Inflation - How is it affecting you?

[neorichieb1971]

Population decline is kindof the elephant in the room and is what is needed. The only problem is decline is not setting in in all regions at the same pace, so that'll give huge problems in the next decades.

But the financial systems use the youngsters to tax pay the elders. Japan is currently printing money through the ass to bolster up the shortfall. Japan's culture and isolation is at threat if it carries on as they will have to let foreigners in in droves to keep itself a float or become a downgraded state.

With so few newborns it makes me wonder why space is such a huge issue in Japan you would think school classes are getting smaller, bigger homes are dropping in prices.

Capitalism is broken through greed. It only works if you can afford the essentials with a normal average paid job and the rest takes care of itself. If you fuck people over with food, energy and shelter prices that has massive consequences for the whole country. Thats what Governments are for, to think ahead, to balance things when they go of the rails. But from what I can see governments don't do that and when it goes wrong they protect the capitalists that fund them and let the rest go to shit.

[BryanM]

We really have a weird relationship with money. The underlaying value is the labor itself, and money is used to direct our behavior. Without the kids to take care of the elderly, well. Thank god for mechanized farming right, that'll keep us alive no matter what the farmer ratio is. As long as it lasts.

The AI thing is completely beyond the average person's imagination as something that could really happen. If they finally move on from GPU's (and the early proof of concepts has started to move capital in that direction, now that they know there really could be a return) to brain-like architectures, the value of human labor really can nosedive to $0 very rapidly in the next decade or two. Whatever that would mean, well.

I dunno. Ran across a Facebook stan yesterday raving about how hundreds of millions of people are going to be using their metaverse product some day. The rampant fanboyism and inability to really see what that world would have to look like for those events to happen... argh.

Facebook: annual net income of 11.58 billion. Stock market cap, 855.12 billion. Ford, 6.276 billion net income. Market cap, 44.07 billion.

[GaijinPunch]

What the hell? I went in August to Japan (too hot but thats another story) I never saw much extragavance in prices like that (except games). I always thought Japan is losing population because of home sizes and prices.

That's b/c you took pounds which are worth a lot against the yen, and which are given out more generously by UK companies compared to yen by Japanese companies . It's easy to look from the outside and think things are cheap, but Japanese companies are super stingy. One has to be frugal there unless you have a lot of dough. When I take my freedom dollars these days I look like a rock star.

The backpack I was referring to was the "randsel" that they use for school, typically. And it's basically part of the uniform so there's zero freedom of choice for most schools. One *should* last all of junior high, then I believe another all through high school. But that's still ridiculous. Get a $30 one and run it into the ground. Then get another. Still cheaper with less risk of losing something expensive.

I think Japan has its own cultural issues with sex, relationships, socializing and stuff like that on top of its economic woes which seem to get worse by the month. I don't really understand the economic part though

You just answered the topic yourself: think of all of those things (including the economic bit) and then add on children. Here's a nugget that Google spit out quite quickly, from Aljazeera.

"Japan is the third most expensive country to raise a child, behind only China and South Korea, despite infamously stagnant wages. The average annual salary, which has barely increased since the late 1990s, is about $39,000, compared with an OECD average of almost $50,000."

I'm ready to buy Japanese product but it needs to be cheaper. I used to own flagship Pioneer Hi fi equipment, Sony Trinitrons and Panasonic camcorders. I don't own any of that now. So I can imagine other folk might have gone down that same road.

You're looking at this through a very personal, micro lens. Look through the macro. The fact is, Japanese companies are well documented as paying very low. Accompany that with long hours (yes, even still, despite the reputation that that's going away). Now accompany that with the extreme difficulty in the female part of the family getting a job that will allow her to bring home enough money to cover child care and have some left over (21.1% less than the male counterpart according to the article above).

As you said, Toyotas are everywhere. Middle class life in Japan is pretty fucking amazing. That isn't the argument though. The argument is the cost of having children and why Japan is always in the headline with their declining birth rates.

