The Trickle Down Overflows

It's a tried and true method. When prices go up, the Mom and Pop store raises it own prices to secure profits. When oil goes up, the gas stations have to raise the cost per gallon. When wheat goes up, the doughnut maker has to charge more for doughnuts. But what happens when every single business in the country has to pay more for it's various and sundry supplies? What happens when every single business has to charge more for it's products? Where does it all trickle down?

To you, to me, to my Aunt Sylvia. We're the bottom of the barrel. Once the trickle reaches us, it simply pools and spills over. I don't know about you, but I can't tell my boss, "I'm sorry, but milk has gone up again, I simply must have a raise." Well, I could, but it probably wouldn't be the best choice. What do we do when we can't afford the gas it takes to go to work? I hear lots of answers - carpool, use public transportation, buy a car that gets better gas mileage, ride a bike.

I'm a work at home mom, you wouldn't think this issue would affect me. Oh but it does! I can hardly ride a bike to the grocery store. We have no public transportation. All the other mom's on my block work outside the home - no carpooling. Buy another car? I don't think so. We've already quit using one of our vehicles and only use the one that gets the better gas mileage. Our budget is stretched to the max as we struggle to buy groceries and gas. Opening the utility bills has become scary.

Let me give you an example - this last winter, during one of the worst ice storms we've ever seen, we lost power. Our family only lost it for 8 days. Much of our town lost it for weeks. This was clearly not the electric companies fault, it was an act of nature. But people have to live. The temperatures were below freezing. There were a few warming centers, but you couldn't live there. We purchased a generator. It was enough to run a heater to keep one room tolerably warm, a few lamps, and the TV. We huddled in our one room, covered with quilts and watched TV. Most businesses were shut down, there was no 'work' to go to. We brought the cords from the generator into the house through the transom in the kitchen. That left our kitchen far too cold to do any kind of cooking. That sounds silly doesn't it? It would have to me to, except that I've been through it and I know it's true. So, we had to go out and find a place that served food which still had electricity. All in all, we spent so much extra money (did I say this was right before Christmas?) that it blew our budget. One dim light at the end of the tunnel was the fact that we wouldn't have to pay for 8 days of electricity.

So, the entire time the electric company is out repairing lines, and cutting branches. Utility crews come in from other counties and states to help us out. All very noble and dangerous work. And we appreciated each and every one of them. We could be patient. We knew they were working as hard as they could. None of us wanted to go out into the freezing ice to work at anything!

The crisis is over, life returns to normal. Even for the electric company who had somehow managed to keep track of who hadn't paid their bills and was also able to send out the turn off notices. No patience on their part! To add insult to our very real injuries, they even requested and received a rate hike to cover their 'higher than normal' costs during the ice storms.

What I want to know is, where do we go to request a rate hike? Where can we get our Christmas money back? What happens to us when everyone wants just a little tiny piece of us, so they can recoup losses, or break even or make a profit? There are only so many tiny little pieces of us!

Employers can't afford to give raises. They're busy dealing with higher transportation costs for goods. The goods suppliers can't reduce their prices - they're dealing with higher transportation costs on the goods they're selling to our employers.

When the buck stops, it lands right on us. Me, you, my Aunt Slyvia.

Did you think I might have answers? I'm sorry, I don't. I just know this has to stop. We can't give what we don't have. When I learned to drive, I paid fifty cents for a gallon of gas. I bought gas out of my allowance. It never occurred to me that someday, in my world, gas would cost over $3 and be approaching $5.

I used to be able to figure the price of groceries to be about $20 a bag. Now it's usually about $40 and more. The more money we have, the less value it has.

Everybody has a 20/20 hindsight solution. Well, if you had saved more money. If you had bought property back in the 60's like I did. If you had gone to college. If you had chosen a better job. If you had gotten that degree. If you had bought a smaller house. If you had installed solar panels. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. This is here, now. What do we, now that we're here?