Sometimes ya just never know what is gonna strike me to write about… this is a short trip to the Dark Side… sometimes it’s good to see the bad so you can appreciate the good.
You’ve always heard the saying about …. “that’s the first thing to go!” … and it usually refers to your physical ability as it generally relates to your age and getting older. Well here’s a new list of things to go. It mainly pertains to life as we know it in these here states. Having lived 50+ years, naturally I’ve seen a lot of changes. Many things come to mind… especially all the things my grandfather use to say.
It was an OMG day when a loaf of bread went to 12¢ a loaf and gas went to 25¢ a gallon.
He also noted that he wished he knew then ( when he was young ) what he knows now. I think this mainly pertained to general finances or more likely women in general. Both are equally important topics and certainly knowing what I know now some 40 years ago… well… it certainly couldn’t have hurt any. But it does make you think that concentrating on one or the other… finances or women… would have been much easier than trying to do both less successfully.
I certainly wish, as I’m sure most people do when they get older, that they had spent more time with their parents or grandparents learning about their life. How they grew up, what they did, what they had, how they felt about things, the problems they faced, and the joys of living a much less complicated life. When my grandfather was born very early in the 1900’s, we were barely out of the horse & buggy age which basically lasted for hundreds of years. He saw radio and cars come into being… and all the changes since then are the stuff that “Buck Rogers” was made of. For all the younger folk reading this… Buck Rogers was a futuristic comic strip that told of all the wondrous things that we would have in the future… like Tv & space travel. A mere 150 years ago, it took the pony express 4 days to get a message from New York to San Francisco… anyone can now communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world in seconds. In the short time span of barely a hundred years… we not only have just about all those things, but many more that the imagination couldn’t even dream up back then. Science fiction was just a fore runner of the reality of what was to come. Leaps in scientific achievement jumped forward several hundreds of years in just one century. What a contrast… in just 100 years of human evolution… from Horse & buggy and swords to high tech cars and nukes, and the ability to basically destroy the entire world… or at least the part that supports human life.
You hear many older folks dreaming about the simpler life that they had when they were young or that their parents had. Time marches on, and lately in leaps and bounds. Change is the one thing beside death that you can count on… and I guess that some day death may even be cheated for a much longer period of time. Just imagine all the changes that face humanity in the future. While contemplating the future and judging it by the recent past… well… big change is inevitable… and not to sound negative… but along with the good changes always comes the less desired ones. Everything has a cost and usually more than just a monetary one. Throw in government and big business greed and corruption, and the less desired changes rear their ugly heads higher and stronger.
So here’s some “What Goes First” things of the recent past… there’s no logic to them from a “Good” standpoint… but than again “Good” is a relative term or concept… which means different things to different people. This is oblivious when you consider government and the well being of the population. Two completely different concepts of what is for the “Good” of all.
Where are we headed? So what’s went wrong? ( just to mention a few )… now here’s the “Dark Side” of things.
- criminals have more rights than victims
- criminals on death row for 20+ years… I heard it costs more to execute them than to keep them in prison. PLEASE!
- politicians who’s absolute last concern is for the people
- more welfare for those that have never worked a day in their life / no help for those that have worked 40+ years
- affirmative action that rather than leveling the playing field switches discrimination to the single white males.
- crooked lawyers that encourage frivolous law suits for anything and everything
- and the latest power & greed driven force to put the economy on it heals is unnecessarily high fuel prices.
So if the projections come true, and fuel prices rise to $5 or to near $7 a gallon, here’s what the majority of people can expect… in varying degrees. So what will you have to give up, and how soon? The cost of EVERYTHING you buy is tied to transportation expenses and of course the elevated profit margins that big business demands. Many just see the price at the pump when they fill up… but to goes way beyond that. We have already seen the tip of the Iceberg for how fuel prices effect the final price of everything… food, clothing, utilities… everything. The worse is yet to come as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and the middle class becomes a thing of the past.
So… what will go first? Anything sound familiar? The income verses the cost of living curve… how close to the edge of the abyss are we getting?
- luxury travel and vacations – less and less until it becomes none at all (unless you’re wealthy)
- luxury items – cameras, computers, hi-tech electronics, fancy phones, I-pads, etc … not a necessity!
- new cars – current car needs to last longer, and new cars will need to be even smaller and cost double
- eating out – less frequent and cheaper restaurants until home cooking is the new standard… everyday.
- we will all eating healthier without meat on the table… but not by choice
- cable or Direct Tv will give way to the old antenna and free tv via the airwaves
- cell phones will become an unaffordable luxury… start saving those quarters for payphones.