[GaijinPunch]

With so few newborns it makes me wonder why space is such a huge issue in Japan you would think school classes are getting smaller, bigger homes are dropping in prices.

It's only an issue in Tokyo, b/c people still move their from the country side in droves. The problem in the countryside is depopulation, and it's a massive problem. You can get land/houses for almost nothing if you're willing to live a decent distance from Tokyo.

[neorichieb1971]

When I was in Japan I got bowed to a lot. When I went into the game shop "Friends" in Akiba I pushed 30k to 40k across the desk as they only took cash. I guess I was kind of a rockstar in a way.

But yeah, it didn't go unnoticed how miserable the folk are on the trains and buses were looking.

I have a family member in Japan who is now pregnant. She told me I spent more on games than her months rent. I will admit I was oblivious to low earnings, high costs etc. All I see in Japan is a metropolis of beauty everywhere. So I don't understand how ones garden can look like a island paradise, every car, taxi, bus and train as clean as a whistle and everyone be struggling. I mean struggling people live in place where buildings look derelict, public services crumbling and services barely working. Japan has certainly got silk lining for a rotten core.

[BulletMagnet]

Japan's culture and isolation is at threat if it carries on as they will have to let foreigners in in droves to keep itself a float or become a downgraded state.

This reminds me of when Rob was screaming his head off about a UN press release which suggested that increased immigration from countries with much younger populations could help those with aging populations - he insisted this was proof positive of the global plot for WHITE GENOCIDE, though I imagine his Japanese isolationist counterparts - or, for that matter, "nationalists" from literally anywhere else on Earth - could carry on quite the spirited conversation with him on that front.

One can only wonder if the need to keep their economies running will eventually overpower their cultural superiority narrative. They'll never in a million years acknowledge it if it does, but it'll still be fun to point and laugh.

[GaijinPunch]

When I was in Japan I got bowed to a lot. When I went into the game shop "Friends" in Akiba I pushed 30k to 40k across the desk as they only took cash. I guess I was kind of a rockstar in a way.

But yeah, it didn't go unnoticed how miserable the folk are on the trains and buses were looking.

I have a family member in Japan who is now pregnant. She told me I spent more on games than her months rent. I will admit I was oblivious to low earnings, high costs etc. All I see in Japan is a metropolis of beauty everywhere. So I don't understand how ones garden can look like a island paradise, every car, taxi, bus and train as clean as a whistle and everyone be struggling. I mean struggling people live in place where buildings look derelict, public services crumbling and services barely working. Japan has certainly got silk lining for a rotten core.

Nobody said they were struggling though. Many are not struggling b/c they are not having kids. You're taking some western preconceived notions and applying them to something that just doesn't fit. I said a few posts ago that quality of life in Japan is high. (This is probably why nothing ever changes). But the statistic show that people are not having kids for one reason or another, and the data points to a society that lacks flexibility.

One can only wonder if the need to keep their economies running will eventually overpower their cultural superiority narrative. They'll never in a million years acknowledge it if it does, but it'll still be fun to point and laugh.

Japan has come to this realization. It is a piece of cake to get permanent residence (without a kid or spouse) if you're highly educated. I knew someone that got one in 3 years of residence. This was unheard of when I first immigrated. It's not like the flood gates are open. Life is still challenging for blue collar workers starting with the visa process, and ending sometime just seconds before death. But progress has been made on that front.

[BryanM]

So I don't understand how ones garden can look like a island paradise, every car, taxi, bus and train as clean as a whistle and everyone be struggling. I mean struggling people live in place where buildings look derelict, public services crumbling and services barely working.

It is an alien planet over there. There is in fact no reason the poorest people in a country can't live in a place that looks nice. "There's no rule that says a dog can't play basketball!"

