As food and gas costs rise, so do financial worries

"Most of our expenses are for things we need," said Agostino, a Centereach mother of four and a part-time office manager.

[whaaat]

I would love to see Debbie's Family Monthly Expenses...
IF 120k is gross...her family is left with roughly 80k a year

How many children are in the family? Are there any special circumstances (fighting a disease or caring for a sick parent/grandparent)?

I would love to see these expenses in monthly detail as 6700 in net income is pretty good in my opinion

[whaaat]

my badd...glanced over the 4 children...are they in private or public schools? then that would make a big impact

[The Pragmatist]

U S C E N S U S B U R E A U
2006 Household income increased 0.7 percent, from$47,845 to $48,201.

Debbie, consider yourself fortunate.
There are way less fortunate amung us.did anyone consider this before they had such large families?
How far is that tax break going for you now?

My cousin, the pastor, seems to believe god will ensure that they will remain employed and will provide food, gas & health coverage.
I hope for his sake, that he's right.

[Children]

are only a blessing when you can afford them - and that doesn't mean just being able to shelter, clothe and feed them. That also means insuring that they receive college educations.

[hungry families]

about 20 years ago newsday presented a hungry family from prosperous long island. the mother weighted about 300 lbs. the son was about six four. the young daughter was overweight. typical newsday ****

[Tony from Brooklyn]

You got what you voted for. A less secure broke America.

[bono]

Listen up LI'ers you voted for Bush, now get used to eating tree bark and staying out of roosevelt field. go help a senior citzen who's trying to live on $1200 a month.....Quit your whining geeeeez what wimps

[Stewie]

bono wrote:

Listen up LI'ers you voted for Bush, now get used to eating tree bark and staying out of roosevelt field. go help a senior citzen who's trying to live on $1200 a month.....Quit your whining geeeeez what wimps

Lets keep in mind that the people also voted in a Democratic majority and things have gone down hiss from there. As far as I am concerned they are all to blame - both Bush and the congress. Thieves and a holes, one and all.

[Stewie]

sorry - my typo - should be down hill

[Sarah]

Don't worry! The government says inflation was only 0.2%(2 tenths of ONE percent) last month. How bad can things be?

http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.us.htm

[dca]

Sarah:
perhaps that website should be
www **** gov/eag/eag.us.htm

[dca]

Sarah:
perhaps that website should be
www.b s.gov/eag/eag.us.htm

[whaaat]

Our government, as it always has, is lying to the american public...

how can you exclude food and energy costs from the inflation report?

While there are instances where one could budget these items into their expenditures, examining the inflation report outside of these two major factors in life is completely immoral.

Sarah wrote:

Don't worry! The government says inflation was only 0.2%(2 tenths of ONE percent) last month. How bad can things be?
http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.us.htm

[getacquaintedwit hfacts]

Most foreign economists estimate we are running at around 8% annual inflation. Ever see this website?
http://www.shadowstats.com/

BLS has been playing with the statistics for years (at the behest of TPTB). IIRC, as an example, as the price of beef rises, BLS uses substitute(cheaper) items, like chicken, to account for a lower CPI.

[Sarah]

Thanks, guys. I called my Congressman, Pete King's, office last Thursday and asked why this figure was so out of line with reality.
The staffer I spoke with had no idea what I was talking about. He said he would look into it and call me back, and here I am on another Saturday night waiting for the phone to ring. I won't hold my breath.
Maybe more of us call, they'll face reality. Their numbers are on their web site:
http://www.house.gov/

[Dan]

whaaat wrote:

Our government, as it always has, is lying to the american public...
how can you exclude food and energy costs from the inflation report?
While there are instances where one could budget these items into their expenditures, examining the inflation report outside of these two major factors in life is completely immoral.
<quoted text>

If the government admits that there is inflation then it has to raise interest rates. Instead, interest rates have been slashed in half and oil is up over 25% in the last few months.

If the government admits that inflation is a problem then it would have to give social security recipients a raise (gasp).

The same thing happens with the gdp data. 0.6 is a stones throw away from recession. It will probably be revised in a few months to show it was even lower. Since GDP is supposedly positive there is no reason to extend unemployment insurance.

[Amy just lost her job]

Amy are you nuts? How will you explain that quote to your boss when she reads it in the paper?

[whaaat]

Dan wrote:

<quoted text>
If the government admits that there is inflation then it has to raise interest rates. Instead, interest rates have been slashed in half and oil is up over 25% in the last few months.
If the government admits that inflation is a problem then it would have to give social security recipients a raise (gasp).
The same thing happens with the gdp data. 0.6 is a stones throw away from recession. It will probably be revised in a few months to show it was even lower. Since GDP is supposedly positive there is no reason to extend unemployment insurance.

the government will never admit there is an inflation problem, nor will the FED, so long as food and energy costs are excluded from the monthly CPI reports.
Furthermore, the FED is reluctant to raise interest rates as their primary concern is economic growth, not inflation (as the ECB is worried about due to a significant run up in the euro)
We are headed into a period of stagflation (higher cost, lower growth). Due to the greediness of corporate america, we should've been following what the Asian central banks were doing, and that is modify the reserve ratio.
By altering the reserve ratio, cd interest paid on interst bearing accounts such as CDs etc would have given the american consumer to save (we are a nation in debt, we promte spending vs saving)...I'm a true contraian investor, I do not follow typical buying patters in the stock market and on main street.
Quote from the movie Wall Street, "90% of american have little or no real net worth"...funny how that is more prevalent today than ever before.....
In conclusion, if the gov't reports there is no issue with inflation, look around you and the things you buy, I am sure as hell they are more expensive month over month...the gov't has always lied and there is no reason for the to stop.

[Amerikwa]

When you really get tired of being robbed maybe it will occur to you that you need a new government. The scum in Washington have sold you out to the Israeli lobby. Trillions of dollars that could have been spent improving your quality of life have been squandered on a war that only **** profit from. Life will only return to normal when you do something about the Fed scum. Join the revolution at the Second Vermont Republic. Who will they have to rob if we all leave?

[Young fam on LI]

I would love you know what you people think 120K on LI is going to get you. I am 25, as well as my wife, and we have two small children. We also make 120K per year, and can't afford to stay on LI. All these people who think that is a lot of money, its probably because your mortgage payments are 1500 a month. My mortgage is 3400 a month. That is 42K per year, so that leaves us with lets say 40K a year for everything else. Tell me how you can take care of a family of 4 on that. And everyone wonders why all the college graduates are heading down south, I will be joining them shortly....