- computers and the internet will give way to the library & the evening news… and the newspaper once again.
- thermostats will be lower in the winter and higher in the summer, if you can afford air conditioning at all.
- new furniture … nope… the old stuff will have to last another ten years or more
- jewelry… nothing new… sell the old to pay for food… can you say “tofu” burger.
- medical… if you still have coverage… great… otherwise you will pray not to get sick & take out of date meds.
Yep… these are just some of the changes that are coming… slowly but surely. Why slowly…. well, think of it like water getting warm. If you got into warm water and it slowly got warmer and warmer you wouldn’t notice the gradual changes as you cook to death verses jumping into very hot water from the get go. Of course the whole idea behind slowly is that a complete economic collapse would screw everyone… the rich and the poor. A slow gradual decline to poverty lets the government and the rich continue to “suck us dry” as we sink more and more into poverty. But not to fear… the rich, big businesses, and the government will do everything to make you feel better about the situation that confronts you. Societies of the past collapsed for much less… the lesson… force the change on the people very slowly, so they don’t revolt against their leaders. Makes me think about vampires that drain your blood a little at a time, keeping you alive, day by day, forever and ever, so that they can feed on you everyday… kinda sounds like our government and the fuel companies. But be encouraged… you won’t loose it all at once… little by little… giving up more and more… doing without more and more, cutting back more and more, until you get to a point where you stop and wonder how you got there. Pass the tofu and can you wiggle that tv antenna once again… the picture is a little snowy. While the picture is snowy… the economic and social outcome is quite clear… and with all changes that are inevitable… the bad certainly seems as though it will overshadow the good.
Just some thoughts… not to bring you down… but just a slight reality check… from a different point of view. No wonder older folks that have been around for a long time (70+ years), see all the changes, see the direction we are going… and long for the old days when things were simpler and times were better… despite the lack of high tech stuff back than. It’s all in the “Trade Offs” … what you give up for what you get. High tech seems to be a niche of “Good” that compensates for a whole lot of “Bad” that keeps pulling us all down… without us realizing the hot water that we are really in. We will all have less as more and more business fail due to cut backs in social spending ( it’s all going to the fuel companies ). The government has plenty of resources to control fuel supply and prices and encourage prosperity for all… but that goes against the plans of the greedy oil companies… that are going to lower everyone’s standard of living and eventually ruin the economy, crumble society, and encourage more criminal activity.
Solutions… good question… are things too far gone to fix? Perhaps… Why do you think every religion looks for a return of their God to fix mankind’s problems… cause it’s beyond mans ability to correct… it’s too far gone! ahh… maybe that’s why after waiting for their Gods return, they finally gave up, and their entire society disappeared. Perhaps the return of the God(s) will see how bad things have gotten and wipe everything out and start again. Science has proven that this has happened 7 times in Earths history… mass extension and rebirth of new species to try again… who knows?
One thing is for sure. Corruption and greed are going unchecked. The very people that make the laws to watch over the population are the biggest offenders. Put a snake on guard to watch other snakes in the hen house. Basic needs are costing more & more. Income in comparison to the cost of living continues to decline. The ability to afford luxury items is on the decline, as well as the ability to have the day to day necessities… choices are getting tougher and cut backs loom even larger. Steak & Shrimp dinner at home is now an celebration of sorts… I remember when it was routine. Did you ever think of a “hot dog” as a daily means of survival? (not that bad yet) … then there’s the god old “Mac & cheese”. I still enjoy the Velveeta Shells myself… at least for a bit longer.
Maybe every generation has felt this way forever… ours only seems to be worse because we are living in it. But the older you get, the more you experience, and the more you see the cycles of prosperity and decline… we are definitely on the decline. The 60’s thru the 80’s was the upswing… the 90’s headed down… and we are going down hill fast aided by all the corruption and greed.
Then there’s the lists. Stuff you’re gonna get.. or not get. “I Want” - “I Need” – “ What I have to live without”. Where are your options shifting to? The compromises you will have to make. More and more compromises as time goes on.
Well, this concludes thoughts on the dark side of things… every once in a while you need to look at the dark side to appreciate the brighter side of things that you enjoy. Perhaps from a different perspective and appreciate them a little bit more. Enjoy the good things in life and take nothing for granted. Thanksgiving should be 365 days a year. So enjoy everyday and make the most of every moment.
Time to put on the rose colored glasses… ahhhhh… that’s better already!
