
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Like you, Andrea, I have been doing most all of my shopping online, then driving to the grocery’s pick-up lane where they load the groceries in my car … all for free. I sometimes chafe at the produce they pick, but overall in this era of Covid, it is a life-saver for me. I’ve also noticed that some meat is unavailable, but lately I don’t buy much other than chicken or ground beef because of the prices. I think if we all boycotted companies like Tyson, we might be able to effect a modest change, but most people likely wouldn’t bother to participate. Under some conditions, I might feel they earned their profits, but when a CEO can make $13 million in a year while the majority of us have to plan carefully to afford food for a week, something is very wrong. I don’t really see any justification for anybody being a millionaire, but that’s my own opinion about the wealthy who turn a blind eye to the rest of the people.
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Thanks, Jill. I wasn’t sure if you had the same options over there. I chafe at not being able to choose my own produce, but it’s a small price to pay for staying healthy. Like you, we eat mostly chicken and pork because they are the cheapest meats available. I have a rack of lamb in the freezer for the Offspring’s birthday, but otherwise lamb hasn’t been on the menu for a very long time.
The divide between rich and poor has become so marked, I keep expecting some idiot billionaire to say ‘let them eat cake’. And we all know how /that/ ended. 😦
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Would you believe I have never cooked lamb and only ate it a couple of years ago when our friends from Iraq invited us to dinner and had lamb-kabobs! The same is true here … that old saying that “the rich get richer while the poor get poorer” is easy to see here and the political ideological divide isn’t helping. Republicans are basically bought and paid for by the billionaires and Democrats trying to help the poor are blocked at every turn. “Let them eat cake” is, I’m fairly certain, what many in power would like to say to us!
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Oh! No lamb? Is that cultural? Over here, lamb is the mainstay of the Australia home cook. Or at least it was. Ridiculously expensive now.
Biden has his heart in the right place, but the problems are so big I fear it would take a joint effort to fix them, and that’s clearly not going to happen.
I seriously wonder how that 1% sleep at night. 😦
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In Canada you cannot buy lamb at a regular grocery store. I myself have never tasted it, nor am I inclined to start this late in life. Like you, I eat pork and chicken. I live in the middle of cattle country, but even for us, with no real transport costs, beef is unaffordable. It has tripledin price over the past two years. I cannot start to imagine what it would cost in places with low cattle farming and little butchering.
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Wow…lamb and beef used to be staples here in Australia – and rack of lamb is the most tender delicious part. If you ever get the chance to try it, please do. Foodie dreams aside, prices for the things I buy have stayed fairly stable until quite recently. I don’t know whether that’s because so many people were off with Omicron or because the floods cut off supply, but suddenly you can’t get most meats and even if you can, it’s soooo expensive. I guess these are First World problems. 😦
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They certainly are now. They are pricing themselves right out of the market. Our favourite cut of meat, it”s called a Picnic Ham in Canada, used to be $10 for a large piece of meat. Now it is $27 for a piece half the size. To me that is a hike of 500%. And these too come from within a few hundred miles of where we live. You cannot tell me their costs went up that much, because the pig farmers are crying they cannot afford to raisepigs anymore. Someone is price gouging between producer and user. The most likely link is the grocery chain.
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Wow…that’s a ridiculous hike! It sounds as if your grocery chains have consumers over a barrel. 😦
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They do.
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😦
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No, not cultural … I just never had the opportunity or desire to try it before! I think it is more popular in your country and most European countries than it is here, for I don’t know anybody who eats lamb as a regular thing.
I think that the problems Biden is facing, many of which were left to him by the former administration, would require some help & cooperation from the people of this nation (not to mention from Congress!) Trouble is, a large portion of the population are so caught up in conspiracy theories and lies that they will do whatever they can to keep this nation divided and to cause chaos. I say at least once a day that I no longer recognize this country. Sigh.
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Co-operation. There used to be a gentleman’s agreement amongst old school politicians, here at least, that truly important issues would get the backing of the Opposition. Things have changed. I wonder how long Western societies can continue functioning once they shot themselves in the foot?
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Good question. I think the world is on the brink of dramatic change, but I cannot predict in what direction it will go. I’m not sure I even want to know or to be around to see it.
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I’ve had a good day so I’m going to say ‘It’ll be for the better!’ Ask me tomorrow and that will probably change.
