Posted on 05/22/2008 11:45:40 AM PDT by JZelle
This is destined to be a grim Memorial Day weekend in the region, what with the price of a gallon of gasoline climbing to $4 a gallon and food costs surging beyond the financial means of consumers.
In response to the assault on our wallets, many of us may be forced to scale back our barbecue menu to beans, bread and water.
With unemployment moving toward Great Depression-like numbers, businesses being shuttered across the region and many homes in the foreclosure process, more Americans than ever are pessimistic about the future and think our best days are behind us.
They say this with thousands of dollars" worth of high-tech equipment in their possession. They make this grim prognosis before driving away in a gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle.
It is true that much of the economic news in the local and national media is negative. It also is true good news rarely sells newspapers, spurs Internet traffic or captures television ratings.
And there is a generation of voting-age Americans who have no idea what austere economic times truly are; have no idea what even modest times are. You motor around the city or suburbs and see two or three automobiles parked in a driveway. You walk into the home of a neighbor, and it is not unusual to see three or four flat-screen televisions.
Not too many decades ago, in the so-called turbulent '60s, the dream of the average American family was to leave the tiny apartment in the city and move to that wonderful home in the suburbs. That wonderful home would be termed modest by today"s standards, given it often was a three-bedroom, two-bath rambler.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Doom and Gloom from the media. Anybody here been reduced to switching from barbecue to beans, bread and water? I thought not.
Read the whole article.
Good God!
Reading articles like this make me wonder who these people are that can’t afford food.
They can’t all be homeless, deranged, cripples can they?
What other excuse is there to go hungry?
I think we need photographs of ALL Washington elected officials vehicles...Who OWNS WHAT? Plaster it on U-Tube and mark it as “they won’t drill for oil, but use our Tax Money to drive their SUVS”... Then List every official up for election this year! TIme to put the pressure on FULL BLAST!
It is amusing to read the stories that inevitably portray the economy as being dire, if not in a recession, though we hardly are in a recession. And, of course, that negativity is eventually picked up by the masses, especially those too young to recall the Jimmy Carter-inspired gas lines of the '70s.
I stopped reading right there. What rubbish. Unemployment in the Depression was in the high teens for years (thanks to the New Deal).
What is it now? Around 5%?
Looks like most of us aren't reading the whole article before posting. The article is a good catch JZelle. Thanks for including it on FR.
My bbq beans keep falling through the grate on the grill.
If you read the entire article, you'll discover that the author is poking fun at his gloom-and-doom colleagues. He points out that, while we are going through yet another economic hiccup, this country still has millions who are trying to get into the country rather than leave it. Good point...
I did almost the same thing, but read on. He's not saying that at all.
You must never STOP reading a Washington Times Article!!!
You missed this:
*The economy undoubtedly has experienced a downturn, and some Americans are feeling the financial pinch. But that is true in any economy at any point in history. As tough as it may be to believe, we Americans live in materially rich times. We are spoiled on so many levels.
Of course, it is a presidential election year, and it behooves candidates to pitch themselves as saviors to all that is bad. And certain voices in the media go along with it because of their political bias and interest in seeing their candidate reach the White House.
But the media spiel is intellectually dishonest, at odds with the recent economic history of our nation.
Why, it is so tough out there that millions from around the planet want to come to our nation each year, legally or otherwise.*
“Middle-class families sometimes built meals around Spam and thought nothing of it.”
I still love the stuff. When I was growing up we had it most Saturday nights with the baked beans, but She Who Must Be Obeyed won’t allow it in the house...I have to sneak it up at camp during hunting season!
Do you always permaturely ejaculate your comments before you even know what you are commenting on?
“Looks like most of us aren’t reading the whole article before posting.”
LOL! Man, you’re not kidding! This author is as sarcastic as they get, but with a conservative bent. People, please read the whole thing!!
I have to admit I saw the depression unemployment statement but said wait a minute this is the Times, the only paper I would read when I lived in Va. Thus I said let me read more to see if this is in jest. So really to all of those that started bailing out I forgive you. I know I know big of me.
Must admit, it's one of my guilty pleasures. Don't like the stuff out of the can, but sliced and fried with a little honey-mustard - ummmmmmm:).
We always did Spam and Gherkin pickle sandwiches at camp.
