Gas Prices! The long term affects of this continuing additional cost in my budget, now reflected in every aspect of my “spending” life, has reached the point now that I can’t afford to drive to see my Grandson! I now make a special effort to map out errands to save on gas. There are many things I cannot do because my “extra” money is being spent on gasoline and the higher prices we are all experiencing now that the higher cost of gasoline is being passed on to us in everything we use and/or need. I have to pass on the Whole Foods goodies and buy more carbs. Squeezed, BJMS

The high prices Americans are complaining about have been the norm throughout the rest of the world for years. How long did we think we could continue to consume a quarter of the world’s resources at bargain basement rates? The loss of jobs (and benefits at existing jobs) is another matter. The worst thing that happened to the working class is the fall of Communism in the Soviet Union. The balance of power was economic as well as military. Workers gained the most rights and privileges ( 8 hour work week, SSI, SSDI,pensions, etc) during the Great Depression, when one would think they could be most exploited. FDR created work programs not b/c he was so caring, but b/c communism was a real threat during a world-wide depression. He was a wealthy white guy who “saved” capitalism by making these concessions. Now the restraint of that threat is gone, and corporations are running riot. Banks are crying poverty b/c of subprime mortgage losses, but not a peep about making gazillions with credit card interest, esp since the change in bankruptcy laws.

I’m a marketing consultant and just found out that my current project has been put on “hold” due to budget cuts. We are more dependent than ever on my husband’s salary. This is the time of year when my husband (also a marketing professional) gets his bonus and raise. This year, he was lucky enough to keep his job after yet ANOTHER restructuring (staff has been stripped to bear bones) but no bonus, no raise and his company announces a new cost-cutting policy almost every week. The latest was a true measure of how desperate they are to reduce costs - no more color printouts or photocopies of any document without Director approval.

Wonder why your groceries are getting so expensive ? Like the price of eggs? We have a small farm - 19 beef critters and some chickens plus a large vegetable garden. We have seen the price of chicken grain go from $8.50 for a 50lb. bag to $12. Shavings for animal bedding from $4. to $5.95 and a bale of hay from $2.50 to as high as $7. The farmers are going to be wiped out. I don ‘t blame the feed stores but I do blame the Government for being so short sighted about putting so much corn into ethenol production. Couldn’t they foresee how it would raise the price of half the food in the grocery stores?

Hearing of many “white collar” folks out of jobs……..lots of homes on the market, not selling. Higher grocery prices, of course, the cost of gasoline. I think it will take quite some time once “W” is out of office for the magnitude of his disastrous presidency to be revealed, from the economy to the environment to the constitution, and on and on.

It is the sadness. I feel it creeping everywhere, a country moving a little heavier, through the day. And people recede. They are not seen, tangible evidence of them is in retreat. The air is filled with empty spaces. We like to say that nature abhors a vacuum. As though the vacuum was ‘nothingness’. As though some outside ‘nature’ was in control. But it is not. The vacuum is the primary element, here. It is not empty. It is filled and breeding, something new. But we are separated from it and from the selves, the plans, the certainties, that we knew. We are the sadness between what was and what is to be. There is a feeling of stagnation, of standing water, putrefying. It is not a new thing. As a Nation, we have been receding from our Self, from who we knew we were, for a long time. To me, it is like a Nation in Menopause. We railed against it, denying the creeping signs, the mood swings, the hot flashes, the loss of vitality. Who we knew ourself to be, has been ripped away from us and replaced by this something different, something lesser, something out of our control. It feels like anything, but a Pause. It feels like a kind of dying. And we are sad. As a Nation, we are sad. The realization of the loss of vitality, of control, is the acceptance and the culmination and of a change that began seven years ago. Acceptance is always the end. And it is always the beginning. But for now, as we recede, it just feels sad.

I work in commercial radio. All advertisers have been somewhat skittish since 9/11. Many local advertisers have no other logical outlet in our market so that advertising, while not vigorous, hasn’t completely disappeared except for auto and bank ads. Focusing on local business and being creative has kept us going. Commercial radio is always lean and mean. We shop second-hand for clothes, but we sound like we’re wearing Chanel. That’s what’s fun about radio.

I live in Florida where I see the housing market most severely impacted. Having lived here since 1978, I can say that I have never seen so many houses for sale. The complaints that I hear vary from the cost of fuel, food and the very basics of life. My variety of friends are varied .. from wealthy to not so weathy and all of them are venting about the state of affairs. I think people are really starting to get scared now. In the beginning of the year, I spoke with my financial advisor indicating I was “staying in” .. now as I see the decline of my savings/investments, I lay in bed and worry. Basically, I think about the economy all the time. I am more conservative now with finances than I’ve ever been. I am proceeding with caution… no extravagance here!

Ladies, your comments seem to be coming from a cross-section of America. It is alarming. Is anyone with clout listening???