Guess it doesn't hurt that internet cafes, old subways, and capsule hotels make being homeless a bit more viable. It's a far cry from New York where they put death spikes everywhere, don't put chairs in bus/train stations, and the gestapo will come to kill you if you try to sit on the floor.

Nobody said they were struggling though. Many are not struggling b/c they are not having kids.

That's the same as anywhere: giving up on having kids, living with their parents until death, etc. If someone isn't living the lifestyle they would have wished for, something reasonable like the same deal their parents or grandparents got, I would categorize that as a struggle. These doomer memes don't come from a happy place.

It's like those polls where people say the financial situation of the country as a whole is "bad" at 70%. But say that their own situation is "alright" by ~60%. Setting aside the fact people willing to take the time to answer a poll probably are doing better than the median.. "alright" probably just means "not living in the street+not starving".

There's also a massive positivity bias. Nobody wants to hear someone else's problems. Nobody wants to get dragged down by a drowning man. You're not gonna get a job by making other people feel sad or uncomfortable. Nobody wants to be miserable, and their brains will rewire themselves to accept their current lot in life. Works great, unless something breaks and you end up turning into that lady slamming her purse against a post and having a massive meltdown in public.

Since I started visiting Twitter this year (it's the designated place where the AI bozos aiming to be the new gods of the world will talk to us directly), I've really been exposed to the venture capital types who are money addicts hustling nonstop. They have an uncanny valley aura of positivity at all times.

When they're ruthlessly attacking one another, they actually go beyond the normal level of positivity to the point where even they get it. Altman's recent comments against Ilya:

I love and respect Ilya, I think he's a guiding light of the field and a gem of a human being. I harbor zero ill will towards him.

While Ilya will no longer serve on the board, we hope to continue our working relationship and are discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI"

Just ruthlessly savage. I've never seen anyone show so much hate on the internet.

[GaijinPunch]

Guess it doesn't hurt that internet cafes, old subways, and capsule hotels make being homeless a bit more viable. It's a far cry from New York where they put death spikes everywhere, don't put chairs in bus/train stations, and the gestapo will come to kill you if you try to sit on the floor.

Those homeless generally have jobs though. They are a far cry from the homeless in the US. You can also go to a public bath for a few bucks. Japanese do have bonafied homeless (eg, living in a tent) but they are quite tucked away, and in true Japanese form, there is a structure to their community so they keep them small enough to not draw too much attention.

That's the same as anywhere: giving up on having kids, living with their parents until death, etc.

Japan has redefined it though, and it's not as new. Living w/ parents is more of a cultural thing and most definitely not new. I'm sure with limited funds it lends itself to the current economic climate as well.

If someone isn't living the lifestyle they would have wished for, something reasonable like the same deal their parents or grandparents got, I would categorize that as a struggle. These doomer memes don't come from a happy place.

People in the demographic we're discussing have grandparents that raped and pillaged the majority of Asia. My (ex) mother-in-law told me about how her mother swaddled her and ran into a cave when the air raid sirens went off. The generation after that worked 80 hours a week and loved it. I'm merely pointing this out b/c the world changes so picking and choosing things to add to the benchmark of "the same deal" is unrealistic.

Middle class life in Japan is very high quality. It's just that having a kid makes it difficult - more so than in many other nations. Almost every other single aspect of life is orders of magnitude easier and better than the previous two generations though. You win some you lose some, I guess.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Population decline is kind of the elephant in the room and is what is needed. The only problem is decline is not setting in in all regions at the same pace, so that'll give huge problems in the next decades.

Yeah, there's an unwillingness globally to address the problem that the Earth realistically has a finite capacity of people it can reasonably sustain without some kind of willingness to maintain a stable population. Any attempts at discussion about this (or even merely human-caused climate change) results in hand-wringing about eugenics or saying you're making wild doomsday claims. Of course, it's important to address because it's entirely possible to go past a point of no return in terms of climate change but for it not to result in a mass human extinction for several centuries beyond that... but many people can't be bothered to muster the empathy to even care for future generations within a few decades' time, let alone be bothered to care about stopping a disaster whose full impacts may not be felt for many centuries later.

