Extreme Measures

Due to the challenging economic times which America, and the rest of the world, finds itself in, many are taking extreme measures to make ends meet. The media have been reporting on a number of stories that might give us pause. One occurred on the Today show yesterday morning concerning a baby who died because his mother was trying to stretch his baby formula by adding an overabundance of water. The baby evidently weighed two-thirds of his ideal weight when he died. The mother had no idea that her baby could die from such a measure.

Another report tells us of the dropping sales in the meat industry, including poultry and fish. People are eating less meat and more potatoes and pasta. Obesity rates are destined to increase yet again. Though I do not have direct evidence, I am assuming also that people in retirement are also trying to conserve on their food in order to buy their prescribed medicines. Since my husband was in the "doughnut" hole the final three months of this year, I have been sharing my blood pressure medicine with him until 2009. At that time he can buy more at his plan's regular prices. A couple of his doctors were gracious enough to provide him samples for his other two prescriptions until the new year.

All this is to say that, at this point, my husband and I have made few sacrifices, i. e. eliminating Starbucks lattes from our list of preferred activities, cutting down the number of restaurant meals per week to one, and trimming our Christmas gift budget. Economists have just announced that we have already been in recession for one year. My prediction is that we will be in a depression for the next five years or more. I hope I am wrong.

The government is simply printing billions of dollars in order to flood the economy with money. I believe Germany also took these extreme measures back in the late 1930's. Let's just hope, and pray, that history does not repeat itself.