This past Memorial Day weekend was reported to be the busiest travel weekend in history. How can that be? With all the complaining about inflation, gas prices, and food prices, I wondered how those two reports could coincide. Being my natural curious self, I did some research and was surprised at my findings.
Did you know:
- According to one economist, if you figure in inflation, our current gas prices are equivalent to those of the 50’s. What!?
- America ranks #1 in the world in oil production (surprised? I was.)
- Because we have so much, a few weeks ago, the current administration approved a $1.8 billion oil export terminal in Texas.
- While shutting down the Keystone Pipeline, the administration approved drilling in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and more.
- And some of our Northwest Strategic Fuel Reserve is being sold this summer to keep gas pricing down during the summer travel season.
- Our GDP (gross domestic product) grew 1.3 in the first quarter of 2024
- Unemployment is the lowest it has been in 50 years. (I think this is because all the baby boomers retired, and we barely have enough people to fill their jobs)
- The stock market is at an all-time high. (Now, I knew this one. When was the last time you looked at your retirement account or portfolio?)
- And last, Inflation, while still an irritant, remains the lowest in the industrialized world.
- Inflation is a worldwide problem, that began with Covid and continued with the unfortunate Suez Canal barge wreck and now the Red Sea being blocked by the Houthis from Yemen in support of Hamas and Iran rebels.
The Gilded Age
There are lots of names for the era in which we now live: The Modern Age, The Digital Age, The Information Age, The Anthropocene Epoch, the Holocene Epoch, and more recently Gilded Age II because never have so many Americans lived so affluently.
In 1970 59% of Americans were middle class. Today, according to the recent U.S. Census Bureau, the Middle Class has shrunk to 50% as more citizens move to Upper Class, thus reducing our middle class in America to 50%. Again, What?! Guess that is why so many people can afford vacations. Something my middle class family could never afford when I was growing up.
But alas, it is not all good news. According to this Standard of Living chart the USA only ranks #22. Again, I was surprised. I feel like if we opened our borders the whole world would rush in. But the ranking was talking about standard of living not opportunities, which are abound compared to communist countries. Our #22 ranking takes into consideration our health care and education system. We have little early childhood development or affordable college programs, a poor health care system, high death rates from smoking, obesity, homicides, opioid overdoses, suicides, road accidents, and infant deaths.
Learn More
If you are naturally curious like me, it is good to know there are 10 news stations you can peruse. Right off the top of my head they are: CBS, ABC, NBC, BBC, PBS, FOX, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, AND NEWS NATION. I watch six of them on a regular basis.
I have much gratitude for being born in the land of opportunity, I think the Greatest Country in the World, and during the era of the second Gilded Age.
