Are You Better Off Than in 2020?

Are you better off than you were in 2020? I am! But I never hear or read about others sharing my reasons. Folks seem to want to talk only about inflation, the cost of living, and the border.

For me, inflation is a cyclical issue, and it doesn’t matter who’s in charge; it will happen when the market overheats and says, “Slow down!”

Today, I see too much greed-flation blamed on inflation. For example, when gas prices go sky high, we’re told about the breakdowns, how we need to change to seasonal fuels, and so on. But then the gas companies’ stockholders receive obscene dividends. That’s greed-flation.

The same is true for food. When food prices increase, Annie and I shop at alternative food stores to stay on budget. Yesterday, we went to Amazon Fresh. Our bill was eighty-eight dollars, but with Prime and deals, we paid sixty-one dollars.

We have an electric car, a solar-powered house, and solar grids. This month, our electricity company will pay me $810 for buying my electricity, and we haven’t had an energy bill this year.

Here are my answers as to why I am better off in 2024 than in 2020.

1. The United States is still a democracy, not an autocracy. January 6, 2021, came within a hair’s breadth of a coup.
2. Our Constitution is still intact, even though former President Trump (a.k.a. the Orange One) doesn’t pay any attention to it.
3. Joe Biden won the presidency regardless of the large number of people in our country who don’t believe that seventy million votes is a landslide.
4. We don’t have a convicted felon, tax cheat, and documented rapist in charge of our country.
5. We still have free and fair elections, although the opposition is trying ever so hard not to allow that to happen.
6. We don’t have to hear about derogatory name-calling, daily staff firings, and constant lies from the White House. (Unfortunately, they still keep coming and won’t stop!)
7. We have regained respect from our friends and allies around the world, and we don’t have to hear how wonderful all the dictators, his best friends, are.
8. I no longer have to hear how all our veterans and war heroes are “suckers and losers” from a draft dodger who’s a coward.
9. I am not in prison because I’m not quiet about not wanting a decrepit old man as president (see the September 10, 2024, debate) who is totally void of a moral compass and a sense of reality. (He has promised that critical people like me will be imprisoned.)

I am much better off today because I still live in the greatest nation in the world, in spite of its flaws, and don’t have to listen to a man and movement that openly promises to destroy ours.

Are you better off? Feel free to share your thoughts.

PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness

Bil

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P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.