I have thought about this often. There are many small businesses in my area and some are my favorite small restaurants. They can't keep printing new menus as their costs go up. Everyone here that I know is aware these businesses are not gouging anyone. Their costs, just as our costs, are going up.
I have thought about this often. There are many small businesses in my area and some are my favorite small restaurants. They can't keep printing new menus as their costs go up. Everyone here that I know is aware these businesses are not gouging anyone. Their costs, just as our costs, are going up.
My electricity is supplied by a cooperative. They have raised their fuel adjustment price 3 times since the beginning of the year. The increases have been modest, from $4-6 per so many kilowatts, but they are still increases and with inflation increasing, there will be more. I have adjusted the thermostat higher and have become adjusted to a warmer house.
My grocery shopping has changed. It has become necessities and only real food. Certainly healthier. Many items have become reduced in volume and size by shrinkflation. The 5 lb. bag of cat food I used to purchase is now 3.5 lbs and costs $2/bag more. Glad to get it though because a few months ago the shelves were completely bare.
Now that I am retired I am watching my trips closely. I am trying to make it through the month on one tank of gas. Fortunately I live in a neighborhood where most of the stores I want to go to are within 2 miles of home.
I lived through Jimmy Carter's inflation and it was awful but I was young and working. Not all that difficult to pick up a part time job in addition to my full time job. Now I am retired.
The real worry is the way the Biden administration is destabilizing the country. Inflation, crime, massive illegal immigration, stupid energy and foreign policies that harm the country still spending money hand over fist (Ukraine, anyone).
What happens when several million new immigrants, half of whom speak no English and are not familiar with modern Western civilization, can't get any work, (including the many who have criminal backgrounds), decide to take their piece of the American pie? Looting, home invasion, hold-ups, muggings? It's going to make it look like the Antifa/BLM riots of 2020 were just an outing in the park.
Just as this administration is trying to disarm lawful citizens. Fun times.
And trucks - big, nice 4 wheel drive trucks - are stolen at an alarming rate in and around San Antonio. My younf friend had a Ford stolen at a Spurs gsme and 14 were stolen in a two block radius that night. His truck was trashed with $72,000 in damage but the insurance company refused to total it. They are used to drive through brush and fences because the transporters know the authorities will not chase them off-road. A report surfaced yesterday that "aggressive Border Patrol.policies" contributed to the Uvalde school shooting fiasco because the school had been locked down dozens of times between February and May because of high speed chases resulting in bailouts and thus no one took the shooter lockdown seriously. In essence Border Patrol is being blamed for the invasion. And it is an invasion.
Here locally, the town has really gone out of it's way to show support to the CBP, most of the citizens around here feel the CBP is getting scape-goated by the MSM and the federal gubmint. After the split reins fiasco last year we even had a "Split Reins" trail event to show support to the CBP.
I cross the border daily (work in Mexico), and have noticed over the last year or so the agents at the border crossing seem to be fairly depressed, and the older agents just want to get to their retirement. Very few new agents, whether designed or not.
Many get both. When we lived in Topeka, my friend across the street had an illegal boyfriend. She got welfare benefits for herself and their children (from which he benefited, of course). Meanwhile, he had a good job in a restaurant kitchen, paid under the table, so no taxes and no effect on their welfare benefits.
At one point, he developed extreme jealousy (he couldn't cope if she even said hello to another man), and he threatened to kidnap the children and take them to Mexico to live with his mother. She was terrified of losing her kids. I reported him to ICE, including his threats...and they simply didn't give a damn.
Long ago, in another life, I met a couple living in NYC who were doing much the same thing. She was on welfare for her and her child. He did something under the table. They were not married. If they were to get married she would lose her welfare benefits.
I read the Ford Foundation was giving the illegals $500/month. Soros is heavily involved and other NGO's may be as well. Can you get welfare benefits if you are not a citizen?
How many of the illegal immigrants are sending money back home to help pay off the debt owed to the criminal organization that helped them gain entry into the states? Families take out loans and mortgages to get a family member to the US from the loan shark division of the criminal organization that moves people across the borders. There is so much that is not benign in the trafficking of illegal immigrants and the open border policy funds the worst of the worst.
The number of minors who are discovered with people other than their parents is troubling, particularly considering that I suspect fewer are identified as such than are actually coming across. The "child friendly" illegal immigration policies make this problem worse, incentivizing the use of children as "grease" on the wheels of illegal immigration; those same children can then be trafficked. It makes me ill.
They did before the housing crash in 2007. We had hundreds of central American men here. They would congregate in the Home Depot parking lots and be picked up by contractors as day labor. On Saturdays they crowded to these little bodegas that had a couple of bags of chips but were primarily in business to transfer money. I seem to recall reading an article at the time that all this transfer money was like foreign aid to Mexico and other countries. Mexico was receiving billions from these illegals working in the USA.
When the economy crashed all those men disappeared. I assume they returned home. This time when the economy crashes they are not going to return home. It's not going to be pretty.
I have thought about this often. There are many small businesses in my area and some are my favorite small restaurants. They can't keep printing new menus as their costs go up. Everyone here that I know is aware these businesses are not gouging anyone. Their costs, just as our costs, are going up.
