Inflation is hurting many!

I wrote it maybe 22 years ago, for a writing class at Uni. Shuggie's colleague in the story, might interest you, too. Tiberius Walker, a pimp with a sixteen-cylinder Marmon and a razor- mark like a one-sided tribal scar on his cheek. Terrifying fella! The assignment was to write like someone else - and I chose Richard Wright, the Black novelist who wrote "Lawd Today, " "Black Boy" and others. It's somewhere in the pile or on an old floppy - or both. I'll try to dig it out for you.

Sometimes, when I lie down and close my eyes, angels appear. Sometimes, devils. I never know when and I never know which to expect. But they keep coming. More as I get older.

 

I think where higher fuel prices will have a major impact, is on the part-time employee. The adjunct faculty that drives two to three times a week to a local college to get paid a pittance or the part-timer who moonlights a shift or two. The cost of gasoline for the secondary income/spare change job isn't worth the time or effort for the hourly rate earned. Couple that with a parent that needs someone to care for a child, and the part-time employee becomes obsolete! Perhaps more telecommuting jobs will emerge but a lot of companies rely on on-site part-time employees to make the business model work. When you make a few extra bucks to see it go into paying taxes and fill a tank of gas, the part-time job becomes less appealing.

 

If the working poor suddenly can't afford to keep their jobs - up goes the welfare count.

 

Not necessarily. At least, not in the US. It's harder and harder to get help when you need it. Mostly by direct design, sometimes indirectly through lack of funding. What you eventually wind up with is more people going to jail because they're doing things like stealing or selling drugs to avoid starving to death.

 

Yes - it's a tougher and tougher place. I don't go there any more. No picnic here, either, these days. First time I saw security guards in supermarkets was during COVID - making sure people observed lockdown rules - max. no. of people etc. Now, most stores seem to have kept one or two - to catch thieves. Not uncommon to see a guard chasing someone across the parking lot, who's running with a case of veggies or some roast beef etc. A sign of the times.

 

If baby food formula shortage is not enough, now there is a shortage of women hygiene products due to low cutton crops.
Gas prices keep rising as well.
Crime like store theft and rubbery also on the rise.
Fed is going to announce rate hike.

 

Well, ain't you jest a li'l ol' ray of sunshine, Lerner?

 

Yes, did a mistake while was running errands and driving around I made a mistake listening to the AM news channel.
I have a great music in my car, will take a break from news that are mostly depressing.
Gun violence, robberies, prices going up, product shortages to name a few.
But love my country and hope for better times.
My son dropped his dogs for me to dog seat, and these rascals put a smile on my face right away.

 

With gas prices soaring, I prefer the four 10s or three 12 hour shifts. This saves lots of wasted time commuting, and reduces the carbon footprint. It gives me quality time off and one to two less commutes a week. Nursing profession seems to accommodate this type of scheduling (three 12, or three 12 alternate four 12). Not sure what other professions could adapt? It could potentially cut energy expenditure by 10 to 15 percent while reducing highway traffic. Kind of like a daylight savings time initiative designed to save energy. Even better, couple this with telecommuting when able.

 

The keyword is “grueling.” I’ve worked schedules like that before only to find I need 2 to 3 days to recover. However, I see the appeal of having a nice vacation every month.

 

A friend of ours a surgical nurse works 3 days a week 12 hour shifts, a single mom with two early teens boys. In the spare time she earned MSN degree and MBA, now working toward NP.

 

She is a heroine! Supporting a family, taking care of patients and oursuing higher education.

Interesting article on nurse shortage in CT as a result of burnout.https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-nurses-shortage-connecticut-20220612-u7zndkx35beqpfdhxdegef2ilu-story.html

 

...In a recovery ward?

 

Iowa just lopped 10 weeks off the unemployment benefits, which were already paltry (26 weeks is standard in the US, but the maximum benefit in Iowa was $651 a week which required making over $50K a year and having 4 dependents.) Now you only get that benefit for 16 weeks and you need to accept a job paying 90% of your previous salary if offered to you within a week. That drops to 80% after three weeks, 75% after five weeks and 60% after eight weeks.

So someone making $50K would be forced to accept a job making $30K after 8 weeks on unemployment. I think this is short-sighted, given that the income and sales tax revenue the state is losing by having you take the lower job.

 

Lumber prices are down 50% year to date. There's an old saying, "don't fight the fed."

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/lumber-prices-housing-affordability-declining-fed-interest-rate-hikes-2022-6

A US Senator said that "in my state, the price of gas is so high that it would be cheaper to buy cocaine and just run everywhere." LOL.

 

Interesting that the article associates falling lumber prices with tightening of the home market and fewer homes being sold. Unless I missed it I didn't see that explained. If folks aren't going to buy a new home perhaps it's more likely they would decide to remodel their existing home increasing lumber demand rather than decreasing it? Or, maybe less mortgage refinancing and getting cash out to remodel lowering lumber demand? I guess their argument though is that fewer new homes are being built?

 

Very true - plus, plywood etc. increased dramatically during COVID days - near the start. Short supply due to manufacturing and shipping bottlenecks. Perhaps those eased somewhat and prices fell accordingly, to somewhere nearer normal. Plywood price seems to me to be the "canary in the mineshaft" in all sorts of economic twists and turns. It's been that way as long as I can remember. Probably some PhD in economics has done a diss. on that.

 

"I bought cardboard when it was 14 cents a ton. And it's up to 16 cents now...and I bought three tons of it, so let's see...well, you do the math...and I made a special deal where I only have to keep two tons of it at my house." -- Steve Martin

 

MoneyWatch CBS NEWS
Inflation dipped in August, but remains stubbornly high

By Irina Ivanova

Updated on: September 13, 2022 / 6:50 PM / MoneyWatch

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Inflation in August slowed for a second straight month, although prices remain near a four-decade high as costs for items such as food and rent continue to climb.

The Consumer Price Index increased 8.3% in the past 12 months, as rising prices for groceries, shelter and medical care offset tumbling gasoline prices. The last inflation data amounts to a slight dip from July's 8.5% jump, but was higher than economists had expected, showing prices remain uncomfortably high.

Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and fuel prices, rose 6.3%, up from 5.9% in July.

Price levels continue to increase, they aren't slowing down month-over month (e.g. accelerating, not decelerating) and this inflation problem isn't going away quietly," Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at the Independent Advisor Alliance, said in a note.

MoneyWatch
Inflation dipped in August, but remains stubbornly high

By Irina Ivanova

Updated on: September 13, 2022 / 6:50 PM / MoneyWatch

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inflation-cpi-report-consumer-price-index-august-2022-09-13/