It's not even a localized regional thing, there are several major religions that preach that women must be denied birth control and be made to reproduce as frequently as possible, essentially existing for the purposes of childbearing in order to build, maintain, and spread those religious communities far and wide. And since birth rates tend to decline the higher the education level, economic status, people who value things like secularism or at least the separation of state and theology tend not to reproduce at the same rate as groups that think that misogynistic rule under an oppressive theocracy would be just splendid.

Of course, I have no idea what a fair and equitable solution to having a stable birthrate that doesn't tax the planet's resources while maintaining a sufficient workforce to keep infrastructure functioning. A lottery system seems entirely too dystopian, and that's before getting into what to do about unplanned pregnancies.

[BryanM]

Any attempts at discussion about this (or even merely human-caused climate change) results in hand-wringing about eugenics or saying you're making wild doomsday claims.

Focusing on the number of people instead of oil or fresh water consumption, then yeah it is something the eugenics people do actually say.

Focusing on the resources, well. You're fundamentally trying to get people to give up cars and electricity. You might as well be screaming down a well for how well that'd go.

I almost have a drop of sympathy for the Davos illuminati meetings where they're like "well, looks like humanity's fucked. Heehee." They're as bound by the systems they've made as everyone else is.

[neorichieb1971]

I spend a lot of time in the Phlippines and the general word I receive is that contraception is against the catholic church of something of that nature.

So everyone has 3 or 4 children and outside of Metro Manila the population is really poor. Buses and trains packed like cattle and pollution is sky high. In Manila they have a rule that trucks are not allowed in the city during the day, so after about 18:00 the trucks come out and the traffic is just as bad as in the day at 3am.

I find it amazing that Philippines and Japan/Hong Kong are neighbors but the living standards in the Philippines is shite for most. When you look at population condensation figures for countries it definitely rings true that less density equals higher living standards in most countries. I think Japan bucks the trend a bit.

The problem with population of the Earth is that most of it is concentrated in Asia between Phillipines, Japan, China, India. I think the rest of the world is sustainable.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Focusing on the number of people instead of oil or fresh water consumption, then yeah it is something the eugenics people do actually say.

Focusing on the resources, well. You're fundamentally trying to get people to give up cars and electricity. You might as well be screaming down a well for how well that'd go.

I'd like to think it isn't entirely hopeless. Yes, we're a long way out it seems from curbing our dependence on oil and gasoline, on improving fresh water availability, on reducing fresh water wastage, on improving mass public transit so that cars aren't something we're societally dependent on... and if all those things were addressed, it'd still be true that the Earth theoretically only supports a finite amount of humans realistically. I agree we do have a hell of a lot of other issues to be focused on first and would result in more productive change to address those rather than focus on the # of people on the planet.

I spend a lot of time in the Phlippines and the general word I receive is that contraception is against the catholic church of something of that nature.

One of the most evil faces of the Catholic Church in recent times is Mother Teresa, who used her undeserved status of benevolent figure to pal around with dictators and claimed during her speech when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 that the greatest threat to world peace is women "murdering their unborn children" by getting abortions, a false claim made by the religious used to decry abortions, many of which are done for medical reasons due to a non-viable fetus developing that puts the mother at risk. Look at the United States: they outlawed abortions in the name of Jesus and now women who have these medical conditions that require an abortion as competent healthcare to save her life are forced to get back-alley abortions so as not to risk death. It's no surprise that religions have promoted this idea that even mere contraceptives such as condoms are against the will of their inept, power-mad gods, as this ensures a constant flow of more poorly educated fresh members to the flock from which to obtain tithes to further enrich the religion's coffers.

