On media and a joke/poem
From The Irish Times:
“The purchasing power of Irish households will fall this year for the first time since the period after the 2008 financial crash.
Back then, the fall in purchasing power between 2008 and 2012 was due largely to a drop in disposable incomes as unemployment soared, earnings fell for many and taxes rose sharply.
Now the cause is different. Incomes will rise this year, but this will be outstripped by a big jump in the rate of inflation.”
The term cost of living interested me today partly because I have been affected like almost everyone by rising costs but maybe especially because I have been self-employed and had no regular paycheck for several years.
But art is what most interests me in life (at least so far), and the issue of painfully rising costs reminds me of a Twilight Zone-like short film that I saw in adolescence made in about 1988 called “The Price of Life.”‘ You can find about it on IMDB, but it appears difficult to watch it now.
From the plot summary of it on Wikipedia: “The basic premise of the film is that a time account is physically linked to every infant at birth, with death automatic when the balance drops to zero. An elite upper-class is portrayed as living hundreds of years or more.” Though fantastic, the story seems an allegory for the very real issue of cost of living: if you don’t have enough money to keep up with growing costs, you will suffer and die early.
On lighter notes…
“”Madame” by yours truly
“Pardonne moi, Madame.”
“Are you calling me mad ham?
A crazy pig?
You’ve lost your hair,
So get a wig.”
“Zut alors, non Madame..”
“You’ve done it again!”