Dang it...now I need to go get some...
wait, I don’t have enough foodstamps until after the holiday. /sarcasm
I stopped reading right there. What rubbish. Unemployment in the Depression was in the high teens for years (thanks to the New Deal).The most recent Bureau of Labor figure from the end of April had it at 4.95%.What is it now? Around 5%?
Yeah, I thought the article was over the top in the doom and gloom department until I read past the second paragraph.
Still, Democrats and their allies in the media have really played upon the basic laziness and stupidity of people who think the world was created yesterday.
On the plus side, I’ve developed a real love of beans!
Yours truly,
The Woim
In our house the treat was lima beans and ham hocks, simmered till soft and flavorful, then topped with chopped Vidalia Onions. Baked beans when no time to do the limas. I still get so hungry for them at times.
I can remember sitting on the back screened-in porch on a summer evening and watching my mother’s brothers make themselves sick on them. We all grew up with a healthy love for the white man’s version of soul food. Meatloaf is still king in our house.
Huh? I guess 5% is moving toward 30% but that is quite a stretch.
Actually unemployment was down this week for the month, and that is good. I heard oil prices went from $135 a barrel this morning to $131.3 this aft...so I gues the May 28, 2008 mtg in Dallas, TX of the oil barons including Exxon, where they are going to discuss putting all their profits into alternative energies like solar, wind, hydrogen etc may have reached the middle east...I hope they don’t back away if oil comes down this time like last time.
Is this guy really that stupid or just a bad liar? Unemployment in the US is now 5%. In 1933 it was 26%. What a pantload.
Read the whole article - it includes snipes at MSM - and then read the posts on this thread.
You’ll enjoy - trust me;)
>>I think we need photographs of ALL Washington elected officials vehicles...Who OWNS WHAT? Plaster it on U-Tube and mark it as “they won’t drill for oil, but use our Tax Money to drive their SUVS”... Then List every official up for election this year! TIme to put the pressure on FULL BLAST!
Now you’re talking. Time to fight these scum in the gutter before they put us all in debtor’s prison.
What say you, President Ann. Lead the way!
While I agree with the article in most respects,they make one fatal mistake. They accept government statistics as gospel.
I want a show of hands :) on who believes last month’s CPI numbers. Anyone ? Seem just a tad bit low, and what was with the gas prices lower than the month before number. Anyone pay less for gas in April than in March ? Thought not.
Do you know that the GDP depends on the CPI numbers ? So if the CPI was manipulated, do you believe the GDP ? I don’t.
And what’s with the birth/death model numbers on the unemployment report. Does anyone believe that construction jobs in the model rose (IIRC) 45k for the month ?
So while the situation is certainly not GD II as the Dems want you to think, it’s not as rosy as the official numbers would have you believe either.
Whatever you do - avoid this thread - I should have kept movin’ on. I don’t have a clue where this attitude is going to lead - FOOD RIOTS? GAS RIOTS? SUICIDE?
Whatever happened to American ingenuity - looks like it morphed into American insanity.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019295/posts
Sometimes, but my doctor says he has some pills that'll fix it.
What other excuse is there to go hungry?
+++++++++++++++
Jeez, don’t know where to start. The 60” TV, the fully loaded SUV, the extended vacation and then the equity loan on top of that the credit balances just don’t allow for food anymore. This situation cries out for a government bailout for consumers like me who has done all the things my government has asked of me. I’ve shopped and shopped everytime government has asked me to and I have no more than my neighbors so I didn’t exactly splurg. When will this abuse of consumers end?
Yep. He’s already promised us to not be able to afford our SUVs, heat or cool our homes nor eat whatever we want.
He promises to take away not only the chicken, but the pot as well. He promises our lives will be miserable under his administration, yet people are clamoring for him.
Talk about stupidity...
In our house the treat was lima beans and ham hocks, simmered till soft and flavorful,
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Still is a favorite it our house. We do them w/cornbread at least every 10 days or so. Also love SOS (military breakfast dish if you don’t know ) which is creamed hamburger or chipped beef over well done toast or biscuits.
bump for later reading
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM meatloaf! I still like meatloaf and a baked potato with sour cream better than any other Sunday dinner.