[neorichieb1971]

One of the most evil faces of the Catholic Church in recent times is Mother Teresa, who used her undeserved status of benevolent figure to pal around with dictators and claimed during her speech when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 that the greatest threat to world peace is women "murdering their unborn children" by getting abortions, a false claim made by the religious used to decry abortions, many of which are done for medical reasons due to a non-viable fetus developing that puts the mother at risk. Look at the United States: they outlawed abortions in the name of Jesus and now women who have these medical conditions that require an abortion as competent healthcare to save her life are forced to get back-alley abortions so as not to risk death. It's no surprise that religions have promoted this idea that even mere contraceptives such as condoms are against the will of their inept, power-mad gods, as this ensures a constant flow of more poorly educated fresh members to the flock from which to obtain tithes to further enrich the religion's coffers.

I actually lost an American friend over the whole abortion thing. She went fucking mental on me as soon as I said something about using contraception, voting in politicians that back your claims up. It sounded like she was in a ring of women who detested any man that had even a 1% counter argument about abortion. Don't get me wrong I believe in womens rights especially with abortion but I've always been conservative with my reproductive organs. I never have sex under the influence of drugs or alchohol. I had one son and stopped it going any further. I have work colleagues that have multiple children and one of them openly admits to being under the influence when all his kids were conceived. I really don't understand people that cannot control themselves. Of course my son and my 2 step children all had offspring around 20 years of age so my wisdom went absolutely fucking nowhere. On the plus side I have 4 amazing grandkids now.

But yeah it amazes me what comes up on voting agenda in the USA. I mean the vagina is up there with immigration and the cost of living.

[SuperDeadite]

Btw, recently some banks here in Japan have started offering 50 year housing mortgages. Yes, 50 fucking years. Desperate Times....

[neorichieb1971]

What puzzles me is why the USA dollar is so strong right now. One of the factors that makes UK/Japan living so expensive is that dollar shooting for the stars.

Maybe its that the UK/JP is weak right now rather than the dollar being strong. I've previously been a fan of the dollar been in the £1 to $1.60 range but at $1.26 ish we get crippled on fuel which puts everything else up.

Then you have OPEC that are deliberately pushing up prices by cutting production. One of the factors might be EV's getting a bigger % of the market these days which I see as a good thing.

I can't help but think those countries that can sting the USA are pushing those sting buttons in the right order right now.

[neorichieb1971]

Btw, recently some banks here in Japan have started offering 50 year housing mortgages. Yes, 50 fucking years. Desperate Times....

I've always said, Capitalism only works when a standard job pays for shelter, energy and food. When you treat those 3 things like an iPhone or a PS5 where you can only get it if you can afford it the rest crumbles around you.

I've had my house since 2014 I think. I've not done many upgrades to the house because the bills are just so damn high. When you push the cost of living through the roof the standard of everything goes into decline.

I could stop going on vacation 3x a year, but life is for living and your house is just where you live. I know Americans largely work the opposite, always having the best house possible at the expense of going anywhere. I have no idea what Japanese do but my guess is that they are like Americans are not many Japanese travel I think only a few thousand visit the UK every year.

[GaijinPunch]

What puzzles me is why the USA dollar is so strong right now. One of the factors that makes UK/Japan living so expensive is that dollar shooting for the stars.

It had the strongest monetary tightening. It's actually very obvious for a change.

JPY on the other hand had BY FAR the weakest stance on inflation, hence it's value being where it is.

[neorichieb1971]

What puzzles me is why the USA dollar is so strong right now. One of the factors that makes UK/Japan living so expensive is that dollar shooting for the stars.

It had the strongest monetary tightening. It's actually very obvious for a change.

JPY on the other hand had BY FAR the weakest stance on inflation, hence it's value being where it is.

That it may have, but the UK £ has been tightened as well. My interest rate jumped from 1.6 to 5.0 recently and its gone up since then as well.. I understand Japan but thats not the reason across the board.

[GaijinPunch]

That it may have, but the UK £ has been tightened as well. My interest rate jumped from 1.6 to 5.0 recently and its gone up since then as well.. I understand Japan but thats not the reason across the board.

