I look at the classifieds and I watch the lines at the stores. Yes, jobs are harder to get for working people, and yes, there are fewer benefits. Yes, it’s harder to be in the middle class, but still….

It’s as if someone WANTS to put the fear of revolution out there…

Maybe tampering with LIBOR and market indices is too obvious these days. Why not a staged “revolution”?

Where I am, you can’t get someone out to work for under $12/hr (manual work needing no skills). At Walmart , you can get a loaf of bread for a little over a dollar, if you look.  Flour and rice are still cheap. Beans are cheap.  Canned fish costs very little.  Clothes are cheap. Furniture is cheap. You can get a second hand car for 500 bucks.  Houses prices are lower than they have ever been in years. You can rent a nice home in a middle-class neighborhood for $500 a month and a room for $200. Mortgage rates are low. The only things that are high-priced are things the government has been subsidizing, like education. And there’s never been a better time to skip university. I wish I had. I would have been considerably better off.  Health care is expensive, but not alternative health, and for $200 you can always fly to Mexico, if you need to.

What is Occupy Wall Street crying about?

Student debt? Here’s a thought, go to a lawyer and comb through your loan applications. He may find a way to mitigate some of the terms or even get them waived. Consider suing your university for misleading representations.  File bankruptcy, if nothing else can be done.

Then start over. Sure, you’ll never get a loan, but that is strictly a good thing. With housing prices this low, you don’t need one. If you’re willing to put in sweat equity (a few cans of paint and a rag), give me a buzz and I’ll find you a house for under $20,000, including my finder’s fee. I kid you not. And you can buy it with 10% down.

How to save money?

Live in your parents’ basement, shop in thrift stores, cook at home, and make being thrifty a game. Or if there aren’t any jobs at home, move to Texas or N. Dakota where there are.

Then fall on your knees and thank the stars that you were born in the United States of America.

Except for the surveillance, it’s still one of the best places to live and work.