Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are a few famous words, a snappy phrase that summed up what the framers of the U.S. Constitution foresaw as the American dream. But these guys in powdered wigs had no idea just how hooked on making ourselves happy we would all become. And now it’s going to cost us - big time.
Is the U.S. in a recession? On the brink of a depression? Just undergoing a period of slow economic growth? Take your pick of terms. All I know is that the little things that make me happy are costing a lot more lately. And while, statistically, average earnings are up slightly (but not at all in my home), the increase in cost of those little things that put a bounce in my step is stumbling off the charts.
Remember when the government and the medical profession told everyone to cut out the candy, chuck the potato chips and chocolate cookies, and switch to fruit and veggies?
We’re supposed to have at least 3 servings of veggies and 2 of fruit each day. Now, after surviving Reese’s Pieces withdrawal and learning to like the snacks that are wrapped by Mother Nature, the price of bananas at my local supermarket has gone up 40% since Valentines Day! The apple-a-day that’s supposed to keep the doctor away sets me back a buck!
A loaf of store-brand white bread has had 3 price increases since Christmas, up a whopping 35%. An onion, to me, just an accoutrement and not a real food, costs as much as an orange, here in Florida. Eggs, canned and frozen vegetables, milk and other dairy products have also seen huge price spikes.
The root of this evil increase is high oil prices. It costs more for farmers to operate their tractors and harvesters, more to get the items processed and packed, and more to ship everything at each stage of distribution. But there is an evil twin, too. It’s the push to promote ethanol.
If you could make 10 dollars per acre growing wheat and 20 dollars growing corn… Duh!
Since corn is people food, cattle and poultry food and the source of sweetness in everything from soft drinks to salad dressing, the demand is already high. Using precious farmland to produce fuel is a lose-lose proposition and another obstacle on my road to happiness.
I’ve become spoiled and partly to blame for my own financial misery. I bought into the global economy deal and delighted in eating out-of-season produce. When I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s, green grapes in summer were such a treat. It was so special when peaches, pears, plums and other natural goodies appeared each June. But in recent years, supermarkets have been selling produce from South America during the winter. And with fuel costs up so much, the pear from Argentina and the grapes from Chile that I have enjoyed on the coldest and darkest December days have become luxury items beyond my budget.
Whine not, want not. I have banana plants in my backyard that yielded a dozen delectable specimens last September. But that still leaves another 51 weeks of buying bananas. I also know that buying locally grown produce is the way to go. But a trip to the farmers market uses about a gallon of gas.
It doesn’t take much to make me happy. But between the cost of gas just to go shopping and the price of produce and the other stuff that keep me going, it’s getting harder to be a happy camper.