It 120% is the reason. There's no magik here, at all. In fact the recent strengthening of the yen is b/c the BoJ is expected to finally lay off the dovish stance.

[neorichieb1971]

According to Lena - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T5olOvRWGU&t=299s

The USA is spending $300 Billion more a month than it makes on taxes in the same time.
Net interest is rising up above some of the other commodity costs like defense spending.

I've been hearing these alarm bells for 18 months now or even more than that, but it just gets worse and worse. Surely, at some point the debt has to become a voting issue.
Britain lost its way in WW2 and bankrupted itself. Is this history repeating itself?

Is the USA building a house of cards?

[GaijinPunch]

Check this out and sort by % of GDP. This is not new though, and has little impact on the FX rates apparently. To be fair, there are tons of factors. Right now, there is really just one though, and that's the interest rates (or lack thereof in Japan's case).

[vol.2]

Honestly inflation is kicking my ass. Especially the cost of groceries is insane. It's now like, idk, $400/month to feed myself or something, and that's mostly just eating at home. God forbid I'm factoring in even a couple night outs at a restaurant. Two people is now like $100 for a decent (not expensive) place. It's like $15 per person for fast food. Also I had to buy a used car a couple years ago and the payments are huge.

Anyways it's pretty awful and screwy and bad. I finished paying off a huge student loan like 2 years ago and my monthly expenses are actually higher than pre pandemic even factoring that payment in.

Buy a house. HA. Nope not here. Maybe I will if I get remarried (which is possible), but we'll see.

[neorichieb1971]

Honestly inflation is kicking my ass. Especially the cost of groceries is insane. It's now like, idk, $400/month to feed myself or something, and that's mostly just eating at home. God forbid I'm factoring in even a couple night outs at a restaurant. Two people is now like $100 for a decent (not expensive) place. It's like $15 per person for fast food. Also I had to buy a used car a couple years ago and the payments are huge.

Anyways it's pretty awful and screwy and bad. I finished paying off a huge student loan like 2 years ago and my monthly expenses are actually higher than pre pandemic even factoring that payment in.

Buy a house. HA. Nope not here. Maybe I will if I get remarried (which is possible), but we'll see.

I was expecting more people like you to respond. Its qute sad that people end up in this situation. I know people that just stay indoors, watch TV, pirate everything and just pay bills. My friend just put all his savings into a property and is now sleeping on a mattress because he can't afford a bed to go with it. He won't invite me around until he sorts that out which understandable.

I'm seeing a lot of people really struggle lately. Just mentally speaking its scary just to turn the heating on.

[Sima Tuna]

Eating out is something I don't do. Even fast food is now $7 per person on the low end. The dollar menu graduated to the $2 and up menu. A lot of "fast food" or greasy spoon sit-down places are as expensive as the old mid-tier priced places were. Considering how much the cost of food has risen overall, when you factor the additional costs of convenience and paying someone else to prepare your food, it's not worth it to me. If I look around, I can still sometimes find food on sale that's *close* to the pre-pandemic prices. Still higher, but y'know... In the ballpark. $2 loaves of bread instead of the old $1 loaves of bread. But that's a hell of a lot better than a $5 loaf of bread!

Some stuff hasn't increased in price. Sardines now are the same price they always were (maybe an average of 20 cents more). Guess nobody likes little fish? Good for me though. I think it's mostly the "unusual" foods that have retains their price. You can't exactly price gouge with foods a large portion of your customer base refuse to touch. Fruit is more expensive yeah, but it's not like... Massively more. If you buy in-season or on-sale, $1.50 a pound is approachable. Less for bananas of course. Bananas are still cheap thanks to slave labor. Gob bless ameriga. >_>

All these words to say those prices get jacked into the fucking stratosphere if you try to buy the same shit from a restaurant. Even fast food. Way higher prices for the same or worse quality food. Doordash and Grubhub tack on even more charges for lazy shits with more money than sense (and also for disabled people, which does suck).

