Our lived experience tells a different story. We are currently at the point of giving up looking to buy a home. Over the past 2 1/2 years the home prices have risen by more than 50% in the areas we have been exploring: Florida, Atlanta and the mountains of Western North Carolina. When it comes to buying a new vehicle, we considered ourselves fortunate because we recently paid MSRP as opposed to paying several thousands Dollars above the list price. Yes, for the first time in 35+ years we paid list price with no space for price negotiation. Besides, we had to wait for several months to get our order fulfilled. The attitude of the car dealers was dismissive: take it or leave it. Our grocery bill is roughly 40 % higher than 2 1/2 years ago. It seems that we are living in an era of constant shortages and the consumers are paying a stiff price just to manage our day to day living. Despite all the talk about resilience, Covid seems to have dampened our economy in  several ways. The only ones who seem to prosper are the merchant class who, under the guise of shortages, are able to extract higher profits from the hapless consumers. Yes, our lived economy is negatively different than the positive economic statistics.

Our lived experience tells a different story. We are currently at the point of giving up looking to buy a home. Over the past 2 1/2 years the home prices have risen by more than 50% in the areas we have been exploring: Florida, Atlanta and the mountains of Western North Carolina. When it comes to buying a new vehicle, we considered ourselves fortunate because we recently paid MSRP as opposed to paying several thousands Dollars above the list price. Yes, for the first time in 35+ years we paid list price with no space for price negotiation. Besides, we had to wait for several months to get our order fulfilled. The attitude of the car dealers was dismissive: take it or leave it. Our grocery bill is roughly 40 % higher than 2 1/2 years ago. It seems that we are living in an era of constant shortages and the consumers are paying a stiff price just to manage our day to day living. Despite all the talk about resilience, Covid seems to have dampened our economy in  several ways. The only ones who seem to prosper are the merchant class who, under the guise of shortages, are able to extract higher profits from the hapless consumers. Yes, our lived economy is negatively different than the positive economic statistics.

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