It’s a little sad. I’ve always wanted to be, or at least stay in the middle class. Screw the Commies and their lickspittles who sneer at the “bourgeoisie” and their “bourgeois values”; I’m proud to espouse those values, if they mean things like hard work, a modest lifestyle, good education and aspirations to, well, just live comfortably.
But it seems that recently — thank you, Joe fucking Biden and your lickspittles — I’m no longer in that class. Instead, I’m now working class. And the realization thereof came to me as I was reading this article:
If things are hard for you and your family right now, please understand that you are not alone. Most of the country is in the exact same boat.
No kidding. We are managing — but only just — to keep our heads above water; but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do so.
In a desperate attempt to maintain their middle class lifestyles, millions upon millions of Americans have been taking on debt like never before, and as a result we are now facing an unprecedented consumer debt bubble.
We haven’t had to resort to that, with some very small exceptions, simply because we’ve cut back hugely on anything we consider non-essentials. But as costs of everything, especially essentials, have rocketed upwards, what that means is that we can’t pay down our small credit card debt to the extent we want, to where we can pay them off altogether. (The last time we had a zero balance was sometime pre-Covid, pre-flood destruction.)
Hell, I hardly ever go to the range anymore, not because of the range fees (I have a soon-to-expire annual membership, thanks to an extremely generous Reader), but because I can’t afford the ammo anymore — and this despite having shall we say a well-stocked ammo locker. I just want to keep my ammo stocks high, because you never know, right?
…and I can’t just shoot .22 LR forever.
Forget travel — and I mean local, forget international travel completely — not just because of the cost of accommodation on the road, but because I can’t afford a $60 charge at the gas pump every few hours.
Food… well, let’s just say it’s hamburger, rice ‘n beans, and not all at the same time, either.
Don’t get me started on other essential costs like electricity; I’ve already talked about those price increases (around 50%, in case anyone’s forgotten).
In short, my standard of living is around that of a European bank teller, but without the state financial assistance that the Euros can fall back on. Unlike many as discussed in the article, I refuse to “maintain” my middle-class standard of living by using credit cards because I know that at the end of that lies misery and ruin. Been there, done that, won’t go there again.
I’m not telling you all this because I want money from y’all; the annual appeal is only due in May next year.
No, I’m telling you because I am not the only one going through this. I can’t help feeling that there’s an air of desperation in the air, because if I’m feeling it, there are probably thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people in similar circumstances to mine.
And I don’t see an end to it, either. Even a Red Wave [snort] in November 2024 isn’t going to help — hell, a lottery win is more likely than that.
This is all by the UniParty’s design. We’re being ground down between taxation and inflation. 🙁
I don’t do credit cards. Paid them off in 2006 and got rid of them. Then, 2 years ago I got one, a VISA, and use it sparingly and pay it off monthly.
Also in the past 2 years I have been hoarding cash and silver. Until 2 months ago I had about $12k of each on hand. Then in the past month I had to buy a new propane furnace, $4k, and $1500 in repairs to my wifes ride. It was nice to have the hoarding available.
I’m 68 and am finding frugality challenging and a hobby. I’m always looking for ways to pay less and use less. It’s 20 miles to places to spend money so gas cost is always a consideration. My Blazer only gets about 15mpg. Free amazon prime shipping is good and so is walmarts $35 min purchase for shipping too. Because of the latter we have 3 years of nonperishable food on hand. Only need to go to a store every 2-3 weeks to get perishable stuff. Buy milk 4 gals at a time and freeze it. Oh yeah, bought a 7cf chest freezer 3 years ago and it’s slammed with food too.
We don’t eat out at all, not even pizza delivery (we haven’t lived anywhere where delivery was available since 1989), and overall we eat very frugal. We’re not fancy asses nor are we picky asses. A can of roast beef and gravy over a coupla microwaved potatoes and a cup or 2 of frozen vegs is normal for us. We eat 1 meal a day and it costs about $2-$4 per person per day. I fill my vehicle 6-8 times per year and my wifes ride does less than 1000 miles a year. It’s a hobby and we’re starting to get good at it. lol
As I have heard elsewhere, there is no voting our way out of this. As long as Marxocrats exist they will continue to push their Marxist agenda to the detriment of what’s left of ‘merica. What’s the solution? You know, deep down, even if you don’t want to admit it. (Hint: I see oceans of blood in the future, the only question is whose pool will be bigger.). BTW, I am not giving a pass to the Republicans; if they were worth a damn we wouldn’t be in this situation.
I guess the mess we’re in is just the natural consequence of diluting the founding stock of this country with alien cultures that have wildly different, if any, values. May we be a cautionary tale for future civilizations.
Rome was a cautionary tale for us; do you suppose any of the two or three generations of illiterate, innumerate victims of the NEA even know Rome was once more than a vacation destination?
Good point. Then I guess we’re just screwed.