[BryanM]

Liver used to be my affordable animal flesh lifehack, I pretty sure it's gone up here too.

The internet doesn't make checking this particular record exactly easy. Does anyone know of any index that actually tracks this sort of thing? Search engines have been pretty useless, and the LM's are even worse oracles at this topic.

[neorichieb1971]

I have found post pandemic that my will to leave the house is somewhat not there anymore. At times it costs £100 to fill my car up with fuel, the energy and food prices are higher and our town center is just charity shops and recycle shops for the most part due to the online world shutting everything down. We have Christmas decor up in my home town and there isn't anybody around it these days, its just an empty space of flashing lights and big a massive tree and if you're lucky you'll see a bunch of people smoking weed on the benches.

So the only reason to go out is the Movie theater (Cinema) and eat out and shopping for groceries. Which if you compare my lifestyle to pre covid is night and day different. I used to go out with my camera and film/photograph things and was out quite a bit. I used to plan my day forward and set an itinerary and just do it. My job will come to an end soon as I work in Data centers which is a dying trade unless you live where cloud centers live and I don't live anywhere near those. Since the covid thing I am able to work from home as well on occasion about 6 times a month which is good for the fuel bill but you use part of that with your heating on and your own electricity.

My friends are a lot less well off than me so they don't go anywhere at all. Its not that they are poor or anything but they don't have a multi income household like I do. My wife is extremely good with money and I earn enough on my own to see things through right now. So anything she earns is just cream on the cake.

But yeah I am feeling a social crush on my life right now and I only really adventure anymore when I'm on vacation/holidays. I remember 20 years ago I used to drive home on a Friday evenings and the clubs/bars would be opening and people flocking in every direction in the young age groups, but nowadays its just winos.

I really think in some walks of life that social media is the only outlet left where you can have a way to express yourself.

[vol.2]

That's sad. Things have definitely come back to life in Baltimore. It's not totally up to pre pandemic in all ways, but it is in most. I think that's why I like it here; even though it's a relatively small city with a low population, there's basically always something to do during the week. We have lots of music, art and poetry if you're into those things. We have athletic groups that go on group bike rides and play soccer (football) and disc golf, and even kayaking groups that go out on the bay. You can rent a kayak for like $15 and go out for a whole evening when it's warm outside and there are a bunch of people out there with you. Once a month we have bike party, which is a huge event where people of all ages gather and go on like a 3 hour ride through the city together. At the end, people hang out in the park together. There is all kinds of stuff like that for people of all types.

Are there not things like this where you live? If you love photography, maybe there is a photography group in your area?

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I'm so tired of having to be super careful with my spending. Gas prices are eating up any spare dough I used to have. Always have to look out for a deal for any basic purchase. Pants, shoes, anything. Trying to not get hosed at grocery store is like trying to navigate a minefield.

Sam's club is where I do most of my grocery shopping now. They have really fair prices on most things and give out gift cards with memberships making the membership essentially free. Seems like with most of their stuff I can get the club size of whatever for the same price as the standard size at the regular grocery stores.

But yeah. I'm just barely making it every month. Any emergency expenses like car repairs, appliance failures, etc. just get put on credit cards that I can't ever get paid off. And then the cycle starts over again every month.

Taxes increases are just brutal and feel really unfair with the way things are going. I mean people are struggling enough already and then taxes get shot up on top of everything.

[vol.2]

Yeah, I shop at Costco and that's the only way I can afford anything like good cheese. I can buy a huge block of high quality cheddar for like the price of two small store brand blocks at the grocery store. Lidl is also excellent for deals. They have staples for pretty cheap, and things like jams and such for half the price of a normal grocery store. There is one close to my office, but I don't go into the office very much anymore because it's almost an hour away from my apartment and gas prices!