Sunday, October 05, 2008

Wall Street. Main Street.

I woke up this morning, thinking about money. I know a few people now who've taken money out of their bank and hidden it in their house. If the economy tanks to some pre-Depression era level, money won't help. We'll be back to barter.

I went to Target yesterday to buy garbage bags because they looked pretty expensive at my regular grocery store, as did the olive oil, for heaven's sake. I found just the right roll of garbage bags for $1.35 and cruised the clearance racks while I was there. I saw lots of people there checking the mark-downs. I apologized to the gray-haired cashier for my small purchase. She said, "Don't worry, honey. Every dollar helps."

I know from government reports that more older women (that is, over 60) are "wage insecure", but I don't know how many. I just know that at some point, I need to stop fearing that I will become that gray-haired cashier at a Target-like store and make sure there's enough food to go around.

Everyone has a sense of uncertainty about the future; these seem to be unprecedented times. This is not the "October surprise" I anticipated before the election. Every day makes it more important we study the economic policies of Obama and McCain.

Check out Obama's policies affecting the elderly. McCain has no information about the elderly under issues on his campaign website.

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