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Meanwhile, though, I take heart in hearing you say “for the better,” so for tonight I will go with that!
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lol – high five! I had a good day so maybe there’s something to this positive thinking after all. 😉
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Hmmmm … maybe! I should try to do more of it!
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It ain’t easy.
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No, not these days it isn’t! 😒
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Nothing seems to be easy these days. But maybe if we hit rock bottom, things will start to improve.
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I keep thinking we have hit the bottom, but then the hole, the dark abyss, gets deeper! How low can we go … no wait, don’t answer that question … I don’t wanna know! 😵
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It’s a scary question, and I’m not sure I want to know either because civilisations don’t always bounce back. Fingers crossed this is a bounce not a splat.
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If humans are to bounce back, they’re going to need to take off the blinders, stop being ignorant fools, and realize that we are destroying not only each other, but the planet we live on. So far, it seems that people are more concerned about their “personal freedoms” than about making supporting moves to protect and repair the environment. Sigh.
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Yup. We’re racing towards a precipice, and no one seems to care.
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I think a lot of people do care … you do and I do and surely there are more who do. But, to solve the problems of the moment is going to require that the fighting, the bigotry and hatred stop and for everybody to get on board with what needs to be done. So far, I see no hope of that happening. Sigh.
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Yeah, even a simple ‘majority’ won’t work. We’re hurtling towards everybody in or we all pay. Given the response to this pandemic, I see no hope of that happening either. 😦
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These days the minority seem to have a louder voice than the majority, at least here in the U.S. ‘Tis why despite a Democratic majority in the Oval Office and both chambers of Congress, the Republicans are the ones mostly calling the shots. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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Yeah, it just doesn’t make sense. I mean surely there were reformist Presidents in the past? Didn’t one of the Roosevelts push through the ‘New Deal’? Have things changed /that/ much?
Sorry, I know very little about US history.
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Yes, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the father of the New Deal and a number of other good works programs to help people. Of course, he was also the president who decided to put Japanese-Americans in internment camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, so it’s a mixed bag. No president, no person, will get everything right, but we have had some good ones in the past. In my lifetime, I think I admired Johnson and Obama the most, for they both tried to help people and scale back racism. But what we are seeing from the Republican camp today is very much pushback from having elected a Black president not just once, but twice! The latent racism bubbled to the top and today the Republican Party is, in my book, the party of racism and bigotry, the party that supports mostly wealthy white people, preferably males. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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Ah thank you. I never know which Roosevelt is which. Sadly he wasn’t alone in putting people of Japanese ancestry in internment camps. I believe the Australian govt of the day did the same.
I still have a school girl’s nostalgia for JFK. He almost blew up the world, but he did send people to the moon. And Obama. He tried, and I believe he was and is a man of integrity. When he was elected the whole world felt as if we’d been given a new lease of life. Horrible how that’s been twisted.
Grrrrr indeed.
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I also have the greatest respect for Kennedy and wonder just how much different this nation would be had he not been assassinated before the end of his first term … his heart was in the right place, and that is half the battle. Yes, Obama is a man of integrity and most of those who would say otherwise are put off only by the colour of his skin, which is a damned shame! In fact, it is the very thing that has led to most of the conflict in this nation today. Sigh.
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I was only a kid when JFK was assassinated but I still remember the sense of utter shock I felt. How could such a great man be killed? Why would anyone want to kill him? I was a bit less naive when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, but the shock was no less.
To be honest, all through Obama’s presidency, I kept waiting for some creep to assassinate him too. More glad than I can say that he survived his presidency and has a chance to enjoy his lovely family.
Re the racism…yeah, i could never work out why the very people who would benefit from ‘Obamacare’ most would also be so vehemently against it. Now I understand that when you’re poor and getting poorer, the only thing that makes life bearable is the knowledge that there are people below you on the pecking order. It’s vile but then humans are pretty vile too.
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So was I … only 12 years old but I remember being on the softball field during Physical Ed class when we were herded inside and told that we would be going home, for the president had been shot. It was a day I’ll never forget.
Like you, I fully expected Obama to be assassinated by some white supremacist who took umbrage at a Black man occupying the White House. If you haven’t read it already, I highly recommend the first volume of his memoirs, “A Promised Land”.
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Thanks, Jill. I don’t keep up with traditionally published books but i’ll definitely check that one out.
