LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 10/02/07
I barely made the resort's "early bird" deadline, just before the season pass price was due to go up. But I was shocked when told that this year's "discount" price was $1,150. That's a 15% increase. I also realized I can't buy new skis this year; the ones I want are 40% more expensive than they were last year.
I was already in sticker shock over other price increases. I love the inexpensive French bread baked by most grocery stores. At the beginning of summer, a fresh baked loaf cost a buck at any of the chain stores that sell it. Now it's $1.50. That's a 50% increase in just three months. How about milk? Hasn't the price of milk nearly doubled in the last year? And despite our brief grumbles, we seem to have accepted the fact that the price of gas has nearly tripled in just a few years
None of this is happening behind our backs. We all pay for food, most of us pay for gas, and many of us pay property taxes. So we all know that prices are not just climbing, they are leaping and soaring. But it's being treated like a secret.
What have you heard about the way the price of everything is going up? Is anybody talking about the economy? Are there major news stories suggesting we are heading for a depression or a recession or inflation or some other national financial disaster? Are there any news stories about the economy at all?
No. Amazingly, shockingly, no. It's a story that is affecting all our lives, yet it is not even being mentioned. A has-been pop singer's babies make headlines, but there is no news at all about what looks like an impending financial disaster in America, something that will seriously hurt you, your family and everyone you know.
The signs are there, they have been there for years. When gasoline started its price hike, there was a clear sign of things to come: everything we use and buy is shipped from somewhere else, and we drive to the store to get it. The cost of higher fuel affects everything; from grain shipped in to feed meat animals to use of the tillers with which farmers plow their fields.
The sub-prime mortgage fiasco has been big news, with predictions that it might drag down the economy, vague warnings with little real alarm.
But at the same time, there is another sub-prime story which is being absolutely ignored: credit cards. Banks have been offering sub-prime credit cards to people with poor credit for years. Just like sub-prime mortgages that borrowers can't pay for, many sub-prime credit card borrowers won't be able to pay back their debt. The cards may say "Visa" or "Mastercard," but they are issued by banks. In the case of credit cards, there is no collateral, such as a house, to fall back on. The banks will be stuck. They will have no way to cover their losses.
Now for the biggie: the cost of our actions in Iraq. Eyes glaze over when we hear of the billions per month---yes, billions per month, but of course you knew that---being spent outside of America, with no accounting to the American people of exactly where all this money---made up of our taxes---is going. Of course, this is not counting the cost of supporting the many thousands of troops who have been seriously injured and will have to be supported for the rest of their lives, or the pensions that must be paid for many more decades to the spouses and children of those who have died in action. Did you know about those pensions? Some are still being paid from the Vietnam war. Of course, let us not forget the large population of those ready to begin collecting social security; who will also be needing the increased services of taxpayer funded medicare.
It goes without saying that America is very, very deeply in debt already---you've heard of the deficit, right? That is debt. Did you know that debt is a salable commodity, and that China---yes, China---has been buying up American debt? Will someone please predict the obvious outcome of that?
Where are the investigative stories, the editorials, the discussions? Why is none of this headline news? What is the mainstream media thinking? Why is this all being ignored; by the media and by us, the public?
I'm glad I was able to afford a season pass this year. I don't know about next year. But I do know that money makes the world go 'round, and America's power has always been based, in large part, on American wealth. I look at the sub-prime credit card fiasco that's yet to hit, and at banks foreclosing on homes that become expensive white elephants because no one can afford them, and billions going to the Middle East for the oil we buy plus the war we are waging, and I can only think of one thing: that a few years from now, people all over the world will be shaking their heads and saying, "It was done without a shot. They fell without a shot ever being fired."
Wina Sturgeon