I cannot stomach most of the TV shows available these days. I watch an awful lot of Discovery Channel and National Geographic. I don’t want to be fed a steady diet of reality TV about stars learning how to dance or washed celebrities in drug treatment. Why? Because I have more important things on my mind. If I am going to turn on the TV, I want to see escapism. I want to watch LOST or New Amsterdam or something else almost entirely impossible. I’m not in the mood for reality.

Americans are facing higher taxes, higher insurance, rising gas prices, and grocery prices that are beginning to get so expensive that it is nearly insanely comical. Food inflation is worse than it has been in over 20 years. Record-high energy, corn and wheat prices in the past year mean that the food we eat on a daily basis costs more than ever.

The average price of a loaf of bread is 32 percent since January 2005. Eggs are up 50 percent this past year. I pay $3.99 for a gallon of store brand milk. Sadly, most experts agree that prices will probably not go back to where they were in the past. We are looking at a new threshold and it is not keeping in step with what people are earning at their jobs.

Our economy is eating away at us, little by little.