Our Economy Bubble Has a Leak in It

By Sheila Christensen
Contributing Writer

My family and I have lived here in the Fargo-Moorhead area our entire lives. It is much longer than the 39 years of age I like to tell people I am. I remember in the early 1960s when a gallon of gas for my 1949 Chevy convertible was 15 cents and a package of cigarettes was a quarter, and there was always the “invite everyone you know,” all pile in the car (including the trunk) and go to the Star Outdoor Theater, just south of town. I know we will never see prices like that again, but if anyone is paying the least bit of attention, they know that things have changed here in the last couple of years. It may not be as devastating as in some of the other states or in more urbanized areas, but we have been affected.

The ongoing rise in grocery prices is becoming significant and prohibitive. A few years ago you could fill a grocery cart and include meat for every meal for under $100. and that was for a family of four. Now, filling a grocery cart, with perhaps hamburger for a few meals, the total bill will run you around $200. That is just for two people. I am not a gourmet cook needing all types of exotic ingredients for presentation, but I do my best to make meals that are nutritious and mostly from scratch. With retirement looming in the near future, the cost concerns are there. Take a look at the snack cracker boxes on the grocery shelves. At least they are being honest enough now to make the boxes smaller, but if you notice, the price isn’t smaller to go along with this reduction.

We all got a break with gas prices going down, but as you have probably noticed, they are edging their way back up again. And isn’t it interesting that the high gas prices were said to be the reason that the grocery prices had gone up? Well, even when the gas prices went down, the grocery prices did not.

Many households are attempting to cut costs. Land line or cell phone? Some are turning their heat down, air conditioners up and lights off when not in use.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance premiums went up 14.8 %, due to loss in premium revenues. One way that happens is that there are fewer people with quality jobs who can afford to pay those premiums.

It is said that if you lose your job, it is no problem, you can get COBRA. But how many people have the $1000-$1200 per month to pay the premiums and besides that, COBRA only lasts 18 months last time I checked. If you have a pre-existing condition you are in trouble. For most people, that is a house payment. With no money coming in, it is unaffordable.

And yes, there is the new construction of the Corwin Auto building, and the new renovation and opening of “Justy’s” Restaurant at the Osgood Golf Course. I see those as exceptions and not business as usual. You see huge discounts at some of the retail stores and credit card companies are raising rates, lowering spending limits and tacking on more and higher fees. Some stores have closed their doors completely or sold out and others are moving to less expensive locations or cutting staff.

Most of the jobs out there are not jobs of quality—by that I mean that they do not pay enough for a family to live on, and many no longer provide health benefits. I know many people in town who have lost their jobs. And it is not that these people are not educated or qualified to hold quality jobs, it is that most businesses are on a hiring freeze or laying off. Some are taking pay cuts to keep working and others are closing for weeks or months a year for non-voluntary vacation time. I know of several people who are working three part-time jobs with no benefits, just to pay their rent. And have you noticed that the Job Classified Section seems to keep getting smaller and smaller, along with the page size of our largest newspaper?

And then, people say, you can get unemployment. The top weekly unemployment insurance payout—if you qualify—is about $350, but what you receive is on a sliding scale related to what the salary was for the job you held. Some of the people I know who are on unemployment are receiving in the neighborhood of $100 per week and they have families to house and feed. And unemployment only lasts a few months.

I can’t wait to see what happens when school is out and all our students are looking for summer jobs. And the other question I have is, how do people who have just lost their jobs at the end of the calendar year pay their taxes?

Our officials and some of the talking heads would like us to believe that the Fargo-Moorhead area is in some sort of bubble and the big problems in the economy aren’t touching us here. I can see an advantage in having people believe that everything is business as usual. If the government, however, is handing out security blankets, we should get our share. When it comes time to pay the piper in the form of repaying the deficit and paying taxes, we will all be doing that.

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)