I am 72 years old. So I have been around for awhile. I've seen merchandise prices for a long, long time and I can not believe how the prices have skyrocketed over the last few years.

Now, don't get me wrong, I fully understand that prices go up. But we have to concider the time span that the price rising takes. From the 1890s through the 1920s, prices stayed relatively the same. From the 1930s through the early 1950s they stayed almost the same as well.

In the 1940s and '50s a candy bar was 5c. That price stayed at 5c through the middle of the 1960s. In the '50s, a bottle of Coca Cola was 10c. Plus, you then could return the empty bottle and get 2c back. Milk bottles were also returned as several other containers were. Today, everything is put into disposible containers so that companies no longer have to give you anything.

I remember in the 1950s, my mother went to the grocery store and spent around $25 for a week's worth of food. This also included drinks, cleaning supplies and a few snacks. Plus there were the S&H Green Stamps that she got and would collect in booklets and would later redeam for appliances, dishware, silverware, linens, toys, etc. Today...nothing is free! Today when you are offered something for nothing, there's either a hidden cost or it's a scam.

Today prices go up, it seems, every week or so. I have actually gone to the store and bought something this week at $3.95 and next week I go and the same item is $4.59. And the prices do not rise slowly. Years ago when they rased a price, it went up around 3 to 5c. Today it goes up at least a dollar and mostly $3 to $4. What's that all about?

I believe what is driving this the most is the price of fuel. 98% of the items that we buy today come to us in some form of trucks. And those trucks run on gasoline or diesel. And the gas prices are the one thing that is priced high, higher and then even higher. Gasoline is still made the same as it has been for many, many years. So why does it cost more all of the time? Because the companies want more money and they are very willing to put the screws to us all to get it. They keep preaching to us to drive less. Don't believe it! They want us to drive as much as we can so we will have to keep filling those gas tanks.

As much as we have been getting ripped off for years on gas, groceries are the latest way to starve us out. Have you seen the prices on a watermellon or a head of lettace? As Joe Biden says, "Come on, man!" Who says that a watermellon is worth anywhere around $8.00?

And yes, smoking kills! I know! But I have been smoking for over 55-years. When I started in the 1960s, a pack of cigarettes cost 55c. That was up from 34c in the 1950s. Back then I couldn't even imagine a pack costing someone $7 or $8. Back then a carton was $2.95. And if your a hobbyist today, your flat out screwed. I was building model cars back in the 1950s for 98c a kit. Today they are costing from $24 upwards to about $100. That's a hell of a price rise. And I don't want to even start about paints, the glue, etc.

If you were born in the last 25 years, you have no idea what prices were in the "Good Old Days". And the kids today that are less than 18 years old were born into this crap.

When will the American people wake up and smell the cappuccino? We are headed for a complete meltdown in a few more years. Thank Heaven for places like Aldi's, Harbor Freight, Dollar General, the Dollar Tree and a few other stores like them. If not for those places, I wouldn't be able to buy a thing today.

On This blog I show some of the things that I have come in contact with as far as pricing. I know that all of you see it too at the stores in your areas. So, here we go...