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I enjoyed it and learned a LOT from it!
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😀
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In Canada, at least, it is mostly profiteering.
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I’m pretty sure our supermarkets are making money hand over fist as well, but so far it hasn’t felt like profiteering. -knock on wood-
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I wish. We live on fixed incomes, “small” fixed incomes, and the price of foods just keeps going up, and up, and up. Every time the news mentions another problem in the supply chain, including our border-closing trucker buddies, we can expect another rise. We are fortunate in that we buy our groceries with a “World Elite” credit card, which gives us a good return on our spending (getting hundreds a year back on our purchases), except that we were already depending on that before Covid. It still helps, but it isn’t the luxury it once was. And because we cannot clear our balance every month like before Covid, the interest eats up a big chunk of what we used to get in savings.
I would rather, instead of getting money back, they would just drop the interest rate by 50%. When I suggested that to them, they laughed in my face!
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We’re on fixed incomes too so I know exactly what you’re going through. I’ve always hated wasting food, but since the pandemic I’ve become obsessed with not wasting /anything/. Yet despite buying only fresh food and spending half my life cooking, I’m shocked by what I can’t afford to buy any more…like lamb. I’m starting to fear the future.
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They say “What goes up must come down.” They never anticipated greedy people like we have today. My best to you and yours.
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Thanks, and the same to you and your family. Maybe one day we can share that rack of lamb. 🙂
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Many of the numbers I quoted actually were from last year. I’ve read numerous articles saying that corporate profits rose at an unprecedented level since the beginning of the pandemic, while more and more people struggle to put food on their table. Rather than raising prices, they could have taken a cut in their profits and helped, really helped the people of this country, but instead they padded their own wealth. Granted, I have a big problem with wealth and wealthy people, for I’ve seen far too much of the other end of the spectrum and was even briefly homeless myself at one time, but I just don’t understand the greed of the corporate upper echelon.
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that is surprising then, and raising prices seems to make no sense then.
and those outrageously high corporate salaries are so entrenched that it seems like it would be tough to change…
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If I were a corporate CEO, I don’t think my conscience would let me take a salary increase knowing that some people were going to bed hungry that night! But then, perhaps that’s why I’m not and never will be a corporate CEO!
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and not only would that be the right thing to do, but I am sure it would generate a lot of favorable publicity for the company and the CEO…
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Did you ever read my post about Dan Price, the CEO who believes in true equality and pays his employees $70,000 per year, even though it meant he took a pay cut? He is one of the good ones … here’s a link if you want to read it … https://jilldennison.com/2017/06/07/good-people-doing-good-things-dan-price/
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I did read that – it is such a great story. While I agree that is a much better way to lead a company, it may be much harder to put something like that in place in a Fortune 500 firm, where there are decades of policies and culture in place…
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Yes, no doubt there is a culture of wealth that would be hard to break through, but it sure would make the world a better place.
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Pingback: PUT THE BLAME WHERE IT BELONGS. |jilldennison.com. | Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal
Most people have NO CLUE about what causes inflation. All they know is everything is “costing more.” And, as we know, this is a ideal opportunity for a certain party to jump on the bandwagon and place the blame on the other party. 😠
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You’re right … most people listen to what the media tells them, in many cases what Fox tells them, and figure it’s the truth. Even the mainstream, supposedly fact-based media, places the bulk of the blame on President Biden. I sometimes think it would be to our advantage for all television and internet to go out for a month, forcing people to actually read books to get their information!
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Jill, yet again you prove that you have your finger on the pulse. I wrote a flash fiction piece the other day… but the more I think about it, the more I think that perhaps it wasn’t just fiction 😦
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Ah yes, I remember reading that post a week or so ago … it chilled me and gave me much food for thought. We humans are destroying not only our planet, our only home, but each other. Brutally. Most days of late, I hardly recognize the human species and am not at all sure I am a part of it, but perhaps an alien in a human’s body sent down from some faraway planet to observe and report back!
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If that latter is the case, when you submit your report, may I suggest it’s short and to the point: “Send help!”
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Yes, that would be my exact message!
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News and commented:
“CEO John Tyson made $13.74 million last year, an increase of more than 22% over the prior year, while Tyson employee’s pay increases averaged 9%.”
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Thanks, Ned!!!
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