Things are pretty good. Basically most middle age and above members when this thread started are still well and kicking. Life experiences have enabled them to deal with change easier perhaps.

Inflation has not been as heavy as what I expected it to be since the first post on this thread till now. It has been enough though to seriously effect those on fixed incomes or pretty much fixed wages in Canada. In our cases the cash flow each year is similar to 2008. Yet each ongoing year there is less surplus somehow.

Utilities have skyrocketed in our province and property taxes as well in the period. . Plus food prices are way up here compared to 2008 for certain. Food almost doubled perhaps locally. We do not track our food costs at all as a couple so it is a guesstimate.

I am not quite sure if the major side effect of governments printing money in excess quantitites has really totally impacted yet. My feeling is even with my limited intellect it has to be reflected more seriously at some time. How rather than if is what I am trying to consider as time moves along.

Things that are new to me. The much more recent generation is radically different in many ways for example has become pretty obvious. This means society as we know it will be different in many ways I suspect all too soon.

I slowed down this summer on purpose. Possibly to rethink our next project. This has also felt strange to me.

People that have sustained in a decent fashion during the now extended period of this 2008 event should be thankful they have. Too many families have not. I read an in depth article on the growth of food stamps for example reciently. Plus the situations that many users find themselves in.

I am somewhat surprised not to be as obsolete as I felt I might be by now. Although because of the generational differences I have to be to some extent.

My wife although five years younger is aging somewhat faster than me now. The upside is she was always a high energy person so she is slowly decreasing energy to normal now for her age. What really got my attention though is she made some minor misteaks. Nothing I would feel critical of though. Still highly unusual at the same time.

It is unfortunate another on the ground war in the middle east involving north Americans seems more probable than not. A military budget of 633 billion currently in the states cannot be sustained without most of the general population becoming poorer somehow in real terms either. I never broke that budget down to cost per capita yearly that are productive citizens. My guess is the figure per contributing individual would be staggering.

I was treated to a pleasant effect in our travels reciently. A somewhat prosperous town where no big box stores or malls where ever allowed to locate. It was amazing to see street after street of small enterprises still functioning for a town of its size.

Towns many times larger supported nowhere this many private ventures. That town may or may not have the low prices of wallmarts etc. Instead it has a lot of character and far more walking street traffic than I had seen in a long time. My guess though is the profit in the smaller enterprises stays or is invested in the community. This ideal that the high local property taxes collected from big box stores. Unless they negotiated major tax concessions as they usually do to locate there. What seems to have justified letting them in originally may have been a major error. Some of the fallout is becoming more obviously reciently.

It resembled a community of some time ago. I never fully realized how negative large malls and big box stores really extracted the livability price they do from communities.

Our own local malls are partially empty of tenants now for example. Yet there has been no resurgence of small family owned enterprises


Tourisim is down about 50 percent this year here over last year. This is one bell weather of the economic changes that have occurred that are ongoing.

We in north America have more or less locked into a low interest mentality. This may be a pretty permanent fixture.

The amount of unstructured and seemingly high amount of credit usage by the 18 to perhaps 30 or a little older age group makes me wonder about their possible negative net worth effect over time. Although this situation helps keep the economy going. My concern is without the easy credit we would dive fast.

Being gerbils on a treadmill is what it looks like to me. One wonders what has instigated this. Has the educational system and influence of parents been almost totally compromised?

Why I think society will undergo a signifigant change is because of the changes in values these things indicate. I am not at the same time saying whatever old values my age group has or had are right. Just the obvious schizim between the two will change things alone.

I do not know how it is going to work out. I suspect there might be an exodus of many people from big cities. There is not much of a life for many that are in them now. If this were to occur it might revitalize the smaller communities. The spread between the affluent and not so fortunate is obviously still growing very fast.