Pimp My Cart

Last night, I ran into the Pittsford Mega-Wegs for some quick dinner items. I'm not a big grocery shopper and rarely relish the experience (again with the bad puns. must. stop.). However, yesterday I got a rare treat: somebody pimped my cart.

I'm no industrial designer but I'm guessing there was a bolt missing that keeps the basket firmly attached to the legs/wheels. As I went over the bumps on the floor -- especially the area near the cheese shop that is tiled! -- my cart undulated with style.

To add an even greater sense of the surreal to the entire encounter, Foghat's Slow Ride was playing over the store speakers. No one else seemed to find that music selection bizarre. Or at least others did not have incredulous smirks on their faces. Since when is grocery shopping supposed to whisk you back into your Dazed and Confused days of yesteryear?

But seriously, I think I'm onto the prototype cart of the future. My realization (in technical terms) is that carts don't need to be so blinking herky-jerky or unwieldy. Alas, I wish I had flagged it somehow so I could find it on my next journey into the wilds of Weggies. It made the entire experience so much smoooooother.

If there's a next time with the cart-of-my-dreams, I hope to hear Low Rider. And I'll plan to buy some Colt 45.

U.S. Economy Could Fall Casualty to Wars

That's today's headline on CNN.com. The article goes on to say that:

• In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the "burn" rate of its earliest years
• By 2017, it is projected to cost the U.S. budget between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion
  
• Interest on money borrowed to pay those costs could alone add $816 billion to that bottom line
• These numbers don't include the war's cost to the rest of the world
• Estimating all economic and social costs might push the U.S. war bill up toward $5 trillion by 2017
• These calculations are conservative and don't encompass many "hidden" items in the U.S. budget

And so on . . .

Check my math because I'm not great at these things but, assuming out of the 300M people in the U.S. that 80% are footing the bill for this through their taxes (i.e., 240M), does that mean that each person is spending roughly $50/month today (or $600/year) and that figure will rise to over $11K annually per capita in a decade (in today's dollars)? Please point out my error and tell me that I'm wrong.

Is this a good reason to strive to earn more so that the hit to my wallet doesn't seem that gigantic or a stronger incentive to earn significantly less (i.e., live off the government and lower my taxes) so that I don't have to personally fund this colossal nightmare?