My electricity is supplied by a cooperative. They have raised their fuel adjustment price 3 times since the beginning of the year. The increases have been modest, from $4-6 per so many kilowatts, but they are still increases and with inflation increasing, there will be more. I have adjusted the thermostat higher and have become adjusted to a warmer house.
My grocery shopping has changed. It has become necessities and only real food. Certainly healthier. Many items have become reduced in volume and size by shrinkflation. The 5 lb. bag of cat food I used to purchase is now 3.5 lbs and costs $2/bag more. Glad to get it though because a few months ago the shelves were completely bare.
Now that I am retired I am watching my trips closely. I am trying to make it through the month on one tank of gas. Fortunately I live in a neighborhood where most of the stores I want to go to are within 2 miles of home.
I lived through Jimmy Carter's inflation and it was awful but I was young and working. Not all that difficult to pick up a part time job in addition to my full time job. Now I am retired.
The real worry is the way the Biden administration is destabilizing the country. Inflation, crime, massive illegal immigration, stupid energy and foreign policies that harm the country still spending money hand over fist (Ukraine, anyone).
What happens when several million new immigrants, half of whom speak no English and are not familiar with modern Western civilization, can't get any work, (including the many who have criminal backgrounds), decide to take their piece of the American pie? Looting, home invasion, hold-ups, muggings? It's going to make it look like the Antifa/BLM riots of 2020 were just an outing in the park.
Just as this administration is trying to disarm lawful citizens. Fun times.
I live about two miles from the border....dogs sure are barking a lot more at night than in years past.
And trucks - big, nice 4 wheel drive trucks - are stolen at an alarming rate in and around San Antonio. My younf friend had a Ford stolen at a Spurs gsme and 14 were stolen in a two block radius that night. His truck was trashed with $72,000 in damage but the insurance company refused to total it. They are used to drive through brush and fences because the transporters know the authorities will not chase them off-road. A report surfaced yesterday that "aggressive Border Patrol.policies" contributed to the Uvalde school shooting fiasco because the school had been locked down dozens of times between February and May because of high speed chases resulting in bailouts and thus no one took the shooter lockdown seriously. In essence Border Patrol is being blamed for the invasion. And it is an invasion.
Here locally, the town has really gone out of it's way to show support to the CBP, most of the citizens around here feel the CBP is getting scape-goated by the MSM and the federal gubmint. After the split reins fiasco last year we even had a "Split Reins" trail event to show support to the CBP.
I cross the border daily (work in Mexico), and have noticed over the last year or so the agents at the border crossing seem to be fairly depressed, and the older agents just want to get to their retirement. Very few new agents, whether designed or not.
I cannot like this but I do agree. BP is tasked with an impossible mission.
The button doesn't work or you're just a hater?
(just kidding :))
Plus even the immigrants here for the work send large amounts of money back to their country of origin.
And many of them come for the welfare bennies not for jobs
Many get both. When we lived in Topeka, my friend across the street had an illegal boyfriend. She got welfare benefits for herself and their children (from which he benefited, of course). Meanwhile, he had a good job in a restaurant kitchen, paid under the table, so no taxes and no effect on their welfare benefits.
At one point, he developed extreme jealousy (he couldn't cope if she even said hello to another man), and he threatened to kidnap the children and take them to Mexico to live with his mother. She was terrified of losing her kids. I reported him to ICE, including his threats...and they simply didn't give a damn.
Long ago, in another life, I met a couple living in NYC who were doing much the same thing. She was on welfare for her and her child. He did something under the table. They were not married. If they were to get married she would lose her welfare benefits.
I read the Ford Foundation was giving the illegals $500/month. Soros is heavily involved and other NGO's may be as well. Can you get welfare benefits if you are not a citizen?
How many of the illegal immigrants are sending money back home to help pay off the debt owed to the criminal organization that helped them gain entry into the states? Families take out loans and mortgages to get a family member to the US from the loan shark division of the criminal organization that moves people across the borders. There is so much that is not benign in the trafficking of illegal immigrants and the open border policy funds the worst of the worst.
Many of the illegals are going to be forced into prostitution and crime to make those payments.
We should stop using the term "human trafficking". We should call it "the slave trade."
We should, but I think the Woke would pitch a fit.
The number of minors who are discovered with people other than their parents is troubling, particularly considering that I suspect fewer are identified as such than are actually coming across. The "child friendly" illegal immigration policies make this problem worse, incentivizing the use of children as "grease" on the wheels of illegal immigration; those same children can then be trafficked. It makes me ill.
They did before the housing crash in 2007. We had hundreds of central American men here. They would congregate in the Home Depot parking lots and be picked up by contractors as day labor. On Saturdays they crowded to these little bodegas that had a couple of bags of chips but were primarily in business to transfer money. I seem to recall reading an article at the time that all this transfer money was like foreign aid to Mexico and other countries. Mexico was receiving billions from these illegals working in the USA.
When the economy crashed all those men disappeared. I assume they returned home. This time when the economy crashes they are not going to return home. It's not going to be pretty.
I am in Texas. It did not stop here for long, if at all.
That's something that no one seems to mention. Immigrant workers create foreign aid on a HUGE scale.
They hate us.