Mama could stretch a can of tuna farther than anybody on earth. I still love to eat my tuna mixed with chopped apple chunks, onions, pickles and mayo. Put that in a pita with a lettuce leaf or so and the upscale restaurants would charge you $7.95 for it. (Mama started putting apples in the tuna when eggs got too expensive, I think. Since I don’t like hard boiled eggs, that was fine with me.)
This weekend past I made a pot of baked beans and sausage with an onion and just finished them off last night. With a slice of bread and butter and a cup of frozen veg, my dinner cost me about $1.25 per day. (Just for the heck of it, I figured out that lunch this week cost me $1.35 and breakfast a princely $.45 per day. How is it again that people can’t survive on $500 per month in food stamps?)
Just ask your crying neighbour how much per gallon Starbucks coffee or Evian water costs her. I’m guessing about $20/gallon.
Yes, we've been giving lessons to the young folks about the cost effectiveness of old standbys. You'd be surprised how stunned they are when they realize the savings. Brown bagging it — not a thing of shame, but of cost-effective, calorie conscious meals. They've actually started putting extra against their credit cards and when paid off will put the savings in the bank. We all go, “Duh!” They go, “Wow!” Sigh. Do you think it's some sort of traumatic episode when I was pregnant? Many times I wonder, “What part of Budgeting 101 did I fail to make clear?”
“I still love the stuff. When I was growing up we had it most Saturday nights with the baked beans, but She Who Must Be Obeyed won’t allow it in the house...I have to sneak it up at camp during hunting season!”
....my wife’s not much on it either but I keep a secret stash on the back shelf just in case....same with saltines/sardines/vienna sausages....all handy things to stuff in your pocket on the way out the door to go fishing.
....my mother and I ate Spam during and right after the War because that’s what you could get....I expect many of us got started on Spam because of our parent’s WWII experiances.
How can you make creamed chipped beef on toast healthy? I love it for all the reasons my nutritionist put it on the No No A Thousand Times No List: salt and fat being Exhibits A and B. If you can tell me how to perform this miracle, I will bless your name for sure. (And if there is a low fat, low-salt version of the Hickory Farms Summer Sausage that Mama will no longer buy me for Christmas, please advise.)
I figured out what I spent on food this week and it came to about $4 per day. That’s eating three meals and making three quarts of air-popped popcorn for snack time. I think most fat poor people would benefit from mandatory cooking lessons that would have to be certified by the person handing out the food stamp card.
In fact, last night I saw a piece about a company called Supper Solutions that has the whole concept down pat. No reason why a volunteer kitchen could not do the same. (Google them and see what they do. It’s too long to explain.)
To bring ourselves to the point where we live like our Grandparents would require $8 to $10 a gallon gasoline and all THAT would entail, and even then I don't know that it would take us to that level.
I kind of like the smoked variety and I have to keep it in the house because my grandson loves it. He eats it at least once a week for an afternoon snack. He also likes potted meat and vienna sausage, and I have to say yuk on those even though I grew up on them.
I've substituted roasted garlic humus for cheese spreads, Trisqits (sp?) for fattier crackers (I love the olive oil and cracked pepper). They are really healthy for you and the humus is a high grade source of protein. Ten crackers with a schmear of humus and a small olive on top is very filling, and so yummy.
I can't have much fatty stuff anymore, always had high cholesterol — even when young and thin. I love the Tallapia in the store. There are some great $1.79 Green Giant veggies (2 servings each) and rice is still $1 a packet. Those are great — especially with salsa on top of the fish.
We are eating less red meat, but there are really, really good substitutes. The rotisserie chickens are $5.95 and will feed a family of three easily and both my boys are over 6'2 (one 6'4) and 200 lbs.
Saute mushrooms with Greek seasoning and olive oil and add them to any meat and you've got a winner. My mother only used a small amount of drippings (maybe a tablespoon or less and her cornstarch, salt and pepper to make her thickening. The chipped beef can't be that fattening. Try experimenting with the butter spreads or some other form of oil, or what about low/no fat sour cream and then season the heck out of it. I try the weirdest stuff and amazingly I get compliments on it. Salt substitutes or the other seasons available today are pretty decent.
I got to be pretty good with the sugar substitutes when Mom was so sick with diabetes. She said my apple pies were great (or course, compared to what is the question — nothing?), but others have said the same. They offer brown sugar, as well.
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