On The Up And Up

At the super market the other day, an elderly woman stood in front of a spaghetti sauce shelf, shaking her head. We struck up a conversation and she expressed her concern over rapidly increasing food prices. She was a retired lawyer. I agreed with her. All the basics are slowly becoming luxuries themselves. In the last few years, costs have escalated while pensions have not risen. Someone once snarled at me, "oh, but youhave a pension." Pensions are not free. They are paid for while on the job. My former employer promised to share in my pension when I received it, but now while I still pay into my pension fund for medical and dental care, the employer is gradually backing out and I am having to make up for that reduction. There are no options other than cutting back on expenditures. Those who sneer at people who drive clunkers, wear dated clothing and look old because they can't afford botox and weekly hair appointments, aren't thinking about their own futures. When you leave your work, you give up a lot. You have to live on far less an income and in spite of the time you have for travel and leisure, you don't always have the money to do it. I used to be able to buy a nice little chicken to pop into the oven for around six dollars. Ten dollars more, is the going price for the same bird now.  I have to think about replacing the chicken with parts of  them in an on-sale bargain pack. And not the pricey, responsible consumer product or the organic one. Can't afford that. As to a tin of soup or tuna fish or beans, dig out a five dollar bill. Buying  a house if you live "on-shore", is a fantasy. My parents who were not wealthy, always owned their own house because there was no such thing as a mortgage. Mortgages these days are standard fare. Same with cars. You drive around in a credit vehicle unless you are one of the people who "sold the farm" for a bundle. The days of buying what you can afford are over. It's a credit world, one that must stress people to a huge degree. Most seniors that I know, are getting by on what is considered the poverty level. They don't complain. They're too busy adjusting their lifestyles to meet the demands of the day. To top it off, there are some milleniumer attitudes that are horrific. One young man called into a radio commentary program the other day. He lauded assisted dying legislation and capped it with, "why not spend tax money on we young people who need it,  rather than those old people dying hospices". First off, young people die in hospices, too. Second, I wondered if he were one of the milleniumers who lives at home drawing on his parents' good graces and how he feels about his grandparents' contribution to the society he enjoys. While, the younger employed populace can credit card their dining out, designer labels and foreign cars and cluck their impatient tongues in a supermarket when a little old lady scrounges in her purse for coins, what are they going to think when the boss comes along with a pink slip and an empty cardboard box. "Cost of living" increases on pensions, amount to about 1 or 2 percent. But percent of what? It's one of those jokes you just die laughing over.