When we retired 6-8 years ago, it was with a great deal of planning. We had some treasure set away. Social Security and small pensions would be enough to help us hold on. Then came COVID, inflation, Democrat jackasses, and Gropin’ Joe and his evil minions.
Paycheck or gummint money to paycheck or gummint money? We passed that in 2021. All that talk about the “massive” increase in Social Security payments lasted until the first checks went out. Then supplemental insurance went up. That wonderful plan to control medicine prices? For the most part, that is very limited as to which already high-priced meds will be reduced, and much of it won’t go into effect till 2025 and beyond.
Prices on everything are going up. Food, fuel, interest rates, vehicles, everything. Why? Because even though we’re already feeling the pain, most of us shrug and say there’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t control inflation. Nobody asks us if we want to spend bazillions of dollars to provide wankle levers to fifth century sand sheiks. Which brings us back to the Democrats. We could be sitting on top of the economic world just by producing and processing our own oil. WE KNOW THIS! We’ve done this under Donald Trump.
And if we were top dog, do you suppose we would be in the middle of all this international political b*llsh*t we see now? China, Russia, Iran, the Norks, all of them would be rethinking their latest intrigues a second and third time before they did anything that might annoy us.
Red wave? That fairy tale? We (most of us, anyway,) made the capital mistake of believing our own press releases. We followed the pipers and storytellers who told us everything was just fine, we could trust our Liberal brethren, and don’t the emperor’s new clothes look grand?
How much worse will it get? In less than a year we will have another national election. We had better pay serious attention to what’s going on around us, or 2020 is going to be mild compared to what we see next November.
Everyone’s looking for a reason (almost said “cause”, but that word’s a double-edged sword these days), pointing a finger, trying to find why this has happened (particularly to the elderly who scrimped and saved for just this time in their lives when they knew they would be physically unable to work and didn’t want to lean on their kids).
You don’t need a finger to point: all you have to do is check the “worth” of all of the congress-critters with a salary of under $200k per annum (not to say they’re only slightly overpaid).
“Well”, you say, “some of them were rather wealthy lawyers prior to going into politics.” Yeah! AOC is a great example: a bartender (to be kind about it) not all that long ago and now she’s only worth $30 million.
I’ve got the hot tar; you got the feathers?
You’re what most of us call a “moderate” in that you even consider tar and feathers to be a reasonable solution.
Most of the rest of us are arguing over the relative merits of .223 Rem and .308 Win.
The problem with the .308 solution is that its occurrence will be ascribed to “a lone crazy MAGA guy” who will be gunned down or railroaded to prison without his action being connected to the actions of Big Guv/UniParty.
The response must be massive and strongly associated with the egregious behavior of the inside the Beltway grifters and parasites.
Something like 300,000-600,000 men with rifles, heavy timber and miles of rope descending on DC. To lessen logistical issues, forget the timber. DC has plenty of trees, lampposts and gas stations.
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-body-of-benito-mussolini-his-mistress-and-his-cabinet-on-public-display/5QF8zgDDSIIfHw
I’d still prefer to take the time to build (and employ in full public view) the machine preferred by the French doctor in 1789.
the only problem with that invention is that considering how it operates and today’s blood borne pathogens such as Hepatitis, AIDS/HIV, and God knows what else, it will be very messy using that contraption.
JQ
Kim, you’ve mentioned a time or three that your wife is British; has she checked if she can get a UK state pension?
The worst part is the vast majority of idiots crowing about “getting back” at the “bourgeoisie” are oblivious to the fact that in Marx’s lexicon, that means the middle-class (who Marx considered class traitors). In other words, they are out to get themselves and don’t even realize it.
I had a big rant written about this, but it went on too long. I sold my business this year (commercial bakery/kitchen), made a pile of money, but the news owners are a couple of tech-new-money, arrogant assholes who shit on working class people just trying to earn a living. I should be feeling pretty pleased with myself about the creating a business out of less than nothing and selling it for pretty good money, but I just don’t. They’re deservedly and quickly going down, but they’ll take a lot of hard-working decent people with them. Then they’ll just find some other business they can “techpreneur” the shit out of.
Kim
We’re in the same boat. 4 kids still at home. Food, clothing, energy, and property taxes have gotten crazy. Our property taxes have more than doubled since the China Plague drove the laptop class out of the cities to buy up farmland and build McMansions. The Blue Hive refugees have well and truly screwed us all. And they’re pressing the very policies that made their cities unlivable.
Long time residents help one another as we can: sharing garden produce, excess eggs and meat, help cutting firewood, etc. We especially have to look after the more elderly folks that have retired from paid labor.
Right thinking people will manage without taking on excess debt, for we know all too well that debt is the money of slaves.
Importantly, your little front porch does wonders for morale. Keep up the good work!
when will we do more than dump tea? There were bread riots in Paris at one time. That’s what the left wants. They want to overthrow the system that lifts people out of poverty; the free enterprise system.
JQ